Q: What is it about the horror genre that is most appealing to you?
I just love horror movies, ever since I was a kid. The first horror movie I ever saw at a movie theater was Motel Hell- I was 4 or 5 years old, I guess I was born to working in films. As a kid when all my friends were outside playing I was inside watching Three's Company, Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone. My parents always said that the easiest way to get me to be still as a kid was to turn on the TV and I would sit there for hours watching Jaws and James Bond, LOL!
Q: Who/What would you say your influences are and why?
Rob Zombie, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth and Tarantino are the ones who influence me the most. Tarantino, Zombie and Roth for the raw dialog they write, it's as close to the real life as it get's in cinema. Robert Rodriguez I think is a wonderful director and very stylized much like Rob Zombie. These guys movies are the filmmakers bible in my book. If film schools were teaching these guys techniques in school we would have a lot better films being made.
Q: Most recently you've worked on two upcoming horror movies. One of them is , LIVE EVIL , which stars Tim Thomerson and is directed by Jay Woelfel. How did you get involved with producer Mark Terry?
Myself and the Original director of LIVE EVIL (Vito Trabucco) started writing the script after Vito was approached to do a vampire movie I thought it was cool so I started writing like crazy. After the script was completed Vito suggested Mark Terry, who was his roommate at the time Produce the movie. We started filming the opening scene of the movie, which was filmed in Amboy, Ca. Unfortunately after we began filming LIVE EVIL, me and Vito sadly left production of LIVE EVIL over irreconcilable differences with Producer Mark Terry. We optioned the screenplay to Terry so he could make the LIVE EVIL he wanted. He hired Jay Woelfel to adapt the script and direct the film. Unfortunately Mark Terry never kept us in the loop after that as to the progress of film, we haven't even been sent a screener of LIVE EVIL which sucks. It's kind of weird the way things work out since we cast most of the leads in the movie (Mark Hengst, Osa and Kimberly) and put a lot of the pieces together to form LIVE EVIL, so to see the final result would be satisfying as a writer. But not every producer you work with in this business is going to be professional.
Q: SLICES, appropriately named, is a horror anthology. What are the tales about?
Slices is very much in the 80's style of filmmaking like (Night Train To Terror), 5 different segments written & directed by 5 different directors. All the segments are in different time periods but the film has a complete wrap around segment that ties all of the stories together. The segment I directed is set in 1880's old west, Cowboys fighting zombies, a real comedy of sorts with action. We have a Friday the 13th type of story which people will be able to connect with if your a fan of the 80's slasher movies. The bloodiest of segments comes from Trabucco who made a sort of an homage to Hostel & the Saw films. I think people will be surprised with how Grindhouse-ish Slices feels like. If you watch the movie past the end credit which look off the hook, you'll be happy to find an extra scene that has plenty of skin!
Q: What is it, would you say, that you bring to the movies you have worked on?
That's a good question. I've been asking myself that for years! First and foremost, I'm a fan of movies, just not horror but every kind of movie. Good stories are important to me but also I think the most important thing is to entertain people with your film. People want to watch a movie to escape the daily grind that they deal with day and day out. I you watch Slices or Live Evil and are entertained by the dialog and the characters then my job is done.
Q: Are there any upcoming projects you can talk about?
There are a couple of projects which I would love to tell you about but unfortunately I can't say to much at the moment, but you'll be hearing about at least one project in the not to distant future..