Okay
Phil, why not start the readers out with a visual
and describe the room where you are answering
these questions?
I'm in a
converted garage that I took great pains to make
dark, then I made it darker. At the moment the
only light comes from the computer monitor. I
like how objects in a dark room on a quick glance
can mess with the senses-- The ball stuck in the
basketball net looks like a head in a noose, the
mess in the corner (baseball bat, iced tea maker,
packing bubbles, etc) looks like a peg-legged
woman giving birth to a pot-bellied pig. With
heat-blisters.
So Phil, give
me a teaser that is going to make
'Death By Engagement' a must for
horror fans?
A jilted
groom bludgeons a bride's white dress bloody red
with a tire iron, a cop blows him away and steals
the ring off of the bride's finger then proposes
with it-- as the dead groom takes revenge on all
of those desperate-to-be-married-hotties that
scam and hustle their way to his ring.
I've read a
review that calls it 'Quentin
Tarantino meets Friday the 13th'.
Would you say that's an accurate description?
Obviously
that is the most supreme compliment, but only
Quentin can do want Quentin does, and what kind
of dumbass would be cocky enough to call his own
movie a classic like "Friday the 13th"?
I guess the reviewer liked the smart ass dialogue
and the gritty characters-- that was our intent.
That, combined with the gore and scares
apparently sent the reviewer towards your
described marriage of films. Our goal was to make
a horror with the staples of scares, skin, and
blood, but with cool characters. Lots of them, as
opposed to "six kids trapped in a" Jeff
Parise as "Bobo" is my favorite-- Jeff
described the low-life Bobo as "a pimp
without any ho's." My dream is to have Bobo
and Snoop Dog in a movie together.
So after
hearing this I gotta ask, what are your views on
marriage?
Why do
you think I hide down here in the dark? No,
really, it's not marriage I was ripping, but all
the junk leading up to it. The wedding planning
bullshit, trying to impress Aunt Edna, who you
haven't seen since she was doing that tired
border-line obscene blowing noise on your stomach
when you were six, the engagement ring that has
to pass inspection with all her materialistic
friends...
You have
assembled such a wonderful cast - Sascha Knopf,
Christa Campbell (2001 Maniacs),
Jilon Ghai (Boo!
and Death Tunnel)
and Ivari Limon from 'Buffy The
Vampire Slayer'. However, I want
to hear how you got the amazing PJ Soles to do 'Death
By Engagement'.
You are
right, she is amazing. With none of that diva
garbage. She told me she liked that she was
offered a creepy part, as opposed to the usual
stuff she gets all the time. Now, it helped that
her daughter babysits mine, and that I bribed her
daughter into reading the script to my daughter
as a bedtime story within P.J.'s hearing range.
This movie
also has some great FX and gore on a mini
budget...was there any effect you recall which
was harder to pull off than any of the others?
There is
an effect that J.P. Petersen put together that
had Iyari Limon bleeding gobs of blood bubbles
from the neck after our groom whacked her with a
fireplace poker. We basically had one shot at it,
and Iyari was an absolute toughie. But we were
lucky to have J.P., and it not only worked, he
was ready when he said he would be ready. Anyone
less competent, and I may have had a more
interesting story for you.
Do you have
any sage wisdom for novice directors out there
looking to grab a camera and go at it? What has
been the main thing you have learned from your
three films to date?
The
advice I'd give is to listen to everyone WHO HAS
DONE IT, read all you can about the process, take
what makes sense, then do it your own way. With
me, I have to be happy with the script. Once that
is where I want it to be, then I think the most
important thing is to cast well. That means
talent as well as attitude. A diva on a
small-budget is a killer.
So I hear you
are also hard at work on a new horror/thriller.
Care to divulge any of the details?
The
screenplay is finished, is about all I can say.
Soon we' ll start chasing actors. More to come,
as it happens.
Do you recall
the first movie to scare the shit out of you?
Some
Barbara Steisand movie. It scared the shit out of
me to think that there were women who bought in
to that eating ice cream from the carton/singing
into hair brushes crap.
We're pilling
the car into the Phil Creager Drive In. What
three horror flicks are on the triple bill
tonight and what goodies are they going to be
serving up at the concession stand?
'The
Exorcist' will be first up, with the concession
stand running a special on Red Vines twisted
licorice in honor of Linda Blair\rquote s neck.
Second up is 'Halloween', with I don't know, I'm
reaching here, P.J. Soles' Totally Tacos, or
maybe nachos served up in a Michael Myers hockey
mask. The eye holes are great for a date, ala
Mickey Roarke in 'Diner' where he pokes his stuff
through the popcorn box on his lap-- Let's move
forward. The last movie will be Vincent Price's
'House on Haunted Hill', and due to the commotion
following stuff poking through nachos, the
concession stand has been shut down.
What is
something that frightens you?
Excessive
plastic surgery on a woman.
What can make
you go psycho in a second?
Telemarketers.
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