|
Your new movie Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine - in a few words, what is it about?
Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine
is about a group of people just being in the wrong place at the wrong
time, typical slasher movie set-up. The
Route Nine Challenge - is that an actual thing, or how did you come
up with it? And do get into a bit of detail what the challenge entails? So
the Route Nine Challenge is 100% my creation, pretty much in a time where
jnternet challenges like tide pod eating, cinnamon eating, pouring ice
over each other's heads, and the cracked skull challenge, I wanted to base
a horror film on the naivety of people doing silly challenges with no
regard of other people. So it's 100% not a real thing, I actually hoped
that after seeing the film people would realize just how dumb internet
challenges can be, so we came up with a list of silly challenges. Other
than the ones mentioned in the movie there was: Cause
chaos at a roadside bar. Get
a stranger to kiss you. Get
into a fight with a group of locals. Cause
at least $100 damage to a business. Steal
a houshold pet from someone's property. With
Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine being a slasher movie, is that a genre
especially dear to you, and some of your genre favourites? Yes
very much, slasher movies are my favorite genre, I grew up watching jorror
movies, my first experience was when I was 8 years old, I woke up at about
2am, and went into the family living room, and turned on the TV, where I
sat and watched the original Halloween for the first time. All the lights
in my house were off and the restroom was on the other side of the house.
I was so scared I ended up using the restroom on my dad's recliner chair.
The crazy thing was I felt so alive being that scared as a kid, and I have
chased that feeling ever since. Other
sources of inspiration when writing Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine? Some
other inspiration for the film was looking around the desert in Nevada and
seeing just how creepy it could be, I came up with so many scenarios for
horror films, and just ended up throwing them all together, with a little
splash of Leatherface
- and Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine was born. Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine doesn't exactly hold back when it comes to
blood and guts - so do talk about the gory bits in your movie for a bit,
and how were they achieved? And in terms of violence in your movie, was
there ever a line you refused to cross?
When I set out to make the movie my #1 goal was to just do what I felt it
needed, I don't think there is a line I wouldn't cross, I really wanted
this to be a depiction of the evil in the world, and if a killer is
willing to kill, generally he's already crossed the biggest line already,
what he does beyond that is just as bad. Funny bit about the brain scene,
I have a jello brain mold that I forgot to use to make the edible brain,
and the day came for that scene, and we needed something for that scene,
so I ran to the store and grabbed cauliflower, it was a full head and raw,
we broke it apart and added our edible blood mixture. In my opinion it
ended up looking better than I could have imagined. If you think these
scenes are gory you should see the rough draft script for Dollface 2.
Do talk about Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine's approach to horror! The
approach for the movie was just simply do what I felt the film needed, put
it out into the world and see where it fits within the genre, could be cannibal,
slasher, horror/comedy. A few
words about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
I
just had fun with everything, I wanted to make the type of movie that
stands out, I know i'm not going to re-invent the wheel, but I can make a
movie that people talk about, and that's the approach I took. What
can you tell us about Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine's cast, and why exactly these people? The
cast was outstanding, in every way. I believe only C.J. Sibley, and Suzie
Sugg had any drama training, I believe it was high school drama class. So
the role of Cris was written for another person because I liked her look
and something about seeing her covered in blood was exciting. But when I saw
C.J.'s audition everything changed, and luckily the original girl flaked out and couldn't do it.
Once C.J. auditioned there was no other
person I wanted. Eddie Blake, who played Dollface, also had an amazing
audition, as he did the monologue from Deep Blue Sea from Samuel L.
Jackson complete with being eaten by a shark that was thrown across the
room by his wife. Chad was 100% perfectly played by Chris Sugg, and just
everyone, they were all so great and fun to work with, that I intend on
putting them in everything else I make. Just so much talent. Where
was Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine actually filmed, and what was it like filming
there?
We
filmed in Fallon NV, which is a small town an hour from Reno and 5 Hours
North of Las Vegas, We shot on 2 different farms, the main farm was the
Miller Farm that the house, car graveyard, bus, and all the kill
scenes were filmed, whereas the Dodge/Sorenson Farms were used during
Chris's end walk back to
the car, as well as the swamp land area. It was a great time shooting at
all the locations, around every corner there was something awesome and new
that I wanted to use. A few words about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere?
On set it was really laid back, well other than the fact
we were 1 week into the shoot and then Covid broke out.
We all agreed to continue on because the cast was
enjoying the shoot, and did everything they could to
stay safe which worked out, because no one in the cast caught Covid,
but things did get interesting. Eddie
Blake got called out of state for work for a month and a
half during the shoot, Trina Enloe and Junior Alanis moved to Kansas, so we had to re-write their parts so
they could move on time, as well as Trina and Junior
getting married and pregnant during the shoot. But I feel safe speaking for everyone in saying it was
fun, so
fun in fact we have all become friends and plan on
working together again soon.
The $64-question of course, where can
Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine be seen? Currently Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine is being submitted to several festivals including
Tromadance and
Calgary Horror Con. Also once I finish the caption track the movie will be
submitted to Filmhub where we have the opportunity to be found on various
streaming sites and apps like Tubi, Freevee and Amazon. I will also be
getting everything together very soon for the Blu-ray release. Anything you can
tell us about audience and critical reception of Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine?
We
released Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine locally in Fallon NV, at the Fallon Theater on 2
screens, at first I wasn't very optimistic about releasing on 2 screens on
Halloween but we did it anyway, and I was very surprised to see that BOTH
screens sold out and the theater had to open more seats. This added to my
stress as there isn't much of a horror community in this small town, and I
was worried if in people's opinions did I cross the line? To my dismay, I
had people walking up to me and the cast after the shows, and tell us how
much fun it was, and offering to be killed in a sequel. It seemed people
actually thought it was artistic. Any future projects you'd
like to share? So I just finished a script for an anthology
horror film that covers various
subgenres of horror, with a lot of the cast from Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine wanting to take
part. I also finished a 5 episode webseries script, which is 100% comedy,
and just a little description of that is Big
Bang Theory but in reality,
or better yet Big
Bang Theory meets Kevin Smith. Lots of adult language
as well as dick and fart jokes. Also working on completing the script for
Dollface 2. What got you into filmmaking in the first
place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject? What
got me into filmmaking was just being a fan, but I guess the final piece
was when I met Brandon Parmley who was the camera operator, director of
photography
and FX guy on Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine. We met in 1993 and he would show me these little
terrible movies he made with his neighbors, and I was like, dude we can do
better than that. So we ended up making about 20 or 30 little terrible
horror movies on his dad's video camera. It was something we always wanted
to do, and we promised each other we would do a real one together someday
- well we did. As far as training nope, everything I learned was from DVD
special features, YouTube, books, anything I could find, and I'm obviously
still learning.
What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine? Prior
to Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine I have 2 actual films to my credit - or discredit. The first
was a full length slasher/supernatural film Sinner that I shot
in 2006. I was in a terrible place in life, having just moved from
Tennessee to Nevada after a very very messy divorce, I wasn't it any shape
to shoot a film and it showed,.That film also opened at a local theater to
a packed house full of disappointed viewers. My next project was overseeing, editing and in a way directing a documentary about my actual
heavy metal band Pain Clinic. It was about our hunger for
becoming something other than just another local band. It was alled
Thrashed, Trashed, and Smashed: Pain Clinic's Quest for the American Dream.
This film can be found on YouTube. How would you describe
yourself as a director? As
a director I would describe myself as a visionary but not trying to become
anything other than myself, I try to create a fun and enjoyable set,
anything I expect my actors to do, I will do myself, I am hands on, but I don't micro-manage, and
I am always open to ideas. Filmmakers who inspire you? The
filmmakers that have inspired me are kind of all over the place. John
Carpenter of course, Kevin Smith, Daniel Farrands, Eli Roth, Lucio Fulci [Lucio
Fulci bio - click here],
John Waters just to name a few. Your
favourite movies? My
favorite movies are movies you will find on most horror lover's lists. Halloween,
Friday The 13th,
Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, things in that vein.
However I love everything Kevin Smith has done, Clerks, Mallrats, etc. But
my all time favorites are Halloween,
Psycho, Strangers on a Train and
Oliver Stone's The Doors. ... and of course, films you really
deplore? Movies
I deplore. Hmm tough one, as I generally enjoy all movies - but if I had to
choose a few, I'd say right off the bat there was a very low budget film,
BTK, not the one featuring Kane Hodder, but there is an earlier one, that
is absolute trash, that was just godawful. Typically if I hate a movie I
erase it from my mind, as I'm having a hard time coming up with another. 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!!!
|
|
 |
Dollface:
Terror on Route Nine
does have a Facebook page, it can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheDollfaceMovie
I do have a Youtube page that is mainly my photography:
https://www.youtube.com/@jeffgresham
I haven't really built a huge online presence, and after making the film, I
honestly didn't know what to do with it. So I am looking to build that
presence and get out there to as many people as possible. Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask? I
think you covered everything pretty well. you conduct a great interview,
and it was a pleasure answering these question, I thank you for taking the
time to check out my little film, and I'm glad you had some fun with it. I
will 100% keep you up to date with the future of Dollface and other
projects. Thanks for the
interview!
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
