Your new anthology End of
October - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s about a woman who is dressed as catwoman and wants to go to a
Halloween party, but this does not seem to work out well for her and
evidently for the friends she makes phone calls to.
What inspired you to make an anthology in the first place, and what are the
special challenges making an anthology?
Nicolai Kornum [Nicolai Kornum
interview - click here], who I work with
on my films, did a lockdown horror anthology called The Isolation Horrors
back in March this year and I was part of that anthology and it really
inspired me to create one of my own. Every film is a challenge in its own
way and this was quite a challenge for me personally, as my original film
had to be cancelled because of the present day problems that are going on,
and I decided to film my dad again like I did for Nicolai’s anthology,
and it worked out much better than I expected.
What can you tell us about the other filmmakers involved, and how
easy or hard was it to get them on board?
They are both good friends of mine so they were very happy to come on
board
for the ride. Nicolai Kornum, as previously mentioned, works with me on my
films, he is a professional photographer and filmmaker ,and John Whitaker
is a musician and filmmaker. They both contributed great films, both
extremely different and both very unique. The other
filmmakers on board, how much artistic freedom did you grant them, and did
you give them any guidelines in regards to what you wanted for End
of October? They both had full artistic freedom and I gave them the outline of the
woman dressed as catwoman-character seeking a Halloween party and having a
venomous streak in her and they ran with that idea and came up with
excellent contributions to the anthology. Let's get to your segment then, October
Loner - what is it about, and what were your inspirations writing it?
October Loner is about an old man haunted by the end of his life, and he
has visions of a version of himself but it's a very eerie and disturbingly
ghostly bloody presence and it's goading him on into coming with it, into
another world? Another life? Somewhere very dangerous? It could be any of
those. Salem's Lot was a huge inspiration especially on the window scenes,
and Under the Skin and The Innocents were also big inspirations, but I
think I just came up with the story as I wanted to do something much more
atmospheric than Ghosting Isolation, with was part of The Isolation Horrors, and even though I’m really happy with that film I wanted to do
far better and I did with October Loner. What
can you tell us about your segment's as well as the whole anthology's
approach to horror?
Nicolai’s segment is entitled The Castrator and just by the title you
can tell it’s not about flower arranging or fluffy cute animals! John's
segment is entitled Last Confession, and if anyone knows John's work and his
music and videos as 1i2c, then you will know it's going to be out of the
ordinary and off the wall, and it is. The whole anthology’s approach to
horror is surreal and challenging, and 3 films that don’t conform to the
usual rules of horror and break out into their own worlds.
Do talk about your directorial
approach to your story at hand!
Well my dad is not an actor as such but he has developed into a great non-dialogue type of actor. I had to use lots of direction with him and it
worked well. I wrote the new idea I had for the film on the Saturday
morning and we filmed it on the Sunday evening and also re-shot some parts
on the Monday evening. I knew I wanted it eerie and creepily disturbing,
and I feel I have achieved that. What can you tell us
about your cast, and why exactly these people?
It was a very last minute choice bringing dad in, and it worked great. The
original film was very extreme in terms of it being quite full-on and
disgusting, and I had one of my heroes, John Waters, in mind as I was writing
this film but I will film that soon and drop the Halloween idea I had for
it and invent something new.
Vera Bremerton who is a good friend of mine
and is a musician and actress, was originally playing the lead in the
original film but again at last minute I asked her if she would film from
her home and she said yes and the same with another good friend of mine,
Charlotte Gould, who is a brilliant professional actress, and she like Vera
was kind enough to step in at last minute and do some acting from home.
Nicolai who was kind enough to edit my film edited in Vera and Charlotte
and they connected up the story wonderfully. A few
words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Well I can only speak for myself as each film was done separately - but yes,
my dad didn’t behave like a diva on set! My mum helped out too on set. I
think dad was fine as long there was a cup of tea at the end of it for
him! I filmed it all on iPad and made all the music for the original film,
but the music fit the new film even better and really brings an uneasy
atmosphere to it. I work with a lot of low frequencies in my music and I
have seen people at screenings of my films look a little uneasy! I seem to
have a knack of getting under people's skin sonically, but in a good way. I
like my music to not only fill the room and but to take the whole room
over. I design my music to take you on a ride or a journey. The
$64-question of course, where can End
of October be seen?
End
of October premieres on a brilliant YouTube horror channel called iScreemZ at
9PM GMT and 4PM EST on Halloween night, and it will be followed by a repeat
showing of my film House of Lexi with Emma
Dark [Emma Dark interview - click
here]. I’m also thinking of
submitting my segment to film festivals after the film is shown. End
of October will remain on iScreemZ channel for people to watch.
Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of End
of October?
People really like the trailer so let’s see what happens on Halloween
night, hopefully it will go down well and we will get some nice reactions. Any future projects you'd like to
share?
Unfortunately I had to cancel a 2 day shoot recently again because of
what’s happening at the moment so I hope to film it in 2021.
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Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever
else?
@endofoctoberfilm
on Facebook
Mwdaniels.blogspot.com
Twitter.com/bleakscape70
Instagram.com/mwdbeats
Youtube.com/c/mwdbeats
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask?
Huge thanks to Nicolai, John, Vera, Charlotte, my Mum and Dad. Apart from
making films I’m currently finishing an international female hip hop
album talking about social issues, and I’m producing some female
underground hip hop artists both in America and in the UK. Thanks for the interview!
Thanks so much Michael for the interview, I really appreciate it.
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