The Best Way To Head Into The Weekend? A Big, Big Day In Horror

Pour 2 oz of jack daniels into large glass filled with ice. Pour 10 oz of coca-cola into the glass. Stir lightly. This slightly complicated, yet delectable concoction will be top of mind come happy hour today. However, before I crawl into a bottle to look for my next 'big horror idea', there's a lot of cool stuff going on to take you into the weekend. It's a long post, but I promise that you'll find it all worth while. It's Friday, who does anything on a Friday? You've got time to kill, I know it.

First up, it's another horror filled weekend at the box office. It's not "The Final Destination" and "Halloween II", but it is "Sorority Row" and "Whiteout". "Sorority Row" is a remake of the 1983 film "House on Sorority Hell" and it comes from Summit Entertainment, which is quite flush these days due to their monster franchise, "Twilight". Not sure what to think about it, but it does promise sex, nudity and partying. On the other hand, "Whiteout" looks kinda forgettable. Really, I don't think I'll be waiting in line for either...

Big, big news on the indie front, though. Our buddies at Fewdio have THREE, count 'em, THREE of their short films in the Universal Halloween Horror Nights short film contest... and there was only ten accepted. This is a win/win for you, though. Because you get to check out all ten films when you head over to the site. I just watched all of them and there's some pretty damn good indie horror shorts there. Head on over to HalloweenHorrorNights.com/Chiller and you can watch all of them and vote for your favorite, which will, of course, be a Fewdio film. Here's the press release from Fewdio:

LOS ANGELES - Fewdio Horror has swept the Universal Halloween Horror Nights short film contest for 2009 by landing not one, but THREE of the top ten short horror films this year. The films, BEDFELLOWS, MOCKINGBIRD, and SHADOW PUPPET are part of Fewdio's widely popular NIGHTMARE HOUSE collection of horror shorts.

Launching onto the horror webishpere in 2008, award winning viral sensation Fewdio is a horror troupe/studio-alt collective of seven filmmakers dedicated to creating the most hellish nightmares possible in short form web content. Members include John Crye, Drew Daywalt, Paul Hungerford, David Schneider, Kirk B.R. Woller, Todd Sharp and Marshall Carr.

Shadow Puppet is written and directed by David Schneider and stars Adam Conn & Truckee the pug dog. Bedfellows is written & directed by Drew Daywalt and stars Peter Giliberti, Kerry Finlayson, and Edin Gali. Mockingbird is directed by Marichelle Daywalt & stars Donnie Jeffcoat & Stefanie Ford.

Lastly, as this is the week of the Toronto International Film Festival, the prestigious festival that kicks off the festival season... let's look at the horror that's playing at their Midnight Madness lineup. These tend to be some of the best horror films of the year...

"[REC]2" gets its premiere there, which is pretty cool... in fact, I didn't know they were making a sequel. "Quarantine" was the American remake of the original "[REC]". "[REC]" (as in 'record' on a camcorder, if you haven't figured it out) was shot entirely through the perspective of a reporters camera. "[REC]2" is filmed entirely through the perspective of the camera's that have been outfitted on the SWAT team that goes into the same building.

"Daybreakers" is from twin-brothers Michael and Peter Spierig, whose last (and debut) film was "Undead". This film takes place in the year 2019, after a plague has transformed the majority of the world's population into vampires... and they're not sexy "Twilight" or "Vampire Diaries" vampires, they're terrifying feral beasts that rule the earth's economy and social strata with an iron fist. It's got a decent cast, including Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe.

"George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead" sure came out fast! This one is about a band of military dropouts that are seeking refuge from the endless chaos, but end up in an age-old battle between two families: the O'Flynn's and the Muldoons. The O'Flynn's believe that the only good zombie is a dead zombie, while the Muldoons think it's wrong to dispatch afflicted loved ones and they attempt to look after them until a cure is found. Only problem is that the Muldoons leave their undead chained up inside their homes, pretending to live normal lives... and that has bloody consequences.

There's been a lot of talk about "Jennifer's Body", as it's the follow up to "Juno" for writer Diablo Cody. It's an R-rated teen horror about Jennifer, a scorching-hot, boy-crazy cheerleader that gains an insatiable hunger for the succulent flesh of her male admirers and her best friend, Needy, a shy nerd, who sets out to rescue the town from Jennifer and save the prom from becoming a bloody buffet. It's hotly anticipated and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Early reviews are iffy...

Good God damned, Australia is turning into a hotbed of horror. "The Loved Ones" is an Aussie film about a guy who ends up accidentally killing his father, then escaping into a marijuana-fuelled world of loud metal metal music to block the pain and guilt. He has a chance to get back on track through his grounded, sweet girlfriend. However, after a series of disturbing events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer, he becomes the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment. WTF? Count me in.

Lastly, "Solomon Kane" is actually the invention of Robert E. Howard, the legendary creator of Conan the Barbarian. Directed by Michael J. Bassett and shot in a gritty style that embraces the mud, filth and blood, it's about Solomon Kane, a true rogue that blasts and slashes through a mission of pillage and plunder in war-torn North Africa in the late 1500's. Tying it all together? It's got Max von Sydow in it.

For more information on the TIFF midnight madness films (there's also comedies and some other fucked up films), you can click here.

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

Interview with Jason Morris, Writer/Director of "Hell House: The Book of Samiel"

I usually ramble on about stuff that's bouncing around in my head, but I've got nothing today. Actually, I'd really like to talk about what Brad and I are working on, but we're really not at any stage where we have anything to say... We're working on this project right now that went from idea to writing to pre-production to production to post-production to finished project back to the writing stage, then back further to the idea stage... It's all good, but it's kind of like giving birth to an ass backwards Benjamin Buttons - one who starts normal, ages, then decides to age backwards right before he dies. I'll explain in some post in the future, once we can talk more about it. This is the life of the indie scene, though. As I say, you just have to keep throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks. Then, just work the shit that sticks... until it falls. Then keep throwing. You know, one day, something will stick for good and, well, you're in and you can quit your day job. I guess. I don't know, I haven't got to that stage. I'll let you know when I do.

As I mentioned yesterday, today we have an interview with Jason Morris, the writer/director of "Hell House: The Book of Samiel", which just came out on DVD yesterday. The film does have an original take on the age-old haunted house story, where a teen girl and her lover were murdered ten years prior to when the film takes place and their ghosts now haunt the house, but I don't really want to get into the plot. I know my readers... and the reason you should check this flick out is because of how ambitious it is. The idea is big and Morris delivers. Not only does it have the obigatory T&A, violence and scares, but it's ambitious with it's shots, effects and characters. As a low-budget horror film, it definitely stands out... and you should check it out.

Morris offers up a long interview, but... as usual, if you're an indie filmmaker, you're definitely going to want to give it a read. There's some great stuff in there.

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie film?

I got into filmmaking in a strange roundabout way; I had to take this class in school called Designing Careers, where you had to pick an occupation you wanted to study in prep for the future. At the time I was a comic book artist, at least I wanted to be and I had created a series with my cousin Michael, I would write and draw and he would write, ink and letter. We sold them at school for a buck twenty five. Anyway, I discovered, via the schools database that becoming a comic book artist was near impossible to obtain, I was determined and didn’t care, but the teacher made me pick two more options I might be interested in "just in case" loads of optimism huh? So I did and came across “movie director”, that sounds interesting, I thought, my Aunt had always told me (and for the life of me I never understood why or knew who the hell she was talking about(at the time) that she thought I would be like another Spielberg. I was young and not really into movies other than the normal viewer experience. So I looked into it and I was instantly hooked. Every aspect of movie making excited me. Instantly I started researching colleges, and keep in mind this is back in ’93 right before everything really blew up and became affordable and easily accessible, before anyone really knew who Kevin Smith or Robert Rodriguez or Tarrantino was. So that was it I started making these little terrible films and eventually graduated into making slightly less terrible features. As far as influences, there are so many things that have made an impression on me. My father watched a lot of westerns and cop shows like Bonanza and Berretta, so there is a certain amount of the cowboy in white and murder mystery story telling floating around in my head but the biggest most profound impressions came from three movies I was forced to watch as a child (plus many more but these are the ones that really stuck), and don’t laugh I was young, Fright Night scared me to death I remember covering my eyes and screaming out load, “April Fool’s Day” super intriguing to me, it was this horror mystery/psychological story that took an innocent holiday and fucked it up for me, I know a lot of holidays where fucked with in the ‘80’s but this was my first viewing of them, and although I know its one of the more bastard films of the 80’s that people don’t really care about, I don’t care I like it and thought, even to this day it was well done. Last but not least the mother of horror for me will and always will be The Evil Dead, my cousin and my sister sat me down and didn’t tell me what they were putting on and holy shit did that movie fuck me up, I think I was way too young to see that one, looking back on it but I am so glad I did, I cannot thank my evil cousin and sister enough for subjecting my virgin eyes to my first horror film. Then of course there was the Elm Streets and Friday movies was particularly nice because my name is Jason, but then there were the schlocky movies I loved too like Slumber Party Massacre and Nail Gun Massacre, a little bit of good old Toxie, loved USA Up All Night. Anyway I could go on forever…

Film school: Yes or No?

Yes, regretfully yes and then again there are certain disciplines that can be taught at film school that I think today’s filmmakers really need to learn, I won’t go into here but let’s just say that a lot of today’s young filmmakers have unwarranted egos and think a bit too highly of their work. I have a mentality that I will always be learning, no matter what and I feel like any producer or director or writer, no matter how good they get or how far they come up in the industry there is always a learning curve otherwise the top players would always be on top but obviously they are not, the industry is always shifting and we have to try and predict that with our work, I’m not talking about sacrifice of creativity but let’s face it if you want to do this for a living you have to think about your audience and predict what they want to see, you can’t possible hit every time and you may never hit. This is partially why I have shifted a lot of my focus on distribution and producing, you have to learn how and where these films are going to get to market, learn the back end process and the front end will become so much easier.

Tell us a bit about “Hell House: The Book of Samiel”

I think Hell House is a cool little film that has a good mix of horror, supernatural and character psychology traits. I wanted to do something that was easy quick and paid homage to the great 80’s films I loved. It didn’t really turn out that way on the whole but there are some glimpses or the original concept and feeling I wanted to convey. The basic story is a group of kids that are board with their small town life and check out local haunts. They come across the Shively House a local legend because of a series of murders that have taken place over the years, and they camp out for the night. A little of the old sex drugs and possession come into play and the next thing you know the demons of hell are trying to break out. We wanted to touch upon some real issues in the movie, things teens go through but we didn’t want to get to serious, we still wanted the movie to be fun but not be too mellow dramatic so I hope that comes off alright. That’s one of the cool things that I love about the genera is that you can have these real world issues and this deep character development without it being too heavy, people can relate to these people because well their pretty much a group of normal teenage kids with normal teenage problems (demons aside of course).

The film was based on a short story that you wrote. Talk about the short story and how you adapted it into a feature idea.

Not many people even notice that it was based on a short story and this is the first time someone has ever brought it up, so thank you for that, but I didn’t write the short story! Back in 2005 I had finished up my first film Millennium Apocalypse and I was on the search for another project before MA was finished with post. I wanted to do something simple that could be shot in less than a month and would cost next to nothing. I found an aspiring writer named Josh Whiles who wanted to give us a shot at this short story idea he had rolling around in his head, he pitched it to me and I liked the simple idea and said go for it. He sent me a few drafts and I liked the concept enough but I don’t think it ever reached past page 30. I added about another 30 pages and decided I was way over my head as a writer and kind of dropped the project for a while to finish up post of MA. About a year later I picked it back up itching to do another feature and started developing it with my business partner Jeremia Draper. We fleshed out a lot of stuff but still was not completely happy with the cookie cutter horror flick so I enlisted the help of William Martin, someone whom I worked with previously on MA and became good friends with, William is an award winning play write and had written and produced several plays so I listened to a few ideas he had and let him run with it. That was good and bad. The first draft I received from him was again thirty pages…but it was thirty pages of the first scene. He was writing a book. Albeit a very detailed and intriguing book but not exactly the format we needed to move forward, so we ended up bringing on Colby Heyer and Jennifer Brugman to help organize and trim the fat of William’s expansive work. By the time we had something workable the script was about 200 pages and was really an epic. We were now dealing with completely un-conventional horror movie that spanned 30 years. So I think a lot of the confusion some people have with the final film has to do with a lot of the concepts and ideas that ended up getting cut out, sometimes we get a little close to our projects and there are things that we know about the film and forget to take an objective look at the material through the eyes of the viewer. So as to where we trimmed the movie into a workable 120 page script a lot of the exposition and explanation was trimmed a bit too much, all of the concepts are still there but not as spoon feed as some might like their horror to be. I’m not saying it’s a thinking man’s horror film but there are subtleties that if you miss them you might easily get confused on some of the sub plots. And each of these sub plots are vital and extremely necessary, you see Hell House was built from a gigantic concept of several sequels each with a different demon and each with a different setting with mostly a different cast. So if you read the synopsis for the movie it really is a reflection of the bigger picture and a connection for things to come. Even pieces of the website have small hints of additional back story not in the film but add to the richness of the overall concept.

I thought you did a great job of mixing effects with different looks and feels throughout the film. Talk about your visual style and how you approach shooting a scene. Are you all about pre-production or does a lot of it came on the fly, while you’re in production?

This is sort of a tough question, I think style really is developed over a long amount of time and many productions, I don’t think HH is really a telling example of my style, I think there are hints of style in the production that will carry over to what I do in the future but I try to approach every project with fresh eyes as far as storytelling and visual interpretation of the material. However I was very conscious of what would be considered passable. I knew there would be sacrifices and I knew some ideas and concepts would get tossed out the window on the spot. That is just a tragedy of filmmaking on a budget. This movie ended up being such a high concept picture that we stretched every dollar and every second of time to the max, and that’s were a great producer (Jeremia Draper) and AD (Vert Wright) come into play, I spent a lot of my time learning the concept of producing but I knew I needed someone to pick up that role for me so I could focus on other things, Jeremia stepped in early on and did a fantastic job. We set up the production with a 3 month pre-production phase and that was all inclusive, casting crewing, all of the script re-working I spoke of, location scouting, ect..ect..ect.., the production itself was scheduled at 19 days and post we aimed for 3 months but never held ourselves to it because all of the post work was in house with the exception of the final audio mix and 5.1 and some of the special effects. To get back to you question though, for the most part the way I approach a scene is pretty much how I approach everything in life, I like to hit the hard stuff first so we can all be relieved and have fun the rest of the time. For instance if we are shooting an emotional scene I’m not going to wait to the end to do it we are shooting that first and we are really going to dig into it, I won’t allow running over time or budget and having to sacrifice something important when at all possible. As far as the visual style of individual scenes I try and look at them individually, for instance the flash back sequences throughout the film, we are dealing with 3 different time periods and each one of them need to have their own visual look for several different reasons, first we need to be able to differentiate between the time periods, if they all looked similar the audience would have a hard time understanding where we are. There are a lot of elements in these flash back scenes that make them work, some of the best acting in the film takes place here, this allows the back story to feel believable and real, where the main story takes place mostly with these kids, they can act like jackass’s and generally do stupid things and get away with it in the audiences eye, but when we see something real something that has already taken place we need to believe its real in order to sell the story and move things along. To every detail from the set dressing of the same sets in different time periods to the period wardrobe the audience can get a sense of the different periods taking place, and I felt at the time that this would be enough to allow the audience to grasp the timeline and put things into place, looking back things could be explained a bit more for clarification but over all I think things turned out effectively. So early on I knew I want to treat the final flash back scenes with some sort of color grading or effect if you will, and the overall finished scenes are mainly a culmination of experimentation. But on set you have to start out with some kind of interpretation of the material whether it be a shot list or story boards, or set design or particular acting techniques to direct the talent with but you also have to understand that the final scene rarely ends up being assembled how it was intended, and that is the beauty of editing and post production. There were several time however that lent itself to on the fly compositions and direction. Sometimes no matter how much you plan, things just don’t work out, like a camera breaks down or parts of a camera crane go missing or stupid things like someone breaks into one of the picture cars so now you have a car that is supposed to appear on camera with a slashed convertible top, so now it appears with the top down in every scene, little stuff but it does effect things and the mentality of people on the set. I remember a scene where Sheila, who plays Dani, is covered in blood and has just been possessed, is coming down the stairs to seduce Paul, played by Michael Carlisi, first rehearsal was perfect we even shot it, then we realized we had not applied the fake blood to the actress, we applied the blood and from then on out every take was terrible it just was no longer working, I am still extremely unhappy with the scene as it is now but we had to keep it for continuity, even now there is a bit of disjointedness due to other scenes surrounding that one that had to be cut for similar reasons. It’s a constant challenge but it’s exciting and fulfilling when things do work out and things come together nicely.

One of the things that really stood out was the house itself. It was absolutely perfect for the film. Did you have access to the house before and write the idea around it or did you find it after the fact?

We found the house after the fact, early on in the script process the house was just some suburban home, we were trying to make things simple remember? But this monster just kept growing and we quickly realized this house had to be fantastic. I had seen this movie “Dead and Breakfast” a couple years before directed by Mathew Lutwyler(SP?), I picked it up because it featured a small role from an actor I really admire, Vincent Ventresca (The Invisible Man), good funny movie with a great cast, but the house they shot it in was fantastic. Incidentally the house was located very nearby and Jeremia found out where it was and contact the Livermore Film Commission and got us the location, I figured we could pull off using the same house in our film because in our movie the house much more of a character and even though Mathew’s movie was called Dead and Breakfast which heavily implies the character of the house as well, the movie did not really feature the house other than just a setting. I’ll tell you this though it was exhilarating shooting in that house not only because of the genuine charm of the old Victorian but having just known all of the great actors that had shot in the same house was great, I was thrilled to know that David Carridine lounged around where we poured buckets of blood, hell there was even residual blood left over from their shoot, Jessica (Sasha) swore the walls were bleeding but we concluded it was just sloppy seconds. The owners of the house were great to work with and let us do just about everything we wanted in that house, it was fantastic. I remember after principal photography ended and we needed to go back and get some pickup shots the large palm tree thingies in front of the house had been removed so we had to find branches laying around and use them to fill the scene as if they were still there. The craziest things happen that you just cannot plan for.

CG effects can seem a bit jarring and out of place on low-budget films, but you did a great job, I thought they worked really well. What program did you use and talk about your favorite effect, how was it done?

Well thank you, that’s much appreciated. I wish I shared your enthusiasm for the fx. Don’t get me wrong I think some of them are absolutely great for our budget but you know how it is, we are our own worst critics. A bunch of apps were used including, after affects, partical illusions, 3dmax, lightwave, maya, and a bunch of plugins, magic bullet sapphire and others I can’t remember. Way before we even started shooting we hired on Nathan Mater and Nathan Hammack to design the CG effects for the movie, NM got started right away on designing what was going to be a CG opening scene with Theadora, yes that whole scene with here flipping the cards and the camera flying out of the house through the window and up to the Victorian house was all going to be CGI, however when we got on set we came up with a creative way to move the camera to get what we wanted and NM was able to pretty much invisibly match the CG with the footage we shot. There are about 4 scenes in this movie that I think are really fantastic and this is one of them. Later on in the film when the Gate Keeper, as he was named in the script but later named Adam, played brilliantly by our co-writer William Martin, sticks a screwdriver into his ear to “stop the noise” this scene was done by NH. He did a great job taking our live shots and mixing them with pictures he took of the screw driver and compositing them together and adding the residual blood and mixing it with the blood fx on set, done by Alicia Ramos. Now when we get into some of the cheesier fx like the electrical storm from Theadora that supposedly closes the gate to hell at the end of the movie, this stuff was done by me after we lost NM to a higher paying job after we went over schedule and over budget on his contract, but hey these are the sacrifices right, it was either can the movie and wait for more money or dive it and pretend you know what you’re doing. I figured with the rest of the fx working well for the most part maybe the audience will forgive that cheesier aspects of the movie.

Did you screen at any festivals? If so, how did it do? What are your thoughts on the indie horror festival circuit?

I have never really bought into the festival route at all, I mean we ran a fest. For a few years but with my own stuff I guess I was just too critical and thought it wouldn’t really do well or if I put it out there and it did not do well that that’s kind of the end of the filmmaking career, but I have learned so much since then and having started my own distribution company, running a festival, producing other peoples projects, that I think in the future as I and my team and I grow that we will certainly start trying to get our stuff into fest and be more pro-active about it. As far as the Indie Horror Fest circuit goes, I thinks it’s a pretty good scene, I think there is a lot of creative talent out there that is not fully realized either because of lack of knowledge or access to financing or the crazy suedo internet critics that are all trying to be Aint it Cool and bash any and everything that comes out of the Indie realm that doesn’t resemble a Hollywood film even though these Hollywood films they claim to hate, but I think we as filmmakers need to try and be a bit more careful with the films we make and make sure we know who our audience is. Horror isn’t all about blood and guts and that doesn’t mean you have to play it safe either, there are plenty of ways to express horror and I think the further and further indies push that envelope and it is accepted by the festival viewers the more and more Hollywood will notice and accept horror for more than a quick buck at the box office because in retrospect to the horror craze of the past few years, a quick buck for the studios is really what drives it all, nothing ingenious has really turned up, nothing terribly inventive has peeked its head in a long time, of course there are exceptions such as The Orphanage and a handful of others but over all I truly think that the indie world dictates Hollywood more so then Hollywood dictating the indies.

Talk about distribution. What lessons have you learned and if you could pass on one word of advice to other indie filmmakers, what would it be?

This is a gigantic question that I should prob. Write a book about it but since I’m really nobody at the moment I suppose I will have to hold off, lol. Look, its like this, if you really want to make movies for a living and I assume anyone reading this does…WANT to, then pay attention to everything and everyone around you, subscribe to the trade mags, Hollywood reporter and variety ect, video business and home media retailing, these mags are the life line to what distributors are buying selling and looking for. You need to know this before you make your movie, but once you know you need to hurry up because this info changes on a daily basis. High concept, great script, good acting is what matters among a plethora of other factors but with these you can never go wrong. Distribution is having a hard time with the current economy particularly for the indie sales. It will eventually break and things will grow strong again but who knows what genre will be hot then. Stay focused on the prize which is more than just making a good movie, you need to think about the end result, who, when and where is going to see this? Know these answers before you shoot, know your audience, know your outlets, and don’t you ever think the movie is over when your done shooting or done with post or even if you get a distribution deal, you still need to push push push, make people aware of the movie, utilize the social network groups, utilize your family and friends, I don’t care how tired they are of you and your childish movie making dream, ask them again to tell a friend or buy a copy or check out your website or watch the trailer, eventually it will get your film in touch with your audience. The biggest problem I see with filmmakers is that they think there movie is so good that Lions Gate or Weinstein will pick it up when in fact they prob don’t even know that Weinstein is having a hard time staying afloat and that Lions Gate had drastically cut back on buying horror, they don’t read enough, they do not keep their ear to the ground and know what’s next and they MUST do this. They need to stop being pre-Madonna’s and thinking they are the next tarantino or Rodriguez, give me a break, these were lucky breaks that happen…well almost never, think about the thousands of films made a year, now think about how many newbie wander boys/girls turn up with the hot next thing a year, your talking literally 1000’s to 1, be prepared to be turned down, and yes let it affect you let it eat at you and then let it drive you to make a better movie, those not strong enough will fall to the wayside and become lawyers or work at burger king but the ones that can take it and not crumble will be the next tarantino…or they will die trying, artists we are a crazy bunch…

Talk about the indie horror scene. Where do you think it is now and where do you think its going?

I talked about this a bit above, but I really think Hollywood is following the indies more so then the other way around, I mean they look at it as a cash cow, would you ever in a million years have guessed all of these remakes would come about and by none other than the Hollywood’s cookie cutter action hack. Its all about money always has been always will be, my issue is with the fans, we are such fans of all of these movies, and we bash the Hollywood movies but then what do we do, we turn on the indies and bash them too, pick a fucking side god damn it, support the devil or join us! People want to talk shit about all of the Saw movies popping up but come on you are the ones making it happen, you keep going to see them, and I am not saying they are bad movies, these are the Friday the 13th of the current generation I think that’s fantastic, but don’t bite the hand that feeds, these are technically indie films that have paved a way for you to make your films, bash the Hollywood remakes if you will how can they have everything possible at their fucking disposal and still fuck it up? Where is the scene going from here, where it always goes once its hot again, it dies a quiet death, and then in a decade it will reemerge fresh and new to a whole new group of horror fans that are looking for something new. Just remember history repeats itself.

Where can people find out more about “Hell House: The Book of Samiel” or, better yet, buy a copy?

The easiest way to get a copy is to pre-order it at Amazon.com or shoot me an email, sales@digitalshadowfilms.com, you can also save it to your Netflix queue and find it in retail stores, and if you can’t find it ask to order it. You can also take a look at the official HH site at: hellhouse.digitalshadowfilms.com

What’s next for you?

Right now we have two really exciting projects we are working on, the first one that I am really excited about it called “After Dark” which Reggie Bannister (Phantasm) will be starring in, you can find it on imdb. And the other one is called “Through the Night” which is written by Edward Martin III, and the script has already won some awards, this is a cool werewolf movie with a fresh twist, think Dog Soldiers crossed with Aliens. Besides that we are always working on looking for funding and shooting little projects, most notably “Consequence” which I Produced and wrote and Robert Carrera directed, which has already won awards (you can find it on the Hell House dvd when it drops), and a funny little short movie called The Bailout, written by Jim Meyer (Blood Money) and Directed by Vert Write.

New Horror Out On DVD This Week (Today)

A lot of good things come out of long weekends... like, an extra night of boozing, catching up on some horror, working on those 'works in progress'. Bad things? Tuesdays that feel like Mondays - straight up, they kinda suck. I'm really discombobulated. Anyhow, instead of talking about the new horror that comes out on DVD this week, I can say... these come out today. There was actually quite a bit of stuff to come out this week, so I just picked what I thought would be the most interesting. You can check out the trailers on our Youtube page, which can be found by clicking here OR you can click on the title and go to its Amazon page.

I'm not sure if there's a resurgence in cyberpunk films, but I'm noticing more and more of them.... and I'm pretty happy about it. I really like the sub-genre and think we're going to see a lot more of them, especially because effects are becoming cheaper and cheaper to do. I recently saw "Eden's Log", which was a damn good film - I highly recommend it. Now, after seeing the trailer, I'm going to have to check out "Sleep Dealer", which is released today on DVD and Blu-ray. I remember hearing about it a year or so ago, but then nothing. While I was hearing nothing, it went on to win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It's a Spanish/American film, all in English, I believe, and it's about a militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences. Trailer looks wicked, check it out.

"Live Animals", directed by Jeremy Benson, appears to be "Saw" meets "Hostel" with a bit of Stockholm Syndrome mixed in. It's a low-budget horror, but judging from the trailer and what I've read, the acting looks good, it has a good look and feel and it could be quite gruesome. Could be the indie pick of the week... I'm in.

"Uncharted" comes from Frank Nunez, written by John Fuentes and Demetrius Navarro and it's the story of a documentary film crew that crashes on a jungle island. The jungle island ends up not being the correct jungle island and this jungle starts to mess with their minds... they still try to get the doc done, even while the mysteries of the jungle begin to show themselves and death becomes a bit of a nagging problem for the team. It was tough to dig up much more about this, as it happens to share a name with a fairly well known video game... I got lazy, stopped digging.

I don't want to say too much about "Hell House: The Book of Samiel", as I have an interview with writer/director Jason Morris coming soon... maybe tomorrow. In any case, great low-budget horror. I highly recommend it. Check it out...

"Greetings" has a retro, "Happy Birthday to Me" or "April Fool's Day" kind of cover... or maybe I only think that because she has a cake and knife? Didn't "Happy Birthday to Me" just have a guy getting a shiskabob rammed down his throat? Hmmm... anyhow, this is from director Kenneth Colley and it's about Cathy and Cathy's party... and Cathy's not having a good time. A Ouija board comes out, strange things start to happen, they blame each other, joke goes to far, but... it isn't a joke at all.

Written by Andy Briggs and directed by Bill Corcoran, "Rise of the Gargoyles" is the latest installment into RHI Entertainment and Syfy's Maneater series. It debuted on TV on August 28th and is now out on DVD a mere 2 weeks later. Just looking at the list here, up next from the Maneater series will be "Sand Serpents", about prehistoric worms.

Harper's Island: The DVD Edition comes out today, as well. I never watched the series, but it did get fairly good reviews AND did some fairly cool things, including creating "Harper's Globe", a social web series designed to complement the show. I should really check this out, as I'm really getting into TV horror. The lines are being blurred between film, television and online entertainment and I love the idea of telling horror stories in episodic form. Anyhoo...

Slick motherboards, new power supply's and stuff for you to vote on...

With a slick, new red motherboard, equipped with as much high octane RAM as she can handle and the best power supply that $39 can buy, my PC is back and working better than ever... I'm so proud. Best part about it? I didn't lose a thing. All my files and 'works in progress' have been saved. ...and we can't lose those 'works in progress', the future of horror entertainment could very well depend on them, but I digress... I had to reconfigure a few things, but I guess that's par for the course when you get a new motherboard. I'm very excited, I have to say... and, really, I'm not joking, it's working better than ever. She booted up lightning fast and I was stoked, but I did get a little depressed when I opened up Outlook and the emails started flooding in. Side note - I really need to switch to just doing everything in the cloud, I hear that's what all the kids are doing these days and, well, you know... the kids are alright. Anyhow, after a rash of deletions and quick reads, I was still left with a lot of emails to get through and if my inbox is a giant turd, I'm still on the turtle head. You guys have a lot going on... and now, I need to pass some of this shit on to you.

First up, good friend of Dead Harvey, Blake Reigle, has his film "Beneath The Surface" up for a 'Reaper Award". If you're interested, you can check out the interview that we did with Blake about the film here. Otherwise, you need to head over to ReaperAwards.com, click 'vote now' and vote for "Beneath The Surface" for 'Best Zombie'.

I should mention that Blake offers this up in his email, "Also, if you need help on which films to choose for other categories, I played a part in the making of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009), FRIDAY THE 13TH: DELUXE EDITIONS, and vote for my friend's movie A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT." As for things I'd like to mention, "Alien Raiders", a personal favorite, is also nominated. So, vote for them, too. Check out our interview with Ben Rock, director of "Alien Raiders" here.

Next up, our buddy Chris Di Nunzio, director of "Livestock", has his film in a trailer contest. Once again, if you're interested, you can check out our interview with Di Nunzio here. Otherwise, head over to Youtube by clicking here and you'll find its link in a trailer contest. There's a pile of good vampire films in there (look on the right), including "Thicker Than Water", which was a fantastic film. (See our interview with director Phil Messerer here) Torn on this one, so... vote for both!

As an indie filmmaker, these are the types of things that you should be paying attention to. It's not just about winning an award, it's about the networking and exposure. There's so much of this going on out there and if you're not on it... or at least researching this stuff and trying to pay attention, you're a big step back. Spend an hour or two each week just looking around for contests, events and things going on. It's well worth it.

So, now I've got a lot to sift through and do this weekend, but it looks like we're back on track. All I need is a lot of cold beer, access to food and to not get carpal tunnel syndrome. Now, have a great weekend... it's not too long until happy hour.

Interview About Marc Selz, the guy behind Satanic Panic

For those of you following along at home, my PC is still in the shop - there's a big, black hole on my desk... and now, in my heart (poor PC). I was supposed to hear back about it yesterday, but the techie busted his foot on his way to work and never actually made it in. So, my box is just sitting there in a backroom, like a busted up droid in the belly of a Jawa Sandcrawler. Worse than that, obviously, I still don't have access to my emails, contacts, files and other content. However, and luckily, I had saved a few half written posts out here, in this magical internet cloud... I was going to be posting this today, anyhow, so we're still on track and haven't skipped a beat. However, my magical reserves are running low and I hope this techie can hobble in today and get my shit fixed.

Enough about me, let's talk about Marc Selz, the indie filmmaker behind "The Rockville Slayer", "Short Cut Road" and the upcoming, much anticipated, "Satanic Panic". Now, if there's one thing you can learn from Selz, it's the art of promotion. Google "Marc Selz" or "Satanic Panic" and see how much shit pops up. He and his team do some serious PR work. I mean, I can't say that I remember "Short Cut Road" coming out, but I definitely remember all his PR made me scramble around to get my hands on a copy of "The Rockville Slayer" and now, here I am, thoroughly pumped for "Satanic Panic".

I'm not alone... "Satanic Panic" has managed to drum up a lot of buzz and interest out there on the interwebs. They're having a limited theatrical release, they're going to release the film on DVD AND Blu-Ray and the mask that the killer wears is even being reproduced and sold in Halloween outlets. The DVD comes out on October 13, so we're just over a month away. Trailer looks great, stills look great and, damn, that mask looks good, too.

Tell us a bit about writer/director Marc Selz

Marc Selz grew up on horror movies. He started watching horror movies religiously at the tender age of 8 years old and he never stopped. He has such a passion for the genre that he thought about making his own movies. He took everything that he learned through the many years of watching films along with schooling, and in 2000 made his first low budget, independent feature film at the age of 30. From that point, he learned what he should and should not have done and continued to apply his knowledge and brushed up his skills on each movie since then. Nine and a half years later, Marc has completed his third feature and has been able to get DVD distribution on all three movies that he's made for both foreign and domestic release all of which were done on very small budgets. Marc always tries to be different and unique in all of his productions. He has seen so many horror movies that he knows what has and hasn't been done so he tries to do things that are different.

Talk about Marc Selz productions. How did Marc get it off the ground and tell us about some of his other projects.

Marc Selz Productions started out on a "what if something happens" sort of basis. We had very little money, a small hand held DV camera and a few lights. We had great locations and people that just wanted to make a movie. Once we got distribution for the first movie, Short Cut Road, we thought about making another one on a bigger budget. The second movie, The Rockville Slayer, worked out really well. We connected with Susan Jackson, who had just finished working on Cabin Fever as a producer/rep and who was also starting a new label, Freestyle Home Entertainment. She wanted Rockville to be the first released on her new label along with Vivendi UMVD Universal. This impressed our investors enough to help us make a third movie, Satanic Panic.

Tell us a bit about “Satanic Panic”

Satanic Panic was inspired by true accounts and the craze that took place in the 80's. The idea came to Marc one day after remembering back to times in the 80's where this topic was all over the news. He remembered hearing about sacrificed animals being found in local forest preserves. The idea of "who or what could do something like that" really stuck in his head so he started doing a bit of research and watching a lot of documentaries and older satan / devil movies such as Devil's Rain and Race with the Devil, that dealt with the topic, but didn't go into depth as much as the documentaries did. Actually, the documentaries bothered Marc more than the actual movies did so he felt that there was room to tell more and shoot the movie in a docu-style way.

Celebrity Video is your distributor, I believe they also distributed Selz’s last film, “The Rockville Slayer”. How was that relationship formed and how has Celebrity treated you?

The Rockville Slayer was actually distributed by Freestyle Home Entertainment / UMVD Universal. This is our first time working with Celebrity Video. They really get it. They are distributing Satanic Panic for world distribution and we really like the fact that there is an understanding of the independent filmmaker from their end. They are a new company with people working for them that have many years of experience in the industry and they really know and understand the horror genre. They are fans as well, not just salesmen, and that was something that really stood out for us.

Talk a bit about finding distribution in the indie horror world and how has Celebrity treated you?

This is the most difficult part of the whole movie making process. You have to be able to really sell your film. It's so difficult nowadays to sell a film, yet alone independent films, because the markets change all the time and you never know what distributors are going to want. It seems to be that each company is looking for something different all the time. You can give a company everything that they ask for, yet it may not be the right time or it's not what they're looking for. Luckily, the horror genre still has somewhat of a market. It's very saturated, but there is still hope at least for the DVD and foreign markets. Celebrity Video was looking for our type of film so it really worked out well. They had an open slot for the time frame in October, which we thought was the best time to release a horror movie. Plus, we have a Halloween mask of the creature from our film that is going to be in stores around the same time. We liked what they had to offer and everything worked out. They are very one on one, which is fantastic in this industry and we're in touch very often. You can't ask for anything more.

Talk about the indie horror scene. Where do you feel it is now and where’s it going?

We think that the indie horror scene is still running strong. There is a lot of talent out there all over the world. We're not too crazy about all of the big-screen remakes that are coming out. Some remakes are good and really get it down and some don't. The great thing about the indie scene is that everyone tries to be original and we think that's what is keeping it alive and fresh. Where is the indie horror scene going...technology is definitely on the indie side. People with talent can make a studio quality-looking film nowadays without breaking the bank. There will be a lot more projects like this to follow which will keep the scene going.

What’s next for Marc Selz and Marc Selz Productions?

At this time, there are no future projects lined up. Marc is still working on deliverables for Celebrity. Marc Selz Productions also just signed a two year cable deal with NBC Universal/CHILLER Channel to air The Rockville Slayer in October of this year in both standard and high definition. We'll see what the future holds for Marc Selz, but for now there is nothing new in the works. He'd love to work on number four, but that all depends on how things work out with his third movie. If you are interested in our movie, please check out our web site at satanicpanicthemovie.com and be sure to support us by picking up a copy of our movie on Blu-Ray or DVD on October 13, 2009 and if you are a real fan of the movie, be sure to pick up a Zagone Studios, Satanic Panic Mask, which are now available online.

New Horror Out On DVD This Week, plus some industry news

Well, my PC is in the shop and I'm typing this out on my laptop... I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping it's just a power supply problem. However, if it's the motherboard, I'm hooped. Anyhow, not your problem and I can only rely on the power of positive thinking at this point. So, before we get to the horror that's coming out on DVD this week, I wanted to mention a few things that are going on, industry-wise. One, "The Final Destination" won the weekend at the box office and "Halloween 2" came in third... "The Final Destination" raked in over $28Million, "Inglourious Basterds" came in 2nd with just over $20Million and "Halloween 2" brought in around $17.5Million. I hate to just cut and paste from another website, but BoxOfficeMojo.com offered up an interesting quote about why they think this happened...

"Unlike The Final Destination, Halloween II (2009) was a continuation of the story of its predecessor and effectively offered the same slasher horror that audiences already experienced. It's difficult for horror franchises to maintain their audiences, because they are often ephemeral experiences and, once people get the scares, there's little reason to return. Franchises like Final Destination and Saw are exceptionally consistent, because they keep things fresh with new characters and more compelling suspense and mystery elements."

Interesting take, I never really thought about it that way... so, having a big long, continuing story arc is bad and creating a series that can consistantly be reinvented with new characters, elements and storylines is good. I'll have to mull that over for a bit, right after I look up the word 'ephemeral' on dictionary.com.

The other big news is that Disney just bought Marvel this morning. Here's a link to an article on the deal from Reuters. Disney paid around $4Billion for Marvel and, personally, I think it makes sense for Disney. Marvel's a character/franchise based entertainment company with a huge library and that's Disney's wheelhouse - they're a franchising, marketing and licensing juggernaught. Marvel's set to release a bunch of movies, including "Thor", "Spiderman 4", "The Avengers" and "Captain America" and I just hope that none of that's effected.

Anyhow, on to the horror releases, not that there's much to talk about. I found trailers for three of the films and you can check those out on our Youtube page, otherwise you can click on the titles and go to their Amazon pages to find out more about them.

First up is "Methodic", which is the self-proclaimed first 'basher movie', meaning that the killer bashes all his victims to death, as opposed to 'slashing' them... it's a low-budget indie, directed by Chris R. Notarile, and it appears to draw on the original "Halloween", as it's about a guy who kills his family, is sent to an insane asylum, but breaks out to get back into the whole killing game. The film looks great and the killer looks extremely creepy... and the film was shot over 10 days. Notarile has made various online projects, as well as made numerous short films. He's definitely an up-an-comer in the industry and I may have to reach out and try to do an interview with him.

"Earth Day" is a low-budget horror-comedy indie out of Eugene, Oregon from Faux Show Productions and it's about a group of eco-crusaders who find themselves getting slaughtered as the one year anniversary of the tragic death of their leader approaches. No offense to any hippie readers that we may have, but I always love watching hippies get slaughtered. So, as their tagline goes, "forget the whales... don't worry about the trees... just save yourself".

"Humanity's End" was directed by Neil Johnson, who also directed "Manowar: Magic Circle Festival, Volume 1" and various other Manowar videos. Not that those are his biggest works, by any means, but you have to respect a guy who's made Manowar videos. Anyhow, "Humanity's End" is his biggest film to date and it's laden with effects. In fact, on imdb.com, it says that the catering budget for this film alone exceeded the entire budget of his second film, "To Become One". I'm very interested in finding out the actual budget of it, as it looks great, but does have that distinct b-movie feel.... which I've grown to love, adore and crave.

Also out this week are: "Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas", which stars Antonio Sabato as Henry Lee Lucas, the serial killer that was originally popularized by Michael Rooker in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"; "To Dance with Death", a Brinke Stevens films; something called "Death Scream", as well as the rerelease double-pack "Blacula/Scream Blacula Scream".

Big Trouble In Little China

Well, I guess I was playing with fire... my home PC has been acting up a bit lately and it finally died on me this morning. I'll start by reaching out to any techie readers that we may have - the computer gets power, but won't boot up, turn off or reset. The only way to turn it on or off is by unplugging it. When I unplug it, then plug it back in, the fans start up, the lights go on, but no beeping and it's just blank... and it goes right back to not booting up, turning off or resetting. My gut reaction tells me it's the motherboard, but I don't know. The real problem is the information that's on the hard drive, which I never backed up. So, if I can't recover that, I'm in some serious shit. Any ideas?

Anyway, as I have no access to my interviews, saved links and other data, I'm going to have to pull this post together on the fly. That's not really a bad thing, as I was listening to a podcast this morning, from Creative Screenwriting Magazine, that I wanted to talk about. They usually interview screenwriters, but this one was the address that Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp and Wikus Van De Merwe gave at Comicon about "District 9". There was something that Peter Jackson said that was particularly interesting and I wanted to pass it on to all you filmmakers... Essentially, he said that because they were on such a low budget ($30Million) and didn't have executives telling them what to do and how to make their film, they could do the film the way they wanted. The way they wanted to do it was to cater directly to the sci-fi/horror, Comicon-type audience. That's why it's a character driven sci-fi movie with lots of gore, something that might not make too much sense to a studio executive. And what happened? Well, it kicked ass and lots of people went to see it. The moral of the story is, when you're making a low-budget film, don't think like a studio executive. Think like a gore-hound. What would YOU want to see in the film? You'll create a better film if you cater to a specific niche... and catering to a specific niche will probably create more of a crossover audience, which will make for a more successful film. Anyhow, you can find that podcast here, on the Creative Screenwriting blog, if you want to download it. The end is pretty cool, where Peter Jackson talks about how watching Blomkamp make this film gave him an itch to make a low-budget horror again... could you imagine "Dead Alive 2" or "Bad Taste 2"?

It's also a good weekend at the theater for us horror fans. Both Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2" and "The Final Destination" in 3D come out this weekend... and there's really no other big movie coming out, which means that "Inglourious Basterds" should win the weekend again. Me, though, I'm a bit torn on which to go see. Originally, I was thinking about "H2", but... I wasn't too impressed with Rob Zombie's interview on "The Wrap" yesterday, he kinda shit-talked a lot of stuff (link). That's not to mention that the first one kinda sucked. However, I'm not a huge fan of the "Final Destination" series, but "The Final Destination" is in 3D and I'm really into that 3D tech.

That's all I've got for this week... have a great weekend and wish me luck on my computer problems!

Interview With Rick Popko, Co-writer/Co-Director of "RetarDEAD"

If I was a betting man... and I am, I'd be willing to bet that almost all indie filmmakers can be categorized in one of two ways... (1) You went to film school, but are not currently in a professional position to make films, so you take what resources are available to you to put something together OR (2) You never went to film school, but you love film and want to try your hand at filmmaking. Now, whichever category you fall into, I'm also willing to bet that alcohol was involved when you came up with the idea to make your film... and, hey, that's not a bad thing! Lord knows the best ideas are spawned from debaucherous nights. I really believe that, too. If you sit down and over think your project and think like a Hollywood executive, you're doomed. Forget about it, you can't compete. You don't have the budget, resources or talent pool. However, the booze soaked mind doesn't care about audiences, it doesn't care about metrics or what "sells" or what's "hip" or even where it's going to get it's next beer from. It just thinks shit is funny... and that way of thinking can create great indie horror films. What is it that they say about poets? They're just drinkers with writing problems...

Now, if you haven't seen the indie horror classic, "Monsturd", you need to check it out. It came out in 2003, I believe, and was directed by Rick Popko and Dan West. It's about a serial killer who mutates into a poop monster... and there's NO WAY that they came up with that idea when they were sober. No way. Well, Rick and Dan are back with "RetarDEAD" and it's all that "Monsturd" is and more. It's gory, it's hilarious, it's entertaining and, well, it's everything that you would want from a film with the title "RetarDEAD". I don't know how else to put that. Anyhow, we had the opportunity to discuss the film with Rick and he offers up an interview that should be required reading for up-and-coming or wannabe indie filmmakers. There's piles of good information in there and I highly recommend that you give it a read.

First, though, if you're interested, here's links to their pages on Amazon: "Monsturd" and "Retardead".

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie horror?

My name is Rick Popko, I’m 41, I live in San Francisco, and I do public relations for a number Silicon Valley tech companies... When I’m not doing that, I’m a husband and a dad to two wonderful girls… Oh, and in my free time, I like to produce crazy indie exploitation movies… As far as my influences, they’re all over the place… Peter Jackson (Dead Alive), George Romero (Dawn of the Dead), John Waters (Polyester), Sam Raimi (Evil Dead 2), Martin Scorsese (After Hours), Mark Pirro (Nudist Colony of the Dead) and many others.

Dan and I have been shooting crazy horror/comedy shorts for years (You can see a few of our rudimentary early works at FunnyOrDie.com -- enter 4321 Films in the search box). In between the sketch work, we wrote a number of screenplays, which no one in Hollywood would read. Then we got our hands on a Canon GL-1. The first miniDV camera with “Frame” mode (meaning it shoots 30 frames per second progressive, i.e., non-interlaced). As we were testing it, Dan exclaimed “We can make a movie with that!” Then, one day, we rented “Jack Frost” (the horror movie version) and said, “Heck, if this guy can make a movie about a killer snowman and get it in video stores around the country, then why couldn’t we make one about a giant shit monster?” And “Monsturd” was born.

Film school: yes or no?

I graduated from San Francisco State with a B.A. in Film. Did I get a lot out of it? No… For people who are thinking about going to film school, you’re only going to get out of it what you put in. Film school is a good place to network with other people who are into the same thing as you. I didn’t bother getting anyone’s contact info while I was there. But, if you do it right, and you stay in touch with everyone after school, you should be able to wrangle up any kind of crew to help you shoot whatever project you want to make. If you think film school’s your ticket into Hollywood, you’re sadly mistaken.

Tell us about “RetarDEAD”

It’s probably not a surprise to hear that RetarDEAD was born from the title. One night Dan and I were having beers together and he said, “Okay, I’ve got a movie idea for you. I don’t know what it’s about yet… It’s just the title… It’s called ‘Special Dead.’” I thought that was a clever title and then added, “So, they’re RetarDEAD.” Dan laughed and said, “Wait, I like that one better.”

From that, Dan and I brainstormed a ton of scenarios, none of which were flying with us. And then it dawned on us. What if we made it a direct sequel to “Monsturd?” Toss in a “Flowers for Algernon”-like subplot, a serial pervert, Jello Biafra, a real-life zombie dance troupe (The Living Dead Girlz), and second unit zombie kill scenes contributed by indie filmmakers around the country, shake that all up and you’ve pretty much got RetarDEAD.

This film is the follow up to “Monsturd”, which was an awesome film, by the way. Was the idea for “RetarDEAD” there from the beginning or did it come after completion of “Monsturd”?

Thanks for the kind words. “Monsturd” came out better than it had any right being. Things just sort of fell into place for us on that movie. As mentioned above, “RetarDEAD” was spawned from the title. Originally, we weren’t planning on making any type of sequel to “Monsturd.”… Wait, I should backtrack on that a little. Actually Dan had a germ of an idea for “Monsturd 2.”… I think it was because he liked the tagline he thought up… “Endangered Feces.” Anyway, we both agreed that we had run the poop joke into the ground, and there wasn’t really anything new we could bring to the table. We came up with a number of ideas we wanted to shoot next, including one about cannibalistic undertakers, but neither of us could ever give 100% buy-in to the projects we were coming up with. It wasn’t until we started hashing “RetarDEAD” out and turned it into the sequel to “Monsturd,” that be both bought into the project.

Without question, it’s an over-the-top film… but I’d expect nothing less from the makers of “Monsturd”. There’s a wicked villain, there’s a dance sequence, tons of blood and guts and it’s hilarious AND, on top of all that, it really, really works. I find that to be successful with this particular sub-genre, you need to go further than you think. More blood, more slapstick, etc. Talk about what you think it takes to make a successful gore/comedy like this?

I hate to quote an Apple ad, but the truth is, you really have to think different. There’s a lot of competition out there right now for eyeballs. Not only is the DVD market saturated with ancient Hollywood dreck (and remakes of the old dreck), but indie distributors are crowding the market with stuff that’s even worse! If you’re reading this and you’re an independent filmmaker, do something that’s a little different… off the wall… If you’re going to make another “killer in the woods” movie, think of something you can do that will take your movie to the next level… Maybe the killer is a dwarf transvestite… Maybe instead of the movie taking place in the woods, it takes place in a big-top circus… And the killer is one of the people from the freak show.

The other suggestion I have for filmmakers is to not cut corners on your production. Just because you don’t have a budget doesn’t mean your movie has to look like it. If you’re resourceful, you can make your $1,000 look like a million. Think of locations that have production value. Just because you have a garage available to you, doesn’t mean you have to shoot your whole movie there. Go out and find cool-looking locations to film at. And lastly, don’t pull your punches. If you’re shooting a low-budget horror movie, don’t cut away when someone is about to get killed. That’s the mark of an amateur. I can forgive a lot when I’m watching an indie movie (the stilted line delivery, the poor shot composition, the bad audio), but when I see a kill scene that doesn’t deliver the goods, I get bloody annoyed.

When you’re doing gore, you gotta deliver… and you guys definitely did that. Talk about some of your favorite effects and how you created them.

Most of the budget on RetarDEAD went to special makeup effects. We used Ed Martinez (who did the effects for the 80s zombie flick “The Dead Pit.”) If I had to only pick one effect, I would say the scene where we tore the school’s principal in half. That was pretty elaborate. We actually built the basement set in my garage (where the principal gets attacked), and we built a replica of the set on our soundstage. The set’s floor in the soundstage was raised up a foot and a half, and we cut a hole in the middle of it for our actor to slide into up to his waist. Michael Allen, our actor playing the principal, actually had to have his body cast. Our make-up artist used that to make his lower torso appliance.

On the night of the effect, Michael had to climb into the hole and get made up for more than two hours (meaning no bathroom breaks). And, because of our miniscule budget, we only had one chance to get the shot right. On most H-Wood shoots, the make-up artists prepares to do the effect at least three times in case something goes wrong. Because of this, we actually had two cameras running during the take. Overall, I think the effect came out great. The only downside was that all of the blood that flowed ran right into the hole Michael was situated in and ended up ruining my carpet.

I saw that it screened at a few festivals. How was it received? Also, tell us what you think about the horror festival circuit… is it something that other indie horror filmmakers should get involved with?

RetarDEAD has been received pretty well at the festivals we’ve screened it at. The people who turn out for these things are pretty die hard horror fans, and I think they appreciated the fact that we brought something a little different to the table. As far as the horror circuit goes, I’ve been amazed at how cool everyone is… I had this perception (or should I say misperception) that hard core horror fans would be a scary bunch of people. But it turns out that everyone I’ve encountered, even the scary-looking ones, are actually some of the nicest and most respectful people I’ve ever met.

Are film festivals the right way to go? The thing about film festivals is that they’re a good place to get attention for your film if your film is having a hard time standing out on its own. Film festivals can lend some legitimacy to your project. Honestly, we didn’t really need to take the film festival route. We actually had a couple of distributors who were pretty much willing to sign the movie sight unseen thanks to the notoriety of “Monsturd.” Still, I can’t deny that it’s fun to see your flick screened in a real movie theater that’s packed full of a bunch of drunken gore hounds.

Talk about the process of distribution. What can you pass on to other filmmakers about the process of getting a film distributed.

Expect to get screwed on your first movie… And maybe your second and third, too… We signed Monsturd with an outfit called Dead Alive. They sold 4,000 copies of the movie into Blockbuster and then promptly went out of business. Never saw a dime. We got our rights back and signed with Elite Entertainment. They had Monsturd for three years and, again, we never saw a dime. We then signed with Brain Damaged Films and they at least gave us some money for International sales.

Are we gettin’ rich off this? Hell no! If I’m not mistaken, I think we’ve probably earned about $4,000 for Monsturd to date.

A couple of tips for wannabe filmmakers:

1. Know that contracts are negotiable. If you get someone who’s interested in your movie and they give you a contract, it isn’t the end-all-be-all. You can add in there whatever you want.

2. Never sign away your movie. Know that you are licensing your movie to them. And that license should never go for more than 5 years. If the distributor hasn’t done everything they can for you in 5 years, then nothing else will happen to it while it’s in their possession. When you get your rights back, you can approach another distributor with your flick.

3. While the tools are in place to self distribute your stuff, it’s really a pain in the ass. We tried to self distribute “RetarDEAD” at first, and it ended up being too much work. If you go this route, you had better be prepared to make it a full time job… Plus you better have some capital to make the initial copies and glossy ad slicks. Plus, there are a number of outlets who won’t even talk to you unless you’ve got some reputable sub-distributor in place.

Talk about the indie horror scene and indie horror filmmaking. Where do you feel we’re at now and where do you think it’s going?

I liken the indie horror scene to the early days of desktop publishing. You remember the “zine” craze? Everyone with a computer and a copy of Illustrator suddenly fancied themselves a publisher. How much of the stuff that came out of that era was any good? Not much. I’m sorry to say that I’m seeing the same thing with today’s “indie” horror film scene. That’s not to say there aren’t some talented people out there, but they’re getting buried underneath tsunami of shit. Just because you have a DV camcorder, a computer and a software editor doesn’t automatically make you a feature filmmaker. Ultimately, I like to believe that the cream ultimately rises to the top. The people who love it will continue to do it and they’ll get better and better over time. I have no doubt that we’ll see the next Sam Raimi rise up through the ranks of micro-budget horror.

Where can people find out more about “RetarDEAD” or, better yet, buy a copy?

Our Website is 4321films.com. RetarDEAD is available on Amazon and Film Baby (note: Film Baby still has a few copies of the original pressing of RetarDEAD. This includes our original cover AND an original soundtrack CD. And it’s limited edition. We only made 400 copies of this version and when they’re gone… They’re gone.

What’s next? Any more projects in the works?

Dan and I are currently drafting a script about an Alien that crash lands in Butte County… It will be a direct sequel to “Monsturd” and “RetarDEAD.”

New Horror Out On DVD This Week: It's a Boob Filled Week

I'm not a Tarantino fan. In fact, I was kinda hoping that "Inglourious Basterds" would just take a big, giant turd at the box office... However, and much to my dismay, it beat "District 9" out of the top spot and did so with ease, plus it's gettting good reviews. "Basterds" pulled in an estimated $37Million over the weekend, which is pretty damned good. Now, I know that a lot of you guys dig Tarantino and consider him to be a massive influence. Me, I just think he's kinda overrated... but, if you did go out and see "Basterds", what did you think? "Pulp Fiction" or "Jackie Brown"?

As for indie horror, there's quite a few decent looking DVD's coming out this week. Too many to get into any depth on all of them, actually. So, we've got most of the trailers up on our Youtube Page and I'll link to all of their pages on Amazon, so you can get more info on each of them and/or buy them... you know, if you so desire.

First up is "Abduction", from John Orrichio. Orrichio has made a few other indie films, including "Requiem for a Vampire" and "The Haunting of Danbury House", among others. The trailer is filled with T&A and the film is about a small vacation town that has a secret, underground internet business that specializes in selling human organs and babies, as well as auctioning off young women into sex slavery. One of Orrichio's other boob-filled movies, "Dreams of the Dead" is also available this week.

"Red Velvet" is apparently an Amazon.com exclusive, but I'm not sure what that actually means. It stars Henry Thomas, who peaked at around age 13, when he played Elliott in "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial". Since then, he's done tons of films, most of which are indie... a lot of which are of the horror variety. The film looks interesting, to say the least, and the killer appears to be some sort of human-rabbit-cyborg hybrid. Very strange. Check out the trailer.

If you're into the Asian shit... and I'm not talking J-Horror, I'm talking "Ichi The Killer" and "Machine Girl" type shit... check out "Onechanbara". It's based on the hit video game of the same title - I've never heard of it, but I don't claim to be on the bleeding edge of gaming and this could be an XBox exclusive. It's about a girl, armed with a sword and wearing her trademark bikini and cowboy hat, who's determined to track down her fathers killer. Oh... and it takes place in the year 20XX in a world where zombies have taken over the earth.

There's some other low-budget indie horror coming out, including: "Promise", starring Tiffany Shepis and directed by David M. Quiroz Jr.; "Frayed" (which looks to have been heavily influenced by "Halloween"), starring Kellee Bradley and Don Brady, directed by Norb Caoili and Rob Portmann; "Ghost Image" starring Elisabeth Rohm and Stacey Dash, directed by Jack Snyder and; "The Last Gateway" (which looks f'ing good and f'ing gory) starring Kevin Schiele and Rodrigo Aragon, directed by Demian Rugna.

Lastly, I wanted to mention "The Brass Ring", which also comes out this week. I mention it because, really, our readers are probably the only people who would truly, truly get it. It's a documentary on a group of friends, with no real film experience, in rural Ohio who set out to make a zombie epic with $7,500 and a Super-8 camera.

Interview With Joeby Gibson: Creator/Writer of "Lethal: Death Squad Uprising"

We here at Dead Harvey love indie comics. It's a really exciting thing to see happening right now because, much like indie. movies, the indie. comic scene is booming and the internet is proving to be fertile ground for creators to get their material out there like never before. Joeby Gibson's "Lethal: Death Squad Uprising" is a not only a fantastic indie. comic, it's currently FREE. I highly recommend everyone who reads this post to go back and read on from issue #1. It's a very enjoyable throwback to all the 80s action movies we've known and loved and that Hollywood sadly isn't making anymore. Remember "Cobra", "Commando", "Lone Wolf McQuade", "Hard to Kill"? I regularly revisit these flicks not only for nostalgia purposes but because they hold up incredibly well as pulp-style, kick-ass entertainment and they're so much better than most of the movies those action stars have come out with since the eighties.

Joeby Gibson's indie comic captures the essence of the eighties' action movie spirit and more than delivers the goods with every issue. Much like those films, it has a fun spirit, doesn't take itself too seriously, but doesn't slack on the action and gore either. And the artwork is outstanding. Joeby gives us a highly informative interview and whether your thing is comics or movies, it's a must read. Here's hoping that Lethal lives long and prospers!

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie comics?

Ok, well I’m a freelance story producer for reality TV shows and have worked on shows for major networks and cable.

One day, I just got tired of working on somebody else’s project. I can’t tell you how many times a series would’ve been really entertaining had it not been dumb down by twenty executives and the network.

So finally I got off my ass and started writing Lethal. I got into the comic scene because it was cheaper to tell my stories. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to film a concept that might not sell, I can pay very little to get my idea out to the masses and hopefully gain a fanbase.

Which do you prefer and why: indie comics or indie movies?

That’s tough because both bring something very special to the table. Sometimes indie movies are great because they’re a little bit edgier than the Hollywood fanfare. My Netflix que is probably 75% Direct-to-DVD horror films. If a movie tells a great story and can hold my attention for 90 minutes, then I don’t care if it was shot on mini-dv with no name actors. The important thing is that those filmmakers made a product that some distributor thought was profitable.

But indie comics can get away with so much more. With less money involved, the artist or writer can tell a story that will hopefully trump any of the latest Hollywood blockbusters. So if I had to choose, then I’m leaning towards indie comics because there is nothing stopping you from telling the biggest blockbuster you can draw.

Who do you believe is doing the best work in indie comics today and why?

Though he’s not so much indie because he writes for Image but Robert Kirkman is simply amazing. The “Walking Dead” series is not the usual super heroes in tights but zombies and personal stories. Thankfully AMC just picked up the series and it’s going to be written by Frank Darabont. I also enjoyed Brian Wood’s “Local”. Been a fan of that for awhile and had a nerd-gasm at comic-con when I picked up the entire series, signed by Wood.

What inspired you to make "Lethal: Death Squad Uprising"?

I’ve always been a fan of those cheesy 80’s action movies. You know the one’s where the hero is always walking away from explosions, fights are always one person at a time and a car explodes no matter if the hero hits the gas tank or not. All those Steven Seagal and Van Damme movies still hold up today. Just a few nights ago I was watching Under Siege in HD… still a classic. For research I watching every action movie from “Cobra” to “Stone Cold”.

Why did you decide to set the story in 1985?

The year just came to me because that’s when all those action movies started. You had Seagal in “Above the Law”, Van Damme in “Kickboxer”, and also around that time was “Lethal Weapon”. It just seemed right that if I was going to tell a cheesy action story that it should take place in the 80’s. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be some storylines in other decades. There’s a lot of back-story to the character Lethal that I’m hoping to tell.

What separates "Lethal" from other indie comics?

I think the fact that this is entirely independent and free really sets it apart. Each month I’m putting out 16 pages of story and for free. How many big name publishers do that?

What has been the most and least fun about making your own indie comic?

The least fun would have to be the financial burden. My checkbook has definitely suffered, that’s for sure. Unless you’re a one-man DIY army, making your own comic can get very expensive. I can’t draw so I had to commission Rowel Roque, a very talented artist, to bring my script to panels.

But I will say it’s been very rewarding to work on your own material. At the end of the day, it’s my characters, scenes, and universe that’s being created. There’s no executive standing over my shoulder giving me revision notes because they need to piss all over the project. Now I’m not saying my writing is golden, but there’s a sense of accomplishment when it’s your work. I do take criticism very well. But if it’s my dime and I don’t agree, I have the right to tell you to fuck off. Now if someone were paying me to write, then that’s a different story.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in getting "Lethal" off the ground?

Mentally for many years, I was my own worst enemy. I just kept telling myself that my stories weren’t good enough or to do a comic was too difficult and people wouldn’t read it. Every month, I would talk myself out of starting a comic. Finally, I read the book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. That was the kick in the ass I needed and I highly suggest any artist suffering from doubt to read it.

After reading the book I knew I had to at least try and get Lethal out there. Now, Lethal is not the best indie comic out there. Nor do I claim to be the next golden child of screenwriting. But at least I stopped reading comics, got off the couch and started writing. So for all those writers out there claiming they can write a better story, do it! Stop your barking and actually bite.

Physically, I can’t draw to save my life. Lethal would be stick figures if I had drawn it. The biggest thing was finding an artist that I felt could bring life to the story. Rowel’s artwork is simply amazing. I love seeing the script go from word to finished panel.

Also, I have no clue about this new fad the kids call the internets. I’ve never made a webpage. Seen lots of them, but never made one. After a quick tour of iweb, I ran out to the nearest Apple store and bought an imac. It’s been one of my best purchases to date.

How long does it take to put an indie comic together?

All together I’d say it takes about a month to produce a 16 page issue. Work schedules get in the way of my writing sometimes, but usually I can finish a script in a week. But that doesn’t mean the writing stops there. The script gets handed off to Rowel and it takes him a week to sketch 8 pages. I’ll send him notes and get the inked pages a week later. Then the process continues for the next set of 8 pages.

Once all the pages are inked, I’ll go in with Photoshop elements and do clean up. That takes a lot of time because I really want to put out the best looking comic possible. After the artwork has been cleaned, I’ll start lettering and that usually takes me about three to four days. A big part of lettering is rewriting. I’m constantly rewriting as I go. If I was on the ball, an issue could be completed within a month. But luckily I’ve spaced out issues so I wouldn’t be up against any deadlines that would conflict with my actual paying gig.

What have you learned so far from navigating the indie comics scene and what advice can you pass on others looking to get into the business?

What I’ve learned is you just have to get out there and do it. The industry is changing at a rapid pace. If you have a story to tell, then stop reading and starting writing. Anyone can say they can tell a better story, but to actually put yourself out there and write something for everyone to judge; that takes a lot of determination.

Also you are constantly rewriting. There are three stages of your script; the draft you give to your artist, the interpretation the artist comes up with and then the final draft during lettering.

What are your future plans for "Lethal"?

To be honest there are no big future plans for Lethal. The “Death Squad Uprising” storyline will wrap up at issue #9. Once that is done, I plan on taking a short hiatus and then hope to start up again with the next storyline. Right now it’s just about delivering a story and getting a fanbase.

If "Lethal" were to be made into a film, who would you see playing the main characters?

I’m a big fan of “Lost” and I would say Josh Holloway would be the perfect fit to play Lethal.

How can our readers get more information on "Lethal: Death Squad Uprising" and support your indie comic?

First off, if you haven’t already gone to the website, do it! www.AreYouLethal.com It’s free and hopefully you’ll enjoy it. Also I’m on Twitter (@joebygibson). I’m doing something very special for the fans. The first 500 followers will be listed in the graphic novel coming out later this year. How many comic book fans can say their name is in the special dedication page of a graphic novel? So I thought that’d be a nice thank you to the fans.

What upcoming projects are you working on: comics or otherwise?

Well the Death Squad storyline only has four more issues left. After that I’ll probably take a hiatus. I’ve already started outlining the next volume of Lethal and can tell you things are going to get really brutal. The last few pages to the Death Squad Uprising storyline set up the next volume and I had to tell Rowel to pull back on the artwork because it was too brutal. Hopefully people will be surprised at the end of the story and will want to know what happens next. All I can say is that there’s going to be a new villain introduced in the last pages that is just gruesome.

As for me, I’m still doing my day job as a story producer. But I do have plenty of other stories to tell and believe it or not, I may do a more family oriented comic. But then there’s always a side of me that wants to do a horror comic.

Thank you for the interview and for keeping the indie scene alive. "Lethal: Death Squad Uprising" is a blast to read and we here at Dead Harvey very much look forward to your upcoming work!