An Interview with Roger Sampson, Director of Origin of the Species

by Mike Haberfelner

September 2015

Films directed by Roger Sampson on (re)Search my Trash

Your new movie The Origin of the Species - in a few words, what is it about?

A serial killer, traveling with a little girl, happens upon the wrong house and gets an object lesson in natural selection by the vampire he encounters there.

You tackle a different kind of monster in each entry of the Forces of Horror Anthology Series - so what made you try your hands on vampires for The Origin of the Species, and what do you think you're bringing to the table that hasn't been tackled in countless other films?

Good question. As genres go, vampires have been well worn and retread over the years. My approach to them, as in all the anthology films, was to lead you down the path you expected to go, and then turn you around the opposite direction, and all with the goal of blowing your mind. With The Origin of the Species, we again give you the double whammy ending.

Your sources of inspiration when writing The Origin of the Species?

Well the title refers back to the Darwin book of the same name, which in large part has to do with natural selection. We over-emphasize the human tendency to assume we're in control and that our choices don't have consequences. This film provides a fictitious yet somber warning of the principal of sowing and reaping.

What can you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand?

With this film, we wanted to weave the complexity of the storyline in with good old fashioned horror. We added a more complex fight sequence than we had with Rawhead, and added some practical blood effects on top of our visual effects. We wanted to grab you with the story, scare you and then twist you around and do it again. LOL

The Origin of the Species features a quite extended fight sequence - so do talk about the conception of that one for a bit!

This fight sequence we had worked on for a while. Since we knew from the previous shoots the layout of the space, it was just a matter of plotting the beats to cover all the plot points while providing some action goodness out of our talented cast. We used bare hands, weapons and even some vamp strength to get us where we needed to go.

Your cast is mostly made up from series regulars - so do talk about them in this one for a bit, were all the roles written with exactly them in mind, and over the span of all the movies you made with them, how did you see them grow?

The core roles were always written for the same cast, but were all written before we knew who the cast would be. At the same time we knew the age range and demos of the cast, so the characters were written to fit that information. As we shot each film, the actors became more and more comfortable with each other, and their chemistry became very apparent by the last shoot. They all did a fantastic job!

You also have to talk about that great location you've found for The Origin of the Species, and what was it like filming there?

We were blessed to have a very generous friend allow us to shoot all the films on her ranch in Decatur, TX. It's a rather large place, as you can tell from the aerial photography in The Origin of the Species. It's awesome.

The $64-question of course, where can the film be seen?

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) The links below will take you just there!!! Find Roger Sampson at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Roger Sampson here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find Roger Sampson at adultvideouniverse.com

Currently the film is available for viewing on YouTube and will hopefully be showing at festivals soon. For now you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NazqldL1CXM

Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of The Origin of the Species yet?

Reception has been amazing. Everyone who's given us feedback has told us they believe it to be the best film in the anthology, and I agree with them. We were able to apply many of the lessons we've learned from previous shoots to The Origin of the Species and it shows in how much improved it was over the rest of the films. We're early on in the process, but we have big expectations for it.

Any future projects you'd like to share?

We are in development of our feature project called The Zombie Effect as well as several other projects you can see on IMDb. Our next short film is called Envious and is in pre-production. It stars Sheril Rodgers and April Hartman. We are working on casting the male lead.

Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?

Here is our website, Facebook pages and Twitter.

https://www.facebook.com/forcesofhorroranthologyseriesvolumeI

https://www.facebook.com/forceofnaturefilmsco

http://www.forceofnaturefilms.net/

https://twitter.com/forcesofhorror

Anything else you're trying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

No, I think you covered everything. Thank you for the interview!

Thanks for the interview!

© by Mike Haberfelner

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