Interview with Franklin Guerrero & Eric Williford - Carver
By: Marcus Ingelmo

Evil Dread: Hey guys, just saw your film CARVER and it blew me away! It was very recently released upon the world, and my question to you is - how do you feel right now, what kind of expectations do you have?
Franklin Guerrero: Thanks man. I'm feeling good about CARVER right now. I think we're getting a pretty good response overall. "The 8th Plague" didn't quite get the kind of release it deserved, so it's nice to see that Allumination Filmworks has done such a great job with getting our little flick out to the masses like they did.

Eric Williford: No doubt. These are very happy times! It's just a great feeling to see the things that are going on with CARVER. I feel like when you make a film like this, all you can do is hope that it gets seen by as many people as possible. That's all we ask. Everybody worked so hard on it that you just want their hard work to pay off. So yeah, it's all happy happy joy joy for me right now. And yes, that was a Ren and Stimpy quote for those of you keeping score at home.

ED: Comparing CARVER to your previous flick THE 8TH PLAGUE, this new film of yours was extremely brutal and violent - was this something you were striving for it to be from the beginning or how did all this violence happen? Did you never stop and think this may be just a little too much, and how do you think people will react towards it?
FG: We definitely were striving for extreme brutality and violence, but I wasn't thinking in terms of making it more so than The 8th Plague. The violence stems from some of the underlying themes, and the commentary we're making with the film. Some of this is even touched upon in the dialogue when KATE says, "Sometimes we need to cut ourselves to make sure we can still bleed." It's funny you should mention the self censorship issue, because at one point I did think it might be too much for the audience, and I was tempted to pull a punch or two. My boys talked me down though :)

In the end, I'm glad I didn't pull punches, and I hope most people will be glad for that as well. As far as how people will react to it? Well, they'll either love it or hate it. As long as they're watching the unrated version, they're going to react strongly one way or the other. At any rate, I hope it's going to be something people talk about for a while.

EW: Amen to that brotha! I'm just so stoked to be a part of a film that people will know that they've seen. By that I mean, love it or hate it, if you see CARVER, you will know that you've seen it. Does that make any sense? I guess what I'm trying to say is; there's a lot of stuff out there claiming to be "art" but at the end of the day, it doesn't make anybody feel anything. So how can it be art? But CARVER is love it or hate it filmmaking at its best. And I'm loving every minute of it.

ED: Regarding all the violence, do you think your next (horror) film have to be even more brutal in order for you to feel that it means something or has any effect at all if you know what I mean? (I mean, you don't go back to eating tacos when you've gotten used to Lobster right.)
FG: Not at all. Every story dictates its own need for excess. If I do anything more brutal in the future, it would be totally incidental. Going back to your metaphor, Lobster is fine every now and then, but dammit sometimes I want a bacon cheeseburger or a box of General Tso's Chicken!! I love the craft of theatrical violence (but loathe actual violence) and I'll continue to have it in most of the projects I work on. Violence is a dreadful part of life. It both terrifies and fascinates me, so I will always continue to explore it.

EW: Hmmmm. General Tso's chicken. Between the Plague and now CARVER, people think I'm some sort of horror freak that eats raw meat and sleeps up side down. But I'm not. I make horror films for the same reason I hid in the closet as a kid when my dad came home from work. He would go to put his coat in the closet and then I'd jump out and yell "Booo!" I just like scaring people, simple as that. There are other films I want to do, but will you catch me attached to a film about a one legged boy who wants to play soccer, probably not. I just try to get involved with things that interest me.

ED: If again compared to THE 8TH PLAGUE, would you say CARVER was an easier film to make since you obviously had more experience this time around? About how long did making this film take?
FG: It was easier in some ways since I had more productorial support. However the massive challenges of micro-budget film-making still linger. It was nice to have the Plague experience under my belt going into this though. CARVER also taught me things that I'll certainly bring into the next picture.

The CARVER schedule was nuts. I wrote the script in about 2 weeks, then we went into production 3 or 4 weeks later because we wanted to shoot before it got too damn cold. Then, we shot for about 4 weeks. Post production was technically like six and a half months. That was so long because - due to our small budget - I did everything but the music by myself. I say technically six and a half months because I had to take several months off halfway through for another project, since I was going broke. So, about eight months total.

EW: And on top of all that, I would have to say that CARVER is way more ambitious in terms of the effects.

ED: What would you say is the best thing about CARVER, and what are the reasons for why people should watch it?
FG: It delivers on the horror! Hands down, people should watch it if they want to be horrified and freaked out!!

EW: CARVER delivers the goods. End of story.

ED: It says that CARVER is based on a true story, is this really true, and if it is, could you guys tell us something about it?
FG: Ah, now here's an interesting bit of business, and I'm very glad you asked. This is one of the things I hear about most from people. A lot of them are kind of cranky about it. To those cranky people I say this: The operative phrase here is "Based on actual events" as opposed to "Based on a true story". These folks have scoured the internet looking for this 'Halcyon Ridge' place only to find that it is fictional. Well, obviously this is my imaginary town, not on any map. (I used it before, and it's the setting for the "Vampire Apocalypse" adaptation Richard Finney and I wrote based on the Derek Gunn novel.) And obviously the actual events are greatly embellished. The victims themselves are purely the work of fiction. There is no Bryan & Pete. This movie is based on actual events the same way that TCM and Psycho are based on actual events. And no, it's not based on Ed Gein like those two. Did some guy actually go into an outhouse, then get handcuffed while his nuts are crushed? Did someone then dress that guy up in different clothes to trick his friend into running him down with a truck to finish him off? Probably not. At least not to my knowledge. However, there is an actual case that the framework of my story is based on. The distributor does not want me to talk about the specific case just yet due to fuzzy legal issues. It pre-dates Gein though. So the short answer here is: Yes and No.

ED: As for the film's production cost, was it easier getting cash to shoot it this time around or did you run into much trouble trying to finance it? Was the budget higher this time than it was for THE 8TH PLAGUE?
FG: Yes, funding was easier because most of the money for "The 8th Plague" was from my own liquidated investments. That sounds easy, but it's not... and it's stressful!! This time around there were people that knew what I was capable of on these small budgets and were willing to take a risk on me. The shooting budget was actually a little bit lower than THE 8TH PLAGUE though.

EW: As a producer, it's always tough to deal with the "money issues", which is funny, because when you have no money, there are still lots of money issues. Sometimes I'd find myself scratching my head like "How do we have this problem, we have no money?" but in the end you just try to steer the ship as best you can and let the artist do their thing. But hopefully getting money will continue to get easier as we continue to make films that people enjoy and turn a profit.

ED: When looking back on things now, did CARVER come out the way you first had thought it would, or did you change it much as you went along?
FG: With these tiny budget movies, they never come out the way you expect, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Things become even more unpredictable when you're combining that small budget with the ridiculous time constraints and the short man-power we had to work with. In a case like that, you end up doing a lot of improvisation on set and rolling with the punches. You kind of just have to see what wants to happen and guide it along as best you can. You're either pleased with what took shape or not. I was pleased overall.

EW: I truly believe that a script is not complete until there is a box around a DVD and people can buy it. That is unless you're George Lucas, and even then you can change it decades later. But I'm learning that you just have to be flexible (within reason), stay true to the directors' vision, make sure everybody is on the same page, and have fun. Oh yeah, and be prepared to not be prepared for the crazy stuff that pops up.

ED: Tell us a little about the cast, where did you find these people and how were they to work with?
FG: The cast was great, a very talented and fun group of people. We knew a couple of them already. The rest sent in demos or audition tapes after seeing a posting. We got pretty lucky I think. They were great to work with. They really gave every ounce of strength and put up with a lot of physical shit to bring the movie to life. Everyone bonded on set and their energy made it really easy for me.

EW: The cast was fantastic. And I know every time people read an interview everybody says that. So here I am saying it, the cast was awesome to work with. But on another note, that's why it's so important to lock down a quality distributor, because you want everybody's hard work to pay off. It's a great feeling when the actors involved start calling me because they're getting offers to do other cool projects. I'm just happy that some of them are so high in demand as a result of CARVER.

ED: CARVER was packed with brutal scenes and buckets of blood, and the make-up was so well-made. Was it hard making everything look realistic, I mean, you did a helluva job; like the guy who gets his faced smashed in with a sledge hammer and such -- the girl who gets nails through her legs and forehead etc.… were these scenes difficult to produce?
FG: Wow, this topic could be a whole other interview altogether (hint, hint). The short answer is that I grew up trying to invent new horror gags. Nowadays I dream up the logistics of a gag while I'm eating pooping or showering (or all 3 at once), and then I will usually get Paul Goldblatt to do the artwork to help me implement it. Other times the gag is so simple that I'll do it by myself in the basement as an insert shot. Sometimes it goes off just as I dreamed, without a hitch. Other times it goes horribly awry and I have to improvise on set. Sometimes those panicked improvisations turn out best though. The nail thru the head and the face smash for instance. All of the FX, with the exception of one small shot in the outhouse, was done in front of the camera and was not CGI, which adds to the realism. I'm old skool that way. If a gag turns out to be to hard to do for no money, then I'll nix it kill the character a different way.

ED: So what's next for you guys, are you gonna be promoting CARVER for a while or have you started thinking about your next project, what does the future have in store for you?
FG: I'm still partly in CARVER mode, but I'm also gearing up for another movie based on the events concerning the Carver family. But the next chapter is actually a pre-quel where we'll get to see the events that pushed the brothers to become the killers we now know about. This is all possible because the original Carver is starting to look like a huge success overseas. For Dream entertainment, who is handling the Foreign Sales, it is one of their hottest selling movies. After that, there's a good chance that we're going to produce two more horror/sci-fi films within the year. I'm planning on writing and/or directing at least one of those.

EW: Yes yes yes. These are very exciting times for the folks at TWO FOR FLINCHING. Big things are in the works and I'm just humbled that I get to be a part of a film that people feel so strongly about. Crazy things are on the horizon (shameless plug alert) so keep checking here at Evil Dread for the latest on your friendly neighbourhood horror filmmakers.

ED: Thanks a lot for answering this interview. You made a great film and I wish you the best of luck with getting it out there and all. Is there anything else you want to add and say to the readers before we wrap this up?
FG: Thanks for the support! I'm very happy that the horror community is on board with what we're doing. One thing I'd like to say is... Go rent CARVER, and make sure you get the UN-Rated version. If you like it, then go out and rent the R-Rated version at Blockbuster (to my knowledge, they're the only store that stocks the R-Rated version) and then scan through the violent scenes to see what strange cuts the MPAA forced us to make. When I first saw this cut a few days ago, it blew my mind and had me rolling on the ground laughing from shock! At the very least, it's an interesting comparison.

Another thing... I do want to give a little shout out to everyone that worked on CARVER, especially the crew. It was a ridiculously small unit, so there were just a handful of us busting our asses, and wearing multiple hats on set. Even with all that added stress and challenge, everyone did one hell of a job!

Thanks again for the time, Marcus. Evil Dread Rocks!

EW: Oh hell yeah! Big ups to all involved! You guys and gals were great to work with. Be proud of what you've accomplished! Next time I see you folks we'll have to drink some 151 in celebration!! And as always, much love to the folks at EvilDread.com. We appreciate the support that you and your legions throw our way. It means the world to us. Long live indie horror!