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! |