To celebrate the release of horror-comedy RAVERS which is out now on VOD, we sat down with director Bernhard Pucher to talk about the film, the idea for the story, practical effects vs CG and upcoming projects.

STARBURST: Congratulations on the film, it’s a crazy, blood-soaked thrill ride. After debuting at Frightfest over a year ago, how good is it to finally have the film released to the public? 

BERNHARD PUCHER: Thank you so much. It’s fantastic. It’s really nice to finally be able to show the film and as a filmmaker, it’s always a bit of a mixed bag – on the one hand, you’re glad it’s out for people to see and on the other, you are nervous that people can see it [laughs]. The most nervous moment is always the first screening to the public.

You co-wrote the story with Luke Foster – where did the idea for this come from?

Luke is probably the biggest horror fan I know – he thinks about horror movies for about ninety per cent of the day [laughs]. After we had done our first film together which was a comedy, we had talked about various other project ideas that he had including one called “Poppers” which was about these ravers that would take poppers which would cause their heads to explode – I thought that in itself wasn’t much of a horror movie but I loved the idea of ravers getting infected with drugs and other stuff to make them go mad – a new spin on the infected genre. We went from there and Luke did the majority of the writing and I helped refine the ideas with my years of experience as a DJ and raves in general.

One of the strongest aspects of the film is that it has a compelling lead character in the reporter Becky that grows personally and professionally over the course of the film – how was it working with Georgia and what was it about her that made her perfect for the role?

Having a germophobe journalist was Luke’s idea – he had a clever way of making going to a rave scary and to make Becky empathetic. Much credit must be given to Georgia for making the character so approachable. When Georgia auditioned, I hadn’t watched Vikings – when she sent her tape through the first thing I fell in love with is the fact she has big defining eyes – a big thing in the movie too. I wanted to have somebody who has compelling eyes on her own and Georgia had that for sure. After that, I went and watched all of Vikings to see her work [laughs]. Working with her was brilliant. Because she came from TV, she is extremely efficient to work with. For her preparation, she spent time with her sister who suffers from OCD and mimicked her behaviour to enhance the role which was amazing.

Another stand out aspect is the use of some truly terrific practical effects for an indie film. Was that something you always wanted to focus on?

I’m always of the opinion that good effects are the ones that you can’t see. There are ways to do both CGI and practical that you can’t see. We have a healthy hybrid of both in the film – especially all the makeup that is practical with a blend of CGI. We worked with brilliant designers and artists that brought it all to life especially that crazy ending. We wanted to make sure that the story was good enough that you were invested and couldn’t tell the difference between practical and CG.

Can you talk about any projects you have coming up soon?

Yes, I’ve been writing a lot myself lately – although none of it is horror. I’m pretty busy with existing projects including a thriller that I’m writing which is set at the Mexican border about a Mexican rancher who has to defend his ranch from US border police. A couple of other projects too but nothing immediate, I’m still looking for that next immediate project. I’m producing a lot of motorsport at the moment which is keeping me busy.

RAVERS is out now on VOD in the UK.