MyAnna Buring is a Swedish born actress who moved to England when she was sixteen. She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), started a theatre company (called MahWaff) and has starred in a large range of film and television roles.

Ticking off the usual British TV essentials such as The Bill and Casualty, she can also proudly add roles in comedy series The Wrong Door (where she dated a Tyrannosaurus Rex…!), Doctor Who episode The Impossible Planet and films like Red Mist and Credo to her C.V. She even appeared in one of the fake trailers on Tarantino / Rodriguez’s horror Grindhouse (“Don’t” directed by Britain’s Edgar Wright).

Most notably, however, MyAnna Buring will be recognised for her role as Sam in The Descent and as Lotte in Lesbian Vampire Killers.

Gorepress’s Scullion had the pleasure of chatting to her at Collectormania 2010, about Neil Marshall, CGI, an encounter with Patrick Stewart and how she’s actually a bit of a scaredy cat…

Despite the rain, wind and the nightmarishly grey sameness of Milton Keynes’ MK Dons stadium, MyAnna was exceptionally chirpy, very sweet and utterly at ease with chatting with me. When I arrived at her signing desk, she was ribbing table neighbour Tommy Knight (Luke from The Sarah Jane Adventures) over his obsession with Pom-Bear crisps and his distinct lack of crisp-sharing. It said a lot about MyAnna before I even began talking to her – she was approachable, good humoured and genuinely funny.

So I went into the interview confident she wouldn’t punch me in the face or set me on fire. Which was nice.

GP : How’re you finding Collectormania 2010?

MB : It’s amazing! It’s incredible. I had no idea it was this huge. We’re currently in Milton Keynes stadium, which is enormous and there are people all around the stadium. And it’s been raining and it’s freezing cold and everyone is trooping through. I think that it’s extraordinary and a testament to what a cool little gathering this really is.

Have you been to many of these events?

Not Collectormania. I’ve been to Doctor Who conventions – but this is the largest thing I’ve ever been to by far.

It’s a very strange event – what do you think brings so many people to events like this?

It’s a love of film isn’t it? It’s a love of sci-fi, horror, genre films and I think it’s exciting to see to what extent people like to express their love for films. Some people like coming along, some express it by buying lots of autographs and pictures, which is incredible and amazing and baffling, and some people really go the full mile.

And dress up.

Yeah, and dress up. It’s extraordinary. And the lengths to which people really make the effort to really dress up and find the costumes and make the costumes. Some of the stuff we’ve seen today is exceptional. Exceptional.

As you mentioned, it’s an event for the fans to express their love. Is there anyone here you want to see yourself?

I saw Patrick Stewart, which I thought was fab.

Did you meet him?

Yeah, yeah I met him. He worked with a friend of mine so I sort of said hello from my friend… in such a deflective fan way! Like “Hello Patrick… it’s just my friend says hi. Nothing to do with me wanting to shake your hand. Oh no, no, not that at all”. Patrick is very lovely, very polite.

It is interesting what this event brings out of people. It’s very bizarre –

It’s great. Bizarre is not a bad thing – absolutely not. It think that’s why everyone’s here – they all have a love of the bizarre.

In regards to your acting career, how did you get into acting in the first place?

Well, I kind of always wanted to do it, but I never really got how people like me got into it. I ended up getting involved in a lot of theatre and projects like short films, and then I applied to drama school. From there I set up a theatre company with some friends, so we did a lot of work together and did some shows and took them to Edinburgh. Then about three months after drama school I got The Descent. I couldn’t believe someone would hire me, and they did, and they just continued hiring me… It’s amazing.

Your work seems to lean more towards horror and science fiction. Is this something you set about aiming for, or just by chance?

It’s the way it’s gone. However, I’ve really enjoyed that aspect of it. Somebody was saying that a lot of actors look down on that sort of role, which I think is ridiculous because it’s a lot of fun. It’s quite amazing to work with these people, as there’s so much imagination that goes into the work. Bringing a two dimensional vision into a three dimensional vision is an exciting place to be, and I enjoy it. I love playing straighter things as well, and dramatic parts too, but I have no complaints whatsoever about what I’ve done. It’s been a blast so far.

Well, everyone at Gorepress obviously has a real love of horror films. I think it’s a fantastic genre.

Well, you know what? The older I get, the more and more difficult I find it to watch horror. I mean, I love making horror, which is bizarre. I think it’s a lot of fun to do, but my imagination is getting better as I get older, so I just get terrified by it, even though I know how everything’s done now!

So what scares you most? In a horror film, what would really terrify you?

Well, I’m scared of the dark, which is a bit embarrassing…

That’s pretty much all horror films you’re scared of then!

[LAUGH] Yeah, yeah – it’s the fear of the unknown. For me and horror it’s often the music and the sound that really sells it, and I think my ears are getting more sensitive as I’m getting older. I literally get terrified watching horror films. I have to psyche myself to do it now, but if someone says “Do you want to do a horror film?” I’m like “Yep, definitely!”

You’ve worked with Neil Marshall on two occasions, right?

Yeah, that’s right.

The Descent and Doomsday. He’s a great director – how’ve you found it working with him?

He’s fab. Well, Neil and Christian Colson (who produced The Descent), they were the guys who gave me my break, and Gail Stevens who cast it – they picked someone unknown when they could’ve picked someone who had a bit more experience, perhaps, but they picked someone straight out of drama school. I’ll always be grateful for that, and I’ll be grateful for Neil bringing me back on Doomsday. They were the two best films I ever did in terms of experience and the people who were working on it – they all did incredible jobs.

The Descent was fantastically well received, so much so it got a sequel. You even returned for The Descent 2, for a small role as flashback footage found on a video camera… and as a corpse.

[LAUGHS] My corpse. Yep. My corpse.

How did they approach about that?

We were told [about the sequel] and we were asked and there was no question from any of the girls. We all said yes immediately.

It did well as a sequel, which surprised a lot of people.

Well, Jon Harris who directed Descent 2 was the editor on the first Descent, so it was nice that it stayed within the family. And Sam McCurdy and his crew returned, who shot the first one, which was great. There were a lot of people who came back from the first one, so that kept the family feel going about it.

You also did Lesbian Vampire Killers.

Yes, I did.

That was less well received than The Descent was. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know. You never know why something is more or less well received. Possibly it’s because it had been talked about for a long time. Sometimes when things get built up, and hyped up, it’s easier for them to fall – unlike films that are discovered by people. I think that can affect the reception. Maybe that’s what it needed, to be discovered as opposed to people being told they should go and see it.

Well a lot of people discovered The Descent and are still discovering it. Whereas Lesbian Vampire Killers… well, the title said a lot about it in advance.

Yeah, definitely.

Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, yeah. Phil Claydon [L.V.K.’s Director], it was one of his first features, and he’s up-and-coming and just has fab ideas and an amazing energy about him. That’s always fun to work with. It was a fun concept, it was meant to be a sort of tongue-in-cheek film, and never meant to be, you know, hugely serious –

It was an homage, of sorts.

Yeah, absolutely, and I think it achieved that on certain levels. And I know you said that some people didn’t feel that, but equally I’ve met people who have really enjoyed it.

How were James Corden and Matthew Horne to work with?

Funny… funny. You know, they’ve worked together for such a long time they have this really great banter between them, which you don’t often get that with actors. Most actors are just thrown together, but they [Horne & Corden] speak in a different language with each other, which is great to watch. And also it’s great to work with young actors who have already been incredibly successful, with Gavin and Stacey doing so well, which is something that should be celebrated.

Well, James Corden has done so well he’s in Doctor Who, which is something you beat him to. It’s such an iconic television show – a British institute. How was your experience on Doctor Who?

Well, I didn’t know Doctor Who that well – I knew of Doctor Who, but not much else – so when I rocked up on set I was hit by just how huge it was. And then the reception afterwards… to come to things like this and realising that several years after it people are still talking about it and remember it… that’s amazing.

I think it’s because it bridges the usual divide between horror, sci-fi, family and drama, in a way no other show ever has.

Absolutely. It’s very inclusive.

You’ve done a lot with CGI and green screen technology, on Doctor Who and The Wrong Door – is it a difficult thing to work with?

You get used to it. Maybe that’s why my imagination getting better is a good thing – you have to suddenly imagine these things in front of you. You hear of actors who do a lot of work with CGI, and this hasn’t happened with me, who go crazy, constantly having to work with pretend. I’ve always found it quite exciting. I think anything that’s thrown at you that’s different is a challenge – so on one hand it’s great working and on the other it’s great to be thrown challenges. I feel very lucky.

You’ve done comedy, horror, sci-fi – are their any more genres you’d like to be involved in?

I’d love to more some more dramatic parts. I’m doing something later on in the year with Face Films, who I’ve worked with before, which is sort of a dark drama, so that’s going to be quite exciting to work on.

Are you looking to do more film than theatre, as you went to drama school and…

Yeah, well I ran a theatre company with some friends, so I always thought I’d do theatre, but then I ended up getting jobs in the film and TV and it kind of works that way, and if you do a lot of film and TV you have to adapt yourself. I love theatre as well, but acting for me is acting, and all mediums are just as good as each other. I never thought I’d do film and TV ever, so I feel really lucky that I’ve had the chance to do it and still get employed to do stuff, so it’s fantastic.

Is there anyone who you really want to work with? Obviously we’re surrounded by talent here, but is there an icon or an iconic figure you’d really love to work with?

Um… I’d love to work with David Fincher. Also Clare Higgins. I worked with Jim Broadbent earlier in the year, which was great. That was a bit of a dream cast, just a couple of scenes, but still it was amazing. So, so many people I’d like to work with. I’d love to do more stuff with Ben Wheatley, who I did The Wrong Door with – his Down Terrace, his feature which just came out, is a great film – I love the way his brain works. Corin Hardy, another young director I’ve known for years, I think is exceptional. He’s a bit of a British Tim Burton, so look out for him.

So, are planning on staying a few days in Milton Keynes?

No, no I’m not! I’m filming in Bulgaria at the moment. I flew in this morning.

This morning?!

Yeah, I flew in this morning at four-thirty, which is two-thirty British time –

My God.

[LAUGHS] And I’m flying back tomorrow at six-thirty in the morning… so I want to get back home this evening, spend about an hour with family and friends and go to bed for hopefully about three hours…

Well that’s a disturbing amount of dedication to your fans. That’s hardcore.

A little bit hardcore. Well, once you said you’d do something I think you should commit to it. I didn’t want to let people down.

That’s quite a commitment.

Yeah, I told myself “I will come to Milton Keynes, I will come!” And I have – I’ve arrived!

And finally, what’s your favourite horror film?

Evil Dead 2. Definitely.

Great choice! Thanks for talking to Gorepress, MyAnna.

Thanks.

Chad Ferrin made his first movie ‘Unspeakable’ a decade ago. Since then he’s been working hard to create a name for himself and with his fourth directorial effort ‘Someone’s Knocking At The Door‘ in the bag and due for release in the US on the 25th of May, he’s certainly doing just that. Gorepress was lucky enough to catch up with him for an email interview recently; here’s what he had to say.

GP : You seemed to break into the industry at a relatively young age and went from Production Assistant to Producer in a short space of time. What do you attribute that to?

CF : Passion. When I was 8 years old my father took me to see Quest For Fire and its graphic images of SEX and VIOLENCE were seared into my young brain, from that moment on, I knew what I wanted to do. I sold my house to make Unspeakable, and then my 1968 ½ Ford Mustang to fund The Ghouls. I’ll sell my organs next if I have to.

Gorepress are big fans of the Troma ‘grass-roots, anything-goes’ way of filmmaking. Were you a fan of Lloyd Kaufman’s ideologies before you became involved with Troma?

Not really. I mean, I’m all for ‘grass roots, anything goes’ but to be honest, I don’t think much of Lloyd Kaufman.

And how did your affiliation with them come about?

I had sent Troma a copy of Unspeakable and they liked and picked it up. Now, ten years later, I still have not seen a dime from them. At this point I wish they would just give me my film back. Maybe we can start a petition?

You seem like a director that has veered away from the mainstream. Was it a conscious choice or an organic process?

Organic, I do everything from my gut. From writing, placing the camera, cutting, I go with what feels right at the moment.

You’ve taken on a huge number of different roles behind the camera. Was it mostly circumstantial or do you just enjoy adding new strings to your proverbial bow?

It’s both. I’ve had to work every job and I’ve enjoyed those experiences and the knowledge that they have given me. It’s made me unafraid of the machine.

You’ve repeatedly worked with ‘Deadgirl’ scribe Trent Haaga, does that working relationship stem from your time with Troma?

Come to think of it, Trent was the one who championed Unspeakable to Lloyd…that son of a bitch!

And do you have any plans to continue working together?

Not now after you reminded me that it’s all his damn fault.

Recently, at Easter, I noticed that there was a distinct lack of seasonal horror movies, only to stumble upon ‘Easter Bunny, Kill Kill!‘ Did you look for a gap in the market or did the murderous easter bunny concept come first?

The director of Christmas Evil had told me a story of how he turned down an Easter themed horror film in the 1980’s. It got me thinking and Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! was born. And, it actually just premiered on cable VOD and will hit DVD June 1st from Breaking Glass Pictures. I am very proud and excited to have it hopping out to the world.

Your movies have already garnered cult status. Is the potential audience a big factor when you’re making films or do you just make movies that you would want to watch?

It all starts with what I would want to watch, but I do have to restrain myself at times because some of my ideas actually frighten me and ultimately, I do want my work to reach the widest possible audience.

Your latest directorial outing is on grindhouse homage ‘Someone’s Knocking At The Door‘. How did it all come about?

Out of the blue, I received an e-mail from producer Roham Ghodsi asking for my help selling a film he had just completed. I asked “why me?”. He said he had seen The Ghouls and was impressed not only in the film but the fact that it’s available all over the world. So, we set up a meeting, and he flew to LA from Australia the next week. We spent 3 hours smoking cigarettes, talking cinema and then suddenly he asked if I’d be interested in directing a script he had written. Without hesitation, I said “Yes”. He sent me the script for Someone’s Knocking At The Door and with his blessing I started a re-write on it. I worked out a story where this drug these kids take opens a door to some sort of Hell, unleashing all sorts of horrors. I sent the script to Noah Segan and we wound up fleshing out the more existential elements. One month later we were shooting. Of course, then there are the stories of losing almost $15k to currency conversion and having to go to illicit measures to make up that end of the budget… Let us just say the cash arrived in a paper sack. Thank heavens for Rich Wolff and Richard Ross of Breaking Glass Pictures for having the guts to put out the film and in a sense save my life… or at least my legs.

Are there any specific films that inspired you with regard to visual style, for this particular project?

If Dario Argento fucked Russ Meyer while Sam Fuller watched, Someone’s Knocking At The Door would be the stain left on the sheets.

Rumour has it that before a screening of SKATD, Gorepress favourite ‘Mark Macready & The Archangel Murders’ was shown. Did you hand-pick it?

No, I had no input on that.

And what are some of your favourite short horror movies?

Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou, Robert Enrico’s La Rivière Du Hibou and every single episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone

Finally, what does the future hold for you? Do you have any other projects on the horizon that you can mention?

Well, my next project is again with Roham and is called Dances With Werewolves. The film is set in the aftermath of the Civil War, centring on Confederate soldiers having escaped a Union prison camp, only to be hunted by Native American shape-shifting werewolves. With a little luck, we’ll have it rolling at the end of the year.

And when can the UK look forward to the release of SKATD?

We are working on that as we speak, and any help we can get from our UK fans would be greatly appreciated. Please write to your favourite horror distributor and tell them you want to see it!

Written, produced and directed by award winning filmmakers Paul Feeney, Ryan McDermott, & Sean Candon, Mark Macready and the Archangel Murders is a high concept independent short film filled with numerous memorable characters, laugh out loud moments, original creature effects and a taste of true British comedy with a sprinkle of horror. Mark Macready and the Archangel Murders has been the recipient of the Special Commendation Award 2009 at the Festival of Fantastic Films. Already hailed as “a British Hellboy” by Joblo.com, a “triumph” by the Salford Star and “a balls out out, eyebrow cocking horror comedy romp” by Filmrant, this thirty minute horror/comedy is proving to be a cult smash amongst audiences at home in the UK and across the pond in the US.

I met up with Mark Macready himself, actor/producer Ryan Mcdermott, along with Paul Newberry and Nathan Head, in a busy Costa coffee in Manchester city centre.

GP: So what are you up to then, guys?

Ryan: So we’re taking the short, and putting it online which is going to hopefully lead into making the feature film version, just getting it out there. It is going to be a really interactive experience as well, we’re going to let everyone watch the short and once we start making the feature we’re going to be live tweeting from the set, live cam and stuff like that. We’re going to give loads of opportunities to people to get involved, in a really groundbreaking kind of way. And what we’re going to do while making the feature is put together ‘webisodes’ that are going to include the characters which lead up to the events in the feature film. It’s going to be a real online cross platform universe.

How are you funding the feature?

Ryan: Private investors. We’ve been quite lucky with the short playing in so many places, we’ve got two investors. So we’re just waiting on their decision to see what they want to do. I’m going to go to Cannes, the short is going to be on the Short Film Corner. It’s probably going to be around the next twelve months getting the money together, and anyone who has got money, just seeing if they will invest in it. I mean there are some people who let the fans fund, but we didn’t want to do that. We wanted to get the money ourselves and give back to the fans, who then give back to the project by supporting it. So funding is coming on well.

The short is getting quite a lot of attention, I see its won some awards, how did the short come about?

Ryan: I met Paul Feeney, the writer and creator in college, we were given one of these projects. You know, to shoot a thriller, or to shoot a horror and he asked me if I like David Duchovny from the X Files and I said “I do indeed” so he said he had the British X Files right here and would I be in it. I said “yeah sure” and we shot it. It was horrendous. It was so bad. But there was a little bit of something in it and then Sean Candon who directed the short saw the tape and asked us to develop it because there was something in there. So Paul went away and wrote the short film…and then the three of us got together and said that I would produce it and star, Sean would direct, and Feeney would write it. He ended up being in it, and Sean did too as its hard to get actors who fit the style. We were very lucky with Nathan and Paul, as they really got the style, that Garth Marenghi-type serious delivery of the ridiculous. It’s very hard to play that straight.

How did you find the roles?

Paul: It was good, it was hard. Because it’s a horror parody there is a delicate balance between straight and comedy. If you imagine Julie Hagerty in Airplane when she is doing those serious moments, its a bit more that style, a bit more on the serious side of parody. It was about getting into these niches and levels of the parody, and it was difficult to get that balance.

Nathan: I think because some of the dialogue you got, like in the first train station scene, wouldn’t have worked if you had done it silly…

Paul: It wouldn’t, you’re right.

Ryan: The line when Paul’s character comes on is “Fuck me sideways and call me a cunt, what the hell are you doing here?”

Paul: And talking about vaginas as well…

Ryan: That’s right, the monster in the short, the Archangel, does nasty things to ladies parts.

Paul: It wouldn’t sound right if you were saying it in a silly way.

Ryan: It had to be said deadly serious, even though what is being said is utterly ridiculous. It’s getting that balance which is very tough. We shot ten days originally, and when we got that footage back it was neither serious nor funny. It wasn’t anything really, just bland. Nobody really knew the style, and what happened then was we re-wrote a lot of it, shot it and eventually it started to come out in the re-shoots. The script got a lot better, from watching that ten days worth of footage we could say where the comedy worked and the performances were working but the dialogue wasn’t complimenting the performance which had to be reworked. We discovered during the re-shoots that Mac is an extremely fast character, he doesn’t wait around. In the earlier version, we had Mac sat around saying “Where’s my wife?”, and we realised that this guy would never just sit there. From the minute you meet him, he is go, go, go, go, and that was something we really needed to get across.

Manchester is an important city for me, how important was Manchester to the film?

Ryan: So, so important. It really annoys me in these English movies where they are all set in London, and there is nothing else that exists outside of London. We wanted to do that with Manchester, and make it a huge character for the film. The branch where they work is called the Greater Manchester Paranormal Investigations Department, the GMPID. What a mouthful. But it was really. I think it was a fresh take on it, I don’t think anyone has really done Manchester. 28 Days Later had a bit around here.

Living Dead At Manchester Morgue shot parts at a hospital in Salford, which has been gutted out from the inside now which is a shame.

Ryan: Was that 70s?

I think it was around ‘74…

Paul: It was up Pennine way, wasn’t it?

They shot a little bit in Manchester, and then everything else was done elsewhere. The shots of the hospital are just incredible, it was really good to walk around in Salford and find it. See a part of classic Italian horror in our own city.

Paul: I need to find a copy of that.

Ryan: I’ll have to get hold of that. We’ve got a shot of driving up towards McDonald’s in Salford by all the 70s flats, with Mac in his car. Whenever anyone sees it, they always comment on that part. I wish we had done more of that, but we didn’t really have a lot of time. In the dialogue Mac talks about how the city is key for him. He puts the city before his wife and that’s what begins the story, his job protecting the city comes between him and his wife and then when she is taken, it really hits home.

So the feature will be set in Manchester too?

Ryan: Definitely.

Are you going to take a bit more time to develop the city as a character in there?

Ryan: Already, in the treatment written by Paul Feeney and myself, it is kind of spanning every aspect. From suburban streets down to the docks, around Deansgate, and the forests and woods. Those really eerie parts of Manchester are a huge part of it. Also in the webisode series, it’s going to play a big role in there as well, in creating that world.

Paul: Manchester is definitely a huge part of it, the people too. That’s why Paul Feeney named it the GMPID, the Greater Manchester Paranormal Investigation Department. It’s just instantly recognisable.

Have you had any scary experiences in Manchester in general? I remember once I tried to walk to Salford Uni from Prestwich, I looked it up on Google Maps and it was a pretty straight route through the Albert and Peel Park. And I just got the most lost ever, I was walking around there for about three hours just not knowing where the hell I was and eventually I found a an old sewage plant and a road back to where I started. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life, I thought I was going to die!

Nathan: I get pretty scared when I’m under Piccadilly Station, under the bridge. You get used to walking under there, but it can be scary!

Paul: Once I was with my mum and it was that big football match, if you remember…

Ryan: Oh, with the riots! With Scotland?

Paul: Yes, and there was two cockneys, me and my mum, on the tram and it was full of football fans and they were jumping on the tram. It was really frightening. My mum was waving a red flag to try and pretend we were from Manchester.

Ryan: One thing that really scared me as a kid, which we were really to get into the movie, was the old train station in Swinton. I would go on the train to Manchester with my Grandmother, and it used to scare the hell out of me. It was so scary.

Nathan: They’ve modernised it now…

Ryan: Yeah, they’ve put in an electronic board. That won’t last the weekend… But, it was scary. It was always something that haunted me as a kid. We managed to do a big scene, a death scene, there which was something I really wanted to do.

Paul: And even shooting that, there was loads of drunks coming past the bridge all shouting over and it was scary.

Ryan: Really rough, yeah.

So the film has been to a lot of festivals, have you been going with it to gauge reactions and how has that been?

Ryan: That’s been probably the best thing about it, seeing the reactions. It’s really nice to get a review, but when you are in there and you see the actual reaction and feel it when you come out, people are looking at you. It feels a bit strange, but very nice.

Nathan: At Mayhem in Nottingham, they had this thing called An Experiment In Fear where they had this person strapped to a heart monitor while they were watching the film to see what the scariest moments were.

Ryan: That was really cool! We’ve been across Manchester, we’ve been to Nottingham, we’ve been down to London, Portsmouth. We flew to New York for a screening there. Every audience is very different. At Mayhem they were really primed for it, as it is a pure horror film festival. I think one of the most amazing reactions was where it was the last film on, and the films before it had all been very serious, very gory and realistic horror. Then this man with a silly eyebrow and a silly voice pops up, and they was like “ooh, what’s this?” I really miss it, and I can’t wait to hopefully get back out with the feature film.

Paul: It was all absolutely brilliant, I think one of the organisers of Mayhem is the director of Mum & Dad…

Stephen Shiels?

Paul: Absolutely brilliant guy. I had such a wonderful time. It was really funny because a lot of the audience were so used to just watching horror films, and you see them thinking “what the hell is this?” when it has just started but once the audience engaged with each other in the humour of it, that’s when it takes off.

Ryan: It takes that first five minutes to break the ice. In that first five minutes, it’s just Mac and his wife talking…

Nathan: At every festival we’ve been to, we have always sat at the back just in case…

Ryan: Just in case we have to get out quick…

Nathan: But it’s gone down really well everywhere.

Ryan: We’ve been very lucky, even in New York it went down well. That was a bizarre one because I’m sure they just thought “what the bloody hell is this?”, they were sat there just looking around. And then suddenly that first laugh came which broke it, by the end it got a really good reaction. For me, Paul and Sean, that was the most nerve-wracking one, because the American audience can be very difficult. Certain things that didn’t get big laughs here, got big laughs there. And certain things that got big laughs here, didn’t get big laughs there, very different sense of humour.

Nathan: One of the biggest laughs in America came when a character gets shot…

Ryan: A female cop gets shot and the Americans go wild…

They probably just saw the gun and got excited.

Ryan: Probably, probably… And it was a Texan who shot her.

British horror is going through a bit of a renaissance lately, what British horror flicks have influenced you guys?

Ryan: I like the Neil Marshall stuff. He updated it, he brought it back. I haven’t seen The Descent 2 yet, which I know he didn’t direct. He was just executive producer…

It was alright, not as good as the first…

Ryan: I need to check it out. I just really like what he has done, he is someone who has brought it back and in a cool way. It’s not just B movie stuff, although some of the plots are B movie, it’s good horror that looks big budget and I like that.

A lot of people were down on, uh, on, uh…

Ryan: Doomsday?

Doomsday, yeah! I loved it. It’s one of the best films to watch on the big screen.

Ryan: It was a great experience, and I don’t think it worked as well on DVD. I really liked the size and scope of it on the big screen, and I’ve seen it again on DVD. Seeing it on the big screen just made it. I really liked it. Neil Marshall is great.

What about you guys?

Paul: I really liked Mum & Dad, because Britain has this culture of things happening behind closed doors. It has that British Hostel feeling for me. I really liked that, and I loved the characterisation in it. It’s a great film.

Nathan: I know they technically aren’t British but the Hellraiser films. I know only the first two and a half are British but I love them!

Ryan: You’re a big Hellraiser fan, aren’t you?

Nathan: Huge!

Are you excited about the Nightbreed found footage?

Nathan: I’m looking forward to that! Apparently there is a scene in the cemetery with a giant stop motion cat with a women on its back walking around. I’ve seen the test shots in the studio, but I’m looking forward to seeing that. I don’t know if it’s going to get a DVD release, did they do a screening at the weekend?

I’m not sure, but I know a lot of people are lobbying for a DVD release of it. There is a lot of good being found lately, I don’t know where it’s hiding but it’s coming out slowly…

Ryan: Someone is digging into the archives aren’t they…Someone is going in and pulling the stuff out…

Getting back to Mac, was it a difficult shoot?

Ryan: It varied, those first ten days were very hard, very tricky. We were all learning so much. There were too many people, too many cooks.

Nathan: It seemed quite high pressure, it might have just been because it was massive production…

Ryan: Yeah, those first few weeks we different a bit too complex than it needed to be. Myself, Paul and Sean then sat down to talk about how we were going to do it differently. We decided it would just be the three of us, us holding the lights and doing everything. We got one person to do the make up, minimised everything so we could just work with the actors. That is when it became very fun, we really bonded at that point. We all knew each other reasonable well, but for me that was when I really got to meet Paul and Nathan and become friends with them. Which is what we have done really. I mean these guys are actors really, but they are sat here helping me push the movie which I really appreciate. Same goes with everyone, really, who worked on the second half of the film. We all stayed in touch and stayed really good friends, on the photographs from Mayhem we are all there together. We were lucky, it was a really good experience, the second half of it…

Nathan: I still enjoyed the first bit but I’ve got fonder memories of the re-shoots…

Paul: Especially the parts at the train station and the warehouse.

Ryan: I think out personalities came out, through the first half I was just Ryan, producer, not being an asshole… Well, I hope I wasn’t an asshole! I just couldn’t really engage with anyone or talk to anyone because my mind was in a million places. But the second time I got to get closely involved with everyone.

Paul: I was always happy with both sides of it. Obviously, it did relax. It was quite hard to come back and redo scenes, you get a bit paranoid. You think “what did I do wrong?” but actually they’d gone back and seen what was wrong and they knew how to make it right…

Ryan: You guys didn’t have a clue, did you?

Nathan: I could understand why things were re-shot, for lighting and things like that. I’m glad really because it was like a practice run, we better understood the characters during the re-shoots.

Ryan: We were lucky…

Did any of that initial shoot make it into the final cut?

Nathan: There is a bit in Korkinsky’s flat that’s part of the original shoot…

Ryan: Yeah. The raid on Korkinsky’s flat, that’s the original. The She-Snake sequence, and the train station sequence.

Nathan: Some of the actors were different, because they couldn’t come back.

Ryan: That was a shame, because we lost some great people. But we got, in a fate kind of way, people who are more suited to the faster paced version. Ashleigh Edwards Pitt now plays Friday, but originally she was played by a friend of ours called Lynsey Little. Lyndsey suited the very film noir version that we had, very calm, relaxed, femme fatale. But when we came back, we didn’t think Mac would interact with this kind of a character. I think it has to be a sexy demon, leather clad girl, when Lynsey couldn’t come back we then met Ashleigh who was perfect for that kind of approach. Ashleigh is a great example of what the re-shoots brought in. But mostly it was the pace of it, each scene had to end up with a punch, or with a gun. Each scene had to have a big moment.

Paul: I think there was a lot of good stuff in the first version. A lot of good ideas, and good creatures. But a lot just didn’t work for what we needed.

Nathan: I was quite disappointed that some of it didn’t make it to the final cut, like in the GMPID when you saw the other monsters. You just see a werewolf, in the final version, being interrogated, but there was a zombie prostitute and there was a mummy. I don’t know why that didn’t make it through, but I really like the zombie prostitute…

Paul: I liked her too…

Nathan: Her make up was really good, have you any of the photos?

At this point I’ve seen everything on the Facebook group page, I’ve seen the trailer and the make up is one of the things that really stands out…

Ryan: Thank you. We were very lucky with the girl that we had who did the make up, Lindsey Genter, who actually ended up playing Dr. Gish in the film just because we were out of actors. We were like “who the hell is left to play this role?” We were worried at one point that it might turn into a bit of a disaster project, like is this another Wolfman? Thankfully, it wasn’t. Lynsey stepped in to play Dr. Gish, she had never acted before, and she is a great talent. She saved our bacon on a lot of the stuff with the make up, and then we had a really great effects guy called Oliver Starkey come in. He enhanced all those effects, he gave it the look that it has… The grain, it was just shot on standard HD. If you see it without the grain, the colours aren’t as crisp because we didn’t have the money to light professionally.

Nathan: He added some really good effects on the swamp as well, didn’t he?

Ryan: He added all the wind, the lightening and the rain. CGI rain, it’s pouring and no one is getting wet…

So where do you guys stand on the CGI versus practical debate that’s obviously ongoing?

Nathan: I’m mixed, I like CGI if it’s not over the top. Sometimes you don’t even know when CGI has been used like when it is just used to touch something up… But when whole characters are CGI like Jar Jar Binks, I think it can cheapen it. If it’s done really well though, like in Jurassic Park, it can really work. I was worried about seeing Avatar because I was expecting it to be Jar Jar Binks: The Movie but it worked really well in that too.

Ryan: Coming from a producer point of view, it’s whatever is cheapest to do on the day. You have to go with it. But I love what Peter Jackson and [Guillermo] Del Toro do, how they integrate live action with that CG effect. Especially Blade 2, a great example of that, where they had the practical mouth opening and then had the CG. I love the puppetry side of it, we were talking about Gremlins earlier… I really want to own one of those gremlins. But I do like both, both have pros and cons. We had to go with a lot of CG to enhance stuff, but I think it works.

Nathan: It looks good.

Ryan: I just take issue with films that use it for blowing up heads and it’s really obvious.

That’s my biggest bone of contention at the moment, CGI blood. I don’t know how expensive corn syrup is… I watched a film recently with Dolph Lundgren called Command Performace. He plays a rock drummer who has to save the Russian Premier…

Ryan: He’s still working?

He is! But the blood in that is so obviously CGI, it’s almost like Roger Rabbit…

Ryan: It just looks animated…

Nathan: You don’t really need it, even if you can’t afford corn syrup just get some ketchup out of the cupboard. I know its the wrong colour, but you could do something…

Ryan: Spit Vimto out or something…

Nathan: It was chocolate sauce in Psycho!

Ryan: Was it?

Nathan: Chocolate sauce!

Ryan: I wish I worked on that movie. Nom nom nom nom.

Haha! So have you seen many other shorts on your festival rounds? Were there any you were into?

Nathan: Horrorshow!

Ryan: Treevenge!

Nathan: I loved Treevenge!

Ryan: That’s has got to be the best short I’ve ever seen at a horror festival, I love it so much.

Nathan: I liked Dr. Psycho’s Chamber Of Sadism too.

Ryan: Have you seen that one?

I haven’t, I’ll have to check it out…

Ryan: It’s the shortest, most insane thing I have ever seen.

Nathan: It’s quite wacky, isn’t it?

Ryan: It’s very quirky. Lots of girls, lots of gratuitous nudity. It features a really cool up and comer, Eleanor James, who has that horror, B movie queen quality. She is getting a name for herself at the moment, I hope we can get involved with her.

Nathan: That would be good…

Just picking up on Horrorshow, the Neon Killer short… I really liked that one and the Trannibal trailer he also did…

Ryan: He did Trannibal and he did Slash Hive…

Nathan: I’ve seen the Slash Hive one, it’s like a trailer?

Ryan: It’s amazing… Slash Hive was done for the Grindhouse Trailer competition, just like Treevenge last year. Ben Robinson did both of those, great guy.

Paul: Was that with killer bees?

Ryan: It was killer wasps, but it’s madness.

Ben Robinson has this excellent way of shoot that just makes everything look so authentic…

Ryan: I think Ben has been ready for a long long time for something big, I think he was cinematographer on most of the shorts for Horrorshow. I just feel really fortunate to know him, I hope we can get him involved.

Is it out on DVD yet?

Ryan: It’s not.

Nathan: I need to see it again, I haven’t seen it since last year!

Ryan: So Horrorshow and Treevenge are the big ones for me.

Paul: I love Treevenge too, the bit at with the baby. You think there is no way they’re going to do that…

Ryan: And they do it. It’s ballsy. So good! I couldn’t look at our Christmas tree the same this year…

Nathan: Did it talk?

Ryan: Like an ewok.

Paul: Horrorshow is brilliant though.

Norman Warren is obviously an icon, have you met any icons at festivals who weren’t as friendly as you’d hope?

Nathan: I wouldn’t say anyway, I’d get done for slander.

I’m just trying to illicit a little scandal…

Ryan: We’ve been really lucky, everyone has been really nice. The good thing about the horror community is that everyone is so open, it just shows on Twitter, and interested in knowing each other. You feel like you’re in with a nice crowd, I don’t think you could do that with any other genre. I don’t think you can engage with a drama community, how would you find them?

There’s nothing like a drama community out there, really.

Ryan: Sitting round, talking about Keira [Knightley]…

Paul: It’s harder to market too…

Horror fans are generally a lot more forgiving too. They tend to see past the bad parts and focus on the good stuff…

Nathan: I know what you mean, if a film has good gore or death scenes it can still be good. The Saw films have gone downhill, each one is worse than the last but I still enjoy them because of the interesting deaths and the gore is quite good.

Ryan: I like stuff like Evil Dead and Bad Taste because they aren’t perfect but still so cool… We have had with a couple of reviews people saying that the acting is a bit wobbly but it’s a parody, we’re deliberately doing it. Some people really get that, some don’t.

Nathan: People who are fans of the Evil Dead films do understand… Some people seem to be expecting a mainstream blockbuster, and they’re expecting it to be polished with a really obvious story. Some people just don’t understand that underground horror thing.

Ryan: We’re just lucky enough that there is something in it that people see that we can develop. It’s a kind of a high concept thing, and we want to do it big.

Do you have plans for a franchise or a trilogy?

Nathan: I hope so!

Ryan: Well the idea is that we do three, Paul has written the ending. It was written a while ago, a certain aspect of it was actually written in college years ago and it’s one of those surprise endings…

Is it the butler?

Ryan: Damn! You got it! We’re going to make this one and make it as good as we can, then see where it goes. Everything has been a blessing, I am glad we even made it this far. The night before the première I watched it with my brothers, they really enjoyed it and I thought it was the biggest pile of shite I’d ever seen. I genuinely didn’t think anyone would enjoy it, and then when we put it on the reactions… I was very surprised by it all.

Nathan: The thing was, at that screening we had special offers on cocktails on the bar…

Ryan: Everyone was pissed, basically…

Well that seems like as good a place as any to wrap this up, any final words?

Ryan: Thanks for coming down, we really appreciate it. We’re really grateful for everything. I think if you work hard, if you live it morning, noon and night, it’ll happen.

Paul: Follow us on Twitter, @MarkMacready

Thanks guys!

Ryan kindly gave me a copy of Mark Macready and the Archangel Murders for my viewing pleasure, so here is a bonus review of their short.

Mark Macready is a no-nonsense tough guy, living in an all-nonsense world of monsters, shape-shifters and demonic killers. When faced with the guilt of his wife being kidnapped while he was off pandering to his other love; the city, he goes on a rampage to find her and destroy all those who get in his way.

Mac is your basic anti-hero, a heady mix of Snake Plissken, Ash and Hellboy with a uniquely British lilt, and is excellently mis-played by Ryan McDermott. In fact, the whole cast is wonderfully bad. If acting like you can’t act is an art, this lot are the new Expressionist movement! Brilliantly shot by Sean Candon, there are some of the same flourishes that marked early [Peter] Jackson or [Sam] Raimi outings. The script pops and crackles with ridiculous, OTT, and some genuinely witty, dialogue. This short had me laughing out loud and making mental notes of what to say if my wife gets taken by a murderer. Although some parts were a touch over-scripted, to the point where the plot had to grind to a halt to make sure everyone got their lines out. The characters are clear cut archetypes from many films that have come before but all are played straight, without any winking or gurning.

It isn’t all rosy though, it is certainly a film marred by its budget. Through all Mac’s arrogance there is a likeability that isn’t quite exploited to it’s fullest. Despite the fact that the make up is excellent for the most part, some of the CGI is ropey, even for a parody, and some of the smaller roles such as Dr. Gish, Stone, Korkinsky, and even Friday, are under-explored. Although I can forgive the maligning of smaller characters in such a short running time, I really hope they are explored more in the feature version. Also there isn’t enough focus on the Archangel, I would love to see his particular method of murder shown in some depth, just to prove what a formidable foe he really is.

I wasn’t entirely satisfied by the ending, the lack of resolution left me wanting. I’m sure it was done deliberately to get both fans and investors salivating over the prospect of a feature version.
Mark Macready and the Archangel Murders is a competently directed and well written, short, with some moments of genuine tension, some fairly moving stuff, and a whole heap of laughs. It all bodes well for the proposed feature version, and I am already positioning myself in the queue to see the further adventures of Mac and the rest of the GMPID.

I would give it a solid 7 skulls.

Although she’s a relative newcomer to the fright business, Bianca Barnett is already making waves. Having used the internet to raise awareness of her rising star and create a loyal fan-base in the process, she’s gone from ‘horror hottie’ to serious actress in a fairly short space of time. Given that it’s Women In Horror Recognition Month, we thought it the perfect time to celebrate one of horrors’ new female presences.

GP : So, which came first, the acting or the modelling?

BB : Modeling came first, but honestly, I grew tired of that industry pretty quickly. I realized I like standing out in a crowd, not conforming to someone else’s idea of what I should be or look like. I was literally killing myself trying and damaging my body and soul to reach an impossible standard of beauty.. I want to be known for my accomplishments, and judged by the size of my heart, not my clothing.

You’ve created quite a presence for yourself via the internet; it’s a powerful tool for self promotion but people must have been quite receptive to you anyway for it to work. Do you think the internet has helped you to create a fan-base that might not have been able to find you otherwise?

Absolutely, I wouldn‘t be where I am now without the internet and without my amazing fans and friends! It takes a lot of time and effort to promote my work. Right now, I do most of it by myself, but if things keep picking up I will have to have help. That part will be hard for me because I like being “hands-on“. I’ve become much pickier about how I want to be presented in photos and what films I want to be a part of. I think that drives a lot of people crazy, especially photographers. I feel like I’ve been doing this long enough that I know how I want to present myself professionally. Most of it has been very instinctual and I base a lot of my decisions on my intuition.

It’s always nice to see powerful women making a name for themselves on the horror circuit, be it behind or in front of the camera. Do you enjoy your status as something of a horror pin-up?

Oh yes, I’m completely flattered and honored when people think of me as attractive. I’m so critical of myself and tend to focus on my flaws, so it’s a nice surprise when people see things differently. I’m still working on my confidence and self-worth and staying positive.

Do you think you’d like to concentrate on garnering more film appearances in the future or will the modelling always be just as important to you? Is it nice being able to juggle the two?

I’d love to garner more film appearances, and hopefully that will lead to more modeling gigs. I feel like I am in a place in my showbiz career that I am ready to take it to the next level. Previously, I took almost every modeling and acting job I was offered because I was so eager to be a part of it all. Now I’ve become much more selective and I’m choosing quality over quantity. Let’s hope that the offers keep coming!

You’ve been involved in a couple of projects featuring Troma legends Lloyd Kaufman and Trent Haaga. Do you admire the Troma way of filmmaking?

I admire anyone who is brave enough to follow their hearts and make their own path in an industry. I just hope I can be as successful as they have been!

In Albino Farm, you play the primary villain, the truly grotesque and memorable creation; ‘Pig Bitch‘. I always feel that the villains are the more interesting characters in horror. What sort of preparation did you have to do to get into character?

I have to agree, the villains are usually the best part of the movie. I couldn’t wait to portray Pig Bitch – being in the makeup really helped me become the character. I tried to completely channel my teenage angst and aggression. I also studied my dog, Dixie, and based some of the reactions on her more primal behaviors.

Albino Farm got mixed reviews but one thing the reviewers seemed to agree on was that you were the best part of the movie. How does it feel when someone openly praises something you had such a big part in creating?

It’s like winning the lottery! I can’t describe the feeling in words, but I was surprised that people really seemed to like my portrayal of the character. I know I still have a long way to go as an actor, but I did try to do my best with the material I was given to work with.

Was it difficult to act through the heavy make-up and prosthetics or did you find that it made it easier to get into character?

It made it easier to get into character, but the fact that I was carrying five pounds on my head and had limited vision, breathing, and hearing for about fifteen hours a day while doing all of my own stunts, took a toll. I came down with viral pharyngitis and was extremely ill by the end of the shoot. I did it, though, and I’m proud of myself for toughing it out! I would love to do more action films in the future.

It’s an exciting time for women in horror, which seems to be reflected in another of the projects you‘ve recently been involved in, Welcome To My Darkside, a documentary looking at females in the industry, from scream queens to directors. Do you have any role models that inspired you to seek out a career in horror?

I love all of the cool, Hitchcock blondes as well as the beautiful and exotic actresses from the 1960s and 1970s. The hair, makeup and wardrobe are all so fabulous! Barbara Steele and the women who epitomized Hammer glamour are very inspirational to me.

Ok, so what’s next on the Bianca Barnett agenda? What does your future hold and which direction would you like your career to head in?

I am wanting to get better at developing my acting craft and style. I think that will increase my profile. I want the future to hold some really great movies and wonderful experiences making them. I also hope to meet as many new friends and fans as I can. I want people to look forward to seeing a picture I am in and as long as people want to see me, I will continue to act and entertain!

You can find lots more information about Bianca at www.biancabarnett.com or on her myspace page..

Zach Galligan is best known as being Billy Peltzer in Gremlins 1 & 2, but he’s also so much more. He’s acted in classics such as Waxwork 1 & 2, cameoed in Warlock 2 and Hellraiser 3 (wonderfully impaled with a pool cue), walked the boards on stage, starred in TV dramas as diverse as Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and Tales From The Crypt and teaches at NYU.

His latest film, Cut, is released on February 22nd and is a genuine world first (Guinness World Record confirmation pending).

Gorepress had the honour of chatting with Zach about Cut, directing, horror porn, zombie films, a bawdy sex comedy, Gremlins 3 and filming in Wales…

GP : You’re in Britain for the premiere of Cut on Friday.

ZG : That’s correct.

How did you get involved with Cut?

The internet age is a funny thing. I opened up my e-mail box one morning and Dominic [Burns - Cut’s Michael] had sent me a script for a comedy called The Ten Year Itch and he tried to get financing for it. He came close but he didn’t manage to do it, and he sort of disappeared for a couple of years. The next thing I know I’ve got another message in my e-mail box at the end of 2008 saying “Hey, you remember when we were going to do The Ten Year Itch? We couldn’t get financing for it, but we can get financing for this movie. What do you think about it?”. So I read it and I was like, I sort of feel like we’ve seen this movie before, and then he explained to me the whole thing about it being in one continuous take and that got me really intrigued.

It’s a very unique idea – where did that come from?

I’m pretty sure it was Dominic’s idea, ‘cause he presented it to me pretty much as a done deal and said “this is the way we’re going to do it”. I was intrigued by it because I basically thought it was pretty much impossible.

It must have taken a huge amount of rehearsing.

Yeah, it was much more like a play really. I mean, we probably rehearsed it for ten days and then shot it for about six.

You’ve done a lot of theatre in the past – do you prefer theatre to film?

I think both have really good qualities. Theatre you get the immediate reaction of the audience and immediate feedback. But film, if it’s good, you get to keep it forever and watch it forever, but if it’s bad the same rule applies.

What is Cut about?

It’s about five people trapped in an English countryside mansion suddenly under attack by people they don’t know for reasons they can’t comprehend. Most of the movie is kind of ambiguous, you don’t really understand what’s going on or why and hopefully that’s exciting. Towards the end of the movie they kind of reveal what is going on.

Is Cut a ninety minute film even though it’s one continuous shot?

Well… the way it’s done – it’s not ninety minutes, no – it’s a bit difficult to explain, you have to see it. The opening of the movie is shot just like a regular movie, and you think “wait a minute, I thought this was in one continuous shot?” but then it pulls back and you realise that the regular movie you’re seeing is on a TV screen. And then the credits roll and it picks up from where you saw the TV screen and the guy turns the horror movie off. From the second the guy turns the horror movie off it’s sixty-six minutes of new film and all done on one steady-cam shot.

There’s no room for mistakes there.

[Laughs] Absolutely not.

Is this the first British movie you’ve worked on?

I did a movie called Prince Valiant back in 1996 with Steven Moyer, who is now in True Blood, and we shot that in Wales, so I guess Cut’s my second. But I don’t really count the Prince Valiant one ‘cause it was so removed from civilization, it was like three weeks shooting on a heath.

That’s Wales for you.

[Laughs] Surrounded by sheep and hills. It was in the UK, but it didn’t really seem like I was part of civilization, it was like I was just shooting it in a field.

You work with Danielle Lloyd on Cut, which is her first feature film. She’s probably best known in the UK for being herself rather than as an actress. How was she to work with?

I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by how she acquits herself in it. I don’t want to give away too much, but she’s only in the film for about three or four minutes. I would imagine people’s expectations will be surpassed.

Now inevitably, there has to be a question or two on Gremlins. How do you feel about people still recognizing you mainly for these iconic films, even though the last one was made twenty years ago?

It doesn’t bother me. You know, most actors want to be recognised for something as opposed to be being recognised for nothing. One of the reasons Robert Downey Jnr. decided to do Iron Man was because he’d been an actor for, what, twenty years and he’d done a tonne of stuff and there was a huge number of people who hadn’t really seen him in anything. And one of the reasons he did Iron Manwas because he thought “I’m guaranteed that people will go and see this movie and see my work in it”. I mean, if you look at Johnny Depp, he had been an actor for about fifteen years before Pirates of the Caribbean and a lot of people who watch films knew him and knew he was really talented but a lot of casual movie-goers had absolutely no idea who he was. And then he did Pirates of the Caribbean and everyone was like “Woah, who is this guy, he’s so great?” and I was like “Are you kidding me? That guy’s been around for fifteen years!” But, you know, not everybody follows movies as closely as cinema buffs, a lot of people just go to two or three movies a year – the big blockbuster ones – and they know about ten or fifteen actors and that’s about it.

You’ve managed to work alongside some horror’s iconic figures – Christopher Lee, Malcolm McDowell, David Warner and even Bruce Campbell. Who are you inspired by, personally, and who would you want to work with that you haven’t already?

Well, funny you say that about Malcolm McDowell, because even though we were both in Cyborg 3: The Recycler together we shot on separate days. I never met the man, even though we were in the same movie. I would love to actually work with him, because he’s one of my favourite actors – I saw Gangster No. 1 when it came out and I thought that was absolutely brilliant. That was a great British film.

Are there any parts you’ve turned down before that you now regret?

[Pauses to think] There are not any parts I’ve turned down I regret, but there are parts I tried out for that, boy, I would’ve loved to have gotten. But there’s nothing I’ve turned down that I’ve thought “boy, that was
stupid”.

Have you heard anything about Gremlins 3?

I haven’t heard anything yet, but that rumour literally just broke a couple of weeks ago, and that leads me to believe that they’re probably between six to nine months away from a finished script or an announcement or anything like that. Until that happens, I would have no idea if they would be interested in Phoebe [Cates – who played Kate in Gremlins 1 & 2] and I participating in any way, or whether they’re just going to reboot it. Who knows? It’s so impossible to tell. I’m hoping they’re going to do something like they’re doing with Ghostbusters where they have something like Phoebe and myself as the parents and us, now it’s been twenty years, having a couple of teenage kids.

People would want to see you back in it, so it would make sense to do something like that.

Well, if you go to any of the horror boards there seems to be two camps. A lot of people are like “I have no interest in the remake” and some people are like “bring back Zach and Phoebe or else I’m not going”. So there’s been a lot of speculation and chatter on the internet about it and hopefully I’ll have a reasonably good part in it. I really wouldn’t be interested in doing a couple of lines, walk-on thing; that’d be like “what’s the point in doing that?”

I’m hoping that Gremlins 3 and Ghostbusters 3 will be continuations and not remakes. Recently, they’ve remade pretty much everything from Halloween and Friday the 13th to Last House on the Left to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Are you hoping they stick to their guns and make it a third one?

Right.

They may of course move towards CGI and 3D – how do you feel about that?

Well, I really wasn’t that much of a fan of CGI until I saw Avatar, and the CGI in 3-D is so amazing.

It’s pretty epic.

[Laughs] It’s pretty epic. The real problem with CGI is that on 2-D it looks like a cartoon. With 3-D it looks much more like a real thing. I think 3-D is really cool if it’s done properly. I don’t think people should start doing regular movies in 3-D, like I can’t imagine why you’d do Gosford Park in 3-D. You’d have to something – it can’t be like a drawing room comedy – it has to be something spectacular.

Well, in regard to Gremlins 3, or the potential of it, would you prefer the puppets to come back or have them CGI?

I think probably a mix. I think that’s one of the false kind of things where people are like “Puppets? CGI? Puppets? CGI?” I’m like, why don’t we do a mix of puppets and CGI and do a little less puppets than the second one, as that one nearly killed everyone involved as there were so many bleeding puppets in it! Let’s throw some CGI in when we can, and use puppets when we can’t.

You’ve moved through the horror genre for over two decades, have things vastly changed in how horror is made and perceived?

[Sighs ponderously] That’s an excellent question. It’s difficult to say… but I would probably say… it’s actually a pretty complicated question. I guess some of the trends that I’ve seen have been, like… wow. It’s difficult. You know, in the 70’s there was sort of a certain genre like the original Last House on the Left – this kind of sadistic film, like what people call a torture porn kind of a movie. Then that went out of vogue and got replaced by splatter films during most of the 80’s. And now it seems like a lot of the horror films are combinations of splatter films and more torture porn films like Hostel and Turistas [released as 'Paradise Lost' in the UK], and basically a lot of the horror movies are about torturing people. My friend Cary Elwes was actually in Saw, which I thought was really brilliant, but then Saw 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were just about torturing people. I don’t think it’s good for the genre, I think it reflects poorly on the genre. You don’t have to make people suffer so much, and makes me wonder why people enjoy watching other people suffer.

I agree entirely. I’ve personally never been a fan of the torture-porn genre. But somehow it’s made horror more commercially viable for Hollywood. How do you think Hollywood perceives horror now? It’s always been viewed as the black sheep of the family.

Well, I think there was a period, like with The Ring (which was a great horror movie) where A-list stars started saying “horror’s really big now” and you’d have people like Jennifer Connelly doing Dark Water, which I thought was a cool movie too. So we started having these A-list people doing horror films and stuff like that, and we still do to a certain extent, but now it seems like because there was no great break-out hit horror movie starring a lead person [it’s unpopular again].

The Crazies is out this month starring Timothy Olyphant, although he’s not huge, he’s a reasonably big name.

Well even the Dawn of the Dead remake wasn’t that huge. What you need to do is a have some horror movies with a person starring in it, a real A-list kind of name, go through the roof. I think I Am Legend nearly came close to that –

The Will Smith vehicle.

Yeah, but in a way that was sort of like a sci-fi movie too, because it was the end of the world, apocalyptic.

It’s a strange genre, horror. You’ve worked in it for years, and your film previous to Cut was Nightbeasts – which was Wes Sullivan’s first feature since working in the animation department at Disney – an amazing crossover from animator to horror film writer / director.

Yeah.

Have you ever considered branching out into directing or writing yourself?

Funny you said that. I teach acting at NYU in the film department; it’s a bit difficult to explain the affiliation. I have nothing but NYU students as my pupils, and I have started directing short films with the kids, or with the college graduate programme. I have actually now started getting high-definition cameras, worked with actors, done the editing, been in the editing room, cut it together, added the sound, added the music and everything like that, so I have started making films – this film was only about nine minutes – now I’m going to start doing a couple more and move onto doing twenty minutes. And once you can make a twenty minute movie, I’m pretty sure you can make a ninety minute movie. Maybe not with sophisticated effects yet, but you can certainly do something like… I mean, I’ve got an idea to do a horror movie. My family’s country house is on this place called Shelter Island, there was actually a bad horror movie made about it, called Shelter Island.

That’s right.

Starring Patsy Kensit and Stephen Baldwin. I’m there every summer, and around this time in February it’s pitch black and unbelievably cold and deserted, and I thought it’s an amazing locale for a zombie movie. It’s so isolated and deserted.

Are you a big fan of the zombie genre?

I think it’s the best one. If I had to pick a favourite genre, I’d pick the Romero movies; zombie movies.

I think the entirety of the people at Gorepress agree – we love our zombies!

I can never get enough of them either. I just think it’s brilliant. It can shed light on human beings in so many ways too, you know, like Shaun of Dead is so brilliant too.

What’s your favourite zombie film in the last decade?

[Pauses for thought] Probably 28 Days Later.

That is an excellent film. What’d you think of the sequel?

I thought it was quite good. It didn’t get a lot of… I dunno. It’s strange, I see a lot of sequels and think “that’s really clever and interesting, good sequel” and people are like “nah, I didn’t like it”. People are difficult to please. I think people wanna go back and, for whatever reason, they want to see the exact same thing again.

I think that’s why Saw does so well, isn’t it?

Yeah, yeah, it’s the exact same thing.

So what’s next for you after Cut?

Well, ironically in about six or seven weeks we start shooting the original script that Dom sent me – The Ten Year Itch. And that’s not a horror movie.

So what’s that about?

It’s a nice bawdy sex comedy.

Is that set in Britain as well?

It is! It shoots in London.

Well, you can’t do a bawdy sex comedy unless it’s in Britain.

[Laughs] Exactly.

And finally, with the internet age as you mentioned earlier, what’s the most ridiculous rumour you’ve heard about yourself online?

That I was found dead in an apartment.

And that wasn’t true?

Well, you’re talking to me now, so clearly that’s not true…

Thanks for talking to Gorepress, Zach.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

With lead roles in British fare already in the bag, things look bright for Lisa McAllister who, this year alone, has major parts in two exciting upcoming horror movies; Dead Cert and Devil’s Playground, both under the umbrella of Black & Blue Films. Gorepress managed to grab a few minutes of her precious time in order to ask some pressing questions.

GP : It seems that these days most jobbing actors in the UK have to cut their teeth on bit parts in long established shows like Casualty before moving onto bigger and better, but your very first role was in feature film Number One Girl. Was it a little like a baptism of fire or did you already have acting experience outside of TV and film?

LM : I was very lucky to land a leading role straight off the bat! Everyone was extremely supportive. Previously I had done a short film called Carpet Garden Flowers, which had a great cast and crew. Other than that my acting career had been school plays and local youth theatre.

Had you always wanted to be an actress or did you explore alternative careers first?

Always, always, always! Although, I’m interested in the whole film making process, so have worked in various areas of production. I think it’s good to understand the importance of everybody’s role in the machine.

You worked with Doug Bradley and Lance Henrikson, and were directed by Jake West in 2006’s Pumpkinhead : Ashes To Ashes. What was it like being around so many people who are so well respected in the horror industry?

Fantastic. We shot it in Romania for a month doing night shoots almost all of the time. So we all became pretty close pretty quickly, you have to in those circumstances. Doug and Lance are brilliant actors, I learnt so much from just watching them. Jake is a fantastic director. The proof is in the pudding, he’s gone on to make Doghouse, which I think is great film.

Once Devil s Playground has wrapped you’ll have been a big part of 3 separate films that have all been produced by Black & Blue Films. What’s it like working with the same actors and crew time and time again? Is it like having an extended family on set?

I’ve enjoyed making all of those films immensely and am extremely flattered that they keep asking me back! Although I love the element of constant change that goes with my job, there is something so lovely about working with people who you know are not only incredibly talented and dedicated, but a bloody good laugh! I hope I am part of Black and Blue productions for a long time to come.

How did your affiliation with the production company come about?

Jonathan Sothcott gate crashed my birthday party So I blackmailed him with the threat of drunken photographs of him dressed up as a giant hot dog…. Just kidding! But he did crash my party…. Since then I have been lucky enough to get to know and work with one of Black and Blue’s other partners, the iconic British actor, Billy Murray. He has become a good friend and a great mentor in this crazy industry. I’m yet to work with Martin Kemp, but who knows, with some heavy hints he might audition me for his next film! I know the last one, a re-make of the horror film Exposé is looking great.

You’ll have tackled both vampires and gangsters in the upcoming movie Dead Cert and a zombie apocalypse in Devil s Playground, both of which have very exciting casts. Did you find it inspiring and/or nerve-wracking to be around such a well-established roster of UK talent?

A bit of both! I find the first day on set like the first day at school, a mixture of nerves and excitement. Both films have stellar casts. In Dead Cert I had quite a lot of scenes to do with Craig Fairbrass. Craig is a fantastic actor, not to mention a born action star! We wanted to make our characters and their relationship as real as possible, so that when the surreal kicks in the audience can really get behind them.

Devil’s Playground was a great production. As part of the lead cast I got to do a lot of my scenes alongside Danny Dyer, who I think is amazing, he has so many more strings to his bow than people realise. I can’t leave out how great it was to work with Jaime Murray, Myanna Buring, Craig Conway, Shane Taylor and Mark McQueen – the director, who I have no doubt is going to go on to do great things. Watch this space!

You also appeared briefly in The Dark Knight. Did you enjoy working on such a big budget blockbuster or would you rather opt for more intimate home-grown fare? Is it nice to have had the opportunity to experience both?

Absolutely, it’s great to be able to experience both. No matter how things progress with my career I think I will always want to do smaller projects too. You get really interesting stories from them that you don’t always get in big blockbusters, mainly because there aren’t as many boxes that have to be ticked, which allows for more artistic freedom. For example, I went to the premier of a film called Malice In Wonderland last night… Amazing! Simon Fellows has brilliantly directed Danny Dyer amongst others in a modern day take on Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in wonderland – A truly unique film that makes me proud to be part of the British film industry.

Finally, are you a fan of horror movies? If so, what are some of your favourites and who do you admire most within the genre?

I have to say anything with Christopher Lee. He really is the Godfather of Horror!

With several movies coming out this year alone, the future’s looking very promising for fledgling British production company Black & Blue Films. Recently, I was lucky enough to get the chance to ask one of the men behind the company; Jonathan Sothcott, a few important questions about some of his upcoming productions and his love for horror movies.

GP: So, having dabbled in journalism, had a book published, enjoyed a stint as The Horror Channel’s Head of Programming and now producing films through your own production company, you obviously have a love for the industry. Was it a happy accident or is making movies something you always aspired to do?

JP: In a nutshell I always LOVED movies – some of my earliest memories are of seeing films like Jaws, Octopussy and Star Wars at the cinema. When my parents got a Betamax player I was thrilled – I always liked monster and action movies. The only thing I was any good at in school was English and I was a lazy student. I didn’t fancy University so dropped out at A-Level stage to become a film journalist – such unrealistic ambition! I wrote bits and bobs for a couple of magazines like DarkSide and Fangoria and managed to knock out a not very good biography of Christopher Lee and contributed to a few other books. I then somehow got picked up as a journo-for-hire on DVD releases of old movies – in the ‘making of’ documentaries and on the commentaries. I was pretty dreadful at them I think but was so excited to be learning about how films were made. I think it was pretty arrogant trying to pull off sounding like I knew what I was talking about at 20 but I had a lot of fun. I then got offered the job buying for The Horror Channel – dream job by any film buff’s standard. What I hadn’t anticipated was an acquisitions budget of about 37 pence, so I had to park that up fairly swiftly. And that was really what made me realize that I wanted to MAKE films rather than writing about or trading in other people’s. A long-standing pal of mine, David Wickes – a mentor, really – offered me the chance to learn the ropes of film production for a year. I jumped at the chance and learned so much from him. And then I decided to toddle off and actually have a go at this film making.

Your first feature film, Wishbaby; an urban British horror film directed and written by Stephen W. Parsons came out in 2007. How did that project come about?

Through a friend of mine named Simon Sprackling, who I’d worked with on the DVD extras previously. Simon was producing for Steve, who was an old pal of his, and he roped me in to help out. Steve is a real maverick film-maker, a bona fide one off and Wishbaby definitely was a one-off. I’m proud of what Steve achieved as a film-maker on a very low budget and I think it is a film that will grow in stature in time. It actually got pretty good reviews when it came out on DVD but hasn’t sold particularly well. Maybe it wasn’t the right time for the movie. It’s a pretty bleak portrait of London. I was terribly impressed to be involved with Steve because he was the punk singer in classic 80s cheesefest Howling 2 – Your Sister Is A Werewolf!

You have a few other projects on the horizon including thriller Gunned Down and mockumentary Just For The Record. You seem to be dipping your toe into quite a few other genres but the majority appear to be horror or an amalgamation of horror and something else. Would you say this is your preferred genre?

Just For The Record was picture locked last week. It’s a very quirky mockumentary about the film industry and was a lot of fun to make. It was a real change of pace. It should be out in the next 6 months. Gunned Down is an incredibly stylish crime script set in London and Marbella that I’ll be making in the Summer with Craig Fairbrass. It will be my fourth film with Craig and I’m so excited because he is at his absolute peak – I can’t think of another actor in London who is as good at the action stuff as him and after bashing zombies and vampires in Devil’s Playground and Dead Cert, Gunned Down is a real departure for him as a multi-layered leading man in a complexly plotted story. I can’t wait!

So what inspired your love of the darker side to cinema?

I love horror movies! I grew up on Peter Cushing Hammer House of Horror movies and had seen them all by the time I was twelve. In my teens I got into 80s and then modern horror. It’s a genre I really enjoy because it’s fun – monsters, action, scares, etc are the reasons we enjoy cinema. They might not be the most heavyweight topics but I like to be entertained!

The forthcoming Dead Cert combines gangsters and vampires. At first glance, the premise sounds a little like From Dusk ‘Til Dawn via Guy Ritchie, which could be an explosive combination of ideas. Who or what would you say are the main influences for this piece?

Yeah, or as I said to someone yesterday it’s Dracula AD 1972 meets Rise of the Footsoldier! The film does owe a debt to Guy Richie and I have two of the best actors from his rep company in it – Dexter Fletcher and Jason Fleymng. The film’s director Steve Lawson is really into his gangster stuff and when we were writing the script his knowledge of that stuff shaped that part of the script. My input was much more the vampire lore stuff – I love all that shit and when we were coming up with ideas about a secret order of vampire killers and adding all our new bloodsucker mythology to the mix I was having the time of my life. One thing I was very keen on though was that our vampires would be scary and evil rather than all romantic and misunderstood. I can’t have that in vampire films – they drink blood, sleep in graves and turn into rats… that’s pretty scary stuff in my eyes, never mind all that old love never dies bollocks.

Why do you think the Brit-crime sub-genre is so popular at the moment? And are you hoping to pave the way for a new batch of movies with the interesting combo of vampires and the criminal underworld?

I don’t think its at the moment, I think its evergreen, or has been since the 70s – Get Carter, Villain, Sweeney!, Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, The Krays, Sexy Beast, Lock Stock, Football Factory, The Business, Rise of the Footsoldier and so on. I think it’s a genre we do particularly well and one that makes great actors iconic, be it Caine, Dyer, Statham or Stanley Baker. I do think that crime and horror are great crossovers – two different types of underworld and I am looking at another genre crossover called Feral.

Did you consider anywhere else for the location of Dead Cert, or was London always the obvious choice?

Absolutely, but I didn’t want it to be a full on geezerfest where every other word was ‘cunt’ and all the characters do is drink lager and fight at football matches. There’s a bit of that in it but there’s also a real horror story in there too.

You seem to re-use the same actors in a lot of your output (Danny Dyer, Billy Murray, Colin Salmon, etc.). Do you find this creates a better rapport amongst the cast members and makes for a more enjoyable time on set?

I like the idea of a company of people both in front of and behind the camera. I have an incredibly talented regular crew including DOP James Friend, production designer Sophie Wyatt, costume designer Millie Sloan and my make-up girls Natalie and My who I try to use on every film – why change a winning formula? With the actors I am lucky enough to have good relationships with people I think are the best – as a punter as well as a producer I love the work of Lisa McAllister, Craig Fairbrass, Danny Dyer, Sean Pertwee, Colin Salmon etc etc and so it only seems logical to keep using them. And also the fact that we’re all mates and all go out together obviously makes it very enjoyable!

How did such a large number of hugely recognisable British talent get involved? Did you seek them out, or did they come to you?

I’m incredibly lucky to have Billy Murray as a partner in my company Black and Blue Films. He’s a British icon and everyone loves him. Aside from being a highly skilled screen actor he’s a very credible Exec Producer – Rollin With The Nines, Rise of the Footsoldier, Doghouse, Freight etc – and everyone wants to work for him. Through Bill I met and got to know Dyer, Fairbrass etc and we’ve all become very good friends. Other people I knew already – Lisa McAllister is one of my best friends. Victoria Silvestdt who was in Just For The Record, I have known for years. And some people we were lucky enough to have met as we went along such as Steven Berkoff, Phil Davis and Colin Salmon.

On the subject of your affiliation with Danny Dyer and Billy Murray, what did you think of Jake Wests’ Doghouse?

I really, REALLY enjoyed it. Dyer’s “bird flu” line was my favourite in a film last year. I thought it was funny, scary, very well acted and put together. Jake West is a very talented boy and I’m very proud of him. Everyone should go and buy it on DVD if they haven’t already!

Another of your forthcoming projects is the remake of 1976 video nasty Expose, directed by your Black and Blue Films cohort Martin Kemp. Where do you stand on the age-old censorship issue?

We shot that last year and I’m very happy with it. It was very low budget and Martin did a terrific job on it – he’s a brilliant director. Our version isn’t a gorefest really – I reckon it’ll get a 15 when it comes out. And the old one’s pretty tame now. But censorship is a hot topic always – I look at stuff that I wasn’t allowed to watch when I was a kid, or even a teenager – like The Exorcist – and it all seems incredibly tame next to Call of Duty! I think I’m pretty liberal. I think adults have a duty to censor what their kids see – in some ways I think it is better for people to have a sense of responsibility for themselves and those in their care, but I also see the flipside that not everyone IS responsible. It is certainly a tough one!

Finally, what else does 2010 have in store for you? Can we expect even more in the way of exciting British horror or would you like to explore a different direction?

Well I’ve just wrapped a big zombie movie at Elstree called Devil’s Playground with Craig, Danny, Lisa and Jaime Murray and that’s being released by E1 in September/October. We are currently out there raising the finance for Gunned Down and then it’s another horror remake, this time The Asphyx, a quirky 70s horror about scientists trying to trap the spirit of death. I’ve got an incredibly talented writer/director in Matthew McGuchan and he’s just about to start the second draft. That will star Alison Doody, who is an amazing actress and I can’t wait to get going on it. I’m looking at a couple of other 70s remakes too and I have a new spin on the Bram Stoker book Jewel of 7 Stars in development. And who knows – maybe sequels to Dead Cert and/or Devil’s Playground. And a non-horror, non-gangster romcom!

Directed by Paddy Breathnach and starring Arielle Kebbel, Red Mist focuses on a group of medical students who are systematically eliminated by a comatose co-worker. A bit like a modern day Patrick. It is currently available at all good DVD retailers
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Back in May, I had a chat with writer, Spence Wright, to pick his brains about the movie and chat about his first experience in the pictures.

GP: Let me kick off with your standard first interview question, obviously Red Mist is the first major feature project you’ve worked on, so how did it come about?

SW: Well I’ve been writing for a long time, since I was in school and what have you, and during the whole 80’s VHS video frenzy I just fell in love with movies, and the first chance I had to tell my own stories I did. Eventually I started writing scripts, having written short stories. This particular story probably came from a couple of elements, one was the title. The term Red Mist, which has actually proven a wee bit controversial now because I understood it to be a pretty well known term, but it hasn’t turned out that way, a lot of people have asked what the hell this is about? Somebody thought it was the sequel to Stephen King’s The Mist which, although flattering, meant they were in for a bit of a shock.

There was something about the title, Red Mist that lead me to the idea of something taking us over, an all-consuming rage, and you hear about people talking about that, saying “The Red Mist just came down” “God, it was as if I was possessed.” Possession, again, it’s not something that is particularly new to us horror fans, but there was just something about it, and I had it in the back of my head for a long time, just the title. I also liked the idea of someone in a coma, I think the coma killer subgenre seemed to have a heyday in the late 60s/early 70s with Patrick, and the Psychic Killer and stuff like that. I’m learning there are a lot more movies about coma killers than I had ever heard of, some of the things I have apparently ripped off are great! My view is there’s always room for one more.

There is just something inherently spooky about a guy, very vulnerable, very weak, very still, who is capable of chaos, capable of projecting his rage through you. And the idea of someone trying to bring somebody out of a coma, but the person in the coma actually being more empowered in their coma than they ever were in their ‘awake lives’. It was just a strange sort of thing that started as a seedling in my head, a lot of my stories involve guilt and redemption, and the idea of karma, I think Stephen King said “if you mess with the bull you get the horns eventually,” and that pops up in a lot of my stories. Somewhere in the midst of; wanting to tell a story that involved Red Mist as a title and concept, the idea of a guy in a coma and someone trying to get free of their guilt, the story started to generate.

It was bouncing around in my head for a long time when I got news in 2006 that there was an upcoming slate of low budget horror movies, which in conjunction with Northern Ireland Screen were going to be made in Northern Ireland. To pen a Northern Ireland set horror film has been a long time ambition of mine. But the films had to be set in America. The reason being purely financial, sad as it is, the belief is that these films would primarily make money on the American DVD market. You probably know yourself, from seeing movies like REC being made into Quarantine pretty damn quick, the American market seems to have low tolerance for anything foreign, and so from a business perspective I could understand it.

Red Mist was the first film they wanted to roll out and the money it makes is supposed to generate enough to make the next, so I guess the Producers were trying to cover a lot of ground. I’ve had a steady intake of American set horror films since I was knee high to a Chucky Doll so the prospect of writing one of my own was a huge opportunity, not to be missed.

That dispels a few internet myths I had read about the pressure you had felt to relocate the story from Ireland to America.

I got involved through my friendship with Michael Kelly. He was a member of ‘Screenwriters.Ink’ a Belfast based screenwriting group of which I was also a founding member. Michael had set up his own company Geronimo Pictures and he was keen for people like me to pitch our ideas which he could take to potential financiers and the like. I’d long been the group’s resident Horrorhound so I guess my name popped into his pretty little head when he heard there were people looking to make horror movies in Northern Ireland. But it was clear, right from that very first meeting that these were to be American set films, particularly the first one that would have a budget of $3million, which sounds huge to me, but apparently isn’t that much

That sounds pretty big to me too!

Doesn’t it mate! I’m told that budget places Red Mist in the upper range of the low budget film market. And I think every penny can be seen on the screen, it has a polished look which exceeds most people’s expectations. I would also imagine landing a cast like Arielle Kebbel, Stephen Dillane and Sarah Carter didn’t come cheap! The remit right from the start, was low budget horror that would be filmed in Northern Ireland but set in America, and did anyone have ideas that would fit round that? So I went off to pitch my idea along with a host of other writers. I think I was the last to pitch and by that time they probably couldn’t be bothered listening to any more ideas and in some ways I wasn’t really bothered either! By then I just wanted to go home, it had been a long day and some (and I stress some!) writers are hard work to get along with, they have very vocal, mostly low opinions about almost every film ever made. Film Nazis! I have a genuine love for movies so most films I will like on some level. I find it depressing to be in a room with people who just constantly bitch about other films, so I remember thinking ‘I hope this goes well. But if doesn’t I’ll be glad just to go home!’ But I’m glad I hung around, we got talking. I had another idea I actually intended to pitch a Horror/Die Hard-type fest set in an office block, which I guess has been done, hasn’t it?

Psychocop 2 is set in an office block but that is all that is coming to me…

I must check that out. Basically, my idea had the Custodian of this office block obsessed with one of the secretaries, and he locked her in. His advances spurned, a stalk and slash frenzy ensues! I think it and P2 would have proved very similar although P2 is set in an office car park. Back then I thought that would be a good idea, because an office block could be made appear to be anywhere in the world, and this was long before P2 was ever heard of. But on the day my mind went totally blank, I forgot all about that idea and so I pitched Red Mist out of nowhere – the story of a girl who was trying to atone for her sins, be rid of her guilt and in so doing she unwittingly unleashes a vengeful monster. And their eyes lit up. There was something about it they liked. I think they were probably fans of Patrick which was one of those films I deliberately didn’t watch during the later writing phase. I had seen it, I remember Patrick’s big curly head, I remember him spitting on people and I remember it creeping me out as a kid because, much like you, I was watching horror movies at an age when I probably shouldn’t have been, and that would have been a very early one for me to have been watching. They liked the premise for Red Mist – a strong central protagonist, an unusual ‘monster’ and the revenge and redemption theme represented a new take and that got me in.

It was a long, long time in development, we bounced a lot of ideas back and forth about how this was going to work, but it was a bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time. It sounds like such a cliché, and as a writer that used to bug me, “how am I just going to bump into Steven Spielberg on the high street or in the butchers?”, but I guess it’s getting yourself into those environments where you can meet people and make contacts. I helped my friend and Screenwriters Ink Chairman Richard Crawford (The Abduction Club) with the screenwriting group. As well as a creative forum for exchanging ideas, studying the craft in an open (non-bitching) fashion, it also meant producers could come to the place where the writers are. To the source if you like. So a wee bit of luck, a few sample scripts up my sleeve and having an idea which blew the financiers skirts up was just enough to get me in the door and I started writing the bugger.

So how was it when you found out Paddy (Breathnach, director of Shrooms) was involved?

Well I don’t know, I used to just call him Mr. B, which was my way of getting round it. I’m supposed to be from Northern Ireland, ye’know?! I think it is Brannah. I’d heard his name but anyway, I hadn’t yet seen Shrooms, and I must confess all I knew about Paddy was that he did a film called I Went Down about greyhound racing, which I had enjoyed. Before I checked out Shrooms he’d already signed on. I’m trying to think of how long he was involved in pre-production, I guess it was long enough, by this time things were really starting to move. I caught Shrooms, which I enjoyed. Obviously, I like the idea of a horror film set in Ireland that is just fantastic. We’ve had zombie flicks – Dead Meat and Battle of the Bone and some mutated cows via Isolation. It was great to see an Irish Horror film and Red Mist, although filmed here, was never going to be set here so Shrooms got points for that straight away. I thought the atmosphere of Shrooms was good and it had a retro feel that took me back to the old ‘don’t go into the woods tales’ I’d grown up watching on VHS.

I felt the Red Mist script amounted to a different kind of horror film to Shrooms, the possession element alone meant its ‘horror’ would be derived differently, the tone was dark and the set pieces visceral. But there was also a chance to really ‘get in the pit’ with a strong main character. So I was both nervous about working with a Director on a soon to shoot production but at the same time excited by the prospect of what he’d bring to the table.

I think he is a great director, really adept at making the screen look fantastic, but maybe not the best at getting the most out of his actors…

It’s very difficult for me to be, even remotely, impartial about Red Mist, overall I felt Paddy and the cast did themselves proud. The cast were given latitude in their roles and Paddy was always keen to embrace their input. Likewise, he and I spoke long and often about new moments that were occurring either as a result of logistical necessity or via the organic, creative magic that kicks in during the rehearsal and shooting phase. There were challenges in the four week shoot – an ensemble cast, US setting, a host of set pieces etc but overall I think the story, direction and performances hold up well. Stylistically, and with the tight timetable to shoot Red Mist, I can’t remember how many shots a day they had to get, it was an enormous task, and the overall look of the thing is great.

It has been flagged that the latter stages of the film felt ‘rushed’. And whilst there were a few dropped scenes I’d love to have seen on screen, I’ll bet there isn’t a writer anywhere who doesn’t wish for ‘Just one more scene to be added here, or elongated there.’
Scenes that didn’t make the final cut are pretty well balanced against scenes and moments not in script that occurred organically, so all in all I’m a happy guy!

I suppose a lot can come down to individual taste. I’ve had particular plot moments hailed as ‘Shocking and Ingenious” only to have others refer to the same moment as ‘Same old!” Likewise, the performances may float some boats and not others. I think all we can do is stay true to our story and our characters and hope in so doing we bring something fresh to the genre.

What I loved about Paddy was how he “got” the script very, very instinctively; he has an encyclopedic knowledge of horror movies. One of the things that had happened in development was that a lot of dialogue was creeping in, and it wasn’t down to any one person, it was just one of those things. As more feedback was taken on board from developers, the more Kenneth was saying via the Meat Shields (or possessed to give them their proper moniker!), and the less scary he was becoming, which I think applies to most of our horror monsters, take Michael Myers. So one of the first things Paddy did, he said “what Kenneth is to me is this embodiment of rage. He is just a guy that is stuck in the moment they were calling him “Freakdog” and he was humiliated, then he fell and hit the ground, and that’s all he’ll ever be, just this enraged thing.” So we started stripping away a lot of the dialogue from Kenneth, taking it gradually back to some of the earlier drafts, and I felt that was a great indicator that Paddy was in step with the spirit of the script. I have to say, tonally, and in terms of the look of the characters, and the sets, it was uncanny. I try to be quite sparse on description, because I want the reader to emotionally invest, but 9 times out of 10 the look of the movie matched the things floating around in my head, even the voices. There was a great casting and production team who worked round the clock to make that happen.

On a personal note, I got on very well with Paddy, he was an absolute prince throughout, he invited me onto the set, gave me a bit part in the background as a Doctor… which was later cut… maybe he thought I was stealing the limelight from Arielle… well… probably not.

I think we have more to see from Mr B, I’m confident he will return to horror in some way, shape or form. Its been suggested that Red Mist is better than Shrooms and maybe what comes after Red Mist will be the one that hushes any remaining critics in the horror world. Paddy’s approach to the material and the shoot was always positive. I think he possessed the right fusion of directing talent and calm temperament needed to see Red Mist make the transition from page to screen. And as my first time on set I couldn’t have asked to meet a nicer director, we have since bounced ideas back and forward on other projects. All told, it was a great experience working with him. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

So you mentioned the script a bit there, I’m pretty interested to find out where the term Freakdog came from…

Freakdog is one from my murky past! I used to be part of a dodgy bunch of guys, one of whom used to call people ‘wankdog’ quite a lot. (It seemed funny at the time!)
Well, he would call people lots of names actually and ‘dog’ would usually go on the end of it. Years later when I was writing Kenneth I thought about what two things would push Kenneth’s buttons? He already feels like an outsider, different, like he doesn’t belong, and “freak” seemed to do that, and then I thought ‘dog’ kind of told you about his standing on the totem pole. The reason it was snatched up as a potential title – Red Mist was liked by UK audiences but the Americans didn’t get the connection, and when they were cutting the trailer together someone noticed how often the word “freakdog” was used, and somebody said “well, maybe that’s our title.” At the time I thought ‘Aye, why not’ but in hindsight it is one of those titles that only makes sense once you’ve seen the movie, and I can understand people who thought FREAKDOG was going to be a movie about a murderous, mutated dog, so personally I am pleased it went back to Red Mist, because that was one of the three seedlings that helped create and give birth to the story.

I was pretty excited when I saw the DVD advertised on the back of Fango when I saw that the title had changed, I think as a title it makes a bit more sense.

I think that is one of the things UK audiences will appreciate; when I was on holiday in Wales I was talking to people we had met in a bar. I tried to work it into the conversation without saying “Oh, I’ve written this film,” but I asked, ‘have you ever heard of the term red mist?’ and everybody without fail said ‘Yes. It’s that feeling where you just lose control, and anger takes over,’ etc and it just reiterated its importance as a title. I got that response pretty much every time and in every place I asked it. So I was pleased, and I read Arielle was too when the title reverted back to Red Mist. I think it is a pretty classy title. Another interesting thing in regards to the script, one of the earlier drafts involved a lot of Kenneth POVs, and in those shots it was described that we were looking through a ‘veil of red mist’, what the world might look like to someone in a rage, and it was embedded in the early drafts, but as the POV shots dropped from the script I think that was a reason some people said, ‘well, maybe we can just go with Freakdog.’ It wasn’t just the POVs though, it was the fact it correlated with rage as well.

Is the version on the screen massively different to how it was written?

I would say 90% of the final script, ended up on screen, but the journey to that final script was full of changes. I think the biggest thing that changed concerned a time jump. The original script involved a group of teenagers having a party, they lured Kenneth there and got him to bring booze, because his dad was an alcoholic who made his own moonshine, a real nasty piece of work. These kids wanted booze because they were underage, so they brought Kenneth and there was an accident, in which a drunken Kenneth ended up comatose. Then we cut to fifteen years later. The kids have all since grown up and got over it in one way or another, but Catherine hadn’t. She was stuck, she was the one who lured Kenneth to the party and she had dedicated herself to trying to crack this enigma of Kenneth, and get him out of this coma (and to a degree out of her head). I loved the idea of paying in the present for something that you did in the past, when you were a totally different person. That really interested me. I remember myself and a guy that I went to school with running into another classmate from school. My friend said of the other classmate, there’s ‘God’s Gift’, which was a nickname I had given him in school. I just thought ‘Holy shit, all these years later and that guy still gets referred to by a name I gave him’. He doesn’t really give a shit, but what if he did? What if it really pissed him off, like “you gave me that awful name and now you’re going to pay.” He wouldn’t care that I was older, married or reasonably sensible now, he was just looking for some pay back and that really interested me.

The reasons for dropping the fifteen year gap came down to a couple of things, I think there was a casting issue of tying up the young kids with the older, more mature versions, and there was also something to be said for keeping it in the moment, where the wounds are still raw, everything is a lot more immediate and urgent. I think that was the biggest compromise I had to make, and even with that; the characters, set pieces and basic premise didn’t change much. So the short answer is it changed a lot from the early drafts, but in the last year of development it stayed pretty consistent.

That shift in time from kids to adulthood is very Stephen King, was that something that influenced you?

He does do it a lot, he did it in Pet Semetary, It… As you can see from my cheesy picture, there’s two shelves of Stephen king books behind me while I’m posing. (My Mills & Boons are one shelf out of sight!) It’s something King goes back to a lot, and maybe it is something in my head now, as I grew up with his books and it’s something that is touched on a lot in other things like Ghost Story, do you remember Ghost Story?

Yes, the Fred Estaire/Douglas Fairbanks movie.

That’s the one, it’s the same kind of thing, be it a 50 year past transgression rearing its head or something more recent as in ‘What lies beneath’, it’s a recurring thing. I think its just one of those parts of the horror landscape we will always revisit; I think particularly American audiences respond to that kind of thing. They very much like the idea of a cautionary tale. It was another good reason why it didn’t bother me that Red Mist was set in America, as I thought it fit the American horror market as I saw it at the time.

So in terms of casting, did you get any say in who they looked at, or was it all Paddy’s remit?

They threw some names my way and asked me to suggest a few people. To be honest when it came to the main characters I struggled and I still do, even writing scripts I can’t always put an actor in a role. I can hear their voices, I can tell you the kind of people they are but when it comes to saying ‘Do you know who would be perfect?’ I still can’t do that. In the main parts, I didn’t have any firm ideas, my suggestions would take the form of ‘a little bit John Hurt with a sprinkle of Brian Cox!’ or something bizarre. But anytime they threw a name my way I would check them out. And each time I did I found Paddy and the casting people’s instincts to be on the money.

The BIG moment for me in terms of cast was the read through in a hotel in Belfast. I read the script out, the slug lines, descriptions, interior E.R. and all that and the actors would jump in and do their lines and it was at that point … and this is going to sound naff and clichéd … but it’s true! … At that point everything changed for me. Arielle had introduced herself but it was only when her voice kicked in as Catherine, and like I was saying earlier, while I always find it hard to put a face or a specific look, when she spoke she had this kind of serious intensity which I always felt Catherine had. I was literally watching a character that had only ever lived and breathed inside my head being realized in the ‘real world’ and in a way which totally exceeded my expectations. In short Arielle blew me away. She was absolutely perfect for Catherine.

I’d say that’s pretty much true for the entire cast in that regard, the guy that played Sean for example was terrific, he’s a Scottish actor called Martin Compston. (Sweet Sixteen) I thought he was excellent. Sean was the guy we love to hate, utterly selfish and yet in his own way the most honest. I could go on about each of the cast but generally, I think they all brought something to the table that enriched what was on the page. I’m aware of the odd ‘Accent Anomaly’ that has been flagged but in the grand scheme of things they are few and far between.

I just remember thinking these guys can do this, ARE doing this! Andrew Lee Potts as Kenneth, was also blindingly good. The sly, disturbed guile to accompany his more sympathetic qualities made for an engaging mix. In one of the earlier drafts Kenneth had a stutter and it was taken out, I can’t remember why maybe it was suggested that we run with a draft without it and it never really came back. Andrew instinctively put in a stutter and it was just wee moments like that which just made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, they really did seem to be getting into these roles. Which made me proud and humbled at the same time if that’s possible!

If I had any regrets it would be that we didn’t have more screen time to give to some of the supporting cast because I think there was more to give. For example Kim, played pitch perfect by Sarah Carter – there was a bigger friendship between her and Catherine but we also wanted to try and build up the burgeoning love affair between Catherine and Jake. There were a few scenes with the brilliant My Anna Buring as Shelby which I miss, and one between Detective Carter and Catherine in the aftermath of Sean’s death. However, the read through and rehearsal phase resulted in a lot of organic changes occurring, between the characters and how they interacted with one another and as I said earlier, some old moments fall by the wayside allowing space for other moments to be born. To my mind it all evens out in the end.

I thought Arielle’s performance pretty much anchors the whole thing, she is clearly a very talented actress, and it makes the whole thing seem much more real.

That’s nice of you to say, and I agree with you that was the thing from the get go – this was Catherine’s story. I like the way, people can argue that maybe she went too far down the morally objectionable path, but I love the fact the Catherine wasn’t just a clean cut heroine. She was trying to do the right thing but deep down she also wanted to keep her job so she used the skills that she had to try and fix this problem. So we had this fantastical supernatural element being introduced to a ‘real world’ environment. Which calls for a different set of acting abilities; an ability to first ground the viewer in the real world of the story and then take them with you on a journey to some place else … some place a little darker. That took some serious acting chops.

On set Arielle was very approachable and really excited about embracing a more intense and mature role. Catherine really got under her skin in the months leading up to the decision to take the role. I don’t think we could have found anyone more suited or committed to the role. Likewise, I think Arielle and Paddy sparked off one another. They were on the same page in terms of changes they both wanted to bring to the role. There are some really good interviews with the cast on the ‘making of’… stuff where they talk about their roles and what they liked about them. For Arielle I think it was a chance to do something different and she just responded to it and I think she took it up a notch from what was on the page, she brought a bit more sensitivity to the role as well. I agree with you, I think she anchors it totally and that is how it should be because it was her story, Kenneth is the monster with all the horrible abilities but he’s really just there as the flip side to Catherine. Primarily, red mist was the story of how a girl tries to right a wrong and just makes things progressively worse until she becomes the opposite of what she was at the beginning. She ends up taking a life instead of saving a life. Whilst, this story arc may not be anything we haven’t ever seen before it’s still pretty interesting and I’m sorry to say it is sadly lacking from a lot of bigger budget horror movies of late. Arielle made Catherine her own. I was awed by how much she gave to the role and I think her passion and connection with the character of Catherine really shows on screen.

What have you got in store for us next?

Red Mist went to dvd in the states. It’s weird to think someone, somewhere is browsing a dvd shelf (or excavating a bargain bucket as the case may be!) and they’re picking up Red Mist and giving it a punt. Revolver have picked it up for a UK release this July!! We’re still very much hoping for a cinema run as well. Red Mist is available on pre-order from Play / Amazon and the like and I think-hope-pray it will be well received when it goes on general release here.

So with a first feature in the bag after all these years I’m trying to capitalize on the moment.
I’ve got loads of other projects on the go. I’ve completed Mourne which is the name of a mountain range in Northern Ireland. I think CS Lewis got some of the inspiration for Narnia from there… So here’s hoping! Mourne is a story about a group of students who are going up a mountain looking for Doran, a fellow student who has went missing. Doran is a ‘weed in tweed’, I guess, obsessed with Irish folklore because he believes he saw a Banshee as a child. So he goes missing and the police don’t want to know, they believe he is going to show up eventually. His fellow students have been teasing him a bit, which is another constant of mine, so they kind of get guilted into searching the mountain by Aisling (Doran’s elder sister) Here they all run afoul of a Banshee. It’s kind of like the Blair Banshee Project, you could probably call it that in the sense it takes an old legend and gives a bit of a contemporary edge. So that’s in development with Crawford Anderson Dillon of Hub Media. Crawford is trying to generate a bit of interest in the script. Local director Scott Morgan is lined up to direct. Scott and I met during Red Mist and continue to collaborate as we bounce ideas hither and yon. He’s a super-talented Director and long time horror aficionado and I think together we can do some great things with Mourne. We have just got some positive news back from the BBC and a few others but nothing concrete as yet. I think the sad thing is if Mourne were set in America it probably could have a named, no doubt very young, handsome cast and be made already! But I think the Ireland setting is important and worth fighting for.

I think if you take a banshee story out of Ireland, you are effectively taking the banshee out of it.

Exactly, I said I’m not doing it. Somebody suggested that, and I said no. I don’t remember the name of the movie, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it was about Jack The Ripper popping up in Modern Day Arizona or some place because they brought over bits of London bridge! It was just a novel excuse for ‘Ol Jack the knife’ to kill American people I guess, and I’m not doing that. If this is about a banshee it is our chance to take something that is uniquely Irish. To try and put Ireland on the map as a place where you can tell an out and out horror story. We are well placed to do that with the banshee legend. So why shift it? You’re right man, what is the point?

The other project ‘Teenage kicks’ is one which I literally just heard has created a bit of a stir in Cannes. Produced again by Michael Kelly (Geronimo Pictures) and Cormac Fox (Vico films) , I have Co –written it with another Screenwriters Ink member John Cairns. Co-writing was a new experience for me but John was script editor on Red Mist and we’ve known each other a long time, so we usually know exactly where the other is coming from.

Teenage Kicks is I suppose, SKINS meets Lord Of The Flies for the Battle Royale generation! A bunch of teens plan to hold a rave in an abandoned leisure centre. But the night turns sour when an argument over dodgy drugs ends in murder. And so the body count rises! Another party gone wrong type scenario. The group decides they can dump the body and get away with it. They then split into two camps and trapped in this cavernous leisure centre they turn on each other. Its strictly more thriller than horror, I guess. Like kind of, I dunno have you seen Eden Lake?

Yes, I thought it was great

What would you call that? Like a thriller or a horror or…

I don’t know, it is kind of like a home invasion story but outside isn’t it?

Yeah.

Somewhere in between the two.

That where I feel this one lands, between the horror/thriller posts. We’ve been working closely with another Irish Director Peter Foott (The Carpenter’s Clumsy Wife) who has brought so much to the last few drafts. The tension is upped to the max, Peter has planned for some very striking and contrasting moods and visuals which really compliment the tone of the script … it has the potential to be something really, very special. There is not a lot of money available at the minute, but the project is getting a few Post Cannes bites, so we’re keeping everything crossed.

Its interesting in that how teenage kicks starts, judging it on the small amount of info you’ve given me, it seems to start in a similar vein to Red Mist, is that a message you trying to get across that drugs are bad or is it just a coincidence?

It’s a weird one actually, now you say that, its glaringly obvious – two parties that go wrong one ends in a coma and another ends in a death. Both involve drugs.
When I boil it all down I think what appeals to me about both those ideas is that cautionary tale aspect, the dilemma of doing the right thing in the aftermath of an event of any kind – what do we do? Do we go with the majority or do we stand up and say “Well this is wrong I’m not going to do that.”

In Red Mist, the focus is on how Catherine tries to right the wrong. Teenage Kicks is going to happen very much in the immediate aftermath. It all happens in one night. The death and the suggested cover up, sees simmering tensions boil over and old friendships torn asunder. When I say the drugs are bad in teenage kicks, what actually happens is they buy a load of drugs which turn out to be duds, the drug dealer has stiffed them. So it is never actually the drugs that make the people do anything. It’s more that when the drugs turn out to be bad the group implode, they turn on the guy who was tasked with taking all their savings and buying them. He ends up dead and then BOOM! The group are suddenly in a new place.

It’s a coming of age story that exaggerates and condenses the often vicious arena that is ‘growing up’ into one, brutal night. We plan on riffing on those familiar themes and indulging in some gory, thriller stalwarts but with some surprises along the way – like who takes the moral lead in this film isn’t the person you’d expect etc. All to try and make things a bit more fresh, interesting and most important of all exciting.

That sounds good!

Cheers, man. I think it stands to be a real edge of the seat, honest to god thrill ride. We are also excited that this kind of story has never been done in Northern Ireland before.

I have also just completed Runners. I call it a sort of cyber-voyeuristic thriller, I don’t know if that is a genre? But it’s an old idea of mine that was long due a revisit. As with Red Mist there is a kind of medical backdrop again. Chris is a Young Doctor who runs a shelter for the homeless. A superflu is wiping people out. No one really gives a shit about the poor. So people are dying and basically the shelter is getting run down. So Chris gets involved in some nefarious techno-voyeurism to try and raise the money to keep it open. Again, it is about trying to do the right thing backfiring. If you’re doing ‘bad things for good reasons’ or if you believe ‘the ends can justify the means’, then it’s probably not always going to end that well for you in one of my stories! Runners is with Generator and Producer Mark Huffam (Red Mist, CherryBomb and… Mamma Mia! which took horror to a whole other level!)
Local hero Terry Loane (Mickey Bo and Me) is in the Directors chair. And whilst the ink on Runners is still wet it’s already early, but very exciting, days.

Obviously you’ve got a lot on at the moment, is it quit your day job time?

I wish! (laughs) Well part of me wishes, I think I would go a bit Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I think I would go bonkers. Its ok, I’ve got myself into a system. I try to get an hour in before work, which is usually my most productive time because I know I only have an hour and the battery on my battered laptop only lasts an hour. I just brainpuke it onto the page and then fix it later. Then I do a few nights during the week and the rest of the time its marathon weekend sessions, days off etc. It’s a double edged sword, it keeps me sane while I work but it does get tough when the deadlines kick in. So maybe sometime down the line I would go on a 3-4 day week where I have days set aside for writing. But that’s on the long finger. At present I like that my 9 to 5 pays the bills whilst my writing brings in the odd bit of money for luxuries; holidays and the like. There’s also something to be said about not becoming some insular hermit, living in some cosy ‘movie world’ I like being around people … if only to plunder their life experiences for ideas!

One thing in my favor is that I do work quite quickly. I run the idea round in my head until it drives me and my wife half crazy and she eventually says “just go write that down because you’re not in the room. I can tell.” When that happens, that’s usually the ‘pin my colors to the mast’ point. The time to put the idea to the page. The ideas have usually been in my head for so long that when I do sit down to write either a first draft or a treatment it’s like an exorcism, it just pours out. It’s so cathartic, when you finally get that idea out.

And when it is out and it’s on the page peering back up at you it’s like stumbling on a fresh field of untouched snow. You know that eventually there is going to be a lot of other people coming to put their footprints down. But, for a moment at least, it’s just yours and that’s always a special feeling. Have no doubt about it… writing rocks!

Production stills provided by Helen Sloan/Generator Pictures.