His commercial debut, All About Evil, has received positive reviews from critics (with Variety stating; “Over-the-top perfs and colorful low-budget production polish hit the right notes of knowing cheese”) and co-stars Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Natasha Lyonne (American Pie).

Joshua discusses both his career as Peaches Christ and All About Evil…

Do you recall a specific movie or filmmaker that caused you to fall in love with cinema and how important was film to you as you were growing up?
“I remember seeing Disney films and The Wizard Of Oz as a REALLY little kid and I loved the villains, witches, evil queens, and bad guys. They were always my favorite and I think I always loved movies. I cannot remember a time I didn’t like scary things, and it was around the time of Poltergeist coming out and first seeing Psycho that I first started saying I wanted to grow up to make movies. I was maybe eight or nine.”

Peaches Christ was first ‘born’ during the making of your university film Jizzmopper: A Love Story when you were forced to replace one of your actors. Did you find that this character was one you easily embraced that first time and would you say she was a repressed aspect of your personality that was finally able to be released?
“I think that Peaches definitely allows me to express parts of myself that would otherwise be repressed, or at best a bit more dull. I think I took to playing the character pretty quickly, both because we had to shoot the film and also because I really enjoy performing. I had studied improv in high school so Peaches allowed me to exercise that stuff when the movie was finished and I continued performing onstage.”

Many performers create a flamboyant alter ego as in real life they are relatively shy or withdrawn. Would you say that this was the case and do you feel that when you are Peaches Christ it gives you license to say and do things that Joshua Grannell would be unable to do?
“Definitely. I realize this more now having made All About Evil, and getting to hear stories about the difference between having Peaches on-set versus Joshua.”

You have developed the character of Peaches Christ so successfully that you both have separate IMDb pages. Was this an error on the part of the site or did you intentionally create two personalities through your work: Peaches Christ and Joshua Grannell?
“I like to see Peaches Christ as a fully realized character, separate from my own identity. I love that IMDB has the two different pages.”

Was Midnight Mass in any way inspired by the late night movie circuit of Times Square during the late 1970s and early ’80s, particularly the Deuce? Often sex and violence would be heavily featured in the movies shown at that time and the surrounding area would be full of all types of eccentric characters.
“It was actually inspired by moving to San Francisco and hearing all these great stories about what The Cockettes had done here with midnight movies in North Beach at The Palace Theatre. Fantastic stuff! I also grew up in Maryland going to Rocky Horror and worshipping at the altar of John Waters. I think all of that inspired us to create Midnight Mass.”

Do you consider yourself primarily a filmmaker or performer and how do you balance the two when you are working on your movies?
“I think of myself as an entertainer and it all kinda melds together for me. Whether I’m performing as Peaches or writing and directing a movie as Joshua, I really do think that my job is to entertain my audience. I think story-telling is the key and understanding pacing, comedy, gags, and narrative structure informs what I do both onstage and behind the camera. It’s all about entertaining people.”

Were you tempted at all to make your first commercial feature film about Peaches Christ and did you ever give thought to making her the protagonist of All About Evil?
“No, I really wasn’t. I know I wasn’t ready for that. I stand by that decision. Maybe sometime in the future there’ll be a Peaches driven feature.”

Having worked with Cassandra Peterson on the movie, have you both discussed the possibility of making a movie where she plays Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and you play Peaches Christ?
“We have definitely toyed around with the idea. While I’d do it in a heartbeat, I’m not sure if she’s serious or not. I’ll have to keep nagging her. That’s essentially how I got her to agree to do All About Evil. I nagged.”

Whilst John Waters has not only been a major influence on your work but also a collaborator what other filmmakers have had a profound effect on the development of both your character and your work?
“Doris Wishman was a huge personal inspiration for All About Evil, and William Castle, Brian De Palma, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Russ Meyer, Wes Craven, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Ed Wood, The Kuchar Brothers, Todd Solondz, Pedro Almodovar and the list could go on and on and on. I’m a movie fan and my work is often about my love of movies.”

How did your short Grindhouse develop into All About Evil and how similar are they in both story and tone?
“I think that after I had that kernel of an idea succeed in the no-budget short film Grindhouse, I just knew I wanted to flesh it out and develop it further. And I also knew that I wanted my first feature to not be a Peaches Christ vehicle. I think the tone of Grindhouse is sillier than All About Evil but essentially it’s similar, and more about black comedy than anything else.”

Do you often write characters with specific actors in mind and was this the case at all with All About Evil?
“Sometimes I do, especially when creating material for the drag queens. I usually know who’s going to do what. With All About Evil, I didn’t think about any specific actress while I was writing. I just kinda wrote the characters freely and thought about who could play the parts once I was finished a handful of drafts.”

Were you a fan of splatter movies growing up and did these inspire you in any way as you were shooting the film?
“Ohmygod YES. The splatter movies I grew up loving were my religion from 80’s slasher stuff to HG Lewis and early Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi. I loved it all. When writing All About Evil, I had a blast coming up with my own little splatter gags. A bunch of stuff was cut for financial reasons, so I’ve got some stuff already to go for the next one.”

What projects do you have lined up for the future and how do you plan to follow All About Evil?
“I have a second feature film I’m developing that’s similar in tone to All About Evil and may even be part of an Evil Trilogy. We’ve also formed Peaches Christ Productions in San Francisco and have begun production on a bunch of smaller projects and films. We will continue to create content and do touring stage-shows.”

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Andrew discusses both the movie and his own personal beliefs on the supernatural…

To make an effective horror movie, filmmakers must confront certain subjects or themes that they fear themselves. What do you feel you are scared of the most and how have you dealt with this in your work?
“If you don’t draw on things that frighten you how can you expect your audience to be frightened in the theatres? I don’t feel I scare easily and I won’t write a story in the horror genre unless it genuinely unnerves me. I hope that means that the ideas in my scripts are frightening to the viewers of my movies. As far as themes that frighten me one of my greatest fears has always been madness. It’s more frightening than otherworldly monsters as it’s so tangible. Most people’s lives have been touched by it at some stage or another. Whether it’s dementia in an elderly relative or a personal experience. It’s a sense of plausibility that I often look for when I write horror. I’m interested in the places where horror crosses into our everyday lives. Kind of the cracks through which it creeps into our reality.

My other great fear is of death. Oddly possibly for someone who write and loves horror movies but I have a morbid fear (no pun intended) of my own mortality. This obviously sneaks into my work and I think strengthens it. When I wrote D.O.R I really wanted any death in the film to have meaning. That’s something that I don’t feel you see a lot of in horror films. I wanted a sense of real tragedy when someone died. I really wanted the audience to feel that it mattered. Ideally I’d want a situation where the audience feels a range of emotions that they don’t normally get with a horror movie. Obviously I want to create suspense and tension but I’d also like them to really care about the characters they’re watching and feel true horror and sadness when they die. I hope that comes across in the final cut of D.O.R.”

The Possession of David O’Reilly is described as a supernatural horror, but what are your own personal beliefs with regards to ghosts and afterlife?
“That’s a BIG question. I’m a sceptic but I’m very much open to persuasion. I’d love to be proven wrong! The problem is that I’ve never seen or experienced anything to change my opinion. If I made lots of money from a movie or a book I’d love to dedicate some time to being involved in some proper paranormal investigation. I’m talking more James Randi than Most Haunted though! Don’t get me started on that terrible show. Grrr!”

Many horror movies that deals with ghosts suffer from similar clichés: eerie whispers, figures running passed the door, etc. Is this something that you have tried to avoid or embrace?
“If you don’t try to avoid cliché and create something new then you aren’t doing your job properly. There’s a lot of lazy writing in horror. It’s often seen as a second class genre, one that’s easy to make money with but doesn’t require writers and directors to invent or move the genre forward. I hate that attitude. OK, I won’t always be right with my ideas, some will work and some will fail but I definitely try to bring something new to everything I do.”

How do you feel your movie compares to the horror movies that have been released over the last couple of years and what makes it stand out from the rest?
“I’m really pleased with the performances in the film. There’s a real depth to them that you’re unlikely to see in other micro budget movies. That’s one of my real strengths as a director.”

There are few successful horror movies shot in Britain compared to American and Europe, how difficult is it for a filmmaker in England to fund and promote this kind of work?
“Honestly, unless you’re born into the industry and nepotism carries you through it’s practically impossible. The British Film Industry ™ is not a meritocracy regardless of what people would have you believe. I wasn’t born into it so it’s been an uphill struggle. I wrote Inside (later David O’Reilly) back in 2003 and it wasn’t shot till 2009. That gives a bit of an idea of how long a road it can be. For others it’s much longer. I count myself as one of the very lucky ones.

I’d imagine it’s hard enough if you want to shoot a Rom Com (that UK brand of films) but if you want to make a horror, especially one that does things differently, you’re practically dead in the water.

In 2006 no one would listen to my ideas and so I decided to go it alone and make In The Dark. (www.louisepaxton.co.uk) I shot the Louise Paxton project for two reasons. I really liked the story and thought I could do something with it and because I really wanted to show off the style in which I wanted to make Inside (D.O.R.). It was In The Dark that cracked David O’Reilly for me, that got people interested. Even then some people in the industry looked at Louise Paxton and thought it was too homemade and that the style would never sell. Paranormal Activity anyone? That’s the level of forward thinking and vision I was dealing with.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. I used YouTube to get my ideas out there and all these sites which weren’t available when I started writing are a real plus to first time filmmakers. If you can get hold of a camera, shoot something and get it out there it’s a great platform to show off your style and abilities.

My only other advice is persevere. You’re going to get knocked back a thousand times but eventually, if your work’s good enough, someone will take notice. Remain true to your ideas and don’t be swayed by people who are more interested in money than film making.”

Whilst attempting to avoid comparisons to Paranormal Activity, some websites constantly reference the movie when discussing your film. Does this frustrate you and how do the two movies differ from one another?
“I’ll tell you a little bit about how David O’Reilly came about. When I wrote David O’Reilly it was called Inside. It was 2003 and I was fed up with glossy US horror movies that didn’t relate to me in anyway. They were all set in places that I had no connection to and were often populated by characters that were completely unbelievable at best and generally hateful. I wanted to find a way to bring horror back to its audience, to make it relatable and hopefully all the more frightening for it. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had to somehow set the film in the audience’s home, in the place where you live, the place where you turn the lights out every night and are swallowed into the black.

I knew the film had to be shot in a documentary style but I didn’t want to be as constrained by such a realistic choice as something like The Blair Witch. I always imagined some of the monster sequences in Inside as being like watching a documentary and then seeing something amazing and impossible happening. I wanted to audience to feel as stunned as the characters when something you’d feel was impossible burst into the film.

Originally the film was going to be about a husband and wife documentary team who set about documenting a haunting. Imagine what that could have been like!! I didn’t go with that idea in the end because I wanted to create something that looked like a documentary without the constraints of the style – someone being behind the camera all the time and the often questions of plausibility in such a situation.

I’m not unrealistic. It’s no wonder to me that other people (since 2003) have thought of similar ideas and explored similar styles. That’s the nature of film making. I don’t find it frustrating to have people reference Paranormal Activity when talking about Inside (D.O.R.). The film coming at this time it was always going to be the case. If Paranormal Activity hadn’t come about we might have been compared to Rec or The Blair Witch. David O’Reilly shares elements with these films but I think once an audience get to see it they’ll see there are marked differences between the projects. I’m still fascinated by reality in horror and it’s something I’m going to continue to explore. With that in mind I’m sure the comparisons will continue for a long time.”

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Gabe discusses his inspiration behind the movie and his plans for the future…

Prior to being a filmmaker, you had spent several years as a support actor. How did you make the move behind the camera?
“Looking back, for so much of my acting career, my greatest influences were the larger-than-life directors I worked with. At 19 years old I was cast as a series regular on an ABC show by director, James Burrows – I was so in awe of how instinctual and versatile he was, constantly re-blocking and reworking jokes when the daily rewrites would come in. My parents, Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, soon after, co-directed a script I co-wrote and acted in, called, Love Is All There Is, starring Angelina Jolie: I felt so at home watching the directorial process. I also worked for Mark Rydel, Dick Van Dyke, Francis Ford Coppolla. And I guess it was when I started giving direction to Martin Landau and Martin Sheen in an HBO movie I wrote and starred in, called The Elevator, I was hooked!”

The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond sounds like an old fairy tale or urban legend. How would you describe the movie and how would it compare to the modern genre?
“The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond is the only horror film I know of, where the killer is you. Even though I drew upon the influences of early Raimi and Romero films, there is something wholeheartedly new about exposing that any one of us are actually capable of committing the unimaginable — if we just give a voice to our most repressed resentments of hatred, jealousy, and greed. The black, bottomless pond that Echo and Narcissus were trapped in, blinding them from differentiating good from evil – it’s not just a Greek Myth, it’s what happens to anyone who chooses to swim in the deep end of their darkest emotions.”

How did you manage to get such a talented cast (Robert Patrick, Danielle Harris) and did you have any actors in mind as you were writing the script?
“I was greatly flattered by how much Robert Patrick and Danielle Harris liked the script, which is what really drew them to the piece. I didn’t have anyone in mind when I developed this project, yet every time I watch the film — it feels as if every role was written for every actor in it. For example, the roles of Renee and Erica were originally not written to be twin sisters – now I can’t see them any other way. The Avellan Twins are awesome, what the hell is scarier than twins with knives?”

Some of the artwork has been somewhat reminiscent of old Roger Corman movies. What kind of films would you say have been the biggest inspiration to Black Waters and did you consider it to be an homage to older movies?
“You are talking about some grindhouse-style posters we made up for some of our horror conventions?They are really fun and stylized. I have a deep affection for posters from that era. Our film now has a more mainstream poster that more focuses on the horror and less the aestheticism of 70’s slasher flicks. But I must say, as far as I’m concerned, that was the heyday of horror films – back when attention was spent on building real suspense and fright, instead of mindless torture sequences with little or no plot. The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond is definitely a tribute to that era and has many allusions to the old school horror movies of my youth.”

What kind of feedback have you had on the movie so far? If it proves to be a success, is this the kind of story you feel lends itself to a sequel?
“I must tell you, I was not prepared for the overwhelmingly favorable responses we received from our screenings at the HorrorHound Film Festival and the Orlando Freak Show Film Festival, where we picked up Audience Choice Awards. I was told over and over by the fans how excited they were to see a refreshing twist on the genre — since everyone in the film eventually turns on one another, your allegiance to the character you are rooting for changes as fast at switching lanes on a racetrack. Parallel Media is also financing the sequel and I am writing it as we speak.”

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Edward Douglas discusses his love of horror and his career to date…

You are primarily known for your music through Midnight Syndicate, yet your new feature The Dead Matter is a remake of a short film you produced before your debut album. Do you consider yourself a musician first or a filmmaker?
“Music, horror, and the supernatural were my first loves but most of my formal education has been in theatre and filmmaking. Like a lot of filmmakers I was borrowing my parent’s camera and shooting “horror” movies at a young age. My first feature was an EC Comics and Creepshow-style film I did in college called Journey Into Dementia. The next project was the original The Dead Matter movie in ‘95. At that time I was looking for a way to combine all of my interests and that’s how Midnight Syndicate developed. Creating CDs that were soundtracks to imaginary films and then producing concerts that would combine live music, theatrics, and films I directed. I did one series of live concerts in March of ’98, but then (due to the sheer amount of time and resources involved in producing the shows) I shelved that element in order to focus on just developing the music. Midnight Syndicate was my only focus for the following eight years until Ethan Dettenmaier and Robert Kurtzman brought me back along the film track when they asked me to score their films. Scoring The Rage helped put the pieces in place for a return to directing which I eventually did with the remake of The Dead Matter (coming this July). Everything has come full circle for me but the wild thing is that doesn’t end there because just this past weekend Midnight Syndicate wrapped production on our first music video. It was directed by my friend and Mushroomhead video producer David Greathouse and co-produced by Kurtzman’s Precinct 13. Gavin and I couldn’t be more stoked about how it went. It definitely sets the stage for more video productions and possibly a return to the type of live shows I was producing back when we started.”

Your music features gothic elements and are structured like horror movie soundtracks. Was this your intention and how inspired by film scores is your work?
“From the beginning it was always my goal for Midnight Syndicate to create “soundtracks to imaginary films.” CDs that blend music and sound effects designed to transport you to a world or a movie of your own creation. Similar to film scores each CD tells a story only with our discs that story is left entirely up to the listener. We try to give enough details to spark your imagination without imposing our own interpretation. Film composers like Bernard Herrmann, Danny Elfman, John Carpenter, James Horner, and Hans Zimmer are big musical influences for both Gavin and I. That and the classical composers who influenced them as well as artists like Black Sabbath, Sisters of Mercy, King Diamond, and early Genesis. I’m also a fan of the old radio dramas and their use of sound design to create environments.”

You have collaborated several times with FX artist/filmmaker Robert Kurtzman, most notably on The Rage. How did you come to score the music for that movie and how does this differ to creating music for your own movie?
“I love working with Bob because not only is he an incredibly talented artist but he’s a great person. In addition to his team at P13, he introduced me to Gary Jones who ended up co-producing The Dead Matter with us. Bob first approached me to score The Rage because he was a fan of Midnight Syndicate’s music. Scoring that film was a good challenge for me. For one, it demanded a much more aggressive style than anything I had done with Midnight Syndicate to that point. Additionally, as a composer (and not the director or producer) I had to continually double check my work to make sure that what I was doing was best for the film and furthered the director’s vision. Quite different from the workflow on a Midnight Syndicate disc. The Dead Matter was easier to score because the film is very much in the style of Midnight Syndicate’s music. In fact, many of the first Midnight Syndicate tracks I wrote (on Midnight Syndicate and Born of the Night) were taken from my scoring sessions (and outtakes) from the original 1995 The Dead Matter. On the new score, I had some definite ideas heading into it, I also had great contributions from Gavin and was also able to hijack some Syndicate tracks that I felt really worked for certain scenes.”

When you are writing a screenplay, are you always conscious of what kind of music you would want to use for a specific scene and in what ways does your music influence your films?
“I co-wrote The Dead Matter with Tony Demci who really contributed a lot of his own scenes and vision to the new version. I suppose in some cases I definitely have strong ideas about what music I will want to use in particular scenes. For the most part though, at the writing stage I’m just trying to create a compelling story and script that will make for a film that’s strong enough to stand on it’s own without any music. That way when I finally do add the music it just takes the whole thing to the next level. Midnight Syndicate is very influenced by classic horror so as far as the music influencing the type of films I do, I would say I tend towards producing similar classic Universal, Hammer, EC Comics-influenced horror.”

You have hosted several competitions through its website, including the chance for filmmakers to make a music video or silent film to a Midnight Syndicate track and be featured on the upcoming The Dead Matter DVD. How important is it for you to interact with your fan base and have them involved in your work?
“It’s everything to us. Hearing from our fans about how they enjoy the music or use it for inspiration in their own work whether it’s drawing, writing, designing haunted houses, sculpting really fuels us. Additionally we never had the support of any major labels or commercial radio stations and we’ve never toured so we owe our success to all of our fans and supporters who bought our CDs and then turned their friends on to our work. We’ve always enjoyed MySpace but we’ve also just now started up on Facebook as well which I’m really liking.”

What are your thoughts on the current horror climate and how does The Dead Matter fit in with the current trends?
“I love horror films and I especially love old horror films – not only the way they looked but the way they were shot.. everything. I’m a huge fan of Hammer films. So that being said, I’m not really into all the remakes although I understand why they are the norm right now. The financial climate in the film industry is tenuous at best – and any type of financial success outside the blockbusters is becoming more and more rare. I think that there are still a lot of great horror films being made today. I thought Let the Right One In was brilliant. Dead Girl, End of the Line, Grace, The Burrowers, The Abandoned are just some that come to mind recently.

To answer your question, I don’t think that The Dead Matter fits in with current trends. A lot of those movies I just listed really push the boundaries – very visceral, in your face. The Dead Matter is a bit of a throwback. As I mentioned, I am heavily influenced by Hammer Horror films and EC Comics and you can tell that by watching The Dead Matter. The shooting style is a bit retro (as is our Super 16 footage) and when you take that and mix it with the classic horror influences of Midnight Syndicate’s music, you have a bit of an anachronism. However, although our themes are nothing new it’s how we present those themes along with the twists and turns we throw the audiences’ way that will engage them and keep them guessing throughout the movie. I’m really proud of how it came together. If you like classic horror and classic horror themes (vampires, zombies, séances) with a bunch of unexpected twists and turns, then you are going to like The Dead Matter. We’ll have a new trailer up in a few weeks as well as a killer, new interactive website at www.TheDeadMatter.com. The DVD will be released July 30th, and will be available at Hot Topic stores. We’re building a new Midnight Syndicate website (www.MidnightSyndicate.com) as well as releasing that new music video (for Dark Legacy off our Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates CD) in early April. It’s Midnight Syndicate’s 13th Anniversary so we have a ton of stuff planned this year including a “best of” CD, contests, and more. Hopefully some good things for folks to consider when they are looking for Halloween music this October.”

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The film itself is available to view on Vimeo. Lee Hardcastle shares his experience in the making of his own Evil Dead…

How did you first develop an interest in animation and how did university prepare you for a career in the industry?
“As a child I had an interest in stop motion animation and always said I was gonna go work for Wallace & Gromit but then I grew out of it and started watching violent films and decided in my teens that I wanted to be the next Sam Raimi.

I got to film school at 18 and everyone was a bit older than me and had more experience & network skills, my first year at film school was horrible- non of my projects got made, I had no idea how to sell the ideas and I ended up being a monkey on other productions. Half way through film school I was suddenly exposed to stop motion animation, I had a go at using some old action figures and it turned out pretty well, I was like ‘cool, I did that by myself’. Through this; the teachers at the school were able to see what I could do so a couple of my own projects were funded and made- forcing me to specialise in stop motion animation as a means to make the films I wanted to make.

The film school was great and has been a big defining point of my life but once I graduated, that was that. I didn’t know what I was suppose to do next, so I got a job as a runner at a Post-Production house in London- which anyone can do despite 3 years of film school.”

Were you always a fan of horror movies when you were growing up and how did these influence your style?
“Always a fan of horror films, I remember watching the The Thing when I was 11 and covering my eyes ’cause it was so messed up. Another I remember is watching 80’s The Blob remake, I turned it off a third in and I’d have serious nightmares about these films, to me they were real, real characters in these awful situations! I bought The Thing on VHS, confronted it and felt really proud of myself and from there on I was very obsessed teen when it came to horror movies. My style, it’s a mish-mash that’s still developing- I love the goofy horror movies with what I call “rollercoaster plots” and I like to make a short, music video or whatever while keeping in mind how the viewer would react & think to what they’re watching, that’s the whole point of the video.”

Evil Dead in 60 Seconds was created as part of a competition run by Empire, in which filmmakers were to recreate their favourite film in one minute. What made you decide on The Evil Dead and how did you set about adapting a feature into such a short piece?
“I was going to enter it in 2008 with a live-action remake of Jaws but my friends with their respectively busy lifes couldn’t pull through and that was that. Back to 2010, I’m reading the magazine and they’re showing off the entries so far and someone had entered a Star Wars stop motion- my heart stopped, like, “I can make an animation, I can pull something off!” because, I didn’t if stop-motion animation was something they’d accept. There was exactly 10 days to plan it, shoot it, do sound and send it- I was determined to do it.

As a 17 year old, I watched Evil Dead about a hundred times, I was obsessed- bought books, video games, lunch boxes, I was the Evil Dead geek. It’s embarrassing to admit this now but what the hell, it’s true. Can you understand now why I had no social skills when starting at film school? So, acting fast and visualising the fact that I could pull of the Evil Dead based on the fact that it has one location, few characters, I knew the plot, the gags and the story behind all of it inside out.

It was tough stuff.”

How long did the entire process of designing the characters and shooting the film take and how many collaborators did you have on the project?
“I had 10 days to pull this off to meet the competition deadline so I blasted out a story board, quickly pitched the idea to a couple of sound engineers to help me. Built one crappy cardboard set, 4 crappy clay figures, my girlfriend made the clothes for the characters out of my old shirts- I’m such a bad boyfriend for not crediting her at the end so here I go; Puppet Costumes by Josephine Barat. I have a full time job, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week- I went home every night and worked solid on the props, set, puppets ’til midnight. Even on my 25th birthday I was doing this, a ‘no time to celebrate’ situation. Come the weekend, I animated solid, did not sleep. I only had one weekend to animate! With four days left until the dead line, I spent the evenings in a sound studio recording the voices while a good friend of mine, Tim Atkins, worked on the sound design on his mac at home to the offline I’d animated.

I couldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Patrick Baker (Sound VO engineer), Tim Atkins (Sound Designer) and Josephine Barat who has to put up with the mess in the apartment. Oh and the guy who plays Scott’s part, Jack Willcock, a guy I work with- this was my proudest moment getting him into the sound booth and directing him, he’s a Runner and I wanted more people doing voices rather than just myself. He was so close to going home but he saw what I’d done so far and he said ‘Why not’ I’m really happy he decided to do it.”

What was the greatest challenge you faced throughout the whole process and do you regret any decisions that you made?
“I don’t regret anything, I think as a film-maker you’ve really got to kick your own ass into motivation ’cause no-one else is going to do it for you and if you’re a serious film-maker you will over come obstacles, never give up, keep going, going and going like the Duracell bunny otherwise it’s not gonna get done and if you quit, well, someone else is going to come along and steal your thunder.”

Other submissions included one minute piece based on Fight Club, Donnie Darko and even Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Aside from claymation, what kind of niche do you feel you gave your film for it to be shortlisted?
“I was stunned by the fact it got shortlisted, really surprised, I keep entering stuff and it get’s rejected 90% of the time and I’m just like ‘oh well, next time’. So, what the organizer saw in the Evil Dead- I suppose it was different in tone and style. Because the other entries literally tell most of the whole plot of a film in 60 seconds and it’s funny as hell ’cause you blink and miss a micro-reference to the original, it’s funny- I love that type of humor and with mine I really focused on the timing and the gags to breath and sink in with the viewer. I’m talking rubbish of course but that’s what I was going for!”

Having short various short films, how would you compare your other work to your Evil Dead piece? What plans do you have for the future and do you intend on seeking permission to release the film?
“My previous shorts, well, they’re a bit off and weird and I don’t expect everyone to understand them but I’m proud of everything I make. Only recently I’ve started focusing on the viewer & what they’ll enjoy or get a kick out of from uploading my stuff to YouTube for years and you obviously know when you’ve done something right when one video has 3 stars and some very hateful comments and the other one has a solid 5 star rating with 10’s of thousands of hits- it’s called demand and supply, right? Anyone can have the Evil Dead movie, depends on the Empire guys now really. I make stuff for the people at the moment, it would be special to be reconised and hired for your own unique skills but that day still has to come, ’til then, I’ll keep entering these movie making competitions and hope something like that comes out of it. But here’s the cliché, it’s been my life long dream to make a feature film even if it’s sat on my shelf and no one likes it, I am going to make one- you watch.”

Watch the film here:

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Caroline discusses the making of the movie…

Your feature debut, Dans ton sommeil (In Their Sleep), was co-directed with Eric Du Potet. What kind of problems did the two of you face, having to share directorial decisions and how did you both come to work together on the project?
“As we are brother and sister, we know each other very well. We grew with the same film influences. Before our feature, we made six short movies together, so it wasn’t really a new experience for us…

We try to discuss a lot together before the shooting in order to agree on all the details and not contradict ourselves in front of the crew and the actors.

I like staying with the chief operator, facing the actors. Eric prefers standing back behind the combo, to have a general view of the scene.”

How did the project first originate and where did the concept for the story come from? How would you describe the tone of the movie and what filmmakers were the greatest influence on you as you were developing the movie?
“At the beginning, this project was born of our desire to make a French thriller. The concept of the story originated on the idea that appearances can be deceptive and the “monster” is not the one who seems to be… Unlike the classical villain which is always a beast without any feelings, we wanted to create an ambivalent character, half demon, half angel…

We wanted the tone of the movie was tough, with no humor. But it was also important to include some dark poetry with shots of nature and insist on the growing feelings between the two main characters…

Our biggest influences were Sam Peckinpah with Straw Dogs and John Boorman’s Deliverance.”

French horror cinema has become to gain a lot of international attention from over the last few years, prompting many of the directors to try their hand at shooting a Hollywood film. Why do you feel there is a renewed interest in French cinema?
“Ten years ago, it was almost impossible to make a horror film in France. There were only comedies or intimist dramas. Then, a new generation of filmmakers raised with US thrillers, like Alexandre Aja, started to initiate the movement. So young producers decided to produce some genre films, almost always feature debuts and low-budget films…

Hollywood studios are very interested in these new directors, because they are often very good technicians with an original author’s style.”

How would you describe the atmosphere on set and was this a particularly grueling shoot? How long did filming last and what major obstacles did you face?
“Shooting conditions were very hard. We had only thirty days of filming, almost always during the night, in the forest, in the rain (which was not planned in the script…)! Nevertheless, the atmosphere on set was great. All the crew loved the project and threw herself completely into the film.

There were several difficult scenes like the one where both characters are upside down after the car crash. We had to invent a system with a handle to quickly turn over the framework of the car toward and backward not to let the actors in this uncomfortable position too long…”

Are there any specific moments from the movie that you feel will become a major talking point once the film has been released and do you feel it is important for a horror film to have these kind of shocks?
“We knew from the writing of the script that the choice of showing the death of the little girl could shock people. But it was very important for us to keep that scene because it really shows the killer’s madness. As we didn’t want to be eye-catching, we chose to film the face of the killer at this moment and not the girl. Anyway, we think horror movies’ audience is waiting for these kind of shocks… and we didn’t want to disappoint the fans of the genre…”

Was it difficult to gain distribution for the movie outside of France and when are you hoping to have it released in other countries? Has the film been screened at any festivals and how has it been received by critics?
“The foreign distribution of the movie is quite difficult because it’s both a thriller and a horror film, and the mix of genres can be unsettling for international buyers.

Nevertheless, the film has been already bought by several countries like Canada, Turkey, Indonesia, Taiwan, Middle East, etc… and should be released over there in the next months.

The film has been screened at EKWA festival, in the Reunion Isle, and makes the opening of Gerardmer, the first fantastic film festival in France. We hope to participate in other festivals this year…

For the moment, critics haven’t seen the film yet…”

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Shaun discusses his experiences making Butchered…

Having worked as an actor for several years, how did you manage to make your directorial debut with Butchered and how did this become a joint collaboration with Charles Stewart Jr. and Sheila Brothers?
“Scheduling conflicts and other projects kept Charles out of the re-shoots and pick up days. As a producer on the film I just jumped in to direct. I wanted a second set of eyes for the scenes I was in. Sheila had just finished directing a spec pilot with the late Pat Hingle, so I knew she was up to the task. I was in good hands working with Joe Stauffer a brilliant DP and his Broken Wings Productions team on the re-shoots. I focused on actors because I knew the vision and camera work was in the bag. That is a a huge burden off your shoulders when you gel with someone artistically. I never had to second guess Joe Stauffer’s work. Then there was directing all the actors in the ADR sessions. I have done voice over work in over thirty Japanese Anime cartoons, so my experience in the sound booth for the actors was important. Bringing a performance out of an actor a year later in post is not easy. Before Butchered I had directed plays and a short film. I have always tried to fight the urge to direct. I knew I could do it that wasn’t the issue. I just figured it would be a long way down the road after I tired from acting. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and you have to just catch it.”

Aside from acting in the movie, you are also credited as one of the writers. How much of a part did you play in the developing of the script and what films in particular were an influence on you as you were writing?
“I created the story, named all the characters, and after Charles and I finished the six page treatment it was passed on to Sheila Brothers and her writing partner Roxanne Marchand to crank out the script. I helped with the re-writes for the pick up days as well. One thing that always pisses me off about modern day horror films are cell phones. That’s the reason the film takes place on an island was to get the cell phone equation out of the film. No cell phones, leaves no hope. I wanted to make a classic horror film like the ones I watched growing up. I loved the original Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw. I am not a fan of the over the top gore in most horror films today. Gore doesn’t always translate to scary. I love jump scares and the old Hitchcock style of scaring the hell out of an audience without making them throw up. Plus people have gotten desensitized to the gore. I think I brought old school to the film.”

What kind of budget were you working with and how did you manage to gain a distribution deal?
“It was ultra low and we were raising funds through out the entire process until completion. That was ultimately an advantage that helped us land a distribution deal with Anthem Pictures. We had a solid story, helicopter shots, underwater shots, and island, beautiful actresses that would make FHM turn their heads and a film that exceeded everyones expectations. They could see what we did for little and offered us a deal. We will continue the relationship with Anthem going forward. It is all who you know in this business. Producer Phillip Troy Linger was a last minute addition to the project. Troy could see right away the potential of the film. His deep roots in Los Angeles as an actor and former publisher of Brentwood Magazine was indispensable when it came to securing a deal at Anthem. It pays to know people in high places. As a first time feature film for us to nail a distribution deal was pretty damn cool. It has been a blessing.”

What are your thoughts on the current state of the horror genre and what new aspects have you brought to it?
“No more remakes. Hollywood is so uncreative to recycle properties just for a quick buck. Where are the risk takers? Not in Hollywood. I am just sick of that shit and refuse to watch any of them. I am not a fan of sequels, but we do have two Butchered sequels planned if the film takes off and there is a demand. I would hope people will watch Butchered and realize the homage paid to the old school horror films of the 70’s and 80’s. That would be my contribution to the genre.”

With the DVD due for release next month, has the movie been screened at any festivals or given a limited theatrical release and how has it been received by both audiences and critics?
“I have been swamped with my television series Port City PD that I star in and co-produce. It’s a cop show airing in the US as well as 40 countries over seas. There hasn’t been time to screen Butchered. We have missed most of the great horror festivals and cons for screening opportunities. As far as critics I am not interested in them. Its the horror audience I hope to get a nod from. This film is not going to win any Oscars, but all the elements are there for the horror fan. We have everything your would want in a slasher film. We have blood, great deaths, nudity, a serial killer on a deserted island killing teens, and a kick ass bonus feature The David Long Story you have to see! What more do you want?”

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Paul discusses his work on the movie and the effect its success has had on his life and career…

With your first feature Grace having been screened at the likes of Sundance last year, what kind of success have you enjoyed over the last twelve months and has the movie been greeted as well as you had hoped?
“When Grace got into Sundance, the world really opened up for me, and it’s been opening more and more with each subsequent achievement ever since. I’ve gotten to meet so many talented people I can’t even begin to tell you. There’s nothing more amazing than having the opportunity to premiere your first feature at the greatest film festival in the world, especially when it’s a horror film. There just aren’t a whole lot of horror films that make it into Sundance, and those that do are off to a serious start. I had heard things about Sundance being impossible to get into without knowing people over there, but we didn’t know a soul and they were as supportive of Grace as any film festival I have ever been too. I can tell you that those people really care about movies, and take tremendous pride in what they do. They were so supportive, I could hardly believe it. They gave us the prime genre time slot in the whole festival, the same one that Blair Witch had. The audiences went absolutely nuts for the movie. I’ve never seen anything like it. The morning after our first screening, the entire town was talking about the movie. Everywhere you’d go, you’d hear people talking about the film – on the shuttles between theaters, in restaurants, in the hotel lobbies, it was unbelievable. The support from the press was phenomenal, too. There were journalists writing open letters to Anchor Bay telling them what gold they had on their hands and urging them to release the film in a wide theatrical. Even the press screening – which is attended by journalists who are burnt out from watching 5 films a day for a week, who tend to take the opportunity to return emails or catch up on videogames on their blackberries – even that screening left the audience cheering for more!”

How did you manage to adapt this from your original short film and how did the initial interest in a feature-length movie begin?
“The feature length script was actually written before the short. People wanted to option the feature, but it was much more difficult to get anyone to let me direct it because I had only done shorts before that. So I made the short to help raise interest in the feature. The challenges are virtually the same, making a short as they are making a feature. Time and money. There’s never enough. So you embrace the restraints and do your best to exploit them to your advantage.”

In their review of the movie, The New York Times made references to both It’s Alive and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and Repulsion. How does it feel to have your work compared to such ‘classics’ and were any of these movies an influence on you as you were making Grace?
“Absolutely. As far as directors go, my biggest influences are David Cronenberg and Roman Polanski, but there are a whole slew of other directors that I find intensely inspiring, and that list is always in flux. I’ve always been much more affected by terrestrial horror, real horror, horror you can touch, that could actually happen to you or your family, than supernatural stuff. I just don’t find ghost stories especially frightening. Losing control over ones body, or carrying death within it, is something that I think it’s very difficult not to have an intense reaction to.”

Grace centres around the horrors of motherhood and the fear of childbirth, something that David Cronenberg has also been renowned for. What convinced you to write such a story and what is it about the ‘body horror’ subgenre that interests you so much?
“The genesis of the story at a personal level came when I was about 19 and my mother told me I had had a twin, who died in her womb before birth. She told me that, at that moment, her entire being became completely focused on keeping her remaining child alive. Ever since then, the subject matter has been extremely compelling to me at a very personal, almost cellular, level. The basis for the story of Grace, itself, came from a conversation I was having in which I learned that it’s an actual medical phenomenon for a women who loses her unborn child to, frequently, carry that child to term unless labour is induced. As a genre fan, I’m always just looking to be scared, to be shaken, like I was as a little kid, and it’s not easy. But every once in a while, you hear something that really gets under your skin. This was one of those ideas. Such a potent kernel of horror. The story grew naturally from there. I often go back to body horror – losing control of your faculties or your mind, bodily or mental, or spiritual violations, damnation, guilt, trauma… Those are the things I think we can all identify with. We’re hard wired to respond to things like this, and when you pull these themes into the genre, you can explore them without limitation.”

Some reviews have suggested that a couple of viewers fainted during a showing of the movie. Is there any truth to this and, if so, are you proud of having such an influence over your audience?
“Two men passed out at the premiere, one in the theater, and one outside in the lobby. During our Q&A one of the Sundance staffers came up the aisle and announced, “This movie was a great success, not one but TWO men passed out in the lobby, the first time in the history of Sundance!” It’s all on the behind the scenes on the DVD – which are absolutely phenomenal, by the way. I have literally never seen such good behind the scenes material on a DVD. Ever. Many thanks to Adam Barnick and Jake Hamilton for all their hard work. I could hardly believe that when I heard it. Grace isn’t a gory film, and that’s usually what I think of when I hear that, but in this case, people were just so disturbed by the subject matter and the atmosphere of the film, that they couldn’t handle it.”

Is Grace the kind of film you could imagine wanting to make a sequel to or do you have no interest in returning to this story again?
“I’m not interested in doing a sequel, no, but I’m glad you asked. A film ought to leave you caring about where the characters go next. To me, it’s as important to know where characters are heading after the credits roll, as it is to know where they were before the titles began. I really believe that part of telling a story that transcends is having done all that footwork. Of course, I don’t own the rights to the film, so if someone else decides Grace has been so profitable they want to do it again, they’ll surely do it.”

Do you have any regrets regarding your approach to the movie and what aspects in particular are you most proud of?
“I’m really very pleased with what we were able to do with Grace. We shot 192 scenes in 17 days, with a cat and a baby and a car crash, so we had things pretty well stacked against us, and we managed to still make a movie that I think works quite well. When you’re under such constraints, a movie will show it to some degree, but your job becomes finding out how to minimize that and keep the audience in the game the whole ride. I believe we accomplished that, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have found so many lifelong collaborators on a single film. It is impossible for me to break it down into individual strengths, because I believe the movie works as a unified whole. So THAT is what I’m most proud of.”

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Marking the debut of independent filmmaker Douglas McKeown, The Deadly Spawn told of a meteor that crashlands in the woods, prompting two campers to go and investigate. A creature emerges from the wreckage and begins to lay havoc with the locals, some strange alien monster that is more deadly than anything man has ever seen.

With the movie set to be discovered by a new generation of horror fans, Douglas McKeown reveals his filmmaking background and his experience shooting The Deadly Spawn…

How did you first become interested in cinema and how did you come to create special effects yourself when you were younger?
“[Who told you I created special effects when I was younger?] My first exposure to cinema, or shall I say movies, was through television – King Kong and all the old Depression-Era Universal horror pictures, which were telecast for the first time ever when I was still a pre-teen. My interest in special effects came from watching King Kong over and over again when it was shown nine times in one week. But my first real interest as a director, even though I had no camera, stemmed from the giant monster films of the 1950s. I would re-enact the films I saw at the local theatre in my neighborhood by casting a bunch of kids as terrified extras and instructing them how to look up at nothing and pretend it was a giant octopus or dinosaur. I spent some childhood years directing countless horror scenarios with me as the monster – always with the camera in mind, if not in hand (I still didn’t own one at that time).”

Did your amateur filmmaking career begin when you were given a Bolex 8mm camera and what were your early experiments with directing films like?
“Right! I got that while I was still in high school. The Bolex had single-frame capability, and at that time what really mattered to me was model animation. I wanted to make dinosaurs. My first effective model was a 13-inch Tyrannosaur I made out of Plasticine sculpted over a copper wire armature and coated with liquid latex. I named her “Parkhurst,” after an ancient professor I had Freshman year of college. Her first movements were just about as unsteady and jerky as the old teacher, mostly because I shot double frame exposures thinking to save time. Never made that mistake again. Later on I made a far more convincing dinosaur film using a 16 mm Bolex.”

Having been rejected from UCLA, did you feel that become a real filmmaker was unlikely and how did you eventually become involved with ABC-TV?
“I suppose I did take the grad school rejection as a verdict on my ability at that time – after all, it was UCLA, and they should know, right? [an ironic note: in 2004, the UCLA Film and Television Archive invited me to their screening of The Deadly Spawn as part of their horror film series!] I got a job with ABC in New York right after college from an employment ad in the newspaper. But I was stuck in the commercial editing department pretty far from production, so I eventually quit. I wasn’t really interested in TV at that time – I was into great big-screen classics and modern imports. I had spent my college years in art cinemas soaking up Bergman, Fellini, and Kurosawa films.”

After some time as a high school teacher, you finally managed to direct a feature film with The Deadly Spawn? Was the budget difficult to raise and how did the project first come about?
“Raising the money wasn’t my department. I don’t really know how Ted Bohus, et al., managed to finance the project. I do know no one was paid anything – at least not until some time after the film was distributed. Film stock was donated, I think. The idea of making a cheapo horror-sci-fi picture was hatched by Bohus and Dods, who had met at one of the horror conventions, as I understand it. They called me in because of my expertise working with actors. Dods also well knew my background in horror effects and horror make-ups, not to mention film directing, since he had seen at least one of my films. They didn’t have anyone to write the screenplay either so I volunteered for that job as well since I had a lot of experience writing scripts.”

How did you first make the acquaintance of Ted A. Bohus and how would you describe your professional relationship?
“I met Ted for the first time when John Dods invited me out to New Jersey to hear their pitch. I thought Ted and I got along very well for most of the shoot. He was very supportive and involved every day. Anyway, I would say we worked together well. All three of us met frequently just to get up to speed on the storyline – since I was writing the screenplay as we went along. And contrary to some reports, I wrote all the dialogue during the year we shot principal photography – as well as mapping out the plot we agreed on.”

Was the picture intended as your homage to the old b-movies of the 1950s or was it closer in spirit to the low budget monster flicks that had appeared during the early 1980s?
“Well, it had similarities to some pictures of the 1970s. I was aware of the most recent horror and sci-fi movies, of course, and the three of us actually talked about the huge success of movies like Alien and Jaws, but my real passion was for the movie style of my formative years, the 1950s. So I would say that was where my spirit was. We did know we would have to be “modern” in terms of a getting an ‘R’ rating, though – if only to put Ted’s company on the map. Certainly the film was going to have to show more violence than there was in The Blob, say, or It Came from Outer Space.”

One master of cheap horror and sci-fi was Roger Corman, as was Larry Cohen. Were either of these an influence on you and which movies in particular inspired the style or story of The Deadly Spawn?
“I was inspired by Corman’s pictures to do a better job! I remember being disappointed by It Conquered the World because the “monster” was laughable. The campy, tongue-in-cheek films like Little Shop… and The Raven I only now appreciate; they were too silly to me then – I took my horror very seriously when I was young. And I never really connected with the period stuff Corman did with Vincent Price – with those brightly lit, too-colorful, fake-looking sets and recycled props – I didn’t buy the 19th century costumes with 1960s coifs and makeup on the women. I was a stickler for realistic detail. But I definitely ate up the idea of low budget. That’s because when I had made props myself as a kid, I took pride in making things look real and evocative on NO money – a convincing army tank out of an old refrigerator box or a spaceship out of cardboard tubing and oak tag or paper maché. I loved small transition scenes in even some big budget Hollywood movies where a door would open and close and the painted backdrop outside could be glimpsed for a second. For instance, I remember realizing that a flat studio interior that suddenly appears in The Grapes of Wrath was a budgetary consideration, and it was up to Gregg Toland to light and photograph the brief scene to match the exterior location. This fired my creative instincts like nothing else. It’s one reason I admired – and still admire – production designer-showmen like Edgar G. Ulmer (The Black Cat [1934], The Man from Planet X) and William Cameron Menzies (Things to Come, Invaders from Mars [1953]). And don’t forget Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur (The Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie). That was a wonderful collaboration – chills and thrills on a shoestring.”

How difficult was it as the director to find the perfect balance between suspense, gore, humour and character?
“Well, it helped that I wrote the thing. A lot of that balance could be worked out in my head before arriving on the set with the actors. I will say one thing. Humor, gore, character, suspense are all elements to develop, for sure – but one principle guided me, the same one I always have – and that’s that the story is more important than any isolated effect, no matter how sensational, and it should be driven by character. As crazy or “insane” as the premise was – e.g., a weird and terrible monster from space is in the basement – the characters should all be completely “sane” in the sense of being as real and ordinary as the actors could make them. (They can go insane, like Pete, if the trauma drives them to it, but they shouldn’t start out that way.) H.G. Wells had the same idea, I believe: The more outrageous the circumstances, the more familiar the setting should be. Otherwise it would be too hard to suspend disbelief. I have seen so many supposedly scary movies that I just didn’t want to bother suspending disbelief for.”

What kind of instructions did you give John Dods on how you wanted the monsters in the film to be designed and how were these special effects achieved?
“Oh!! Ha! I have to laugh at the question. No one tells John Dods how to design a monster! He knew better than anyone how he wanted this particular monster to look – the mother spawn, that is – well before they even brought me on board, and he had pretty much designed the whole thing already. No, the creature was the reason he wanted to make the film to begin with, I think. He and Ted and I figured out together the idea of the spawning of little baby monsters, and we talked a lot early on about how all the creature effects would look and how they would be done, but John was the master of his domain. As to how the effects were achieved: all by live action, no camera tricks or animation. But some very clever live action, indeed.”

Apparently there was tension between yourself and Dods on set. What can you reveal regarding this?
“In fact, John and I did clash when I wanted his monster to be more agile, to move faster, etc. Now, if you ask him he might disagree with me here, but I think human interaction scenes really annoyed John, because it meant he had to cede some control of his creature. I was adamant about trying to get all action in the frame and not shoot humans and monster effects separately with the latter being inserts to be assembled later. I knew some later inserts were going to be unavoidable, but I tried hard to keep all the action together as much as possible. I even had quite an argument at one point with John about getting the mother spawn up the stairs to attack the kids in the bedroom. A few years ago, he told me we also fought over how to shoot part of the climactic attic sequence, but I don’t remember that.”

How did you cast the movie and was the role of the child hero, Charles, a difficult one to fill?
“We put an ad in Backstage newspaper (a trade paper) to audition for the younger parts, and I filled in some of the character parts with actors I knew and had worked with on stage in New York, both as a director and as a fellow actor. Charles was easy to cast. His father, the artist-illustrator Tim Hildebrandt, was one of the producers of the film and owned the house we shot in, and Charles’s actual bedroom was his character’s room! In short, he was always available. Not to mention smart and sympathetic. Just right for the part. He was great to work with.”

How long did principal photography last and with the film being shot on a relatively low budget how difficult were the conditions that you were working under?
“What I call principal photography – that is, all the dialogue scenes I wrote with the actors and some of the effects stuff that included them – were shot on weekends from the fall of 1980 through early summer of 1981. I don’t know exactly how many months more were taken to shoot effects inserts (and to re-shoot certain scenes!). The conditions were not ideal. For one thing, every time we arrived at the Hildebrandts’ New Jersey house from New York City, the rooms had to be rearranged – the “set” dressed, so to speak. This involved removing a lot of bric-a-brac from walls and surfaces, and then restoring them afterwards – very time-consuming, and since there was no one else to do it – since I had no personal secretary or assistant director – I had to do it myself. It wasn’t easy to concentrate on the scene to be shot while acting as production designer, set decorator, make-up man, my own assistant, and P.A. (This is not to say that people didn’t pitch in where they could. Ted’s then girlfriend, Kathy, for example, was a terrific general help.) I almost forgot to mention that the script called for rain throughout the entire film until the very end. Fine, except that it never rained that year – not one drop. It was the worst drought to date in New Jersey history, I believe. We used garden hoses when we shot exteriors – and they became illegal to use at a certain point, so we had to dodge the law as well! Also, late in the game, for some of the final scenes, it got extremely hot up in the attic. We shot these overnight to minimize the suffering, but still, without air-conditioning, it was almost intolerable.”

How come you were removed from the movie before filming was completed and how did the final cut differ from what you had intended?
“Well, I’ve already touched on this, but the short answer is, John Dods – if he will forgive me saying so – really wanted to direct the picture. The short answer, but it does need a bit of an explanation. Suffice it to say that John got so frustrated with my approach to his creature and to the film as a whole, that he engineered my removal without my knowledge (I only learned this in 2003 or 2004). It freed him up to take months more to carefully light and photograph his effects and to re-shoot some early footage. The cinematographers I had worked with on The Deadly Spawn – though very professional – did not have the luxury of time to do set-ups, nor did they have John’s particular skills – he’s a real artist with lighting, in my opinion. As a result, one of the longest sequences in the film – the basement confrontation between Charles and the mother spawn – is about twice as long as I would have wanted. I think it slows down the film story, even though the effects are marvelous and great fun, and it’s beautifully photographed. Apparently, to make room for this extended sequence and other effects, they decided to eliminate Pete and Ellen’s first “love” scene (John Dods has confirmed this) – really a flirtation scene that was maybe their best acting work and was important to setting up their kissing scene. I was stunned by its omission when I saw the final cut at the premiere. I felt their strong emotional connection was necessary to drive Pete to crack up so completely after what happens to her. There were many other minor details and additions I would have written or shot or edited differently. But hey, that’s also true for a lot of the stuff that I did write, shoot, or edit!”

The Deadly Spawn has been released under a variety of different names, including Return of the Aliens and Eating Machine. Which of all the titles do you prefer and how did the alternative names originate?
“Don’t know how for sure. That was all distribution. I’ve heard that a distributor decided The Deadly Spawn would be more marketable with the word “alien” in the title, and “Return of” would fool at least a percentage of the audience into thinking our film was somehow connected to Ridley Scott’s ground-breaker. So when they released The Deadly Spawn on video later as Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn and also Return of the Aliens’ Deadly Spawn, an unfortunate consequence of these title changes was that people apparently thought they were going to see a sequel not to Alien but to The Deadly Spawn. They were understandable annoyed when what they got was just a (truncated) version of the same film! Anyway, of course I prefer the original title, The Deadly Spawn.

Were you ever tempted to shoot a sequel and how come you chose not to pursue a filmmaking career?
“No I wasn’t tempted to shoot a sequel. And I never chose not to pursue a filmmaking career. I still am a filmmaker, just haven’t yet got another opportunity to work on a feature.”

Do you look back fondly on the making of The Deadly Spawn and are you proud of what you managed to achieve?
“I’m certainly proud of having made a film so many people like, but I do still have mixed feelings, as you can probably tell. One thing I seldom mention now is my ambivalence at the time I accepted to direct it. See, I always had a dislike for the more gory movies of the horror genre. I believed as Karloff did, that the best horror films were really “terror” films where the bloody violence is left to the imagination. Nevertheless, once I actually decided to do it, I gave it my all. And I loved every single creative aspect of working on the film, except the severe limitations to our time, and, obviously, the unpleasant parting of the ways with Dods and Bohus. I did regret not being able to assemble more of the footage myself into a rough cut. I really was the only one who knew how it was to go together, and it hurt to have to abandon so much work to others – and then to have to see it in its final form with so much I had intended end up, well, compromised. I will say I enjoyed meeting the editor, Mark Harwood, at the big screen premiere on Broadway. I thought he’d done a heroic job without the benefit of my shooting script (he told me he never even knew there was a script!). I am proud that some of the sequences I shot so close to the bone – without “coverage” by alternate camera angles, etc. – that they couldn’t be messed with by anybody, and could only be edited exactly as I wanted. And I’m proud of some scenes throughout the film, like the one of Charles being interviewed by Uncle Herb, where the writing and directing have a bit more interest than is usual with this kind of film. But I’m most proud of the two “vegetarian luncheon” scenes – particularly remembering my time limitations, both in the writing and the shooting. I think that whole sequence of the wacky suburban “ladies who lunch” really holds up, flaws and budgetary restrictions notwithstanding. It’s still both funny and disturbing/scary. Exactly what I intended.”

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Now set to be released on DVD by cult label Code Red (who were previously responsible for the impressive treatment that his ‘video nasty’ Don’t Go in the Woods received), The Dirtiest Game could become notorious once again.

James Bryan reveals all about the making of his first feature film…

Having studied at UCLA during the 1960s, what kind of work did you produce and what were your greatest influences?
“As a film student at UCLA I did several short animation films, a like number of live action shorts and did camera on a handful of documentaries. Most of my film work was done with the participation of fellow film students Bill Haugse, Bob Eberlein, Chris Munger and most often with Frank Millen who was on both sides of the camera on the majority of my projects.

The biggest influence for me would have to be the abundant screenings in the extensive UCLA film history courses which sent me rushing off in so many different directions on the cinema compass. I wanted to do it all. No genre would be safe. My first animation project, Inner Limits, was broadcast on network TV, I scored a job on a National Geographic TV Special doing a special effects animated dinosaur segment and I got one of the first student grants from the newly established American Film Institute for my MFA thesis production, Camden, Texas, a short documentary. I was off in all directions at once, drunk with a creative joy of movie making madness.”

What part did Bob Chinn play in the direction that your filmmaking career would take during the 1970s?
“After crewing together in film school, Bob Chinn and I operated separately but on essentually parallel courses, pretty much on the same time line as well. In the mid seventies as the novelty of working in adult films begin to wear very thin for me, Bob and I considered for a fleeting moment the idea of working together on a few adult projects but it was only for the most fleeting of moments. I decided toiling in the fields of porn was too much for my independent artistic soul.

Early on I had worked with triple X producer Dick Aldrich who found Bob Chinn my perfect directorial replacement when I grew weary and drifted away looking for something more outrageous or less conventional to focus on. Most immediately the long neglected Boogie Vision was calling me back to be finished. Previously Aldrich and I began our association with I Love You, I Love You Not which was planned as a funding source for the money pit that Boogie Vision became for me.”

How come you chose to produce several ‘nudie’ flicks after graduating from film school and how did you become involved in this type of market?
After graduating from film school I was anxious to do a feature length movie. I saw adult films as the least expensive and the most accessible of exploitation films to produce and it was a perfect opportunity to become the epitomy of the outrageous hippie moviemaker we were all striving to be at that time. Besides, earlier I had co-directed with Don Goodman a documentary on the making of a skin flick by one of our film school cohorts, so it wasn’t a necessarily a foreign concept. Francis Ford Coppola did the same thing a few quarters before my arrival at UCLA. In their assigned editing room a couple of my classmates found Francis Coppola’s outakes and trims from a nudie he had directed and edited on the QT while taking classes at UCLA.”

You have previously stated that Roger Corman’s approach to filmmaking was an influence on you (short schedules, miniscule budgets and one thrill every reel). How did these rules apply when you were producing adult films?
“As far as short schedules go, Dirtiest Game was done on a three day schedule for all the main scenes. I did some pickup shots working with one or two people later on. My budget was well under $20,000. As far as the number of thrilling sex/nude scenes I tried for at least ten in total. To keep on the rushed schedule and stay under my lab budget, I tried to maintain a two take maximum during filming. If the first take was good we’d shoot a second take “for the trailer/preview”, which meant the extra lab cost for doing an optical copy of scenes to be used in the trailer could be saved. The cost per foot for processing the camera negative was and is a good deal cheaper than shooting and processing an optical dupe negative of scenes selected from the cut feature negative for use in the trailer. In the end we were able to hold the shooting ratio below 3 to 1 for Dirtiest Game.

The music score budget presented a bit of a problem as well. I wanted to record an original musical score for Dirtiest Game and by arranging to record three different modest scores in a single session composer Country Al Ross delivered nicely discounted music for each of us three producers sharing the costs.”

X-rated movies became big business during the 1970s, with Deep Throat and Emmanuelle scoring at the box office. How would you describe the industry at that time and how supportive did you find the producers and distributors?
“As the X-rated business boomed at the mid point of the seventies adult film budgets quickly grew higher driven by the audience demand for greater production values. When Dirtiest Game was produced the rules for the very tame theatrical adult features were really strict. Female frontal nudity was okay but not male nudity especially not frontal nudity. Fearing action from the vice police, the commercial labs wouldn’t process film with nude scenes unless it was safely discreet. The sex scenes were strictly done as simulated sex scenes, by virtue of the camera’s modest physically obscuring compositions. Even overtly sexual or crude language was avoided.

Yet within a year of my shooting Dirtiest Game the line between hard core, explicit adult films (loops) and the very restrained adult theatrical features(nudie films) was crossed and recrossed until it was gone forever. Dirtiest Game was a break thru picture in it’s day, of course it turned out to be maybe 90 days ahead of it’s time. My attitude toward adult films was not at all serious, the complete opposite of the producers and distributors who wanted the economic porno boom to last a joyful and profitable thousand years.”

Your intentions with The Dirtiest Game seemed to be to confront and, in many cases, even repulse the viewer. Would you say that this is a fair assumption and do you feel that you succeeded?
“With Dirtiest Game for me the choice of style was between either the French Surrealists or the uber mystic Leni Riefenstahl in making a first adult film. It’s apparent in this case the Surrealists held sway.

Cheesy, cheap ass movies have always been a great source of endless entertainment for me and the general audience often finds this approach to film making difficult to deal with. Now with Dirtiest Game being a sex film from the get-go, a prime cheap ass opportunity presented itself. I could not resist leading the waiting audience into even more challenging cheap and cheesy territory. As long as we were already on the fringe, why not? Many audience members walked out of Pussy Cat theater screenings but none asked for their money back. For me that’s success on two levels. It’s enough for me to know that one fellow in Montana blew chunks during the razorblade scene. I’ll always have Montana to look back on and stoke that inner warmth during my cold winter nights yet to come.”

With the film being shot quickly on 16mm, can you remember what kind of budget you were allocated and what aspect of the production proved to be the most effective?
“Back in the day independent distributors weighted the additional costs of finishing a picture in deciding if they really wanted to distribute it or not. Doing a blowup from 16mm to 35mm was a big negative factor for a low budget film looking toward theatrical release. Dirtiest Game was shot on 35mm for that reason. However I did do the sound post production on 16mm to save a few dollars. The budget edged past $12,000 with the original music from Country Al Ross, the resulting added editing time, the nice main titles and the end credits. After screening Dirtiest Game for the most obvious list of adult film distributors without any success, I went back to doing the pre-production on my second planned film. A few months went by and then one day a newly formed distribution company called up for a screening and consequently picked up my picture as their second acquistion for release. They made a couple of changes to increase the running time, buying the Chicago Convention documentary stock footage and extending with trims and out takes the flashback scene leading up to the fatal self inflicted gunshot wound. The new company, Grads, didn’t cut any of the violence or the politics. They added just a tad more of both.”

How come you chose to add political undertones to what was to be an adult movie and were you concerned that too much story could take away from the explicit element?
“My idea regarding the mixing of explicit material and the political storyline was an extreme test on my notion of the common wisdom dealing with the nature of the exploitation film. If you deliver the reguired ten exploitation scenes then I reasoned you should be able to do whatever you wanted with the rest of the running time. I proved my point. Right?”

How did you first meet Titus Moede and how involved was he behind the scenes?
“I met Titus Moede (then under his stage name Titus Moody) when I first went looking for a connection to the available adult film actors and actresses for my movie. Mike Hall, the soundman, knew of a small equipment rental outfit that in turn led me to the guy who knew all the adult talent in Hollywood, Titus Moody. Titus worked as a production still photographer and a sometime character actor. His mom, Cherry Moede, did the photo processing and together they fed stills to adult publications and made 8×10s for the acting talent and the crew members on the productions. Titus was casting central for the adult biz and he knew how to put together a great set of stills for advertising your production. A great resource.”

What kind of casting process did you go through in order to find suitable actors and do you recall what kind of auditions you held?
“Once I connected with Titus, casting was simple. I mainly looked at people in terms of type, thinking acting talent would be a plus but not so important as being ready, in our case, to do that acting in the nude. When I met Titus at his apartment I knew at once I wanted him for the lead. Actually in responding to his offbeat unfocused projection of personal energy, I was casting against type. Coleman Francis was sleeping on the couch at the time presenting the perfect picture of the derelict political hack, my idea of the corrupt boss type. With Titus all the available women I needed could be found scribled down in his wellworn phone book. As it was, Titus would listen to my descriptive sketch of characters from the script then either he gave me phone numbers or had people drop by when I would be around his place.

Bruce Beard who had worked with a well known San Francisco improv group was staying at my apartment for a few weeks and jumped in to help when I told him I was going to be writing a script about Sex, Drugs and Politics. We pretty much hashed out the story outline and created a character for him in one evening of bouncing ideas back and forth. Seeing how I was working the casting, Titus sent along the untried first-timer Jean Stone to see if he was correct in assuming that she would fit nicely into my unorthodox casting approach. She was unarguably an authentic original type, that robust and driven Jean. She had stopped over in LA on her way from Australia to a pioneer kibbutz in Israel.

Frank Millen was of course the first to be cast as the “best friend” in that I never considered making a film without the benefit of his headache-inducing comic genius. Frank generated laughs in front of the camera as well as behind the scenes in his unmatched role as the manic assistant director. He single-handedly kept the spirit of “Laurel and Hardy meets Abbot and Costello” alive and bouyed up on our hectic set while generating nonstop epidemic outbursts of involuntery laughter offset with those urgent gasps for air from the hapless cast and crew.”

How did you choose the various locations around Venice Beech and was it an enjoyable experience shooting in your own apartment?
“Choosing the Venice locations had as much to do with convenience as with artistic and evocative dramatic qualities. I lived in Venice at the time. Venice was cool in that new bohemian kind of way and the rents were very cheap. On working in my apartment as our Venice production base camp; with me, shooting anywhere is very enjoyable experience.

Perhaps inspired by Touch of Evil there was a not so casual competition among us UCLA film students to keep coming up with inspired Venice locations to film around. Prompted by my really low budget, I filmed in my own apartment on Market Street as well as the neighbors’ place downstairs. The more story locations you can find at one site the more time you can save avoiding additional set strikes and time consuming moves to the next distant location. Incidentally my good taste in locations was confirmed when the exterior of this same apartment house later appeared in Fade to Black. The cameraman Chris Munger had rented a room down the street in the Marko Building because Jim Morrison had stayed there before Jim’s efforts with The Doors were so well rewarded. We used the Jim Morrison room as a location and a bit later as our editing room.

Our Venice oil field location had inspired Orson Welles as well as subsequent scores of atuned film school types who followed in Welles’ footsteps down along the murky Venice canals.”

What kind of atmosphere was there on set and was everyone comfortable with the excessive nudity? Did you yourself have any issues with what you were required to shoot?
“There was a heady atmosphere around the set of Dirtiest Game. The sexual revolution was in full bloom in LA at the time and we all had the flush of that new experience to process. Naturally the puritanical social bulwarks of the day were crumbling and we were all anxious to join the rushing tide of history. Those moved by the passion to behold physical beauty joined agreeably with those moved by the passion to display physical beauty in this rag-tag pageant of our jaunty little production. At that time people in search of all things “hip” were attracted to the “oh,so naughty” nudie film production scene. It was new and exciting for most of us and as I recall, there always seemed to be new volunteer stillmen showing up on the set, ready to help us out.”

Why did it take two years for the movie to finally get a release and were you concerned that the content may be too graphic for most audiences?
“The varying release dates for Dirtiest Game most likely resulted from the distributors’ corporate transformations and the re-publishing of the product lists on different dates. Titus Moody and I did a cult VHS release of Dirtiest Game in the early nineties. Titus was a master at generating press for his professional involvments and hyperbole was his faithful friend. Whatever facts he might have wanted to be twisted in the interests of showmanship were fine with me.

The conflict generated by Dirtiest Game was generally satisfying for me in that it was the level of gaping open-mouthed reaction I had hoped for.”

How did audiences react to the shocking nature of the film and what kind of controversy did you experience?
“Audiences were shocked, shocked, I tell you. The distributor actually heard back from the bookers and subdistributors around the country. This was a little out of the ordinary so it made them nervous, or so they told me. On a personal level, my close friends found it disturbing and the more delicately minded didn’t speak to me for a few weeks afterwards. My reputation as an “off the rails” film maniac was firmly established. Sweet!

What rating did the movie receive and how much exposure and success did it find? What type of cinemas was it screened at and what effect did it have on your career?
“Adult themed films with extreme and violent content traditionally take a self-imposed “X” for a rating from the MPAA. With a self-imposed “X” a producer or distributor doesn’t have to pay the usual fee to be screened and rated by the board but they do get to use the copyrighted rating letter on the advertising and the theatrical prints.

The distributor, Grads, was a branch of the top-of-the-line Pussy Cat Adult Theater chain so Dirtiest Game got booked in the best adult theaters around the country. It was enough of a success that the Grads Corporation took up my second adult film Escape to Passion.

The distributor did have a slight regret over the extreme nature of Dirtiest Game, it was not the kind of film that could be re-edited to a softer drive-in version which represented a bonus rental market that could be utilized in a majority of cases of nudie films. The idea of getting a film to crossover into the marginally general release venue of the national drive-in theaters really got my interest. So Escape to Passion was carefully crafted to easily fit the drive-in slot and so happily it did find it’s way into the dreamed of circuit of drive-ins.

For me, the ultimate proof of Dirtiest Game’s success was it’s inordinate popularity with the government staffers in Washington DC. A certain Capitol-adjacent bar cashed in on the DC-Dirtiest Game phenomenon buying at top dollar their own 16mm print from the distributor and playing it for over a year until the print faded out and was worn to tatters. Now that’s when you absolutely know for sure, they really, really love you!!!

I was driven to do more and more and more.”

You continued to work on similar productions like Escape to Passion and I Love You, I Love You Not. Do you have fond memories of these experiences and would you say that this route is an effective way to break into the industry?
“Dirtiest Game and Escape to Passion were done pretty much back to back with the ambitious and overbalanced Boogie Vision following quickly afterwards. Instead of the three day production schedule of the first films, the cast and I improvised scenes over a couple of months and the tapes of these sessions evolved into a final script which we shot on a expanded schedule of weeks instead of days, blowing thru the budget and soaking up the cash flow in short order. My plan was for Boogie Vision to be my final adult related project before moving exclusively into the general release market.

I Love You, I Love You Not was an afterthought, an idea I pitched to former Grads employee Dick Aldrich as a cheap quickie production that he could use to start up his own new distribution company and generate for me some badly needed funding for the stalled Boogie Vision. Before I Love You, I Love You Not could return any money to restart Boogie Vision, Dick Aldrich dropped by the editing room proposing that we do High School Fantasies on a generously adequate budget he had in place at the time.

We’re talking Temptation in the Wilderness here. The offer you can’t refuse, at least it was so for me.

Working in adult films can be a hoot but this contributes to a career in film only if you want to make more adult films. To do general release films you will have to first overcome the fact you worked in the adult biz.

It’s the type of film experience that can build your talent and abilities but those adult credits are likely to be black marks on your general release score card. If you are hoping to cross the X to R rating line, the difficultly will be making youself one of those rare exceptions that prove a pretty hardshelled rule.”

Having later found mainstream success with Don’t Go in the Woods, have you since considered returning to the adult industry and are there any of those films that have still remained undiscovered?
“After Woods, Executioner II, and Hell Riders there was a nice outsized production boom in Hollywood for independent action films. So a lot of jobs in post production were available for several years.

I went for the easy money in post production sound which led unexpectly to doing sound effects editing on higher budget adult videos. Wouldn’t you know, the inhouse director at this particular adult video company died suddenly and I got the call to fill in. Again, how could I say no? A half dozen adult videos later I took that my final break from the adult biz. The thrill was definitely gone.”

Are there any plans to release The Dirtiest Game on DVD, as the video is now unavailable aside from occasional appearances on the likes of eBay (currently going for $75). What kind of publicity have you given for the movie, such as interviews and commentaries, and when was the last time that you watched it yourself?
“The cherished Dirtiest Game will be put out on DVD by Code Red in 2010. Most recently I screened it last month in order to prepare for recording the director’s commentary for the Code Red DVD. It was Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare USA which included a flattering recognition of Dirtiest Game that has generated a marked and growing interest in this early and alarming example from my film work.”

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