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| Die You Zombie Bastards! |
| Here's part 2 of my interview with the makers of Die You Zombie Bastards! |
| BLAKE: |
| Who are some of your favorite cult filmmakers, and how greatly have they influenced your approach to making this film. |
| CALEB: |
| I'd say that the directors who have had the most influence on me would be John Waters, Lloyd Kaufman, Russ Meyer, and Dario Argento. I don't know if you'll be able to see any of that in this film, but they have all changed my way of thinking in one way or another. The way I direct actors comes a lot from Lloyd Kaufman and Russ Meyer. Get out there and over-act like there's no tomorrow. You're supposed to be scared? Don't subtly hint at it.... SCREAM!!!....open your mouth and bug out your eyes. I like to get hit over the head with things when I watch a movie. I don't want to imitate real life and real emotion....you want real life? go live it. I like ridiculous melodrama. Cinema. You can do anything in a movie...why show something that you can REALLY go out and experience? I also think that as far as dialogue goes, I like the over-long rant style speeches from the early John Waters films. No one talks like this....but it's fun to watch. Although we have a fantastic D.P. (Jarred Atterman) who considering our budget is doing some truly beautiful photography, there is an underlying trashy aesthetic in DYZB! And lastly, I love Dario Argento's use of colour and music. I WISH we could shoot this film in technicolor and have it look like Suspiria. As far as our approach...I don't know. The only worthwhile independant films have been approached in their own way. John Waters did it his way, Russ Meyer did it his way, etc. We are doing it our way and it's working so far. Haig and I are two intelligent people and we're just doing things the way it makes sense to us....that's all you can do. Once you get into bigger productions with more money at stake and union bullshit there ARE things that have to be done in a certain way...But at this level if you set out to deliberately make your film "the way" that someone else did, what's the point? |
| HAIG: |
| I agree wholeheartedly with Caleb on this one. Everything he said is RIGHT ON. Sometimes, it's like we share a brain, that Caleb and me. A big, swollen, oozing hardon of a brain, but a brain nonetheless. Russ Meyer is one of my MAJOR heroes too....his movies are BEAUTIFUL....and TOTALLY HIS vision. That's what it's all about. That's what we're all about. You'll see us tip our Zombastic hat to Russ in the Super Inga sequence of DYZB! My enduring love is for the Universal horrors of the '30s and '40s....The Chaney's, Karloff, Lugosi are my idols for sure. But you'll see none of that in DYZB! I am a big fan of any monster bash-type movies.....Abbot & Costello meet Frankenstein.....not just Frankensteintheough.... Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man. Shit! What more could you want out of a movie? That's gotta be one of my faves since I was a kid. I still love it. DYZB! takes a cue from movies like that.....throw in as many monsters as you can! We're gonna have an Amphibious guy, the mad Baron Nefarious, Dogmen, Robots, Giant Mosquito's....and a few other surprise horrors for sure. One other name I'd like to invoke in this hallowed cinematic pantheon is Edward D. Wood jr. All mythology about him aside, he had a way of piecing together a bunch of pieces of disparate crap and somehow turning it into, well, one BIG piece of crap. BUT....he did it with such total conviction and did it to the VERY BEST of his abilities (given budgetary constraints, time considerations, and lack of talent) that he ended up with some films that can be totally compelling and often quite narcotic at the same time. I adore his films, his sense of dialogue and narration. There's nothing QUITE like it. I think of him often when working on DYZB! I get so intent and serious, putting all of my heart and energy into making something totally inane become a reality on the screen. In independant filmmaking, every success is a hard-fought victory. Nothing is easy. Everything costs time and money that you simply don't have. So you've gotta do it at a fraction of the cost, and in a fraction of the time that any rational person would allow. THAT is where the Art gets made. No bullshit. |
| BLAKE: |
| What's the worst thing you've seen in a cinema lately? |
| HAIG: |
| I went to the big 20-plex thingy for a late matinee (5:30-ish) and saw this woman walk in with a box of take-out pizza....y'know, one of those cardboard boxes that has "Fresh From Our Oven To You" or something like that screenprinted on it. She walked up the aisle and past me to a kid who was sitting there and angrilly gave him the box of pizza and handed him a cellphone. "HERE! Now don't call me unless it's an emergency!". "But what if I?". "No! If you disturb me while I'm watching my movie I'll be SO mad". And she stormed off to one of the other theatres to watch HER movie. Whatever happened to families eating dinner together, watching a movie, etc.!!! That's the worst thing I've seen in a theatre lately. There's a lot of stupid people out there. Hey, at least she fed him. |
| CALEB: |
| Hmmm. I don't really know how to answer that. I don't mean to sound like a bitter movie-goer, but it seems to me that lots of movies these days aren't good enough to be great and not bad enough to be terrible. Nothing is original enough to be anything anymore. I really enjoyed Dagon, Dahmer, Sleepless, to name a few; but living in Providence, I didn't see any of them in a theatre. And I know that plenty of crap fills the multi-plex every night...but I usually don't see it. I saw Feardotcom not too long ago, and it wasn't very good. But it didn't suck....it just wasn't bold enough to really go far enough in any direction. Resident Evil as well: There was enough good stuff in it to make it worth watching but I wouldn't go so far as to call it good. Nothing grabs you by the balls anymore. That is why I wanted to make Die You Zombie Bastards! I recently showed a rough cut of some of our scenes we've shot to a friend of mine and I think he got it right when he said that about 98% of the public will shut it off in the first 10 minutes, and the other 2% will instantly put it on their top 10 favorite movies within the first 10 minutes. Not that I want to alienate people, but if we make something that gives people that strong of a reaction I think we will have succeeded. When Blood Feast came out a very small group of people said "This is what I have been waiting for!". Deep Throat, Pink Flamingoes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Cannibal Holocaust, Basket Case, The Toxic Avenger as well. Every few years it happens. Sometimes if you're not seeing what you want when you go to the theatre or video store....you just have to go make it yourself. So, a message to cult movie fans: There's another one coming your way, and I hope with all of my heart that you love it. Everyone else...get psyched for the remake of Dawn Of The Dead , the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , and the new friggin' Hannibal Lecter movie. |
| HAIG: |
| Seriously.... I don't get to the theatre much. But there are a lot of stupid people out there. And a lot of them are making bad movies. I agree with Caleb. We are of one mind. Nothing out there is BOLD enough, good enough, bad enough, has enough of a singular vision to convince you that the filmmakers REALLY MEAN IT. Well, WE REALLY MEAN IT. I have a feeling that you and your readers will be in that 2% Caleb mentioned. Because YOU GUYS thirst for truly Independant Cinema made by REAL PEOPLE who have REAL DESIRES to see and make something inventive and fun- NOT the shot-by-shot remake of something you've already seen before. Strong reactions? Bring 'em on! Love us! Hate us! Die You Zombie Bastards! demands a reaction. Get ready to shout it from the rooftops..... viva zombastica! |