I Went To The Last Motel…
Imagine if my novel THE LAST MOTEL had really been an early ’80s horror movie; an Australian-made low-budget exploitation flick in the vein of Motel Hell or Friday the 13th. That it had fallen into obscurity in the years following its release in 1981, and more than twenty years later I had written a movie tie-in novel.
Well, that’s exactly the premise the folks at LegumeMan Books and I took with the re-release of my first novel.
Since my novel was heavily influenced by low-budget horror movies of the ’70s/early ’80s, we thought it would be fun if this re-release tied in with the cinematic nature of my book. Initially the publishers and I were simply going to design the book in the mould of a movie tie-in, and leave it at that. But the more we talked, the more we liked the idea taking the concept further and actually creating a faux trailer, poster, lobby cards…
So no, there was no LAST MOTEL movie; no ‘Butch’ Callaghan and no Brazilian video containing the only known trailer for the movie. Everything you see in the offical website was created by the talented people at LegumeMan Books (with a little help from me and some friends). The trailer was filmed by us up at Creswick in April, 2010. The cast (including Butch) was played by our friends (I played the corpse!). The music was composed and performed by myself and Matthew Revert. The poster, lobby cards and video cassette were all created specifically for this re-release.
Apologies to anyone convinced this was a real movie and were hoping that one day a copy of this long-lost movie would turn up.
Still, we hope this re-release concept will be taken in the same way the book was written – with a sense of fun and entertainment, and with tongue lightly pressing on cheek. With that in mind, here is the IMDB page for the ‘movie’ THE LAST MOTEL: THE LAST MOTEL (1981)
And here is the trailer: THE LAST MOTEL TRAILER (YouTube)
Lastly, the official website for the movie that never was: The Last Motel – The Movie.
brettmcbean.com 
Fantastic work, by you and your publishers, I thought it was brilliant! Well done.
August 26, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Thanks a bunch, Mark!
August 26, 2011 at 1:02 pm
That was a fucking amazing swerve! Well done! (And the book was a lot of fun to read as well!)
August 29, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Great to hear! Many thanks, Scott.
August 30, 2011 at 1:18 am
That’s a whole lot of effort to go to just to deceive people, especially for a minor publication. Did you take the idea from The Hills Run Red too?
September 6, 2011 at 1:13 am
A killjoy as well as insulting – you’re a real charmer, huh?
Thanks for stopping by.
September 6, 2011 at 5:06 am
Wasn’t trying to be insulting. I just felt a bit ripped off after running around madly trying to track down a copy of The Last Motel movie LOL
September 8, 2011 at 12:04 am
LOL!
Bravo! Too funny! I scoured the web, hit the torrents, and basically exhausted all of the usual places one might find an obscure horror movie title. With, obviously now, no luck.
My Kindle copy has just climbed to the top of the TBR list.
Well done!
September 21, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Thanks, Jim! I hope you enjoy the book (books are usually better than the movie, anyway…).
Cheers,
Brett.
September 22, 2011 at 7:25 am