Director/Writer Interview:

Chickens, demons and zombies galore: Talking with Georgia filmmaker Sam Drog

At what age did you see yourself as a filmmaker?

Before puberty. Fangoria Magazine brainwashed me into thinking this would be cool. Damn them. How many lives have they ruined!

What was your first horror film?

The Howling. My dad was a hairy man. He sat next to me and breathed deeply and gnashed his teeth during the transformation scene. I really thought he was going to turn into a wolf man and eat me! I was five. What a jerk!

What inspired you to make 'Zombeak'?

I saw a weird chicken at a petting zoo that all the other chickens were afraid off. He seemed to be clucking to himself and twitching like he was hearing voices. He was ostracized from the others. I thought it looked like that chicken has some bad demons.

What is the story all about?

Rednecks vs. Satanists vs. a Satan possessed killer zombie chicken! It’s a metaphor for the US occupation in IRAQ.

Which familiar actors in Georgia tried out for the parts?

We had the guy from Blood Salvage come out to read. I wanted him so bad. He was the guy who read the pancake people story to the heroine in that movie, a great movie. I would have loved to have had him. I loved him in that film. I wished I had written more parts to get all the awesome people that showed up into the movie.

What role does Tracy Yarkoni play in the film as the role of Vascara as she already is getting alot of film work including other independent horror films like 'Jack O'Lantern' and 'Return of the Jackalope'? By judging from a headshot of hers it looks like she plays an evil demonic type of character. Also, What was she like to work with?

She’s all class. All class and brains. All class and brains and the camera eats her, loves her. She breaks the camera with presence. She really understood the movie we were making, and just went with it. Brilliant, funny, and an intelligent collaborator. She’ll be famous really soon, I feel it in my bones. Zombeak will be her Texas Chainsaw 4.

Now Daryl Wilcher on the other hand was another great choice as I understand he plays a satanic cult leader named Leviathan as that role is very different than his other characters you see him play in shows like 'Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland', 'America's Most Wanted', 'In the Heat of the Night' and his bit part in 'Freejack'. How did you find him?

Here’s a Darryl story. The role was not written for a black man. I had in mind more of a theatrical pompous thespian white guy for the part, but Darryl comes in and did a Zod monologue from Superman 2 and owned the roll from that second. He is a real fanboy, a pure soul, and would just come up with these inspired readings that would make the dialogue actually sound believable. That is talent!

Did you see him in his other work as he usually plays a gangster or criminal?

I had seen 'Sleepaway Camp 3' about two weeks before we had started casting. Next thing I knew Riff was on the set playing Leviathan. I don’t know how this stuff happens. Luck and providence.

How did you think of his performance in this film?

He took a character that could have been a rip off from The Convent and gave him a menace and a comic book villain appeal that was perfect for the movie. He gets some of the biggest laughs of the film, and that is from his comedic timing and commitment to the material. He’s a brilliant dude.

Did Daryl find this a challenge to do since he was new at playing this type of a character?

Darryl never broke a sweat. A master of his craft. I think a life long devotion to comics, sci-fi, and horror had him primed to play a real movie scumbag.

Have you seen him in any of his shows that it inspired you to cast him in this film?

Just 'Sleepaway 3'. Though my Uncle had a picture of him from a 1975 Star Trek Con held here in Atlanta. They didn’t know each other, just a freak coincidence, but it was one more reassurance that it was all meant to be. Darryl freaked when I showed him that picture my uncle had dug out of a shoe box. He thought we were FBI or something.

What does he do throughout his role?

He does all in his power to bring forth the apocalypse and appease his evil lord, THE DEVIL!!!

There are some younger actors like Jason Von Stein and Adam Morris. Were they playing typical teenagers getting caught up with evil events not realising what they've gotten themselves into?

Nah. Jason plays Bobby Ray, a mechanic who as long as he has a twelve gauge under his arm and a cold brew in his hand, no problem is too big.

Adam plays a nerd being as evil as his nerdy self can muster.

All the cast, from first timers to pros really contributed something vital to the movie. Replace any of them with someone else, anyone else and the whole thing would crash and burn. They have all gone on to do other projects and I sit back and gloat over them. I see them as my children. It’s weird and unhealthy.

What memorable moments do you have to share with us while shooting this project?

Let’s see. Scrapping the petrified human feces off the floor of our house location was a magical moment.

Shooting one scene for 16 hours straight and really going bonkers in the process was hilarious.

Trying to get a decent sound take on July 4th when the city of Cumming, GA had their big parade on the road right outside the set complete with howling steam engines that parked right where we were shooting and blared their whistles every ten seconds.

Also just weird stuff. We had turned this old house into a shrine to the Devil, upside down crosses and satanic imagery everywhere. It was creepy. Once we had all these candles lit in this black room, and were shooting the second unit on the big ritual scene, when the door just slammed shut. The only exit, all the windows had been boarded up. The old door had no knob, we couldn’t get out. As soon as the door slammed I felt the blood run out of my face, and the DP Lane Morlote looked at me with this “holy shit” expression. I looked at this black room full of candles, the pentagram painted on the floor, and I thought this is where the candles fall over and we all burn to a horrid death. Lucky for us, a PA let us out a few moments later. I’m not saying anything, just there were some creepy moments like that.

I looked at the trailer and the house in it almost looks like the one from 'House of 1000 Corpses'. Is there any resemblance to this film?

I guess doll heads and Christmas light are standard freak house decor. I was really thinking 'Masque of Red Death' by way of Tobe Hooper. Really, we are all ripping off Tobe Hooper. Texas part 2 was a big influence on the look of the house. But really it was Nancy Miller the Art Director that really pulled it off and made it into something real and unique.

I understand the film had its world premiere at the sci-fi Summer Con last summer in 2006. Was the full film shown for a public audience and how many horror fans showed up that night?

The big premiere was actually on 6/6/06 , the same day 'The Omen' remake hit. We were right across the hall from a theater where it was playing. I thought that was neat. Lots of cast and crew showed, but also quite a few normals who saw the poster and the hearse parked outside wandered in. We did test cards and the whole bit. Horror fans like the movie. People who thought that they were about to see a French art film left and snuck into The Da Vinci Code.

Where else will it be shown at?

DVDs are seconds away to being sent around to film festivals all over the world. We’ll see who wants to tango.

Does the film have a DVD distributor yet?

Interest, but I’m not selling until after making the rounds at every horror con and film fest that wants to show a killer chicken movie.

Like most horror films will a 'Zombeak 2' see the light of day. Will people like Tracy Yarkoni and Daryl Wilcher be reprising their roles?

'Zombeak 2' will happen, not sure what the hell happens in it, but if people like this one and after I make a disastrous second picture that everyone hates, I’m sure the plot will materialize.

Now here's some fun stuff: Whats your favourite horror film?

'Carnival of Souls', the remake, not the boring black and white snooze fest.

If you were a top horror movie director for one day whether he was alive or not who would he be?

Mario Bava. He had class. Everyone rips off Bava. 'Zombeak!' is a big Bava dry hump.

What movie project do you cherish the most?

Besides 'The Howling', probably… shoot, I don’t know, 'Alien'. 'Zombeak!' is a big 'Alien' dry hump.

If there was a project youd like to change what would it be?

Remove Ruby Rhod from 'The Fifth Element' and give me the movie I saw in the trailer and was primed for after seeing The Professional.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Coffee that’s always hot in my confiscated Waffle House mug, a steady stream of new John Carpenter movies, cracking my wife up, holding my beautiful baby daughter, talking Star Wars with friends. You know, all that good shit.