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Your new movie Early
Morning Calm - in a few words, what's it about?
It's really about two families. One who is dealing with the loss of a loved one
and on a road trip to spread their ashes. The other is a cannibal family
that they encounter when deciding to take the road less traveled.
What were your sources of inspiration when writing Early
Morning Calm? I would
definitely say The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and maybe
Just Before Dawn. What can you tell us about Early
Morning Calm's approach to horror? I
think doing the movie in the past, you know 30 plus years ago it's a time
when you couldn't just grab your cellphone and call for help. So I think
it was pivotal to the story that these people were very isolated and
helpless. And deep down that's more of the horror of the movie vs the
blood and gore that you see. Besides all
the murders and gruesomeness, Early
Morning Calm also has a funny side to it - so do talk about your
movie's brand of comedy! I think comedy just comes naturally for me. Most
people, whether they know it or not, are just naturally funny just being a
human being and doing human things. All of my life I've been told that I'm
funny and have natural comedic abilities. So without pushing the humor I
think it just happens when you have so many elaborate characters. A few words about your overall
directorial approach to your story at hand? The
approach for this film was to do our very best to make sure that in the
scenes 30 years ago that we didn't have anything on screen that predated
that time. It was a major focus for me. We did a lot of shopping at flea
markets and places where you can buy antiques. One of the things
that I'm very proud of with this film is the attention to the period that
we maintained. You also appear in front of the camera in Early
Morning Calm - so what can you tell us about your character, what
did you draw upon to bring him to life, and did you write him with
yourself in mind from the get-go?
I was planning to play one of the cannibal family
members. At first I didn't think it was going to be a very big role and it
turned out to be much more.
During some rehearsals I mentioned to Lynn
Lowry [Lynn Lowry interview -
click here], who I think is exceptional at playing a villain, I said I don't know
if I seem villainous enough or devious enough. And I think she gave me the
best advice I could have gotten at the time. She said well he doesn't know
he's a villain so I think he should just be just a regular hillbilly type
and not really check any obvious boxes that say hey I'm a bad guy. It
ended up being a fun character to play. Do talk about the rest
of Early Morning Calm's
cast, and why exactly these people? I had talked to Lynn
Lowry years and years ago about working together. As I was writing this I
started to envision her playing the role of a woman who loses her husband
and then has to deal with everything that could possibly go wrong during
her grieving period. On the first day of filming I was very pleased with
the choice to cast her. The first thing we shot with her was in the
graveyard when she's talking to her husband's twin sister. I was just so
moved by what she was doing, how professional she is, how quickly we got
done with those scenes because of how prepared she was. Lucas Dunaway
plays her son. He reached out to me once he saw Lynn was cast. He
mentioned he recently worked with her. We ended up casting him. He was
very enthusiastic and I think the chemistry with him and Lynn turned out
very nice. Scarlett Freeman I had worked with in the past but it was just
one scene. And in that one scene I was like this girl is a natural
actress. So when I realized we needed a young actress to play the
granddaughter, I instantly thought of her, and she just impressed everyone
when we were making this film. Everyone was so surprised that this young
girl who hadn't really done a whole lot with film, and she's just seeming
like this actress that has been doing this for years. I'm very impressed
with her subtle scenes and her more emotional and terrified moments that
she brought. Her and Lynn were able to remember pages and pages of
dialogue. We were just leaving the camera running. I was thinking well one
of them will mess up a line. And it was amazing how they would just get
through the entire scene.
with Doub Post jr and Lynn Lowry |
James Higgens was brought on to help with
special effects and play a small part that once again kept getting bigger.
He ended up being such a an asset in front and behind the camera.
I could
keep going with Belinda Peace who plays Lynn's unglued sister awaiting
their arrival, or Douglas Post Jr. who plays Elijah the tall bunny. I'll
save some things for future discussions. A few words about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? I think it was pretty stressful. Of all
the films I've done I think this one was the most difficult. Even though
the actors were great. There were certain time frames we were following
and a lot of shooting that had to be done over the course of a few days
and it caused a lot of stress with getting our effects the way we wanted
them. We had one day where the person who was lending us a vehicle
predating the '90s, and at the last minute we were just ghosted. They just
would not get back with us about it and I had talked to them everyday
leading up to it. So with that time frame I mentioned it just threw me off
the handle! I felt bad for the cast and crew who had to see their team
leader in an angered state. You know you want everything to go smoothly
and you try to stay calm, but sometimes too many things are not happening
the way they're supposed to happen. For whatever reason. I never gotten
hives shooting a film before but that's just the level of stress that I
was under. One day we were shooting on an extremely hot day and my hives
got sunburned so it was quite an adventure. I'm actually laughing now as I
write this but it was far from funny at the time. The
$64-question of course, where can Early Morning Calm be seen?
Well the movie had a festival cut that was seen in October, and I haven't really mentioned this
publicly, but we have an opening and ending that we're adding to the movie
that takes place during present day. It involves a Stephen King-like
author that buys the house that the events from 30 years ago took place
at. He is fascinated with the true crime of those events and decides to
write his latest book on the topic at the house in which it all happened.
Sometime in 2025 the movie will be streaming and on Blu-ray. Anything you can tell us
about audience and critical reception of Early
Morning Calm?
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I wasn't able to go to the festivals. I did get a lot of good feedback,
namely from Justin Charles who does the Skate or Die Film Festival. He
told me the audience laughed at the right times and seemed to be uneasy at
the right times. Of course I've shown it to multiple people that were
involved with the movie. Everyone seems to be happy with it. Any
future projects you'd like to share? The project I'm doing next is a dark LGBTQ+ drama. It involves an ensemble of characters that come together by
the end. I would say we're close to 50% done with shooting. I wanted to
take a break from the horror genre and do something a little different. So
far this has definitely been an easier shoot then Early
Morning Calm when it comes to stress levels. Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else? Streaming now: Crazy Fat
Ethel, Truly Madly, The Horror
Network, and all 3 Trashology movies. They're pretty easy to find. Those
movies are also on physical media except the 3rd Trashology
film. If you follow me on Instagram, there is a link in the bio to my eBay store. Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
I think we cover a lot. Thank you so much Michael. Thanks
for the interview!
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