Slammed & Damned: The Modern Day Horror Review

And we’re back. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. Things have been hopping here at Slammed & Damned—so much to do, so little time. Today, I come to you with mixed emotions. I’m excited to present the last section of my expansive interview with the amazing Rolfe Kanefsky. But I’m also a little sad that we’re finished. In this final installment, we cover the making of Rolfe’s wonderful horror flick Nightmare Man as well as his latest film, One in the Gun. He also talks candidly about his experiences with After Dark Horrorfest, which bring new meaning to the maxim “Be Careful What You Wish For.” And for all you aspiring filmmakers, Rolfe offers advice on how to break in to the biz. This series of articles is so valuable for anyone that wants to know the reality of filmmaking and the way the game is played in Hollywood (check out parts one, two, three and four). Rolfe has been exceedingly generous with his time as well as his thoughts and opinions. As the kids say, he’s told it as it is—and for that, I thank him.

What’s the story behind Nightmare Man, Rolfe? It’s a great little movie. Tell me the truth—was this just an excuse to allow Tiffany the chance to run through the woods in her underwear while brandishing a crossbow? Because that sounds like something she’d really dig.

Nightmare Man actually began as an opening scene from another script entitled In the Web I had written years earlier that I considered Gabriella Hall to play the lead. In that script, it’s a scene that turns out to be the end of a movie that someone is watching on television. Then In the Web goes off in a completely different direction.

Well, my friend and composer, Christopher Farrell, read In the Web and said to me that he loved that opening scene and would like to see that movie.  Cut to a few years later, I had just finished shooting Jacqueline Hyde and was in New York for the post-production. I had a free week before I could begin cutting the movie and was bored.  I remembered what Chris said and that it might be fun to try to turn that scene into its own screenplay. So, I sat down and seven days later had Nightmare Man.  My parents and a few friends read it and really liked it. Because of the financial mess that Jacqueline Hyde turned in to, my parents thought it was time to try to produce another movie together.  We hadn’t done that since my first feature, There’s Nothing Out There.  Nightmare Man seemed fairly small and contained. Horror films were doing well so we jumped in and, almost 16 years to the day since Nothing, we made Nightmare Man.

My goal was to take the simple premise of a bunch of young adults partying in the woods when bad things happen but to mix it up a bit and play around with the conventions.  But I didn’t want it to be another spoof like There’s Nothing Out There. I wanted this one to be scary with a sense of fun, but coming from a place of reality.

I think that’s a perfect description.

If you really examine the film, you’ll see that all of the clichés are either twisted, disposed of or wind up there for a real reason.  The clichéd “dream scene” opening turns out to be real. The car running out of gas and the cell phone not working are all part of the plan as it turns out. When danger arrives at the house in the woods in the form of Ellen [Blythe Metz] and the “Nightmare Man,” they actually call and get through to the police. They protect themselves with real weapons—crossbow, hunting rifle, knives—and they turn out the lights and watch the windows and doors. They make a sincere effort to stay alive and fix this horrible situation.

And then there’s the supernatural twist that most people don’t see coming, despite the fact that the film and character tells the audience from the very beginning that it will happen! It’s set up from the get-go and hinted at throughout the entire movie.

That’s so true. I was so caught up in the flick that it surprised me, even though I’d considered it.

I bring all this up because, years later, after the film was released, many people have attacked it for being stupid and clichéd for all of the above reasons, which seems to me that they didn’t pay much attention to the movie while they were watching it. Luckily, a lot of people did like it and it was very successful. Again, that didn’t mean any money for us (the producers) but I’ll talk about that later.

As for Tiffany Shepis in her underwear and crossbow, that sort of developed during pre-production. I did have Tiffany in mind for the character of Mia, which also happens to be the name of Tiffany’s real-life daughter who she was giving birth to while I was writing the script. And I was always thinking of a way that I could top that amazing silver spacesuit that she wears in The Hazing.

That would be a challenge.

In the original script, Tiffany does the striptease down to her underwear, but when she hears the sound outside, she throws on her clothes and grabs the crossbow to investigate.

I think it was during wardrobe fittings, when I saw Tiffany in that black lace underwear and bra that I realized she has to go outside wearing only that with the crossbow.  It may be a little silly, but it is too cool and sexy to resist. I remember a friend or two telling me not to do that, but there are some cases where the “coolness” of an image outweighs the logic argument.

Hey, film is a visual medium.

And everyone admits that Tiffany does look fantastic like that. We had one poster where that was the main image with her in silhouette holding the crossbow. I’ve heard talk that there may be an “action figure” of Tiffany from Nightmare Man like that. I’d be very proud.

[Laughs] I would definitely buy it! I was really impressed with the way you controlled the mood throughout the film. It almost seems like each scene was an exercise in modulating tension.

Well, Nightmare Man was also designed to have a slightly different structure from many horror films. First off, I wanted to take the audience through three different decades of horror movies, starting in the ‘70s. I wanted the opening to have a creepy, almost television movie feel where you hear noises and see shadows but not much else. I’m a big fan of the television movies Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Trilogy of Terror.

Yes! Man, I loved those flicks. TV movies from the ‘70s are it. Especially Trilogy of Terror. That one stuck with me for years.

The third story with Karen Black and the Zuni fetish doll are obvious inspirations, and in a way, the movie is a real homage to that episode. I purposely designed the mask as a life-size version of the doll’s face.

Aha, I thought the Nightmare Man’s mask looked familiar.

The scene with Ellen in the car by herself is one of my favorite moments in the movie. I really wanted to see how long I could milk the suspense and tension, building it as it goes. We shot that and the car drive before it runs out of gas in the same day/night up in Big Bear.  It was our last day there and I had a detailed shot list of every angle I needed. We had 16 hours to shoot 78 different camera set-ups with one HD Panasonic Vericam camera. By the time the sun had set, we had 26 shots done and the crew was very happy. I said, “Great. We’re on schedule. Only 52 more shots to go.”  They thought I was kidding. Luckily, Paul Deng, my DP on Nightmare Man, Jacqueline Hyde, Pretty Cool Too and Mood Boobs, is a real workhorse and we moved like crazy. Blythe’s performance sells that scene, and the sound design by Matt Bobb, my mixer, really delivers. If you see the film with a real 5.1 surround sound system, it’s very effective.

I can vouch for that.

Anyway, that scene leads the film from the ‘70s to the ‘80s with a Friday the 13th stalk/chase scene in the woods. I really wanted it to feel like the “end” of a Friday the 13th movie and create this very long sequence so it’s like you’re watching the end of the movie at the beginning. I never wanted the tension to stop. This is why I introduce all the kids in the house in short bits, because I wanted to get it out of the way without stopping the flow that is taking place with Ellen and the killer. That’s why there isn’t the typical scene where you meet all the kids driving up during the day and unpacking because those scenes are usually boring. Nothing happens except to establish the characters. I felt I could do that “on the run” so to speak.

Gotcha—if it doesn’t drive the narrative, screw it.

When the two storylines come together, the tone of the film shifts again to a psychological thriller. Is Ellen crazy, or is there really a killer? Who do we trust? What would you do in this situation? At that moment, my blend of suspense and humor really comes to the surface, with Tiffany having all the best lines.

And then just when you think it is actually a standard “Scooby-Doo” mystery that I had hoped most of the audience would have guessed before, the true supernatural surprise comes along, throwing the film into the ‘90s with a touch of Evil Dead, Tales From the Crypt and The Entity thrown in.  And then, finally, I wrap it all up by taking us back to the ‘70s with a very Trilogy of Terror finale.

So, I do think the film has an interesting structure that builds as it goes. Some have found the beginning slow while others think that’s the best part. It’s a film that has a little horror for everyone’s different taste in the genre.

Essentially, it’s two films—two tastes that taste great together! Blythe is again very good, playing a totally different kind of crazy than she did in Jacqueline Hyde.

I wanted to work with Blythe again and was very interested in teaming her up with Tiffany [Shepis]. They are very different but have very strong independent personalities that I knew would clash and, in the right situation, could make for some great, explosive scenes. A year earlier, I was attached to a remake of The House on Sorority Row with a different script and other producers, who ended up not having the rights. But we did have some casting sessions, and I really wanted Tiffany and Blythe to be the two bitchy sorority sisters who are forced to work together but don’t really like each other. Their characters are always competing.

However, that project fell through and, obviously, I didn’t wind up directing the Sorority Row that was finally remade years later. But, not doing that film probably helped inspire me to write Nightmare Man, which was really my first “straight” slasher script.

The “straightest” slasher flick you’ve done so far, anyway.

Well, once I had written it, I knew Blythe and Tiffany would be a perfect match in this one. They have very different styles of acting, and they did clash which was great for the story. I think the scene where Blythe is tied up on the couch and Tiffany is sitting behind her drinking from the bottle is some of their best work, and it occurred because they play off each other so well. Give a good actor a strong partner and you’ll be happily surprised by the results.

You are quite the diplomat, sir. But you’re right. And once again, all the casting is great. Besides Tiffany and Blythe, I thought Hanna Putnam was great as Trinity.

Well, Hanna was a fun story. She was a struggling actress who had recently moved to Hollywood and was working as a waitress in an all-night deli. Clu Gulager, a great actor I know who has been around forever, eats at the deli all the time.  He met Hanna and suggested she come to a bar where a group of my filmmaker friends sometimes gathers on Thursday nights. I go on occasion, and the night Hanna showed up, I came with Tiffany. We were right in the middle of casting Nightmare Man and [Hanna] had the perfect look for the character, so I said, “If you want to audition, come on by.” Now, the chances of meeting an “actress” that happens to be great in a bar in Los Angeles is very slim, but that’s exactly what happened. Hanna’s audition blew me away. She was Trinity and Nightmare Man officially “introduces” her. Hanna has gone on to star in Feast 2 and Feast 3 with the Gulagers. I also worked with her again in Pretty Cool Too. She’s very funny in it as the telemarketer.

Also, Aaron Sherry was wonderful in his small—but very crucial—role.

Aaron Sherry was introduced to me by my producer, Esther Goodstein. Aaron, besides being an actor, is also a professional fight coordinator. So, he was hired for that and to be the “Nightmare Man” while wearing the mask for all the chase and fight scenes. I wasn’t sure if he would be the Nightmare Man when he takes off the mask. We were discussing getting a “name” for that part but, as it worked out, Aaron was really good and we let him do the scene in the car with Luciano [Szafir] as well. It’s a goofy, funny moment and probably not what you expect the Nightmare Man to be like sans mask. However, after all the bumbling mistakes he makes while trying to kill Ellen, who he turns out to be, personality-wise, makes a lot of sense.

Totally. He’s really funny there.

I have to add that James Ferris, who plays Jack, also adds a good performance. I had worked with James on Jacqueline Hyde and later on Pretty Cool Too. If you watch these three roles, you’ll see he has a nice range as an actor. Jack Sway, who play Ed, also brings a good, believable touch as Mia’s boy-toy.

Yeah, you really got a good cast. But that seems to be one of your strengths.

And of course, Richard Moll, who was only on the film for a night, helped add a touch of class and name value to the film. He did it as a favor and I thank him for it.

This flick was picked up by the people at After Dark Horrorfest as one of their 8 Films To Die For. How was that experience? Did it help the film in any noticeable way?

After Dark Films, aka “Distribution Heaven and Hell.” Here’s the story, both good and bad about After Dark Horrorfest.

Nightmare Man was filmed in 2005. We finished in 2006 and screened the film at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror in Burbank for the first time. The audience loved it. A writer who was doing a story on Tiffany for Jane magazine gave the film a great review. A lot of horror websites gave the film great reviews, so myself and my parents decided to try to release the film like we did There’s Nothing Out There. So, we four-walled—which means rented—a theater in Los Angeles for a week in the beginning of August 2006. We got some really good reviews, some really bad reviews and some mixed reviews. For a horror film, that’s actually pretty good. We then hired a producer’s rep to handle and sell the film. We thought with all the good press, awards at film festivals that we had received and a limited theatrical run, Nightmare Man would be an easy sell. We also got one of the best promotion companies in Los Angeles, The Ant Farm, to create our poster and trailer. Some of their work is Lord of the Rings, The Sixth Sense, Signs, King Kong.

Whoa! Major players.

And yet a year later, we still had zero offers on the table. Horror was dead again. There was a glut in the marketplace, and without big name stars, nobody was interested. It was very disappointing as well as being a big financial loss for my parents and our few private investors. Once again, I had made next to nothing to write, direct and produce the film. It was a hard time. Even Tiffany, who loved the film, had given up on it. She wanted to just sell copies at her table at horror conventions telling me that at least a few people could see it.

She’s a real trouper.

Out of depression, I went down to San Diego Comic-Con in August 2007 to get away from all this mess and try to have some fun. Walking around the dealer’s room, I saw that After Dark Films was there promoting their upcoming second year of Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For. I know Mike Mendez, who had his Gravedancers in the first year of the festival, and wondered how they selected films. So, I went up to their booth and talked to the director of the festival, a very nice woman named Sara Finder.  She said that they have a deal with Lions Gate and go to Toronto and other festivals to find the films, but there were still some openings, and asked if I had a movie.

Of course, when trying to sell your film, always, always have a copy at your disposal. So, I handed her a DVD screener and a press kit with all our reviews, bios, awards, and she took it. I walked away happy because at least I tried. So, I called Tiffany and told her. She was…uninterested, knowing that they mostly handle bigger movies and a small $200,000 shot-on-HD movie had a slim-to-none chance of getting accepted. But I remembered the Butcher Brothers’ The Hamiltons had gotten in and that was a pretty small, no-name movie, so I thought what the hell.

When I returned to Los Angeles and told people what I had done, I got a very similar reaction. “Do you really expect After Dark to take your little film? It’s pie in the sky and a waste of time.”

Hell, it’s worth a shot, right?

I said, “Hey, if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed.” A week or so later, I received a call from a woman named Lucy at After Dark. She had my press package, but they had lost the DVD. Could I send them another one?  Sure, and I mailed it right over. At least, someone was on top of things and called. That is pretty amazing for this town.

[Laughs]

The next day I talked to my producer’s rep, who officially quit. She said nobody was buying horror. Nobody wants Nightmare Man and there’s nothing she could do. Then I spoke to MTI Video, the distribution company in Florida who had released my Alien Files, The Hazing, Pretty Cool, Pretty Cool Too and many of Tiffany’s other films as well. They loved me and loved Tiffany and passed on Nightmare Man as well.  It was true. Nobody wanted it. Lions Gate had also passed months ago.

So, the next day, I’m about to go to lunch with a friend and I send Lucy an email just to make sure she received the new DVD screener of Nightmare Man. About five minutes later, she sends me back an email that states she watched it, loved it, was showing it to other people at the company and would get back to me soon—40 minutes later, I’m at lunch and I get the phone call. After Dark wants Nightmare Man as part of their Horrorfest 2007! So, the film that nobody wanted was now about to get a 350 screen theatrical release for two weeks across America with a $10,000,000 ad campaign for prints and marketing. Lions Gate, who had passed on the film, would be releasing the DVD because they had a deal with After Dark. The Sci-Fi Channel, who had also passed on the film, would be showing it because they too had a deal with After Dark for the Horrorfest titles.

Nightmare Man proved it was the little film that could because I, the filmmaker, walked in a copy to a company at the right time and right place. Don’t let anyone tell you that luck doesn’t play a part in the film business.

It seems that luck is the most important factor in this business.

Luckily, luck was on my side in this case. And if I was answering this back in December 2007, I would say that everyone lived happily ever after. However, this is the film business that we’re talking about. So, what happened? Well, the deal was made, but there were a few stipulations in the contact. There was no MG [money guaranteed]. So we had no advance. Only a back-end deal that meant we would see money after the films made back their P&A [prints and advertising] costs for the entire festival, which means all eight of the films, including Stan Winston’s little $11,000,000 Deaths of Ian Stone epic. On top of this, we had to pay for the film’s negative/answer print. Now, since Nightmare Man had been shot on HD and projected digitally, we never bothered to make a film print. It costs a lot of money. Now, we had no choice. If we wanted to be part of Horrorfest, we had to go to film and re-mix the film with Dolby Digital to get it on the optical track. Cost for all this: an additional $50,000.

Oh man!

Well, thanks to my parents, we did it and Nightmare Man came out. The theatrical gross for the entire eight films was about $2.8 million. If this was just for Nightmare Man, we would have been delighted, but if you add up the cost of all the films, the budgets came to around $25,000,000 plus $10,000,000 for advertising, and then there’s the cost of the DVD mastering and Lions Gate’s percentage—so guess what we saw back?

In 2008, Nightmare Man got released on DVD and was one of the most successful titles of the series. To date, I believe it has made almost $6,000,000 from DVD and television. Of that $6,000,000, we—myself, my parents, producers—have seen zero and probably never will make a penny. That, unfortunately, is Hollywood.

So, even when you can get a deal, you get screwed. Gotta love showbiz.

But on the plus side, the film is everywhere and pretty well-regarded. It showed that I could make a film that could make studios money. And, I’m proud of the final result. So, that’s the distribution heaven and hell story. Will my parents ever produce another film of mine? Probably not and I can’t blame them. However, I did the best job I could and got the film sold. It was an accomplishment and, luckily, I was able to make another movie a few years later that I just finished a few months ago.

That’s right. Your latest film is a pretty straight-ahead noir piece called One in the Gun. Have you always been a fan of film noir?

Film noir is a hard genre to define. James Ellroy said the best definition of film noir is “You’re fucked.” I like the line from Double Indemity when Fred McMurray says “I did it for the money and I did it for the girl. And i didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the girl.” That’s film noir!

Well put, sir.

But truthfully, it wasn’t one of my favorite genres. I love thrillers and Hitchcock, although most Hitchcock films are not classified as film noir even though they have a lot of the elements. The way One in the Gun came around was Esther Goodstein had met an actor named Steven Man who wanted to star in and produce a film noir thriller. He had loved a Mickey Rooney noir entitled Quicksand and suggested doing a road trip noir crossed with Russian roulette. But he didn’t have a script or a director. So, Esther hooked him up with me. I found it an exciting challenge because it was a genre that I had never tried before. Tomorrow By Midnight was my only thriller with a lot of black humor.

So, I thought about it and wrote a treatment. Steve and his producing partner, Michelle, read it and loved it. So, they hired me to write and direct the movie. At the time, they wanted to make it extremely low budget and probably not SAG. I had done that before with Esther on Pretty Cool, Nightmare Man and, well, almost all of my movies, so I agreed.

I started by borrowing a lot of film noirs from my friends and found much inspiration from Detour, The Hitch-Hiker, Shock Corridor, Out of the Past and many more. We decided it should be modern, so David Lynch came into play too. A lot of people think it’s got a real Lynch-like quality, comparing it to Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway and Wild at Heart. I put in a small reference to Blue Velvet as well, along with some of “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery,” Touch of Evil and one of my favorite films, After Hours. So, I don’t know if you’d call One in the Gun a straight-ahead noir. I wanted it to start that way, but without voice-over dialogue, and then slowly spiral out of control as it turns into a weird Lynchian nightmare. The film does shift gears about half-way through and becomes a lot more interesting than you’re first led to believe. In other words, if you watch the whole movie, it might surprise you.

Yes, it definitely does shift around. Noir is a tricky genre to write well, full of twists and turns as well as certain beats that have to be hit without them seeming clichéd or precious. I think you did a pretty nice job on One in the Gun. Was it a challenge for you to write a workable noir script?

I was actually very surprised how fast I wrote it. I didn’t intend to write so quickly but the first draft came out in six and a half days. I remember when the film became SAG and we were able to cast some names like Robert Davi, James Russo and Steven Bauer. They all loved the script, and Davi told me that he had no questions or concerns because he could tell that I spent a long time writing this story. It was all there on the page. Everything made sense and he just did what was written.

[Laughs] That’s great!

In fact, Robert Davi’s first big scene in the diner/club is one of the most favorite scenes I’ve ever directed. It really has a noir feel without being a spoof or parody, and his performance was amazing. Something much more powerful than I had ever imagined it. I even told him so after we wrapped, and he responded with “Hey, you give an actor good material…” which is one of the nicest compliments I have ever received as a writer.

One in the Gun was a project that just really came together fast and well. It wasn’t easy, mind you, but after 21 days of shooting—the longest production schedule I’d had since There’s Nothing Out There almost 20 years ago—I knew I had the film in the can. Putting it together in post turned out to be slightly more difficult, but we are done—I hope—and now have entered the exciting world of distribution, film festivals and other means of torture for an independent production with no deal in place. I am hoping and praying that I don’t run into the same issues as Tomorrow By Midnight. This is a smaller budget, but we have bigger names in a slightly more commercial venture.

And Esther Goodstein, my producer, also acts in the film as Belle, the lounge singer in the bar. I had hoped to get Tiffany in the film in a small but fun role, but her schedule didn’t work out on this one. However, I think our female cast, especially our femme fatale, Katherine Randolph, does a fantastic job and she will be seen soon in a bunch of horror flicks.

Hers is one of my favorite performances actually.

Personally, Tomorrow By Midnight and One in the Gun are my two favorite films as a director because they were outside my comfort zone, and to pull that off is very exciting.

Are there other genres you haven’t worked in that you would like to tackle in the future?

Oh yes. I love musicals! I’ve tried to put musical numbers in a lot of my films. My mother was a Broadway dancer and singer, so I guess it’s in my blood. I also love Hong Kong action films. Big Jackie Chan fan. Would love to try one of those and direct a really great car chase scene someday. Just can’t do that without some real money. As I said, I would love to be making Hitchcock-type thrillers like North By Northwest, Strangers On A Train, Rear Window. And straight-out comedies would be awesome. Blonde and Blonder was my attempt to do a modern Abbott and Costello-type film, but with women. However, that turned into a disaster and of course, I didn’t direct it. So, I’d still loved to give one of those a shot.

I wish you luck. So, Rolfe, we’ve covered your past pretty thoroughly. What about the future? Are there any goals you’d like to achieve? Anything else you’ve always wanted to do, filmwise, that you haven’t yet had the chance to do?

Well, so far I have only directed films that I have written or re-written. I’m open to good material but have yet to be seriously offered anything—good or bad. Luckily, I have a lot of scripts still unproduced, and yes, I do have many goals I’d like to achieve. In my opinion, I’m still getting started. Most people in Hollywood have no idea who I am or what movies I’ve made. Making a good movie that gets mainstream distribution is one goal. I think most filmmakers share that one.  Having enough time and money to make the film that I originally set out to make is another goal. All filmmakers share that one, and I know, no matter how much time and money you have, you want more.

As for movies that I want to make, I have a few favorite scripts. Exit is a Hitchcock-ian action thriller that I’d say is a cross between Run, Lola, Run and The Fugitive. Nevermore is my tribute to Edgar Allan Poe in a modern re-telling of four of his tales interwoven as one fresh, original story.

That sounds awesome! A little nod to Corman.

It’s not an anthology. I really hope to be able to make those some day.

I also have my Tiffany Shepis projects. I wrote a splatter comedy horror script for Tiffany to make her directing debut with called The Devil’s Pies, which I would produce and supervise with Esther Goodstein. I also do have an anthology Tales From the Crypt-type of movie/television series called “Tiffany Shepis Presents Once Upon A Horror.” And I have Tiffany’s ultimate vehicle, entitled Twisted. My tagline is “If Hitchcock made a movie inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, it would be Twisted!”

Awww, that sounds too good to be true.

I have thrillers entitled Photographs and Crosswires that would be fun to make. A big-budget action parody called No-Brainer that I wrote with my friend, Gene Masse.

Those are always commercial.

Recently, I wrote some cool horror thrillers called Most Dangerous and Containment. And people still talk about a sequel to There’s Nothing Out There. I have the script. It’s called There’s Still Nothing Out There—“If you were afraid of Nothing…it’s back.” And people’s favorite: a “nature runs wild” flick called Skunks & Squirrels, with the tagline “Smell the Fear and Hide Your Nuts.” It’s my American Pie meets The Birds.

Man, you have a ton of material! So, is horror your home base, something you’ll always return to?

Actually, no. Horror was never my favorite genre. Those films scared me. It wasn’t until I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker at the age of 14 that I began really watching and studying them. I have since become a fan and watch almost every horror film that gets made. I do love the genre, but I also love comedies and thrillers. I’ve been happy and fortunate to have been able to jump around from genre to genre over the years. My last three films were Nightmare Man (horror), Pretty Cool Too (comedy) and One in the Gun (film noir thriller), so I keep mixing it up. Would I return to horror? Absolutely. Do I intend to return soon? Yes.

At the moment, I am writing seven scripts for Alain Siritzky (non-horror, although there are elements), I have a script with the company Sobini Films. It’s a horror screenplay called Terror World that will hopefully be going out to the major studios this coming February. I would love to direct it. We’ll see what happens. It takes place in a horror-themed amusement park. I also just wrote a script called Model House about a house of models who are being murdered by a mysterious killer. It’s got a “Giallo meets Agatha Christie” vibe. The producer is trying to put it together now with a reality show tie-in. I’m attached to direct and Esther [Goodstein] to produce. I brought her onto this project.

It’s all about the multi-platform marketing these days.

I also am in talks with a producer about Images of Fear, which is my “Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity” scrip—horror that is all seen through the lens of a possessed video camera. Think The Shining meets The Ring.

So, if any of these projects come together beside the Siritzky ones, I’ll be back doing horror very soon.

Since you’ve pretty much seen it all, I’m sure you have some wisdom to bestow. What advice do you have for writers or directors hoping to make a career in Hollywood?

Ah, the advice question. Always tricky to answer this without coming across as an egotistic know-it-all, but since I have been doing it for 20 years now professionally, I have learned a few things in the process that I will be more than willing to share.

Rule number one is that there are no rules in Hollywood. Do whatever it takes to get that script or movie made. If you have connections, use them. Don’t ignore good opportunities because you want to “make it on your own.” This business is all about networking, and the more people you know, the better your chances. Do whatever it takes. If you’re a moral person—and good for you, if you are—you may have more trouble. However, try your best not to kill or steal, although I can’t say that people don’t get ahead in this town by doing just that.

Bob Clark, director of Porky’s, A Christmas Story and Black Christmas, ended up directing my script Blonde and Blonder. It was shot in Canada with their tax incentive program. Insight Film Studios is a Canadian company. Pamela Anderson is Canadian. So was most of the crew. If you have enough Canadians working on a film in Canada, you can get back a chunk of your money due to the tax program. Bob Clark was from Louisiana. Despite the fact that he had made most of his films in Canada and had Canadian residency, he had been living in California for the last 10 years and [his Canadian residency] had expired. So, the producers removed Bob Clark’s name when they were shooting the film, listing one of the Canadian producers as the director. They tried to get my name off the film as well but couldn’t legally do it, so I wound up sharing screenplay credit with that Canadian producer and Pamela Anderson’s Canadian brother, Gerry. Well, Bob Clark finished directing the film and was in the process of fighting to prove his residency in Canadian so he could get his name back on the movie when he and his 22-year-old son were killed in a car crash in California. At which point, the producers removed his name completely from the film so they could get their tax break. So, after 40-plus years in the business, making some of the most influential  movies in the horror, comedy and family film genres, Bob Clark’s last directed film credit is given to someone else so a production company can get back a one- or two-million-dollar reimbursement.

Oh my god! I’d heard about this, but I didn’t know the whole story.

There you go. That’s the film business. But on a lighter note, if you can try to avoid working with crooked people, do so. This business is hard enough without all the back stabbers.

I also recommend finishing whatever you start. If you want to be a working writer and/or director, the money people have to feel you are responsible. Films cost money and they want to know their investment is in good hands. So, always follow through with your work. I never start a script that I don’t finish, even if I don’t like it along the way, which usually occurs. It’s good practice, and the more you do, the better you get and the more you learn. And when you finish, you’ll probably find that it’s not as bad as you thought it was. Plus, always remember that writing is rewriting.

Amen, brother.

You will not have a perfect script after the first pass, but if you don’t have a first draft, you don’t have anything. You need to have a finished script to shop around town. Treatments and ideas just don’t cut it anymore. They want to see a full script.

And if you get a chance to make your movie, have another script ready for meetings with companies and producers. I can’t tell you how many filmmakers make a movie, get a meeting and are asked, “What’s next?” and they don’t have a follow-up project. They just expect to be handed one by the studio or producer. That almost never happens. In fact, try to have multiple scripts ready to pitch.

As you obviously do. The amount of projects you have ready is amazing.

The more irons you have in the fire, the better. I almost always have four or five different projects that I’m working on or developing, because most of them will fall through. If you have all your eggs in one basket, you are really limiting your chances.

Fight the right battles. There will be compromises along the way. Fact of life. Once your script is in the production line, changes will be made due to budget, time, actors, producers, locations, weather, crew, insanity, bad judgment calls, stupidity, bad taste, good taste, studio politics, people in bad moods, etc. You can’t fight them all. The key is picking the right battles to stand up for what’s really important.

Yeah, movies are probably the most collaborative art form, for better or worse—usually worse.

Which brings me to my next point: Watch movies about the movie business. Most of them are comedies and may be slightly exaggerated—but only slightly! What you think is a satire is actually mostly true. These movies are made to help filmmakers keep their sanity. So, here is my suggested list and some should be watched at least once a year, just to remind yourself, “It isn’t brain surgery. It’s only the movie business…only the movie business…only the movie business.”

[Laughs] What’cha got?

Recommended: The Player, The Big Picture, Hijacking Hollywood, Tinseltown, Art House, Living in Oblivion, The Last Shot, L.A. Story, What Just Happened?, Wag the Dog, Movie Crazy, Noises Off, The Stunt Man, The Sinister Saga of the Making of The Stunt Man, And God Spoke, Sullivan’s Travels, The Party, S.O.B., American Movie, Hit and Runway, The TV Set, Adaptation, The Amateurs, the short-lived television series Action and The Business, and pay close attention to the final speech the food critic gives at the end of Ratatouille.

Which leads me the next point: Don’t pay too much attention to critics. If you can avoid reading reviews of your work, even better. Everyone is a critic now, and remember that accomplishing a movie or script is a great feat in itself. If everyone could do it, they would, but they can’t so they knock other people’s work. You can go into a state of deep depression if you read and listen to everything on the internet. All movies have their detractors. You can find ratings of “1” on every single movie on the IMDb—even some of the greatest movies ever made. You can’t appeal to everyone, so don’t even try.

That’s so true. Anything else?

Make the best movie or script that you can. I’ve been told to write what you know. Well, I think that’s partially true, but a good imagination is also key. Otherwise, where would science fiction and horror movies be? So, write what you like and hopefully others will like it too.

Good point!

Well, I think I’ve rambled long enough. And keep in mind, these are just one person’s opinions. Do whatever works for you. For me, it’s been somewhat successful, but I’ve still got a long way to go. Last piece of advice: Try to enjoy the journey, because that’s really what it’s all about.

Truer words have never been spoken.  I gotta say, this interview has been a very enlightening experience. I want to thank you for your time and candor, Rolfe. And next time I’m in town, I’ll call you. See, I have this script…KIDDING. (Sorta.)

~Theron Neel