Your new movie Parasites
- in a few words, what is it about?
Parasites
is about a three friends that get lost in the seedy streets where
they encounter a crazed gang of vagrants that seizes them and kills all but
one man. The surviving man escapes on foot, naked and unarmed, with the pack
of depraved transients in pursuit, and only seconds away from capture.
Parasites is
said to be inspired by true events - care to elaborate, and how closely
did you stick to the facts, where did you deviate? It's my
take on Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey which is based on the amazing true
story of John Colter's Run. It sticks close, I just replaced Blackfoot
Indian pursuers with a band of homeless bums and threw in a dash of social
commentary. Other
sources of inspiration when writing Parasites?
Walter
Hill's The Warriors was a huge influence as well as the works of Carpenter
and Romero. Some other films of constant influence are Street
Trash, The
Tall T, Exorcist III, Sorcerer, The Steel Helmet,
The Browning Version,
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Rio Bravo, Winchester
'73, Emperor of
the North, Hard Times, Night of the Demon, Zeder,
Lawman, Lifeforce,
Black Sunday,
The Wild Bunch, and The Thing. At
least for me, Parasites
has strong sociocritical undercurrents - was this at all intended, or did
that just happen along the way? The current climate of
what's going on today with racism, homelessness, class struggles, police
shootings, corruption and duplicity at every level all helped shape it.
But I don't feel it comes across as heavy-handed exploits of those themes,
it just shines a little light.
Parasites
is a quite action-heavy movie - so do talk about the stunt and fight work
in your film for a bit! All the actors did their own stunts
which is the main reason we shot the script in sequence, so that if anyone
did get hurt it worked into the story. Luckily, I had a great cast and
crew who trusted me. So when I asked Sean Samuels(Marshal) to run
naked through the LA river, jump out of the way of a moving train, be shot
with paintballs... he says “Okay, no problem.” No fear or hesitation,
just a great let's do it-attitude. For all the gorehounds among my
readers, you also have to talk about the bloody bits of Parasites,
and how were they achieved? Crystal Nardico and Melanie
DuBarr were recommended by SFX master Gary J. Tunnicliffe, and they did a
fantastic job on the bloodshed. Crystal was not only fast, but she came up
with a great Scatman Crothers Shining-style death for Joe
Pilato on the spot when the original death scene would have taken too
long. It's that kind of on-your-toes thinking that got us
through the 9 day, ten pages a day shoot.
What can you tell us about
your overall directorial approach to your story at hand? I
often go to extreme lengths to get the desired realism. For example,
a lot of the homeless wardrobe was clothing that I had worn out or found
over the years. It had been exposed to the elements, pissed on by my
rabbits, baked in a hot car... it was gross. So when you see Marshal
sitting next to a dumpster contemplating his situation, I assure you, he
not only looks like a bum, he smells like one too and those little details
go a long way for me. The
$64-question of course, when and where will your movie be released onto
the general public? It'll be available on all VOD platforms
on January 24th . Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of Parasites
yet?
When it played the FantAsia Film Festival in
Montreal, it garnered some of the best reviews of my career, which quickly
got it picked up for distribution by 108 Media. Which is a BIG relief when
you make a film with your own money. On the flip side, it got rejected
from numerous European festivals that deemed it racist. Unfortunately,
some might see it that way. Society has become so sensitive and
politically correct that I'm sure it'll offend someone, but as long as it
makes a lasting impression, mission accomplished.
Any future projects you'd like to share?
I'm
gearing up to do Horse this year [Chad's Horse interview - click here]. It is
vengeance/siege/chase/masculinity/morality packed into one hell of an
action-driven western about a lone gunfighter seeking vengeance upon the
men who murdered his horse.
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Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
https://www.facebook.com/parasitesfilm
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I'm
really excited to see what the world thinks of Parasites, it was a true
labor of love. Thank YOU! Thanks
for the interview!
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