Director Interview: Dave Campfield
By Jonathan Stryker

When I met director Dave Campfield at a horror film convention recently, I was impressed with his knowledge of and his appreciation for the genre.  Having made DARK CHAMBER, a tale of deception and surveillance that is available on DVD which features Felissa Rose and Desiree Gould, both of SLEEPAWAY CAMP fame, I had the opportunity to see his latest effort, CAESAR AND OTTO'S SUMMER CAMP MASSACRE, which is quite frankly one of the funniest horror film parodies that I have seen thus far.  Available on DVD from Amazon.com, CAESAR AND OTTO'S SUMMER CAMP MASSACRE is everything that the title says it is and contains hilarious performances from a talented cast all around. 

The film gives us Caesar (played in an engaging performance by director Campfield), a crazy wannabe tough guy and Otto (Paul Chomicki), his half brother who is a bit of a dope but not a bad guy.  After a series of misadventures they find themselves in a summer camp and try out to be camp counselors with other equally out-of-place wackos.  Veteran actors Joe Estevez, Brinke Stevens, and Felissa Rose star, and just about every scene in the film has a joke or funny reference to other horror films.  I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions, and highly recommend the film for purchase.

There is plenty of blood to go around in addition to the jokes and a wealth of extras to boot:

* Commentary with Director Dave Campfield, and co-story writer Brendan Smith

* Commentary with costars Paul Chomicki, Ken Macfarlane, Summer Ferguson, Avi Garg, and FX artists Rich Calderon

* Commentary with Director Dave Campfield, co-star Deron Miller and Brain Bonelli

* Behind the Massacre (14 minutes)

* 25 Minutes with Joe Estevez (exclusive interview)

* Alternate and Deleted Scenes (4 minutes)

* Trailer Vault

* "Caesar and Otto's Deadly Xmas" preview

* 4 Easter Eggs

* Bonus short film: "Caesar and Otto Meet Dracula's Lawyer" (16 minutes)

I spoke recently with director Campfield, who was a lot of fun to talk to about his film and love of the cinema.   

Jonathan Stryker: Where were your born and raised?

Dave Campfield: I come from central Long Island. And yeah, I was pretty much considered an outcast right from the beginning. When other kids were out playing sports, I spent my time indoors writing fiction...badly  (Laughs) I kept fantasizing about different movies I could shoot on Super-8 film, plays I could perform, or even self-made amusement parks I could entertain the locals with. 

Jonathan Stryker: And when did your love of horror begin?

Dave Campfield: It started with my first trip to a haunted house when I was six years-old.  It was across town at the local church's bazaar. I was terrified and couldn't even make it through, but I loved every second of it!  Similarly, when I saw a gutted version of THE SHINING playing on television, I was simultaneously repulsed and compelled. Guess I've always been attracted to the macabre. 

            Going to the movies as a young child was such a life-altering experience for me. It started with a rerelease of STAR WARS, which could be said for a lot of filmmakers. I was just so enamored with the whole moviegoing experience that I knew even from an early age that this was what I wanted to pursue, come hell or high water. 

Jonathan Stryker: Why do you think STAR WARS had such an impact?

Dave Campfield:  I think it has to do with the overall spectacle of the film, being able to identify with the hopeful lead character.  STAR WARS consists of so many different ideas woven into this one very accessible space opera.  The music plays a big part in that as well.  It's very operatic and spectacular.  For anyone who has a love of all of those different components, the film really resonates for them.

Jonathan Stryker: Would you say that the film was a visceral experience for you?

Dave Campfield:  Absolutely.  Sure, action films are faster paced today, but STAR WARS had action and intensity, which was there not just due to the presence of action, but also because of the audiences' complete involvement in the story.

Jonathan Stryker: STAR WARS was a pivotal film for myself as well, and it was also the first movie that I went back to see more than once.  By the time I left the movie theater after having seen it the first time, I was convinced that I was Han Solo.  Did you have a similar experience?

Dave Campfield: Well, I was obviously too young to get to the theater on my own, but I just begged at every opportunity to go back and see this movie!  I think that most of us really identify with Luke Skywalker but aspire to be Han Solo.

Jonathan Stryker: Oh absolutely.  There are a lot of people out there who go to see a movie and to them it's just a little slice of entertainment.  For people like you and myself, the film is much more than that.

Dave Campfield: When I go see a movie, I'll be digesting that film for days afterwards, thinking about it from different perspectives.  I'll be thinking about what I liked about it, and when I didn't like about it, and what made it distinctive and memorable. 

Jonathan Stryker: Did you ever see any films when you were very young that really left a deep impression on you and frightened you?

Dave Campfield: Oh, yeah!  The opening of the lost ark sequence in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was very frightening to me.  That, of course, wasn't a horror film, but was traumatic nonetheless.

 

Jonathan Stryker:  Where did you see the bulk of the horror movies that you grew up watching?

Dave Campfield: All the horror movies I saw, I watched when they were on network television.  They were complete with commercial interruptions and were edited down for television.  I didn't really get to see a horror movie in a theater until SCREAM came out.

Jonathan Stryker: I was the same way.  In the early 1980's, a VCR was very expensive, so I relied on television network showings of BURNT OFFERINGS, THE EXORCIST, TOURIST TRAP, PSYCHO, etc.  It really was the only way to see these movies.  Plus, even if we did have a VCR, it would have been impossible to rent those films.  My parents didn't want me watching this stuff!  

Dave Campfield:  HALLOWEEN was a pivotal film for me, even in its edited form. But as I revisit HALLOWEEN, it's almost like revisiting Disney World as an adult, which is to say that things that I found to be absolutely frightening as a child, when I look back on them from an adult perspective they seem a little bit silly.  Through an adult's eyes, you can see the strings holding up the props.  Without taking anything away from the filmmakers, seeing those films as a child, there isn't anything more frightening than that.

Jonathan Stryker:  In elementary school, there were short films that our teachers used to show us that were truly bizarre.  One of them was called WINTER OF THE WITCH, which was about a young boy and his mother moving into a dilapidated mansion in the country.  In the attic lives a witch who has lived there for many, many years and teaches them how to make the world's best blueberry pancakes.  It's a crazy story, but even though it took place in a spooky surrounding it was a favorite of mine.  Did you ever see any children's movies that you liked or that kind of freaked you out?

Dave Campfield:  Yes, there was a film about tooth decay called THE HAUNTED MOUTH which you can see on Youtube.  It was very frightening to me as a kid, believe it or not.  But hey, kids scare easily! 

Jonathan Stryker: In your pursuit of making movies, did you always want to make horror films?

David Campfield:  I wanted to make every type of movie I could, with the exception of musicals.  I was never a musical theater kind of guy; that was never my strength.  I mean, I'm happy to watch one, but I've had no interest or passion about making one. 

Jonathan Stryker:  Before you made the hilarious comedy CAESAR AND OTTO'S CAMP MASSACRE, what movies did you make?  What was the first movie that you made?

David Campfield:  Well, I started out doing sketches on audiotapes when I was a kid.  Comedy sketches and skits, and those were kind of a springboard into movies.  My first film was called HOLMES AND WATSON'S FIRST CASE.  Sherlock Holmes is thirteen years-old.  It's much more in the Caesar and Otto vein and was shot entirely in my basement, on my brother's friend's camcorder.  The basic plot concerns Sherlock Holmes unable to pay the rent in a boiler room.  At a certain point in the movie, the film starts to break down and lose its cohesiveness.  When I finally got the money to buy a camcorder, though, there was no stopping me in my pursuit of making films.  When I was growing up, I didn't have a lot of friends.  So I generally star in the movies and play multiple characters in the same films.  When other guys were going out on Friday nights getting drunk in parking lots, I was at home making these crazy movies.

            After that, I tried to get a full-length film off the ground.  I was in college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I found myself unable to focus on what I had to do.  I had written a script that managed to catch the attention of some Hollywood agents, and I even had a meeting with New Line Cinema right after dropping out of college.  And we went back and forth, and I spent two or three years working on the script as it remained in limbo. Instead, I decided to make another, smaller scale script that I had written.  I raised some local funding from my job, and people I knew, and that was how DARK CHAMBER came to be.  DARK CHAMBER began under the title of UNDER SURVEILLANCE, and we started shooting in 2002 and wrapped four years later. There were so many starts and stops to the film, but I was dedicated to making the film I set out to shoot.  Ironically, if I had shot the movie just a year or two later, I would've have access to much better cameras due to emerging HD technologies.  But, let's just call it a learning experience!

Jonathan Stryker:  How did you come to cast Felissa Rose in this film?

Dave Campfield: I actually had not seen SLEEPAWAY CAMP at the time that I made this movie.  So, Felissa was a complete unknown to me.  I met her on the set of a commercial that we were both casting on, and she was very nice.  So, I told her about a low-budget independent film I was making and she told me that I should give her the opportunity to be in it.  So, I started doing research on her and read about her role in SLEEPAWAY CAMP.  Since then, we've developed a very good friendship and working relationship.  Meet her led to meeting other actors such as Desiree Gould who appears in DARK CHAMBER. 

 

Jonathan Stryker:  What did making this film as a feature-length project teach you about filmmaking?

Dave Campfield: It taught me how to be more efficient, and how to make a movie for less money.  DARK CHAMBER cost roughly $30,000 to make, but I probably could've done it for $11,000.00 or $12,000.00.  When we went on to do the Caesar and Otto films, they were done for a fraction of the cost.  Of course, the key to making movies like this is to make them for as little money as possible in the hopes of at least making your budget back while you're trying to find your audience.

  

Jonathan Stryker:  Where did you get the idea to make the Caesar and Otto films?  When I saw the first film in the series, I found myself laughing out loud.  It really is hilarious.

Dave Campfield: The Caesar and Otto films are inspired by the types of movies that I used to make in high school.  My friend and I would experiment with different characters and if it worked, great.  If it didn't, we didn't use it.  And from these sessions, the Caesar and Otto characters basically emerged.  I like the way that these characters interact with each other.   And so, we made a $700.00 production that had no hope of going anywhere because it had no stars in it, no production values. But when producer Michael Raso, the producer and distributor behind DARK CHAMBER, asked me if I had any other ideas for a comedy/horror movie, I hatched the idea to turn Caesar and Otto into a series of horror-comedy hybrids just like they used to do with Abbott and Costello.  It would be a fun throwback to that kind of film.  I

Jonathan Stryker: Well, I found it to be a lot funnier than the SCARY MOVIE series.  Our readers can order this from Amazon.com.  I would strongly recommend that they pick it up.  Really funny as all hell!  I can't wait for your take on Christmas. 

Dave Campfield: Thank you!  Glad you enjoyed it. 

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Exclusive Interview: WES CRAVEN
By Dave Dreher - FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK
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Tomorrow brings the release of SCREAM 4 on Blu-ray and DVD and director Wes Craven has been making the press rounds to help get the word out. 
My good buddy and sometime contributor Patrick Desmond was kind enough to pick up  the reins and talk with Mr. Craven when I was unable to handle it myself and I've gotta say, he's hit it out of the park.

Patrick asks some great questions and gets some really interesting responses from Mr. Craven and I'm thinking you're going to want to hear my the horror legend has to say.

CLICK HERE and check out the interview. 

Don't forget to head out and pick up SCREAM 4 tomorrow.  I watched it the other night and I've gotta say, it was damn good.  I was really surprised how edgy and violent Craven went on this one.  My full review of the disc is coming shortly but needless to say, I think you're gonna like what they have come up with.

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Director Interview: John Carpenter
By Jonathan Stryker

Director Interview: John Carpenter

by Jonathan Stryker

Born in Carthage, NY in 1948 and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, film director John Carpenter started his career as a teenager by shooting 8mm films with his father's movie camera. In 1968 his lifelong love of film landed him at University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he met fellow filmmakers Dan O'Bannon (writer of ALIEN, BLUE THUNDER and LIFEFORCE) and Nick Castle (director of THE LAST STARFIGHTER). After co-writing, co-directing and editing the Oscar-winning Best Live-Action Short Subject THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCO BILLY, he made his thesis project, a 45-minute science fiction parody of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY called DARK STAR with O'Bannon, which was expanded to feature-length and given a theatrical release. His second film, the cult hit ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, was shot in 20 days on a budget of less than $125,000 and boasted a brilliant and sinister minimalist score by the director.  It succeeded in Europe and secured him THE BABYSITTER MURDERS, an idea suggested to him by film producer Irwin Yablans who was impressed with PRECINCT 13. Setting the story on Halloween night and creating a mystique about the film's murderer, Michael Myers, proved pivotal to HALLOWEEN's box office success.  The film spawned one of the most lucrative franchises in cinema history while effectively securing Mr. Carpenter a two-picture deal with AVCO-Embassy Films, out of which came THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, both of which also boasted original scores by Mr. Carpenter.

Ennio Morricone, Jack Nitzsche and Shirley Walker took over scoring duties on THE THING, STARMAN and MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN respectively, but Mr. Carpenter took back the reins on CHRISTINE, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, THEY LIVE, BODY BAGS, IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, ESCAPE FROM LA, VAMPIRES, and GHOSTS OF MARS.  Unfortunately, he no longer scores his own films, as it is too time consuming and too much work.   

With the exception of DARK STAR, his TV-movies HIGH RISE and ELVIS: THE MOVIE (incredibly, Elvis Presley plays "Dr. John Carpenter" in the 1969 movie CHANGE OF HABIT), and his additional television work, Mr. Carpenter has photographed all of his films in the anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which yields a wider, panoramic image on the movie screen, something retained for the DVD releases of his films.

I spoke to Mr. Carpenter regarding his career and his new film, THE WARD, which was filmed in 2009 in the Des Moines, Medical Lake, Cheney, and Spokane areas of Washington State and which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. 

Jonathan Stryker: You made several short films on 8mm when you were a teenager, with titles as diverse as REVENGE OF THE COLOSSAL BEASTS, TERROR FROM SPACE, GORGO VS. GODZILLA, GORGON THE SPACE MONSTER, WARRIOR AND THE DEMON, and SORCEROR FROM OUTER SPACE.  Will audiences ever get a chance to see these films? 

John Carpenter: Never, never, ever. 

Jonathan Stryker: Really?  Not even as a supplement on a DVD?

John Carpenter: Never.

Jonathan Stryker: Because?

John Carpenter: Because they're shit.

Jonathan Stryker: (Laughs and mockingly pleads) Not even your die-hard fans who are curious and really would love to see them?

John Carpenter: I don't care how curious you are.  You can be curious.  You can be curious about seeing me naked, but you're not going to.  There are some things I will not do, and I will not show those films. 

Jonathan Stryker: What did making those short films teach you about filmmaking? 

John Carpenter: My dad had an 8mm movie camera, and he gave it to me as he got bored.  He wanted to do stills.  So, I had an 8mm movie camera, I had a splicer with splicing cement so I could cut them together, and I had a titler.  What I used to do when I started was called in-camera editing.  So, I would have an actor run up and look, and I would shoot what he saw, then stop the camera and then shoot his reaction. 

Jonathan Stryker: All done in-camera.

John Carpenter: Right.  And then one day it suddenly occurred to me that what I could do, I could shoot the actor and let him do all his acting, and then at another time and even in another location, I could shoot what he's looking at.  So, I discovered the essence of filmmaking, the basic cut, from one thing to another.  It's the simplest thing, and everyone takes it for granted nowadays, but nobody taught me that.    

Jonathan Stryker: What is your favorite film of the ones you have directed? 

John Carpenter: I don't have any personal favorites.  I have ones that I like more than others, that I think are more successful than others, dramatically speaking.  I think THE THING is pretty successful dramatically.  But, no, they're all my favorites.  

Jonathan Stryker: Do you watch your films?

John Carpenter: No, I never want to see them again. 

Jonathan Stryker: When you see your films, are you able to get lost in the story? 

John Carpenter: I look at them from an audience point-of-view when I watch my own films and see how they're pacing out, if they're going to carry an audience or not.  It's changed over the years.  It's gotten faster and faster so you can get more and more information going.  But no, I don't get lost in them. 

Jonathan Stryker: Do you storyboard? 

John Carpenter: Not so much anymore.  I used to, but when you're doing an effects movie you have to draw them out so that everyone can talk about what the shot is.  So, you storyboard the effects sequence to see this angle, or that angle.  I started doing my own storyboards on ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, then after that ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK we storyboarded.   

Jonathan Stryker: You've written some terrific scores for your films.  I remember loving the HALLOWEEN theme the first time I heard it.  Does the music come to you while you're shooting, or during post-production?

John Carpenter: It comes to me as I'm composing.  I improvise it all.  It's all done after the movie's shot.  I wouldn't think about it.  I'm there to support what I see on the screen.  I can't do it anymore, though.  It's too much work.  I've given up the music.  Now, all these genius, young composers can do it better than I can. 

Jonathan Stryker: How would you compare making films in the 2010's to the 1970's when you started your career? 

John Carpenter: Filmmaking has not changed at all, essentially.  You have a crew of people, you have the actors, and you're on a location or on a set, interior or exterior, night or day.  You come in, get a rehearsal, rehearse for the camera, set the camera where it's going to be, light it, shoot it, then shoot the reverses - all that's pretty much the same, and that process has not changed.  Everything around it has.  The technology - the editing process - has changed enormously with computers.  The business aspect of it - the commerce - has changed enormously.  The essence of it hasn't.  Actors need to know their lines and come in and be ready to go, and of course, most of them don't.  They want to change everything, and that's gotten worse.  It's unbelievable.  They don't want to say what they've agreed to; they want to say something different. 

Jonathan Stryker: Do they look to change the dialog?

John Carpenter: They re-write the scenes, sometimes incoherently.  Younger actors expect to sit with the director in the editing room.  They expect it.  They expect to dictate certain cuts.  It's up to the director and it depends upon how you handle it.  It has to be dealt with.  I've never shown dailies to actors.  But, apparently it's a brand new world.  It's really shocking.  You have people who are not particularly big stars but they want their own pass at the editing process.  Now, I personally have never experienced that much before, but I have sat down with an actor, and they say, "I don't like that in the scene, can we see what else you have?"  It's unbelievable. 

Jonathan Stryker: Your films have some very memorable and atmospheric poster artwork.  How involved are you in the conception process? 

John Carpenter: (Holds thumb and forefinger together and peers through circle with one eye) Zero!  Zero.  They used to bring me in and have me look at a bunch of posters: "Oh, look at that one!  That one looks interesting."  But, not anymore, now they just say, "Here."

Jonathan Stryker: The posters are all made on computer now?

John Carpenter: I have no clue.  The first poster that they came up with for THE FOG was one I didn't like.  I said, "Can we do better than that?"

Jonathan Stryker: Your films have very stylish openings: the use of the pumpkin in HALLOWEEN, the credits slowly playing through the opening of THE FOG and through the first ten minutes of PRINCE OF DARKNESS, etc.  How do these sequences come about? 

John Carpenter: Instinct.  For the pumpkin [in the opening to HALLOWEEN], we did that because it was cheap, and we shot that the same day that we shot the interior of the car with Donald Pleasance.  It was all necessity.

Jonathan Stryker: THE THING is rightly considered to be one of the best horror films of all-time.  Why do you feel that it was so poorly received at the time it was released?

John Carpenter: Hated by the fans.  Hated.  It was a depressing film with an uncertain ending in the middle of a depression [in 1982] when it came out two weeks after E.T.  I don't think it was a summer movie.  I think they should have put it out in the fall.  And the fans hated, hated, hated it.  They had thought that I had raped a national treasure when comparing it to the original.  "Look at how he soiled the nest!"  I'm serious.

Jonathan Stryker: Are you amazed by the turn-around people have made on this film?

John Carpenter: I haven't experienced a complete turn-around, all I know is there are a lot of people who like it now. 

Jonathan Stryker: What movies have you seen that, the first time you saw them you didn't like them, but upon seeing them again you really liked them? 

John Carpenter: Oh, that's interesting.  The first movie I saw like that was TAXI DRIVER.  I remember thinking, I don't know about this film.  Then I saw it again, and experienced it differently.  I remember THE SHINING.  I thought, This is a piece of trash.  Then I saw it again and thought, Oh, it's funny!  How funny Jack Nicholson is.  There are a lot of movies like that, and there were some that I was harsher on when I was younger.  When you're younger, you're very pretentious and very serious.  Now I see them again and I think, Wow, that's pretty damned good!  What's wrong with me?

Jonathan Stryker: What film of yours is closest to your original vision?

John Carpenter: Probably the films with the lowest budgets because there's no opportunity for changing anything.  They have to be what you've written.  HALLOWEEN was almost exactly what was written. 

Jonathan Stryker: What are your feelings about the Internet? 

John Carpenter: The Internet is very interesting.  It's become a real tool in some ways, hasn't it?  THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT - people got really stirred up about it.  The whole Internet thing is fascinating to me.  My son lives in Japan and I email him.  That was the reason I started going online, it was to do email.  I'm also a gamer, so I find all kinds of video game cheats on there.  Plus, I'm a basketball addict, so I can look up the NBA and see what's going on.  

Jonathan Stryker: Your new film is THE WARD starring Amber Heard.  What brought you back to directing a feature after so many years?

John Carpenter: Well, I hadn't directed a movie in a long time, except for the "Masters of Horror" television stuff.  The script came along which was perfect because it was a lower-budget film that took place in kind of a limited location.  There were some really good acting parts in it.  I thought that it would be fun to kind of put my foot back in the water, just to check it out and see how I liked it.  That was really the draw, you know?  (pauses)  It's hard making movies.  It is.  You get to a certain age and it's just harder. 

Jonathan Stryker: I recall you talking about your first 24-hour shoot on ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and at the end of it you felt like you had been beaten up. 

John Carpenter: Oh, God, yeah.  Twenty-four hours.  In a jail cell.  Of course, they had real bars, and the problem is you can't light it and frame it.  You have to have bars that are wider.  It was staggering.  And then I did this TV-movie, ELVIS, which was almost three hours, and we had thirty days to shoot it, so we had to do an hour of film in ten days.  I literally, in that movie - I remember the dailies and Kurt Russell was playing Elvis in his triumphant return.  When the film aired I just fell asleep - I was just too tired.  (chuckles)  Nobody feels sorry for me.  I can whine all I want - I love whining - and nobody feels sorry for me!

Jonathan Stryker: Well, thank you for whining for me!

John Carpenter: (chuckles)  Hey, man, thank you! 

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Interview - Director David R. Ellis - SHARK NIGHT 3D
By Dave Dreher - FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK
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Earlier tonight I gave you a chat with the lovely Sara Paxton star of the this weekends big horror release SHARK NIGHT 3D and now I have none other than David R. Ellis, director extraordinaire.  I'm a big fan of his work in the FINAL DESTINATION franchise and curious to see what he brings to the shark sub genre.

I'm sure it will be bloody, violent fun.

Here's Mr. Ellis talking about his film.

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Interview: Sara Paxton - SHARK NIGHT 3D
By Dave Dreher - FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK
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So this weekend brings the release of the David R. Ellis directed shark opus SHARK NIGHT 3D.  Got a slew of interviews with cast and crew that I'm going to be throwing at you over the course of the week and I'm kicking it off tonight with show star Sara Paxton who play Sara in the film talking about playing shark food.

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