Your new movie The
Bloody Man - in a few words, what is it about?
The
Bloody Man is about a boy who has lost his mother and is trying to cope
with that loss and everything else that’s been affected by it, his
family relationships, school, etc. He’s also very into toys, cartoons,
and comics, and while reading one of his comics he accidentally summons
the Bloody Man who then tries to tear his family even further apart.
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing The
Bloody Man? I
actually first wrote stories about the Bloody Man when I was around 8 or
9. Being only a kid, I didn’t have a lot of exposure to scary
movies, but I did however get to check out scary books from my
elementary school’s library. The ones I checked out repeatedly were
the Crestwood House Monster series. I can remember sitting in my
family’s dining room after school inside my Castle Grayskull tent
pouring over the photos in all those. My reading and writing skills
weren’t tremendous being in second and third grades, but I still
enjoyed them nonetheless (plus my friend Amber read them to me). My all
time favorite book to check out was simply called Ghosts by
Seymour Simon and illustrations by Stephen Gammell of Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark fame... which was also a book I checked
out several times in elementary school. A few years later, as my parents
started letting me watch a few horror movies on TV, I was exposed to
Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (4 being my fave), and when I
“rewrote” my Bloody Man stories into a “script” around age
10/11, I envisioned the Bloody Man to be a mix of the ghost of a guy who
had been bludgeoned to death, the devil and
Freddy. Keep in mind, the
writings of mine I’m referring to were super terrible in every way,
haha. You've written The
Bloody Man together with your wife Casi - so what was that
collaboration like?
It was so great to co-write this movie with Casi. We definitely sharpen
each other when it comes to stuff like this. I would stay up late writing
each night while she was asleep. The next day she would go over what I
wrote, edit it, then pick up where I left off. Then again at night I would
edit her portion and continue on… all under the care of the late great
Dean Stefan who helped edit, gave us tons of ideas, and kept us in check.
The
Bloody Man is filled pretty much to the brim with references to
the 1980s, and especially genre cinema from that era - now what fascinates
you about the 80s, and was the movie always intended as a hommage, or did
that only creep in later on?
As a child of the 80s, I am 1000% obsessed with everything from that
decade. I don’t think there’s been a better decade for movies, music,
TV, toys, and pop culture in general. Casi and I first decided to make the
movie in 2014 while we were finishing up some other projects. We had found
an old shoebox in my parents’ house that had a bunch of horror stuff
from my childhood, and in there were my old Bloody Man stories. We stayed
up late that night and laughed hysterically at how ridiculous and terrible
the writing and stories were, but thought it would be awesome to rewrite
and flesh it out into a feature. This was pre-Stranger Things, so we
thought we had a semi-unique idea at the time of releasing a new 80s
movie, and thought we could have a good chance of getting it picked up. We
started officially writing it in Jan 2016, and our hearts kind of sank a
little shortly thereafter when Stranger Things season one was announced. I
remember saying something like, “Dang it! They beat us to it!” But you
can’t really compete or compare a low-budget $30,000 indie film and the
30-million-Dollar-an-episode studio show J What can you tell us about The
Bloody Man's approach to horror? The
main goal we had was to make this feel like you are alive in the 80s. We
didn’t want to make a modern movie set in the 80s, and we tried not to
hit anyone over the head too much with “Look, this is 80s!” We
wanted to create something that felt like it could have existed back then,
something you’d see late night on TV or something you could rent
from the video store.
A few words
about your directorial approach to your story at hand?
I knew the story I wanted to tell and knew our limitations. I had Casi do
a lot of the directing as far as the acting was concerned. I would tell
her what I wanted, and she would make it happen. We had ideas about each
character, but also let the actors play with their roles, offer ideas etc,
which I think helped add more realism to those characters. Do
talk about The Bloody Man's
key cast, and why exactly these people?
First and foremost our two Nightmare actors
Tuesday Knight and Lisa Wilcox were a must from the get-go
during casting. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master had always been my favorite and having the
opportunity to cast them was something that couldn’t be passed up. For
our main kids, we auditioned a couple hundred local and regional actors,
and it was pretty hard choosing the right ones, but taking all things into
consideration, I feel we made the right decisions. They have a realistic
chemistry in my opinion. Casi has two older brothers, so it was easy to
know that sort of family dynamic and what to look for. What can you
tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
For Casi and myself, the shoot was pretty grueling when it came to the
schedule and exhaustion. She, being pregnant with twins, the 9 weeks it
took to shoot, filming all day for the day shots then all night long till
sunrise for the night scenes, and using our one day off a week to prepare
for the following days’ shoots, made for a pretty tough experience. All
that aside, the atmosphere on set really was magical. There were so many
people who volunteered their time, sweat, and money. Every single person
on set was so kind and supportive and helpful and had this sense of
excitement to be a part of something cool and to be transported back 3
decades. The kids would often spend their breaks playing the original NES
on our giant 1980 model wood-enclosed TV set.
The
$64-question of course, when and where will The
Bloody Man be released onto the general public? The Bloody Man
will be available on digital starting July 12 on Amazon
Prime, Vudu, Direct TV, Cox cable, Spectrum cable, Comcast cable, Google
Play, Microsoft Movies, Youtube Movies, INdemand, and Xbox (that was the
latest list I was given). It should also be available on DVD and Blu-ray
toward the end of the year. Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of The
Bloody Man? The
reaction to the film has been great! The greatest compliment I’ve been
getting is that it truly feels like you’re watching an 80s movie. People
seem to love the setting, cast, and story. There have been some criticisms
as it relates to the runtime, but hey, if I’m watching a movie that
takes me back to my childhood, I wouldn’t want it to be over too
quickly. I would want to feel immersed and let that feeling last a bit J Any future projects you'd like to
share?
Right now we’re just focusing on work and family mostly. We do have tons
of ideas and some hopes for sequels to some of our projects, but with 4
kids under 4 years old, who has time to breathe? What got you into filmmaking in the first place,
and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
Ever since my aunt let me borrow her VHS camcorder in middle school,
I’ve been pumping out home movies, short films, music videos, and
extremely crappy features. As a career, I always wanted to make
commercials for a living, and I am very blessed to be able to do just that.
Filmmaking was always a hobby, like art and music throughout my teens and
twenties, but after attending my first horror convention in 2010 and
seeing all the actors, writers, directors, etc, I decided to pursue it
more vehemently. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to The
Bloody Man? In
the late 90s into the early 2000s I made several zero-budget horror
features. I directed a few horror shorts in the late 2000s. Notable
projects: 2013 saw the release of my first distributed film Bunni.
It’s a typical slasher movie, but with a unique killer, backstory, and
twist. It actually has a bit more heart and theme to it than you might get
with just a casual first viewing. In 2015, we released a Masters of the
Universe fan film, which was probably the coolest experience of my life.
Being an obsessive He-Man fan, it was so surreal to work on something like
that. It turned out pretty good I think for being a 98% green screen short
film (I so wish I could go back and remake it from the ground up). But we got to premiere it at the
Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, which was a
dream come true! How would you describe yourself as a
director?
As a director, I feel like I am terrible just like everything else I do
haha (seriously, that's not a humblebrag AT ALL!). I fake it much of the
time. But when I have a project, I know what I am wanting the end result
to look like, and I just try to surround myself with as many wonderful,
talented and like-minded people as possible to attempt to accomplish our
goals.
Filmmakers who inspire you? David
F. Sandberg is someone I admire. He started by making amazing shorts on
Youtube, then getting to direct a studio feature of one of his videos, now
he’s directing his Shazam! sequel for Warner
Bros. Talk about
inspiration! His story really makes you feel like modern dreams can come
true! Your
favourite movies? My
favorite movie list is a million miles long. But the ones at the top would
have to be The Burbs, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream
Master, Ghostbusters 2, Transformers (1986),
Jason Goes to Hell, Lady in White, The Goonies, The
Village, Monster Squad, Back to the
Future, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Thor: Ragnarok,
... ok I better
stop now. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
As
far as hating movies, I can’t think of anything specific that comes to
mind. I’m not a fan of plain drama for sure. I feel like so much
entertainment these days has stopped being entertaining. Maybe it’s my
age, or too many cooks at the studios, or the current climate of
Hollywood, but so much of today’s stuff just turns me off and/or bores
me to tears. Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else?
You
can find out about The Bloody Man
and all our other endeavors on our
social pages:
https://www.facebook.com/redserialfilms
https://www.instagram.com/redserialfilms
... or
our main website: https://redserialfilms.com/
Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask? Domino’s
Pizza tasted better in the 80s. Thanks for the
interview!
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