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Your new movie Hunting for the Hag - in a few words, what's it about?
Hunting for the Hag
is about three young women who venture out to the woods to make a
documentary about this mythical creature called the Hawthorne Hag. They
start poking around in the middle of nowhere, looking for this strange old
woman - and things don't go exactly as planned, of course.
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Hunting for the Hag? I
was watching The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs one night and they were
showing Mother's Day, which I'd never seen before. But it
sparked this idea and I started writing stuff down that became the basis
of Hunting for the Hag. There's plenty of other inspirations - from the entire
Blair Witch franchise to
The Descent, Butterfly Kisses,
The Tall Man... all sorts of stuff. What can you tell us about your
co-writer (and one of the leads) Sierra Renfro, and what was your
collaboration like when writing the movie? Sierra
and I have known each other for quite a long time - close to 10 years now.
So I knew she would be easy to work with and we could knock out the script
pretty quickly. It was great collaborating with her because she brought a
female perspective that is very important when your movie features three
leading women. Sierra wrote a lot of the more difficult, uncomfortable
scenes in the movie and I think her voice really comes through in those
parts. Do talk about Hunting for the Hag's approach to horror! This
is definitely a horror movie but there's a good amount of comedy as well,
which sometimes surprises people. It's a thriller, it's a mystery, it's
kind of a bunch of different stuff. There's something in there for
everyone. Okay well... maybe not everyone! But hopefully horror and
found footage fans enjoy it. We had a great practical FX and make-up
person on set - Aleah Kraft. She created some awesome wounds and gashes
and had our fake blood pumping.
Hunting for the Hag
was in parts shot found footage style - so what are the
challenges and the advantages shooting that way?
We thought it would be easier and faster to film. Wrong! We were wrong. In a
lot of ways, found footage ends up being more complicated because you have
to plan your shots more to make sure they feel natural and make sense
within the context of the story. I will say that found footage allows for
more mistakes, so that's an advantage. If something is shaky or slightly
out of focus, it's not the end of the world. What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand? I'm big on collaboration and I'm big on giving everyone a free hand to do
their job and offer up a lot of suggestions on how to make the film
better. I don't like doing this stuff by myself, so I'll take all the help
I can get. With Hunting for the Hag, I encouraged our actors to play around
with some of their dialogue, because that usually makes it feel more
realistic. Dan Roebuck re-crafted a lot of the lines for his scenes and
made it a lot better. I love stuff like that. You also appear in front of the camera in
Hunting for the Hag - so what can you tell us about your character, what did
you draw upon to bring him to life, and have you written him with yourself
in mind from the get-go? Hopefully
I'm nothing like my character in the film, because he's a real piece of
work. I slicked back my hair, shaved part of my beard off and put on some
serial killer glasses. Sierra wouldn't come near me when she first saw my
new look, so I guess I was doing something right. We had asked a few other
people if they'd like to play the part but it just ended up being me. I'm
not much of an actor but I had fun playing a dumb sleazeball. Do talk about the rest of your
cast, and why exactly these people? Our
pre-production window was pretty small - about two and a half months. So I
hand-picked everyone because I knew them all personally and knew I could
rely on them to show up and deliver. Jasmine, Alexa and Sierra are all
based in LA, and I had a pretty good sense that they would have really good
chemistry together. Tommy and Steve are old buddies of mine whom I had
worked with on other projects. Nora and Nathan were the only two actors I
didn't know previously - but it was all a pretty organic casting process. You of course also
have to talk about your wonderful outdoors locations, and what was it like
shooting there? Rough! It was August in central Illinois and there were a ton of thunderstorms
rolling through. You can see some lightning in the movie, constantly
threatening to shut down production. There were also a lot of spiders and
other bugs constantly crawling on us. The California girls were not
prepared. They really got attacked by some bugs and were screaming their
heads off. So we left all of that in the movie, of course.
A few words about the shoot as such, and
the on-set atmosphere?
It was pretty good most of the time. Kind of like a fun summer camp vibe. The
days were long and it was a tough shoot, but everyone brought their A-game.
The one thing I would do differently is schedule another day or two
because we shot the whole thing in seven days and it just wasn't enough
time. I had to go back out there and get some pick-up shots. But that's
movie making... you learn from your mistakes and try to do better next
time. The $64-question of course, where
can Hunting for the Hag
be seen? Anyone interested can stream it on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home (which
used to be Vudu), and on various cable platforms on demand. You got some options. Anything you can
tell us about audience and critical reception of Hunting for the Hag? It's
interesting because the reaction has kind of been all over the place so
far. Thankfully, a lot of fans seem to really enjoy it and we have some
nice reviews as well. There's a lot of twists and turns in this movie, and
I think that throws some people for a loop because it's not what they were expecting.
At the end of the day though, if that gets people talking, I'm happy.
There's a little nugget of social commentary in the movie, so I do hope it
generates a little conversation. Any
future projects you'd like to share?
Yeah, we have a ghost-hunting show called Ghost Girls and we just
shot new episodes. It should be out on Tubi around Halloween 2024. Sierra
is part of that show as well. Beyond that, my producer Seth Chromick and I
definitely want to get another movie going. It's just a matter of figuring
out which one we want to do next. Fun stuff is on the horizon. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? I don't have any formal training beyond a handful of video editing classes
at my community college. I used to play in rock bands, and whenever we
filmed a music video it was a lot of fun. So I sort of drifted gradually
from music to movies. We made a zombie movie in 2007 called Late
Afternoon of the Living Dead, and that solidified everything for me.
That one is free to watch on YouTube if anyone wants to check it out. What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to Hunting for the Hag? This
is my first feature film as a director, but I made several shorts prior to
that and I've worked on a lot of other projects over the years in
different capacities. I made a short horror film on a sailboat called Below Decks that won some awards. That one was fun, although I
got seasick out on the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes you gotta suffer for your
art, right? How would you describe yourself as a director? I
do the best I can to be kind and easy-going on the set and throughout the
entire process. I want to have a good time and I want the people I'm
working with to have a positive experience. That's always my top priority.
I'm certainly not perfect but that's my mindset. If the movie ends up
being good, that's a nice bonus. Filmmakers who inspire
you?
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George A. Romero will always be my number one guy, and obviously there's a lot of
other filmmakers who would say the same thing. He's the gold standard for
me. I have to mention Ronald D. Moore, who was the showrunner on
Battlestar Galactica. Even though it's a TV show, it's one of my biggest
inspirations just in terms of crafting a compelling story with lots of
twists and turns. And Kansas Bowling [Kansas
Bowling interview - click here], who is a friend of mine and made
this incredible movie that I just saw a few days ago called Cuddly
Toys. I was getting a little emotional watching it because I just couldn't believe
how good it was. Kansas shoots her stuff on 16mm, and she's an amazing
writer and director. Your favourite movies? Night
of the Living Dead, Dawn
of the Dead, Day
of the Dead - pretty much any Romero film! Return of the Living
Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep,
Wet Hot American Summer, The
Big Lebowski, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, This is Spinal Tap...
I'm gonna stop or I'll rant forever. ... and of
course, films you really deplore? I
mean, there's not many because I'll watch damn near anything. But in
general, anything mean-spirited or made with bad intentions. Or gross
torture porn, that's just not really my thing. Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else?
Just search for Into the Night Motion Pictures on Facebook and/or
Instagram. We should pop up. Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? We're
hoping to do a Hunting for the Hag Blu-ray because we have a
lot of special features and fun little BTS stuff that we'd love for people
to see. So if there's any physical media nuts out there who would be
interested in that, stay tuned. Thanks
for the interview! Thanks
so much, Michael. Hopefully we can do this again for the next movie!
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