Schmoeller was born in
Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised and educated in Texas. He completed a Masters program in Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Fluent in Spanish, he was briefly an interpreter for ABC Sports during the
1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He spent six months as an intern with writer-director
Peter Hyams on the film
Capricorn One, before writing and directing his first theatrical feature,
Tourist Trap (1979).
Tourist Trap was based on Schmoeller's University of Texas thesis film
The Spider Will Kill You. Shot in 24 days, it features a score by
Pino Donaggio, performances from
Chuck Connors and
Tanya Roberts, and contains sound effects culled from
The Time Machine (1960) and
Gone with the Wind (1939). Though it was not a major hit at the time, it has since developed a cult following and been praised by renowned horror author
Stephen King (who lauded the film as an obscure classic in his book
Danse Macabre (1981)).
Tourist Trap would also mark Schmoeller's first collaboration with executive producer
Charles Band, who would produce several of Schmoeller's films, first though his own production company and later with
Empire International Pictures and
Full Moon Features. For his sophomore film, Schmoeller directed
The Seduction (1982), a thriller film starring
Morgan Fairchild and
Andrew Stevens. The film was not well-received and generated several
Golden Raspberry nominations (though it won none of them). He followed
the Seduction with 1986's
Crawlspace (which he wrote and directed), a horror film starring famously difficult actor
Klaus Kinski. Kinski's on-set antics would later inspire Schmoeller's short film about the subject entitled
Please Kill Mr. Kinski. Next, he co-wrote and directed
Catacombs starring
Timothy Van Patten. The film was shot in only 20 days, and was subsequently delayed from being released for almost five years due to the financial problems of distributor
Empire International Pictures. When it was finally released
direct-to-video in 1993, it was re-titled
Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice by Columbia TriStar Home Video, despite being completely unrelated to the series of films which began with
The Curse in 1987. With
Catacombs completed but still not released, Schmoeller moved on to direct another horror film,
Puppet Master, in 1989. Producer and writer
Charles Band—previously the head of the now-failed Empire International Pictures—produced the film under the name of his new company Full Moon Productions (later renamed
Full Moon Features). Many of the puppet characters Schmoeller created for
Puppet Master have appeared in the
various sequels produced by Full Moon Features, though Schmoeller himself was not involved. In 1991, Schmoeller directed horror-themed science fiction tale
The Arrival starring
John Saxon. The following year, he released another horror film, the
direct-to-video Netherworld (again produced by Band for Full Moon Entertainment). In 1998, he directed the
sci-fi/
adventure film
The Secret Kingdom. Following its release, he would not direct another feature film until 2009. In the early 1990s, he directed several episodes for television series such as
Silk Stalkings and
Renegade, and also directed a TV movie called
Search for the Jewel of Polaris: Mysterious Museum in 1999. In recent years, Schmoeller has produced many of his own film projects including the full-length feature
Thor at the Bus Stop (2009) as well as the notable shorts
Please Kill Mr. Kinski (1999),
Spanking Lessons (2007),
Wedding Day (2008) and the short horror film
Ha, Ha Horror (2012). He also served as a dialogue writer and director for the English-dubbed version of the anime film
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 when it was re-titled
Warriors of the Wind by
Manson International. His most recent film, the full-length feature film titled
2 Little Monsters, was released in 2012. The film is a psychological drama fictionalizing the modern life of notorious child killers
Robert Thompson and
Jon Venables, who in 1993 were convicted of the murder of
James Bulger. The film's subject matter marks a departure for the director, who had previously been associated with films in the fantasy and horror genres. To get the film made, Schmoeller self-financed it for what he describes as, "a really small sum, about 30 times less than
Tourist Trap." The same year, Schmoeller also appeared in the 2013 documentary
Rewind This! about the impact of VHS on the film industry and home video. He is currently employed as a film professor at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. ==Filmography (as director)==