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Your new movie The Last
House - in a few words, what is it about?
It’s a deranged fairy tale about a hooker named Love and a
maniac named Hate who are two white, hot stars that collide in a way that
changes them both forever. I think the Brothers Grimm would be
proud. How
did the project fall together in the first place? Years ago
I teamed up with Wes and Mary Laurie to make two films. The first being Silent Night, Zombie Night which I wrote, and the second which was
Wes’ screenplay Breath of
Hate. Silent Night, Zombie Night
sold fairly quickly because
it was a genre film and those are easier sells. Breath of
Hate was weird and
non-linear and although the distributors who saw it liked it they didn’t
know what to do with it. Our rep and my dear friend David Vasile was a
big champion of the film and convinced he could eventually give it a
proper home. Sadly, when he passed away I had no idea what I was going to
do with it until I spoke with Rob Hauschild at Wild Eye Releasing. He
really liked the film and wanted to take a crack at it so I figured it
would be in good hands and let him do his thing. Because it had been
listed on IMDb way back in 2011 places like Wal-Mart and Redbox would view
it as being an ‘old’ film so he changed the name to The Last
House
to give it a chance to sell better in those markets.
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What
can you tell us about The
Last House's screenwriter Wes Laurie, and what was your
collaboration like? Wes Laurie is one of those unique
voices whose scripts I always find really interesting. When we decided
to do these two films back to back he gave me a choice of what script of
his I wanted to make. I really liked Breath of
Hate and thought it was
do-able for the budget we had. Part of what makes Wes’s stuff fun to
read is the weird quirks involved. He claims all the foot worshipping is a
way to get Tarantino to watch the film, but I believe that’s just a
cover for Wes’ own stuff. There’s also a story about a ‘roommate’
of his who liked to fuck melons, but I have to question the validity of
this story as well. It’s like one of those ‘friend of a friend’ type
deals I think. In the film's central intellectual
conflict between (your characters) Love and Hate - honestly, who could you
identify with more, whom did you find more fascinating?
Intellectual conflict, huh? This is starting to get deep! Honestly, the
part I liked the most about the script was the love story between Love and
Ned. Love has an edge, which doesn’t let her get too emotional. When the
going gets tough in the mush department she has a way to deflect with dark
humor. I liked that about her.
Hate spouts a lot of bullshit, which I don’t even know if he
believes. The only reason this aspect of the film turned out really good
was because Ezra Buzzington is a great actor. He makes the bullshit sound
interesting. What Wes was trying to say exactly I’m not sure, but it
seems like Hate wants to be his own god and make people in his own image.
That’s all crazy talk, but then again I think religion is a bunch of
crazy talk as well.
The
Last House is certainly full of violence and also features its
fair share of sexual allusions - so how did you handle these aspects of
the movie, and why?
I didn’t want this movie to be some torture porn garbage. I can’t
stand those types of movies. I don’t get why an audience wants to see
people tortured for torture sake, but then again there’s a lot of crazy
fuckers out there. The violence in this film, which is mostly perpetuated
upon Love by Hate is done in a measured fashion. Hate uses pain and
suffering, in his mind, for a higher calling. Instead of giving you a kiss
he’d rather bust your fingers. But if you are asking me how, as a director, I handled these things?
Well, I just worked with exceptional actors. I sat down with them, told
them what was expected and let them run with it. I try to hire actors who
I trust to take the material and make it the best it can be. In this
respect I was not let down during the filming of The
Last House.
It’s all a matter of trust really. However, there are some cleanliness issues in which if you have two
girls sucking each other’s toes then you should make sure they clean
those stinky feet and possibly get a pedicure as well!
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The
Last House features a rather stellar cast - so why exactly these
people, and what was your collaboration like? And how did you get some of them
even?
Jason Mewes was approached through our associate producer Aine Leicht
who knew someone repping him at the time. When I first started
pre-production I didn’t have an idea of who I wanted for Ned, but after
he was suggested I thought it could be really interesting idea. Or a total
miss.
He basically plays that one-note character in the Clerks films, which
isn’t much of a stretch emotional-wise, but there was a sweetness I
thought that we could tap into. After all is said and done I think it’s
one of his best performances. Of course, I did have Lauren Walsh on my
side when it came to handling him. We agreed the approach that she should
take during their intimate scenes, which helped put him in a natural
setting because at first he was really shy!
Sadly, I believe the only reason we got Jason in the film was because
he needed money at the time. Once he did all his scenes he was immediately
out of there and hasn’t supported the film after the fact.
Ezra Buzzington was someone I found when I produced the film Someone’s Knocking at the
Door. I don’t remember how I stumbled
upon his reel, but I saw it and decided I really wanted him in the film.
When it came time to do The
Last House I know that Wes saw someone
much younger with a Trent Reznor-like quality as Hate, but I wanted Ezra.
I knew he would do a fantastic job and he did. Much of why the film is
interesting to watch is because he’s interesting to watch.
I had worked with many of the other actors previously. Both Jack
Forcintio and Felissa Rose were in Silent Night, Zombie Night and
Ricardo Gray/ Tim Muskatell were in Knocking. I thought all these
guys were wonderful so I waned to work with them again.
I found Lauren Walsh through the audition process. I didn’t think she
was a perfect Love, but she stood out from the rest for the role.
Monique Parent was introduced to me through a mutual actress friend at
the time. I tested them both for the role of Selma and thought Monique was
outstanding. Sadly, the other actress decided because of this she would
never speak to me again. I tend to lose ‘friends’ every time I make a
movie. I guess it’s like that line from A Bronx Tale, which I’ll
paraphrase:
“This guy owes me twenty dollars. It’s been two weeks now, and
every time he sees me he keeps dodging me.”
“Look at it this way…it costs you twenty dollars to get rid of him.
He’s never gonna bother you again. He’s never gonna ask you for money
again. He’s out of your life for twenty dollars. You got off cheap.”
Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of your movie yet?
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From
what I can tell most of the reviewers were expecting a torture porn film
and some of them seem pleasantly surprised that it was different. Not all
of them liked it, but whatever. If you like the film then I’m glad. If
you didn’t then I could care less. Any
future projects you'd like to share? Since Breath of
Hate aka The
Last House I’ve been doing a lot more monster SyFy-type movies. I recently went to Austin, Texas and filmed a new one called
Terror Birds. It was for a company called MarVista so I’m guessing
they will be putting it out sometime in 2016. It was a difficult shoot,
but in the end I was pleased with the results. I got to work with Leslie
Easterbrook, Greg Evigan and Jessica Lee Keller who were all fantastic.
So look for that in the near future! Thanks
for the interview!
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