Interview with directors Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer
GVK: What is the Background and setting of the film?
Michael: It is a vampire movie, a story about a group of vampire hunters, who slowly become the evil they wanted to fight. We found it interesting to show how the war between vampires and hunters changes the opponents on both sides, and how blind they become for a much greater danger.
Peter: We tried to tell not a usual vampire story. So it’s not so much about getting bitten by vampires but the moral fight between good and evil.
GVK: What can you tell me about your greatest challenges and greatest moments making the film?
Peter: The greatest challenge was the budget. We had only a very small budget, a few hundred thousand Dollars, what is less then the catering budget on most bigger movies. With this budget we could only afford 12 shooting days, so the biggest challenges were budget and time.
Michael: The greatest moments were to see the movie to come alive, with great actors like Victoria Pratt, Sid Haig and Ken Foree in the lead roles.
We wanted to make this movie for years, and to finally see it becoming reality on the sound stage – this was great.
GVK: What drew you to making this film and what are some other games you would be interested in bringing to the screen?
Michael: We wanted to tell the story, as film makers and as horror fans, and we knew it was a movie we could do even with a lower budget, so it was perfect for our first movie as directors.
Peter: We are glad that the audience and the distributors like the movie as well. It was really an honor that Sam Raimi picked the movie for his new label Ghost House Underground at Lionsgate.
GVK: Can you tell the readers please what was working with the cast and a bit about their characters?
Peter: The cast was great, they were all very prepared, extremely professional. This was very important. On a 12-day-shoot there is very little time for discussions or big rehearsals.
Michael: It was a very tough shooting, but our cast never complained. For example, we needed to chain Ken Foree to a very uncomfortable wooden table, for 5 days, 12 hours a day, and he never complained.
GVK: Can you talk about the design of the film in regards to the sets and the look of the creatures and how this changed from concept to filming?
Michael: We had a very good production designer, Tom Hallbauer, who designed all the creepy sets. We build it on the same sound sound stage were director David Lynch shot his movie “Inland Empire” before. We used even parts of his sets.
Peter: The vampires in our movie look like classic vampires, so there were no big change from concept to filming. In post we did a lot of color grading to have a nice desaturated look.
GVK: Would you classify the film as horror or action, and what challenges did the action sequences in this film possess?
Peter: It´s more like an horror thriller. We have not too much action in the movie, due to our small budget.
Michael: Action scenes take much time, so you can´t really do it on a small budget, or they will look crappy. So we wrote it more as a horror thriller.
GVK: What projects are you working on next and which films and games are you most looking forward to?
Michael: We´re working on a new horror movie, with a bigger budget. We also work on an idea for an action movie.
Films I´m looking forward to are the new James Bond movie, “Quantum of Solace”, and “Repo”, with Bill Moseley, who was in our movie “Alone in the Dark 2”. “Repo” is a horror musical, which is a really interesting combination, so I´m curious to see it. I´m also looking forward to the new James Cameron movie, “Avatar”.
Peter: Yes, “Avator” is a really cool project. I’m looking forward to it.
Interview with Sid Haig
GVK: What attracted you to the film?
I liked the story, and I had never played a Vampire.
GVK: What sort of preparations did you do for the film?
I had little time to prepare for anything. I just tried to think of what the character was feeling at the time.
GVK: What do you hope that audiences will take away from the movie?
I just hope they like what they see.
GVK: What drew you to acting, and what was your big break?
Acting was just a natural progression for me. I started as a dancer when I was six
or seven years old, and getting paid for it. Then in the late fifties I had a rock
band called The T -Birds and recorded six singles for Keen records (Sam Cooke’s label) and from there into acting.
GVK: What were some of the stand out moments you had while filming?
I was working so fast the only thing that stood out was the amount of dialogue
that I had to deliver in just ten hours of shooting.
GVK: You have had a long career that features many horror films. What are some of the horror films that influenced you?
The original House of Wax. It was one of the first 3D films and I saw it opening night on the big screen.
GVK: Where was the film shot and how long was the production?
We shot it in the San Fernando Valley in about twelve days.
GVK: What can you tell the readers about your character and the action in the film?
I play Pashek, an 800 year old vampire, who is basically on the run from
the most evil of Vampires, Vlad Kossei.
GVK: What do you have upcoming that the readers can look for you in?
I made a big role change in a film called “Little Big Top”, which is a dramatic comedy and comes to DVD on November 4th.
I also did a film called “Razor” which is supposed to be released in January. And an Internet series called “Chadam” written by Alex Pardee should be running relatively soon.
Interview with Ken Foree
GVK: What attracted you to the film?
KF: The chance to play an evil character.
GVK: What sort of preparations did you do for the film?
KF: We all have had times in our lives that we have been misunderstood and faced seemingly insurmountable odds.
GVK: What do you hope that audiences will take away from the movie?
KF: The subculture still surrounds us.
GVK: What drew you to acting, and what was your big break?
KF: Off Broadway. A play call “Blues for Mister Charlie”
GVK: What were some of the stand out moments you had while filming?
KF: The sound mixer leaving his equipment and disappearing was quite strange. I thing the limited budget and the remarkable job by Peter and Michael to tell the story and produce a quality film.
GVK: You have had a long career that features many horror films. What are some of the horror films that influenced you?
KF: Invasion from Mars, Them, Godzilla, The Wolf Man, to name a few.
GVK: Where was the film shot and how long was the production?
KF: In Northridge California and it took about three weeks to shoot it.
GVK: What can you tell the readers about your character and the action in the film?
KF: Stanis is a Vampire who leads a separate sect in the vampire community that is at odds with the sect lead by Vlad. Stanis and his group want to engage humanity with the possibility of co-exsistance of creatures who lust for blood and the living world. So he is at war with two groups, the truly evil vampires and the vampire hunters who consider Stanis and his following just a bunch of sick blood suckers with no redeeming qualities.
GVK: What do you have upcoming that the readers can look for you in?
KF: I’m waiting to see a few films that I shot this year. When I get a look at them I’ll post the information on my web site. Some of the titles are ‘Brutal Massacre” “Splatter Disco” “Zone of the Dead” “Cut Print” “Dead Bones”
