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Your new movie Adam K - in
a few words, what is it about?
There's a Chinese proverb that says "To love and be loved is to feel
warmth on both sides." This film follows a lonely, tormented soul
through this cold world as he discovers he may not have love to keep him warm
- but being covered in the blood of his "friends" might be the next
best thing!
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Adam
K? I've long been a fan of horror movies that focus
on the depravity of the "common" man. So I drew from films
like Psycho, American
Psycho, Scream and Silence of the Lambs when coming
up with this film. I wanted to create a character that almost feels
like an anti-hero for a bit before he goes full ape-shit. Might sound like a stupid question, but to
what extent could you identify with your central character, the
friendship-obsessed serialkiller Adam, actually? A great
extent actually, lol. I was a copier salesman for a while and it's
truly a thankless job where you make enemies quickly. No one wants
to see us, we were like used car salesman that came to your office in the
middle of a busy workday so when people saw us coming, it could get
negative quickly. So I had to try very hard, and at times a
little too hard, to disarm people with kindness and friendship. And
that part of you that tries so hard to make people like you will transfer
over to your personal life. So I found myself going way overboard to
gain people's friendship and loyalty. Then one day I'm walking into
a meeting and thinking, how far would I go to make this decision-maker
like me and trust me. If they asked me to do "this morally
objectionable thing," would I? And then I thought, what if this
were a horror flick and the main character was a salesman like me but was
really desperate to be liked as just a person? How far would HE go?
Would he kill someone for his new "friend" if they asked?
Better yet, would he kill someone without his new "friend" even
asking? Just to make their life a little easier? And they
never had to know? Like some sort of vengeful guardian angel.
Not saying I'd go there, but the character is a lot like me in many ways. Do talk
about your movie's approach to horror for a bit! I wanted
to create a protagonist with a broken moral compass. A guy who is
warm and compassionate but also vicious and capable of unflinching
brutality; someone you root for, but are constantly asking yourself
if you should. I felt I'd seen enough of the unstoppable killing
machines of late - bad guys for the sake of being bad guys. I wanted
to put someone on the screen where you think to yourself, "Yeah, I
get it but he's going a little too far." Lol. Where his story
is still relateable even though his actions aren't. And the scary
thing is, he could be anyone, literally.
What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand? I let the story and the characters guide me. It
led to a bit of a bloated movie at first - the rough edit was about 3
hours long, which we cut down to a quickly-paced 90 minutes. But it
gave the actors a lot of room to play and develop these strong characters
and believable actions. I truly let the right elements drive the
experience. I'm sure that some of my more gossip-obsessed
readers would just die to know what it was like to work with former Teen
Mum Farrah Abraham [Farrah
Abraham interview - click here], with whom Adam
K wasn't your first movie, either - so for the sake of these
readers, do talk about working with Farrah for a bit? No
problem. Farrah's a blast to work with. I don't give
"Hollywood" answers. If she was an asshole, I'd say so but
she's not. This is the second time I've worked with her and
hopefully I'll work with her many times again. She's professional,
always ready rock and really malleable. She has this great way of
disarming people who are expecting the Teen Mom persona by
being the genuinely awesome person that she is. Much like me, she
does an incredible amount of homework upfront, learning the character, the
story and her place in it - and by the time she steps on set, she's found
the truth in what we're making. What
can you tell us about the rest of your rather star-studded cast, and why
exactly these people? I've learned that making movies is
hard work and you'd better make them with people you really like, lol.
So with the exception of just one person on the entire shoot, I've worked
with and will work with everyone on this film many times over. I'm
pretty sure I've worked with Arielle Brachfeld [Arielle
Brachfeld interview - click here], Edward Gusts, Brinke
Stevens [Brinke Stevens
interview - click here] and Nihilist Gelo on three different features. I've worked
with Kristin Wall, Farrah Abraham, Emii, Michael Foster, Jason Bonell and
Carlos Javier Castillo on two different features. The only people
that were truly new to me on this project were probably Sarah Nicklin [Sarah
Nicklin interview - click here],
Mindy Robinson [Mindy Robinson
interview - click here] and Jessica Cameron (who unfortunately had
to be edited out of the movie for continuity reasons) [Jessica
Cameron interview - click here], but I'd met them before and known them
each for a while before we shot. And then there's the SFX and key makeup
artist Eli G aka Elisa Gattoni, who has been with me for about 4 features
now who is super talented and created some truly grotesque stuff on a
limited budget. I chose them because if I had to go to war on a
picture with very few resources, they are the dream team to help me get it
done. They are all awesome people, truly fun to be around and know
how to make shit happen. I had the great fortune of working with
awesome people who gave their all for my little passion project and they
are all superstars in my book.
Mindy Robinson, Greg Lewolt |
Do talk about the shoot as such,
and the on-set atmosphere! I try to keep things loose on
set. So even though it might feel intense on-screen, on set we keep
it pretty light. The big moments in the film, and the overall arcs,
we hash out long before we hit the set so that we know what we're in for.
Lots of prep during preproduction. And that enables us to find the
small moments when we hit the set and start working through the scenes.
Many of the small moments that reverberate through the film were thought
of on the day as we played in the space and I think doing all the homework
upfront helps you improvise better when you get on set. And it's so
relaxed. No one's worried about what their next line is, what
happens next - because it was worked out before we got there. Now
all there is is the moment. And staying true. And we play in
those moments with lots of what-ifs. I will say though that we had
one very intense moment on set during the climax of the film. As
Sarah Nicklin's character "Amanda" is running away from Adam,
who is covered head to toe in blood and carrying a weapon, LAPD shows up
for a domestic disturbance call. Luckily they didn't approach from
the rear, where they wouldn't have seen the camera or crew. That was
pretty hairy. The $64 question of course,
when and where will Adam K
be released onto the general puclic? Adam K
is available
now to pre-order on DVD/Blu-ray through the official Facebook page at
www.Facebook.com/AdamKTheMovie.
If it's ordered now through October 23rd, it'll be in your mailbox by
Halloween. Pre-orders include autographed poster and "special
gift" from the cast and crew. VOD hits November 22 on most
platforms. Official DVD/Blu-ray release is Halloween. Anything you can
tell us yet about audience and critical reception of Adam
K? The response has been great! Well, from
those who didn't get completely offended by one of the more brutal deaths
in the film. Or the castration scene which happens fairly early in
the film, lol. Other than the people who said those scenes went a
little too far, we've gotten a great reception. It's been called
"Utterly Creepy", "The Right Balance Between Shocks,
Suspense and Atmosphere", "Sadistic, Vile and Will Get Your
Attention" and "A Pretty Good Movie." And all of those
quotes came from two reviewers I respect the hell out of - yourself and
James DePaolo. Any future projects you'd like to share? Yeah,
we are deep into pre-production on the follow up to Axeman
- it's titled Axeman 2.5: Eve of Destruction. Fans have been reaching out quite a
bit to get info on what happened to Axeman II: Overkill seeing as we shot
the thing about two years ago and nothing's come out. Well, just so
that everyone is on the same page - Axeman
2: Overkill is dead.
This would be a whole separate interview but I'll just say that licensing
is tied up in a sad series of bad business dealings from the executive
producer so the film can't be released. I'm finishing the script for Axeman
2.5: Eve of Destruction, which should be done in the next couple
weeks, the cast and crew are being assembled and we're heading back to
Cutter's Creek, where all our dreams and nightmares come true, lol.
The only thing I can say right now about this version of the sequel is...
get ready to root for the bad guy ;) Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
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Drop by Adam
K's
official Facebook page at
Facebook.com/AdamKTheMovie
and give it a like. Do the same with the Axeman
franchise at
Facebook.com/AxemanAtCuttersCreek.
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I
am completely insane but it's okay, I live in my own world;) Thanks
for the interview!
Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me.
And I look forward to doing this again soon!
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find Joston Theney at adultvideouniverse.com
