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Your upcoming movie Sisters - in a few words, what's it going
to be about?
Sisters
is the story of Gwen, Selene, Ana and Skye. They are four sisters, sharing
a house together and also happen to be witches. Gwen is dating Ray, an
abusive, alcoholic jerk. One night Ray goes too far in his abuse and Gwen
accidentally kills him. The sisters bury Ray's body in the woods, hoping
to put an end to his torment. Some time later, a detective comes around
asking questions about Ray's disappearance. Fearful of going to jail, the
sisters do the one thing they can think of: Bring Ray back from the dead.
As is typical when one messes with necromancy, the girls discover that
while they brought Ray back, he's not quite himself. It seems he's
returned with a few extra abilities, and is looking to use them on the
ones who buried him... What were your inspirations when writing Sisters? The
actresses themselves were a big inspiration. I wrote the script with each
of them in mind for their respective characters, so I tried to do them
each justice. Beyond that I checked out a lot of "witch" movies:
The Witches of Eastwick, The Craft, and Practical Magic (which for the
record, I had not seen prior to developing the idea but when I saw one
message board commenter claim Sisters was a Practical Magic
ripoff, I had to see it.
Thankfully, other than a few similarities, the two could not be further
alike). Now don't let the fact that those movies aren't your standard
horror fare mislead you. This movie is going to be more Suspiria than
Charmed.
Ray Hryb |
What can you tell us about your movie's approach to horror (as in
suspense vs sudden shocks, atmosphere vs all-out gore and the like)?
It's
going to have a little bit of everything I think. There's definitely some
suspense, but also the sudden shocks. I don't think it'll be gory on a par
of like a Fulci movie [Lucio Fulci
bio - click here], but there will certainly be blood. Lots of
blood. There's one scene in which Devanny's character gets absolutely
drenched in blood. I'm really looking forward to that. I think horror fans
will be pleased. Do
talk about your film's intended look and feel for a bit! Well
with Seregon, Devanny, Jessica and Melantha involved, it's going to look
great! With
Jessica Cameron [Jessica Cameron
interview - click here], Devanny Pinn [Devanny
Pinn interview - click here], Melantha Blackthorne [Melantha
Blackthorne interview - click here] and Seregon O'Dassey [Seregon
O'Dassey interview - click here], you have four of the top indie
horror actresses of the day in your cast - so how did you get them even,
and what makes them perfect for their respective roles?
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Seregon O'Dassey |
They
all owe me a ton of money. Seriously tho, I've worked with Seregon and
technically Devanny on the Devil's Nightmare (I say technically, because I
actually broke my ankle 2 days before Devanny arrived on set and I was
unable to be there for her one day of shooting. My DP actually directed
that day). Through them I "met" Jess and Melantha on Facebook. Seregon and Dev were always talking about how they've worked on a
bunch of the same movies, but never at the same time. All 5 main actors
have all sort of intertwined, but never all of them at the same time. So I
just sort of came up with this idea of "The Expendables of indie
horror", putting the 4 actresses together in one movie as a coven of
witches. Naturally they needed an antagonist who could go toe to toe with
these 4 strong women, and hence I thought of Ray Hryb.
What makes them perfect for their respective roles is the fact that the
roles were written specifically for them. I think I was able to
capture at least a little bit of each of their personalities for their
characters. It's going to be a blast, no doubt. You
of course also have to talk about your male lead Ray Hryb for a bit - and
any other key castmembers you need to mention?
Ray's an animal. Seriously, we keep him in a
cage when we're not shooting. Then once it's time for his scene, we set
him loose. He comes in like the Tazmanian Devil, whirls through the set,
destroying everything in his path and leaving everyone wondering what
the hell just happened. But in the end, it's all good.
Melantha Blackthorne |
We are also talking to someone who happens to
be a big name in the horror industry. I can't go into details right now,
but if we're lucky enough to secure his services, it'll definitely put
this film over the top.
As far as
I know, Sisters is presently still in its fundraising stages - so
what can you tell us about your fundraising efforts? We
actually have the initial funds to get the movie made, however we did the
campaign in order to help out with completion costs. Just because the
movie gets shot doesn't mean you don't need more money. We have to pay
for editing, sound design, music licensing, and most importantly, Visual
FX, which will play a HUGE part in the movie. Then there's also festival
submission fees and DVD production...
http://igg.me/at/Sisters-Movie/x/1714
Once
your funds are raised, how do you plan to proceed - and even if it might
be waaay too early to ask, any idea when and where the film will be
released onto the general public yet? Well
once we raise the funds and get through post production I want to put it
through the festival rounds a bit, see if we can generate some buzz, then
eventually the ultimate goal is to get the movie distributed. We'll have a
premiere for it, but I'm not sure where yet. I am shooting for a release
sometime next year. Maybe a trailer for this Halloween, but we'll see how
it goes... Any future
projects beyond Sisters?
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Devanny Pinn |
Of
course, I always have ideas for future projects. I'm not sure what it'll
be at this point in time tho. I ran an idea by Jessica for something I'd
like to do with her, and she was excited about it, so maybe that one. But
I do have a script I've been wanting to produce for a long time but
haven't had the available funds to do. It's called Die Sluts, Die! A sort
of throwback to the 80s slasher films. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject?
I actually started out
as a writer. I've been writing for as long as I can remember, and after
high school I decided based on my love for movies I was going to do
screenwriting. I had written a few scripts and placed them on this website
called inktip.com, it's a site where producers/directors/agents can search
scripts and possibly buy/option them to make. I had 2 scripts optioned
through the site. The first The Wickeds, ended up starring porn legend Ron
Jeremy and was actually released to DVD. The final product was... less than
I had hoped for. The second script, RoadKill was made, but has yet to be
released. By that time I had been working on a webseries that I had
developed called Without You. After the frustrations with The Wickeds and
RoadKill I decided I was going to try it on my own and from there Killing
Brooke was born.
Jessica Cameron |
What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to Sisters?
My first feature film was Killing Brooke. I
wrote, directed, and produced it. I put together a fantastic group of
actors, some I had worked with before on my webseries Without You.
Others I auditioned, and that's how I first met Ray Hryb. He came in to
audition for the role of Dagget Spade (head of an inbred clan of
psychos) and he had the part the second he walked in the door. He just was
Dagget. I submitted Killing Brooke to a couple film fests and it did win
at the 2012 Killer Film Fest for Killer Scream Queen, for star Alex
Fandel, and let me tell you, if someone is looking for a "scream
queen" for their next project, Alex is your girl. She has quite the
set of lungs on her. And she's nice to look at too. Killing Brooke
has since been
picked up for distribution through Wild Eye Entertainment, but no word
on a release date yet.
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From there I wrote and directed The Devil's Nightmare, a remake of a 1970's Euro-exploitation film of the same name
starring Erika Blanc [click
here]. I'm not big on remakes, but I really liked the
original and thought I could improve upon it, if even slightly. So I
modernized it, brought back most of the cast from Killing Brooke and
hired Seregon O'Dassey [Seregon
O'Dassey interview - click here] in the Erika Blanc role and cast Devanny Pinn [Devanny
Pinn interview - click here] as
Satan.
(Both Killing Brooke and Devil's Nightmare can
be purchased through the MAD Z website.)
How would you describe yourself
as a director? Someone once described
me as a neo-Roger Corman type who makes B movies full of sex, blood and
lesbians that make inventive twists on traditional horror tropes [Roger
Corman bio - click here]. I'll go
with that for now. Eventually I'd like to move past the Roger Corman/B-movie comparison, but that'll happen once the budgets get bigger. Filmmakers who inspire you?
I'm
a big fan of Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, Eli Roth, and Adam Green just to
name a few. Your
favourite movies? Well, my all time
favorite is Star Wars, it was the first movie I ever saw and probably fed
my desire to make movies. Beyond that, for horror movies I'd say The
Exorcist, the original Nightmare on Elm Street (pretty much the movie
where I realized I'm a horror fan), Halloween, the list goes on and on. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
The Nightmare on Elm Street
remake and Tyler Perry movies. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo,
whatever else?
The main website is www.madzproductions.com
The company's FB is www.facebook.com/pages/MAD-Z-Productions/
Sisters
FB is
www.facebook.com/MADZSisters
Twitter:
twitter.com/madzproductions
... and
of course the IndieGoGo page:
http://igg.me/at/Sisters-Movie/x/1714
Anything else you are dying to mention
and I have merely forgotten to ask? You
ain't seen nothin' yet...
Thanks for the
interview! Thanks for having me!
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