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Your upcoming movie The Blue Hole - in a few words, what's it
going to be about?
It
started out as the wraparound story for a trio of shorts. I was having so
much fun writing it that I decided to make it the main story and tie in
the other two shorts thus making The Blue Hole the dominant story. It's
about a tabloid newspaper crew investigating disappearances in an infamous
blue hole deep in the Jersey Pine Barrens.
What were your sources of inspiration
when writing The Blue Hole? My #1 inspiration came from my
childhood fascination with the Jersey Devil. I didn't learn about it's
origins with the blue hole until I did a research paper in college many
years later. Ironically, I learned that my English professor had written
the only full length book on the legendary creature. After that I dreamed
of making a movie about it one day. As far as I know, one
segment of The Blue Hole, Spring Break at Zombie Lake, was
written by Herb T. Coyle - so what made his script perfect for your
anthology, and what was your collaboration with him like? I have never physically met Herb, but he has
been a client of Laura Giglio's [Laura
Giglio interview - click here] for many years, and we had been making
this series of mermaid movies for him. One day that all changed when we
received this crazy blood-drenched zombie script from Herb with his
request to do Spring Break at Zombie Lake which Laura would direct. Naturally, we
accepted because it was a horror movie and a paying gig! It turned out to
be our personal favorite from all his stories, and we found this
beautiful, creepy location that really brought the story to life. The
short was shot back in 2010 but was never distributed. Laura and I talked
about it over the years hoping to do something with it. So I had Spring Break at Zombie Lake
in mind when writing The Blue Hole, and Laura was eager to be my
associate director.
What
can you tell us about your movie's approach to horror, both as a hole and
segment-wise? As a whole, I would say it's more
of a mystery with elements of humor and horror thrown in. I wrote it from
a skeptic's point of view. I didn't want the characters to take their jobs
too seriously because they work for a tabloid. That's where the horror
comes in, the characters have let their guard down and are not expecting
to find anything sinister. Segment-wise each short has its own plot and
ending without being nicely wrapped up and leaves questions
unanswered. The Blue Hole ties them all together. For some it will offer a
more satisfying ending, but for others I'm sure they will wonder if a
sequel will be looming in the future. We also have 2 different endings
planned to help keep the mystery alive! Do talk about your directorial approach to
stories at hand? I try to always go back to my favorite
classic Hitchcock or DePalma movies and keep them in mind whenever I am
writing or directing. I'm not sure if that comes across on screen or not,
but those films are always on my mind during the process. You also appear in front of the camera
in The Blue Hole - so what can you tell us about your character,
what did you draw upon to bring him to life, and did you write him with
yourself in mind from the get-go?
My character appears in
The Last Laugh short. I play a crazed stalker and former high school geek named
Marty. This story was actually written by an anonymous client for my wife
(Dawn Murphy) and I to produce back in 1997. I tried to imagine myself as
a more outgoing and upbeat Norman Bates in high school trying too hard to
get the girl. Haha! When I played Marty, I had no idea that I would
revisit him in another movie so many years later.
What can you tellus
about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these people?
Joel Wynkoop [Joel D. Wynkoop
interview - click here] acts as a narrator in the role of Sheriff Blake who has the key role of
tying all 3 shorts together. I picked Joel because he is no stranger to
this sort of thing, and I knew he would nail that role. And he did!
The
talented beauty Michelle Gibbs is relatively a newcomer to the genre, and
I met her on the set of another short recently, Phil Herman's Horrortales
666 Part 2 anthology for Matt Cannon's Open House segment. I wanted some
fresh young talent and knew she could pull it off along with another
gifted beauty, Amanda Megan, who I also worked with on the same project.
Of course I needed my avid moviemaking bestie Phil Herman to play the
easily spooked Joe Bloresky. Phil has brought the role to life with sheer
wit and comic appeal. It is the first time I got to meet and work with
Phil face to face after 25 years of friendship, and what a blast it has
been!
Jacob Kane, another talented newcomer, rounds out the cast nicely
with charisma and charm.
Last but not least by any means we have a special
appearance by the great M. Catherine Wynkoop, another genre veteran who
has the potential to steal the show in one show stopping scene.
Other indie
horror veterans Debbie D [Debbie D
interview - click here], Dawn Murphy, Pamela Sutch [Pamela
Sutch interview - click here], and Laura herself
appear in supporting roles in the other two shorts.
As
far as I know, The Blue Hole is in production as we speak - so
what's the current status, what can you tell us about the shoot so far,
and any idea when and where your movie might be released yet?
We are currently in the middle of
principal shooting. I hope to wrap things up in early fall of this year.
We project a spring 2022 release, and we are currently fielding avenues of
distribution. Any
future projects beyond The Blue Hole you'd like to share?
Most likely I will take a break from movie making so that I can
resume writing my first novel, Homemade Horror, which is based on my
childhood experiences of making movies on Super 8. It's tough for me to
work on that and do movies too. But it's time I got back to my roots. Lord
knows I'm not getting any younger. And this is a story I've been wanting
to tell for a long, long time. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else? For now it has an
IMDb page
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15139624/
Updates for The Blue Hole can also be found on the Sharkey Video fan page
on Facebook and Instagram.
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Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I think that about covers it. Be sure to
check out Horrortales 666 Part 2 and Deep Undead (if you haven't seen it
yet). A Blu-ray release is in the works. Thanks
for the interview! It was
my pleasure! Cheers!
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