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Your new movie Waltz - in a
few words, what's it about
Waltz is a psychological thriller about a young woman who loses her job
and, out of desperation, begins a fairly successful erotic social media
page that possibly attracts some unsavory characters.
What were your sources of
inspiration when writing Waltz?
I’ve always loved stories with layers, where the characters aren’t all
they seem and where the villain is the hero of their own internal
narrative. The cool thing about a waltz is that at different points during
the dance, each partner leads. I wanted to create a story where we see
that happening psychologically, between two very strong-willed characters
each of whom is “right” in their own mind.
Do talk about Waltz's
approach to horror! We spend a lot of time building tension with Alice through her job loss
and the fallout from that. The real horror kicks in at the mid-point
once Alice is abducted, and from there we get into psychological torment,
physical abuse, and body horror. It gets brutal and visceral. Alice’s
captor, the Hatter, is particularly frightening because they believe they
are acting for Alice’s benefit and will seemingly do anything to make
their point. Villains who believe deeply that they have the moral high
ground are always scarier to me because they see what they’re doing as a
moral necessity. A few words about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand?
I enjoy stories that can breathe and give you time to get to know the
characters. The first half of the film is kind of a dramedy, so that’s how
we shot it. Montages, bright environments, a lighter aesthetic and feel.
We get to know Alice and how she treats those closest to her. Once we hit
the halfway mark, there’s a big tonal shift. We restricted our movement
and went with tighter shots to create a sense of claustrophobia. The
Hatter’s lair is dark, full of shadows. The shift in tone was risky,
especially on top of the slow-burn pace, but I felt it was a risk worth
taking. What can you tell us about Waltz's
cast, and why exactly these people? With such a small cast, I knew we needed to have the right people. I
auditioned a dozen Alices and a dozen Hatters, all together in various
combinations. The chemistry between them would make or break the film.
Hannah Keeley brought such gravitas with her, being a working actress on the
stage and screen in England. She brought dignity and power and
vulnerability to Alice, and her chemistry with Hattie Baier was off the charts.
Hattie was still in college when we hired her, but the way she sunk her
teeth into Ginny sold me instantly. The role was demanding, with big
emotional swings and quite a bit of “crazy”, but there’s a sympathetic
quality to her. You kind of just want to give her a hug and tell her it’ll
be okay. For Calvin, David Dietz [David
Dietz interview - click here] was really the only choice. He embodied
the “lovable schlub” perfectly. He’s the everyman, the guy who fell for a
friend who is way out of his league, a woman he will do anything for,
despite being firmly in the friend zone. Do talk about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere!
The shoot went through quite a few phases. We did all the darkest stuff
first; our first 2-3 weeks were at Freddy’s Haunts in Aliquippa. These
were the most demanding scenes, physically and emotionally, so we
scheduled them first to get the cast at their freshest. We did a lot of
long takes with Alice tied up in the chair. It was a marathon to get
through and it put a lot of strain on the cast which comes through nicely
in the performances. Since the material was so dark and heavy, the cast
and crew took to making wildly inappropriate jokes and using dark humor as
a means of bringing some levity to the shoot. It was rare for a scene to
go by where someone didn’t make a “that’s what she said” joke. It got
pretty silly, but the humor helped a lot. When we left Freddy’s (and the
all-night shoots) behind, the tone lightened quite a bit. After spending
weeks covered in gore, Hannah was thrilled to shoot scenes on Alice’s
couch with a glass of wine or sitting on her porch with Calvin having a
beer. Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of
Waltz? It’s given me a bit of whiplash. The tonal shift and slow-burn elements of
the film have brought out wildly different opinions. Some people really
dislike the pace and how long it takes to hit the horror elements, and the
fact that it’s a low budget film. Most of the positive reviews tend to
praise the psychology and the writing, and some actually liked the tonal
shift and that it doesn’t fit neatly into a subgenre. Our villain looks
like a slasher though, and I think that probably sets some expectations
from the start that, for some, aren’t ever met.
Any future projects you'd like
to share? We’re currently in post-production on a zombie thriller, Dead Friends
Forever. This project began as a short but through a variety of happy
circumstances, we were able to make it into a feature. It stars Maddy Cox
as a neurobiologist on the run from her government employers in the midst
of a zombie apocalypse. She’s trying to find her missing sister and evade
her former close friend (played by Mike Psenick) as he is assigned to hunt
her down. During her search she meets a zombie that refuses to attack her
and, indeed, seems to protect her (played by Em Sullivan). It’s a unique
story, character-driven like
Waltz, although there’s a lot of zombie gore.
In fact, I had the great pleasure of working with a handful of former
“Romero” zombies: Jeanie Jefferies (the blond zombie in
Dawn of the Dead),
Michael Tomaso (the “mailbox 22” football zombie from
Day of the Dead),
Mike Ancas (one of the zombies that rips of Torrez’s head in
Day of the Dead) and Mark Tierno (the “beef treats” zombie from
Day of the Dead). For
everyone but Mark, we recreated their Romero zombie looks, so you’ll see
Jeanie in her blue flannel and Michael in his football jersey. Mark Tierno
is the only one not returning as a zombie. I have a few other projects in
the pipeline as well, including one that I’ve spoken to Felissa Rose
(Sleepaway Camp)
[Felissa Rose
interview - click here] about starring in. That’s a little further down the line
but she loved the idea and I’m optimistic we can make it happen.
What got you into filmmaking in the first
place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
Storytelling has always been a part of me. My mom taught me to read before
I ever went to school. I devoured books constantly. As a kid, I’d play
with toys or with my friends and come up with these big, intricate stories
we would act out. When I outgrew that, I turned to the written word. My
mom gave me her electric typewriter which I’d be on at all hours, clacking
away. I wrote a lot of prose back then, but when I got into high school
and got involved with theater, I wrote my first stageplay. I got to
direct it after graduating. What a rush! But it’s tough to do stageplays
without consistent access to a theater, so my interest kind of shifted
into something more achievable: film. This was all kind of in the
background of my “real life” - I went to college for Information
Technology since that seemed more practical to me for a career. So it
wasn’t until I was nearly 30 that I finally went to film school. I
attended Point Park’s Cinema and Digital Arts program and made my first
few short films there. I was only there for a few semesters before family
demands took me away, but I learned a lot and made a lot of great
connections. A few years later, I started my production company,
Grimm
Sleeper Productions, and began writing and directing.
What can you tell us about your filmwork prior to
Waltz? I made some student films at Point Park, some of which are probably out
there somewhere on YouTube. Around 2016 I made a short film called
Waltz that went unfinished for a variety of reasons. My
first real professional effort was a short psychological thriller called
415, starring the
amazing Jess Paul and Lisa Dapprich. It made the festival rounds and
picked up quite a few awards at various local and national fests; its
success gave me the confidence to try a feature. I revisited the short
version of Waltz and rewrote it as a feature, and now here we are.
How would you describe yourself
as a director?
Always learning. I started directing to bring the screenplays I wrote to
life, so it was not my first “love” in film. However, I’ve enjoyed it
immensely and am always learning all I can from others and continuing to
develop my directing style. I think my upcoming film, Dead Friends
Forever, is a bit sharper and more focused, and I’m sure my next project
after that will continue that trend.
Filmmakers who inspire you?
It’s probably cliché, but my “trinity” of filmmakers would have to be:
John Carpenter, Alfred Hitchcock and George Romero. These guys wrote the
book on suspense, horror and layered writing. Romero’s ability to spin
moral and social commentary into his work is unmatched. Hitchcock and
Carpenter can create tension like no one else. These are all things to which I aspire.
Your favourite movies? Unsurprisingly, Carpenter’s original
Halloween, Hitchcock’s
Psycho and
Romero’s Living Dead films all sit right at the top of my list. Outside of
horror, I am enamored with Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Jackson’s
Lord of the Rings trilogy, and oddly enough, anything by John Hughes. I’m a total
sucker for The Breakfast Club. ... and of
course, films you truly deplore?
I’ve learned from good movies and from bad movies. To me, all art has
value. However, I am endlessly let down by modern Hollywood’s lack of
originality, aversion to taking risks, and the dumbing down of movies so
people can understand what’s happening while they’re distracted by their
phones. A lot of modern writers don’t seem to understand how to tell a
good story; stuff happens because it needs to for the script to work, not
because it makes sense or is driven by compelling character choices. There
are still some gems, but movies today feel more like “content” than “art”,
and that is something I truly deplore.
Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else?
Website: https://www.grimmsleeper.com/waltz
Prime: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0FJZJMCV4/
YouTube (IndieRights Free Movies): https://youtu.be/FdZduZkweY4?si=5XfYGMgLPZ1ujvGO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waltzfilm
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waltzthemovie
Thanks for the interview!
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