Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Watch the Skies 2022

- Dream Hacker 2025

- Love and Comminication 2022

- If I Could Ride Again 2025

- Freak Off 2025

- Lavender Men 2025

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

An Interview with Harley Wallen, Director and Star of Ash and Bone

by Mike Haberfelner

October 2022

Harley Wallen on (re)Search my Trash

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro


Your new movie Ash and Bone - in a few words, what's it about?

 

Cassie is a rebelling teen and with a new stepmom it escalates and her father Lucas decides to take her and his new wife Sarah out of the city for some bonding and quality time together. What they find instead is the McKinleys, an urban legend more true and terrifying than their worst nightmare.

 

Now how did the project come into being in the first place?

 

As a big horror fan I’ve always wanted to give some nods to some filmmakers and movies that inspired me along the way. When we made Agramon’s Gate I wanted to give a nod to the mysterious daemonic horror films such as The Exorcist and even Poltergeist etc. With Ash and Bone I wanted to give a nod to some of the early 2000’s backyards violent tales like Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc. So we created a upper Michigan folklore in the McKinleys and gave the Vanderbilts reason to go there.

 

What can you tell us about Ash and Bone's writer Bret Miller, and what was your collaboration like?

 

Our collaboration is always fantastic, we have done this now on a few scripts and I feel like he really understands my style and how I like to tell stories because he also is much more about the storytelling and the characters, the intricacies beyond the simple stuff on the surface, and I love that!

 

Do talk about Ash and Bone's approach to horror?

 

What I really like about it is to go back to the impressions I’ve had over the years my Hitchcock impression has been very strong. I love suspense, I love wonder, I love drama and I love to relax the audience before I re-tighten the grip and that’s what I try to do, create a rollercoaster for the audience to go on a journey.

 

What can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?

 

I think one of the fun things was how when everybody read the first draft of the script they assumed the McKinleys to be “southern” because that’s what they are in so many films, but we wanted to keep this one in Michigan and go after UP accents! I also wanted the characters clearly defined pulling in different directions because that’s how disruption occurs. Especially within each unit itself.

 

You also appear in front of the camera in Ash and Bone - so what can you tell us about your charcter, and what did you draw upon to bring him to life?

 

Lucas is definitely a character I haven’t played before, he is an enabler, indecisive and passive, and that costs him at every turn. He becomes a victim of his own circumstances and we still can’t see him growing a spine, and communicating could have saved him but he deals with grief very differently than myself.

 

Do talk about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these people?

 

The secret ingredient to this cast was that the best auditions got the roles (although Jimmy Doom was an inspiration for the actual and eventual Clete). The cast found its way through sorting the best auditions for the most part. Although we toyed with very different options early on with Sean Whalen as Clete, with Yan Birch as the Sheriff and Scout Taylor-Compton was actually hired to play Anna when a schedule conflict changed things. But I knew Jamie Bernadette [Jamie Bernadette interview - click here] would be a great fit and deliver a memorable performance!!

 

A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?

 

We had a great experience, although we were tired when we wrapped as mostly we filmed overnights and slept during the day. It became extra special when we were out in the country as we stayed at the cabin and in trailers, and there wasn’t anything but nature pretty much around.

 

Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Ash and Bone?

 

I always try to go to festivals and when possible sneak in and sit in the back with a hat and see how people like it not knowing I’m there - so I had a good idea people would like it but it’s been a bit overwhelming the first week or so! Feedback has for the very most part been great!!

 

Any future projects you'd like to share?

 

Yes I have a film that I am ready to sign and probably will be signing at AFM this November called Beneath Us All. It is a unique spin on a vampire story that I think people will love! I reunite Sean Whalen and Yan Birch from The People Under the Stairs and add Maria Olsen [Maria Olsen interview - click here] from I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu and Percy & The Olympians. With Angelina Danielle Cama, Kaiti Wallen, Michael Alexander and more so it’s got a great cast!

 

Then in post production right now is the true story of Finding Nicole that was introduced to the world by Chris Cuomo’s Inside Evil. It’s about “girl meets boy gone wrong”, a domestic violence awareness type of film I’m very excited about!

 

Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Harley Wallen
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Harley Wallen here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

The easiest thing to do would probably be to follow Painted Creek Productions, Kaiti Wallen or Harley Wallen on any of the social media platforms, we’re pretty accessible with our fans, especially Instagram and Facebook but also on Twitter & TikTok.

 

Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

 

I would like to say thank you for being what I think a film critic should be and that is somebody who actually watches the film with an open mind then share their thoughts and feelings on it.

 

Thanks for the interview!

 

Thank you Michael, thank you for taking the time!

 

© by Mike Haberfelner


Legal note: (re)Search my Trash cannot
and shall not be held responsible for
content of sites from a third party.




Thanks for watching !!!



 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!