I recently alerted you to a little horror film brewing up with the super-scary name, Pearblossom -- a flick about a woman tapped by the creator of the universe to "devour evil, and thereby gain eternal life." Grindhouse babysitter twin Electra Avellan was added to the cast, joining Scout Taylor-Compton (the next Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's Halloween). Now Dread Central has a handful of other castmates (who have either signed or are in talks) and a bit more about the plot for writer/director Ron Carlson's first horror feature.

As with almost any horror movie, you have to increase the sex appeal with beautiful women. The females in question for Pearblossom, who are totally doomed if Carlson is following convention, are Sophie Monk, who had a role in Click and is July's Stuff cover girl, and Angela Lindvall, the model/actress who played Flicka in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. To even this estrogen the following guys are also on the list -- Charles Napier, who is usually in the military or man-of-the-law type in a slew of films, Danny Woodburn (Employee of the Month) and Patrick Renna, who was just in the horror-thriller Dark Ride.

So, these actors are all coming together for the devouring evil thing, but Carlson's latest description says nothing about the evil-eating: "The film is about a lesbian couple that departs a New Years Eve party in 1968 and meets the creator of the universe while driving the Pearblossom Hwy. It is there where they are put to rest for 40 years and wake New Years Day, 2009. It is about their first 24 hours of survival as these reborn creatures." I assume that in their reborn state, one of them chomps on the bad guys, and I'd imagine that Taylor-Compton and Avellan will be the lovers. This movie could be quite interesting or a huge mess, but I've got to give Carlson props for an interesting premise.

Actor Charles Napier's grin is nearly as scary as the late James Coburn's was. In fact, Napier's characters genuinely frighten me at times. I am thinking particularly of his role as psychotic bad guy Harry Sledge in the 1975 Russ Meyer movie Supervixens. For once, one of the men in a Russ Meyer film actually steals scenes away from the overly endowed, bare-breasted women. You thought Willem Dafoe was scary in Wild at Heart? He's a pale imitation of Harry Sledge. Napier flashes that grin and you just know something horrible will happen. I don't understand why the other characters in Supervixens trust him even for one minute.

Napier was in four Meyer films: Cherry, Harry & Raquel (in which he displays full frontal nudity, I'm told), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Seven Minutes, and the aforementioned Supervixens. But you've surely seen Napier even if you're not a fan of Meyer's movies. He's played cops, judges and terrifying bad guys on a number of TV shows -- he even had one-episode roles both on the original Star Trek series and Deep Space Nine. Or perhaps you saw him as Marshall Murdock in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Napier's also had small roles in nearly all Jonathan Demme's films: A doomed guard in Silence of the Lambs, the judge in Philadelphia, and a hairdresser in Married to the Mob. And let's not forget he's the leader of the real Good Ole Boys band in The Blues Brothers. He's got a square jaw that rivals Bruce Campbell's.

It doesn't matter how old Charles Napier is or how harmless his character is supposed to be. When he grins in that lazy, slow-yet-homicidal way, all eyes turn his way and the scene is his. And a chill runs down your spine, while at the same time you feel slightly titillated. Did I say that last bit out loud? Well, watch him and judge for yourself.