Feature Category: Interviews

We’ve given quite a bit of love to John Schneider’s horror ensemble movie, Smothered, over the last few months. Having spoken to Schneider and John Kassir (Tales from the Crypt’s iconic Crypt Keeper) about the film, it would be remiss of us not to seize the chance to talk to the star of the movie, Kane Hodder. As well as his experience on Smothered, we got into a lengthy chat with Hodder about all things horror, and yes, we got real in-depth when it came to a certain Jason Voorhees, including his favourite kills, his passion for the character, and the shock of being replaced when Jason finally did battle with Freddy Krueger.

Starburst: Smothered is a great experience for horror fans, mainly due to the references involved and for seeing you guys all seemingly having a great time together. Despite some obviously dark moments, the film comes across as a fun movie. Was that the case?

Kane Hodder: That’s why when John first contacted me, he didn’t have everyone cast yet so he asked for some suggestions. And I suggested Don Shanks . Adam and John are brilliant writers-slash-directors. It is an absolute pleasure to work with people like them because, first of all, they have the confidence in you to let you maybe try some different things with the character that they may not have thought of or challenge you in ways. Adam Green has given me so many different acting opportunities that I’d never expected. In the same way, John was able to give me a character that, this is not my words, but other writers have said, “It’s nice to see Kane playing the romantic lead.” I’m not sure if that’s the correct term but it is a character that’s more likable than usual.

And Smothered does indeed see you as the star of the movie. Whereas people may be used to seeing you behind a mask or with heavy prosthetics on, this time out Kane Hodder is very much at the forefront as the leading man. How is it for you as an actor to get the chance be seen as you in front of the camera here?

Oh, it’s fantastic. Any actor will tell you it’s nice to be challenged. You can play a different kind of character but because of people like Adam Green and John Schneider, other directors and producers see me in a different light now, so they don’t always just think of the bad guy things – I can be somewhat likeable, and if I’m not likeable to you then I’ll fucking kill you! The opportunities keep presenting themselves more and more for different kinds of characters because of people like that. Even going back to a director called Mike Feifer – he gave me the opportunity to play Ed Gein and B.T.K. Obviously both were real killers, despicable people, but with B.T.K. there were scenes where I had to be kind of likeable. Again, that started changing people’s perceptions, saying, “You know, he’s good as the bad guy but he can be likeable.” I know that people, after seeing Smothered, it’ll even increase more of the thoughts of what kinds of characters I can play.

In our interview with John Schneider, he mentioned that he has plans for both a prequel and a sequel to Smothered, both with you involved. Has he mentioned much about this to you yet?

Yeah, he alluded to that, too. I would be very excited to do it, both a prequel and a continuation. When I first read the script, I was like, “Wait a minute! I’m the only one that survives?” The fact that I end up surviving with the girl I met at the gas station, so continuing that story could be really cool. I just thought that was a nice scene, one of my favourite scenes. Even if the scene doesn’t continue in one stretch, just the scene of us at the gas station, it was just a nice, pleasant, touching type of scene.

The moments with the one-legged girl at the gas station essentially bookend the movie, showing a much different side to you than most people may be accustomed to seeing.

What I thought was touching, too, was I have burn scars, she has one leg, yet neither of those things are referenced at all. I just think it’s a nice scene where two people that are imperfect hit it off and don’t discuss any of it – it’s never discussed. So I’d like to continue that storyline. Then of course, doing a prequel with all of my buddies again would be all sorts of fun; it wouldn’t even be like work.

In making the movie, a whole host of lawsuits were danced around, for instance using “Mason” and “Teddy” rather than Jason and Freddy, but there’s so many nods and winks for long-time horror fans to keep an eye out for. How was it to be in this slightly off-kilter world?

I liked the character that R.A. played. He took a little bit of a risk, but I think that you have to take risks. He’s playing a guy that’s afraid of the dark and who carries a little puppy around. For us, the most response that we’ve gotten from the movie is for our two characters. Out of everyone, they say it’s just cool to see R.A. completely different and me likeable. Like I said, you’ve gotta take risks otherwise you’ll never change people’s perceptions.

As the movie has a non-linear narrative to it, it was suggested that this was largely so that R.A. isn’t killed off too early on in the film. Was that the case?

Part of it. Obviously it wouldn’t be the only reason, but you can say that the response to R.A.’s character was that, “Oh man, we didn’t want him to die, we didn’t want him out of the movie so early.”

It’s safe to say that the people who know John Schneider for the likes of The Dukes of Hazzard or Smallville will be surprised with how dark and sinister Smothered is. Were you surprised at all?

What I liked best about John and his ability directing is that we would do a take of something, it would work, then he would take one of us aside, he did it a couple of times with me and I assume he did it with other people. He said, “That was good but what if we did this.” He would add a line that would completely change the dynamic of the scene, which would make it 100% better. A perfect example is when she’s thrown the gas on the mask , I realise she’s the killer, grab her gun, hold it on her. The first time we did it, she says, “Go ahead and pull the trigger, you’ll just set yourself on fire.” Then we cut. John came over to me and said what if she says this, which is what it is in the film, “Go ahead and shoot, you’ll set yourself on fire. You should know something about that, shouldn’t you, Kane?” Because of my being burned, I thought that makes it so much more personal and evil. That’s what I liked so much about John; after we would do a take with something, he would come up with something spur of the moment that was even better. That was just one of the many things that made it so enjoyable to work with him. Bo Duke is a fucking freak!

Given how Smothered brings together so many familiar faces, what’s it like to be seen as a member of modern-day horror royalty?

I’ve always said that the fact that I ever was able to put the hockey mask on, it was an honour – I still feel that it’s an honour. The fact that I did four consecutive movies as the character, I feel very fortunate because I went into this business to be a stuntman. That’s all I expected. I had a career as a working stunt performer, that was my goal. The fact that I was able to move into horror, which was something I loved anyway, I loved watching… because of John Buechler I played the character of Jason for the first time. I will always give all the credit for my playing the character in Part VII , so it’s gonna be a fun weekend. I will always appreciate the fact that I’m known in horror. I’ve seen other people who’ve become known in horror then think they’re too good for it anymore so they try to turn their back on their horror background. I would never do that because I appreciate every second of it.

What’s more remarkable about yourself is that you didn’t come into the Friday the 13th series until seven movies in, yet you’re the name that fans see as synonymous with playing the definitive Jason Voorhees…

Well horror fans are bitchy sometimes, so if I had anything that was negative to talk about then some of them would. That’s why I try to respect the horror fans. I certainly don’t look down on them because I’m one of them myself. I get excited when I meet someone in horror that I’ve never met before. It doesn’t happen very often anymore but each time I would meet someone that is known in horror that I’d never met before, I’d be excited. Why not? I used to watch them when I was younger, so absolutely I’m excited about it.

So how did you first end up with the Jason gig then?

Like I said, John Beuchler. I had done a movie called Prison with Viggo Mortensen, directed by Renny Harlin. I was the stunt coordinator on the movie up in Wyoming in 1987. John Beuchler was the make-up effects guy on that movie – that’s where I met him. Towards the end of the movie, there’s a character called Forsythe who comes out of the ground. It’s a full body make-up, three and a half hours of prosethetics. John asked me if I’d play the character because I wouldn’t bitch about the time and the make-up and all that. I said, “Sure, I’ll do that.” That was my first extensive prostethics work. I only worked in the make-up for one or two days but John enjoyed how I used the make-up. When you wear prosthetics that are glued everywhere on you, when you have a whole body of prostehtics, it’s difficult to work in. It’s a different type of acting; you have to exaggerate facial movements to make it work through the make-up. Bottom line is, John knew I was a stunt person because I did a lot of stunts in that movie. Now I was experienced in wearing make-up. He was hired to direct Friday the 13th Part VII. Because nobody had ever played the role twice in the first six movies, he knew that they weren’t set on anybody yet. So he said, “Look, this is the guy that I want to play Jason because there are so many stunts for Jason to do this time that it needs to be a legitimate stuntman playing the character. I just worked with this guy, he knows how to work in the make-up.” He fought for me and I got the job.

With the Friday the 13th movies that you did, was there anything that you turned down because you felt it wasn’t right or was maybe a bit too much?

In Jason Takes Manhattan, there was a scene in the script where Jason kicks a dog. I’m no big animal rights activist or anything but, to me, that seemed so unlike something that Jason would do. I always felt, if anything, Jason would identify with an animal as oppose to being brutal to one. Since this was the second time that I was playing the character, I thought I had a little clout to say that I don’t think the character would do this. Rob Hedden, the director, ultimately agreed. He probably didn’t like the scene anyway, so it was easier for him to say, “Hey, Kane doesn’t wanna do it.” I just didn’t think it fit with the character. I’ve said it before but I don’t think Jason would be brutal to an animal or a child. That was the only thing. Sometimes I changed or added to a kill over the course of the four films to make it what I thought was more interesting. Most often it worked. Other than that, there was nothing ever that I didn’t want to do.

In your entire run as Jason, what was your favourite experience?

There’s stuff that I enjoyed in each one. Obviously, Part VII will always be my favourite because I loved the look of Jason and the fact that I did so many stunts. That’s closest to my heart. Then you have Jason X, which was the biggest budget of all of the ones. I believe we shot for ten months. Things about it were so cool, and the look of Uber-Jason was fun. So that will always be high on my list. Jason Goes to Hell had some cool stuff in it. I always wished there had been more of Jason in that, though. I guess that was the storyline and the way it was written. But the single most amazing day of shooting of any of the Jason movies was in Jason Takes Manhattan when we shot for one night in Times Square, New York. Unless you were there, you couldn’t appreciate shooting at 10 o’clock on a Friday night in the middle of Times Square. And I’m in full costume! It was surreal to see the response of… I always say hundreds, but there may have been thousands of people watching. I’m standing in the middle of Times Square as Jason and there’s so many people on either side of me, held back by the NYPD. I felt like a rock star because of how many people were watching me perform. That night was just phenomenal. It’ll always be the absolute high point of any Jason scene I ever did.

Did you go to any bars afterwards dressed as Jason?

I did not do that but I also never took the hockey mask off whilst I was out there. I didn’t want people’s perception of the character to change. Once I put the hockey mask on, I kind of transformed into the character. I wouldn’t be joking around anymore on the set, I was pretty serious, I tried not to talk too much unless I was talking to the director. Maybe it’s a little method but it worked for me.

How did the cast of the films take you during the moments where you were in the Jason zone when you were on set?

With all the characters, even in the Hatchet movies, I try to never be too buddy-buddy with any of the actors during the shooting on the set. If I’m in my costume and character, I didn’t even want them to be too comfortable around me. I think it helps their performance. A lot of times I would do things to make them think, “Wait a minute! What is wrong with him? He is not the same person when he’s in character.” It makes them a little uncomfortable and entertains me at the same time. I know if I’m on the set and with the mask on, if we’re about to roll a scene where I’m about to kill an actor, if they’re watching me and they think that I don’t know that they’re watching me, I’ll do things like I’ll be yelling, talking to myself, growling, smacking my head against a tree, something. It’s a little bit for me but it’s more for them, so they think, “Oh my God, what is wrong with him?” It was entertaining for me because those costumes are not comfortable to work in. It helps them a little bit but probably more for myself – it entertains me.

Friday the 13th as a series, one of the biggest bones of contention amongst fans it that when it finally came down to Jason facing off against Freddy you were replaced by Ken Kirzinger. Fans wanted to see you against Robert Englund. How did you feel about that whole thing?

Well that’s what I thought, after four films. I really, to this day, was never told why. No matter what you may have heard, it had nothing to do with money, no disputes, nothing negative from my side at all. Because I loved playing the character so much, I would never have jeopardised playing the character by demanding too much money or being difficult to work with. I would never give them a reason to replace me. When the script was being talked about and the movie was greenlit, I had a meeting with an executive at New Line Cinema, a lunch meeting, and she gave me the script and said that we’re finally doing this movie. I was so excited! To me, I assumed I was doing the movie when she said, “We’re doing the movie, here’s the script.” A director was hired and things started changing. I don’t know who made the decision but all of a sudden I was out for no reason – still, to this day, never given a reason. I was replaced unceremoniously. Nothing to do with anything that I did, and no decent reason ever talked about. They shot it in Vancouver and that’s where Kirzinger lives, so I don’t know if that’s a reason. My opinion is I think whoever made the decision did so because they said, “It’s a guy in a mask, nobody cares who it is, you can’t tell who it is.” With Freddy, you can see that it’s Robert. With Jason, you can’t see the face so it’s not that big a deal. Whoever made the decision, I think that’s what their thinking was.

That film was certainly a mixed bag in terms of fan reaction and critical reaction but, particularly to fans, it didn’t mean as much because it wasn’t Kane Hodder as Jason…

People tell me that. It’s nice to hear. Even Robert pretty much set it up. I dunno if you know, that was my hand in the Freddy glove. I thought, “Hey, now I can say I did a shot as Freddy!”

And there was talk at one point of putting Michael Myers, Ash or Pinhead into the mix with Freddy and Jason, but it seemed that fans were turned off that idea once you weren’t playing Jason.

That’s nice to hear. As soon as they announced that I was replaced, there was a pretty big backlash from the fans and petitions online to not replace me. That’s when I think they realised, “Wow! It is a bigger deal than we thought.” Then they started coming up with reasons like, “Well we wanted an actor with more expressive eyes.” When I read that one I was like, first of all, Jason only has one fucking eye – the other one’s been gone for many movies. That’s the one thing that people always say about me, that I do have expressive eyes. So I’m not sure how that would matter. Then Kirzinger is a slight bit bigger.

The general story out there is that they went for Kirzinger because they wanted somebody taller against Englund’s Freddy. Do you think there’s any truth in that?

I dunno if the inch and a half really reads on film, but whatever. I wish I had been given a reason so that I could at least know. It seems like I’ll never know.

Did you actually see the movie in the end, and if so, what were your thoughts on it?

I did. It’s hard to say, I would’ve done some things differently. It didn’t seem like… it was just different. I don’t wanna go into it too much.

And did you get to see the rebooted Friday the 13th at all?

That’s a movie that I chose not to see.

With roles like Jason and with Victor Crowley of the Hatchet series, you’re behind a mask or prosthetics. Is that like a safety blanket of sorts for you?

It’s harder to act with that stuff, especially when you have to look scary and be intimidating and stuff without your facial expressions or your voice, which are probably the two main tools that an actor uses to be intimidating. So to get that across without those two things, that’s much harder to do. I think a lot of people that have played characters like this tend to overact because they tend to force it. Then it doesn’t look believable or scary either way. I just looked at is as a challenge. Now that I’m a lot of time playing characters just as intimidating but I get to use my face, I think that this is much easier.

Do you ever find that you’re pigeonholed at times?

Well obviously at the beginning that was it, I was pigeonholed. But you prove yourself otherwise, then you have directors like John Schneider, Adam Green, Mike Feifer. They give you a chance to do something else. That certainly helps get you out of that. I’ll always enjoy those kind of characters anyway.

And having portrayed so many vicious bastards on screen, how do people react to you in day-to-day life?

I think at first maybe people feel like, “Oh no!” Then they get to talking to me and realise I’m just a pretty normal guy. It’s kind of like a pleasant surprise, I think. Other than people that I’ve confronted with my road rage, ‘cos I do tend to have a little problem with people when I’m driving if they’re assholes, but other than that people are pleasantly surprised that I’m more approachable and friendly than they expect.

So what’s next on your plate then?

I just keep getting offered these cool roles in horror films that is a different type of role, and I’m enjoying that now. This whole year I’ve been playing characters that I didn’t expect. I just did a movie in Australia, so I was there for six weeks shooting a movie called Charlie’s Farm. I don’t play the killer, I play an ex-heavyweight boxer who goes to confront the killer. That doesn’t turn out well, which is interesting being on the other side of that, being killed. The actor playing the killer makes me look tiny – he’s 6’11”, 350 lbs. His name is Nathan Jones.

He used to do some wrestling?

Exactly! He plays the killer. I go up against him. Bill Mosely plays his father and Tara Reid is in the movie also, being stalked by Charlie. That was a lot of fun, being on the other side of it and seeing what, for all these years, what other people have had to deal with when going up against me.

What side of the fence do you prefer being on?

It’s always more fun being the killer.

And to wrap it up, if it wasn’t Jason, which other horror icon would you have liked to play for just one day?

Michael. Michael Myers. I always wanted to play that character. I did one shot as Freddy. The one thing I’ve never done is play Michael. That would be the trifecta, I guess.

Were there ever any talks for you to play Michael at any stage?

I actually was talked about to play Michael in whatever one it was that shot in 1989, which I believe was Halloween 4. I was still doing Jason Takes Manhattan at the time so there was no way I could’ve done it anyway. And they decided to go with George shortly after, which I think he did a good job. But I think it was discussed if nothing more.

If it was possible, would you have taken that gig or would your loyalty to Jason have gotten in the way?

Technically there’d be a loyalty to Jason, but I kinda feel like they kinda ditched me, so if the opportunity came to play Michael then yes I would do it. But above that, I would rather come back and play Jason again.

There is that new Friday the 13th being developed, which has been suggested as being a found-footage film…

I think they’ve moved away from that idea, but I just hope that one day somebody realises that it might be cool to bring me back. After two films without, maybe it’s time for me to come back one last time. I still feel that I could play the role well. Whether you think I did the best or not, still nobody can dispute I’m more known for the character considering I did four of them, so I think there would be value in bringing me back.

And what was your favourite kill out of all of those films?

Sleeping bag . Just because it was so creative and it was killing somebody with something that was not a weapon. A close second though is the frozen head in Jason X.

Smothered is still awaiting a UK release date, although you can find our review here. Additionally, be sure to check out our interviews with John Schneider and John Kassir.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR ON TWITTER @STARBURST_MAG

Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.

CLICK TO BUY!

MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s latest black comedy thriller In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) opens in the UK this weekend.

STARBURST caught up with the director at the Edinburgh Film Festival to find out more about his twisted revenge story…

STARBURST: In Order of Disappearance marks your fourth collaboration with Stellan Skarsgård. How has your relationship developed over the years?

Hans Petter Moland: It went from total admiration to friendship. I saw him in a TV series when he was a child; a sort of Huckleberry Finn story in Sweden where he was 13 or 14 years old. He was already a star when I worked with him the first time, when I asked him to be in Zero Kelvin and we found out that we really enjoyed bringing material together.

The story is quite multi-faceted, containing aspects of vengeance flicks, black comedies, action, crime, family drama, and even absurdist humour. Were they all incorporated with the intent to defy categorisation?

Yes, absolutely. My ambition on this film was not to be restrained by genre or limitation. 

With such a wide scope of content, did you take inspiration from different places for the film’s story?

Not really. It was an ambition to explore a theme and allow the humour and the absurdity to be seen alongside the tragedy. For instance, when Stellan is about to shoot himself, as an audience, you should believe that he’s capable of it, and therein lies the suspense. There’s a sadness to it as well, because this is a man who’s just lost his son. 

Was it difficult achieving a balance between the humour, the sadness and the violence?

It was in one way because it feels like uncharted territory. You have to trust your instincts and believe that it will work because there’s no formula to reassure you that it will. It becomes an ongoing exploration, which I find part of the fun of making films.

Each character’s demise in the film is marked by a screen of their name and religion, as if they were official death notifications. What made you decide to do this?

We’re so used to seeing people die in films, we don’t think twice about it, we don’t think of it as human beings losing their lives and vanishing from the face of the earth. I always thought it far more interesting to make people’s deaths be significant as opposed to just clichés. Even though some of them are bad people, and their lives are taken without much sorrow, they’re still human beings and they deserve a moment of silence, but also without losing the comedy of the situation. It allows then to die in undignified manners, but at the same time still marking their death.

 

The religious symbols shown are primarily Christian and Serbian Orthodox, but there were a couple of others, including the climactic one that many people may not recognise. What did that one mean (assuming this doesn’t give away that character’s identity)?

There is also a Jewish guy, the good-looking dude in the Count’s gang who ends up in a pile of white powder, so he is given the Star of David. The one you mention is the Society of Human Virtues, who are non-Christian but want to be considered an ethical society with all the associated virtues of humanitarian living.

Although Norway in winter makes for a beautiful landscape, it can’t be easy filming in such conditions. How much of a technical challenge was it, and did you incorporate anything learned while making Zero Kelvin?

Absolutely; I wouldn’t say there’s an art to shooting in the snow, but there’s certainly a skill to it. Having grown up in Norway and having messed around outside since I was a toddler helped, because you learn about the various kinds of snow conditions. You have to accept the fact that when you’re shooting in conditions like this things might slow down. At 25 below, the muscles in actors’ faces become stiff! You have to make your own infrastructure; you can’t just throw resources at it, you need skills as well. 

The Norwegian title of the film, Kraftidioten, roughly translates to The Prize Idiot. What does this refer to?

Stellan’s character is a virtuous man; he’s somebody who considers himself not only civilised, but also recognised by his fellow man for it. So it’s a fable about somebody who, in a symbolic way, does what most of us aspire to, which is to spread a little bit of humanity around ourselves in our daily lives. He departs from that aspiration and ventures into something which is the exact opposite, the animal within himself. As a consequence he falls into line with a lot of other stupid people in the film, but his choice being to regret his departure from where he started out. 

One of the great things about your filmmaking style is the lack of unnecessary dialogue; if viewers already know the content of a conversation about to be had, it’s simply avoided. Does it require a conscious effort to streamline character interaction, or does it come naturally to you?

I’m keenly interested in how we interact as human beings. I’m not averse to dialogue but sometimes we make irrational skips forwards in the way we talk to each other. This is our first conversation together, but had we had numerous interactions we could have skipped around in a way that other people perhaps couldn’t follow. For an outsider, which the camera is, it would say something about the nature of our relationship. So, in answer to your question, it’s yes and no!

Your films often feature split families, and absent fathers as broken men. What is it about these themes that resonate with you?

I never thought of it that way! I think all our relationship drama starts with the family, as that’s where our original knowledge of conflict emanates from. Family has its own conflict, but there’s also – and I firmly believe this – a healing potential in every family. It’s something that really interests me.

What do you have planned for the future?

I’d like to get a little bit younger and a little bit wealthier! In lieu of that, I’ll keep making films. They may not make me rich, but they’ll keep me having fun for years to come.

In Order of Disappearance is in cinemas now.

It was during a scene from Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers – in which Casper Van Dien’s Johnny Rico gets acquainted with the Roughnecks – that a face in the background suddenly caught everyone’s attention. Forget the well-executed CGI bugs, Michael Ironside’s scenery-chewing performance and Dina Meyer’s shower scene… the gleaming grin on the guy standing behind the two leads was about to steal the show and it could mean only one thing: Jake Busey had arrived!

Although the young actor – the unmistakeable son of Hollywood’s Gary Busey – had been working since the age of seven (thanks to his first role opposite his dad in Dustin Hoffman’s Straight Time) it was this appearance along with others in the likes of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners and Robert Zemeckis’ Contact that really brought him to the forefront, cementing him as one of the freshest faces to watch. From then on, it was a rollercoaster of success for the LA-born actor with appearances in Enemy of the State, Tomcats and James Mangold’s brain-twisting thriller Identity, filling his CV to the brim with potential.

Yet, as the years went on, although Busey continued to work, there was no escaping the fact that he had all but vanished from the mainstream, something that the actor admits was in some way intentional, although the result wasn’t quite what he was hoping for.

“I had moved out of Los Angeles,” Busey explains. “I made the wrong choices with trying to do interesting independent films and/or pay the rent. I wound up going in a direction that I didn’t want to go in and had some personal issues that kind of took me out of the game for a good five years. Then, after those five years I was trying to get work and trying to get back to where I had been and I found that the world had changed, entertainment and media had changed and the whole landscape was different. I was a forgotten toy, like in Toy Story, you know!”

As the actor struggled to get back on his feet, a string of arguably forgettable roles would follow, including stints in the likes of Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 and Nazis at the Centre of the Earth. Then something incredible happened, for which the actor would be forever grateful.

“John Fogleman was my former agent,” Busey explains. “He’s the reason that I had the success I had in the 90s. He was at William Morris, I was his first client and when they went to start this El Rey Network and started on From Dusk Till Dawn, somebody brought up my name and thankfully I had history with everybody. I think anyone else wouldn’t have hired me but these guys knew me, and we had sort of relationships and so it really worked out.”

“Robert Rodriguez I had known 20 years ago,” Jake continues. “He and I had been personal friends and we had mutual friends and he’s just a really great down-to-earth guy. He understands the human plight and that people have their issues and they overcome them. He told me that one of his favourite things to do is to cast actors against type or against expectation.”

To that end, it should come as no surprise that when it came to Rodriguez casting the fan-favourite role of Sex Machine in his TV-bound reworking of From Dusk Till Dawn, he would turn to Busey.

“Sex Machine was originally Tom Savini, a sort of swarthy guy, shorter and stockier and then he went with me, this tall, Swedish galute,” Busey laughs. “He’s truly a different Sex Machine than in the movie too. In the movie he was kind of like a red herring. He was the guy in the bar and you thought he was just another scallywag and then when the shit hits the fan he’s there to help our heroes. The Jake Busey Sex Machine is kind of the other way around; he’s more of a snake in the grass. It’s funny, they really built a big back story about the new Sex Machine and then didn’t film any of it. We had this whole thing about him being a professor at the university and you see him with the college girls and you see him have a weird Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs) sordid relationship with the students and maybe he’s reckless at home while he’s a man on the scene as far as the nightlife and things like that. So he lives a dual life. But none of that was really fleshed out in the first season and I don’t know if there’ll be flashbacks to get to it, but the point of it was he’s the demure guy that we all know and love as our helpful professor but then when the shit hits the fan, in contradiction to the film, he’s got his own agenda. He’s had a passion for 15 years to find out about these culebras and then when he gets close, the power and the magic and all that is very alluring and he decides he would love to be a part of it. So I really owe From Dusk Till Dawn and Robert, it’s really kick-started my career in a lot of other avenues.”

And just like that, Busey is finding that the hyperbole that surrounded his initial arrival onto the mainstream entertainment scene is beginning to gather momentum again.  Next up for him is Texas Rising, an all-star TV mini-series starring Brendan Fraser, Thomas Jane, Crispin Glover and (of course… you know, this has ‘Texas’ in the title) Bill Paxton.

“You know what, I don’t think that Texas Rising would have happened for me had I not been working on From Dusk Till Dawn,” Busey admits. “My wheels were greased, I was working every day on the series and the audition popped up. I’m really bad with walking in a room and doing the song and dance for an audition, it’s just not in my wheelhouse to do that so the fact that I had to put it on a tape and send it to Los Angeles I think really benefitted me. I also benefitted because Robert Patrick had his acting coach in Austin with him and so I was able to work with him and we did an all-day session to get the Texas Rising material on tape so I’ve got to thank Robert and his guy Stephen Bridgewater for helping me get the role. One thing leads to another.”

So, it would seem at last that Jake Busey’s career is well and truly back on track. And while his professional revival presents a ray of hope for the future, it is by no means the only light in his life.

“My daughter is doing very well,” Busey beams. “She’s very healthy and growing every day. Around her birthday, when she turned two, a lot of things really started accelerating. Like she took some sort of growth accelerant. It’s crazy, her speech has tripled in the past month and it’s really been incredible to be a part of.”

With a second season of From Dusk Till Dawn gearing up for production in the new year and Busey’s life looking increasingly bright, you can’t help but wonder whether Sex Machine might get a chance to flash his groin arsenal once again.

“It sure would be nice,” Busey grins. “It’s probably one of the best experiences I’ve had in the last 10 years and I really am thankful to have been a part of it and I hope to continue to be a part of it. Given the circumstances and the way TV goes I think it’s possible that Sex Machine could come back and I sure hope he does. We just need them to blog about it, that’s all.”

From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series Season One is released on DVD on September 22nd.

It seems that Jeff Grace’s score for the 2009 Ti West film, The House of the Devil, has been rumoured as a Death Waltz Recording Co. release since the label came on the scene several years back. It was starting to become the soundtrack version of Duke Nukem Forever, but last month, label head Spencer Hickman announced that it was going to happen, and posted pictures of the record in all its glory.

We spoke with Hickman in the midst of moving the Death Waltz offices from London to Margate, and he shared with us the details of this release, as well as surprising us with some heretofore unannounced releases.

STARBURST: Exactly how long have you been working on The House of the Devil?

Spencer Hickman: Forever! Literally three years …

Is it true that this was originally supposed to be the first Death Waltz release?

Yes, this was supposed to be DW001.

So what was the hold up?

Really, just figuring rights out. Even though this is a new movie, the company that owns the rights are a pretty big indie and it took a while to get to the right people, and then try and figure it all out. Sometimes that is just the way it goes.

Do you feel you were able to give it a better treatment after all the time you’ve put into it?

Definitely. We are continually improving what we do and I feel like this now looks and feels pretty perfect.

We’ve seen the picture disc — what else is the release going to have, colour-wise? 

There is a red version for retail. We have a deluxe version for our website and launch event at Beyond Fest, which is black with red splatter. We have the whole cast and crew coming out: composer Jeff Grace, director Ti West, stars Jocelin Donahue, A.J. Bowen and more.

We also just this second confirmed that Mike Armstrong — who composed the incredible ’80s Cars homage over the opening titles — is going to come down and play that track live (with his grandmother on drums!) and lead the whole theatre in a dance-off!

Does the release of HOTD mean we’ll be seeing some more Ti West stuff on the way?

Yes, we just got the cover to The Innkeepers finished up and the Sacrament is on the way, too.

The House of the Devil has a screening release at LA’s Beyond Fest on September 27th, and the soundtrack goes on general sale the following day, September 28th. Hickman promises that this is not a pre-sale, as they have the release in-hand.

Richard Gray’s Mine Games was released last year in the UK, although its US release is only now just on the horizon. As well as this tense, atmospheric, time-travel thriller on his CV, Gray is currently finishing off the Jason Momoa-starring Sugar Mountain before going in with balls of steel to tackle the remake of genre classic Audition. We were lucky enough to grab an hour of the writer/director’s time to get the scoop on these projects, his thoughts on remakes, and a whole lot more.

Starburst: We got Mine Games last year in the UK, although it’s only just getting a US release. How come there’s been such a delay in the States?

Richard Gray: Well we shot a new ending, which was a bit too quick for the UK release. We had a good release before but we wanted to wait for the build-up to Halloween. One thing just leads to another, things get pushed – we actually shot it a long time ago but we didn’t really get finished until quite recently.

We understand the film went through a few names changes as well, starting as Mine Games, changing to The Evil Within, then settling on Mine Games…

I’m very glad it went back. We’ve been through every kind of indie dilemma. Firstly, coming out round about the time when DVD collapsed in the UK, having to learn a lot – it was my first American film since moving from Australia. So it’s been a really educational process. We’re very proud of the film, we made it for next to nothing, around $700,000, and we were very happy to get it made in the first place.

Having seen the movie, we found it to be very atmospheric and with some tense reveals. In terms of comparisons, the only thing we could really compare it to in any way would be Triangle, starring Melissa George.

That’s a great example. The original script was written a long time ago, before Triangle, which I really enjoyed. That was the element that excited me. We’ve all seen the loop and the twist, the Triangle aspects, before. In my movie, what we liked was people discovering something different. The antagonist was coming from within them, as a friend. We hadn’t seen that before. Usually you’re expecting a film like this to have some mad person, mad guy, mad creature. I really liked the Lord of the Flies element of it, like kids turning on themselves.

In Mine Games, there’s plenty of twists and turns throughout. How tricky was it to plan those things out and to make the story flow naturally?

Oh, it was a totally headfuck. Each character had three versions of themselves, if you think about it; the characters that arrive, the characters in the middle, and the characters who arrive at the end. On the flipside, because we were just working with these certain actors, it was quite awesome to do, just a few locations, like where they shot Twin Peaks. It was kinda cool – we all just lived in the same hotel together, had some barbecues when we’d wrap in the afternoons, a really good family environment.

When you came on board the project, what did you set out to achieve from it?

Well my first film was a romantic drama, but I love thrillers and I love horrors. I thought this was a mix of psychological thriller that is a little bit more of a character exploration than a straight horror. It probably doesn’t have enough horror elements in it to be classed as a horror, but that was more interesting to me. I wanted to have a crack at the genre but I wanted one that was character based.

And was the majority of it shot it in an actual mine or was there a lot of soundstages used?

It was a combination. There’s these lava tunnels around the Oregon and Washington border. These lava tubes just had phenomenal production value. It was very cold. For the set-pieces, like bridges collapsing, we used a soundstage. That was one of the hardest thing to do. We had probably a football field size tunnel, then we’d reconfigure it in a giant shape, put in a different corner. It was hard because we hadn’t shot the existing mine yet. The exterior is a real coalmine that’s still there and is incredibly spooky. The interior is a mixture of these lava tubes and mines built on a stage.

How did the cast and crew handle the limited space?

Yeah, they were all there for the right reasons. We had a bunch of Aussies there who had just got their work visas, we had a young group of actors who were doing something that wasn’t just Twilight and was something that was just a little bit different, so everyone wanted to be there. It was really big on energy for us and it was a lot of fun.

And how long did the shoot take?

We shot for six weeks. It’s just so hard to get any sort of standout in the current climate. The good thing about this genre is that people use word of mouth, and then obviously people like you, publications like yours – that’s the key to us trying to spread the word.

How has the feedback been so far from the film showing at festivals?

It’s been great. It was a festival favourite at Aruba, it was the first film to sell out in Melbourne, and it’s done well. With this genre comes heavy criticism, but that’s alright, you just take it in your stride because you kind of need to be knowing what you’re watching. But the fans of the genre have loved it – we’ve had a lot of support from the people in the UK who have watched it. It was a shame that they didn’t release it on Blu-ray in the UK and with very little publicity there, but hopefully the domestic release in the US will put us on the map a little bit.

How has the reaction been back in Australia? Is there more press coverage over there?

We did around the time of the Melbourne Film Festival, but they’re waiting on the Australian release until the US release. So it’s just a case of waiting for us. We’ve actually made four films since then. But it was awesome for us to get back to Mine Games – it was a very important step to us. Australia can be very supportive but, I guess a little back like the UK, Australia is a very hard market at the moment. I think people try to be really supportive but in Australia there’s very little avenues. It’s really hard times over there.

From speaking to other Australian filmmakers, it seems as if critics over there can be particularly harsh on genre films. Is that the case?

It’s really hard. People either love it or hate it. They have their knives out in the genre as well because it’s such a revered genre that has rules – the fans are certainly the most passionate. It’s like walking on a tightrope, but any chance you can have to be a part of that is great. I really thought that the premise of Mine Games was original and you hadn’t quite seen it before, and I still don’t think you have. I feel like it’s got something a little bit different to it.

Away from Mine Games, you have The Lookalike set for a release and Sugar Mountain in post-production. What can you tell us about that?

The Lookalike is playing on Sky in the UK already, then it’s due to go theatrical in the US. The market has shifted so much. That’s a crime thriller produced by Justin Long in a True Romance-type of world. We’re really excited about that – my wife wrote that and we shot it in New Orleans. It was just so much fun. It was originally an Australian script but John Corbett, Gina Gershon, Jerry O’Connell, Luis Guzman – just a really great, exciting cast for me as big fans of all those people. That was great, a great experience. Then we came and shot Sugar Mountain in Alaska. That has a Simple Plan feel to it, A Simple Plan that Sam Raimi directed with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton. It’s just this hoax that goes wrong, then a tangled web ensues. These two brothers plan this hoax that goes horribly wrong. Jason Momoa is in it, he’s fantastic. It was a great time for us as it was just before he was announced as playing Aquaman in the new Batman and Justice League movies…

Which still hasn’t officially been announced at this stage…

It was funny . And Cary Elwes was great – such a mixed career between Saw and The Princess Bride and all these things that people just love. So between Cary and Jason, we had a great bunch of kids playing the leads. And shooting in Alaska was an experience. You could shoot from the side of the road and still get a spectacular shot. So we’re in post-production for that right now.

Do you have anything in place in terms of a rough release date?

We’re sort of setting our sights on the Berlin timeframe, that market. So the end of the year it’ll be finished, then we’re actually making the remake of Audition. We’re moving into that next. It’s been a great journey between those four films. There’s a true line there, the thriller, psychological element of them. And it’s amazing to be able to have a crack at Audition, and I’m sure the knives will be out on that one.

Whoever got the Audition remake was always going to get it in the neck, but how did you end up getting that gig?

I was such a fan, and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think I could bring something different. It’s certainly not going to be a shot-to-shot remake. We’re adapting the book. The book has so much depth, a much bigger canvas, a bigger well to draw from. I was meeting with Mario Kassar, the producer of Terminator 2, Basic Instinct, Lolita, Rambo, and we were talking about another project. He happened to mention what I thought of the original Audition. In America or around the world, you either know Audition or you’ve never heard of it. I happened to be one of those that knew of it, had watched it a thousand times and had always dreamed of how it lends itself to a US remake because the basic premise is so American – the casting couch as the basic setup. So Mario said I could have a crack at writing the adaptation. After seeing my previous films he said that if I could impress him the script, which I wrote with my wife, then I could direct it.

So no pressure then?

No, no . But It’s such a good premise to work for. I hate, hate remakes but occasionally, when they offer something new, as a fan of the original you’re just happy to see the content. And there’s a lot of new stuff in the book that not a lot of people will have seen, not a lot of people will have read the book. So I feel there’s extra stuff to work with. At the time that violence was so shocking, some of the sequences so amazing, but we’ve seen a lot since then, been desensitised a little bit. That’s an opportunity to look at the psychological elements and the other things that the film’s about. Straight violence doesn’t really do it anymore, so we’re looking at the misogynistic angles and ageism and sexism angles – all this really great, different things from the book as well. We’re hoping that we’re going to bring enough cool stuff to it, that there’s a reason for us to do it. Mario’s been on this for ten years, this is a passion project for him. He’s made some pretty phenomenal sequels along the way, certainly Terminator 2, so he wouldn’t do it unless he thought we could do something.

Often the term remake or reboot makes genre fans cringe, but then some, such as Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, catch us off guard and actually craft their own path whilst still staying respectful to the original movie. It’s a hard one to balance.

Exactly! I’ve not seen that movie myself but I was a major fan of the original RoboCop. I heard someone talking about the remake and really being pleasantly surprised. He wanted to hate it but he was very happy to see that character go around again. Certainly the American audience, the vast majority, haven’t seen Audition, so if you can just do a good job and not piss off the fans that are so, so passionate, and rightly so, there’s a reason to show a large audience something that they haven’t seen. That could make them revisit the original, which would be fantastic.

Just don’t do something similar to Spike Lee’s Oldboy…

And that all looked good from the outside! We were actually shooting alongside them in New Orleans. When you look at that director, you look at the cast, you see how difficult it must be. You see the really interesting choices that are made to have a crack at it.

And when you were offered the Audition remake, was there any trepidation or any part of you that just thought you couldn’t do it?

Oh yeah. Still! I’ve got a vision and I’m doing the storyboards now, getting really stuck into it, trying to go all out and not make any compromises. It’s very hard when your mind is trying to do things that are a thousand times bigger. But that’s the climate that we’re working in, operating outside the studio system. So you question yourself the whole time, why am I doing this, do I wanna do this, but that’s kind of a mix that can only push me to get better.

Regardless of how good it ends up, there’s always going to be a certain group who are going to be against the film purely because it’s not the original.

Exactly, mate. Oldboy is such a striking example of a film that’s similarly adored. So for a very talented, powerful, amazing director and a very talented leading man to have that happen … all it does is build the pressure. But you’ve gotta be in it to win it. You may as well give it a crack.

Has there been any serious talks on who you’ll bring in to star in Audition or on a start date for the film?

Yeah, we’re probably shooting in the fall over here, so just before Christmas. We’re just about to kick-off casting so no news on that yet. We’re actually looking at the locations and scouting at the moment. It’s just a case of cracking along, we’re finishing Sugar Mountain now.

Are you looking to go with some big names for the central roles of the film or more down-low, smaller names?

It’s a very difficult decision. You want the best actors, but we’re talking with Mario . So actually we’re not sure, but there’ll certainly always be recognisable, talented actors. We’re just not sure how commercial or what their star power will be.

We’d say a relatively unknown in the lead female role would be a better option, but we’re just the guys who write about these films…

No, that’s the smart way to go about it. We certainly didn’t need to know, or people outside of the Japanese industry didn’t need to know, who those actors were in Audition, although we certainly knew who the director was.

Other than Oldboy, what were you thoughts on the varying quality of the US remakes, such as The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, and what lessons have you taken from those?

Creatively it’s a mixed bag, for me, but I see positives in most of them. I think The Grudge was a phenomenal success, then The Ring films were just very different movies. I remember watching the three originals back-to-back in Melbourne and I was never more scared in my life. It’s hard. When it’s your job, it’s very hard to be judgemental. But I thought Naomi Watts did an amazing job in those Ring movies. When I heard Oldboy was being remade by Spike Lee, I didn’t feel negative about that. Or the Psycho remake done shot-for-shot. It’s just very interesting decisions. You could also give the angle that 15-year-olds have never seen the original and will never sit down to watch a film in black and white. You’re kinda damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you don’t do what the original movie did, then you hear that the original was so much better. Then if you do what the original movie did, then you have people asking why you bothered to do it if it’s just like watching the original. You need to stick to the emotion of what the original gave you, whether it’s a one-shot fight scene that you hadn’t seen before. You can’t match that so you’ve got to think what is the next step. If it’s all violence and blood splattering, limbs being knocked off, we’ve seen it now. What is gonna make your skin crawl more and what’s your original take on it? That’s where we’re coming from. How did the original make you feel and how could we make you feel that in today’s world that’s almost fifteen years on? Why did it make you feel like that, that’s the one basic breakdown is that everyone’s a little bit different now. You have to believe that you can add something more. The misogynistic angle is something that’s very much of interest to us right now. Auditioning a wife, especially now, there’s something about that that we think we can really work with. She could be a little bit of an antihero, there’s something about her that’s a little bit murky, a little less cut-and-dry. It’s funny, in the book the dog gets it very violently, leg after leg, and that is worse than doing it to humans, I would say. So there’s gonna be a lot of trial and error, I think. The book goes into great, great detail on their date scenes, it talks a lot about class, about Japanese traditions. The book reads far more like a psychological thriller, and the movie, of course, the first hour is like a romantic drama.

And the contrast with what happens at the end, it’s the early setup work that makes it work so well…

Yeah, because you care. That’s the beautiful thing. Whether a modern day audience would sit through that, that’s another question. But you don’t wanna lose that great character setup as that’s what makes you care in the end.

That must make it tricky in terms of how you market the movie?

When people talk about it, you’re gonna hear about the eyes and the legs and the nurse, that sort of stuff. That’s a tribute to how good the original is, but I’m not sure that many people who haven’t seen the original will be wanting to sit down for an hour of eating fish or the amazing, hypnotic scenes of the original. But we need to get what that gave us.

You touched on the animal stuff there, is that something you’ll be looking to incorporate or is that a bit too much?

It’s a test. It’s something that we’d probably do and then not do. You wanna push things but there’s something more evil about hurting animals, particularly today. So it’s just another one of those things.

As huge fans of the Halloween movies, the scene where Michael Myers kills a dog in the first movie is still one of the most memorable kills of the whole series. You don’t even see it on screen but it stays with you, even above a lot of the human kills.

Yes! You can’t come back! It’s seen as the biggest moment of evil, of not caring. Also, of course, in Audition there’s the element of ‘you can only love me.’ If you have a son, that’s something that gets in the way of your love for me. It might be something that we do a test on.

After Audition, is there anything else you have lined up or are you busy with your current projects for the foreseeable future?

The Lookalike comes out in November, then Sugar Mountain will be coming out, then we’ll be working on Audition. So that’s kind of the next two years for me.

In terms of a release for Audition, are you looking at a late 2015, early 2016 release at the moment?

Yeah, but it sort of depends. If you go by the normal thought, you’d be thinking late next year. Depending on the distribution and how good it is, you never know how quickly or how late, but that would be round the right time.

We suppose one of the silver linings is that all of the people who will be hating on the film will likely end up going and watching it…

I love that. It’s actually one of the things that got me over the line with it, that I could get an audience who will go and see things and really, really judge me. It’s about having the balls to take that on and go “well I loved the original, I’m a fan.” Now when I see people that haven’t seen it, haven’t seen the original, to see what they think, and if they revisit the original then no one really loses. That’s the thing, that’s why we do this, you put yourself out there to be judged.

And if there was any other thing that you could remake, what would be your dream project to take on?

I loved Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. That’s a weird one for you. I think it’s one, with the current crop of actors, that you could blow away. I feel that could be sexed up a little bit but still done in the South and still done period. I like everything but that one’s always been in my head.

Mine Games, already available in the UK, is released on October 7th in the US. For more on Richard’s upcoming projects, be sure to follow him on Twitter or keep an eye on the Mine Games’ Facebook page.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR ON TWITTER @STARBURST_MAG

Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.

CLICK TO BUY!

MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Horror films have always sought to deprive us of any impression of a safe place, and with his horror debut, Greg Olliver set his sights on turning the restaurant – normally a place for sociable gatherings, romantic meals and the venue for a lifelong proposition – into a disquieting, nightmarish and blood-soaked stage for some haunting angst-ridden drama. So readers are advised DEVOURED may make any pending reservations a little less appetising…

STARBURST: In a body of work comprised of documentaries Devoured is your first horror film. Can you remember the moment you first discovered horror cinema?

Greg Olliver: I think it was Alien, which my parents had on LaserDisc. I can remember most of the film, but the one scene that always sticks out is of Dallas in the tube tracking the Alien, while everybody watches on the radar machine in the other room as the dot just gets closer and closer to him. It was just a blinking dot, but it was so scary, and I remember being horrified by that. So to go all the way back, that’s when I first realised filmmaking could scare the crap out of you with something so simple.

Was it an important moment when you realised that films just didn’t exist, but were created to have such an effect?

Oh, it took me years to learn to appreciate what goes into making something like Alien, which seems so simple. When you don’t understand a film it’s easy to tear them apart; to be disappointed by them or think you know better, and to not necessarily understand why you were scared, happy or sad. So it took me a long time to understand why those little moments are as good as they are, and it takes a long time to hone your skills as a filmmaker. Those types of films are made by masters who are very good at what they do, and I would never have appreciated that back then. I just thought it was a scary scene with an alien that my parents didn’t want me to see. I remember them trying to keep me from seeing certain scenes – that, and a sex scene in Animal House that my dad fast forwarded through on LaserDisc.

How did you become attached to direct Devoured?

Ever since I was a little kid it has been my dream to make narrative films, and I thought I would be directing Hollywood movie stars. It is all I ever wanted to do, and I fell into documentary filmmaking by accident. Although I loved it, and I was lucky to discover good subjects to make films about, I have always been waiting to come back to narrative filmmaking. But from my point of view it is much harder to get a narrative film made, and finally there was the opportunity with my friend Mark who had been writing screenplays, and had access to some cash. He came up with the idea for Devoured, and we found the location and just went with it. So it was just waiting for everything to work for you instead of against you as it normally does. 

Working within genre, how did it influence the way that you chose to tell the story?

It’s funny, because if I had a choice in what type of film to make first, then I don’t think it would necessarily have been a horror film. A filmmaker friend told me that it is harder to direct tension than anything else, and I didn’t really believe him until we tried. It turns out it is tricky to figure out the right pacing, and I had to rely on the fact we were making a film about this woman who was the main crux of the film. So we had to make her interesting, compelling and someone you could emphasise with.

Then the secondary issue was to have fun with the genre. It seemed exciting to try and figure out how to scare the crap out of people through the filmmaking process. In doing so I would harken back to the films that were impactful on me personally, such as Alien, where those little simple things scared somebody – movies that were playing tricks on the characters. Things that are in your head are a lot of fun to play.

The Shining is one of those films that messes with your mind, and you don’t know if it’s in his head or whether it’s real. So a lot of that became something fun for me to play with in Devoured, and it was great to have a restaurant that was naturally creepy, which you could walk around and try to figure out what we could use in there to create scares if you happened to be working in there at night. Now because I had never made a horror film there was a lot of work trying to figure out how to actually make one. But seeing it work in the theatre when we finally screened it for people – just to watch those little moments scare an entire theatre/audience was a thrill.

So you have to be conscious of how to bring out the dark personality of the space?

In Alien, the ship becomes a character onto itself, and in our film we wanted a location that would be a main character. Luckily, my friend owns that restaurant – Raoul’s in Soho – and because of the character that it possesses it turned out to be the perfect location. If you go in there at night and have dinner with somebody it could be the most romantic dinner you ever had, but once the lights go out and everybody leaves, it becomes creepy. There are all these old paintings, and nothing has changed in forty years since they set it up. It’s an old building and there is a feel about it, and so to be in there in the middle of the night alone would be particularly eerie. So it lent itself perfectly to a horror movie, and it was fun to have that as our backdrop.

There is a deliberate and methodical slow pace to the film, where the centre stage of the story is her angst – her struggles and desire to return home to her son. Could you share your thoughts on the decision to adopt this approach?

Our attention spans are so ridiculously short that modern horror fans need something to be happening constantly. So, this film is not for the common horror fan! I wanted to ease into the story and the character. You might not be able to relate to this woman who’s cleaning restaurants in New York and saving dollar after dollar, but you need to fall into her story by watching what she is doing. In order to get into her mind-set you have to go through this repetitiveness, and it might not necessarily be the most fun thing to watch. But it is the only way I felt you could empathise with her when bad stuff eventually happens. It’s a risk to make a slow burn film, but it was one I felt was necessary for the story, and it also lends itself well to the type of story where scary things will eventually happen. If you wait long enough, then they will seem to have ten times the effect they would if you had scary moment after scary moment – where you just know they are coming. Also it is a lot more fun to mess with people by making them wait for the scares.

One of the ideas you exploit is whether it is the person or place that is haunted – does she bring the horror to the building or is she the one that is preyed upon.

Yeah, the goal was to be somewhere in the middle of what could be in your head versus what could be real. I feel that if you, I or anybody was hanging out alone in that basement then we could imagine some horrible things. When you hear a noise, your imagination is naturally more terrifying than the reality, and this happens to me all of the time, even in my apartment in Manhattan. If I hear a noise in the other room then I’m looking for weapons – I’m trying to figure out how to defend myself from whatever evil being is in the other room. Of course it just turns out to be something like my silverware falling over in the dishwasher. The imagination running wild is something that happens to most people, especially in the right location and at the right time. So we wanted to take advantage of that and keep in mind the fact that there might, in fact, be real things happening that are the cause of her experiences. By the end you figure out most of what happened, but we still wanted to leave it to the viewer’s imagination to a degree. For me it’s a little more fun when you have something to think about and, of course, when you have the time to do it in a slow moving film.

When it comes to watching horror, is imagination more important than a belief in the supernatural or the other worldly?

Imagination is one of the most fun things that we possess, and especially to just let it run wild. You can have a blast with it, and within any film with supernatural vibes the viewer as they are watching it are imagining what could be coming their way or what could happen. Playing with those is far more important than having them believe the fact there is a ghost in the room. I’m not a believer in ghosts or of the supernatural. I am, however, a big believer of the mind completely fucking with you at all times of the day. That’s why I think imagination is far more important, because it also opens the door for what you can put into a film. So in making a film like Devoured, imagination is more important.

Reflecting on the experience, how has Devoured shaped you as a filmmaker?

Devoured was a great learning experience, and we clearly didn’t make a flawless movie that doesn’t have clichés in it. But then most horror films are cliché, and there are plenty of people who say I saw that gag a mile away. It has got me excited, if only because the first screening we had I saw the entire theatre jump at something in the film, and that is sort of like a drug that makes you want to do it again. Ultimately, it made me want to make more films about interesting characters. For films to make you laugh, cry or to scare the shit out of you, there has to be a compelling character, and the same goes for my documentaries about rock stars, World War II commandos, or horror films about cleaning ladies! There has to be a compelling character that you care about, otherwise there is not much too sink your teeth into. So it convinced me this needs to remain the focus of a film for it to be worth making, and if you cannot get into the character, then who cares how scary it is?

Has Devoured deepened your affection and understanding of film and storytelling?

I love storytelling, whether it is making a film or sitting at a dinner party telling someone a funny story about something that happened. I feel that I pride myself on trying to be a good storyteller, and filmmaking is one of the most fun forms of storytelling, whether it is documentary, horror or action. It is such a blast to be able to tell a story whether it be using actors or real people. I absolutely love it, and the more I do it then the more I want to do it. I would just direct stuff all the time about unique characters, and I have a lot of fun trying to find this next character to make a film about. It is exciting to try and find a story worth telling, and each time I do it I fall more in love with it.

DEVOURED is available on DVD now.

STARBURST interrupted writer UNA MCCORMACK’s maternity leave to ask her about BLAKE’S 7, DOCTOR WHO, STAR TREK and becoming a best-selling author.

STARBURST: Una, thanks for taking the time to talk to us and we hope you are enjoying parenthood.

Una McCormack: My pleasure! Yes, I’m enjoying parenthood a great deal. Verity is a very happy and curious little girl, and we’re having a lot of fun together.

If we could start with the story An Eye for Murder, part of the July Big Finish Doctor Who collection Breaking Bubbles and other stories, could you explain how you came to write this and what influenced you in the choice of setting (apart from having been to Cambridge)?

An Eye for Murder riffs on the Dorothy L Sayers novel Gaudy Night, which is a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery set in an Oxford women’s college (see how cleverly I’ve disguised my play’s sources!). I thought that setting a Doctor Who story in a women’s college would be interesting as not only it would let me write predominantly female characters, but it would also let me have some fun pushing the Doctor’s nose out of joint (particularly this Doctor).  Everyone is more interested in Peri (even if they’ve mistaken her for someone else), and they aren’t impressed that he’s a doctor, because they’re all doctors too. Fortunately, this suited the general theme of the anthology, different perceptions or perspectives. I pushed my story a little later into the 1930s than the Sayers novel. I wanted the outbreak of war to be another shift in perspective in the story – the stakes suddenly become much higher. The midway point of the story is Chamberlain’s famous radio broadcast in which he announces that Britain is at war with Germany. The story has a real shift in tone after that. I’m delighted with how that came out – it was exactly as I wanted it. I’m really proud to be part of the Breaking Bubbles collection; I think it’s a particularly strong set of stories.

Would it be fair to say that academia is an important strand in your life? Apart from writing and parenting, you are also a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin and studied at Reading and Surrey as well as your undergrad degree at Cambridge. How have all these institutes influenced you?

I was eighteen years old when I went to Cambridge, and I’d come from a comprehensive school in the north-west of England, so it was hard not to be extremely romantic about the place. It was a great experience for me – I was bookish and interested in the work, and so I spent three happy years sitting in libraries, or talking earnestly to very clever people. But, in fact, that’s what I’ve done for most of my life ever since! Particularly online! I’d say that online fandom was probably a bigger influence on me than the places where I studied for my higher degrees. To be honest, I wasn’t a particularly good academic in my chosen field (sociology) – I’d become much more interested in writing by that time. My current setting has allowed me to have an academic career in a field that suits me much better – and allows me ample scope to do administration, which I actually quite like.

You lecture in creative writing; how do your students react to your own writing success? Are they your biggest critics or your biggest fans? How much has what you teach been influenced by experience?

My students are incredibly enthusiastic about the whole thing, even the ones who wouldn’t touch a science fiction novel with a bargepole. I’ve no idea if they read my stuff and I don’t expect them to, but it’s nice to have them cheering me on! I try to teach writing as both a practical as well as a creative activity, so I do bang on a lot about clean presentation, weeding out spelling errors, etc. These are things that make a manuscript or a submission stand out, but they’re also to do with pride in your own work. Above all, I try to remember that it’s meant to be playful, and it’s meant to be fun.

Apart from An Eye for Murder, you wrote the story Good Night, Sweet Ladies in the excellent The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, released by Big Finish in June. This story revealed some of Bernice’s back-story and contained many poignant scenes. Can you tell us how you approached this one?

James Goss was the genius here. (As an aside, I think James is a hugely talented writer, and he should be incredibly rich and famous. I hope he remembers me when he is.) Anyway, James got in touch and said would I like to write a story that felt like Dante’s Inferno. That’s the kind of challenge I like being set, so I went for it. At the heart, this was a story about bereavement – the loss of a parent at an early age and how that can cloud and disfigure one’s life. Benny didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to her mother – so the story is about giving her that chance… in a way. I was blown away by the performances. They’re just incredible. John Finnemore was incredible as Day; an ordinary man who’s completely out of his depth. And the final scene between Benny and her mum was all I could have hoped for.

You don’t only write for Doctor Who-related ranges, but also the Blake’s 7 range of audios that Big Finish release [the story Risk Management in Liberator Chronicles Volume 5) – can you tell us if you’re going to be writing any more Blake’s 7 and also how you found writing for the reduced cast versus a full cast release?

Yes, there’s another Blake’s 7 from Big Finish on its way: The Ministry of Peace. The format is very interesting, and took some getting used to: I worried about the piece feeling too static, but here you can trust the actors and the sound designers. I would of course love to do a full cast play. I’d particularly like to do one of the Blake’s 7 novels – I’m a novelist much more than a dramatist – although those slots are few and far between.

Your most successful work (at least in terms of sales) is the Star Trek bestseller The Crimson Shadow, which broke into the New York Times bestseller list earlier this year and prompted the local press to produce the headline ‘Enterprising Cambridge lecturer Una McCormack rockets onto New York Times bestseller list’. Ignoring the reference to rocket and admiring the use of enterprising, how do you feel about the publicity and the success of your novel? Does this inevitably mean you will be turning more attention to Star Trek and less on British Sci-fi series?

I kind of loved that headline! I have no shame. I was absolutely thrilled about the success of the novel – as my editor, Margaret Clark, said: “NYT bestseller status is like an Oscar – they can’t take that away from you.” What’s best about it is the thought that the book is getting read. As for the publicity – I’m a huge show-off and I loved it. I’d certainly do more Star Trek or Doctor Who if they came my way! I really would like to write a non-franchise novel. That would be a big creative risk for me and I get nervous just thinking about it.

Are there any other science fiction franchises (or other) that you’d still like to write for? Can we expect a Babylon 5 or Red Dwarf story at any point?

I wish – don’t we all – that I’d had the chance to write something for Firefly. I don’t watch as much as television as I used to, and I’m falling behind on things like Orphan Black, so it’s difficult for me to pick something current. I’d be more than happy to do some more Doctor Who!

In a previous interview, you mentioned that for fun you use Twitter and like reading. Now you have a child how much time do you have left for either?

I’m surprised at how much time I’ve found to read and do Twitter! Verity takes a lovely long morning nap, so I’ve been using that time to relax and read. Maternity leave can be quite isolating, so Twitter and a smartphone are a great way of keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances during the day.

And out of everything you’ve read this year, what is the one book that you’d recommend others to read?

Only one?! First of all, Andy Miller’s The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So Great Ones) Saved My Life which I devoured in a couple of sittings. And secondly, Villette, by Charlotte Brontë, which is so extraordinary that I can hardly put it into words.

And finally, what TV show will you get Verity to watch first out of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 and Star Trek?

Verity saw the McGann webisode on the maternity ward and then was home in time for the anniversary episode! We’ve watched quite a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation together while I’ve been on maternity leave, and she seems to find Picard and Data particularly fascinating. I’ll save Blake’s 7 for when she’s a little older, I think!

UNA MCCORMACK’s books are available through all the usual outlets.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR ON TWITTER @STARBURST_MAG

Find your local STARBURST stockist HERE, or buy direct from us HERE. For our digital edition (available to read on your iOS, Android, Amazon, Windows 8, Samsung and/or Huawei device – all for just £1.99), visit MAGZTER DIGITAL NEWSSTAND.

CLICK TO BUY!

MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Spanish filmmaker Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Vigalondo burst onto the cult horror scene in 2007 with the exciting and inventive Timecrimes, before returning in 2012 with THE ABCS OF DEATH segment ‘A For Apocalypse’. Vigalondo returns in full this year with his lurid techno-thriller OPEN WINDOWS, alien invasion romcom EXTRATERRESTRIAL and a slice of the found footage pie in V/H/S: VIRAL.

As all three films premièred at this year’s Film 4 FrightFest, STARBURST MAGAZINE was lucky enough to catch up with Mr. Vigalondo over a cup of coffee. Given recent events concerning stolen celebrity nudes and #GamerGate, his answers regarding the cult of celebrity and troublesome online behaviour seem particularly prescient.

How are you enjoying FrightFest so far? 

It’s great. I would never have guessed to be so in the centre of London. It’s like a horror festival in Times New Square. It’s so exciting. This is one of my best experiences as a filmmaker, because I have three movies here. I always dream of myself as one of those Japanese filmmakers who makes three movies every year.

Do you feel a lot of pressure, having three films premièring here in one weekend?

At the end of the day, the movie I’m really releasing is Open Windows. Extraterrestrial is an opportunity for an older movie of mine to be shown. And I directed parts of V/H/S: Viral, so I’m not actually making three. But let me live into this fantasy!

How would you describe Open Windows?

A fantastic thriller! In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, thrillers would work as fantasy – I wanted to make a movie that way.

The multi-platform style of filming is very distinctive. How did you come up with that idea?

The thing is, the producers wrote to me with the idea of making an Internet movie that had a lot of people on the screen. The proposal I gave them back was pushing things to the edge, making a movie that happened in real time on a computer screen. They proposed me to do something interesting, and I proposed them to do something insane.

So what’s your opinion of the Internet? A force for good, or something a bit more sinister?

It’s interesting because it creates a lot of moral products. I’m not interested in the celebrities; I’m interested in us, watching celebrities. We are worried about what is legal and what is illegal but if they tell us they have leaked information from these celebrities, we want to be the first opening this file. I’m interested in us, as part of this culture.

Are you a big Internet user yourself?

I am the average sort of guy. I am not so into social media. I love to communicate through Twitter, but that’s all. I spend a lot of time in front of the Internet, but I wish I spent less time. 

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen online?

The scariest thing is us! Sometimes people talk about the good and the bad of the Internet – in both cases, it’s absolutely the same: us. It’s scary when someone you know, one of your friends, shows a way of thinking that is the opposite of what you feel is okay. Thanks to social media, people react almost instantly when they read the news. When you read their reactions, sometimes you are scared. Or the thing that is really scary is the comments section of the newspapers. It doesn’t matter if you are from the left or the right, every comments section in every newspaper from all political sides, is very scary. 

Very extreme, yes! 

It’s worrying, because where are these people? People on the street? Are they my neighbours?

So, moving on, Open Windows is your first full English language feature. How did you find that experience?

I’ve been travelling to English language parts of the world often, so I can defend myself. Shooting a movie is difficult whatever the language is, so the English element increases the difficulty a little more. But just a bit.

How did Elijah Wood come to be involved with the film?

He read the script and he liked it. I knew him from years ago, and this was an amazing chance to work with him. I didn’t want to show him the script until it was final and ready to shoot. I didn’t want to exploit his friendship. As with any other movie, the script was the key.

What’s it like working with Elijah?

It’s a piece of cake. He’s such a talented guy. He’s like an android in terms of being able to interpret instructions in ways that make sense on screen. He’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen.

You also have Extraterrestrial playing at FrightFest. How would you describe that film?

It’s my favourite movie of mine. It’s a movie I made during the post-production of Open Windows, and I wanted to make a movie about ourselves. It’s about how big things can happen around you and, at the end of the day, you’re not part of it. You make an alien invasion movie and the main character is always the hero that stops the invasion or confronts the alien Prime Minister or something. I wanted to make an experiment and put a main character that wouldn’t do anything related to the invasion. He would have another different story, trying to carry himself in a situation that has nothing to do with the aliens.

You’ve worked within a lot of subgenres, from romantic comedy to sci-fi and thriller. Is there something you’d still like to try?

I want to stick with sci-fi and horror all my life. I think I will never make a time travel movie or another alien invasion movie, but I have a lot of architecture, so let’s see what happens. It’s time for me to make a monster movie.

What monster movies do you like?

My favourite horror film is Aliens. I don’t know if I could make a movie like it – it’s too awesome to pay tribute to – but I’ll think of something. I lie to you – I’ve already made the script. It involves a big monster, like Godzilla. 

How did you come to be involved with V/H/S: Viral? 

They asked me, and I felt so honoured and so lucky, because that is a series I like. I think all of these instalments have at least one masterpiece. I love the fact that, in this anthology, it’s basically about taking a language device – found footage – to a different territory. Yes, we’re all making found footage movies, but we tend to push things in different directions. I love to work in that way. 

What can viewers expect from your segment? 

It’s a sci-fi story that quickly translates into horror and involves things like hedonism and kinky sex.

With this, The ABCs of Death and The Profane Exhibit, you’ve made a lot of short films. Do prefer making short or longer films?

I have never stopped doing short films. They are going to distribute a compilation of my short films in the United States. I can’t be happier. I love the format. I think that some stories are just short and deserve to be short. 

What films and filmmakers do you like? What inspires Nacho Vigalondo?

Doctor Who! He is one of my heroes. You can say that filmmakers like Hitchcock and Brian DePalma influenced Open Windows a lot, but at the same time, I find big influences from people close to me. I think that is the honest way of approaching it. When filmmakers talk about influences, they only reference the people in the background. I think that the people who influence you the most are the people who are closest. 

What are you working on next? 

Hopefully, the monster movie! 

OPEN WINDOWS is released in the UK on October 17th (review here), and EXTRATERRESTRIAL is out now on DVD.

Italian film director and musician, Federico Zampaglione (Tulpa) returned to FrightFest this year with a short movie, Remember, which is inspired by nuclear disasters, and continues Zampaglione’s brand of stylish horror. Although suffering from a bad cold, he kindly sat down with STARBURST for a quick chat about the inspiration behind his new short and his plans for the future…

STARBURST: You’ve returned to directing with a short movie, Remember, and this your first one, isn’t it?

Zampaglione: Yeah, I did some video clips of my band (Tiromancino), where they were like short films. It was telling stories in a few minutes. Remember was a very interesting experience because it comes from reality, a horrible reality, unfortunately. The short was made from a contest – a scriptwriter’s contest. The guy that won, this guy was very young and very talented. He did an interesting script with a storyboard. I said ‘Let’s go for it’. The screenplay was very good, actually. I changed some little things. In the screenplay, the character was a boy and it was too typical. I decided to change it and I found the location.

Where did you find that location? It’s very grim-looking.

It’s in Rome. It’s a strange place. If you go there, you feel bad for some reason. It’s like Iraq or in a war zone. We were there for two days and it felt very dangerous, you had to look where you were walking.

Did you change the location much to get it to look that dour and post-industrial?

No. We didn’t change much. We did some stuff in the room where the girl sees the operating theatre; we did some set designing. In general, we left the location as it was found.

What was it about the screenplay and story that appealed to you?

Because we forget about tragedies, and a lot of people live in those tragic conditions. I went on the internet to study it a little bit and I was shocked. What I did with the film on screen, it was less than reality. People were like monsters and young people… it was the reality. That’s why the title was Remember. We don’t want to see those things. It was a way to remind people what was going on.

The theme of it is different from your past work, the films Shadow and Tulpa.

Shadow was from reality. I can see Remember is connected to Shadow a little bit. Shadow is about war. Tulpa was more a crazy thriller without a real message in it. Tulpa was just fun. Shadow and Remember have something in common. The victims of war and victims of nuclear disasters, they are not very far apart.

How do you decide on the stylistic approach to your films? They’re very striking.

I want them to have a creepy look, but very clean at the same time. I used the same DOP as Shadow – Marco Bassano – he’s a cool guy and very talented. I also wanted the short to look like a real movie.

Did you have a lot of money to make it?

Not a lot of money, but there was a budget. We got money from RAI, the national television, it’s a very big thing in Italy. After Tulpa, they wanted to do a short film for television, with me.

How is the film industry in Italy, these days? Is it still tough to make a movie?

It depends on what you want to do. There is a certain type of cinema that’s popular for everyone. Comedy is popular. It’s a little bit more difficult when it comes to independent movies; Dramas and psychological horror movies or action, whatever. A lot of the action movies, horror and superhero films – it’s all American. Italy is a little bit out of the game, when it comes to those films. Mostly, it’s about comedies.

Have you thought about doing something outside of the horror genre?

Yes, I have been thinking of that. Sooner or later, I will doing something like that, just to challenge myself. To see how far I can go outside of horror.

Do you have any plans for a new feature-length movie?

No. I’m concentrating on my music. Although, I had an idea, just a few days ago, actually. I can’t tell you what it’s about, it’s too early, but it is a claustrophobic supernatural thriller.

Remember is currently being screened at festivals around the globe. Shadow is available on DVD, while Tulpa is still awaiting a UK release.

ZACHARY DONOHUE is the director and co-writer of THE DEN, an exciting new horror film which premièred at the recent Film4 FrightFest. The tale of a young woman who happens across the activities of a serial killer online, it’s best described as REAR WINDOW for the Internet generation. STARBURST was lucky enough to catch up with Zach before the film’s première, where we chatted all things web-based, found footage, and YouTube…

STARBURST: How does it feel having The Den‘s UK première at such an impressive event as FrightFest?

Zachary Donohue: I am truly honoured to be featured in this year’s festival. The line-up is absolutely incredible – and to be shown alongside many of these awesome movies is humbling. I wish I could attend, but it’s thrilling nonetheless. Unfortunately, I can’t attend as I’m still very much a starving artist. But I’ve seen The Guest already in the states and it blew me away. I can’t wait to check out Starry Eyes. And as a huge fan of Eli Roth, The Green Inferno is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

We thought the film was great, are you pleased with the overall critical reception so far?

Thank you! Yes, I am. I think overall the movie has been well received by most critics – both in the horror sphere and out… and that’s been really exciting for a first time director like me to hear. And even some of the negative reviews have helped shine a lot on things that I could improve upon for whatever I do next. So overall I’ve enjoyed the process.

For the unaware, how would you sum up The Den?

Told entirely on someone’s computer desktop using webcams and internet browsers, The Den is a modern horror movie about a young woman who witnesses a murder online and becomes wrapped up in solving the mystery. But as she dives deeper into her investigation, she soon realizes that her family and friends have now been targeted by the very killer she’s trying to catch.

So how did the idea for the film come about?

When my writing partner Lauren and I first moved to LA four years ago, we took a job working for this random videochat site (much like Chatroulette or Omegle) that basically wanted us to poll its users on their experience with the site. And over the course of our online journey, we met a lot of weirdos, exhibitionists, and perverts – and we just realised, “wow, this is such a great playground for a surreal horror movie.” And from there, we just let the dark part of our imaginations run wild.

Was the distinctive style of filming always part of the plan, or did the story come first?

Yes. We knew from day one that we wanted to tell the story entirely through the protagonist’s computer screen. It felt like we were breaking new ground. We wanted the websites and the Apps to be characters in and of themselves. I also felt that the singular nature of a webcam POV allows for a really oppressive atmosphere from the get-go. Because there are no traditional cutaway angles, the audience is at the mercy of whatever is on screen before them.

Talking of the style of filming – how would you describe The Den? It’s been most commonly referred to as ‘found footage’, but that doesn’t seem to quite do it justice.

The movie is more akin to a “screen capture” or a “live stream.” In fact, at one point in the development process I had toyed around with calling the movie Screen Capture. But yeah, found footage usually assumes that the movie already took place and you the audience member are watching it months after the fact. For this, it’s more meant to be that this movie could be unfolding right now. And that there’s a sense of immediacy – both thematically and emotionally.

Were you wary of making a film many will describe as ‘found footage’ – bearing in mind how many films in the subgenre are about today?

When we first started working on the movie it was 2011 and I feel like the found footage movement hadn’t quite reached its zenith as it has today. But it seems like as we delivered the movie a few months ago, we released alongside a plethora of other ones… so no, I had no idea there would be such a surplus of found footage movies when we started.

But that’s not to say that I discredit any of them or that I regret making one. Honestly, I think people put too much stock in labels (especially when it comes to horror movies) and I think that people should just enjoy a movie for what it is and what it’s trying to do, regardless of whether it feels like it’s part of a trend. All that matters is: did the movie move you (or rattle you) in some way?

What steps did you take to avoid the many clichés which go with the format?

I never really thought about what I didn’t want to do or things I should avoid – I concentrated more on what kind of scares I thought would be cool for the concept.

Writing the film, did that take a lot of research? Did you spend much time trawling such websites as Chatroulette and so on, looking for inspiration?

Yes, after the initial gig ended, I went back on Chatroulette by myself and recorded a bunch of conversations and just noted the funniest/most bizarre interactions I had. I watched a lot of other people’s videos of Chatrouletting escapades that are posted on YouTube. And I also watched videos of conversations that my girlfriend had by herself on the site – I think there’s certainly a huge difference between how people on Chatroulette interact with women as opposed to men… and that’s a theme I wanted to explore in the movie.

What’s your opinion of such websites? Harmless fun, or something a little more sinister?

I think these websites can be used for both good and evil – it just depends on who is on there. The fact that these websites can connect people from all parts of the world is cool… and I once saw a video where a bunch of elderly people in the US were able to connect with kids from another country to learn a new language – and I think that that type of connection is how the internet can be a really exciting place these days.

But on the other hand, there’s always going to be a group of people who want to subvert these kinds of sites for their own ends – and that’s what I wanted to say with the ending of the movie. That the more connected we are, the more danger we invite into our lives… and the anonymous nature of the Internet is something to always be mindful of.

With that in mind, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever found online?

On these types of websites, generally the worst thing you can see is a penis or a masturbating man staring intently into his webcam.

How did actress Melanie Papalia come to be involved?

She came in to audition and she blew us away. After she read the scenes, we just knew that she was perfect for it.

The film seems to end openly enough in a way that lends itself to a sequel or franchise. Is that a plan, somewhere along the way?

Not as of yet. I would certainly consider it if someone seriously approached me about it, but in my mind, I said all I needed to say about the subject matter. But then again, as technology advances in the next few years and social networking morphs with it, a new story might start to take shape for a sequel.

The film has been described as a modern day version of Rear Window. What other horror films and directors do you enjoy and have been inspired by?

The Shining is my all-time favourite. For this film, I was greatly influenced by Bob Clark’s Black Christmas and John Carpenter’s Halloween.

What are you working on next?

I just finished a new horror script that’s a contained monster movie and it’s not found footage this time.

Will you stay within horror for future work, or do you plan to move within other genres?

I would love to continue to learn more and grow in the horror sphere, but I also don’t want to limit myself to just horror alone – as I love many types of movies.

Finally, in keeping with the Internet theme, can you share with us your favourite YouTube video?

Here’s a video that I think is very much in the spirit of The Den…

THE DEN is currently awaiting a UK release date, but is out now on DVD/Blu-ray/VOD in the States.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR ON TWITTER @STARBURST_MAG

FROM AROUND THE WEB: