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GAY
BLADE INDEED! Director David DeCoteau
Brings a Gay Sensibility to the Horror
Genre by Owen Keehnen
Director
David DeCoteau was a pioneer of scream
queen and early VHS horror cinema,
helming such classics of the era as
Nightmare Sisters,
Sorority Babes at The Slimeball
Bowl-A-Rama,
Creepozoids,
Prehysteria 3,
Morgana, and Dr.
Alien. He also was the force behind
the popular Full Moon Puppet
Master film series. Somewhere
during all this DeCoteau came out as a
gay man and with that a great amount his
cinema seemed to take on a decidedly more
guy-candy feel with such classics as
Voodoo Academy, The
Frightening, as well as the
enormously successful film series
The Brotherhood. The combined
effect of these solid moneymaking films
was to launch a new sub-genre of
himbo horror. In addition, he
also expressed and affirmed his sexuality
with the non-horror art-house gay film
Leather Jacket Love Story.
As
if all this werent enough David
DeCoteau has also directed a myriad of
other horror genre favorites such as
Leeches, Ancient Evil:
Scream of the Mummy,
Frankenstein Reborn,
Alien Arsenal,
Shrieker, The
Talisman, Skeletons,
Final Stab, Prison of
the Dead, Totem,
Witchouse, and The
Killer Eye: Terror Vision. He has
even started his own production company, Rapid
Heart Pictures, Ltd.
This man has a horror pedigree a mile
long. It was a thrill talking with him
and our conversation turned out to be
both insightful as well as a real treat. |
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Owen: You have mentioned that when you
were a teenager Roger Corman was a huge mentor
for you. What was the main thing he taught
you about filmmaking?
David: Roger Corman my
inspiration to make movies. I was lucky enough to
work for the man when I moved to LA at 18. Just
working on his sets taught me everything about
how a set works. It was amazing working with
James Cameron at Roger's studio. It was a great
time.
Owen: Have you assumed somewhat
the same role with helping out newcomers
like director/writer Jason Paul Collum?
David: Jason was my assistant
for a few years. He got in contact with me
through another filmmaker I was championing, Jeff
Bookwalter. Jason was enthusiastic and determined
to make a go of the movie biz. The fact that he
was openly gay was refreshing. He was relentless
which is what you need to be to get anything done
in Hollywood. Sweet kid.
Owen: You are well known as a
director who gets his movies in on a tight
budget and shooting schedule. What would you say
is the typical mood/atmosphere you like to keep
on your set? What is the most
conducive to a smooth filming?
David: I've been directing and
producing movies for 25 years so I am very
confident about what I am doing. Working on a
short schedule allows me to spend the extra money
on extra crew, hotter cast and shooting on motion
picture film. The sets are professional,
no-nonsense yet fun. I'm all business when I am
shooting so there's never a wasted moment. I come
prepared and ready for the adventure to make the
best movie I can. I trust my instincts and make
decisions fast and clear. I feel lucky that I get
to do this so I make sure I do it right.
Owen: Does your production
company Rapid Heart Films have a
mission statement?
David: Simply a commitment to
excellence in the genre I have essentially
invented. Non-exploitive, provocative
supernatural thrillers that appeal to women,
couples and gay men. Few four-letter words, no
nudity, no handguns, very little gore and no
smoking. I do bend these rules slightly for story
purposes but I try to stick to them as much as
possible. This "clean" approach has
alienated a few and been embraced by many. My
"horror" films are the antithesis of
whats currently popular amongst the blood
and gore horror movie fans. I feel any genre is
open to all kinds of subject matter, taste and
style. I found a specific audience and they are
simply loving and supporting my movies.
Owen: You're filmography took a
decided turn with your coming out as a gay
man. How much did that freedom translate
into your freedom of expression?
David: I came out when I was 30
although many close friends were aware. Maybe
coming out did affect my sensibility in how I
approach movie directing. Dreamaniac
certainly is homoerotic but that what's cool
about the genre, you can include any subtext you
want as long as its in the genre so some
people don't see it and some people do.
Owen: Your sexy pseudo-gay horror flicks really broke
some new ground in film. Specifically
the three films in 'The Brotherhood
series, 'Voodoo Academy,
and 'The Frightening'.
Was your intent to make titillating
gay-fantasy fright flicks?
David: Sure. I am in the B movie
business. All B movies have to be titillating and
exciting in some ways. That's why the genre
works. Fans want to see something they have never
seen before and want to be thrilled. B movies can
supply them with movies that the major studios
rarely make.
Owen: So I've heard those films
also have a huge teen female base. Do you
have any how aware that demographic is of the gay
overtones?
David: I knew the audience
existed and I needed to figure out a way to get
Charlie Band to finance a movie to fill the
demand. He agreed, once I told him to sell the
movie as "The first horror movie for
girls!" Gay men are very industrious and
smart. I knew they'd discover the movie and boy
did they!!!! There was a popular gay
magazine that said, "The Movie
Everyones talking about!"
Owen: These films are also
important in flip-flopping
classic bimbo-horror movies by making it
himbo horror. Was the size of the hungry
market out there surprising?
David: Like I mentioned earlier,
I knew there was a market but didn't know how big
it was. Needless to say that I was surprised at
the success of VOODOO ACADEMY.
Next to the mega-hit THE DEAD HATE THE
LIVING, it was the biggest seller of any
DVD released by Full Moon that year. I new I was
REALLY on to something. Full Moon decided to
start shooting their movies on crappy Mini DV so
I left the company and started my own label Rapid Heart Pictures, Ltd. I approached Regent
Entertainment for financing explaining my success
in "gay appeal" genre movies and they
committed to financing THE BROTHERHOOD
right there on the spot.
Owen: Are you eager to push the
envelope with this newfound sub-genre or will is
it more of a niche you intend to fill and
satisfy but not extend? In other words, is
the subtext going to be moving to the forefront
anytime soon?
David:
There are openly bi-sexual characters in
PRISON OF THE DEAD, FINAL STAB and
others. I will of course push the envelope but
will not risk the ability to hire the best cast
possible. I want a stunning cast of movie star
quality young men and women. Some have tried to
imitate Rapid Heart but have failed miserably
with shop worn and haggard looking actors and
graphic sex and violence that in one case caused
Blockbuster Video to return all the DVDs to the
distributor because of numerous complaints. I
don't need to do that. I don't want to ruin what
I have created. My films are distributed world
wide without any censorship problems whatsoever.
I've taken the higher road and my audience has
embraced that by buying almost 1 million DVDs of
all the Rapid Heart films combined. Not to
mention a huge hit on the new gay cable network
HereTV. I have found a very specific niche with
very little wiggle room but I am a clever
filmmaker and I will still surprise my audience
with jaw dropping moments celebrating the male
form. Wait till you see what I have created in THE
BROTHERHOOD 4 which debuts in August on
HereTV. You won't believe your eyes!
Owen: Tell me about your
non-horror gay flick 'Leather Jacket Love
Story'.
David: LJLS was something I
needed to do. It was an idea that producer Jerry
Goldberg and I came up with. I needed to do my
ART movie just to cleanse my pallet of a
particular string of soft-core movies I wasn't
proud of. Jerry raised the money and we shot it
in B&W. It played film fests all over the
world and had a 22-week theatrical run at the
biggest art house cinema in LA -The
Sunset 5. The success of that film was
due to Jerry Goldberg. It was a producer driven
movie from the beginning to the end. He made it a
success and he is an example of a perfect
producer. I owe it all to him. Jerry is starting
a new movie called DEAD BOYZ DON'T SCREAM.
He offered me that directing job but I am busy up
here in Canada. I just found him a new director.
An old protégé of mine. More news on that
later.
Owen: I am curious too.
Everyone knows how homophobic Hollywood can be
--- is that prejudice a dominant factor in
independent cinema as well?
David: Hollywood is made up of
orphans from all over the world. I don't think I
have met a person that was born in LA. It is a
melting pot of all types of people from many
cultures. You sometimes run into homophobia but
in the movie industry specifically there isn't
much that I can see. If a homophobe decides to
work in Fashion, Movies or Television then he is
the most stupid fucker on the planet.
Owen: Your early films are
considered classics 'Nightmare Sisters',
'Sorority Babes at the Slimeball
Bowl-O-Rama', 'Creepozoids,
'Dr. Alien', etc.
When you re-watch these movies (or think
about them) is there anything now that
you wish you would have done differently
overall?
David: I don't watch my movies
at all except in post-production and when I
record the commentary. Maybe I would of done
something differently but as a pragmatist I can't
even think about it because it is out of my hands
once you release it to the public.
Owen: In films such as these you
were also instrumental in creating the
scream queen genre of films. Do you
think a campy and gay sensibility helped you mine
and somewhat lampoon the underlying potential of
female objectification?
David:
Sorority Babes needs to be done as an
all drag musical on Broadway. Its got the Bride
of Frankenstein, Motorcycle
Chicks, Zombie Babes,
and Hot nerds, spanking and Bowling. Its a
gay man's camp fantasy! The bigger than life
female characters such all the roles played in my
films by Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer and
Brinke Stevens are all essentially Drag Queen
campy fantasies of mine. It my vision of what I
adore about women. Big Hair! Big Eye Lashes! Big
heels!
Owen: Do you still keep in touch
with "the gals"? David:
Yeah. On occasion. I live in Canada so
its tough to hook up. I'd like to do a reunion
movie.
Owen: Tell me about making the
extremely successful Puppet Master series of films for Full Moon? They
were shot in Romania?
David: PM3 was shot at Universal
Studios in Los Angeles. PM6 was
shot in LA. PM7 was shot in
Romania. All were difficult movies to make
because of those damned puppets. PM7 was
the most difficult because it was set in Paris in
the late 1800s. Lotsa costumes, period vehicles.
I was lucky to have a 2nd Unit Director on that
one named Chris Bergschneider. He saved the
puppet sequences, which I think are very cool in
that movie.
Owen: Now is it easy to work
with a series, like the Puppet Master movies,
because you know the material or is it tougher
because of a desire to keep the material
fresh?
David: Hell yeah. That's why
each Brotherhood movie has a
completely different story with different
characters and everything. Its almost
episodic in an anthology kind of way. This helps
in keeping the through-line very simple. The
Puppet Master movies kept getting more
difficult because when you add a new puppet to
each movie and some of those movies were prequels
it can be a pain to backpedal and explain
logically why the puppet didn't appear in an
earlier movie.
Owen: I also want to hear a
little something about another film gem
of yours 'Final Stab'?
David: A gem, huh? Thanks. Its
was my valentine to the slashers of the late 70s
early 80s. It has a cool gay subplot, which
really throws the audience off on who the killer
is. I loved doing that movie because everything
clicked the script, the cast, and the
photography. I felt like I was getting something
special. The last day of the shoot was a 28-page
day. Erinn Carter who played the lead only worked
3 days on that movie. She went on to play Mindy
on the MOW about the Mork and Mindy
TV Show. I shot that whole movie in 5, 12-hour
days, in 35mm CinemaScope.
Owen: With 'Final Stab',
'Leather Jacket', and 'Ancient
Evil'. You wrote the
screenplay as well as directed. Does
writing the movie give you an added
advantage when it comes to the eventual
directing?
David: I've never written a
screenplay in my life. I have come up with
stories, which gives me a "story by"
credit. That's why I like working with writers
and developing a story from scratch. I don't
think I have the patience to write a script
although recently I tried.
Owen: Do you have a dream
project and a dream cast you would like to film?
David: I
would like to do a Baby Jane type movie with
Christopher Plummer as the Joan Crawford
character and Christopher Lee as the Bette Davis
Baby Jane character. Two aging horror stars....
Owen: You have so many other
horror credits as well --- 'Shrieker',
'Leeches', 'Totem',
'Skeletons', Prehysteria,
Witchhouse. 'Prison of
the Dead', etc. Overall what three films
do you consider your best work?
David: SKELETONS, LEATHER
JACKET LOVE STORY, THE
BROTHERHOOD.
Owen: What's lined up for you in
the future?
David: Less movies hopefully. I
want to slow down and enjoy my life up here in
Winnipeg. Maybe do just a few films up here and
maybe a few in Europe. I can't do volume anymore.
I don't have the energy.
Owen: And finally, what's
something that makes you scream?
David: GEORGE W. BUSH.
Owen: Amen there. |
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