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An Interview with Michael Reich, Director of She's Allergic to Cats

by Mike Haberfelner

April 2020

Films directed by Michael Reich on (re)Search my Trash

 

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Your new movie She's Allergic to Cats - in a few words, what is it about?

 

It’s about dogs. And bananas. And rats. But really it’s a love story.

 

Is She's Allergic to Cats in anyway autobiographical? And/or how much of yourself do you see in your movie's Michael?

 

Everything happened in one way or another, but it’s all jumbled and mixed up in different ways. So everything is true but also not true. The character of Michael is kind of a combination of me and Mike Pinkney... but from like 2010.

 

A few years prior to She's Allergic to Cats you've made a film about dog grooming called Cats - and somehow I think that one has influenced She's Allergic to Cats. Am I at all right in that assumption, and if so, could you elaborate?

 

Yeah. Cats was a short version I made a few years before She's Allergic to Cats. Basically it was just a bunch of super slow motion sensual shots of dog grooming with a little narrative around it. It got into SXSW but I wasn't able to go because I was shooting the feature at the same time as the festival. It got into a bunch of other fests though and people seemed to really dig it so it gave me confidence when I saw out to do the full length version.

 

(Other) sources of inspiration when writing She's Allergic to Cats?

 

Direct influences for this movie were (in no particular order) Steve Hanft’s inspirational first feature Kill The Moonlight, Ken Russell, David Lynch, Harmony Korine, Ninth Configuration, American Werewolf In London, Wendy and Lucy, Air Bud: Golden Receiver.

 

Every now and again, She's Allergic to Cats leans towards the surreal and/or absurd - so how hard was it not to (literally) lose your plot in the process?

 

I always wanted to go for the emotional before the surreal or absurd. That was really important to me. And it kept me on track to not lose the plot too much. Although some reviews out there may disagree with me on that one.

 

She's Allergic to Cats' lead character is talking about remaking the horror classic Carrie (with cats) a lot - is that at all a favourite of yours, or have you thrown in that film at random, and in any case, why Carrie?

 

I love Stephen King. That was the first author I became obsessed with. I read almost every Stephen King book up until Gerald’s Game. And I always loved Carrie. It wasn’t my favorite book of his but obviously I loved the De Palma movie. It’s iconic.

There are all these Easter eggs in She's Allergic to Cats, references to other movies. The idea of an all-cat Carrie remake was lifted from this movie The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty, who wrote The Exorcist. He also wrote the book Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane, which was then made into The Ninth Configuration. It’s one of the few movies he directed. In that movie, there are all these inmates in a psych ward, and each one is crazier than the next. And then Jason Miller, who played Father Damian in The Exorcist, is a psych patient that is obsessed with performing Hamlet with all dogs. It’s a running joke through the movie that’s really funny, but also really insane at the same time.

I saw that movie with Mike Pinkney, who’s the star of She's Allergic to Cats, and we thought it was hilarious. So when we were pitching music videos, our joke pitch would be “Let’s do an all-cat remake of Carrie” to get us talking about ideas. So that’s where the cat Carrie came from. It shows my love for both Stephen King and William Peter Blatty.

 

She's Allergic to Cats features quite a lot of cats, dogs and rats - so what was it like working with all these animals, and will you ever do it again?

 

I will always work with dogs. I mean, dogs are THE best. My dog Martin is the coolest. He loves wearing costumes and has great comedic timing. I’d love to work with him on a big project some day. Cats kind of suck to work with though. They are visually interesting but don’t take direction well at all. Rats were kind of whatever. They were uninspiring and didn’t really show that much emotion. Ducklings were also difficult to work with. They were cute but they were constantly pooping everywhere and smelled pretty bad. Apparently duckling poop can give you salmonella so we had to constantly be washing our hands around them. Now everyone is washing their hands though so I guess we were ahead of the curve on that one.

 

Do talk about your key cast, and why exactly these people?

 

As for cast, Mike Pinkney was always going to be played by Mike Pinkney. It just made sense. I cast Sonja Kinski because she is an amazing actress. I also thought the connection to Cat People was pretty cool. I love that movie. I wrote the part of Sebastian after a good German friend of mine (also named Sebastian). And someone had actually already sent me one of Flula Borg’s YouTube videos because he reminded them of Sebastian so much. So when we were casting the movie it was a no-brainer. And Honey is played by my actual landlord/street musician Honey Davis. He really lights up the screen.

 

Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of She's Allergic to Cats?

 

People either absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. Even the people who hate it say that they will never be able to get certain images out of their mind. So that’s cool.

 

Any future projects you'd like to share?

 

I have been writing a Christmas horror movie and a Bar Mitzvah horror movie. So one of those two things.

 

What got you into making movies in the first place, and did you receive any formal education on the subject?

 

When I saw the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be Edward Furlong. I grew out my hair. I took acting classes. I listened to Guns'N'Roses and Public Enemy.

 

Filmmakers who inspire you?

 

Hmmm… I dunno maybe lo-fi Douglas Sirk meets super slick George Kuchar?

 

Your favourite movies?

 

I think ET is my all time favorite movie. But then I also really love Police Academy 4: Citizens On

Patrol. So it’s kind of a toss up.

 

... and of course, films you really deplore?

 

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I really didn’t like Superman V Batman. It made me physically ill. I had to leave the theater. Justice League was fine though. Or at least it was so bad that I actually kind of enjoyed it.

 

Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?

 

Websites are:

shesallergictocats.com

normal.tv

My Instagram is @normaltv

The movie's is: @ShesAllergicToCats

My dog's is: @george_arf_arf_Martin

 

Thanks for the interview!

 

Thank YOU! Was fun and really great questions.

 

© by Mike Haberfelner


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Thanks for watching !!!



 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!