Outsider

David Rock Nelson: VHS Monster Mania

For the past 25 years, David "Rock" Nelson has been building a prolific filmography of zero-budget backyard horror epics. Ranging from 5 mins to 5 hours in length and starring himself, his elderly parents and his girlfriend "Janet The Vampire Woman," Nelson's movies do not conform to conventional notions of plot, continuity or logic. A former Marine and Golden Gloves boxer, Nelson, now 59 years old, is a one-man crew and a relentless force of rampaging creativity... even if his work is rarely seen beyond his own basement. When Outsider host Zack Carlson heard that Nelson's work was to be honored at a Philadelphia Film Festival (and that Rock doesn't trust airplane technology), they embarked on a cross-country minivan adventure from his suburban Illinois home to Pennsylvania. The journey put Rock's incessant energy into overdrive, and the filmmaker attacked the American road with the same fearless intensity that has won him dozens of loyal fans across the globe.