HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Sean Clark

Sean Clark, with Hare Krishna Zombie

Sean Clark, Filmmaker, Writer

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Sean Clark: My name is Sean Clark, and I’m here because my parents had sex.

Y Spy: Why are you in this room? Same reason?

Clark: No, they had nothing to do with that part. I’m here promoting my movie, “The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond,” which I wrote and produced. It’s coming out on about 350 screens. I also write for HorrorHound Magazine, who is putting on this show. So I’m here pulling double duty.

Y Spy: What is the movie about?

Clark: About 90 minutes. [Punny laughter] That never gets old. It’s about nine friends who every year get together and take a trip. This year they rent a Victorian house on a private island. Through a series of circumstances they uncover a hidden room in the basement of the house that has all these artifacts from an excavation in the early 1900s in Turkey. One of the things they find appears to be a game, so they take it upstairs and start playing it. As they play the game it turns them against each other. It’s kind of a possession thing, but it affects everyone differently. What it ends up being are nine friends on an island, stalking each other.

Y Spy: Is it more of a psychological thriller or a straight horror film?

Clark: It’s got a lot of elements of everything. There’s a lot of psychological horror, there’s a thriller aspect, there’s a slasher aspect, and a supernatural aspect. It’s different. That’s what I think fans will appreciate. It isn’t the same bullshit that they’re used to being spoonfed. I’ve had real positive feedback. One of the best compliments [I’ve received] is that it’s original. It’s not a remake; it’s something new.

Y Spy: So what’s your take on the current state of horror?

Clark: Fear is an adrenaline rush. That’s why we love to be scared. We love to be able to go to a movie and get the shit scared out of us, but be safe. Nowadays it is fucking hard to be scared in a movie. I am so disconnected, or perhaps inundated with horror that it’s very hard to get scared. The last movie I saw that genuinely freaked me out was when I went to a screening of “Session 9” in a big empty theater. It’s one of my favorite movies. It’s really hard to scare people nowadays, and I hope I can achieve that in my career.

There’s a lot of good stuff coming out, more independent. All the big studios are interested in now is capitalizing on a title and remaking it. They’re not even remaking the movies so much as just taking the name. Some of them are nothing like the original. They’re pointless. And it’s paying off! At the end of the day, all they care about is money. The filmmaker has integrity, but he’s at the mercy of the people who are financing it.

Y Spy: Is it harder to scare audiences because modern horror films are putting less emphasis on characterization?

Clark: I agree with that. One thing you will notice about “Black Waters,” something that I am very strict about: I am big, big, big on character development. The first 45 minutes of this movie almost plays out like “The Breakfast Club.” It’s people sitting around, and you’re getting to know them and their relationships. You genuinely care about these characters when the shit starts to hit the fan. That’s important to me.

Let’s take the last “Friday the 13th” remake. You didn’t give a shit about any of those people. When they start getting offed, it means nothing to you. When I’m in a slasher film, I wanna know that I want the bitch to get killed, I wanna know that I want the cool guy to live. It frustrates me when I see movies that are just gratuitous. I want people to care.

Y Spy: How was writing and producing this movie?

Clark: It was completely independent. We had investors, and for the most part they left us alone. There was nobody breathing down our neck. We did have a schedule, and it did get tight at times. There were a couple things we had to comply to, put a couple of people in the movie who they wanted. Beyond that they let us do what we wanted to do. It was a lot of freedom. As a writer, I was completely spoiled. I’ll probably never have an experience as good as this again.

Y Spy: What is your writing experience, and how did you end up writing this film?

Clark: I’ve been trying to get my original scripts off the ground since about 1999. This is my first theatrical. I’ve written stuff that’s been optioned, almost was made. This is the first thing that’s actually been made. It’s finally happening. The experience of writing it was great. The constant rewrites were challenging, especially rewrites during filming, which happened a lot. There was a major location that we lost at the 11th hour that really changed things. I had to come up with something new. Beyond that it was great.

As far as writing for HorrorHound, it’s a completely different thing. I’m not so much a journalist for HorrorHound; I write a specific feature article called “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds,” which is a retrospective on the filming locations of a classic film. I pick one per issue and do that. I’m not having to interview people and go to press junkets and screenings. I did that before; I used to write for Dread Central and bloodydisgusting.com. I did that for years and am trying to get away from that, doing more of my own creative thing.

Y Spy: What are you planning next?

Clark: I’m writing a script called “Sugar,” which is a horror film. I want that to be my directorial debut. I’ve been finishing the “Nightmare on Elm Street” episode of “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds,” the TV version of it. That’s gonna be on the new “Nightmare on Elm Street” documentary, “Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.” That’s coming out at the end of April. It’s all filmed; we’re just editing right now.

Y Spy: What frightens you?

Clark: Not a whole lot, to be honest. I guess I have a fear of heights. I mean super high. You’ll never catch me sky-diving.

The Black Waters of Echo's Pond

“The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond” is out now. Visit www.theblackwaters.com for more details.

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

HorrorHound Weekend 2010: Cory J. Udler

Cory J. Udler

Cory J. Udler – Filmmaker

Y Spy: Who are you and why are you here?

Cory J. Udler: My name is Cory Udler, and the reason I’m here is because I work for Full Moon Entertainment out of Hollywood, California. I come and schlep Angry Dolls and shit like that to fans at conventions, but I’m also here because I wrote and edited and directed “Incest Death Squad,” starring the lovely and talented, sexy Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame.

Y Spy: What is an Incest Death Squad?

Udler: That is a brother and sister duo who obviously love each other a lot, and kill tourists in the name of God.

Y Spy: How does Kaufman fit in?

Udler: Lloyd is a newspaper editor who wants more stories about dead hookers, and he’s very upset that people haven’t gotten stories about dead hookers. They’re doing stories on spelling bees, but he wants more dead hookers, butchered in bathtubs.

Y Spy: What about dead hookers in spelling bees?

Udler: You know I never thought about that, but Lloyd is here, so you should ask him if that’s acceptable!

Y Spy: Did Lloyd go method for this role?

Udler: I think he did. I think he went totally method, and by method I mean he was on meth when he was doing it. But Lloyd is so funny, because he’s insane. He’s going nuts, and you think he’s going to burst a blood vessel in his head, but then afterwards he’s very nice and soft-spoken and very gentle and intelligent. It’s funny because it’s a big contrast. But I know that Lloyd likes dead hookers and crush porn and reach-arounds and all of these wonderful things, so he fit right in with “Incest Death Squad.”

Y Spy: How did you get a hold of him?

Udler: How it went down was I had written the script for “Incest Death Squad” years and years ago, and I always said that this is a Troma movie, whether Troma produces it or I produce it myself. They had on the website a thing that said, “Lloyd’s looking for the next film script! Send it in!” So I sent him the script to “Incest Death Squad,” and I’m waiting, and a month later I get a phone call from Lloyd. He goes, “I love this script! It’s wonderful! It’s fantastic! We don’t have a billion dollars to produce whatever we want, but if you ever do it, good luck, keep in touch, and I’ll come and be in it for you.” That was the catalyst for me to make the movie, and he held true on his promise. We shot with him in Chicago a year ago.

Y Spy: How easy was it to put the movie together?

Udler: For me it was easy, because I went to school for editing and videography. I had a vision in my head about how I wanted the movie to be, and I was in charge of everything. I wrote, directed, produced, and cast it, and then I got it done and edited the whole thing as I went along. We finished shooting in June and I had the entire post-production done by the middle of July.

Y Spy: How much did you doing everything yourself affect the film’s cost?

Udler: That saved me a ton of money! Any independent filmmaker: learn to do as much as you can! You will save incredible amounts of money, and headache, too. I know a lot of guys who just want to do the vision and direct it, but then they need somebody to DP, and edit, and do sound design. All the technical stuff. It costs them a shitload of money and it takes forever to get it done. The budget for the movie was about $8,000 tops, and that included new equipment. To make the movie itself was about $2,500 to $3,000. No budget, and that’s because I did everything.

Y Spy: How did the increased availability of high-grade technology affect that?

Udler: If you have $200, you can go online and download some free editing software, scriptwriting software, and you can get a camera. I have a little Samsung that I bought at Best Buy for about $140, and you could make a feature on it. It all depends on what kind of movie you want to make. As a low-budget filmmaker you have to be realistic about what you can do. You can write a script that has a massive zombie invasion of the Prussian Army, and you go, “I can’t really do that, so how am I going to make it work? Instead, I’ll have a brother and sister who fuck each other and kill tourists, and I’ll pop Lloyd in there.” There’s your exploitation!

If you have a camera and you can get some of this stuff for free, that’s the best way to do it. Like Lloyd says, just make your own damn movie! Anybody right now can make a movie. I know a lot of people complain about that, but the guys who complain are guys who came in when it was 35 mm. They made movies at a time when you had to prove to people that you weren’t going to lose their money. Now anybody with $2,000 can make a movie. I think that’s great!

Y Spy: Does that redefine the old term, “B-movie?”

Udler: The term “B-movie” comes from the drive-ins. There was an A-picture, which was usually “Star Wars,” and there would be a B-picture, which would be “Alpha Incident.” Now, I don’t think that B-pictures exist anymore. You either have a budget or you don’t.

Y Spy: You’re either a big studio, or everyone else.

Udler: You’re either “Avatar,” or you’re “Incest Death Squad.” There’s nothing in-between. It’s incest, or it’s blue Smurf things flying around in 3-D. Hopefully we can do the next one in 3-D.

Y Spy: What else have you been up to, and what are you planning to do next?

Udler: Right now we’re in production for “Incest Death Squad 2.” We just started; we’ll probably have the premiere in September. I’ve also been writing movies for grindhouse legend Ted V. Mikels. I wrote his last two movies, which were “Demon Haunt” and “Astro Zombies 3.” I write films, I work for Full Moon, I just finished a documentary called “I Made My Own Damn Movie and Lived to Tell About It.” That will be on the “Produce Your Own Damn Movie” box set from Troma.

Y Spy: How has the reaction to “Incest Death Squad” been?

Udler: Amazing. We’ve gotten a tremendous response from around the world. We’ve sent it everywhere, and everybody gets back to us. That’s the one thing that I say: please just let me know what you thought. Good, bad, or indifferent. It helps you grow as a filmmaker. People get back and say: “I can’t believe this! I can’t believe what you did in this movie! It’s crazy, it’s insane, it’s sick, and I love it!” It’s really been gratifying to see people embrace it and make it their own. As a filmmaker, you make it, but once you turn it over, it’s theirs.

Y Spy: What’s the worst reaction you’ve gotten?

Udler: The worst reaction and outrage I got was from Fangoria Magazine. The dude who reviewed it freaked out! He freaked out because he knew incest survivors to begin with, so I had one strike there, but he hated everything about it. He said it was like a home movie, like I shot it with my friends, that the direction was terrible, some of the acting was okay, the stunt casting sucked. What was great was people started defending the movie in the comments section. Fans of the movie stepped up. It’s not about the reviewers.

Y Spy: How much of the negative reaction is solely due to the title?

Udler: They’re done! They’ve already made up their mind. But the title more often than not sells it to people. They see “Incest Death Squad” and say: “I’ve gotta own this!” For the exploitation crowd, they go nuts for it. Nobody embraces stuff like the horror community.

Y Spy: What’s your favorite psychological horror movie?

Udler: “Texas Chainsaw” always got under my skin. “Night of the Living Dead” I liked. “Exorcist” of course is always frightening. I don’t know if it’s a horror movie, but “El Topo” from Alejandro Jodorowski, and also “The Holy Mountain” from him was crazy. But if you go back and watch Ingmar Bergman’s “Virgin Spring,” that’s a creepy movie! There’s a lot of stuff outside of the horror genre that’s creepier than the stuff that horror folks are doing.

I used to watch “The Incredibly Strange Film Show” with Jonathan Ross. He would interview all these crazy filmmakers, and that was what turned me on to these weird, crazy movies. Basically I like the grindhouse/exploitation movies more than horror movies, so that’s what I really embraced. A lot of the stuff that’s popular now are zombie movies, slasher in the woods, teeny vampires. So when a movie like “Incest Death Squad” comes out, there’s no ambiguity. This is as graphic and grotesque and offensive and smutty a film as I could make, and the second one’s going to be even worse.

Y Spy: What scares you?

Udler: Failure.

Incest Death Squad

“Incest Death Squad” can be found at www.incestdeathsquad.com. “Incest Death Squad 2” comes out September 17th.

August 9, 2010
Categories: Q&A, Y Spy . Tags: , . Author: Y . Comments: Leave a comment

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