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Your new movie The After Dark
- in a few words, what is it about?
In a few words, it’s the Lost Boys versus Interview with the
Vampire. It is a coming-of-age story about a girl who has a
sheltered upbringing finding the outside world to be much more
fun. It is a Hatfields and McCoys or Peter Pan and Captain Hook
story.
With
The After Dark
being a vampire movie, is that a genre you're at all fond of, and some of your
genre favourites?
I’ve always loved vampire movies. Once Bitten with Jim Carrey
was always a favorite. Lost Boys I think is the best vampire film
of my generation. I love Bram Stoker‘s Dracula with Gary Oldman.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well, both movie and TV
show. (Other) sources of inspiration when
writing The After Dark?
The After Dark
was inspired by my youth. The After Dark
was inspired by an argument that I had in art class with a guy named
Dan Friel, who loved Interview with the Vampire, and I thought that
Lost Boys was a better movie. As far as films or pop culture that
inspired the movie, there is a heavy dose of Peter Pan and
Romeo
and Juliet, but at the end of the day it’s just a
hero's
journey. It’s a tale that’s been told many times, ours just
has fangs and bumpy foreheads.
What can you tell us about The After Dark's
co-writers Lola Devlin and Josh Cornell, and what
was your collaboration like? So this film for me goes back to 1998 when I created the
world and the characters. I never thought it would take 26 years
to finish! Ha ha ha ha, but in the year 2000 me and my good friend
who was in film school Josh Cornell tried to write this movie. We
did not get very far. I was not an experienced collaborator and we
just didn’t have all the pieces at that time. Yo jump ahead to
2023: My wife Lola, who has helped me with several scripts,
including Teddy Told Me To,
was writing
The After Dark but she kept
hitting a wall which I thought was so funny because this is the
story that I believe she would relate to immensely, so we gave my
rough draft and the progress she had made over to my old friend
Josh Cornell and he polished the script and finished it up for us.
The three-way collaboration goes back to a movie we wrote 16 years
ago called Halfway to Hell. We all worked very well together and
we always do so I am very proud of what we came up with. The After Dark
does have its fair share of gruesomeness - so do talk
about the effectswork in your movie for a bit? I’ve been a makeup effects artist for 25 years, so if I
were to make a vampire film without some oh man moments I think my
fans would be disappointed. There is definitely a lot of
prosthetic work, over 30 vampire foreheads were created for the
film, teeth and contact lenses. All I can say is Skate or Die,
Homie!
What can
you tell us about The After Dark's approach to horror? The After Dark
is a dark story-driven horror flick. There are
elements of the classic slow, Gothic vampire film and there are
elements of that fast-cutting modern vampire story kind of
together. It definitely has soap opera feels like
Buffy
with a 90s
flavor of Blade. A few words
about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand? Directing
The After Dark came very natural because I’ve
been living with the story for so long. The different approaches
I’ve taken to some of my other movies is I really needed to
explain what I lived in my head for two decades to the people
around me so they could smell it and feel it. Wardrobe was very
important. The set design was very important. To allow everyone
else into my world and they all fell right into place. Do
talk about The After Dark's key cast, and why exactly these people?
As I stated before I developed The After Dark
in 1998. At that time Gangrel was in WWE and he was one of my favorite wrestlers,
and from that point and always who I modeled Vigo after. Also in 1998
Rancid was my favorite punk band, so scoring Lars Frederiksen as
our Shakespearean chorus was a dream come true. I knew the
wrestlers Sinn Bodhi and Gangrel would be able to choreograph
their own fight scenes. Many of the cast members are from the
wrestling world so they can do so. My two leads Ashley Ballou [Ashley
Ballou interview - click here] and
Dann Saxton [Danny Saxton
interview - click here] are a whole other story. Danny and I have known each
other for years. He starred in our first movie Legend of the
Sandsquatch in 2005 and we had talked about making another film
together on and off for years, and Ashley was a makeup artist that
worked for me. We had talked to a very prominent female wrestler
about the role and she got injured and was not able to do it and
Ashley stepped into this role, learned the choreography, she had
never acted before, but she knocked it completely out of the
park. So proud to have her on her first film. I believe she will
go places in the horror industry. What can
you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Shooting The After Dark was like reliving our youth. It
really was like a party atmosphere. Everybody was having such a
good time. The castmembers were bonding and becoming friends. The
crew was working hard to pull off what we needed to do to get the
movie done, but we all remembered at the same time we are living
the dream. This is the type of movie I’ve always wanted to make
having so much fun, but we are still getting the work done. The
$64-question of course, where can The After Dark
be seen? The After Dark
can be viewed on Tubi right now and very soon,
early August, It will be available on Blu-ray with tons of special
features. It will be available to order at plan10pictures.com,
or pick up a copy at the Monster Museum in Boulder City, Nevada. Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of The After Dark?
I just hope everybody watches this movie and they realize how much
fun we actually had making it. It was a dream come true and I
can’t wait. I think there will probably be a sequel in the
future. Any
future projects you'd like to share? We are finishing up right now
It Steals Your Skin as well as
Laughter Face. We have not talked about, but I am such a fan of
that movie. We are going to begin production at the end of
September on a movie called Bloody Bluff, a Sasquatch film. Your
first claim to fame in the filmworld is of course as a special effects
artist - so what made you go into effects, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject?
I grew up loving monsters and creatures, inspired by Masters of the
Universe, Ninja Turtles, and then of course in high school that
turned to Jason,
Freddy and
Leatherface. I always loved making
monsters. I didn’t see any other path in my life so I moved to
Hollywood, got a job on the X-Files as one does, ha ha. I did go to
professional makeup artistry school at Joe Blasco‘s Makeup
Center West in Hollywood but I really learned a lot on the
job from great mentors like Tim Considine, Clinton Wayne, and Matthew Mungle.
What made you eventually pick
up directing as well, and between doing effects and directing, what do you
actually prefer?
I never planned on directing movies. I tried to have my wife, who is an
accomplished director, direct my first movie Teddy Told Me To, however she
was reluctant and said that it was my story and I needed to direct it. I
can honestly say after the first day on set there was no looking back.
This was the most fun I’ve ever had. I think I found my calling, and I
will direct films for the rest of my career. Do talk about your past filmwork, in
whatever position!
As far as makeup effect goes, I’ve done every level from the
biggest budget films like Terminator 3, Red Dragon and
Scorpion
King to the lowest cheese movies. My favorite area to work as a
make up effects artist is somewhere under $1 million maybe
$500,000 budget. I like to keep the unions out of it and I
absolutely enjoy the creative control of the indie film. Now
that I’ve I have directed seven films at this point, I can’t
really see a world where I work for other people as much anymore.
I would prefer to make creatures for my own movies, but my focus is
definitely moved towards directing and building a universe with Plan 10 Pictures. How would you describe
yourself as a special effects artist, and how as a director? As an effect artist and a
director, I believe I am somebody who can get it
done more efficiently on a tight budget and time schedule than most
others are comfortable with. I pride myself on what I call making it
happen. Filmmakers,
effects artists, whoever else who inspire you?
Inspired by so many filmmakers it will be hard to list them all. I
can say John Carl Buechler was a huge inspiration. Stuart Gordon
was a mentor and a friend. I definitely have pulled inspiration
from what I’ve learned from both Lloyd Kaufman and Charles Band
over the years. Working alongside Charlie and watching him tear
out pages of stuff we didn’t need and thinking he’s nuts but
then at the end of the day worked out just fine. I can’t tell
you how much I learned during my time at Full Moon.
I'm also heavily
inspired by James Cameron and Roger Corman [Roger
Corman bio - click here]. Kevin Smith is one of
my biggest inspirations as well. Your
favourite movies? My favorite movies are all over the spectrum. I love
Karate Kid. I love Monster Squad. Texas Chainsaw Massacre might be the
greatest horror film ever made. I’m a sucker for Back to the
Beach and I love The Outsiders. Oh and Real
Steel. Sorry I’ll
stop now… but I could keep going. ... and of course, films you really deplore?
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There are not many movies I deplore. I respect anybody who
gets something finished and out there and if it’s out there wide
enough for me to see it you did a pretty good job. There are
things that I don’t like about movies and movies that I’m not
a fan of, films like Requiem for a Dream. I know that that is a
great movie, but it is not a movie for me. Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else? plan10pictures.com Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask?
Get out there and support independent film! Thanks for the
interview!
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