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Your upcoming film Scream Machine
a.k.a. Death by VHS - in a few word, what is it
going to be about?
Scream Machine
is about a rogue group of Military elites/high
officials who are testing out a new mind control weapon on our own troops,
the goal is to use this weapon to cause hallucinations, & make the
enemy kill off themselves thru mind control, yet something goes horribly
wrong ... With Scream Machine's
anthology-format, you stay true to your earlier films. What is it that
makes these omnibus movies so endearing to you? I've always
loved anthologies, & I think I'm heavily influenced by Rod Serling
& other TV-hosts that presented their stories, like Hitchcock etc.So
naturally I fell in love with the idea of hosting my own films. For Scream Machine, you retired your horror host Scarlet Fry, who appeared in all
of your previous films. Why, and will there be a wraparound story in Scream Machine
at all?
I retired Scarlet Fry because I just felt like I was making the same
movie over & over. The Horror Hosting scene has gotten really popular
in recent years, but they don't really acknowledge a Scarlet Fry-type host,
they really are more purist & traditional, & so if you're not
hosting a film thats already been made, such as Night
of the Living Dead etc, & presenting it to the viewer in a
format similar to something Elvira does, then they don't
really care. Although i did host one TV-show where we ran Carnival
Of Souls, an old black & white film from the 60's. This will
be included on the Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest special edition coming out Oct 18th 2011.
As far as the wrap around story for Scream Machine, it's going
to be more like the old Amicus
anthologies, where there will be a story intertwined that ties
it all together, which will be the military doing the experiments on
soldiers - each story you see will be a subject's hallucination
What were your inspirations for the
individual tales of Scream Machine? Definitly
not Troma Or
Herschell Gordon Lewis films like in the past [Herschell
Gordon Lewis bio - click here]. Scream Machine
is definitely
more influenced by the old Amicus
anthologies like Asylum,
& what we've shot so far reminds me of those goofy Tales From
The Darkside-episodes back in the eighties. On Scream Machine, you share directing duties with David Sabal. A few words
about him, and what was your collaboration like? David is
probably the most creative cameraman I've ever worked with, a lot of times
we will be on set & he will ask me to approve a shot he took, & I
know I don't even need to look, he is that good, I have full confidence in
his ability, I believe he is currently involved with a hit series called Western
X.
How
would you describe your own directorial approach to Scream Machine? Like I said I try to put as much faith in my
people as possible & let them do their own thing, I'm really there to
just coach them when I feel it's needed, & to oversee everything, I
spent a lot of time doing most other duties as well, except cameraman,
Dave Sabal, who is also the co-director on this film, which is why you
will see a big difference in the shooting style in this film. I wanted to
go a lot more handheld this time & get creative with shots, Nightmare
Alley was mostly shot on a tripod.
Scream Machine
was co-written by
Laurence Holloway, who also co-wrote and co-directed your last film, Nightmare
Alley. What can you tell us about him?
He is a good
guy, he is no longer on this project to the degree he was on Nightmare
Alley, he is actually co-directing a film called Voices from
the Grave co-written by Gary Bradner from The
Howling, so he has moved on to bigger & better things, god
bless him. Anything
you can tell us about your cast yet? So far we got a few
unknown actors but I've been in touch with people like Devanny Pinn [Devanny
Pinn interview - click here] & Shawn C. Phillips [Shawn
C. Phillips interview - click here], we'll
see how it pans out. We also have a good amount of local theater talent. Your previous films
haven't exactly been for the faint-hearted. How far do you go concerning
violence and gore in Scream Machine?
Actually
we are defintley going to tone down the language in this film, we want to
go for more of a traditional horror approach. Of course it will still have
that Scarlet Fry-flavor but this time it will be more about the story. We
plan to still have plenty of gore.
The
$64 question of course, when is your film going to be out, tentatively? Sometime
in 2012, We will be released on Chemical Burn or World Wide
Multi Media, that's already been agreed on. I would say tentatively
Summer 2012.
While Scream Machine
is still a work-in-progress, your
second-to-last movie Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest has received a quite fancy re-release.
Want to talk about the new Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest-DVD for a bit?
Yes, this
is going to be a triple feature special edition, first you get Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest as a single release for the first time
with bonus Calico Cooper outtakes & bloopers (Calico being Alice Cooper's
Daughter), then you will also get Scarlet
Fry's Horrorama, which was my first film that was released in 1991
- some say that was my best -, & last but not least the one & only
Horror Host appearance I did on TV presenting Carnival
of Souls, also there will be lots of special features never seen
before. Scarlet
Fry's Junkfood Horrorfest's only prior release was in a 50pk box
set & was total bare bones.
Any
future projects beyond finishing Scream Machine?
I
got a few things in the works, one is a documentary that has nothing to do
with the horror genre, & my biggest challenge is I'd like to open a vintage
horror memorabilia & DVD rental shop, I've been a lifelong collector
& i think with my knowledge I can open a cool shop - but it's hard in
today's economy & the market is always changing, so that's down the
road.
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Your/your
film's website, Facebook, whatever else?
Scream Machine has a Facebook page :
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scream-Machine-2012/170689946303343
Anything else
you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
I just wanted to mention that I'm now the Vice President of
Acquisitions for Chemical Burn Enterteinment & World Wide
Multi Media. So far I have signed some great titles like Indemnity,
The Curse of Blanchard Hill, Below, Fell (Jeff Dylan
Graham), Gr30k, Fetish
Dolls Die Laughing & more, so if you're an
indie horror filmmkaker (doesn't have to be horror) please shoot me an
email waltruther@yahoo.com.
www.chemicalburn.org
Thanks
for the interview! No problem, anytime. Thanks for having
me.
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find Walter Ruether at adultvideouniverse.com
