Best known as the guitarist for heavy bands The Exploited and Certain Death, indie filmmaker Robbie ‘Steed’ Davidson took on a daring directorial debut with his gory, tongue-in-cheek adventure, Dick Dynamite: 1944, which is out now.

In a crazy plot involving an old-school action hero who takes on Nazis, zombies and ninjas, Davidson’s film features cameos from bands like The Exploited, Biohazard, Queens of the Stone Age, Suicidal Tendencies, Sleaford Mods, Agnostic Front, Rancid, Gorilla Biscuits and many more. 

Described as a retro-inspired love-letter to pulpy, gory action mayhem, the writer and director tells us more about Dick Dynamite, and how he made the film.

STARBURST: When did the idea for Dick Dynamite: 1944 present itself?

Robbie Davidson: I was on tour with The Exploited, looking around on the plane at what people were watching. I imagined the idea for a war movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, with all those classic one-man-army action tropes, so I wrote the script later.

I’ve made shorts and low-budget projects before, but never thought I’d have the budget or skillset to make something like this happen. However, much later, we made a crowdfunding video that went well, and we were off. It’s funny to think that we were a bunch of misfits making our crazy film at weekends over a long period of time. I’m a musician and we have a lot of band members and people involved, happy to join in, help us out and treat it like band practice.

We were resourceful and creative, too. Later, while filming, we got access to a Spitfire replica on location at a local airport in Scotland. I got press passes to the C-47s before they headed to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and we were able to film inside.

Leaning into the grindhouse influence, the film has a real mix of practical gore effects and CGI. How much did you know about creating this beforehand?

I had toyed with some of this stuff before but not to the extent we used in the film, especially on the practical side of things. On the CGI, we used muzzle flashes on guns, but largely it was about using CGI to edit things out, rather than adding things in, using a tool to enhance the physical effects. For example, we filled balloons with fake blood to achieve a splatter effect and had to edit them out in motion, before seeing the impact. But that could be tricky, so we had to enforce a rule whereby, anyone who missed throwing a balloon or if it bounced and didn’t explode, they would get hit with blood balloons afterwards, because it made my life so hard to fix! [laughs]

There are some crazy, violent scenes. In some ways, would you say that being a low-budget film helped you do this without restrictions?

Working to our own blueprint was certainly a blessing in many ways. We were working in a small, DIY indie way, which was fun but also tough, as any low-budget filmmaker knows. I realise if we’d been a bigger budget film or had producers on set, checking what we were doing, it might have been a lot harder, or we wouldn’t have managed to go as extreme. There’s a particular scene that I know is an audience favourite – no spoilers! – but I don’t think we would have been allowed to do it, had any outsiders been watching us [laughs]

Do you have a favourite scene in the film?

I’m proud of many scenes, but one that stands out is the long-take shootout through the bunker. Action-savvy audiences have seen that and said it was cool, and it obviously took more time and work to create.

Interestingly, some have said the nightmare sequence is their favourite, which is fine, but also strange to me, as it was a very easy scene to do! We were just coming out of lockdown and decided to shoot this wild scene in the forest with a bunch of people in bands, featuring guys with long hair and tattoos around a fire. So, it was a fun night, but it wasn’t the hardest scene by any stretch, especially compared to anything involving fights, practical effects or the bigger sets we had.

Do you have a favourite death scene?

The death of the boxer in the hangar was originally going to be quite different, and it wasn’t until I scouted the location with the replica Spitfire, and saw the design and everything up close, that I thought of a gory new finale. So now, this guy gets skewered on the plane, then gets his head cut off! It started with a small nod to Indiana Jones, with the guys fighting by the propeller, but then it took a more extreme turn [laughs]

What do you hope people take away from watching Dick Dynamite: 1944?

For me, it’s a real pizza and beer movie with friends! The age I am now, going to the cinema was a big event growing up. So, after all the film festivals, I’ve been happy to hear about audiences enjoying it in that environment. I’ve heard talk of a drinking game, or even bingo, in reaction to all the little nods to other films, so I sincerely appreciate that and hope people have a great time with it.

DICK DYNAMITE: 1944 is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download from Dazzler Media.

Extras include:

Director’s Commentary

Making Of

Dick Dynamite & Co go to Bute

Dick Dynamite goes to Japan

Toy advert

Glorious Basturts

Audition tape

VFX Breakdown

Deleted Scenes