Your upcoming movie Hauntedween 2 - in a few words, what's it
going to be about?
Hauntedween 2 picks up at the end of Part 1 then jumps to 25 years
later where Eddie gets his revenge! How did the project fall together,
and why make a sequel to the almost a quarter of a century old original Hauntedween?
And what did you like about the first one enough to want to make a sequel? The
movie was originally going to be a remake. I was a big fan of the original
movie and thought it was a fun story that could be done with a modern
twist and appeal to new audiences. Low budget horror and comedy sort of go
hand-in-hand and a lot of those films from the late 80s and early 90s are
the new cult classics. I contacted Doug Robertson, the director of the
original film to ask his thoughts on a new film. After some discussion we
both agreed a "sequel" was actually the way to go for several
reasons. With a remake, you have certain expectations you must meet to
please all the fans. Often times the remakes don't live up to the original
or people see it as disrespect to the original film. And since they
jokingly said there was a Part 2 'coming soon' during the end credits of
Part 1 we figured it made the most sense to go this way. Die-hard fans
love sequels, especially if they are directly connected to the original
film. There has also been a recent trend of classic horror franchises
reverting back to producing sequels to the original series instead of
pursuing remakes (Texas Chainsaw 3D and the upcoming Halloween Returns are great examples). We can tie our film to
the original while still "doing our own thing", which of course
is making a different film but in the style and tone of Part 1.
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Story-
and stylewise, how close will you remain to the original Hauntedween,
and what can you tell us about the intended look and feel of Hauntedween
2 as such? We aim to make a movie that looks and feels
like it was made by Doug Robertson a year after Part 1. We have a lot of
comedy and goofy gore scenes, casting mostly locals and filming it in our
hometown (in small town Nebraska) so it will look a lot like Bowling
Green, KY (where Part 1 was filmed). We are opening the movie with a scene
that picks up at the ending of Part 1, so we are teasing the possibility
of shooting the opening scene on 16mm to match the look of the original
footage. If that doesn't happen, we will go with S-VHS probably. The rest
of the film will be shot on HD, but we are lighting and framing it almost
exactly the same as the original. The story has a lot of the same elements
too: a group of young adults who need to raise money for a college event
so they re-open an old haunted attraction and the killing starts all over
again. We've got all the slasher film stereotypes for the characters, yet
with rich character development like Part 1.
Hauntedween 2 promises its fair
share of humour and gore - so how will you approach these two aspects of
your movie, how will you merge then? Ironically the
original Hauntedween was a big inspiration for a lot of my older films. I
loved the montages (especially when set to the theme music) so that was something I began incorporating into most of my movies. Shots of a band
playing, the low brow humor and over-the-top gore are also elements I have
taken into my other work as well. So you can expect most of those things
to be present in Part 2 no doubt. I really like the raw comedy in Part
1.
The scene at the house party with the kids flipping a cigarette in their
mouths, the drunk guy falling in the background, the "drunk
vision" part, all that stuff is classic and we will have some very
similar scenes. And since it's a sequel, it's important to us to up the
ante on the gore as well. We have a couple death scenes that are direct
homages to the original too :)
scene from the original Hauntedween |
As far as I know,
the creator of the original Hauntedween, Doug Robertson, will
somehow be involved in Hauntedween 2 - so what will his role be?
And what can you tell us about the rest of your key crew? Doug
is involved in many aspects. For one, I felt I owed it to him to ask his
opinion first. He made the original, it's his baby, and I don't want to
step all over his work. He also has been reading the outlines and offering
suggestions on certain plot points. He has a cameo in the movie too. I
won't reveal what just yet, but so that means he will also be here for a
big part of the production to sort of "oversee" things. Doug has
become a friend over the course of all of this so I want to make a sequel
that is worthy and won't let him down. It's very important to me that he
likes the film. I'm only doing a Part 2 because he and his crew worked so
hard to make Part 1. We have a couple pending crew members but so far
Dorothy Booraem (director of Wake The Witch, and several cool web series')
and Chad Haufschild (producer on Blood Rites and Meathook
Massacre) will
be crewing with me, Mark Thimijan is shooting it (he did Silent Night,
Bloody Night 2, Cheerleader Camp To The Death, and a slew of others for
me) and Wetworks SFX will be handling the gore. My ever trusty boyfriend
Jarad Allen will be the production assistant and possibly stand in for
Eddie in a scene or two. Jason Harlow [Jason
Harlow interview - click here] and Jeremy Lubash will probably be
involved in some form as well. Anything
you can tell us about your projected cast yet, and why exactly these
people? We have cameos and a couple small parts pending for
some horror vets. It's too early to officially announce anyone but let's
just say we are in talks with stars from 2 different A Nightmare on
Elm Street films and we are hoping to work out having Kevin
Vanhentenrych, the star of the Basket Case trilogy, step in as "Eddie
Burbor". The rest of the casting hasn't happened yet save for a
couple parts. Breana Mitchell (Doll Killer and Invitation To
Die) will
have a part for sure. It's important for a film of this caliber to have
some name recognition, for the fans, so a large portion of our budget will
be going to landing these people.
As we speak, Hauntedween 2 is still in
its fundraising stages - so what can you tell us about your fundraising
efforts? We literally launched it like 2 days ago. We have
4 funders on board so far but have a long ways to go. Our goal is $10,000,
but only need $5000 to physically make the film. However, that other $5000
guarantees the big actors, quality gore, more time to shoot and being able
to pay our actors and crew upfront. This is the first fundraiser I've ever
done, as most of my other films had private investors and producers. But
I'm in a tough position right now, having recently left New Wave Pictures
and without a "regular" producer. Since this film has been
planned for a long time I didn't want to bail out of it just because I
don't have a guy to just hand me a check to make it. We considered lots of
other options to help make this film happen, and since the original is
such a fan favorite, we figured allowing the fans to be the ones to make
it happen made sense.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hauntedween-2/x/10940568#/story Once the funds are raised, what's the schedule?
And any idea when and where the film might be released yet, however
tentatively? We plan to film it in mid August, probably
done by mid September. I believe our distributor, Screamtime Films, is
aiming for a Halloween release, so I'll be busting my ass editing after we
wrap. It will be on both VHS and DVD as well as streaming on Amazon.
Screamtime will also do a special re-release of the original film alongside it too.
Any future projects beyond Hauntedween 2
you'd like to share?
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This year I had 5 movies booked. I've
wrapped 2 of them already. Hauntedween 2 is the 3rd film, then
I have 2 more I'm doing for a company called Nemesis Video. One is a
killer animal flick called Blood Claws, the other is a meta
horror called Shockumentary about a group of friends who
discover their missing friend in a Faces of Death style movie
getting killed. Their investigation into her disappearance leads them into
the dark and seedy world of snuff filmmaking. Both of those will film in
the fall and be released exclusively to VHS. Then I get a couple months
off during the winter before (hopefully) starting Death Doll 2
in the spring next year. Your/your movie's website,
Facebook, IndieGoGo?
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Hauntedween2
Indiegogo:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hauntedween-2/x/10940568#
Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely fogotten to ask? Please donate if
you can! Only $5 gets your name listed in the "Special Thanks"
of the movie credits! If you can't afford a donation, please share our
IndieGoGo link! Every little bit helps and we are counting on the fans to
make this happen! Thanks for
the interview!
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