Writer Interview:

Sara Caldwell: A Splatter Filmmaker's Very Best Friend!

Brian: What were your first inspirations to write and produce? - Dreams of Carolyn Keene? - Saturday mornings spent watching 'Electra Woman and Dyna Girl'? - Those cheesy wine commercials with Orson Welles?

Sara: The Orson Welles wine spots were pretty cheesy, thanks for the memory! When I was a kid I was a 'Twilight Zone' fanatic and used to write TZ stories of my own. Once I discovered the TZ magazine years later that included episode scripts, I would model the templates for my own stories, not with any ambition to be a screenwriter but just for the fun of it. I watched all sorts of horror/sci-fi and was especially excited when my father took me to a screening of 'Night of the Living Dead'. I still love that film... "Barbara .... I'm coming to get you!!!" I've seen pretty much every classic and cult horror/sci-fi film out there, discounting non-theatrical blood bath stuff. I'm not into sensational gore despite the title of my book, preferring the more subtle stuff. I think films like 'Rosemary's Baby' still hold their own today in a creepy, cool way. Anyway, I can't pinpoint one particular inspiration, rather a growing and ongoing love of the genre.

Brian: Your script Bloody Williamson won an award in an Illinois script competition. The script sounds interesting. Briefly, what was it about?

Sara: 'Bloody Williamson' is actually not a horror screenplay though it does contain real life horrors. It's an historical drama based on a true story that took place in Williamson County in Southern Illinois that got the nickname Bloody Williamson for a number of reasons. The one I focused on was the Herrin Massacre, a bloody massacre that took place in 1922 when angry, striking miners murdered over twenty strike-breakers, mostly poor immigrants shipped in from Chicago. It was a town massacre condoned by an absent sheriff and other officials. The scabs had been promised safe exit from the mine but were hunted down and shot, with a particularly hideous moment of a group of men dragged to the cemetery slaughtered in front of the townspeople, including children. There are many sides to the story, like any war and its crimes, and I tried to present different perspectives through the eyes of a Chicago reporter that gets caught up in the human drama.

Brian: 'Crawl Space' was a horror-comedy short that you wrote and produced. What inspired that script?

Sara: It was originally based on an urban legend, just as those were becoming a trend of sorts. So I took creepy roommate legend and kept expanding on it, along with help from the director/actors, and it become a multiplicity of stories in one, but basically the same core of a serious mind-fuck on an innocent victim.

Brian: Elyse Mirto, whom appeared in 'Crawl Space' , has gone on to do such recent horror and thriller flicks as 'Penny Dreadful' and the blockbuster 'Disturbia' . Do you have any particular remembrances about working with her?

Sara: Elyse Mirto was such a professional and really took her craft seriously. 'Crawlspace' was a low budget indie short and a lot of cast and crew flaked at times. She was the consummate pro. She's got a timeless beauty and is very talented and savvy. She deserves any success that comes her way and has certainly worked for and it.

Brian: What was your impetus to write 'Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low Budget Horror Films'?

Sara: I had recently finished my second book, Jumpstart Your Awesome Film Production Company, and was canoodling about whether I wanted to try a third and, if so, what hasn't been written in my field that I'd be interested in tackling. Writing a book is a serious investment in time, about 6 months for me from start to editorial, and an advance maybe covers a month's worth of bills if you're lucky, so it's got to be something you're truly passionate about. - Certainly lots has been written about horror, but as I dug into it from the grunge filmmaker's perspective, there wasn't that much on the actual process of making a low budget horror film other than some books focused on specific projects or Corman type directors describing their shoestring approaches. Valuable stuff, but I always like to put a lot of voices in my books as my perspective alone is limited. Plus, I wanted to cover the gamut, from concept through distribution, to seriously help guide the new horror filmmaker from start to finish line. Now if I'd been into Sci-Fi or Action, I wouldn't have written this book. The great thing about horror is that low budget can still be highly successful (look at all the classics), star presence isn't required (ditto), and these days there are so many distribution opportunities in the genre. I think my real motivation in the end was to show that it's quite realistic to make a low budget horror film as long as you've got something fresh to offer and want it badly enough to put the work in, significant as that is.

Brian: Having produced and written so many projects did you go into 'Splatter Flicks' feeling that you knew what was going to be said? Were you surprised by what you discovered?

Sara: When writing a book you always have a pretty defined outline and overall concept of what you want to present and why (a necessity to get a book published anyway), but of course there are always surprises that shift the direction of things. That's why I always do the interviews first, as they generate so many great new ideas to explore. Plus research is always full of discovery... digging further into the past helps you understand the present and horror, being an extreme genre, tends to push uncomfortable envelopes in society. I remember watching the original 'Body Snatchers' as a kid and finding it weird and frightening and I thought the remake with Donald Sutherland was pretty brilliant. But I never got the context of it at the time. In research I found many writings about how the original film paralleled communist fears of the day (before my time), the fear of losing personal identity to an evil alien (ergo Russian) power that was taking over for mass indoctrination. So that got me thinking about what might be reflecting today's sense of paranoia or sense of being? With our internet age, there's certainly a feeling of physical disconnect and films like 'Kairo' (remade by the US less memorably as 'The Pulse') explored this. I think it behooves horror filmmakers to look at such themes as it adds substance and meaning. So yes, many surprises but mostly good.

Brian: What was the most interesting piece of advice that you unearthed while researching 'Splatter Films'?

Sara: One thing several filmmakers mentioned that I found really interesting is that these days, you're not just shooting a feature. You also need to consider the "extras" like the behind-the-scenes stuff and filmmaker/talent interviews because those additions add value to a DVD. I know I love watching those bonus clips. So in the planning stage, there needs to be two levels of production being considered. It's more work, but in the end distributors are far more likely to be interested in a project with those bonuses.

Brian: Did you discover while writing 'Splatter Flicks' that there is a difference in feel on a horror movie set compared to other sets that you've been on?

Sara: There's a hell of a lot more blood and a hell of a lot less money! Seriously, a set is a set and every experience is different depending on budget and teams, and horror is all over the board on that, especially in the low budget realm. There is something fun about the genre on set, though, especially with the FX folks. And there are the nightmares. Stevan Mena (Malevolence) had some of the most extreme production horror scenarios I've ever heard, one compounding on top of another in a domino effect. And keep in mind he shot his film on 35mm, not digital, so everything was highly critical. He got ripped off on a location by a pissed off evicted tenant, there were umpteen number of cars crashes, money stolen, crews walking, you name it. But his belief in his project was strong enough when so many others might have given up and he got his film made and distributed. There's something to be said for real life horrors and the capacity to confront them.

Brian: Horror films are known for their abundance of sequels. With that in mind, are there plans for a follow-up book to 'Splatter Flicks'?

Sara: I was just thinking about how to follow up on this book when a unique opportunity arose. I was asked to co-write a book as part of an e-course on horror screenwriting for a group from Sweden. It's far more in-depth than my book on the whole psychology behind horror and its attraction. I've been working on that for months and think the site will be amazing given the previews I have access to, with video interviews from every imaginable expert on horror -- psychologists, academics, scientists, novelists, screenwriters, filmmakers, etc., and there will be tons of other valuable info. The site will be completely free outside of a specific course option. Constructinghorror.com is due to be launched in October and I'm truly excited to be part of it.

Brian: Lastly, do have any future projects or plans that you'd like to let us know about?

Sara: I'll be presenting horror screenwriting workshops at the next LA Screenwriters Expo, October 24-28, 2007 ( www.screenwritingexpo.com ), which is a pretty awesome event given the caliber of speakers they attract. I always look forward to being part of this event and sneaking into other workshops while I'm there.

Brian: Cool. Well, just as long as some axe hungry monitor doesn't catch you, though, I guess. Thanks a lot again, Sara! And check out 'Spatter Flicks' at Amazon, folks!