Your upcoming film The Mangled - in a few words, what is it
about?
On a stormy July night in West Virgina, the Bates, a hard working
farming family, are preparing for a 25th Anniversary Party. But these
plans are disrupted by a group of teenagers who want nothing more than to
terrorize them. As the night dwindles on, 3 tourtist from Toronto, Ontario
on their way to Flordia for spring break come pounding on their door
desperate for help. What were your initial inspirations when writing The
Mangled? Two things inspired the initial thought for
The Mangled: The first was on a rainy night at my father in-law's farm. The
rain was so thick you could barely see in front of you. I was going down
to his barn to help out, when suddenly out of the rain came this
flickering light. It became one of the first scenes that I wrote of in the
script. The second was driving past this old barn, strangley also in the
dead of night, it had this character about it almost this wicked life of
its own. From there, I knew that the Bates family had to be farmers.
Although, the idea came from an organic thought. Through out the writing
process, films also became a factor - F.W. Murnau's haunting silent films
Nosferatu and Sunrise, along with horror films that I grew up on like
House of Frankenstein, Night of the
Living Dead, and I can't leave out
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the orginal).
As far as I know, The Mangled
is still in fundraising stages right now. So what can you tell us about
your fundraising efforts? We have a Kickstarter
campaign
going on right now trying to raise the funds for the film. We have 21 days
left to reach our goal. We have some really great perks for contributions
for coming along for the ride with us on the making of this film. Other
than that, we're just constantly trying to spread the word on all social
media platforms, and we have to thank you guys for doing this interview.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1515304940/the-mangled?ref=search Your projected cast features
quite a few well-known names. Want to talk about your (both stellar and
not-yet-stellar) cast for a bit?
On a lot of levels it's still surreal to me to think that
I'll be directing this amazing cast. I don't really think that it's sunk
in. And it probably won't until we start shooting. Then the jitters will
go away. But it's truly an honour to be on the same set with my entire
cast. From BILL MOSELEY, PRSCILLA BARNES, MICHAEL BERRYMAN that have these
amazing carrers, movies that I grew up watching and are dear to my heart.
And our cast that the public doesn't know yet, but will soon, it's
exciting.
We're still in the process of casting for the rest of the
roles of Daisy Bates, Darrel Ross, and Josephine Bates. Which is also
really exciting, and we'll soon be announcing those names in the coming
weeks.
How
would you describe your overall approach to horror (as in shocks vs
atmosphere, suspense vs all-out blood and guts) in your film? And since I know
there are quite a few gorehounds among my readers - anything you can tell
us about your gore effects?
I can say that
The Mangled will
have its fare share of all of the ingridients that you've mentioned. The
challenge comes to have those moments play out in real time and have the
audience almost to the point of screaming. Our villians aren't nice,
Cletus is a killing machine, that's what he was born to do. So fans can
rest assured that it's going to be a wild wicked ride. In my opinion, one of the
key elements of a horror film like yours is the location. So want to talk
about yours for a bit? You're correct, it's like buying a
house in a lot of ways - location, location, location is key to a film
like ours. The locations almost bring their own life to the film. So, that
was a huge decision in the early stages of the project that I had to find
locales that had a certain look and feel. How do you plan to approach
your subject at hand as a director?
I always appoarch a
project trying to find the humanistic and physcological side of it. I'm
constantly searching for answers in my work, can someone exactly change,
no matter what the circumstances that person are brought up in. Altough
The Mangled is a horror film, I want to try to inflict as much realisim
into the work as possible and have it come from an organic place. I know it might be
waaaay to early to ask, but any plan/idea when and where your film will be
released onto the general public? Toronto, After Dark Film
Festival is our goal for the premiere of the film. And if any of our fans
want to walk the red carpet with us, we have a really cool perk for their
contribution to the film. Other than that, we're going to be going through
the horror film festival circut. Of course it would be great if we could
find a home and have the film in a theaterical run. But we'll see how that
all plays out in time.
With The
Mangled being a horror movie - is that a genre especially dear to you,
and why (not)? In film school, I was more thought of as the
"drama guy" than the "horror", but as a filmmaker I
always believe in pushing the boundaries of what you're capable of doing
and challenging yourself. But I've always loved horror films. Unlike a
drama, horror explores our deepest darkest fears while taking on themes of
life, innocence, and death. It's ambiguous in that way. Let's go back to the beginnings of your
career: What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you
receive any formal training on the subject? If you ask my
mom, she'll say from the day that I learned to walk, I wanted to be in
film, not in front of the camera as an actor. I'm way too shy and not good
looking enough, plus I can't remember lines. But behind the camera,
writing and directing. I've always been fascinated with it, how do films
get made, how do you get into the business. I used to go to the libary
instead of checking out a book, I would check out a screenplay, then I
would go to the rental store and find the film. And read the script as I
watched the movie. That of course was before DVD and directors commentary
and behind the scenes. Which was the next phase and would drive my family
nuts. After getting out of the Marines, I decided to follow my dreams, so I
went to the Los Angeles Film School, where I studied directing,
screenwriting and production design. Every day I got to be behind the
camera directing some kind of short. And on some occassions in front of
the camera acting. Which I hope those tapes are burnt.
Lawrence W. Nelson II ... directing (I guess) |
What can you
tell us about your filmwork prior to The Mangled? Prior
to
The Mangled, I just directed a lot of short films. This will be my
directing debut. Any
future projects beyond The Mangled you want to talk about? I'm
constantly working on new material. My next project that I'm excited to
talk about is a drama that I co-wrote with my writing partner Hoyt
Richards and is inspired by true events that happened in my life called
Invisible Prisons. I know it's not a horror film, but I haven't really
been apporached or have found a new idea that really inspired me to write.
Yet. Directors
who inspire you? This list can go on forever, but if I had
to name a few it would be F.W. Murnau, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock,
George A. Romero, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, Rob
Zombie, Tobe Hooper, Billy Wilder, Ingmar Bergmen, Ridley Scott. I'm
forgetting a lot of great directors that have also inspired me. But here's
a few that came to mind. Your favourite movies?
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Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the
Living Dead, Sunrise, The
Wolf Man,
Memento, Chinatown, Blade Runner, Aliens, The Ring (Japan verison),
Searchers. Once again, I have so many favorite films in every genre
there's no way I can name them all. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? I can't say that I
really deplore any film. Yes there are bad films out there, but whether it
was a big budget studio picture or a low budget or even micro budget indie
film. Forty to hundred crew members and cast spent 30 days or more making
it, and putting their hearts into that body of work. So I just can't say. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, Kickstarter, whatever else?
http://www.facebook.com/TheMangled?ref=hl
Our website is currently going under some updates, but here
it is... www.themangled.yolasite.com
Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1515304940/the-mangled?ref=search
The two promo trailers we have out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL4sj5JoS8Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPazFleooo
Anything
else you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Thank
you for the interview. Well, thank you for the interview!
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