Brian: You obviously seem to be very
inspired by the slasher films, but is there some
wacky genre of movies that no one would imagine
influenced you that has? - Blake Edwards'
comedies? John Cassavettes' flicks? - Doris Day
Musicals?
Allen: Wow! How did you guess? Seriously, I like all the
above. I can remember watching Doris Day as a kid
and thinking, "She's Hot!" In one of my
short films (which was never released) I used a
couple of Doris Day tunes for the soundtrack. She
was always so fun loving and even if she was in
the biggest mess always had a smile on her face.
Who doesn't want to be with a girl like that? -
Blake Edwards' writing is classic. His 'Pink
Panther' movies are fantastic; I love
his vaudeville approach to Inspector Clouseau's
character. Clouseau was always serious but the
audience is skillfully let in on this poor guy's
shortcomings. He's a master. - I think that every
movie I've ever seen has inspired me in some way.
When I see a fantastic movie like 'Forest
Gump' I say "Wow! That was a
completely amazing experience. Why did I like
that so much?" Then I may see a movie that's
not so great and say "Hmm... why didn't I
like that? What could have made it better?"
I'm not sure if every filmmaker does this but
that's the way I use movies, like a research tool
you know.
Brian:
Now, speaking of the slasher flicks - which ones
rock your boat right out of the water - 'Prom
Night' , the 'Friday the 13th' series
or some more obscure ones like Trish Everly in
'Madhouse' or Barbara Bach's
'The Unseen'. Fill us in, man!
Allen: That's
easy - 'Scream'. Wes Craven did
an amazing job walking the tightrope between
comedy and true horror. The characters are so
cleverly written and then directed by Craven.
Today's audiences know all the tricks of the
trade so instead of patronizing them Craven uses
the cynicism to scare the pants off you. -
Brilliant movie in my opinion.
Brian: What
inspired 'Motor Home Massacre'?
Did the title come to you first? Was a bad
break-up part of the mix?
Allen:
There's a lot of stuff that inspired MHM
mainly the fact that I had just bought this
vintage motor home. I had foolishly thought my
live in girlfriend and I would have some fun in
it together traveling around and going camping
together. Another couple friend of ours had the
exact same year and model and the idea was that
we would all go on vacation together. Well, as it
turned out once I bought the damn thing the girl
decided she wanted a wedding ring instead of a
cool 1975 Airstream motor home. She subsequently
left and there I was. I now had a 30-year-old
motor home, no girl and plenty of time on my
hands. Several years earlier I had made three
short films which my friends and family really
liked. I was always interested in movies and as I
wallowed in my situation it came to me. I'll
fulfill my dreams and turn this very crappy time
in my life into something incredibly positive.
That's when I decided to write the screenplay for
'Motor Home Massacre'. - I included a lot of
relationship stuff in the movie because it was on
my mind at the time. I pulled from not only that
relationship but from many others that I had had
along the way. It was very cathartic to be able
to turn such a bad experience into an extremely
positive one. The cast and crew of MHM
helped me bring to light many low points in my
life and make them funny. For this I will always
be grateful.
Brian:
Was it an uphill battle to get financing for the
project and then to get people involved (who were
obviously going to be working for very little,
monetary-wise)?
Allen:
Luckily I had some extra cash on hand so I took
the big leap of faith myself. I own an Internet
company, which allowed me the flexibility to make
MHM. With that said, I think filmmakers
get a little too wrapped up in raising money for
their projects. The main thing is to write a
script around stuff that you have or can get very
easily. If you can do that and it's entertaining
then you can't lose. Filmmaking is not about
spending millions of dollars it's about shooting
interesting stories that will entertain your
particular audience. So I kept it simple with MHM.
I had the motor home and access to the woods. The
hardest part was convincing people to be in the
film. There was a lot of acting on my part before
the camera ever started rolling. I had to believe
in MHM. I knew it was a good
script and I knew it would be successful. So I
just told everybody else what I had told myself,
that we were making a movie. Who doesn't want to
make a cool movie?
Brian:
The atmosphere on the set for 'Motor Home
Massacre' seemed amazing - like everyone
came together and had a blast. Did you find that
everyone really did come together and had a great
attitude throughout?
Allen: The cast and crew were AWESOME!!! It was a true
labor of love. The cast was hysterical. The stuff
they would do behind the scenes was funnier than
what I wrote for the movie. Most of the time they
stayed in character and our behind the scenes
camera caught a lot of that silliness which we
included in the DVD extras. There was one time
that I can remember where Roger (Nelson Bonilla)
and Benji (Justin Geer) went off about setting
Benji up with a girl. Poor Benji's not too good
with the ladies so good ol' Roger sets him up
with Siamese twins which are joined at the
vagina. Roger said that it was "... awesome,
they have like double orgasms and sh*t.... "
How funny is that?
Brian:
You seem to have an affinity with the performers
in MHM - RAWKED! Do you come
from a performing background yourself?
Allen: The
actors in MHM did RAWK!!! I
loved all of their performances. Shan Holleman,
the lead, is a very talented actress as is Nelson
Bonilla, Justin Geer, Tanya Fraser and the rest
of the cast. We all live in the Atlanta area,
which has a wealth of talented actors and
actresses to choose from. It was hard making a
decision on who to include in MHM but
I think I made the best choices. - I personally
don't have any talent when it comes to acting.
However, I did take an acting class before I shot
MHM. I thought it was important to know how it
felt to be on the other end of that big camera.
If I'm going to ask anyone else to do something I
want to have at least some knowledge of how they
might feel. I would never put my actors in harms
way or ask them to do something that I myself was
not willing to do.
Brian:
(Okay, folks! This is a SPOILER Question! Watch
out!) Allen, I loved how you tied up the ending
of 'MHM' with the running bad
boyfriend gag and how there seemed to be no
pretense - that you were just make a fun, bloody,
good ole slasher film. Was that your intent - or
do you hate me now - cause I missed your whole
point?
Allen: Well, you're kind of giving a little of the movie
away bro but hopefully you'll be able to put a
"SPOILER" note on this one question.
(Ed. Note: Duly noted. - Done Above!) You are
totally right! It was the end of a long journey
for Sabrina and I felt she needed closure to the
relationship. Who hasn't wanted to run over there
ex in effigy? Shan pulled it off in spades with
the grin and the silly love story music as she
runs over him.
Brian:
How hard was it to negotiate the deal with
Lionsgate who released the DVD of 'Motor Home
Massacre'?
Allen:
I lot of people ask me this question and the
answer is not hard. They called me and wanted to
release the film. So after a few negotiations we
were able to sign the deal. I'm very happy that
Lionsgate is our distributor for MHM.
Brian:
Lastly, any future projects you'd like to let us
know about or words of wisdom (IE: Don't shoot
your film in the dead of night in the freezing
woods!) that you'd like to leave us with? And
thanks, man! It's been a blast!
Allen:
We will be releasing our new movie 'Evil
Keg' ( www.evilkeg.com ) in the very near
future. It's about a psychotic Evil Beer Mistress
who unleashes "bad beer" on an
unsuspecting town turning the townspeople into
flesh eating freaks. It's up to Marcus Colby the
owner of the brewery to stop her, save the town
and fall in love. We have a sneak preview in
Atlanta on June 14th (2007) at The Plaza Theater. MHM sold out the place twice and
we are expecting the same for Evil Keg.
Brian:
Cool! I can't wait to see it! And thanks again,
Allen! |