You are currently working on the movie The Dark Psychosis.
Care to tell us what this movie is about? Sure. The film starts with a bunch of bored country youths who dare each
other to go to an old woman’s home in the woods, whom they believe to be
a witch. When they find her living in an old trailer in the forest they
are warned to leave or risk their sanity. She tells them she has found a
portal to another dimension, The Dark Psychosis - A place so terrible and
haunting, that it will rot your brains and destroy your soul. The youth
run back into the night except for one. The oldest of the group waits
patiently for the old woman to leave and quietly enters the trailer.
Inside he finds old television sets piled on top of each other, glowing
from an unknown source. Suddenly the largest of the TVs begins to pull the
young man towards it and he is thrown into its void. Enter the Dark
Psychosis, a rollercoaster of 6 original and strange stories of horror and
the bizarre.
How come you
decided to do an anthology movie?
Well I like making short films. After finishing my first feature, Demons|Among|Us, I was keen to doing something quick and with no pressure, just for the
hell of it. My SPFX man, Nick Kocsis and I loved playing with gore so much
in the feature we thought it would be great to just do a full on nonstop
gorefest of a short film….and Sickie was born. Funnily enough it
got a better reaction from some people than the feature did. So we did
another one, Greedy Guts, this time with a more comedic edge but still
gorey and with a strange storyline I wrote while in Amsterdam (enough
said). Both shorts won Best Film in different short film festivals
here in Australia. So an idea began in my mind as a way to bring a bunch
of stories together. I wanted to do something in the vain of the old
Twilight Zone shows of the 60’s, but of course with horror, kinda like
the Creepshow films but even more extreme and crazy. Something mental.
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The film is something of a
horror/sci-fi/comedy hybrid, right? Why this combination, and do you put
an emphasis on any of these elements? These are my favourite subjects. I love science fiction and I love
horror. Both walk a fine line of what can be perceived real and what is
fantasy. I think the horror genre allows so much room to move as far as
story telling goes. You can get away with practically anything. And I
think comedy is a good way to keep the material fresh and contrasting,
plus I like to laugh just like anyone else.
When will the
movie be ready, when will it be released, and where will it be released? I hope to have everything finished by early next year (2009). We have
three films completed and one in post production, so that leaves two more
to be shot. Then it’s a matter of shopping it around for distribution.
If we don’t get a deal that we are happy with then my production company
Lost Art Films will do it independently. Go to
www.myspace.com/thedarkpsychosis
for up-to-date news.
Your
first feature film (at least according to my knowledge) was Demons|Among|Us
back in 2006. What can you tell us about that movie? Demons|Among|Us
was my first feature, shot over three years with a completely
volunteer cast and crew. I also wrote, shot and edited it. It’s a horror
about demons both in the real world and in our minds. It also features
social/political undertones about the evils of mass consumerism, global
advertising and religion. It also very silly and gory ha ha.
Demons|Among|Us
was released in the USA by Troma. Do you feel any special affinity
to that company and especially there house-style? Well I grew up watching some of their earlier films like
Toxic Avenger
and Surf Nazis Must
Die. I loved them. And I guess in their way,
inspired me. Troma
had an obvious style and attitude of film-making that
was outside the Hollywood system and proved there was an audience for
something very different. But as far as having a similar style myself? No,
I think my films are quite different.
Your
films all seem to have horror-themes. Is horror a genre especially dear to
you? Yeah, like I said before I love that fact you can get away with such
crazy storylines in horror that you just couldn’t do in any other genre.
But to be honest, the bulk of
horror films out there bore me, they’re repetitive, non-original cash
ins. Ahh don’t get me started on remakes either GOD!!!
Also, your movies always seem to have a comedic
edge to them. Why do you think horror and comedy mix so well? It's good to have the contrast. Let the audience relax a little before you
smack them over the head again. And often when we are confronted
with things that are full-on and horrific, we laugh. And it’s this
response that fascinates me.
You
are making your films in Australia. What can you tell us about the
Australian indie-horror scene? Well there seems to be a lot of low budget/indie horror being made here
at the moment but it’s a huge country so I haven’t met any of the
indie filmmakers personally. I don’t know what there is to say about it really. I’m
stuck up my own ass most of the time working on my own projects.
How easy or hard is it to
get actors for indie-horror films like yours? Its easy to find
people, but getting good actors for no money is a
different story. I’m lucky in that I work in Television as a cameraman,
so I have some contacts and friends there that are happy to come on board.
For a lot of the roles for the Dark Psychosis I actually held auditions
advertised on MySpace.
What got
you into filmmaking in the first place, and are there any films you've
made I've just forgotten to mention?
Film is the greatest artistic medium of the modern age. How could you
stay away? When it works, it's fucking amazing!
I done a bunch of other
short films a long time ago but nothing worth mentioning really. I also
have directed several video clips over the years and still enjoy doing the
odd one. If the band is right and they trust you, the artistic freedom is
fantastic.
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Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
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Your and your
films' website/mySpace/whatever else?
Demons|Among|Us:
www.demonsamongus.com
www.myspace.com/demonsamongusthemovie
The Dark Psychosis:
www.myspace.com/thedarkpsychosis
Directors who have
inspired you? Weir, Miller, de Heer, Hillcoat, Cronenberg, Lynch,
Hitchcock, Kubrick, Gondry, Jackson, Anderson, Barker, De
Palma, Raimi ... any one doing something original and
unique and in their own style.
Favourite films, both recent and all time
favourites? Blue Velvet, Evil
Dead, The Shining, Raising Arizona, Mad Max, just to
name but a few.
Any movies you really deplored?
All these recent horror remakes. Please stop!!!!
At
the moment, you're quite obviously in the middle of The Dark Psychosis.
But are there any future projects lined up after that? I’ve got a few feature scripts in the works. So any producers out
there?
Anything
else I've just plain forgotten to ask and you're just dying to share with
us? UM...I hate to get on a soap box here but Support Independent
Cinema! I
know its easy to download stuff from the net but if you don’t buy the
odd DVD then how can the film makers keep making films? We're not like a
band that can tour around and make money. We need to sell DVDs or we are
dead. Thank you to all the people who have supported us and our films over
the years. You inspire us more than you know.
Thanks for the interview.
Thanks Mike ;)
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