Your new movie All
Hell Breaks Loose - in a few words, what is it about?
All Hell Breaks Loose
is about a mindset. It's about a desire to bring back
the feel of the movies that we grew up loving. Contemporary movies are so
safe and explainable. All Hell Breaks Loose
is about fun. For the literal,
it's a biker exploitation horror comedy about a gang of bikers that
kidnaps some dude's wife, and he spends the movie trying to get her
back... in a spectacularly ineffective fashion. How
did the project fall together in the first place? Our
friend Joseph Sullivan, who plays Cowboy God in All Hell Breaks Loose, just threw the idea
out there one day. I had been making shorts about trannies and hookers
with The Vocabulariast, so I ran the idea by him, and we were off. Vocab
took a couple of months and then came back with an amazing script and we
went to town on it like two bums with a can of pork and beans. What
can you tell us about All
Hell Breaks Loose's screenwriter, the Vocabulariast, and what was
your collaboration like? The
Vocabulariast is an interesting dude. He used to run a website called
moviecynics.com where he did reviews and all sorts of drinking games for
pretty much every movie that came out. That's sort of how I met him,
through another local director named Henry Weintraub [Henry
Weintraub interview - click here] who used to check out
his site. I did the special effects on some of Weintraub's movies, and we
just sort of hooked up. He
has an interest in cult movies and I think he's always into making things
weird and quirky, originality within an unoriginal framework. He
definitely did that with All Hell Breaks Loose. As
far as collaboration goes, he just sort of took the idea and ran with it.
He has a weird sense of humor, but it all works. The best thing is that
it's not this self-aware bullshit that plagues low-budget horror movies
these days. It's humor that fits naturally within the framework of the
movie. The only thing I really told him was to include some sort of séance
scene, and he pulled that off as well. Then
when we shot the movie, he was always on set in case we needed to change
something. He's fun to have around.
All
Hell Breaks Loose has been described as a "bloody hommage to
70s biker and horror films" - are you at all fond of those genres and
that era, personally? I
think the film is more like an '80s movie with a '70s filter thrown over
it. I've watched a lot of biker movies like Werewolves on Wheels and
Dear
God No!, and I'm definitely a fan. I like seeing men with throbbing
machinery between their legs. Do talk about the film's brand of
comedy for a bit, and to what extent does it correspond with your personal
sense of humour? That's
all Vocab. To be honest, when I was reading the script there were moments
where I was laughing out loud, but there were also some moments where I
wasn't quite sure the jokes were going to work, but there's Vocab, every
time saying things like "Trust me. It's going to be hilarious."
and "Just do it." And judging from people's reactions, it seems
to have worked. What can you tell us about your
directorial approach to your story at hand?
As
a low-budget director, we just have to work with what we have for the most
part. Yeah, you have what's in your head, but when you have no money, you
have to ask yourself, how can I possibly pull off this scene of 8 bikers
wielding handguns in a bar and having a shootout with no money? So cost
efficiency combined with visualizing what I want makes the film what it
is. Other directors have the luxury of saying this is what's in my head,
and then they go out and recreate it for a zillion dollars. I have to say,
this is what's in my head... who has a bar I can fuck up? Then, at the end
of the shoot, there I am mopping up fake blood off the floor of a biker
clubhouse. Good times. Do talk
about your cast, and why exactly these people? What
do you mean by "these people?" Some of them are friends. Some of
them auditioned for the part, and some just sort of came to us through
recommendations from others. Leif Fuller, who plays the perverted priest is
someone that we've known for a while. Joseph Sullivan has been a friend for a
while. Danger Ehren and Todd Robinson, who play two of the lead bikers,
just sort of showed up at an audition we were having. I'm a huge Jackass
fan, so Danger was in, and Todd was perfect as Statch, leader of the
bikers. What can
you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Shoots
were brutal. We were on a tight budget, so we didn't have craft services
or fancy air-conditioned trailers. No one was picking out all of the red
M&M's, which I've heard give you ball cancer. We're eating Little
Caesar's on set, and this was before they had deep dish with the bacon
wrapped around it. The days were long, and it was the middle of the
summer. I remember one scene where Nick Forrest, our hero, had to lie in
the road. The asphalt was so hot, we had to douse it with water just for
him to lie down on it. Then after he stood up, the water would be gone in
seconds. Our first day, we shot for about 24 hours straight. But we had a
great group of people, and they were all into the movie, so I'm glad that
people are finally getting the chance to see the film that we sweated,
bled, and sleep-deprived ourselves for. Anything
you can tell us about critical and audience reception of your movie yet? Honestly,
it's been great. We haven't received a negative review yet, and I'm pretty
excited to see our first negative review. I can't wait until someone rips
us a new one regarding the film, but it hasn't happened yet. Everyone
that's seen it has enjoyed it. Sitting in an audience and watching people
watch my film is one of my favorite experiences ever. I wish I could do it
every day. There's nothing like watching people laugh out loud at a joke
or groan at something gross on the screen.
Any
future projects you'd like to share? I'm
hard at work on post-production on our next feature, The Cemetery
People.
It's about a group of undead Mormons rising up to take out a group of
dead-end kids in the woods. It's actually more complicated than that, but
I don't want to give it away yet. It'll have the same tone and feel as
All Hell Breaks Loose, since The Vocabulariast wrote that one as well. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? I've
always liked watching horror movies. Obscure, sick, low-budget, those are
the ones that really stand out to me, so that led me to get into special
effects. I'm a self-taught director. I picked up things here and there
working on special effects on a bunch of indie films, and then I played
around with some shorts to kind of work out the kinks. What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to All
Hell Breaks Loose? I
did some shorts that I don't think are very good, although other people
seem to like them. I did special effects on a bunch of local projects as
well.
How would you describe
yourself as a director? I'm
the Channing Tatum of indie, low-budget horror directors... I'll let you
figure out what that means. Filmmakers who inpire you? I
like what Astron 6 is doing. I think James Bickert [James
Bickert interview - click here] is awesome. I can't
wait to see his new one. Stuart Gordon has always been a big influence on
me as well. Your
favourite movies? My
absolute favorite movie is Step Up 2 the Streets, but within the horror
genre, I really like Father's Day, Dear God No!, Frank Henenlotter's
films. The old Troma films are awesome, like
Class of Nuke 'Em High and
Toxic Avenger. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
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Ghost
movies piss me off. Found footage movies don't do it for me, and I
definitely hate found footage ghost movies. Remakes tend to give me gas. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else? You
can follow me at Frenetic Films Productions, and The Vocabulariast has a
bunch of killer books for sale over at amazon.com. My favorite book of his
is This Rotten World. If I could get the funding, I'd love to turn that
into a big budget zombie movie. Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? I'd
like to give a shout out to my DP, Brett Roberts, and everyone else who
had a hand in helping us make this movie. It took a lot of favors from a
lot of people. See you at the Oscars! Thanks for the interview! No
problem. Any time... no, seriously. If you ever need an interview, I'm
your man.
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