Q&A with Ryan Cauchi, writer/director of Greystanes

Cult Projections: An authentic Maltese-Australian supernatural story! That has to be a first! What is your own Maltese heritage, and is this the first time you’ve written something specifically with your heritage as the cultural backdrop to the story?

Ryan: One of the few instances of Maltese-Australian scripted drama - period! Both my parents are Maltese, having immigrated here as children in the 1960s. Dad’s first home was actually in Greystanes, NSW! Back then, it was a real hotspot for the Maltese community in Australia. In addition to a healthy diet of classic horror movies from the local video store, Mum brought me up on a smörgåsbord of fairy tales, folktales and legends from all over the world. But apart from a couple of ghost stories, very few we read actually came from Malta. It wasn’t until Stephen Mifsud published his book The Maltese Bestiary in 2014, that I was exposed to a whole nightmare’s gallery of monsters and creatures lurking beneath Malta’s sunny exterior! I immediately saw the horror film potential in these and set about creating an “Original Maltese-Australian Horror Story” - a first for me as both writer and filmmaker. 

CP: How did you approach the writing of Greystanes? Did you write the entire narrative as a single treatment and then broke it up into tiny bite-sized episodes, or did you write the episodes individually?

R: When I put the pitch together for Screen Australia, I mapped out what happened in each and every episode, cliffhangers and all! This became the roadmap for co-writer Matt Ferro and me, with each of the episodes having their own individual scripts. 

CP: You’re no stranger to short form vertical format filmmaking, and with TikTok creatives on the rise and vertical format filmmaking a key part of TikTok’s content, was Greystanes designed specifically with TikTok in mind?

R: Greystanes was tailored specifically for Screen Australia and TikTok’s “Every Voice” initiative, which provides production funding for scripted or documentary series by creators from underrepresented backgrounds. With so little representation of the Maltese identity on Australian screens, how could I possibly resist this opportunity?! I was already on Screen Australia’s radar, having just been a finalist in their “Got A Minute” initiative - my entry for which (Tales From The Dark Web: Moira Hill) securing me an AACTA Award nomination for Best Digital Short Video in 2022. 

CP: Superstition plays a large part of Greystanes’ plot. How significant was superstition in your own childhood, or even adulthood?

R: I am not superstitious, but I have family who are! In fact, one of the main plot points in Greystanes is based on the story of a curse on my mother’s side of the family. But to go into detail here, would spoil one of the twists in the series! 

CP: The main character of young Samantha is “hooked on horror movies” as her older brother teases her, and she playfully videos herself making horror trailers - at her family’s expense. I can’t help but wonder if Samantha is based a little bit on yourself?

R: Damn right! And she is named after my father, Sam. Samantha is played by Chloe Delle-Vedove. Theatre geeks might recognise her as Young Anna or Jane Banks in Disney’s Sydney productions of Frozen and Mary Poppins, respectively. She was an absolute dream to work with and definitely one to watch! 

CP: Tell us about Il-Ħaddiela, the sleep-demon. How did you come up with her appearance? 

R: Every culture has its own version of the night hag or sleep-paralysis demon. In Malta we have Il-Ħaddiela - “the nightmare” - a female entity with four fingers, and no thumbs, on each hand. Designing a creature on a low-budget is a nightmare for any filmmaker, but fortunately Lewis P Morley (one of the masterminds behind the killer boar in Razorback) was up to the challenge. I drew inspiration from two sources: the horse’s head in Fuseli’s 1781 painting “The Nightmare” and some creepy photographs by William Mortensen, showcasing the voodoo masks he made for Tod Browning’s West of Zanzibar (1928). It was Lewis’ idea to dress her in Old Victorian Lace - which gave her a fantastically Gothic appearance, and coincidentally, reminded me of the doilies in my Nanna’s house!! There’s another character that pops up in the latter half of the series. I won’t give too much away but my brief to the creature designer was “Give me a store mannequin as if it were shat out by David Lynch”!

CP: Greystanes is filled with Maltese idioms and language, such as the names for grandparents and great-grandparents (Nanna and Nannu, Buz-Nannu and Buz-Nanna), the National dish (Pastizzi), what are some of the other Maltese references you’ve included? 

R: The series opens at the annual Festa tal-Vitojra, a Maltese national holiday which celebrates the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace. We also have Gulepp tal-Harrub (Carob syrup) and Balbuljata (Maltese Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes) - both play important roles in the narrative. On Greystanes I was very blessed to collaborate with AACTA-nominated Maltese actress Frances Duca (Ali’s Wedding), who plays Nanna. She was our unofficial Maltese consultant on set - even contributing some of the dialogue! - which made for a more authentic Maltese experience! 

CP: Night of the Living Dead makes a brief appearance on TV, when Samantha is trying to watch it. Handy that the movie is now in the public domain! What are some of the horror and dark fantasy movies of your youth that you hold dear? Were there any specific ones that influenced Greystanes?

R: And one of the movies in her mountain of (public domain) VHS tapes is Paul Wegener’s The Golem (1920) - a nod to my 2020 short Golem. I grew up on a LOT of youth-centric horror and dark fantasy films. A lot of them shaped me as a creative and influenced Greystanes. Some of these include Poltergeist (1982), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Gremlins (1984), Return to Oz (1985) and The Witches (1990). I was also big on Universal’s Classic Monsters and Jim Henson’s darker work (like The Storyteller!) - both of which started my whole love affair with myths and monsters. One contemporary filmmaker that really inspires me is Guillermo del Toro. I’ve loved everything of his from Cronos to The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth to Pinocchio. No one handles the beauty - and horror - of monsters and fairy tales like him! 

CP: There is a playful sense of humour lingering in the background of Greystanes, that pokes its head up every now and again, such as Samantha arming the water rifle with her Nanna’s yucky carob to fight Il-Ħaddiela with. Was the sly comedic element always part of the story? 

R: Always. I’m really glad you picked up on that. When your protagonist is an eleven-year-old girl, it can’t all be doom and gloom! I took a lot of inspiration from the dark humour in Roald Dahl’s books for children like The BFG and The Witches, as well as my own observations of the Maltese culture from growing up with my grandparents. There were quite a few more jokes, but sadly, these were excised from the script or picture edit, due to pacing and/or tone. 

CP: You’ve involved animation in some of your past short films, and there is some terrific silhouette work in Greystanes. How did you achieve that particular stylistic, especially the shot of the ocean liner in the distance with the waves in the foreground?

R: The silhouette work in Greystanes - what I call the “shadowplay” - was inspired by silhouette animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, as well as bits I had seen from Jean Boullet’s lost animated adaptation of Dracula from 1962. I also wanted some of that grimy atmosphere we associate with Pre-Code Hollywood movies.
The sequence was boarded, then those storyboards were brought into Adobe Photoshop, where the final designs for the compositions and characters were worked out. These were then sent to After Effects, and married with stock elements such as waves, mist and moving clouds, which were given their own stylised treatments in the software. Everything you see in this sequence is the product of years of experimenting with compositing and layering on other projects. Things I learnt before the arrival of A.I. 

CP: The special effects are excellent, in particular Il-Ħaddiela pushing through the ceiling a la Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the fingers bursting through poor young Samantha’s chin! How did you achieve these impressive effects?

R: It’s funny, everyone says A Nightmare on Elm Street, but co-writer/producer Matt Ferro and I were thinking Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983)! That was one of the few instances of CGI in the series. Matt took a 3D scan of the Il-Ħaddiela mask wth his iPad and sent it over to his buddies, Joel and Elliot Goodman. They are the masterminds behind this effect! As for the fingers bursting through Sam’s chin, we constructed a large faux head of Sam from latex, and filmed it with one of my nieces’ fingers emerging through a crack in the “chin”. In the extreme close-ups, it’s the dummy, but on wider shots, we composited my niece’s fingers and the faux chin onto the real-life Sam. It’s proven to be one of the most memorable moments for our TikTok audience! Waking up to comments such as “Ewww, gross!” and “WTF?!” just puts a smile on my face. 

CP: How much of Greystanes was made in the editing stages? Did you shoot a lot of coverage? What did you shoot on? What was it like working the kids, teens, and babies? 

R: A lot of Greystanes was made in the edit and was a real test of my editorial skills! It was filmed by DOP Matt Ryan on the Sony FX6. Some days we had the A7SIII as a B-camera. Principal Photography was an intense, five-day shoot - budget and resources were tight, kids could only work a set number of hours, not a lot of time for extra coverage or even experimentation. After I did the rough cut, I took it upon myself to get behind an A7SIII and shoot a lot of second unit (mostly cutaways) and practical VFX to supplement what was already in the can. After a few months, I was able to beat it all into submission, with score, sound and colour - masterfully provided by Me-Lee Hay, Nick Keate and Lachlan Early, respectively - being the delicious cherries on top! Apart from the restrictions on set, the kids were amazing to work with… My (then) one-year-old niece, Georgia (who plays Sam’s baby cousin, Rianna), not so much! The poor thing was teething and was having none of my shit! 

CP: What’s next?

R: Hopefully more horror and dark fantasy with that distinct Maltese voice! But with Greystanes only halfway through its 18-episode run and plans of re-engaging with audiences during Halloween, it could be a while before I start writing again! 

Greystanes episodes are posted exclusively on TikTok, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with Chapter 11 just posted today.

To binge all episodes in chronological order Click here.

Greystanes was funded by Screen Australia and TikTok Australia via the “Every Voice” initiative, with additional support from Screen NSW, Mario’s Pastizzi and the Maltese Cultural Association of NSW.

FIVE x FIVE with Kiah Roache-Turner, writer/director of Sting

1: Five directors who inspired you on your way to becoming a filmmaker.

Martin Scorsese

Francis Coppola

Steven Spielberg

Ridley Scott

John Carpenter

2: Five lessons you learned when you first started out as a screenwriter/director.

Always stick to the storyboards/shotlist or you won’t make your day.

Cast really good actors and half your job is done.

Do a bunch of screenwriting courses. It WILL be worth it.

Take acting classes. It WILL be worth it.

If you TRULY love cinema and dedicate thousands of ours to it and believe in yourself enough, then you will make a good film.

3: Five freaky creature features you still rate very highly.

The Thing

Alien

Jaws

An American Werewolf in London

Tremors

4: Five people and their role in your STING team you’d like to give a shout out to. 

Richard Taylor (Weta) - working with him and Weta was a dream come true and he was LOVELY!

Brad Shield - DOP (first time one of my films has looked like a Spielberg or Fincher movie).

Fiona Donovan - Genius designer. Elevated the material hugely.

E.J. (my daughter) - she did all the ‘Charlotte drawings’ and inspired the Charlotte character (without her there would be no heart to my film).

Jamie Hilton - All the producers were FANTASTIC but Jamie really pushed me to go further (artistically) than I have before on this one.

5: Five actors you’d love to work with.

Tom Hardy

Ryan Gosling

Emily Blunt

Travis Fimmel

Jermaine Fowler (again)

Sting opens in the US April 12th, and has special advance screenings in Australia as part of Fantastic Film Festival; Sydney - Wednesday, April 17th (Ritz Cinemas) and Melbourne - Thursday, April 18th (Lido Cinemas), with nationwide theatrical release to be confirmed.

Five Q&As with stars/screenwriters from A Night of Horror International Film Festival 2022

In the 14th edition of A Night of Horror International Film Festival there are several feature films that have had the screenplay written, or co-written, by the lead actor, or co-star. All of them women. 

Dani Barker, star and co-screenwriter of Follow Her

As a screenwriter what do you start with? The opening scene? The final scene? A seemingly random, yet pivotal scene in the middle? A title?

Such a good question. I start with the STORY. What is the story I want to tell? I am much more deliberate about this having written what-feels-like hundreds of drafts on the same scripts. I save a lot of time now understanding the story I want to tell first. Then I start on the first scene. And from there, I let myself go on the ride. I don't know what comes next, I let the characters predict it for me. You really have to know your characters inside and out to write in this way. 

How do you collaborate as a screenwriter? Do you use certain methods?

I always stay open to feedback at any point along the way, whether it's pre-production, shooting, or post. With Follow Her, it really became a collaboration between myself and [director] Sylvia Caminer along with Preston Witt, who acted as script consultant and he was incredible. He really pushed me to go deep with the characters and understand their motivations from a true place. I would work with him again in a heartbeat. And by staying open to feedback, anyone can contribute on the journey. Our super-talented editor, Alex Gans, even he helped shape the story by contributing to the ending. 

How particular is your dialogue? Is it the easiest or hardest part to write? Do you allow for improvisation?

My dialogue is very particular to each character. Characters like myself are the easiest for me to write, as with anyone I suspect. Otherwise, I do a lot of research, watch documentaries and make a point of listening to people out in the world. I look at the script as the bones of the story, but the real magic comes through improvisation or people’s ideas on set! 

As an actor, what direction from the director do you value the most, or hope to get, or enjoy the most?

As an actor, I value reminders to be still. And let the eyes do the acting for me. When I'm in the directing chair myself (on other projects), this is often the note I give actors the most. "Just be there, you don't need to do anything but be there."

How important is the ending of a horror, or dark genre film?

The most important aspect of a story is the ENDING and “wrapping it up”. The majority of scripts I read completely fall apart in the second half. I think people tend to rush the ending just to get it made or settle with "good enough"... but inevitably the project suffers because of it. 

What are your five fave psycho-thrillers?

Cruel Intentions, Black Swan, Berlin Syndrome, Knock Knock, Eyes Wide Shut.

Llana Baron, co-star and co-screenwriter of Curse of Aurore

As a screenwriter what do you start with? The opening scene? The final scene? A seemingly random, yet pivotal scene in the middle? A title?

It really depends on the premise and project. With Curse of Aurore, I was drawing from a lot of real-life memories I'd made over the years in that house. Just like my character says, the house we used in the film does actually belong to my family and has been part of our history for nearly one hundred years. For that script, my co-writer and I started by writing those memories into short scenes, then inserting our characters/plot into them. We built the rest from there. It was a unique approach to writing that we hadn't tried before. Most of our other screenplays start with an idea or premise that turns into a synopsis, then a full outline. Once all of that is mapped out, it's easy to build the script from scene 1.

How do you collaborate as a screenwriter? Do you use certain methods? 

I prefer to write with a partner. I think it's good to have the thoughts/visions/opinions of another person to help broaden my own. I like bouncing ideas off another person, having a world we can share that's exclusively ours as its creators. Director Mehran Torgoley and I have been writing together for almost ten years. We've developed a solid and respectful writing chemistry that has improved over time. Often the hard part is coming up with the initial synopsis. Once we get through that, we just sort of take turns writing scenes and discussing them until our first draft is done. We use WriterDuet to collaborate. We have virtual writers' meetings 3-5 days a week to keep ourselves on track. One of the best things about having a writing partner is keeping each other accountable. We all have writers' block from time to time, but when you have someone else working through it with you it's not nearly as difficult to get through.

How particular is your dialogue? Is it the easiest or hardest part to write? Do you allow for improvisation? 

I've never found dialogue to be particularly difficult to write. As an actress, I play the scenes out in my head, sometimes even act them out. If the line doesn't sound natural, I keep working it until it does. I'm all for improvisation as long as it's done well and doesn't change the essence or meaning of the line/sentiment. Often the best reads are when an actor "makes it their own."

What direction is most essential to you as an actor? 

Be myself. Be real.

How important is the ending of a horror, or dark genre film? 

A solid ending is VERY important. We all deserve a good pay-off after ninety minutes of dread and suspense!

What are your five fave movies that deal with the occult? 

Midsommar, Rosemary’s Baby, Hereditary, The Witch, The Wicker Man.

Elise Finnerty, co-star and screenwriter of The Ones You Didn’t Burn

As a screenwriter what do you start with? The opening scene? The final scene? A seemingly random, yet pivotal scene in the middle? A title?

Believe it or not, as a screenwriter I start with the music. I was able to collaborate with my composer very early on in this process and his music helped shape the film. Once I felt that the music captured the tone of the film, I could start writing some of the more "trippy" scenes. And from there I filled in the structure.  

How particular is your dialogue? Is it the easiest or hardest part to write? Do you allow for improvisation?

I started in the theatre, where characters speaking is the main form of exposition, so dialogue is my favourite part of screenwriting. I prefer an actor to start with what I wrote and we can improvise from there. I love and welcome improvisation but I need to hear what I wrote word for word first.

What direction is most essential to you as an actor?

As an actor I don't want to be told how to feel or what an audience is "supposed to" see. There's so many layers that go into a performance and I believe that a truly terrific actor will be able to be so subtle that an audience member can reflect whatever emotion they want on them. We have to trust the audience to be smart enough to accept what we're giving them. Otherwise, it takes all the fun out. Ha.

How do you create atmosphere and tone in your scripts?

Like I said earlier, Dan Reguera's music. And maybe some light drinking to loosen the inhibitions during a late-night writing sesh ;)

What element in a horror movie is most important?

DON'T SHOW THE HORROR TOO EARLY. Nothing is scarier than a person's imagination. If you give it away, the tension gets sucked out. 

What are your five fave films that deal with the supernatural?

The Babadook, Mandy, Signs, 28 Days Later, It Follows.

Mie Gren, star and co-screenwriter of Rotten Flowers

As a screenwriter what do you start with? The opening scene? The final scene? A seemingly random, yet pivotal scene in the middle? A title?

It’s very different, depending on what kind of idea it is. And I must be honest, I am still quite new to this whole “script writing world”, and I have been under the wings of my director Kasper Juhl, who have taught me a lot, the last couple of years.  - I really love it so far. But to answer the question: If it’s an idea for an abstract more arthouse-inspired script, it’s very random where I/we start. Then it’s just about getting the feelings down. Otherwise - if it’s a story where we wanna try to “follow the old fashion film rules” we first of all start with a long brainstorm, to figure out how the whole universe and the characters should be. And when we know how we wanna tell that story, and what feeling it should have, then we start to write a treatment from the beginning to the end - trying not to spend too much time on it, just to get the scenes down. Afterwards we finally start to write the dialogue and delete unnecessary scenes again, adding some new ones, and so on. But overall, it all starts with a feeling and a curiosity we want to express.

How do you collaborate as a screenwriter? Do you use certain methods? 

We talk a lot, discussing all the ideas for the script. While writing we sit next to each other, speaking out loud what we are writing. Sometimes, when we find it difficult to write a scene, it can be helpful to walk away for a little while, and maybe one of us stays, trying to get something down. Otherwise, we might skip that one for the day, and move on to the next scene. 

How particular is your dialogue? Is it the easiest or hardest part to write? Do you allow for improvisation? 

Sometimes it’s the easiest and sometimes it’s the hardest. I feel it all depends on the mood for the day, what type of scene it is, and on what we know about the characters so far. And YES - we allow that. We both think that improvisation is gold. Especially if you have great actors on board on the project. It can help in putting on much more spice and shades to the scenes. And it can help in making the scenes more natural organic and real. You often get something more unique, because it gives the actor more freedom to explore the character.

What direction is most essential to you as an actor? 

I think the most essential direction I personally can get, is when it’s kept simple. I love when directors know exactly what to say, in order to give me the feelings that they want me to express. The worst thing you can do to me is to lock me up with thousands of words, directing me on each sentence, and to “play the scene” for me yourself. Cause then I instinctively try to do as you do, and that is not good, because then I fall out of character and become a stiff mechanical robot, instead of being naturally present, inspired, and fluent. It literally kills my creativity. The best thing for me is, to have lots of meetings before the shooting day, so I know what you want, and you know, what I can give you. It gives much more freedom and space to be playful on set.

How important is the ending of a horror, or dark genre film? 

For me the ending means almost everything. It totally breaks my heart if the whole movie seemed to be a masterpiece, and they just drop the ending on the floor.

What are your five fave films that deal with vengeance?

Carrie, Oldboy, The Last House On The Left (2009), Joker, Prisoners.

Sarah Roy, star and co-screenwriter of Zebra Girl

As a screenwriter, what do you start with? The opening scene? The final scene? A seemingly random, but pivotal scene in the middle? A title?  

Zebra Girl was taken from the one woman play "Catherine and Anita" which I performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was written by Derek Ahonen. Derek wrote the initial screenplay and then Stephanie Zari (our director) and I fleshed it out. As we had the framework from the play, we had the beginning and end but spent a lot of time filling in the details of Catherine's story. I think having a director and co-writer who has had a lived experience similar to Catherine's was invaluable in telling her story too. 

How particular is your dialogue? Is it the easiest or hardest part to write? Do you allow for improvisation? 

I'd worked with Derek in New York and love his writing so I knew I wanted him to write for me. His writing is quite stylised and sometimes what works for a play doesn't work for a screenplay so that is also a different challenge. I particularly enjoyed getting to add my own dialogue and really feel like I built the character from the page to the screen. 

What direction is most essential to you as an actor? 

The character work I got to do with Steph whilst writing the script was incredibly in-depth so by the time we got on set it made the whole process so much easier. She is a fantastic director. Some of the scenes in the film required me to go to a pretty dark place and Steph was very encouraging whilst also pushing me which, as an actor, I relish. I also got to work with the incredible Jade Anouka and Tom Cullen which was a dream. 

How do you create atmosphere and tone in your scripts? 

As the story isn't linear and jumps back and forth between time periods, we spent a lot of time on the structure of the script which played an important part in creating atmosphere and tone. We really wanted to keep the audience guessing and create suspense throughout the film which our editor, Benji Gerstein, was also brilliant at. It was definitely a process and sometimes you feel like banging your head against a wall but I hope we managed it in the end!

What element in a horror movie is most important? 

Definitely suspense. I want to be kept on the edge of my seat!

What are your five fave psycho thrillers? 

Psycho, Last Night In Soho, Rosemary's Baby, Dolores Claiborne, Get Out.

Follow Her, Curse of Aurore, The Ones You Didn’t Burn, Rotten Flowers, and Zebra Girl all screen as part of the 2022 A Night of Horror International Film Festival, at Dendy Cinemas Newtown, October 17 - 23.

You can purchase tickets here.

View the entire A Night of Horror 2022 program in the digital flipbook below

Q&A with Simon Foster, director of Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival

Cult Projections: You used to be programmer for the SciFi Film Festival, now you’re the Festival Director for the inaugural Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival. This endeavour feels like it’s been a long time coming. Just how special is science fiction to you as a dedicated cinephile? 

Simon Foster: I didn’t realise how important science fiction was to me until I had matured into my movie-watching, both personally and professionally. I’ve spent the last thirty years as a film reviewer, watching all sorts of films from all around the world, which for a long time was what I thought being a serious movie-watcher was meant to be. But as I’ve aged it’s become clearer to me what elements of cinema I really love and react to on a deeper level, and that is the cinema of the fantastic – science fiction, of course, and also horror. I’ve learned to understand that genre cinema can offer both visual and intellectual engagement like no other kind of filmmaking.  

CP: If you had to pluck five science fiction movies, one from each of the past five decades (70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s), what would they be?

Simon: Oh, man, this is going to get me into trouble. For most of my teens, I would’ve said the biggest influence from the ‘70s was Star Wars, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind has proven more enduring. In the ‘80s, I was just a black hole for sci-fi films, soaking up everything, so to pick one… Aliens, of course, but also E.T., Buckeroo Bonzai, Lifeforce, The Thing, Blade Runner and a million VHS rentals with names like Zone Troopers or Def-Con 4. Jurassic Park is the standard bearer in the ‘90s, although Men in Black and the Verhoeven double-shot, Total Recall and Starship Troopers are favourites. Minority Report in the ‘00s, by a mile; I think it’s one of Spielberg’s unheralded masterpieces. Also Will Smith’s I Am Legend from 2007. And I’m going to vote Brad Pitt’s Ad Astra, the Chinese epic Wandering Earth and two smaller scale pics – Prospect and Vast of Night – as the best of the 2010s.  [Ed: Well, I asked for it.]  

CP: What elements of the Festival were most crucial to you as Director? Did anyone help you with the programming, if so, how?

Simon: The festival has an organising committee made up of film journalists and academics and they all weighed in at different points, but the final say on the program was mine. I wanted to position this festival from Day 1 as a truly international event, one that reflected the diverse community that is its hometown. This led to a line-up that features works from twenty countries, including rarely represented genre filmmakers from nations like Iran, Poland and Tunisia, with 23% of the films directed by women. And as an Australian capital-city event, I wanted to make sure the local industry was front-and-centre, especially independently produced science fiction. We have the World Premiere of four Australian films – the features Monsters of Man and Strangeville; and, the shorts Starspawn: An Overture and A Blaster In the Right Hands.

CP: The science fiction genre is constantly pushing the boundaries in thematic content and design. What are some interesting areas in the Festival program that you’d like to highlight?

Simon: With twenty countries represented in the line-up, we are presenting a pretty complete snapshot of how the science fiction genre is being utilised across the planet. What I draw from the line-up is that while key elements remain constant – time travel, A.I. development, the militarization of robotics, the vulnerability of humanity to unchecked tech – it is how they are filtered through the social experience of the filmmakers that fascinates. We have an Iranian mini-feature called The Fabricated that places its protagonists in a Matrix-like simulated world, their minds controlled by the governing military regime. The symbolism is understated but potent.  

CP: The horror genre is constantly pushing against taboo boundaries, does science fiction have the same or similar kind of envelope? What do you like seeing filmmakers do within the scope of science fiction? 

Simon: I ask from sci-fi filmmakers the same as I ask from any director – originality; a freshness across all aspects of a production. That gets harder, as the medium of film ages and narratives start to seep into each other. And I get older, and see more films than is probably healthy. So it becomes an increasingly harder ask to find new visions. I’d point to movies in the festival program like the Spanish film Queen of the Lizards, the Australian short Extra(terrestrial) and the music-themed feature Fonotune An Electronic Fairytale, directed by EDM star Fint, as selections that are bracingly fresh and challenging.

CP: How accommodating is the program with science fantasy? What about sf-horror? How prevalent is the concept of “nightmare future”?

Simon: On Friday November 20 at 9.00pm, we are presenting a strand called ‘Horrific Futures: SciFi’s Darkest Visions’, the centrepiece of which is the chilling French feature Anonymous Animals. It posits a world in which animals have evolved and treat man as we treat some animals in our world. For many, futurism represents a leap into the unknown and that can be a terrifying prospect. I’d point to one of your favourite films, Alien, as the definitive example of that concept. Our Saturday 21st evening feature, Scales, melds the darkest kind of fairy tale fantasy, in this case the legend of the sirens of the sea, with elements of patriarchal horror. From the UAE and helmed by woman director Shahad Ameen, it is a stunning mix of nightmarish imagery and female empowerment.   

CP: Are you predicating a glut of pandemic and isolation features and shorts for next year?

Simon: That’s already started to play out with a few films in our line-up dealing with isolation, introspection and loneliness. From 9.00pm on Thursday 19th we screen It’s Not Safe Outside from the UK, about a high-rise shut-in struggling to connect with her neighbour, followed by the Italian feature Darkness, in which three sisters are convinced by their father the world outside their home is a barren wasteland. End-of-society narratives are not uncommon in science fiction; I’ve already mentioned I Am Legend, which stemmed from The Omega Man, not too mention films like the Mad Max movies or The Road or Book Of Eli, the list goes on. I think, though, that maybe this extended period of isolation and confinement has impacted the filmmakers personally, and that may provide new insights into old ideas.  

CP: If you could choose one science fiction movie from yesteryear you’d love to see remade, what would it be?

Simon: One of my favourite films is Doug Trumbull’s Brainstorm, and I think that could be reworked into something amazing. It was such a fascinating idea but clearly wasn’t fully realized, for a number of reasons. I think a fresh vision, utilising real-world tech advancements, could give it new life. 

CP: Thanks Simon!

For the full program, dates, times, and tickets visit the Festival website click here.

To follow the Festival on social media:

Facebook: @SydneyScienceFictionFilmFestival

Twitter/Insta: @SydSciFiFest

Q&A with Jeremy Kasten, director of The Dead Ones

Cult Projections: This is your fourth collaboration with screenwriter Zach Chassler, did he come to you with The Dead Ones screenplay already written, or did you ask him to write you something to direct? How did it originate? 

Jeremy: After the creative difficulties of making The Wizard of Gore - I struggled with the financiers to make the film I believed the audience would respond to (for example, they wanted to cut the gore OUT of the movie) - I decided to shoot a smaller movie I could really believe in and consequently do for a more modest budget with a cast of mostly unknowns. I met our executive producer, Niels, and Zach wrote The Dead Ones based around discussions we all had about genre films that can speak to their core audience. I’d done a bunch of films that I felt approached their subject matter indirectly (The Wizard of Gore, for example, being about misogyny seemed to be lost in translation) and wanted to make a film that was direct and could not be misinterpreted. Whether I succeeded is up to the audience.

CP: The film’s production and release history has been a true labour of dark love. I believe principal photography was way back in 2009 …? What was the post-production process like? When did you start running into problems? Why has it taken so long for the movie to reach the festival circuit and finally distribution?

Jeremy: Certainly the subject matter was a challenge. When we filmed in 2009 we worked hard to ensure our production would be discreet about the project, but at the same time remain proud of the story we wanted to tell. It wasn’t always easy working with vendors and locations that may have assumed the worst. Several of them had no problem with us making a violent movie about killing teenagers, but took offence with us asking questions about a horror we’ve all been living with for twenty years by setting that movie in a school. Even at that time, before the wave of school shootings became an almost weekly occurrence it was tough to get folks to sign onto the film. Once we left my hometown of Baltimore, where we filmed the movie, we had about 70% of the film in the can and had to find a way to continue. Every time we had a potential investor interested another tragic incident would occur and they would get cold feet. Over the eleven years the film was incomplete, I self-financed post-production a little bit at a time as I could afford it. Back in Los Angeles, I recruited a high school intern and a friend with a DSLR to complete principal photography. The editor, assistant editor, the intern and I would sneak around various schools in Southern California, probably risking our lives wearing the gas masks and wardrobe while carrying realistic looking weapons. At night. On stolen school locations. However, our entire crew – the young actors, in particular – really understood what we were trying to do, and the challenges only served to make us a tighter team. The film was completed in 2019 and after our first film festival we found a sales agent to secure distribution. The film played at one festival in the US before COVID-19 shut the festival circuit down.

CP: Did you know while you were shooting the movie, or maybe it was during the editing, that your movie was likely to be controversial, that it might become a difficult movie, something that might trigger the wrong response?

Jeremy: I did and I intended to. In recent years people have asked me, if this subject matter was important to me, why I didn’t make a drama? School shootings are horrific. To me this had to be a horror film. I made The Dead Ones with an outsider teen audience in mind, because young outsiders are often genre fans. I know, because I was one myself. This movie tells a story of choices, consequences and the value of resisting vengeance. It’s a journey that outsiders will recognise and understand. Although it’s set in the aftermath of a high school shooting, my intention never was – or will be – to trivialise this real-life horror that increasingly plagues our world. Instead, I wanted to create a disturbing reflection of modern adolescence. The Dead Ones is a film with a message of hope for outsiders. Of course, I fear the a viewer getting the wrong message from the movie and would be devastated to have someone dress as one of the horsemen for Halloween or not “get” the film’s message and inadvertently relate to the wrong side of the morality. But with each choice we made, from script to production and at every stage of post-production, we tried to craft it in such a way that it was impossible to misinterpret my intentions.

CP: In many ways the movie is more incendiary now than it was when you were making it. Has your perspective changed much? Has Chassler’s, do you know?

Jeremy: No my perspective has not changed. I can not speak for Zach but for me, despite COVID-19 making the notion of young people in schools seems quaint and a thing of the past, the proliferation of guns and the unwitting radicalsation of people, especially children, by the gun lobby in the US, makes the film more important to me than ever.

CP: What do the central cast think of the movie, now that they’re so much older? Have they been on the festival circuit with you? Are they supportive? Are you still in touch?

Jeremy: It’s funny. When we filmed The Dead Ones the cast were all high school aged and casting real young people was quite important to me. Throughout production I spoke with the cast at great length about the function of making a horror film with a message. Now they are adults and the cast understands in a whole new way what the film set out to accomplish. I believe they are all very proud of the work we did.

CP: A powerful horror movie should definitely make the an audience feel a little uncomfortable, it should be confronting, even disturbing, but also thrilling, exhilarating, to provide some kind of relief. As a filmmaker what do you feel the director should do in order to reach some or all of these goals.

Jeremy: I believe that in order to make anything for an audience it must not be taken it lightly. Every person working on a film has to approach their job with utter seriousness. Even horror-comedy works to me when the actors are not winking and nodding about being funny or silly. More-so with a film that is meant to frighten. All movies that work well, work because of their cast. You can make a film with mediocre cinematography or music or lighting but if the performances are believable then then film might work. The reverse simple isn’t true.

CP: What line exists, if any, that a filmmaker shouldn’t cross when making a horror movie?

Jeremy: I think making a film exists simply to stimulate an audience for the purposes of going farther than what has proceeded it in the canon of horror has been done to death. That bridge was crossed long ago by the elder statesmen of the genre and I have no interest in seeking out films that are venial just to see how far a film can. That to me is as boring as shitty porn or watching an open-heart surgery video.

CP: What are the most important components when making a horror movie? What elements should never be compromised?

Jeremy: Young filmmakers need to focus on learning about working with actors. Actors are the key. Also, a true understanding of editing makes films more affordable and approachable in post-production. Getting clean, great sound from your dialogue can’t be overstated, too, as actors are often quiet in the scariest moments. Original production design makes a big difference--I see too many films that believe that simply by scoring a creepy cabin or basement in which to film will allow the vibe to translate. It often doesn’t. Lighting, practical effects, digital effects and show-offy shots are too often the places filmmakers get caught up and put all their focus. That stuff is fun but should be secondary to the filmmaking.

CP: The pandemic has caused a massive disruption to the film industry, in terms of production, screening and distribution. How do you see the future of production? Will there be a return to micro-budget and medium-budget filmmaking? Does the future look bright, or dim?

Jeremy: I think the cream will always rise to the top because genre fans are so good at seeking out the films that don’t necessarily get put in front of them. However, I do worry about a world where the vertical integration of the industry—meaning the few outlets like Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, control the means of distribution, the fees for films, and the stories we get to see—prevents movies being profitable. It has been this way forever and it seems to be getting worse. I long for the days of B-movies playing drive-in theatres for a good fee and I believe today many more interesting films would come find an audience if such an outlet existed.

CP: What advice would you have for budding horror filmmakers?

Jeremy: Watch everything. Especially the classics. See old movies. Especially silent movies. Never give up. Stop telling people that you could do it better - go out and make films. It is an incredibly discouraging business, but most movies do not get completed for a lack of agility and stick-to-itiveness. Learn about the business. Do every job on a crew and work for a distribution company. Seeing how the sausage is made and coming to grips with your film being “product” is key to seeing a movie through to an audience.

CP: Can we expect another intense, nightmarish feature from you soon? If so, what’s on the cards?

Jeremy: I have so many films I would like to make but it is incredibly difficult to find financing for movies now. We will see what The Dead Ones brings.

CP: Thank you Jeremy!

The Dead Ones screens as part of Sydney’s 12th A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Friday, September 25th, 11pm, at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt. Tickets available here.

Q&A with Sam Curtain, director/co-writer of The Slaughterhouse Killer

Cult Projections: What’s your filmmaking background? Are you self-taught? What cameras and gear did you first start mucking around on?

Sam: I attended TAFE here in Tassie which was a great experience. But by and large my learning was self-taught, through a group of friends, that I still make films with to this day. We started out in the early days of DV, and it’s been great evolving with digital tools and the opportunities they offer. 

CP: What horror movies made you want to become a horror filmmaker? 

Sam: Well my horror journey started when I was around sixteen and that’s actually how I bonded with the guys I make movies with. We were all big fans of anything George A. Romero, John Carpenter and Sam Raimi. The Exorcist was a big one for me and is still so effective to this day. The blood and guts of The Evil Dead and always fun. Probably what has been the biggest influence would be The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and you can certainly see inspiration from it in both Blood Hunt and The Slaughterhouse Killer. 

CP: What separates the okay horror movies from the great horror movies? 

Sam: I think for me it would have to be the level of authenticity. Take the example of Texas Chain Saw again, it’s so grounded in reality that it still holds up today. You take a ghost story of the era and it feels quite cheesy by today's standards. 

CP: What freedoms do you enjoy most about low-budget filmmaking? What limitations do you find the hardest to deal with?

Sam: The fact you’re completely independent with no one above you telling you what to do, or how to do it can be very freeing. The flip side of that though is that you are constantly battling with your limited resources and time. 

CP: When you’re making a feature, how much of the movie is in the screenplay, how much is captured in the principal photography, and how much is made in the editing stages? What’s your favourite part of the process?

Sam: I really do enjoy the scripting process with my writing partner, Benjamin Jung-Clarke. We seem to get ourselves to a place where we are constantly trying to one up each other with whatever outrageous thing we can think up next. Because of our low budget nature, shooting is a pretty fast and furious affair. Which is why it’s so important to have our script just right. 

CP: How do you feel about the use of violence in horror movies? When should violence be graphic and when should it be suggested?

Sam: Violence in the movies is always fun so I think it’s up to the creators to push it in whatever direction they choose. In our films quite often the violence has been quite suggestive rather than overly graphic, but if we had a few more dollars in the kitty I’m sure the blood would have been flowing a little more freely. 

CP: Blood Hunt and The Slaughterhouse Killer present the narrative and the characterisations with an emphasis on realism, almost documentary-like. How do you strive for realism as a director? Do you use much improvisation?

Sam: As I mentioned earlier, scripting plays a big part for us and we don’t really experiment with improvisation that often. Both Ben and I come from regional areas of Tassie and we often draw on that, which we believe gives our dialogue a real authenticity for the characters we write. We also love shooting in real locations and we actually filmed portions of The Slaughterhouse Killer in a real, working abattoir. 

CP: I’m assuming you’re a fan of practical effects. Who are your favourite special effects makeup artists? What movie has your favourite sfx makeup sequence?

Sam: Most people tend to go back to the great work done by people like Tom Savini, Rob Bottin, and of course Stan Winston. But the series that really does it for me is the Saw franchise for it’s brutal realism. Another big part of what makes the makeup work so well is the production design that also goes into it. It doesn’t get much more memorable than the reverse bear trap, the needle pit, and those ground-up rotting pig carcasses. 

CP: Should there be any taboos in horror movies? Are there any left?? How responsible does a horror director need to be in this current climate?

Sam: Well I guess Cannibal Holocaust is probably the line for me. 

CP: What would you tell budding horror filmmakers to pay closest attention to? What are the most important elements?

Sam: When it comes to any advice to early career film makers, it’s always just to go out there and give it a crack, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Find a group of likeminded people you can work with and don’t bow to anyone in regards to the story you want to tell or how to tell it. If you just want to make a dirty little slasher with mates, then do it. Don’t worry about what funding bodies, or film school teachers might be saying, because it’s your passion that will make you strive for what you love. 

CP: What horror movies of the last few years have impressed you? Any filmmakers in particular you have your eye on?

Sam: Horror goes through cycles and whilst there are some great things still happening in the indy scene, I think there’s a lot of stuff, especially coming out of the studios that just isn’t that memorable. Of course you have your Ari Aster’s and your Jordan Peele’s, who are making great horror flicks, but we need more visionary directors like them to really take horror into new directions for mainstream audiences. 

CP: Thanks Sam!

The Slaughterhouse Killer has its World Premiere at Sydney’s 12th A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Saturday, September 26th, 5.30pm, at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt. Tickets available here.

Q&A with Sol Moreno, director of Diablo Rojo (PTY)

Cult Projections: You are from Panama, and studied documentary filmmaking, and have a background in special makeup effects and production design, and organising film festivals and the legendary Sites Zombie Walk! How did all of this lead to directing your first feature? 

Sol: I had already made some horror short films and collaborated on several short films, video clips and had worked on the production design of Jota Nájera's first film, Megamuerte. Horror movies are something I love and being able to tell the story of La Tulivieja for the big screen was an honour.

CP: The premise of Diablo Rojo deals with folklore from Panana’s history. Why did you choose these myths and legends to put on the screen? 

Sol: In Panama it is very normal, especially on the outskirts of the city, for grandparents to tell these stories to children. I grew up listening to talk and fearing that woman who was looking for her son on the banks of the rivers. And it's one of the reasons why I became a fan of the horror genre, I think because of childhood nostalgia.

CP: What exactly is the Red Devil bus? Why is it so important that you titled your movie after it?

Sol: The Red Devils are a collective transport that was for many years the only public transport in the city. Many times these buses were driven recklessly, causing several deaths on different occasions, especially due to the races that were held between Red Devils, to see who would arrive first at the a designated bus stop. The drivers and helpers were quirky, so the movie is also about a Red Devil's chauffeur and helper. The Red Devil is the only shelter from the terrors of the night.

CP: Tell us a little about your collaborator, Jota Najera. How do you work together? 

Sol: Jordi is the scriptwriter and producer of the film, he is the fan of the Red Devils, he loves their horror vacui [fear of empty spaces]. I'm more of a fan of witches. Jordi and I have been working together for more than fifteen years, not only on film projects, but also on music, art, and doing horror festivals. We know each other so much that it is very easy to work together, we do not have super-specific roles either, so we get involved in the tasks of the other.

CP: Indigenous folklore is a rich source for horror movies. How significant is witchcraft in the history of Panama?  

Sol: The truth is, the popular stories of the Panamanian imaginary are very rich and can serve to feed the arguments of a few films, however the most popular stories arise from the syncretism between Catholicism, indigenous beliefs and other Afro-descendant religions. Most of the stories were instructive for good customs, they were also used to evangelise.

CP: How easy or difficult was it to raise financing? 

Sol: The production was a bit complicated due to the unpredictable weather, filming at night in the middle of the jungle, in the water and the excessive amount of insects. It was a bit creepy too. We got the financing because the script won the first prize of the national film fund and that's how we were able to make it.

CP: The special effects, production design, and art direction are key components to the movie’s look and atmosphere. How much of the budget was set aside for this? Was the movie storyboarded?

Sol: One of the areas where much of the budget was invested was in practical effects and also in visual effects. Yes, the movie had a storyboard, Sergi Galán was the one who did it.

CP: I read in a review that an early work-in-progress screening of the movie featured much more of the special effects. What was the reason behind cutting out so much of the effects work? Any chance of seeing more of that for the DVD/Blu-ray release?

Sol: Yes, we presented a work in progress in the Blood Window of South Window, there was a scene at the end of the witches in the river. In reality, what was done was to cut out the scene and later we filmed the close-ups of the witches that were later included in the film. Tulivieja's death was later filmed as well.

CP: Tulivieja is an impressive monster on screen. Shame we don’t see more of her! How long did it take to realise and execute the creature effects?

Sol: The Tulivieja is a mechanical puppet that Alex Rojas and his team designed and made, it took about three months to make it. It was filmed using green screen and later integrated into the movie. That job was also difficult and took a couple more months.

CP: As your first time in the director’s chair, what elements of making the movie did you enjoy the most? What parts did you find the hardest? 

Sol: As my first experience as a feature film director, what I enjoyed the most was directing the witches' coven, and the sacrifice of the baby. We had rehearsed the choreography, and it was full of energy. What was most difficult for me was not leaving the chair and getting with the makeup and art team to do things with them, which I did a lot. I can't help getting fake blood on my hands. I also really enjoyed waiting for the church explosion, live and in real time. I was excited hoping that the bomb squad would get everything ready to blow up the church door safely.

CP: Horror is entirely subjective. How important is it to horrify an audience? How important is it to terrify? What is the single most important element of a horror movie?

Sol: I think that what can scare you the most is what takes you by surprise, even though there are people who after a jump scare are anticipating that at any moment another scare will come. However, as a spectator I am not scared much, I suffer with the characters but I’m not afraid whilst watching a movie. For me the important thing is the gloomy and dark atmosphere, it transports me to those places and I appreciate it a lot.

CP: The Coronavirus pandemic has cause major upheavals to the international film industry. What plans do you have as a filmmaker for the future? What kind of horror movie from you as a director can we look forward to?

Sol: Yes, certainly, many plans were postponed or went to waste. But it gave Jordi and I time to both start writing. He finished the script for Diablo Rojo 2 and I began to write another script for a film possibly called Sangre Negra.

CP: Thank you Sol! 

Diablo Rojo (PTY) screens as part of Sydney’s 12th A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Saturday, September 26th, 1pm, at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt. Tickets available here.

Q&A with Catherine S. McMullen, writer of The Other Lamb

Cult Projections: Apart from your work within the film industry you’ve been an established writer of genre fiction for many years and hold some kind of record as the youngest person to sell a story to a science fiction magazine at the age of ten! I’m very curious, what was that story about? 

Catherine: That question takes me back! That was my first published short story called ‘Teddy Cat’, written when I was ten – it was published in a British genre magazine called Interzone. It was about cloning a sabretooth tiger, by taking fur from a child’s old stuffed toy. I should also note that it does help when your dad (Sean McMullen) is a science-fiction author – as well as knowing who to submit stories to, it meant that I grew up at sci-fi conventions and watching weird things, so genre has been part of my creative DNA since very early on. I published a few stories and chapter books from the ages of 10 to 12, and then I ‘retired’ until I was in my mid-20s, when I started writing short stories again. I’m glad I didn’t pressure myself to keep on writing that whole time, I think I needed to give my writing time to find a distinctive voice.   

CP: What drew you to writing horror? Who were the authors who inspired you? Do you have favourite novels or authors? 

Catherine: Absolutely – I think the biggest influence on me in terms of horror writing was the typical answer of Stephen King, especially his short stories. Skeleton Crew remains one of my favourite collections of all-time. I tended to read horror that was melded into another genre though – so, sci-fi horror, or dark fantasy. Margo Lanagan is another, she isn’t necessarily known as purely a horror author, but some of her short stories, especially Red Nose Day, remain some of the most truly disturbing things I’ve ever read. 

CP: What about movies? Were the horror movies that first grabbed your attention original screenplays, or adaptations of novels or short stories? 

Catherine: My three main horror movie influences are pretty apparent in my work, and I probably reference them far too much; Alien, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Wicker Man. Looking at them, I don’t think any are adaptions, although I guess The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was loosely based on Ed Gein’s life. 

CP: The current commercial climate for many horror movies, certainly in America, is for movies to be classified PG-13 (or M down under), to enable the broadest appeal. Back in the 70s and 80s this wasn’t the case, the R-rated horror movie reigned supreme. In recent years many horror fans have been crying out for more adult content within the horror genre. Were your early horror movie experiences of “restricted” horror, or young adult horror? How important is it for horror movies to be confronting? Should there be taboos in horror? 

Catherine: I think there’s room for all sorts of horror – while I love some truly disturbing films that would struggle to get financed today, I think we’re doing ok. My own experiences of horror were of films that were technically ‘adult’ horror – I think I watched Alien when I was around 8, and it clearly had a big impact. I think one of horror’s main functions is to allow us to explore and confront our cultural norms and taboos – but those change over time. For example, I don’t think The Exorcist would work as well today, not just because of the level of sexual violence, but also because as a society, we have moved further away from organized religion anyway, so a lot of the moments don’t hold the same power for the audience. Even though on the surface they both look like ‘folk horror’, Midsommar and The Wicker Man are exploring very different questions. The horror at the core of Midsommar was actually an unhealthy relationship, whereas The Wicker Man was more about the nature of faith and belief itself. 

CP: What elevates (for want of a better word) a truly powerful horror movie from an okay one? 

Catherine: God, this is a big question. Some films just stick with you, and continue to disturb you. Not to sound dramatic, but I think the best horror films change me as a person a tiny bit, and make me question my own moral framework, and how I think about the world. I guess it’s because horror is about exploring extremes of human behaviour, truly powerful ones make you apply that to your own life experiences, and make you question what you would do in certain scenarios. 

CP: The Other Lamb is an Irish/American/Belgium co-production, which is a curious combo. How did the script end up with Rumble? Were you familiar at all with director Malgorzata Szumowska’s prior work?

Catherine: I wrote The Other Lamb as a short story about eight years ago, and it was published in an Australian genre magazine called Aurealis. A few years later, after starting to work in film and tv, I decided to turn it into a feature. It was the second feature I’d written – the first was more of a horror-thriller, and it was fun but a lot more ‘traditional’ in how it was structured. I honestly didn’t really think that anything would happen with it, I really did write it as a sample to show what I could do, but when my managers sent it out to people, a few production companies enquired about the option. Rumble are an amazing US production company, who have produced films like Whiplash and Nightcrawler, and so I knew that they were the right home for this kind of strange film.  They had strong relationships with the Irish screen funding body, as well as European financing through Malgorzata, so it kind of came together that way.  

CP: Have you had much or any experience with religious sects, or cults? What made you want to tell this particular story?

Catherine: I am lucky enough to have not been raised in a cult, but I have always been interested in them – I think it’s because the idea of giving up my autonomy is both terrifying and strangely seductive. As someone that is avowedly an atheist, I feel like I live a lot of my life in a state of existential despair and uncertainty. So sometimes I’m pretty jealous of people who can be absolutely certain that they’re doing the right thing, while also being terrified of them.  

CP: The movie is a slippery creature, part horror, part drama, part dark fantasy, part revenge tale, part coming of age. Overall, it’s what I call a “nightmare” movie, as it taps into deep-rooted fears, anxieties, unease, confusion, corruption, and violation. How much of the horror imagery was in your original screenplay? How much violence was implied and how much was graphic, and how much of it came about during the shooting and the editing of the film? 

Catherine: The original screenplay probably actually leant a little bit more into horror side of things, as well as a few small supernatural elements. But a lot of the imagery around throats and mouths came directly from Malgorzata, which ended up being a key part of that sense of unease and violation in the film. The ending was originally a little bit more graphic, but I think it ultimately worked well to have a lot of it implied instead. 

CP: Tell us a little about your screenwriting process. How does it differ from writing your fictional prose? Are you the kind to seclude yourself in a mountain cabin for weeks on end? Or do you prefer to write surrounded by influential, inspirational elements? How easy and swift was it to write The Other Lamb, or not?

C: I would love to go to a mountain cabin somewhere, but I’ve only really been able to do a ‘writers retreat’ once or twice. Generally, whenever I start a new feature or pilot, I pick a few key references, and break them down. Why do they work? How are they structured? What drew me to them? For example, for The Other Lamb, one of my key references was Pan’s Labyrinth – I wanted to write something that had that slightly magical-realism feel, while also having shocking, cathartic moments. The Other Lamb was both extremely easy and extremely hard to write – as it was based on my own short story, I had done a lot of the work already, and the process of writing the first draft was t quite fast.  But to get into that space, I listened to a lot of tapes of cult leaders and watched a lot of documentaries, and it was quite an intense experience. I would sometimes stop writing for the night, and realize that my face hurt from frowning intensely at the screen. 

CP: Did you have any particular actors in mind when you wrote the screenplay? 

Catherine: Not really, I don’t tend to write with particular actors in mind, more moods or themes that I try and keep as my guiding lights. After I’ve finished the first draft, I’ll sometimes start to play around with those kinds of questions, or have someone in mind when I’m pitching, but for the writing process, the character tends to drown out anything else in my head. 

Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska (with coffee) between takes on The Other Lamb.

CP: Tinseltown is obsessed with the re-boot, remake, sequel, prequel. You’re featured on numerous screenwriter’s lists of talent to watch, how hard is it to sell original stories? Do you aspire to write for a Hollywood movie? 

Catherine: I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve sold a few original scripts now, but there definitely is a tendency to focus on ‘IP’ at the moment. I’m actually not too bothered by that trend, as I’m lucky enough to read pretty widely within the field – I have a dream list of books or comics I’d love to adapt that’s a mile long, and I love adapting just as much as I love writing original stuff. That said, I’d be very sad if I could never write something original, so I try to work on a pretty even mix of projects. 

CP: What are some contemporary horror filmmakers you admire? 

Catherine: Oh, so many, some of which you could probably figure out from my previous answers! Ari Aster, Karyn Kusama, Mike Flanagan, Guillermo del Toro, Natalie Erika James (who is also a friend). There are a lot of female first or second time filmmakers who I’m really excited about too, and we’re seeing more and more new voices coming through. 

CP: What does the future hold for you? Can we expect more original horror on the big screen? Or maybe the small screen? How will the pandemic impact your future writing, if at all?

Catherine: I’m pretty evenly split between film and tv – I don’t really mind what medium I tell stories in, as long as I get to do my weird, dark genre stories. The pandemic hasn’t actually affected my writing that much at all (except for the ever-present existential dread) – writers are pretty lucky compared to production crew, in that we’ve been able to keep working to some extent. I think the one thing that has been hard creatively, is that as someone that writes sci-fi and horror, the real world is currently significantly more horrific and implausible than any plots I could think of. It’s been really interesting to see how the rooms and pitches have shifted to online, and I think will open doors for Australian writers looking to work overseas, even after all this has passed. 

CP: Thank you Catherine!

The Other Lamb screens as part of Sydney’s 12th A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Friday, September 25th, 9pm, at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt. Tickets available here.

Chewing the fat! With Richard Stanley

RICHARD STANLEY, CO-WRITER & DIRECTOR OF COLOR OUT OF SPACE, TALKS ABOUT THE MAKING OF HIS LOVECRAFT ADAPTATION, HIS MUCH-ANTICIPATED RETURN TO FEATURE FILMMAKING, AND A LIKELY REVISIT TO DR. MOREAU’S ISLE.

Q&A with Jesse O'Brien, director of Two Heads Creek

CULT PROJECTIONS: You obviously have a deep love of genre movies. Tell me some of your faves that inspired you to become a filmmaker?

JESSE: So many genre films captured my imagination as a kid. Even the ones that terrified me - the inescapable dread of Alien, the heart crushing finale of Planet of the Apes. Those were the things that stuck with me and kept my in those worlds for days after watching. I didn’t know at the time but that’s what I love most about movies - being transported to other worlds. Even in a lighthearted outback b-movie like Two Heads Creek, it still felt like an opportunity to treat Australia as if it was another world. A sort of beer-soaked Wizard of Oz turned on its severed head.

CP: What horror movies of the past thirty years do you consider benchmarks? What is it about these that make them so watchable? 

J: The best horror films are some of the best films, period. The Omen is one of my favourites, because it captures a tone of inevitable doom. Scream and From Dusk Til Dawn are 90s classics, because they have so much fun with terror and they create mythologies of their own. And I’ll always have time for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even though it’s not technically horror - it’s terrifying horror until it isn’t. Then it gives us the most beautiful finale ever created. The best films can lift you out of your seat and elate you, even if you’re shocked and uncomfortable first.

CP: Micro-budget productions force filmmakers to compromise and be as inventive as possible. What was the most important lesson or element you learned from making Arrowhead to making Two Heads Creek?

J: Arrowhead was absolutely the best way to learn how to make a feature. So many mistakes were made, so many proud moments were had, and most of us who went into that desert came back with the best memories. We went through that process again with Quanta, which I produced, but again it was a constant battle between the creative process and the guilt of asking people to donate their time. With Two Heads Creek, we had a young crew but a much more seasoned one. Everyone had come from bigger films, so they were there to support my vision and do their jobs around me. It was funny because most of the crew thought they were doing a small film, but it felt big to me. So that need to micro-manage, thankfully, was gone this time. Two Heads Creek felt like a bigger league, and I had much less plates to spin.

CP: What was the budget for Arrowhead and what was the budget for Two Heads Creek? 

J: The budget for Arrowhead was $180,000. No more, no less. We were financed by a Foxtel Channel (TV1) at the time, and they let us go out into the wilderness and bring back a movie. It was an amazing experience that probably won’t ever happen again. I don’t think most people who watch Arrowhead realise the budget was quite that low. It’s a shame it wasn’t a part of the conversation when it came out, because as a filmmaker I rush to these kinds of movies to see how they pulled it off. Two Heads Creek was a lot more comfortable. I don’t think I’m allowed to say how much yet, but we had just what we needed, and at the same time there’s still never enough. We’re getting to a point now where indie films have to be expensive enough to contain marketable content, but not so expensive that you won’t get your money back. It really is a new frontier.

CP: Where should a producer be most wise in costs on a micro-budget feature? 

J: As a director I try to respect how much money the producers have and find creative ways to pick up any slack. There’s no point begging for money if it isn’t there. I think the smartest use of money is always cast. Finding talent isn’t that expensive if you do the numbers. We had a big cast of characters and I wanted Australian names and faces to fill the roster, so we went for it. The trick to casting is being financed first - agents pay attention when you have some money to spend.

CP: Would you prefer to make smaller budget movies and retain creative control, or make a big budget movie, but lose final cut? 

J: I would love to play in a big budget sandbox, and I always felt I’d cooperate with the big executive bosses given the chance. They’d be giving me an opportunity and I wouldn’t want any delusions of grandeur to get in the way of that relationship. You see it happen with indie filmmakers who are snapped up into the system and then burn out because they stuck to their guns too hard. I’d fight for what I believe, but this art form is collaborative by definition. It’s all about working with a team towards the shared vision. Oh, and as a side note - I didn’t have final cut on Two Heads Creek either. Whenever someone else’s money is involved, it’s never your baby entirely. And it’s not always easy, but there’s always a finish line, when a lot of the tiny argued details don’t seem to matter as much.

CP: How important are practical effects? Do you use any CGI in Two Heads Creek?

J: We used a lot of practical effects, but augmented a lot of it digitally. I’m all for pure practical. But we had a very limited schedule, so sometimes the blood pumps don’t work or the gag doesn’t look as dynamic as it should. So a bit of digital blood here and there helps stitch together the seams. There’s also a CGI spiked boomerang hurtling towards the camera at one point. That was always going to be CGI because it called for that kind of moment. Everything needs to have balance.

CP: Creating horror comedy is a difficult balance. Were there any specific horror comedies you used as a barometer, when having the screenplay written? How did you and Jordan Waller come together?

J: Jordan’s script was pretty well formed by the time it got to me. The producers connected us, and we started collaborating very well from the beginning. His main touchstones were Edgar Wright’s films, and that was the brief that came from the producers, but I wanted to steer it in its own direction. I looked at the Evil Dead films, I looked at John Carpenter’s stuff, I watched Little Shop of Horrors, because this does have a music element. Mainly to see how the dark and light balances out, but it was always just a guide. That’s the thing, you can plan to mimic all you want, but in the end a film always forms itself. You can only control it so much, but that’s the beauty of it.

CP: What audience requirements do you consider the most important when making a horror movie?

J: A good story isn’t ever pure dark or pure lightness. Too much of something is always too much. It needs to have ups and downs, and take the audience on a roller coaster. For me, the main goal wasn’t putting enough gore or enough laughs - I knew that stuff was easier, to a degree - the main goal was to keep the story focused on its heart. It was all about a family finding each other. So as much as I grinned over a severed limb or a genius ad lib, I grinned twice as much when we shot a dolly push towards our main characters embracing. That’s the heart of storytelling - the emotion underneath all the fun stuff.

CP: Your movie has gone down very well with cinema audiences. Does it concern you that the future of the cinema experience is under threat, with rising ticket costs, and the ever-expanding streaming platform? 

J: It’s definitely a concern if we lose that communal experience of going to the movies. This film was a blast to watch with an audience, because that’s how you know it’s working. There’s psychology behind being in the cinema, and being given permission to laugh by those around you. Streaming platforms are great, but I hope the future has a bit of both.

CP: What about the commercial demand for PG/M rated horror? What’s your opinion on the battle between the art and the commerce of genre filmmaking?

J: I lean towards the commercial, so I can think of a handful of PG or M horror films that are still a lot of fun to watch. But it’s got to be authentic. If the story demands gore, if it needs violence to be the best version of itself, then it should be gory and violent. If a movie is conceived as one thing and then hacked into something else, that’s when it becomes a problem. Two Heads Creek needs that level of outrageous shock value because it’s putting a spotlight on some issues that demand attention. Namely, the rise of nationalism in our country, and the way we treat immigrants; I have no desire to preach to people about changing their views, but I do think the best way to have a heavy conversation is to grab people’s attention and make them laugh.

CP: The outsider’s view of Australia often makes for fascinating cinema, for example Ted Kotcheff’s Wake In Fright. How did you approach the small-town behaviour, in terms of capturing something authentic, as opposed to something that formed a parody? 

J: I wasn’t interested in doing another film about outback larrikins. So I had to look for what my point of view would be. It wasn’t only the British character’s perspective of us, but it was also the realisation that I could play up the cartoonishness of Australian culture - specifically the more toxic side to it - and point out just how laughable we can be. I never saw it as a parody, but a caricature. Kind of like one of those tea towels you find in rural highway gift shops. A lewd, rude, comical side of Australia that’s funny because it’s true.

CP: What are your top three cannibal movies? 

J: To be honest I don’t have three favourite cannibal movies. It’s not a sub-genre I seek out, and while I did my research, it was always zombie films I came back to. Two Heads Creek is a unique take on cannibalism; there aren’t any tribal elements, there isn’t a torturous cruelty to it, it’s more just oddball societal quirks which you don’t see in cannibal films. When it came to the gore gags, it was much easier and more fun to look at zombie films, as they tend to be more playful and absurd.

CP: You’ve made a sf feature and now a horror-comedy. What next? Would you consider making a straight horror movie? 

J: I usually write my own films, and I’m pushing three of them at the moment, all in different genres but each leaning towards the world-building and mythology that I get excited by. I have a straight gothic horror film Holy Water that might be my next film. It’s a dark and tense film set during the Scottish witch trials in the 17th century. And while there isn’t a laugh in sight, it still has a balance, this time between darkness and beauty. Then there’s a creature feature adventure film, which we liken to Lord of the Flies with monsters. That’s called Inherit the Earth, and we’re pushing both films pretty hard. To get back on set and see these films get bigger and better each time would be an absolute dream come true.

CP: Sounds great. Thank you Jesse, best of luck! 

Two Heads Creek screens as part of Australia’s Monster Fest, Sunday, November 3rd, 1.45pm, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. Click here for venue details and the full program.

Chewing The Fat! With Mitzi Peirone

In conversation with Mitzi Peirone, writer/director of Braid, talking about her creative process and how she made such a striking and complex debut feature.

Q&A with Matthew A. Brown, writer/director of Albanian Gangster

Cult Projections: Was there a single movie or director that inspired you to become a filmmaker?

Matthew A. Brown: John Cassavetes. His life and work, and especially the book Cassavetes on Cassavetes by John Carney. But I’d say this was the tipping point. At the time I was still acting, and had just played leads in two indie features, was living in Hollywood, auditioning a lot, and all of the “sides” I’d get would literally make me feel ill, and I’d already stopped even prepping for the auditions, instead turning to coffee and writing. I was working on a script, very personal, something that really fed me. it’s all easy to talk about in retrospect, but at the time is was a burning. It wasn’t an option. I started to put the film together, I think I was 21 at the time, and I met with this actor who I wanted for one of the roles. In a way this moment was really the point of no turning back. I was telling him the story, and he stopped me, put a hand on my forearm and said Matthew you should forget about acting in this, you need to direct. Start watching two films per day. I think this was before I read the Cassevetes book. But while reading that book, it was already happening. I’d had money saved from my acting and I financed my first short and the moment I said action on the first take, I knew I’d never act again. Krzysztof Kieslowski was another major influence. In both cases directors who were after the truth. Articulated so differently through their own points of view, but uncompromising pursuits of that indefinable thing, that essence … of life.

CP: Your early short films seemingly reflect an international pedigree - South Africa, Italy, America, France, Germany, Canada. How did you come to make the four shorts across such a wide playing field?

MB: Well I was born in Cape Town and my family immigrated to the US, to New York, when I was 16. And to this day that was the most difficult thing I’ve lived. Then I left home at 18, went to drama school in London (Guildhall) with this dream of being on the stage. But already then the funny thing is I started skipping school to go and write in coffeeshops all day, and after 6 months was ‘invited’ to leave if I didn’t start conforming to their ways … another story for another time. I left school and moved to LA, and very soon after got the lead in this film God’s Army. Before drama school I also did six months of Eurail and bounced around Europe with a backpack. So my entire life experience before I was even 20 had involved moving, experiencing different countries/cultures/continents. As an actor I was also drawn more to European cinema. So it wasn’t a thing of making any intellectual decision about making films in these different places, for example, with my first short which we shot in Sarlat, France and did post in Rome, Italy. One of my best friends, Maya Sansa, the Italian actress, who I met at Guildhall, I knew I wanted her for the lead. i called her from LA and told her about what I wanted to do and she was into it. So I created the whole story around her and the locations I just had a desire to be in and shoot in, and that film was selected for Venice, which in turn opened doors to other international opportunities, saw me going back to South Africa to develop my first feature, and while there I made my next short.. then while at the Berlin film festival I met a girl (as things go) and that eventually led to my making two shorts in Berlin.

CP: Did you study film in university, attend a film school, or are you self-taught? What do you think is the best course of action for someone who wishes to become a filmmaker? 

MB: No, as I said, I was in acting school for a brief period. After that, attended classes at Lee Strasberg in NY, and started working as an actor at the same time. So most of my learning came from life experience and being on set as an actor where I was always more interested in the whole story and the whole mechanism than my small piece in it. After my first short, I did attend the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam, but that was very much a working lab, in which the writer/directors were selected based on a feature project they were developing that already had producers attached and some funding in place. That was in Amsterdam so I ended up living there for a year going from the screenwriters lab directly into the directing lab. The most fundamental thing I learned there was how to craft a screenplay. Best course of action for someone who wishes to become a filmmaker?  It depends on the person, but ultimately whether or not you go to film school, if you’re a filmmaker you’re going to make films. I personally don’t believe in school, I think it’s a false safety net and I know too many filmmakers who went to top film schools and still haven’t made a feature in 20+ years since leaving school.. but then there’s the Darren Aronofsky’s who also went to film school and he’s probably the only filmmaker working today making truly personal films on a large studio canvas.  I think you need real life experience for one thing, and passion so strong that it burns down anything and everything in its path that could be considered a hindrance. Whether that’s self-doubt/the nay-sayers/so-called gatekeepers/middlemen. Any number of things you will have to deal with, you have to have courage, and really you learn by doing — the amount you learn from every film you make, whether short or feature, is so astronomical, you can’t actually explain that to anyone who hasn’t been through it.

CP: Are there any directors whose work you feel directly influenced by? 

MB: Initially, Cassavetes, but that keeps changing. Like before Julia I was watching a lot of Hong Kong crime cinema, Japanese and Korean horror, and came into contact with Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, but underneath it all my real influences have always been writers/poets, like Rimbaud, Henry Miller, Kerouac, and the lives of radical or revolutionary individuals, people willing to put everything on the line for something they believe in. That’s where Cassevetes resonated so much with me. I’ve pretty much lost interest in film for film-sake.. and there aren’t any directors now that I look to, maybe that’s in part as a result of the seismic shifts in the industry, but it’s also my own life experience and perspective. Was interesting when prepping Julia, my DP and I watched a lot of films as we discussed the vision etc., but with Albanian Gangster, while my DP and I did watch a few films, we kept getting turned off, and abandoned that process. instead it was all about this particular film, and what the characters and the story world and the nature of the real elements demanded.

CP: Your first feature, Julia, is, ostensibly, a rape-revenge movie, but an ambitious, artful hybrid of character study and drama. A sub-genre of horror that is often vilified, but it can also be a hugely powerful, even transgressive, form of nightmare cinema. What drew you to making such a movie, and was it difficult to make?

MB: I never perceived Julia as a rape-revenge movie. I had never watched or even heard of this sub-genre of rape-revenge films and if I knew beforehand that Julia would be perceived through that lens, I might have re-thought the script, not really, but I’m glad I didn’t know about it til after. At the time I was actually a month away from going to South Africa to make my first feature, called Strong Bones, which ironically would’ve been very much more in the vein of Albanian Gangster; it was a crime film set in Cape Town’s notorious (for being the murder capital of the world) Cape Flats. What happened is an EP saw my short film Victim and asked me how I’d feel about adapting that into a feature, coz he felt he could get it financed. Strong Bones was something I was gonna do mainly on credit cards ‘cos I was at a point where I just had to make my first feature, and so in a way Julia fell into my lap.  I said earlier I’d been watching a lot of Hong Kong crime cinema, Japanese and Korean horror, etc, so when this opportunity for Julia came, I saw the potential to infuse all my then-passions  into it. but what most excited me was — and this is where my real inspiration from writers (like Genet) and life experience came in — was the real story, the story beneath the text, of someone whose soul is essentially ripped out from them — and this is where rape came into it, because I couldn’t imagine anything worse happening to anyone.. and which is also why I don’t dwell on the rape aspect in a gratuitous way like other films you know about. For me it was about this girl, this woman, this creature living in the darkest fear, and awakening to her own full and ecstatic potential. I’d had my own crises and awakening, and I channeled everything I’d lived and consumed film-wise and etc into the film. It was grueling, but not “difficult”, grueling more because of the physical conditions, shooting dead of night in the dead of one of NYC’s harshest winters. Starting days at midnight shooting til 2pm. I got sick during the shoot too.. but no matter how harsh, sick, cold. it was an ecstatic experience .

CP: Did you always intend on making something quite different for your second feature? How did the idea for Albanian Gangster come about? 

MB: I knew during post on Julia I wanted to make a gangster film for my next film. And yes I wanted to steer clear of horror and particularly “rape-revenge”. I started researching and looking deep into all manner of crime worlds, but everything felt so played ou; italians, irish, yakuza, triads, etc, and I landed on this series of articles about an FBI sting where 80+ Albanians were taken down in the mid-2000s, and everything I read just made my blood boil.. not only the fact that I’d never seen a US-based Albanian gangster pic — or anything Albanian in the US, but more so the cultural aspect.. that these guys were to this day living by these ancient honour codes, which is why they were so difficult to penetrate.. why they’d never rat, in Albanian culture honor and respect trump all else, a man would sooner die or spend the rest of his life behind bars than be labeled a rat. Further, the gangsters to a T had come over to the US fresh from conflict and persecution going back centuries but still to the present day. So this war-torn psyche fused with this entrenched honour code, it all just sent shivers through me. I also really felt the culture ‘cos I grew up in a culture in South Africa where a man was only as good as his word, and his willingness to stand on his own two feet. Maybe that’s even more to do with my own father, who grew up in a small rural Afrikaans community in Worcester, blood, honour, loyalty, and brotherhood. It all spoke to me.  

CP: The movie feels very authentic, almost like a docu-drama. Tell me about the screenplay, how did you write it? Did it adapt much over time? 

MB: I spent about two years researching on my own, reading books, searching online, taking solo trips to the Bronx, the biggest hotbed of Albanians in the US, and wrote a first draft, but as I was working on it this feeling kept nagging at me like I just didn’t have the sound of these guys in my bones, that to do what I really wanted, something authentic and real and raw I had to know the actual guys, the way they live, breathe move. So I started to talk to anyone I knew to see if they had any Albanian friends. One thing led to another and I gained the trust of a particular guy who told me there’s a guy I can introduce you to, but then it’s all on you.. it was that guy who introduced me to John Rezaj. And once I met John the floodgates opened. I spent the next year and a half on the ground with him going into places you wouldn’t know exist in America.. and when you’re there you wouldn’t know you’re even in America in the first place!  So by now I had this “traditional” 120-page script and this feeling that I was missing something just became overwhelming , ‘cos everything I was witnessing and experiencing through John and the people, faces, places I  was coming in contact with were just so unique and captivating and not something that I could’ve just written from books or whatever. So a month before preproduction I completely abandoned the script, wrote a 12-page outline based on things I was hearing and learning, with all dialogue to improvised and I cast John himself as the lead. The entire film evolved out of this organic process.

CP: You’re able to elicit powerful, naturalistic performances in both your features, with your wife, Ashley C. Williams starring and co-starring in both. Do you have any particular method to directing actors? What was it like directing your lead actor John Rezaj, whois essentially playing a fictionalised version of his real self? Did you use much improvisation? 

MB: Thank you. Every actor is different and so you use different tools. I personally spend a lot of time just talking and hanging out with all my leads, just getting to know them, what speaks to them, their triggers..  and then you adapt on the set as you learn what’s actually working for each individual. I’ve worked with actors who are very by-the-book and only really respond to actions or objectives and so on, but I really just go for actors who operate from another place, like with Ashley I’d never give her an action-verb type direction, it was always deeply personal where I’d be whispering things into her ear before takes and talking to her during takes, things I knew she’d respond to but not risking sharing her personal stuff with anyone else because I knew she’d know what I’m referring to, and also a lot of metaphorical stuff, “as i” type stuff. Bottom line though, you really just have to pay attention to the human beings in front of you. So re: Albanian Gangster and John. as I said all dialogue was improvised. I knew what I needed to tell the story, so I made sure we got the necessary beats, but again no way I could’ve written the words that flow out of John, or any of the guys. And directing John, thing is by the time we shot I’d spent so much time with him. I was with him like 3-4 nights/week for a year or so, so we’d developed an extraordinary amount of trust and a bond, and I knew his triggers, things I was consciously storing for when I needed certain things out of him emotionally on set. I already knew John was captivating on camera because when were out I’d often break out my iPhone and grab stuff.. and he just has that ‘thing’ — he’s naturally magnetic on screen, and at same time just forgets—or doesn’t give a fuck—or both—there’s a camera waving in his face. So it was incredible, but also grueling coz I not only had to focus on the directing but also the constantly evolving story that was unfolding, there were some major changes even to the outline during the shoot because I gained deeper understanding of the culture and the guys in particular to the point I’d realize there’s no way given who this guy or that guy is that he’d do what I’d written in a certain situation..

CP: You’re currently in post-production on the sequel to Albanian Gangster. Tell me about why you split the story in half? Did you contemplate a much longer single movie? Will the sequel be any different in style or technique, or simply more of the same? 

MB: It’s actually not a sequel, it’s a completely different movie.  And yes it is different stylistically, a bit more conventional—only a bit !  We still need to do some additional shooting and meanwhile I’ve been approached to develop an Albanian gangster series, which is in active development, not based on Albanian Gangster, rather inspired by it.

CP: What are some of the gangster movies you hold in high esteem? 

MB: Of course The Godfather and Goodfellas. Also Gomorrah and City of God (though not really a gangster film). More recently it’s been tv shows like Narcos. Can’t recall when I last saw a quality gangster film though, but again things have just changed so much in the industry and the world really, we have so much more access than ever before ‘cos of social media and iPhones and so on, and then my close proximity to certain real elements, most gangster stuff just seems so superficial to me. But Narcos for example did it for me, likely largely due to Brazilian creator/director Jose Padilha who made the Elite Squad films, a guy who seems obsessed with authenticity and knows how to capture it.

CP: What’s your opinion on screen violence, do you find it exhilarating? How do you approach it as a director?

MB: Definitely do not find it exhilarating. It has to be born of character and situation.. and for me it has to be realistic. I have zero interest in ‘movie fights’, where a fight will go on for like a minute, and people just get up and keep going. Real violence happens fast and people get hurt. If John hits you, it’s unlikely you’re getting up.  In Albanian Gangster, we looked at what would actually happen in a situation. What would John/Leon do in a particular situation?, etc. That’s not to say I don’t think movie / fantasy fights don’t have their place.. but I personally switch off.  A filmmaker I really respect is Fatih Akin. When I saw Gegen die Wand (Head On) I was pretty blown away, and there’s a scene in there where the main character snaps and cracks a bottle across another character’s head. One shot, and the guy’s dead. You take a crack like that to the head that’s a very realistic result!—And every aspect of the whole scene and set-up are wholly authentic. But violence for violence-sake just bores me.

CP: Are there any taboos left in cinema? Should there be?

MB: I don’t know.  I don’t think about this.  One thing I’ll say tho, I don’t really see the point for example in doing things for shock value, but you know, to each their own.

CP: A recent movie, The Hunt, has had its release postponed, because of recent gun violence in the US. Do you consider yourself a political filmmaker? Do you think art should be exempt from political correctness? Why?

MB: I don’t consider myself a political filmmaker. I’m interested in human beings and story worlds that fascinate me, and I’m interested in telling those stories in an authentic and exciting manner that lights fire in the blood of the audience. I’m not interested in “message” movies. The closest I’d come to that is if I were making a movie about a character with a strong agenda, but I’d still tell the story in an honest light and of course there’s inherently gonna be a point of view ‘cos that organically bleeds into the frame based on all the choices you make as a filmmaker, but I’d let the character and the story speak for itself. Re: political correctness. I loathe it with a vengeance in life and art and I think it necessarily destroys any hope of authenticity. Imagine for example if I censored how John/Leon speaks in Albanian Gangster. Sickens me to even think of it.  

CP: What have you got planned for the next ten years? What boundaries are you prepared to push? 

MB: The next ten years hehe. I mentioned the TV series above, and I have other stuff, another two TV series in mind. For myself, I’m interested in cinema/tv that involves high degrees of risk or danger. The boundaries I’m prepared to push? That’s more about the situations I’m willing to put myself in to get at riveting and authentic stories.. and then I listen to the needs of the particular story and all it encompasses. I don’t approach it with an agenda.

CP: Would you be happier working with smaller budgets and final cut, or bigger budgets, but less editorial control? What compromises would you be prepared to make? 

MB: Both. I’m a filmmaker. I love being on set. I’d love to make something on a massive scale where I just jump in to direct, and get to play. Truth is though with tv / SVOD now, I think you can achieve the best of both worlds — big budgets and more risky character-driven and thrilling storytelling. That’s what I’m working on.  I like to surround myself with creatives - and business folk - who raise my game. For example, my editor Josh Melrod on AG, I left him alone much of the time. Most important was the decision to hire him specifically in the first place. I don’t know how many editors I met with, but I knew on first meeting Josh he was my guy.  So he’d work alone, then we’d sit together for say three days, and he’d go away and keep working. Of course when we neared picture lock, we spent more time in the same room. If it’s a smaller personal film, something the studios wouldn’t back anyway, something I have to be a producer on to get made, ie. raise the finance myself, I’m naturally going to have that control, but if it’s a big budget studio pic and the soul purpose is a wild entertaining ride or whatever, I’m not sure I’d be all that concerned with editorial control.

CP: Any actors or creatives you’d especially like to work with?

MB: Michael Fassbender. Aksel Hennie (the lead in the Norwegian tv show Nobel). 

CP: Finally, what three movies from the new millennium - the last twenty years - have really impressed you? Why? 

MB: Oslo, 31 August (2011, dir. Joachim Trier), The Hunt (2012, dir. Thomas Vinterberg), Nobel (2016, Norwegian TV series). In each case we’re dealing with truly authentic and for me riveting storytelling from top to bottom. In the case of Oslo, 31 August and The Hunt, truly uncompromising authentic storytelling with extraordinary directorial visions, filmmakers operating from the most real and raw place, void of any convention or trope, wherein every frame pulses with that intangible essence which is life and cannot be anything other than what it is. Nobel is just straight up masterful TV.

CP: Good luck with Albanian Gangster and Albanian Gangster II: Illyrian Blood. Thank you Matthew!

MB: Thank you!

Albanian Gangster screens as part of the Sydney Underground Film Festival, Saturday, September 14th, 6pm, at The Factory, Marrickville, with an introduction from yours truly. For tickets click here.

Interview with Russell Mulcahy

Cult Projections: When you started out directing music videos you were in your mid-20s, did you have any kind of formal training before that?

Russell: Not really. I was a film editor for Channel Seven. It was before the high security or whatever, and I used to creep in there at 3am and make my own movies. And one of them won the best short film at Sydney Film Festival, so then I started making videos for bands like Hush and ACDC, and then I carried on. 

CP: You landed international gigs very early on, The Stranglers and The Buggles.

R: Tony Hogarth from Woods Records sent me to England to do a video for some punk band up in Birmingham. I’d never left Australia. So there I was on a flight to England. I stayed in a B&B and did the video. So, people saw it, and said “You can stay” and so I did some more videos, “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Bette Davis Eyes” and Duran Duran and Elton John. 

CP: So was that around the same time you did the movie for Dudley Moore and Peter Cook?

R: I did that too. That was quite an experience. 

CP: Haha. 

R: But the first thing that really happened was I’d done the video for “Hungry Like the Wolf” and producer Hal McElroy asked me if I wanted to come back to Australia to do a movie. And I went, “Yes! Absolutely!” And then the next question I asked was what was it about. And he said, “Well, it’s about a giant killer pig.”

CP: Haha.

R: It turned out to be Razorback. 

CP: You did Razorback, and two years later you did Highlander. Those two films have gone on to garner cult followings. Did you feel at the time you were making those two features that you were creating films that would get such a response in the future?

R: No. I never have. I never do that. I just try to make the best film I can. There’s no real ambition, so to speak. I love movies. 

CP: When you came to do those two features, did the experience of all the music videos help you with directing the features, or did you find new challenges?

R: Well doing the music videos was my training ground in a way. I never went to film school. I read a few books on Russian filmmakers, and was a big fan of European cinema. I just wanted to go into movies. Which is why I used to crop and use black and white. And MTV called me up and said “You’ve got black at the top and bottom, so we’ve blown it up and scanned it” and I said “No, no, no, that’s the way it’s meant to look!”

CP: Philistines!

R: So, eventually they agreed to it. 

CP: Would you say your approach to directing has changed much since those early features? 

R: Umm … I don’t think so. I’m very used to shooting fast, and I just come up with images of how I want it to look. 

CP: So it’s been ten years since your last theatrical feature. What brought you to In Like Flynn?

R: There was this six year period where I was co-executive producer and director of a show called Teen Wolf. But the script to In Like Flynn was so good, and I’d seen [Flynn’s] films and he’s an Australian icon, and the treat of coming back to Australia to do a movie, of such a wonderful story. 

CP: Were you familiar at all with the book Beam Ends?

R: I read it after I saw the script. Luckily Luke Flynn [Errol Flynn’s grandson] was involved in it. It was very authentic, adventurous. It’s basically an action-adventure-romantic story of a man who lived life to the fullest. 

CP: Indeed. Were you involved with much of the casting of the movie?

R: Yes. We got a wonderful cast. 

CP: How tied to the script were you? Did you have much freedom as a director? 

R: They left me alone. There were no arguments. 

CP: So do you think you’ll direct an adaptation of My Wicked, Wicked Ways? 

R: Probably. Some people have said that it should have a sequel. There needs to be a sequel about the rest of his life. Which is intriguing. 

CP: So you’re leaving the door open for that one?

R: Oh yeah. I think it’d be intriguing, and as an adventurer I’ve got to see what happened with his life in Hollywood. There should be a double feature. 

CP: Part one and part two.

R: Exactly.

CP: So, you’ve spent a number of years directing television; Teen Wolf, also Queer as Folk, Skin ---

R: Queer as Folk, that was an absolute joy to film.

CP: Also episodes of The Hunger for Tony Scott. 

R: The Hunger with Tony. A sad loss. 

CP: Yes, very much, very much. What’s been the best experience working within the confines of a tv series when you compare it with the limitations and freedom of shooting a feature?

R: There used to be a negative feeling within the industry about directing, or making tv films, or shows, or whatever. The quality of tv now is so good, it’s actually sometimes surpasses feature films. There’s none of that negative feeling anymore. 

CP: It’s been described as the golden age of television. 

R: That’s a great expression, yes. There used to be the golden age of cinema, now there is the golden age of television. 

CP: How have you found the progression from analogue to digital? I presume you shot In Like Flynn on digital. 

R: Yes. going back to Razorback and Highlander they were shot on 35mm film. One anamorphic, Highlander was 1:1.85. Everyone seems to be shooting digital now. It has its pluses and minuses. When you are shooting film, you are very cautious of how many takes you do, because the film is rolling through the camera. With digital you can be a little less cautious. You know what I mean?

CP: Indeed. No doubt you have a few favourite toys? Technology is advancing so quickly, as a director you’d have a wide range of tools at your disposal, both in production and in post-production. Any favourites? 

R: Well, When I’m shooting, I’m cutting the film in my head, so I don’t really over-shoot. There’s an expression I use, that there’s essentially three takes; one - for the actor, two - for the director, and three - for the camera. Because the camera says, “That was out of focus”, the actor says “Can I do one more?”, and I’ll say, “Can you change that bit.” Normally I do three takes. Because in the past, when I was doing, say, Razorback, or whatever, I would do, say five takes, six takes, and either one or four was the best. You can overdo it. 

CP: True. With In Like Flynn, it’s quite concise, roughly a 90-odd-minute film, and now we’re in this golden age of television, and with Netflix producing a lot of original content —-

R: There is a longer cut. 

CP: Oh, okay. Will that be lined up for the Blu-ray & DVD release? 

R: Yes, I’m sure the DVD will have the longer cut, which is probably ten minutes longer. 

CP: With Netflix a lot of film directors are expressing how much joy they have in being able to take the time to tell a story over ten or thirteen episodes, does television still appeal to you because of that kind of freedom, or did you enjoy once again working within the narrative confines of In Like Flynn. 

R: I love both. It’s great to be able to tell a story in about an-hour-and-half or two hours. But what’s really good with a tv series is where you can develop characters and storylines, and interweave, and all that.

CP: You have an action thriller in pre-production, do you have anything lined up or in development? 

R: Yeah, we're developing a couple of projects, actually, and they’re more in the thriller genre. Which I love. But, I mean, I just love good scripts. From Highlander to Swimming Upstream, with Geoffrey Rush, to Queer As Folk. I just like good concepts. I always said to myself, reading the script, would I go see this movie? And when I’ve read it, yes I would love to see this movie, then that’s the answer. 

CP: Thanks Russell! 

Q&A with Simon Foster, Program Director of Sydney SciFi Film Festival

Cult Projections: Tell me a little of the career trajectory that has brought you to Program Director for the Sci Fi Film Festival? Is this a dream role? Has it been challenging?

Simon: The career trajectory has been erratic, to put it succinctly, but I've always managed to spend most of my working years in the company of creative and/or dedicated industry types that inspire me. The latest has been SciFi Film Festival founder and director Tom Papas, who saw a determined, some might say desperate, need in me to apply in practical terms what I had learned after years profiling and attending festivals as a journalist or reviewer. It is a dream role, so the challenges were just part of that dream coming true.

CP: How far back does science fiction feature in your life? What were some of the early TV shows and/or movies that made an impact on you as a youth? 

S: I was a pre-teen in the 1970s, one of the great periods of TV sci-fi. Earliest memories include Thunderbirds, U.F.O., Land of The Giants, Land of the Lost, Space: 1999; I'd watch them before anyone else in my home was awake and as soon as I got home from school. Then the impact of Star Wars, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and Battlestar Galactica dictated the course of my life, without me even realising it at the time. The influence of Star Wars on my life is undoubtedly why I reacted so powerfully to Adam Harris' beautiful documentary My Saga. And that sense of discovery that came with each new copy of magazines like Starlog or Starburst or Cinefex, with every page filled with incredible images and the artists that conjured them, was profound.

CP: What is it about science fiction movies that make them so broadly appealing, and yet so niche? 

S: At their most broadly appealing, they are grand visions of imagined worlds; it is the very same sense of longing and adventure that has driven mankind to set sail for unknown destinations. That said, any artform that reflects a singular vision of an imagined reality will not always be to everyone's taste. Your question is addressed in cinematic terms with our Opening Night film, Johann Lurf's ★, which compiles starscapes from 550 films into a breathtaking montage work unlike anything I'd seen before; I watched the film transfixed and transported, of course, but also deeply moved. I found myself reacting emotionally to the images, despite there being no narrative. It is pure science-fiction.

CP: Science fiction movies run the gamut from spectacular action blockbusters to micro-budget mind-fuck pieces. Can you give me a couple of titles that you think are great examples of each?

S: James Cameron's Aliens is a masterpiece of commercial sci-fi/action cinema; so too, Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce. I steered away from Armageddon-type sci-fi blockbusters in my first program; they get plenty of play with massive marketing budgets and wide release patterns. Even my most "mainstream" film, Ryan Esling's UFO, starring Gillian Anderson and David Straithairn, is a smaller-scale, more intimate conspiracy-theory thriller. In terms of micro-budget mindfucks, we have arguably the best of the year in Luke Sullivan's shattering two-hander Reflections in the Dust. It's an emotionally brutal, nerve-shredding drama, largely shot in monochrome and starring the vision-impaired actress Sarah Houbolt. It will divide audiences, but festival films should challenge what is easy and acceptable in film terms.   

CP: What are some of the popular themes this year?

S: A.I. and the imminent restructuring of our way of life via sentient robotics was central to so many of the submissions I watched this year. I sense that the science-fiction filmmakers feel real change in how we share the world with our own increasingly self-aware creations is about to impact us all. The documentary More Human Than Human is a startling examination of that near-future; in fictional terms, so are the shorts Stine and the utterly breathtaking Lebanese work Manivelle: The Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow. There is also a sense of the changing nature of the ruling patriarchy in several of this years' films. The SXSW award winner Prospect examines how a stranded girl, the brilliant Sophie Thatcher, must defy then reconstruct her faith in a father figure; Bobby Bala's short The Shipment is a deep-space father-daughter drama. And the previously mentioned Reflections in the Dust examines toxic masculinity in the most graphic of terms.  

CP: As a program director what defines a great program? 

S: Not just as a program director, but as a film watcher in general, I respond to originality. I can appreciate a re-used narrative told in an exciting new way, such as Peter Stray's Welsh-set New Year's Eve alien invasion horror-comedy Canaries or Hector Valdez's Peaches, which is a remake of the Australian time-travel rom-com The Infinite Man. And I will always respond to bold and challenging new works, such as ★. 

CP: What are the three most important elements of ANY science fiction film - for the budding filmmakers out there!

S: Commitment to your vision; a fearlessness that allows you to take risks; a strong, well-crafted technique in service of your creative choices.

CP: Any surprises lined up for this year's fest? Any treats festival goers should pay attention to? 

S: Well they won't be surprises if I tell Cult Projections now, duh! The Closing Night film is something I'm very proud - the first screening of Steve De Jarnatt's 1989 cult classic Miracle Mile in nearly 30 years. And even if Q&As aren't normally your thing, hang around for ours. Marc Fennell is interviewing Adam Harris, the survivor of a brain tumour dealt with his struggle by making the Star Wars-themed doco My Saga. Marc interviewed Adam on the SBS show The Feed a few years back, when Adam was just beginning his amazing journey, so this ought to be a very emotional reunion.  

CP: Finally, it has to be asked, what are your all-time top five fave sf movies? 

S: Well, right now I'm obsessed with our opener, ★.  But, bearing in mind this five can change at any time, I'll say my faves are Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Alphaville, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension, Sleeper, and Starship Troopers.

CP: Thank you Simon!

The SciFi Film Festival screens at Event Cinemas, George Street, Sydney, from 18th to 21st October, 2018. For full program and ticketing visit: scififilmfestival.com

Q&A with Steven Kastrissios, writer/director of Bloodlands

Cult Projections: You’ve made two distinct genre movies: an ultraviolent revenge flick, The Horseman (2008), and now a deeply atmospheric supernatural horror, Bloodlands. How deep is your love of horror movies? What are the movies from your youth that have had a lasting impression on you?

Steven: An American Werewolf in London shook me to my core as a child. I was watching it at a family friend’s place, they lived in the bush, it was night and the whole family had to try and calm me down during the werewolf transformation sequence. I’m still too scared to camp out alone just from the opening scene. But I grew up with more action/adventure stuff of the 80s. I do like the way you can affect an audience in horror. That’s what pulls me towards it and the craft around horror works well for my gloomy style too.

CP: The Horseman was made on your home turf in Queensland and is very much an Ozploitation kind of movie, but you shot Bloodlands in Albania in the native tongue and dealt with local folklore. Did you originally intend to set the movie in Europe? What were the factors that decided on the story’s setting? Why did it take so long between features?

S: I took my time writing many spec scripts for various projects, but I didn’t chase any of them particularly hard and then I got really itchy to shoot something so when I heard about the blood feuds and Albania as a country I pulled the trigger. I’d had lots of ideas over the years of how to approach another micro-budget production, with an even smaller production than The Horseman. And on my next attempt at low budget filmmaking, I want to go even leaner again. I think keeping an ultra-light footprint as a film crew allows much more freedom and with all the great tools we have now in both practical camera, lighting and grip gear and digital post tools that are affordable and easy to use, we have no excuses left if we really want to make something.

CP: On The Horseman you wrote, produced, and directed, but also edited, and was the digital colorist. Bloodlands has a very distinct look and feel. Who was the cinematographer? What was the movie shot on? 

S: Leandër Ljarja was the DOP. He was a great collaborator with helping me approach a low budget horror film with a broad filmmaking arsenal of tricks needed to get what the script asked, with extremely limited resources. He had shot no drama or short films at all, just some music videos. But he talked me through his process and he knew his shit so I hired him. Aldi Karaj was our second camera/lighting/grip guy and I operated a lot too. It was shot on the tiny Blackmagic Pocket cameras. They’re the only camera that size that shoots RAW video internally. I bought three of them with a bunch of lenses and took it all to Albania with a sound kit.

CP: Did you edit and color Bloodlands yourself, like on The Horseman? How important is the role of colorist, especially in the digital age? Would you ever let someone else edit?

S: I would love someone else to edit, but both my features weren’t fully funded until the editing was complete and Screen Australia or a sales company stepped in and handed us a chunk of money. But those funds mostly go to the people in the final stages of post-production, so I can’t afford an assistant editor at the start, but I can later afford a musical score producer and visual effects. And editing is too big of a job to get someone to do it unpaid or deferred as it’s six months of work at least. Colour grading can be outrageously expensive so if I do it, it keeps the post budget way down whilst allowing me to put a lot more time into it than we could ever afford.  

CP: You’re credited as the composer on Bloodlands. Tell me a little about that process. What did you use? Did you have any influences or take much inspiration?

S: I’ve always been a big soundtrack geek but never seriously played any instruments. I stumbled into music with a room-mate who had some electronic music gear and he showed me how to use it one night and the next day I went out and bought a midi-keyboard and downloaded Logic Pro. I remembered how to use the software from working closely with the composer on The Horseman who ran Logic Pro. Within a short time of playing around I was confident enough that I could produce a score if it was a little project that I could afford to take the creative risk and Bloodlands came along shortly after. And I felt comfortable tackling it because in all honesty, you don’t need much to create an effective score for a horror film. There’s a lot of easy cheats you could fall back on if needed, but fortunately it didn’t come to that.

CP: How difficult was it shooting in Albania in a foreign language? How long was the shoot? What were the hardest and easiest parts of principal photography?

S: Albania in 2014 didn’t have specialized crew who could do stunts, special effects, creature make-up, etc, so I knew I had to work around that whilst still delivering a horror film, but on the plus side they had a strong acting community that embraced the project, being the first horror film made there. There’s less red-tape to deal with too, which helps a low-budget production. People were in general enthusiastic to help us out, whether it was film industry people or butchers and bakers or the local council.

CP: You’re an Australian having written and directed a movie in Albania, in Albanian, with a mostly Albanian crew. The movie is credited as a co-production, yet it exudes your intent on channeling Albanian folklore and freeing yourself of any Antipodean influences. How international does the movie feel to you?

S: It is a co-production, especially in the last few months where we’ve had to release it in cinemas ourselves as they don’t have distributors there. It’s hard for me to judge how international the film feels, it totally depends on the viewer’s own bias. The Albanians certainly liked the film, so that was a big relief. But the goal wasn’t to make the most authentic social drama that we typically see from Europe. We’re making a horror film with a witch, so we’re not always going for stark realism.

CP: In the realm of horror have witches and witchcraft always held a fascination for you? What are some of your favourite movies involving witches?

S: The Blair Witch Project is the only witch I can think of that really scared me. But you never see her, so it’s probably not a big influence. We shot Bloodlands before the recent film The Witch premiered at Sundance. The main influence is from my childhood, where I’d see creepy old Greek widows dressed in black. They’d often be left alone in dimly lit parts of the room where they sit and watch you, grinning. Then they call you over, smiling with teeth missing, hairy chins, holding a fifty-cent piece. That always spooked me out as a kid and I’m freaked out now just thinking about it!

CP: In low-budget filmmaking, especially horror, what advice, if any, do you have for filmmakers embarking on their first feature? What elements should they take the most care with? What areas are best to enter into collaboration with?

S: Write a good script and find a good cast and everything else will take care of itself if you’re the right filmmaker for the project.

CP: If you were given the chance to adapt something for a Netflix original series, what would you choose?

 S: I don’t have any books in mind as I rarely read fiction, but I have a creature-feature I developed with a friend that would be perfect as a limited series on streaming.

 C: If you had the opportunity to make a big-budget movie, which you could write and direct, but would not be editor or have final cut, or make another low-budget movie and retain creative control, which would you choose and why?

S: Since doing Bloodlands and witnessing the speed of which it came together, inspires me to keep doing similar projects while trying to get the bigger ones up and not just waiting around. So I’ll be doing both.

CP: Thanks Steven!

Bloodlands screens on Opening Night of A Night Of Horror International Film Festival, Wednesday, November 29th, 7pm, at Dendy Cinemas Newtown. Tickets available here. 

Q&A with Melinda McDowell

Cult Projections: You were twenty-two when you acted in your first film, Naughty Words (1974), directed by your brother Curt McDowell, although technically it was just voiceover. You then acted in another couple of shorts directed by your brother, a feature directed by George Kuchar, and two of Curt’s features, Thundercrack! (1975), and Sparkles Tavern (1985). Then that was it, no more performing in front of the camera (well, that’s listed on IMDb, that is). 

Melinda: Naughty Words was not my first film, nor did I act in it, those voices were not Curt and me. My actual first film was Beaver Fever (directed by Curt) in which George Kuchar and I play boyfriend and girlfriend. My appearance in The Devil's Cleavage was next, but hardly worth a mention (although it's my favourite of George's films). After that I was plunged right into Thundercrack! During this time others were created, such as Naughty Words, Nudes: A Sketchbook,  and Taboo: the Single and the L.P., but the release dates don't necessarily reflect when they were filmed. Sparkle's Tavern was filmed in 1976, but Curt didn't have the funds to finish it up until 1984! I'm pretty sure the only time I appeared in a film after that one was Jennifer Kroot's It Came from Kuchar in 2009. 

CP: Had you intended to be an actor from any specific age? 

M: I never had any intention of becoming an actress. I didn't ask to be in any films, but I did have fun participating in the films of Curt and his friends. 

CP: Curt was seven years older, what kind of relationship did you have? 

M: Curt and I were always close. He was responsible for enticing me to leave Indiana and join him in San Francisco. I'm still grateful for that!

CP: What was completed first, George Kuchar’s Devil’s Cleavage, or your brother’s Thundercrack!?

M: The Devil's Cleavage was first, if I recall.

CP: Was Thundercrack! the first hardcore film you’d made? What about the other shorts your brother directed? Did you had aspirations to be an adult performer before? 

M: Even though Thundercrack! is definitely explicit, I don't consider it to be grouped with hardcore adult films. Curt did have several short films that included explicit scenes, but the only film he made that I would consider an adult, or pornographic film is Lunch. I do believe Thundercrack! stands alone, for many reasons, including being the only one of that nature that I was in! 

CP: Tell me a little about the Thundercrack! production. Did it take long to film? What about post-production? 

M: The original filming took us ten days, and Curt spent eight months on editing, finishing just in time for the December 1975 premiere in New York.

CP: Was George Kuchar very tight about following the script, or was there a lot of improvisation? 

M: George had written the script for Thundercrack! and claimed he had trouble memorising hislines when we were filming. Actually, the script was followed closely by everyone.

CP: What was the initial response from audiences? 

M: Well! The New York audience loved it. The first screening was sold out, so it was shown again one week later, and sold out again!  The Los Angeles audience was quite a different story, plenty of walkouts. In time, word of mouth helped it to find its audience.

CP: Did you feel at all, at the time, that you were making something that would become something of a cult favourite among underground adult aficionados? Have you always felt the same way about it? 

M: I don't think any one of us had an idea of what that film would become, not even an inkling.  When I was seeing it at first, I had a hard time getting past my own performance (my non-actress performance!), but years later when I watched it again I set that aside and saw it as others do.  I am thoroughly entertained by it each time I see it.

CP: What was your impression and opinion of the more commercial adult movies of the time? Did you watch many of them in cinemas? Did Curt? 

M: I never was much of a fan of adult movies in general, but Curt loved them, for sure. He had his own collection of hardcore films, which I inherited.

CP: So no favourite adult movie of the 70s then?

M: I'm sure I couldn't come up with a favourite adult movie from the 70s! I do recall going with a friend to a drive-in theatre to see Curt's Lunch while I was still in Indiana. I believe I'll cast my vote for Lunch! 

CP: The black comedy streak that runs through Thundercrack!, the absurdity and perverse elements, are certainly what gives the movie its edge, and perhaps also its cult appeal, its longevity. Did you share your brother’s, and George’s, sense of humour? I’m sure there was much mischief and shenanigans behind the scenes while you made Thundercrack!, tell me about some of it. 

M: We definitely shared the sense of humour, and yes, plenty of mischief and shenanigans! We really did have a great time filming Thundercrack!, it was a fun cast and crew. I've told the story before, but the cucumber that was offered to Willene (and partially consumed and discarded) was the actual cucumber that had been utilised by Mrs. Gert Hammond. Willene's expressive reaction at that moment was quite genuine.  

CP: Ha ha! Sparkles Tavern was your last film. What made you stop performing?

M: There were others after Sparkle's Tavern, but it was the last of Curt's to be released, unless we count, The Mean Brothers Get Stood Up, which premiered in 2016 at the Ann Arbor Film Festival!  Soon after filming Taboo: the Single and the L.P. I entered my “domestic” phase of life, not much time for film-related fun!

CP: Are you aware of any filmmakers in the contemporary scene that remind you of the passion, creative originality of your brother? 

M: The first one who comes to mind is Guy Madden, I enjoy his style! I'm guessing Curt would've loved My Winnipeg as much as I do.

CP: What is your opinion on taboos within cinema? Should there be any? What about censorship? 

M: Apparently I'm not one for censorship or taboos, still trying to think on that one! 

CP: We live in an age of much neo-conservatism, a glut of re-boots, and for the most part the adventurousness, the boldness of the 1970s feels a very long time ago. Is there anything you’d like to see in films that you feel has been left behind?

M: I'd like to see more people making films for the joy of making them, rather than for the sake of being a money-making, commercial endeavour. Concern about the monetary value seems to take away the spontaneity and fun of it all!

CP: It’s a double-edged sword indeed! Thank you Melinda! 

Revelation - Perth International Film Festival has put together a selection of Curt McDowell’s 16mm shorts in the retrospective mini-program Stinky Wieners and Dreamy Beavers, including Ainslie Trailer (1972), Confessions (1971), Wieners and Buns Musical (1972), True Blue and Dreamy (1973), Dora Myrtle (1973), The Mean Brothers "Get Stood Up" (1973), Stinky-Butt (1974), and Beaver Fever (1974). The mini-program screens Monday 10th July, 7:30pm. 

For more information on the program please visit here.

Q&A with Tom Savini

Cult Projections: Apart from Lon Chaney, who else inspired your move into the art of illusion? 

Tom: Houdini, Jack Pierce, Dick Smith, Rick Baker, Rob Bottin.

CP: Looking back on your extraordinary career is there a particular period or collaboration that you’re especially fond of?

T: Yes, my collaboration with George Romero.

CP: Do you have a personal favourite of the movies you’ve worked on?

T: Creepshow, Day Of The Dead, and From Dusk Till Dawn.

CP: What has been the most grueling movie to work on? Why?

T: Creepshow. It was five little movies, and it was just me and my 17-year-old assistant Daryl. 

CP: What were your first thoughts when you started to see special effects makeup being replaced by CGI in horror movies? How did you bridge this dramatic shift in the industry?

T: I love CGI when it is done well...it became a very useful tool. The best effects are a combination of CGI and practical.

CP: The horror movies of the mid-70s to the mid-80s are considered the golden age of the modern horror movie. And now many of those cult/classic films are being remade. You remade Night of the Living Dead back in 1990, and you have a remake of Nightmare City in the works, if you were given the opportunity to direct another remake of your choice, what would it be?

T: It would be what I intended to do with Night of the Living Dead.

CP: Zombies, werewolves, vampires, demons, beasts, mutilated bodies … Do you have a favourite creation?

T: No … they are all my children.

CP: Outside of your own work, name three special makeup effects sequences or creations that you consider benchmarks of the art.

T: Rob Bottin’s work in The Thing, Rick Baker’s on An American Werewolf in London, Dick Smith’s on The Exorcist.

CP: Any young, up-and-coming practitioners in the art of special effects makeup you would single out for their talent? 

T: There are way too many.

CP: What is the most important element in a horror movie that a budding director should adhere to?

T: That the best scares come from suspense. Any idiot can jump up and yell “Boo!” 

CP: If you had to pick three horror movies of the past fifty years to be put into a time capsule as representative of the cinematic genre, what would they be?

T: Frankenstein, The Exorcist, and Alien.

CP: How’s the Nightmare City remake coming along? Any other projects you're working on? 

T: They are rewriting Nightmare City, and I just did six episodes of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.

CP: Thanks Tom!

Smoke and Mirrors: The Tom Savini Story screens as part of Sydney's A Night Of Horror International Film Festival, Friday, November 25th, 9pm, Dendy Cinemas Newtown. 

Q&A with Sevé Schelenz, director of PEELERS

Cult Projections: You’ve worked as an editor for twenty odd years, how did your first feature, Skew, come about? Was it difficult to make?

Sevé: The idea for Skew came to me the day before a planned road trip with two other friends.  I always loved to just grab my video camera and shoot anything I could and have fun with the footage. All of a sudden this crazy horrific scenario hit me, “What if I brought my camera along for this trip and I started seeing some weird things through its viewfinder?” - I took this idea and actually constructed a very rough first draft of the script during the four days of our road trip.  It took another six months to finish the final draft.  -Making Skew (as with any film) was an enormous process.  Long pre-production, long production, long post-production.  -You just can’t avoid it on a true indie feature film. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun! Working with a small cast and crew was a real treat and kept the creative juices flowing for everyone. Being my first feature as a Producer/Director/Writer, Skew was an amazing experience. As a matter of fact, my history in post production was a huge asset to making the film. As an editor I was able to take the knowledge of what footage needed to actually be filmed in order to construct a story in post. So, it was an advantage for me to be on set as the director of my own projects because I knew what had to be put in the can before the editing began.

CP: Had you seen many found footage movies when you made Skew? Which movies of this horror sub-genre have impressed you the most?

S: I personally had not seen many found footage films before I made Skew.  Actually, The Blair Witch Project was the only one I can think of at the time and it definitely was an inspiration to me.  I remember going to the theatre and saying to myself, “Yes, I know this is fake but let’s pretend it’s real and go along for the ride.” It turned out to be one of the best experiences for me at the theatre.  I had never seen a film like this and the realism of it was the most shocking and scary aspect. I realised then that I could get away with making an indie film and not worry about it looking like so low-budget. That was the real crux for me from the get-go when I wanted to make my first feature.  I felt the technology wasn’t quite there yet and most indie films with small budgets tried to look bigger and failed. I just didn’t want to be another traditionally-shot, throw-away indie film that looks cheap. Found footage essentially saved the day for me. Now, having said that, there has been a large debate about whether Skew is a found footage film or not. If you’re interested in that debate, there’s enough literature about it online. At this point, I’ll let the fans make up their own minds.

CP: What compels you as a filmmaker about the horror genre? What kind of horror movies tickle your fancy the most? What kind of horror movies disinterest you? 

S: What compels me about the horror genre is trying to really scare the crap out of people. It’s such a hard feat these days, but if you can do something that the audience is not expecting, it can be very rewarding. Although Peelers is more of an action-horror film and definitely has a number of its own unique scares, I do love horror movies that mess with your mind and also love the traditional slow-burn types that build the tension and sense of dread like Halloween or Rosemary’s Baby. I’m not really into the torture porn horror flicks. I have no interest in films like Hostel or The Human Centipede. That type of horror just doesn’t do it for me. I find it over-the-top gratuitous and not that enjoyable to watch.

CP: Tell me about the origin of Peelers? How did you team up and collaborate with Lisa DeVita?

S: I actually met Lisa at a post facility where I was working as a colourist and she was a post production coordinator. I originally recruited her for my baseball team when I learned she played and we were in need of a girl. I only found out later that she was an aspiring screenwriter. I heard she lived in Las Vegas for a while and so when I approached her about writing a stripper horror flick, she was giddy with excitement and came onboard immediately. We hit it off and worked together really well. We both have thick skin and neither one of us gets offended by anything so none of that political correctness bullshit ever comes into play. It’s very liberating. As for the origin of Peelers, you’ll have to ask Lisa the story behind the inspiration for the script as she tells it the best (hint: it involves a strip club she visited while in Vegas). 

CP: You and Lisa have small roles in the movie, had you always planned to play the cops? 

S: Hello?? Spoiler! Kidding. I definitely had the idea of giving us a cameo but I didn’t share this with Lisa until she was finished with the script. I knew she would try to get out of it and it took a bit of convincing to get her on board. As a matter of fact, the other two producers of Peelers appear in the same scene and they were reluctant to do it as well. But I knew I would be able to change their minds and have them in the scene. Once they saw my acting they probably realsed it was going to be a cakewalk.

CP: Actually, you and Lisa had a hand in many of the movie’s key departments. Tell me about the pros and cons of being so involved. What was the hardest part? What was the most enjoyable?

S: You quickly learn in indie filmmaking that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.  So, for this reason as well as for budget, Lisa and I had our hands in every single department. I’d say the cons of being so involved in the whole production process is that there is so much to do that you really spread yourself thin and you don’t eat or sleep much. It’s very stressful and just when one thing goes right, ten others go wrong. And if you’re not familiar with a department or a procedure, you have to learn it on the fly because no one is there to help you. The good thing about wearing twenty hats at once is that you get final say on everything and you call all the shots.  You don’t worry about getting burned by someone whom you thought you could trust, it’s all on you. The hardest part was trying to play director and producer at the same time once production was under way. It just doesn’t work. You have to be totally focused on your role as a director; you don’t have time to be putting out fires as a producer when you’re working with the actors and the crew. Thankfully, that’s where Lisa came in. I deferred the producer problems to her and our second producer when they popped up during production and enjoyed watching her try and deal with those fires … She hates conflict and tries to avoid it at all costs. But as a producer, it’s part of the job. The most enjoyable department for me was editing. I love being in a room finally all alone with all the footage and putting it all together to create a story.  

CP: The movie has been doing very well on the international film festival circuit, is there a particular audience that Peelers appeals to? Did you expect this kind of response? What festivals have you enjoyed attending?

S: Peelers definitely appeals to the rowdy, fun, sneak-beer-into-the-theatre-type crowd. We’ve been to festivals where the audience seems civil enough and then once the film gets going, the crowd just goes nuts. It’s like a light goes on and they say, “Oh, it’s this kind of film! Wahooo! I can finally have some fun!” And they do. They’re laughing out loud and whooping and cheering. They get into it. It’s been a blast to experience. We honestly didn’t know what to expect. We just hoped that people would enjoy the story. And so far, it’s really been that way. It’s weird to say this, but it’s like a “feel good” stripper movie. And not because it’s got a happy ending and everything works out (trust me, that’s far from the case), but because it’s just a fun ride with a story and a bunch of characters that everyone seems to genuinely like. As far as festivals, we absolutely loved attending Sitges, Leeds and Razor Reel (in Bruges). All three festivals had great turnouts and the audiences were enthusiastic and buzzing afterward. Shriekfest in L.A. was good too. The crowd left shaking their heads in disbelief and laughing the whole time. 

CP: How important is humour and exploitation in a horror movie? How does it work best? 

S: While I don’t think either humour or exploitation are absolutely important or mandatory for a horror movie, both work well in Peelers. With our film I wanted to give the audience a break from the gore and violence by injecting some humour into the mix. I find it allows the audience to empathise much more with the characters. As for the exploitation, I think that term is used far too often to generalise a horror film. Exploitation has been used to describe so many low budget non-Hollywood horror flicks because of the raw and roughness of an indie film. I think it fully depends on what type of sub-genre of horror you’re creating that exploitation comes into view. Funny enough, story and characters are my number one concern when making a film, even horror, and the rest becomes complementary to this.

CP: What’s your opinion on the use of practical effects vs. CGI? What are some of your favourite examples of both?

S: I’m an old-fashioned filmmaker so I’m all for practical effects if possible. That being said, having worked on CGI firsthand with Peelers, I have a deep appreciation for the work that goes into visual effects. Both have their place in film. Some of my favourite practical effects are in Jurassic Park (I know, not a horror, but it’s a favourite) and The Exorcist. As for VFX, the American version of The Ring comes to mind. Overall, as a filmmaker I always think of doing an effect practically first. Yet, in the end, it comes down to what it will take to realistically make the effect happen. Budget and time ultimately decide the route to follow on creating an effect.

CP: How tailored was Peelers in terms of classification? Considering it’s set in a sleazy strip club, it’s remarkably tasteful, all things considered. Even the gore factor is kept under reigns, relatively. Were you and Lisa tempted to make a more extreme movie? 

S: With Peelers, we wanted to do something different. There have been a few stripper horror films already made and I feel that many or them don’t really work. Probably one of the best stripper horror films would have to be From Dusk Till Dawn. Seeing as that was the pinnacle of this sub-genre and there weren’t many others to follow, we felt we could bring a breath of fresh air into it.  Enter Peelers. We wanted to give the strip club a slightly cleaner look. Having the colours pop and giving a stylised look to the club. Even our opening title sequence has a “James Bond” feel to it.  Breaking the rules and giving something different to the audience, that’s what our plan was. Oh, and of course we really bent the rules with our leading lady being so strong and kicking ass in a strip club rather than being a victim as most stripper horror flicks have done.

CP: What would be your horror movie desert island flicks? (just five movies)

S: Desert Island… Ha!  Can I put Jaws at the top of the list? In addition to that I’d pick Alien, The Ring, Evil Dead 2 and The Thing. Is there a Blockbuster on the island so I can rent more? Wow, Blockbuster…wonder if your younger readers even know what that is?

CP: So, what do you have planned next? 

S: Well, we have a bucket-load of films we’re working on right now. They’re all in different stages of development AND all different genres. You may be surprised to know the project most advanced at this stage is actually a family film. Wait for it … it’s a talking dog flick. Our projects are very much like us: original, creative and possibly pushing the envelope. One way or another, you’ll always have fun with what we have in store for you. Oh, did I mention we’re also working on a comedy, a sci-fi, a thriller and a trilogy that begun as a novel that Lisa is working on right now?  And we may have another horror up our sleeve as well.

CP: Thanks Sevé!

S: Thanks Bryn!  Was fun to get a chance to answer all your great questions.  I hope your readers get the opportunity to catch Peelers at A Night of Horror Film Fest this year. If they do, I’ll be there in person to screen the film and I hope they get a chance to say hello.

Q&A with Kier-La Janisse, Festival Director of Monster Fest

Cult Projections: You’re a force to be reckoned with, a legend in your own time. You’ve been published, and been involved with genre film festivals for nearly twenty years, and no doubt a fan of horror and exploitation, in all its permutations, for a lot longer. You’ve been instrumental in various endeavours, launches, exhibitions, pet projects, programmes, productions, and publications, etc … You must have so many stories to tell. So, let me keep it simple, I’ll just grill you on a whole bunch of favourites or notables, so your answers can be short and sweet. So, to kick off, what publication, book or magazine, made you want to become a writer?
 

Kier-La: The Outsiders. As a kid when I read that she was only sixteen when she wrote it, I wanted to publish a novel by the time I was 16 too. Of course I ended up in reform school at sixteen so it took a little longer! 

CP: What film festival event has been the most memorable?

K: I really loved Flatpack in Birmingham, UK because every screening had something unusual about it, it was the most creatively-curated festival I’d ever been to.

CP: What director would you love to program a retrospective of?

K: Robert Downey Sr. Probably not at Monster Fest though!

CP: What’s your favourite vampire movie?

K: The Hunger. Or maybe Vampire’s Kiss with Nicholas Cage. Haha. 

CP: What’s your favourite zombie movie?

K: Messiah of Evil. Which is also just one of my favourite American films, period. [Ed: I love that movie too]

CP: What’s your favourite werewolf movie? 

K: The Company of Wolves.

CP: What’s your favourite stalk’n’slash movie?

K: Of that classic 80s era? April Fool’s Day, even though it pretty much fails as a slasher movie. But I just think it has such a believable, likeable ensemble cast, and I think Fred Walton is a really underrated director. I think his made-for-TV sequel to When a Stranger Calls is also amazing, but it’s more ‘stalk’ than ‘slash’.

CP: What’s your favourite giallo?

K: Probably Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion but hard to ignore the impact of the first ones I saw like Deep Red and Lizard in a Woman’s Skin.

CP: What’s your favourite ghost or supernatural movie?

K: Supernatural would be Carrie, but if we’re talking ghosts, then it would be Jack Clayton’s The Innocents.

CP: What’s your favourite Lovecraftian movie?

K: The Real Ghostbusters episode “The Collect Call of Cathulu”

CP: What’s your favourite score?

K: The Haunting of Julia composed by Colin Towns.

CP: What’s your favourite use of sourced music in a movie?

K: Radio On directed by Chris Petit.

CP: What’s your favourite gore gag or special effects sequence?

K: Girl vomiting up her intestinal tract in Gates of Hell will always be a fave.

CP: Who is your favourite psychotic woman?

K: The obvious one – Isabelle Adjani in Possession!

CP: Who is your favourite psycho/boogeyman?

K: The hearse driver in Burnt Offerings.

CP: What’s your favourite movie involving witchcraft?

K: I love all witches, so hard to pick. I love “The Dust Witch” in Something Wicked This Way Comes. But overall Witch movie? Suspiria is going to be hard to beat. Although a less obvious second choice would be Casting the Runes, the Lawrence Gordon Clark TV movie.

CP: What is your earliest memory of being frightened by a movie or television show?

K: Horror Express – I was three, saw it on a Saturday afternoon at my grandmother’s house and had nightmares about it for almost a decade.

CP: What was your first “adult” experience (sneaking into an R, X, or NC-17-rated movie, or renting an R-rated VHS when you were underage, etc)?

K: I saw restricted movies all the time as a kid. I went to see Valley Girl with my dad and it was really embarrassing because when EG Daily’s top came off he went “Ooooh!!” really loudly. But I remember my mom really didn’t want me to see Porky’s – but when she warned me about it, I had already seen it! 

CP: What’s your favourite sleazy, dodgy, grindhouse-style movie?

K: Poor Pretty Eddie. I absolutely love this film.

CP: What is your favourite found footage or mockumentary movie?

K: Punishment Park.

CP: What is your favourite movie based on a true story, or events, or real person?

K: I think one I just saw for the first time – The Boys! 

CP: What is your favourite Asian movie?

K: Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41.

CP: What is your favourite European movie?

K: The Night Porter.

CP: What is your favourite Australian movie?

K: Wake in Fright. [Ed: Yes, it’s my fave Oz movie too]

CP: What is your favourite rape-revenge movie?

K: Ms. 45.

CP: What movie have you watched the most times? How many times?

K: I had a bet with a girl in Grade 9 that I could watch The Breakfast Club more times than she could. I watched it fifty-six times. I do not think I have watched any film more times than that ever since.

CP: What five movies would be your “desert island flicks”?

K: Cockfighter, Vice Squad, Jaws, Over the Edge, and the last would be a tossup between Carrie and Streets of Fire.

CP: What five movies from the past ten years have impressed you the most?

K: Let the Right One In, The Babadook, February, Evolution, See You Next Tuesday.

CP: What three things shouldn’t people miss at Monster Fest!

K: I think my personal picks might be the new restoration of On the Silver Globe, the rare screening and presentation on the “Witch Hunt” episode of Homicide (an absolutely amazing episode set partially in Hawthorne where Monster Fest takes place) and The Cult of Monster All-Night Marathon!

CP: Thank you Kier-La!!

Monster Fest runs Thursday, November 24th - Sunday, November 27th at Lido Cinemas, Melbourne. 

For complete program, info, and screening times visit monsterfest.com.au

Chewing the Fat! With Dean Bertram

In conversation with Dr. Dean Bertram, the Festival Director of A Night Of Horror International Film Festival, about his romance with horror movies and his relationship with a film festival.