Deadheads – DVD Release and Interview with Brett Pierce

Back in October of last year I attended the Toronto After Dark Film Festival for the first time. 2011 was also my first year as a film blogger, and I was struggling with writing reviews for films that weren’t all that great, but weren’t terrible either. It was a cinch to write positive reviews, but going into Deadheads I thought I was going to be for a tough night at the office. I mean a zombie\buddy\roadtrip movie? Really? I would have had more faith if Joe Dante was at the helm for what was sure to be a horror\comedy, but he was nowhere to be found. Instead, the movie was made by a couple of guys making their first feature who called themselves the Pierce Brothers (Brett and Drew).

Fortunately, Deadheads didn’t feel like a first feature at all! In fact, it turned out to be one of the highlights at the festival for many audience memebers, evidenced by the Bronze audience award Deadheads took home. The list of Deadheads fans would also have to include myself; check out my review. Although Deadheads is a bit of a bizarre genre mash-up, the Pierce brothers have managed to make it work wonderfully, and any self-respecting horror\comedy fan needs to check out this movie.

Below is an interview with half of the writer\director team that made Deadheads, Brett Pierce, and information about the DVD release so you can go on a zombie roadtrip of your own!

Order Deadheads at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/DeadHeads-Michael-McKiddy/dp/B007A2NREM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330753654&sr=8-1

INTERVIEW WITH BRETT PIERCE

Deadheads was one of the best movies at Toronto After Dark 2011, garnering the bronze fan award. What’s it been like to write and direct your first feature aside your brother Drew and get this kind of positive response?

Brett: We feel incredibly lucky. When we completed principal photography on DEADHEADS we had blown the entire budget and had zero idea how we were going to complete post production. On top of that, Drew and I were beyond broke. We came back from Michigan to LA after the shoot with pennies in our pockets and maxed out credit cards. We took low paying production assistant jobs because that was all we could get. It was dark days and we had no idea how we were going to finish the film, but were unreasonably optimistic and just refused to give up. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I laughed but I think that was the insanity kicking in. To be at this point is a dream.

Horror comedies have to be one of the most difficult genres to get right, they often miss the mark. Why do you think you were successful with a zombie\buddy\roadtrip movie? On paper it seems like such a bizarre concept.

Brett: I think it works because Drew and I were so dead set on making the characters relatable. I think in Hollywood everyone is obsessed with the pitch or the concept but I could care less about that as long as I’m hooked on the characters. If you make the most interesting and endearing tale about cricket playing ninja rhinos, I’ll watch, and then buy your action figure with rhino ninja sword swinging action.  Drew and I were just so excited about the idea of zombies on a road trip. It screamed fun to us and we agonized on how to make such a ridiculous idea work as a comedy but also something an audience could relate to. It’s about a guy trying to find his long lost love but in our case it’s zombie love.

You had such a great cast to work with, Michael McKiddy, Ross Kidder, and Markus Taylor (to name a few), what was it like to work with these guys?

Brett: It was a party in a way.  We’re all friends and we all went through this crazy ride together and as stressful as it was on a daily basis, we all knew we were  exactly where we wanted to be. Mike, Ross, and Markus are just the guys you dream of working with your whole life as a filmmaker. Most of our shoots we’re a minimum of 14 hours and in a lot of cases it went up to 20. When actors stick through that kind of hell with you and still deliver 100% on every take, you know you cast the right people. I remember one instance, we were shooting at this abandoned bar for nearly a week and it was our last night there. We had just wrapped after like 18 hours and the sun was coming up. Drew and I we’re exhausted but the bar was trashed from shooting so we’re in there with the crew wiping down walls and sweeping the floor. I remember looking up and seeing that all the cast from that night and, some that weren’t shooting that evening, were all there cleaning and packing up. There was no division between cast and crew. It was all just good people.

What do we need to know about the DVD\BLU-RAY release for Deadheads? When and where can we get it?

Brett: Everything comes out on March 6th. The DVD contains a full length director’s commentary from the brother and I as well as two behind the scenes feauturettes. You can actually order it directly from Amazon.com:

Order Deadheads here!

DeadHeads is also available for purchase on ITunes, and the Playstation Network. It will also be available for rent at Blockbuster and all major Video on Demand cable services. Whew, I sound like an advertisement. “Order now!”

Which horror movies have helped you get to this point in your career?

Brett: Well Evil Dead was the biggie for Drew and I but that’s because we grew up amid the production of it. We had a film crew staying in our mother’s house running up her electric bill and eating all her food so it made us feel confident we could do that to mom again when we shot DEADHEADS. Inspiration wise I would say John Carpenter had a huge effect on us. Halloween and The Thing are just so damn perfect it makes me want to cry. Poltergeist and American Werewolf in London are favorites too. As specific to DEADHEADS though I would say it owes a lot to The Goonies, Back to the Future, Gremlins and kind of the Amblin era of the 80’s.

What’s up next for the Pierce brothers? Another horror themed film?

Brett: Horror that will rip your face in two! Ha!  We’re working on a very creepy adventure flick that’s all tied into Halloween myths and Irish mythology. We’re steering more towards a scary Indiana Jones type story this time. We love adventure films, but were very excited to experiment with building tension with the more horrific elements of the story. We love movies that take place during All Hallow’s Eve. It’s the one night of the year when the spirit is closest to ours so that opens the door for all sorts of demented ideas.

Project X Review (Kirk Haviland)

Project X (2012)

Starring Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown

Written by Matt Drake and Michael Bacall

Directed by Nima Nourizadeh

 

The “big party” has been the focus of many films before; in fact each decade seems to possess its own high point in the genre. Be it Animal House in the 70’s, Revenge of the Nerds and House Party in the 80’s, American Pie in the 90’s, and Superbad in the last 10 years, each of these films possessed endearing characters that we could follow throughout whatever wild antics ensued. Project X really wants to be in this group; they want to be “the” party movie for this generation. In the end, while I give it points for ambition, it falls a little short in execution.

Thomas’ (Mann) parents are leaving for the weekend, on the same day as his birthday, and entrusting the house to him. While Thomas wants desperately to have a party in order to establish himself to the “cool” kids he is currently ostracized from, he also wants to protect his parents’ trust and keep the volume of the party reasonable. This however is not the plan of Costa (Cooper), Thomas’ best friend, who is determined to make the two of them and their other friend J.B. (Brown) the talk of the entire school. This leads Costa to invite everybody in the school and neighborhood, even going as far as posting the event on Craigslist. He hires “security” for the party in the form of a couple of younger kids, who end up with some of the funniest sequences in the entire film, and who naturally become less effective as the night carries on. Before the chaos begins we see the trio with Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton), the proverbial hot girl who Thomas has been friends with since they were small kids and will inevitably end up hooking up by the end of the night. We’ve seen this before, in fact most of Project X we’ve seen before. When everybody ends up showing up in the thousands, people of all ages, the party quickly devolves to chaos. The entire film is shot “found footage” style with all the clips from various types of camera are spliced together to create the film.

While we have seen most of this before there were some things I had to admire. Firstly, the toll of the evening is shown on the faces and attire of the leads throughout the night, nobody is still “fresh as a daisy” at 3am after drinking constantly. The wear and tear of the evening can be seen visually and felt through the characters as the film goes on. Secondly, I had to admire the “nothing is too big/crazy” mentality of the filmmakers; this film goes well over the top and keeps going for more. And of course the film comes down to its leads, who do a decent job in carrying the film, though they lack in  character development and as such are less memorable than characters in the movies I talked about prior.

Project X is hardly a film to dissect fully; the film has plot holes big enough to drive one of those new TTC rocket trains through, but if you can turn the analytical part of the “grey matter” off and focus on having a good time with the film you probably will. One unfortunate part of this film is the lack of a follow-up afterwards; the kids cause nearly 1 million in damages and get away with the most lenient of penalties. This fact and the chatter overheard from the younger parts in attendance at the screening, lead me to believe that someone will try to reenact the events of the film at some point in time. The film is loosely based on a house party thrown by a kid in Australia that caused $20,000 in damage, yet ended up without any arrests. If this happens I only hope my apartment isn’t trashed like everything is in this film! Overall not a wasted outing to the theater, but also not something you’re likely to be talking about a week later.

Admittedly I am not the target audience for this film and the high school/college crowd will probably find more to love about Project X, and that is great. My advice to them is to seek out the films I talked about at the beginning of this review if they have not seen them. I would hope they can then see that Project X is merely standing on the shoulders of these classic films, but not quite joining them as an equal.

Til Next Time

Kirk “Movie Junkie TO” Haviland

follow me on twitter @moviejunkieTO

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Father’s Day – Interview with Mackenzie Robert Royal Murdock (Fuchman)

Fuchman

Toronto After Dark 2011 had plenty of films to be excited about, but one in particular soared past reasonable expectations in my opinion. Father’s Day, which looked good for a laugh for two, took the audience and reviewers by storm (my review here). Now I didn’t know quite what to think of Father’s Day after I saw it, but it has matured in my mind like a fine wine and I can’t wait to watch it again. There are so many soon to be classic scenes in it, but one highlight in particular was the fearsome Fuchman played by Mackenzie Robert Royal Murdock.

It brings me great pleasure to have such a special interview being posted at Entertainment Maven today. He played one of the most evil characters I have ever seen on the screen, but he’s really quite a nice fellow. For your reading enjoyment, it’s time to get up close and personal with Mackenzie…err, I mean MORE up close and personal…or up close and personal again.

Oh just watch Father’s Day and you’ll know what I’m trying to say.

Mackenzie

Father’s Day has enjoyed enormous critical success so far, what has it been like to be part of a film this well received? Has it been a wild ride so far?

Just making the movie to begin with was a blast all by itself, but being able to read all these great reviews, or to be able to sit in a theatre full of people going absolutely bonkers for it is pretty much the greatest feeling in the world.

So far it’s been the wildest ride of my life! Before the movie came out it was only in my wildest dreams that I could imagine being surrounded by complete strangers actually asking me for autographs!

What was it like to play one of the most villainous characters to appear on the big-screen in 2011?

So much fun! Especially because Fuchman isn’t some “misunderstood soul” or some bullshit like that. He’s a guy who kills people because, fuck it, he’s evil. And I love that. I love that he’s a throwback bad guy, and not some angst-ridden emo bitch with daddy issues.

I mean seriously, whatever happened to the great movie villains who are evil for the sake of being evil? Whatever happened to guys like General Zod and Ernst Stravo Blofeld? I miss those guys.

Father’s day is full of nudity and violence, particularly in Fuchman’s attack/rape scenes, assuming that you are nothing like Fuchman in real-life (we hope), were these scenes difficult for you as an actor?

Back when we first did the rape scenes for the fake trailer it was absolutely terrifying. I spent maybe five minutes psyching myself up in the bathroom, with Adam constantly double checking with me if I was certain that I really wanted to do this. That first time, everyone was treating the shoot with kid gloves.

By the end of the feature though, I found I could drop my pants on command, no hesitation.

Was one particular scene more challenging than the rest?

Not really. They all presented their own challenges. For example, for the car chase I had to learn how to drive a standard ten minutes before my first shot!

Another good one is the dam, because I’ve always had this serious fear of heights, so being in a position where I can easily fall to death was pretty tough to deal with. Thankfully, just like the nakedness issue, I managed to more or less overcome my fear, thanks in large part to the other guys cheering me on.

What was it like working with the Astron-6 guys?

An absolute blast. These guys have a perfect balance of professionalism, humour, and kindness. They expect your best, but not the impossible, and they always know how to get it out of you.

Plus, we all share a love for the same brand of films and filmmaking, so it was pretty cool being surrounded by the only five guys in the city who could not only understand all of my pop culture references, but could even one-up me!

Given the content of their films, I would expect that working with them on set would be anything but normal. Do they act as you would expect filmmakers to act on set, or is there a degree of zaniness on set that separates them from everyone else?

Actually, they’re very professional. They joke around, sure, but the movie always comes first. And yes, there was some zaniness to be had, but that’s how their minds work: always coming up with new ideas. It really is astounding how much of the film is just random stuff they thought of while on set.

What are some of the movies that have been most important to you in making a decision to pursue a career in the film biz?

Believe it or not, but if I had to really think about it, I’d probably say it’s Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher. I honestly don’t know why, but that movie had a tremendous emotional impact on me. I guess it makes more sense if you consider that I originally dreamed of being a comic book artist when I was a kid, but still, how any people openly admit that Dolph Lundgren inspired them to take up acting?

What’s on the horizon for Mackenzie Robert Royal Murdock?

At the moment I’ve just finished training for a customer service job which will put money in my pocket until I can get some paying acting gigs. Winnipeg’s film community is having a bit of a dry-spell at the moment, so right now the plan is to move out in a couple months and seek greener pastures.

Will we be seeing you back in Toronto any time soon, perhaps for Toronto After Dark 2012?

Nothing planned just yet, but I’d love to come back! The première at Toronto After Dark still ranks in my mind as one of the single greatest nights in my life!

Goon Review (Kirk Haviland)

Goon (2012)

Starring – Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Liev Schrieber and Alison Pill.

Written by Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg

Directed by Micheal Dowse

Editor’s note: Just a quick bit of information. Since the publication of this review, we have heard from Alliance and they confirmed that there was in fact no Q&A after the screening. Sorry for any confusion.

Hello Folks,

Sports movies are a tricky thing, but when someone gets it right they can become some of our most cherished classics. Movies like Slapshot, Rudy, Raging Bull, Major League, Field of Dreams, Hoosiers, and the recent Moneyball have all succeeded in crossing over from mere film to part cultural phenomenon. Phrases like “just a bit outside” and “putting on the foil coach” are immediately recognizable to sports and movie fans alike. Standing in a crowd of strangers and starting a slow chant of “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy” may not help convince people of your sanity, but I can almost guarantee over 50% of the people in that group will know what the chant means. This recognition is also what leads to the downfall of most sports film out there. They are either rehashes of the same premises or they focus too much on trying to do everything about the sport “right on film” that they lack in story and character. The reason the most successful of sports films become a success is because they don’t try to focus on the sport as a whole, rather a strong story within the context of the sport. This is why Goon works. It doesn’t try to explain hockey for what it is and why it is, it just wants to tell the story of a guy who loves to fight and stand up for his teammates.

Doug Glatt (Scott) is a simpleminded bouncer who just simply wants to belong to something. His parents and brother are successful in their careers and even his best friend Pat (Baruchel) has his own call in a T.V. show about hockey, “Hot Ice”. Doug’s life changes when he goes to a local game with Pat.  When a hockey player climbs into the stands after Doug, he knocks him unconscious. Doug is quickly given the moniker “the thug” and recruited by the local coach to play for the team. He is taught the fundamentals in the familiar “training montage” after he beats up over half his own team in one of the funnier moments of the film. It’s not long before he is moving up from the local team to a “national league just one step from the pros”, the films equivalent of the AHL, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He’s there to protect the team’s star, Xavier LaFlamme (Marc-Andre Grondin),  who is skittish about everything on the ice after getting knocked out  and concussed by the league’s veteran tough guy, Ross “the boss” Rhea (Schrieber). During the course of his time in Halifax he also finds love with self professed “slut and bad girlfriend” Eva (Pill). It all leads up to the inevitable showdown for the last playoff spot and the big fight everyone is waiting for.

It may sound too much like your typical sports themes, but writers Baruchel and Goldberg get creative within the conventions of a story like this and resolve the “issues” of the film in creative ways. Scott is clearly the focus of the film and he truly does bring a likeable charm to a role somewhat unlike anything else he has done. You find yourself drawn to cheer and root for Doug throughout the film. Alison Pill steals almost every scene she’s in and is absolutely stunning throughout. She is still one of my favorite parts of Scott Pilgrim (forget Ramona, I’d take Kim P, ……or Knives!) and at this point has me buying into whatever her next project is…blind. Schrieber as the grizzled veteran is an inspired choice and shines, especially during the “Heat” inspired diner scene between Doug and Ross.  Director Micheal Dowse does a solid job rustling all the big personalities into solid performances. We were also told during the film’s introduction that he had the creative ingenuity to configure a dolly rig on skates to get closer to the action.

We were lucky enough to have the Director and three of the main cast, Baruchel, Schrieber and Scott there to present the film. Alas, I was in the wrong theater from a Q&A standpoint as the other theater got that (I could be wrong but it was put forward that the other theater was mainly Industry/Media and the other theater was for contest winners like me, thus the lack of Q&A). This wasn’t too much of an upset as my friend, TO filmmaker Justin McConnell, and I both enjoyed the film regardless. Justin, along with making his own films, curates a short film program in Toronto that I will be discussing in a couple of weeks.

Cast Photo

Overall, Goon is just a good hockey movie, which is all the filmmakers wanted to do. It may not be the funniest or most heartfelt or even the best sports movie we see all year, but it’s earned a spot on my shelf when it hits Blu-Ray. A truly fun night out at the cinema.

Opens Friday Feb 24th in theaters across Canada and on VOD in the US.

Til Next Time

Kirk “Movie Junkie TO” Haviland

follow me on twitter @moviejunkieTO

Like Entertainment Maven on Facebook.

The Cat o’ Nine Tails Review – Dario Argento

The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971)

Writer and director – Dario Argento, Luigi Collo, and others

Cast – James Franciscus, Karl Malden, and Catherine Spaak

It appears that my foray into the world of Dario Argento has turned from a brief visit into something of a habit. I respect the work of Argento, particularly Supiria, Inferno, Phenomena, and what he has done for horror cinema, but I’m not necessarily what you could call a ‘fan’. His films often remind me of bad dreams, or true nightmares, which is a complement, but at the same time they are often devoid of a coherent plot or character actions, which I’m a bit of a stickler for. That said, in the past two weeks I have developed a weird sort of bond with his work: getting used to living in Nice, France and battling jet-lag, it has become a bizarre ritual for me to wake up in the wee hours of the morning and watch some early Argento on my lap-top while my girlfriend continues to sleep. My odd European life feels akin to the emotions stirred up by the Maestro of Italian horror cinema, Dario Argento. Last time I brought you a review of his first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. This time I’ll talk about his second film, which came out a year later in 1971, The Cat O’ Nine Tails.

The film is true to Argento’s reoccurring plot in many regards: a killer is stalking victims for some unknown reason, razors and switchblades are weapons of choice, and the killer speaks in a menacing whisper. However, this is where the similarities stop and Cat O’ Nine Tails becomes something refreshingly different from typical Argento Fare. The central characters are an unlikely group of heros: a young journalist, an old blind man, and his 10-year old child (granddaughter?). The killings surround a supposed theft at a secretive genetic research lab which contains many documents which could be incredibly valuable in the right hands. Finally, while razors and knives do make their necessary appearances, the killer’s weapon of choice is a thin whip used for strangulation, like I said, not typical Argento.

The above differences aside, Cat O’ Nine Tails relies less on the typical visual flare of Argento, in fact I may not have guessed that Argento made this film if I didn’t know so beforehand. In fact, plot and a building a sense of mystery are the focal points. While it would have been great to have my cake and eat it too (the visual flair of Argento combined with a competent story), it was hugely surprising and very rewarding to see Argento competently handle a mystery plot, maybe not like a master, but certainly not like an amateur. It should also be mentioned that I watched the film in Italian with subtitles, so this combination in itself probably made the film more tolerable, rather than the horrendous English dubbing that is present in most of his early films.

Give The Cat O’ Nine Tails a chance, if only to see Argento do something slightly different. I don’t know if I will be able to keep this up for Argento’s entire filmography, but I have every intention of making it to Deep Red (1975), which many consider one of his best films and the greatest Giallo film of all time, although I’m not sure if I agree with them.