KISS frontman Paul Stanley recently reflected on the band’s movie entitled ‘KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park’ in a conversation with the Hollywood Reporter. The musician talked about the band’s initial idea when they were offered to make a film and stated that they acted like idiots under those circumstances.
In 1978, KISS members were offered to make a movie following their commercial popularity, as they had peaked. The band’s manager Bill Aucoin wanted to bring their image to the next level and came up with a plan to represent KISS as superheroes. His project was accepted by the band members and started with the 1977 release of a KISS comic book.
After they put out a comic book, the band was set to make a movie named ‘KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park‘ that aired on NBC later that year. The film basically revolves around the band members using their superpowers to battle an evil inventor to save a California amusement park from destruction.
Although the idea was quite charming for many KISS fans, many disliked the movie due to its poor acting and semi-comedic script. Furthermore, the band members also despised the movie for making them appear foolish, so they banned everybody who worked for them from mentioning it in their presence for many years. Regardless of its poor quality, the movie gained cult film status for the rock and roll community in the following years.
Paul Stanely talked about their 1978 attempt to make a movie during a recent interview. According to the rocker, the band jumped at the idea the moment they were informed about the offer. Unfortunately, the members had so much on their plate at the time, especially in terms of their internal communication. Since two band members were on band terms with the other two, the shooting was problematic.
When Ace Frehley and Peter Criss felt like leaving the set, they were replaced by stunt doubles that didn’t compliment the movie’s already amateur-looking scenes. On top of that, none of the KISS members knew the term ‘talisman,’ which was the main element of the plot. If you ask Stanley, they were just idiots for making the movie that even made The Marx Brothers, a family comedy act, look professional.
Stanley’s statement about the movie follows:
“When we were introduced to the idea of the film, we basically said, ‘Make a film? Great.’ It was kind of like The Little Rascals. ‘Let’s put on a show.’ There was so much going on at that time. Two members of the band weren’t speaking to the other two members of the band.
We had both Ace and Peter, who would act on whatever whim might cross their mind. They would leave the set in the middle of shooting. In some scenes, we have stand-ins and stunt doubles. And the idea of ‘the talisman,’ clearly we’d never heard the term talisman. Look, we were idiots, and we were suddenly put into a position where The Marx Brothers were being taken seriously.”
You can watch the ‘KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park’ trailer below.
