Your new movie Painted
in Blood - in a few words, what is it about?
Painted
in Blood is the "haunted art museum" movie we've always wanted
but never had! Haunted paintings, a sinister creature, a tortured
artist, and of course -- BLOOD! What
were your sources of inspiration when writing Painted
in Blood? And as weird as it may sound, is any of it based on
personal experiences?
Actually,
it was based on personal experience! I was short on money and was
offered the exact job that the main character in the film was AT the art
museum that we filmed at! They had their first expensive show coming to
town and wanted someone to stay there overnight to watch over the
paintings while proper security was hired and installed. I wasn't able
to do it, but I know that building well. It used to be an old civil war
hospital. I knew that staying there all night with strange and valuable
paintings would be terrifying!
I
was also inspired by Herschell Gordon Lewis' trash-hit Color Me
Blood Red from 1965 [Herschell
Gordon Lewis bio - click here]. It's free on Tubi, and it's got a great
premise and a super fun "killer artist" character. It's my
favorite "painting" horror movie.
Do talk about the key art shown in
Painted in Blood,
and was it all painted specifically for the movie, or were at least some
of it existing pieces?
All of the main paintings were made for the film! In fact, I made
them myself in Photoshop! I combined photographs, stock images, pieces
of pre-existing paintings, and digital painting by hand in photoshop to
create them.
I've made movie posters as a side-gig for a couple years (I did the
poster for this film!) and all of the techniques from making posters
worked when making the paintings! Then we had huge prints of them done
at FedEx.
All of the other paintings were a combination of stuff from furniture
stores and digitally replacing the art in the actual museum (for
copyright reasons). All of Malik's landscapes in his studio were done by
someone I found on ShutterStock named Alex Green
(https://www.shutterstock.com/g/brontazavra).
What can you tell us about Painted
in Blood's approach to horror?
This
project was unconventional for me in that I funded it myself. I normally
work on commission from small studios who have guidelines on what they
do and don't want. Since it was my money, I wanted to do something
"unsellable" and maybe something more unique!
Usually,
we're pressured to cram in as many scares and action scenes as possible,
which is fun, but I wanted to try something different. For this I tried
to focus deeply on story and character. I tried to follow that Stephen
King quote, I can't remember it exactly, but something like "we're
only scared of what's happening in a story because we are invested in a
realistic character and don't want anything bad to happen to them".
I
saw an article referring to Painted in
Blood as "elevated
horror", which is a term I don't like. I don't think of this as
elevated horror at all! Genre-wise, I was attempting to sit somewhere
between The Twilight
Zone, an old 1940's monster movie, and a Stephen
King novella. A few words about
your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
I'm
completely obsessed with Steven Soderbergh and his workflow. I shoot and
edit all of my own stuff like he does. Originally that was out of
necessity, now I do it because I enjoy it. And like Soderbergh, I wanted
to make something clear, stripped down, and dark. Something
"clean" in its approach to storytelling, if that makes sense. Do
talk about Painted in
Blood's cast, and why exactly these people?
I
was a producer and cinematographer on my buddy Charlie Steed's movie Death Ranch. There, I met Deiondre Teagle.
Death
Ranch is an over-the-top exploitation homage with exactly zero
subtlety. It's a fantastic movie, but the whole time we shot it I kept
thinking about how great it would be to see Deiondre do something more
detailed and subtle. Something with a bunch of minor character changes,
and eventually ending up somewhere quite different from the beginning.
So when I wrote Painted in
Blood, I wrote it with him in mind.
Everyone
else were simply actors I deeply trusted. Since I was self funding this,
I wanted as little margin for error as possible. Brad Belemjian, Deborah
Seidel, and everyone else are all actors I trust deeply and know well. What
can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
So,
the budget on this project was just $13,000. Self funded. Partially from
saving a ton during the pandemic, partially from running up a credit
card (oops). Going in, I knew two things: 1) I did NOT want to mess any
of this up, and 2) I wanted to take my time.
Usually,
for a studio, my shoots are 10-15 days and jam-packed with action. For
this, I had one other crew member (Dylan A Young, who played the monster
as well) and I spent a whopping twenty days filming. So very often, it
was just Dylan, myself, and Deiondre. The days were really fun, really
relaxed, and really quiet. Deiondre is a deep-focuser, and Dylan was
always helping me rig up lights and whatnot. Days were short, usually
eight hours, and I'd go home and edit everything we shot that day. If
something wasn't right, we'd go back the next day and re-shoot it.
Half
of the movie was shot in an actual art museum, which was a 200-year-old
building in Tennessee. It used to be a civil-war hospital, and the place
is allegedly haunted. We didn't see anything, but we sure felt like
something was watching us the whole time. The other half was shot in a
set in my parents' garage that was made to look like an art gallery (so
we could make a mess and not worry about damaging expensive art).
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Painted
in Blood?
So,
it's no secret that I've made B-horror my whole career. I take it
seriously, and I love what I do. But the only way to get funding in the
beginning is to do mockbusters like Curse of the Nun or
movies with silly titles like Clowntergeist or Ouija
Craft. No matter what I'm doing, or how little money I have, I'm
always fighting to make the very best movie I can make. No matter how
hard you work though, your movie is still called Curse of the
Nun or Clowntergeist, and it still cost $15,000. So
pretty much no matter what, you're gonna get a lot of bad reviews.
For
this, I wanted to be conservative about the effects and action scenes we
did. I wanted them to look nice! I wanted to hide my budget. I also
wanted a poster that wasn't silly looking and a title that didn't make
us sound like hacks. To my delight, this has made all the difference.
Audience and critical reception has been very warm, and I'm so grateful
everyone has enjoyed the movie. Any future projects you'd like to
share?
I
just completed a film called The OctoGames, which is a SUPER
fun and TOTALLY WILD Battle Royale/Hunger
Games kind of movie. I'm so pleased with how it came out, and
early audiences have been really receptive to it. That's coming out this
year.
I'm
currently about to shoot another film similar in tone and style to Painted
in Blood, but I can't share much more than that. I CAN say,
however, that it's based on a famous novel, which has been a TON of fun.
What got you into filmmaking in the first place,
and did you receive any formal training on the subject?
I've
been making movies since I was eight years old. I was lucky enough to
have a "digital media" program at the public school I went to,
which had some great teachers who taught me the basic technical ins and
outs. Then, I went to film school for a semester and quickly dropped
out. After that, I made my first feature, sold it, and started getting
tiny pieces of funding for some tiny movies from some tiny studios.
I'm
almost entirely self-taught, and all of that self-teaching has been
through trial and error. I've made some extravagant screw-ups in my
previous movies. In five years, I'm sure I'll look back and notice
screw-ups in Painted
in Blood! But for now, I'm quite happy with it. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Painted
in Blood?
I
started by pestering everyone I ever worked with, pestering my family,
and pestering my parents for money. I got a bit of money and then ran up
two credit cards (double oops) to make Clowntergeist. It
took three years because I had no idea what I was doing (my last two
movies only took four months each). Originally, it was called "Fear
Itself", but the studio that bought it thought something crazy like
Clowntergeist would be more eye-catching. They were 100%
right, and it launched my career in B-horror.
From
there I did Curse of the Nun (a movie that was *cough cough* similar *cough cough* to another nun movie) which ended up to be
quite popular. I love the characters in that film, but that one's tough
for me to go back and watch. Then I did American Hunt, which
is a film I'm still very proud of, and the cheapest film I've ever done
at just $5,000. Then I produced and shot Death Ranch for
Charlie Steeds (a must-see, in my opinion). Then I did the sci-fi
thriller The Alpha Test (another film I'm still pretty proud
of, even though we didn't have nearly enough cash for a good looking
robot character). Then I did the fantasy-horror hybrid Ouija
Craft - a film I wish people would give a chance. Ignore the title!
It's a cool Harry Potter/horror hybrid. Yes it's a cheap movie, and
it's not perfect, but I'll apologize to you personally if you don't find
it super fun and fast-paced with solid acting and interesting
characters.
|
I've
been really fortunate to be able to have a career in the low budget
field. I'm also very lucky to continue to grow and expand into some
slightly bigger projects in the near future.
Going through your filmography, one
can't fail to notice you seem to return to the horror genre quite
regularly - so why is that, and is horror a genre you're especially fond
of, and why (not)?
I'm
a deeply nervous person. Have been since I was a kid. I was terrified of
horror movies, and they were absolutely banned in my home growing up. My
grandparents (major horror fans) took my mom to see Jaws
and The Exorcist at a drive-in when she was six years old. They
put her in the back of the station wagon (facing away from the screen),
gave her a book to read and told her "don't look." She,
obviously, looked and it traumatized her. So there were no horror movies
allowed for me growing up.
Then,
as a teenager, I saw Hitchcock's Psycho and everything changed. I was
already making movies at that point, but I went all-in on horror,
thriller, and anything that put me on the edge of my seat. Crazy,
brutal, fast-paced action movies count too! I just love suspense and
surprises. It gave that nervous kid a sense of control over his own
anxiety. It gives me, as an adult, a way to embrace my still-anxious
side.
I
think these movies speak to that part of me. The anxious side. They
entertain that part of me. I do like other genres, but I can't help but
find myself gravitating back to horror. And I've gotten my mom back into
horror somehow! But maybe that was inevitable, given that her
parents love the genre.
How would you describe yourself as a
director?
All
of this is subject to change as I grow, but right now: I like short
movies. I like good pacing. I like to keep things cheap. I'm focused
more on the script than fine visual details (gotta get better at that).
I like to edit things myself, usually while I shoot. I like to make a
lot of movies. I love getting good performances out of actors. I love
getting in there WITH the actors by operating camera myself and feeling
like a part of the scene.
Filmmakers who inspire you?
I
find myself constantly going back to Steven Soderbergh's movies and Stephen King's novels. I'm also really inspired by my peers like Charlie
Steeds and Dylan A Young. I also love filmmakers with a good sense of
pacing like the Safdie Brothers or James Wan.
I
tend, however, to be more inspired by specific movies than filmmakers.
I'll become obsessed with a specific movie, but have seen nothing else
the filmmaker has done. For example, I'm currently obsessed with The Stepfather from 1987, but don't have much interest in
any of Joseph Ruben's other films. Your
favourite movies?
Ooh!
I love this question. I feel like they change a lot, but a few keep
sticking with me. They are... Heathers
(1989) directed by Michael Lehmann, Christmas
Evil (1980) directed by Lewis Jackson (I want to do a remake of
this one!), The Baby (1973) directed by Ted Post,
Unsane
(2018) directed by Steven Soderbergh, Nocturnal
Animals (2016) directed by Tom Ford, Lords
of Chaos (2018) directed by Jonas Akerlund, Big
Fish (2003) directed by Tim Burton. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
I never like getting specific publicly. Y'know? People work hard on their
movies! I'll keep it vague. I hate art movies with long runtimes where
nothing happens, everyone whispers their dialogue, and the dinner scenes
are really long for some reason. I hate movies that think they're so
smart for regurgitating political commentary they heard on TV and read
about online. I hate movies that think they're better than everyone
else. I hate movies where visuals take priority over story (unless that
visual is King Kong fighting
Godzilla).
And
I absolutely abhor Mother! written and directed by Darren
Aronofsky starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem and distributed
by Paramount
Pictures. That movie can suck it. Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else?
Find
all my work at http://aaronmirtes.com!
Or follow me @aaronmirtesfilm on Twitter or @aaronmirtes on Instagram! Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask?
Stream Painted
in Blood here: https://linktr.ee/aaronmirtes - I
really hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the
interview!
|