Page 62 - AVN October 2019

OUT OF
THE BOX
Dana Vespoli moves beyond
the usual four-scene DVD
“I’m not cut out for normal work. All my
friends went off and became attorneys and
doctors,” says Dana Vespoli. But this Mills
College graduate took a different course.
After living in the San Francisco Bay Area
for about a decade, she headed to Los
Angeles. “It’s a place of reinvention,” she
says. “There’s that feeling that you can do
anything. … It’s so possible.”
In 2003, Vespoli made the leap into
adult entertainment as a performer. But
she always had her eye on a career
behind the camera, which led her to direct
for various companies, most notably Evil
Angel and Mile High Media. And now
she’s moved into indie horror erotica, co-
founding the site TerrorXXX.com with ace
cinematographer Sal Genoa.
Fans of Vespoli’s work are familiar with
her penchant for bizarre, mysterious and
even shocking imagery in such movies as
Forsaken and Hollywood Babylon (both
6 2 A V N . C O M | 1 0 . 1 9 | I N T E R V I E W
“I’m not a paint-by-numbers person. If things get
formulaic, I get bored. ”
Evil Angel). In Lesbian Stepmom 3 (Sweetheart Video), Vespoli showed
she could turn a standard fauxcest series into a very dark fairytale.
“This is my thing. I love horror. I know horror. I’m obsessed with it.”
Vespoli muses, “I have to do something that I want to do. … I’m not a
paint-by-numbers person. If things get formulaic, I get bored and that’s
not good. So I talked to Sal and I said, ‘Hey, I want to do a horror site.
And I think we should do this together.’”
A veteran director who got his start with Anabolic Video, Genoa has
known Vespoli for years. “We were just good friends,” Vespoli says,
but eventually “it sort of evolved into a full-on relationship.” They share
many interests in common. “He was a total cinephile. We would both
connect on movies. Movies and music. That was part of what brought
us together. … And martial arts. I box and he does jiu jitsu.”
She also continues to perform—especially for TerrorXXX. “I’m the
unofficial contract performer,” she jokes, acknowledging it makes
financial sense to play some of the roles herself.
She cites HorrorPorn.com as an inspiration. “That site does incredibly
well. But with TerrorXXX I wanted to focus more on narratives, more on
feeling, and more on dread and less on porn. And also having some
stronger female characters.”
One of the narrative devices she uses is called “Little Shop of
Terrors,” which she describes as an adult emporium that’s sort of like
≠ STORY: SHARAN STREET ≠ PHOTOGRAPHY: TERRORXXX.COM