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By: Marcus Ingelmo
Evil Dread: Hey Brian, how are you today?
Hanging in there, thanks.
ED: Even though it was a while ago since DARK REMAINS came out, would you like to tell those that haven't yet seen it a little of what it is about.
Dark Remains, which came out a month and a half ago in the US, is about a young married couple whose daughter is brutally murdered. After this devastating tragedy, the grieving couple escapes the city to find solace in the mountains, only to discover their new home is haunted by violent entities with tragic histories of their own. So in a nutshell, it's a supernatural horror film that focuses on grief and its results. It's based on some personal and family experiences seen through the prism of the supernatural.
ED: I applaud you for making a film where the scares actually worked wonders, something that most horror filmmakers can't seem to accomplish these days. Was it hard transferring the scary ideas from the script to actually work effectively when seen on screen, I mean, was it hard making the creepiness of it all work "live"?
That's a good question. When I write a script, I'm thinking about it visually. So a rough version of the film is in my head as I'm writing and rewriting. I'm really drawing on what creeps me out and disturbs me.
That said, once I get some shooting locations, I like to try to walk around them in the near dark and see what inspiration I can draw from it. Then I revise the script accordingly to build upon this. Now for some shots it was very hard to pull off what was in my head, and it took a lot of takes for all the subtle things to time out right. That's because we tried to do as much as possible "in camera" on the set.
ED: DARK REMAINS kinda made one think of some Asian flicks, or more like the way they tend to do things, at least compared to typical US horror films. Would you say you were inspired by the whole Asian horror genre when you wrote DARK REMAINS?
Oh, the Asian Horror question. I actually had a written treatment for Dark Remains back in 1998; this was before I had seen any Asian horror films. It was called The Farm back then. That treatment had most of the characters and plot points of the film. The biggest changes were the locations and the opening of the film. I didn't have the recourses to do Dark Remains back then, so I did two micro-budget films before I could gather the budget to tackle Dark Remains. But by the time I could start pre-production in 2004, the Asian invasion had happened. Since then, I've become a big fan of Asian horror; they tend to deal with the supernatural in a way that I relate to. I was conscious that doing Dark Remains when I did there would be a lot of Asian horror comparisons, but I still wanted to make the film I had sketched out in 1998, so I did it. It would have been great to have been able to have done the film back then before the big Asian wave hit the U.S. But that's the business/money side of film you can't totally control. So I understand the Asian horror question because no one knows when you wrote an idea, only when it comes out.
ED: Your previous film, GHOST OF THE NEEDLE, was kinda creepy too, but in a different kind of way, and then you have one other horror film, COLD BLOOD, under your belt as well. Would you say it was easier making a scary film with DARK REMAINS since you had been down that road before, or was it harder trying to exceed what you had done in your previous films?
Each film is its own unique entity with its own challenges. The horror umbrella is pretty big and different horror films try to do different things. COLD BLOOD (I.E. Freez'er) was really focused on suspense. Ghost of the Needle was a psychological horror film building on increasing paranoia and madness leading to getting what's coming to you. But Dark Remains was my first supernatural horror film, so it was a pretty big departure from my other films. Its focus really is on building a creepy atmosphere and a slow building feeling of darkness. For that very reason, the structure and build of the story and scenes are very different from my previous films and therefore I think it makes it scarier than my first two films.
I think the closest thing I had done before which was pertinent to Dark Remains was one scene in Ghost of the Needle when the main character is wandering alone in a factory trying to track down a noise. But beyond that, I really had to just focus on what Dark Remains was calling for. So in that sense, there wasn't a lot to draw on or build on from the previous films despite them all being in the horror genre.
ED: How did you find the actors for the film, I mean did you know what people you wanted from the start and what kind of qualities were you searching for?
I had worked with the leads Cheri Christian and Greg Thompson before on Ghost of the Needle. They're very committed actors who know the demands of low budget filmmaking.
Casting on low-budget film takes a lot of time; there's no budget for a casting director. And the budgetary restrictions limit who might want to be involved in the project. So we did a lot of auditioning and call backs.
For all the roles, I had a very good idea of what I was looking for, but I knew I had to remain open in terms of who I found. For instance, Patricia French who played the Librarian did an amazing job in the audition, and she got the part even though I had imagined the Librarian being much older. But Patty created such a good character that I knew I had to let the pre-conceived idea of age go.
I'm always looking for actors who really bring a lot to the table. I have great respect for actors, and I love it when we work together to create a character which exceeds what's on the page. Someone who takes your ideas and builds upon them with their own creativity. On an ultra low budget, it's hard to find actors like that.
In the end, we did discover an amazing set of actors to play the entities in the film such as Rachael Rollings, Michelle Kegley, Karla Droege. Michelle Kegley's audition yell was freaky, and Karla twisted across the floor in the audition in a disturbing fashion. All of these actors helped flesh out the main female trio of entities.
ED: Tell us a little about the closed prison you filmed some of the scenes of DARK REMAINS in. How did you find out about it and was it scary being there after having heard about the legend of "Big Red"?
The closed prison was an amazing find, and we owe our thanks to the government of Rome, Georgia, specifically Tracey Page for finding us the location. We originally had started out with an old closed prison in Atlanta, GA which actually fit the script better. But Rome and Floyd County was very aggressive about luring our production, in the end we ended up shooting about 40% of the movie there. We shot the archive sequence there and several other scenes, but the stand out location was definitely the closed prison. I re-designed a lot of the sequences in the prison to make the best use of what the location offered- especially the isolation area. The oddest thing is the closed prison is right next to the new functioning one. Literally a stones throw away. But we worked out the angles that would make the closed prison seem isolated as the script called for.
From the initial scouts, we started hearing about the real Ghost of the prison "Big Red." The prison at night is a creepy place, but I was far too busy during the shoot to be wierded out by it. For me, the scouts were far spookier.
During the shoot, the art director, Jim Cox, had an encounter with a fuse box opening and closing on its own. And Laurence discovered fresh, soft cookies on a baking pan in the abandoned kitchen. Later, we learned that Big Red had been a prisoner who worked as a cook while alive. So this might be the first undocumented encounter with paranormal cookies. It all definitely added an extra layer of atmosphere while shooting at the prison. While we were shooting, all the guards kept telling us stories, and Laurence went back later when the filming was complete and interviewed everyone to create a short documentary on the ghost. It's on the DVD as an extra.
ED: What's your whole view, in short, about the supernatural, do you believe in it and furthermore, do you think you have to somewhat believe in ghosts to be able to make a good ghost movie?
Do you need to somewhat believe in ghosts… this is a great question. I've often thought about this because I know some filmmakers who don't believe in it at all, but they have made good supernatural movies.
For me, I could never make a supernatural movie unless I believed or at least felt something. The reason is simple: I'm making the film drawing from my own feelings and experiences. If I had never felt or experienced anything, then the only thing I could draw on would be other movies. And I don't want to make movies about other movies. I can't make a film unless there's something very personal I can pull from. That's where the film comes from. For that matter, I didn't pick the horror genre, but my own sensibilities cause me to create movies which fall into that genre. It's not intentional. So if I wasn't often terrified or spooked out by things alone at night in a house, on a deserted farm, in the woods etc, I wouldn't have been led to create a supernatural horror film.
Experiences directly affect what I'm drawn to or what draws me in. There was a suicide in my family which definitely affected the movie- and my fear of plastic. And I've felt things wandering in my family house alone at night after my mother died. I was terrified that I would turn the corner and see my mother there in front of me. Now why would I be afraid of my mother? She loved me; and I loved her. Then I realized I wasn't afraid of running into my mother, but something that looked like my mother. A residue of her form, an embodiment of something tragic leftover of her death that really has nothing to do with her as living person or her "soul." This had a direct affect on Dark Remains. With one important exception, the "ghosts" in it aren't ghosts at all in the traditional sense; they have nothing to do with the once living people besides their physical resemblance. They're not "spirits." They're the embodiments of violent energy from the deadly events which took place. In short, I don't know what it is, whether it's external or all in the mind, but I do think something is left behind, which is where the title of the film comes from.
ED: How has the overall response for your film been, are you happy with it? You even won the Best Horror Feature Film Award at Shriekfest and I believe DARK REMAINS have won plenty more awards at other festivals?
I'm thrilled. It's always rewarding when people watch a film you've help make and respond positively to it. Michael Gingold of Fangoria embracing the film early on was a tremendous boost. Anytime I hear a positive reaction from a horror fan who really knows the genre makes my day.
Before the film was fully finished, we did win Best Horror Feature at Shriekfest and Best Horror Feature in the Rhode Island International Horror festival in 2005. In 2006, we won Best Horror Feature in the South Padre Film Festival. Winning an award at a festival is obviously great, but just as rewarding is seeing the audience reactions to the film.
Dark Remains has played in 16 international festivals, and we've had public screenings in New York and L.A., so I've been able to watch it with an audience many times. The mood and atmosphere of the film works the best on a big screen with an audience. I've heard from a lot of people later that it disturbed them even more when they got home alone at night. That's really what the film is all about. It's not a scare shocker film. Dark Remains has a slow building atmosphere of dread, and I think that works best in a theater environment with an audience.
So overall, I'm very happy with the response. From the DVD release, I think we're running about 50/50 with critics and audiences reaction to the film. Which I think is really good because people are pretty passionate on both sides- the people who love it, love it and the people who hate it, hate it. I think that's a great mark for the film and makes me feel like I didn't water it down to try to please everyone. The horror audience is very broad which I think is a great thing about the genre. So that of course means that some people don't like certain kinds of horror films. But for people who like Dark Remains "type" of horror film, the response has been incredibly positive.
ED: Would you say that DARK REMAINS is your best movie to date and could you see yourself making a sequel?
I do believe it's my best film. A lot of that has to do with my growing experience and a better budget. I hope that every film I do is better than the previous one.
That said, it is like comparing apples and oranges. Some people like my previous film better- even though it's much cruder in terms of production values. I think that has to do with the fact it's just a very different film. Films are so subjective.
In terms of a sequel, I wouldn't do that. I've done Dark Remains, and I'm ready to move on to other films. My next project in development is an intense horror film which is completely different from Dark Remains. If the right idea came about, I could see doing another supernatural film down the road, but I would like to do at least a couple of other films before that.
ED: How much time was spent on DARK REMAINS all together, from the writing process, to shooting it, to the final result?
It depends on how you measure it. The treatment dates back to 1998. But I didn't start writing and developing the script until the fall of 2003. Really active pre-production started in 2004. There was about three months of that, followed by a 30 day shoot over the course of two months. The long shooting schedule was critical because of working around actor's schedules and all the locations which were spread out in four cities in North Georgia. We had a rough cut about two months after that. Now things slowed down. We moved to Los Angeles and the rest of post had to be spread out around the move and other projects. So the picture was locked about four months after we wrapped, and then I spent a lot of time on all the sound design of the film while the music was being composed.
For me, music and sound design make or break a horror film. So Laurence and I spent every spare moment we had on the sound design. Mark Lee Fletcher created unique soundscapes and Benedikt Brydern worked hard on the score. We started screening an unfinished film in the fall of 2005 at Shriekfest. But the final 5.1 mix was not finished until December. Then all of that is still just finishing the mix and an NTSC version of the film. We shot in 1080i High Definition, so the effects were completed in High Def by our visual effects artist Sarah Paul and the picture conformed in HD in the first two months of 2006. So it was a long haul to the finished HD master, but ultra low budget movies usually are if you really care about them. You don't have all money or the people, so you have to spend a lot of time doing it yourself if you want it done right.
ED: Did DARK REMAINS pretty much come out the way you had planned it from the beginning or did you make a lot of changes to the script along the way? If you could change anything in it now, then would you?
The script changed as casting occurred and locations were found. Right up to shooting, I'm always adapting a script to maximize what's happening. At a certain point, a film starts to take on a life of its own, especially in post. And after the first real rough cut, I'm always trying to get out of the way and let the film become what it wants to be. That all said, the basic story and characters are all there. And most of the scenes play out roughly the way they were story boarded. But I did delete and shorten some scenes and the order moved around as well.
If I could change anything… The movie's been done over a year and I've seen it many times with audiences. So there's a lot I would like to change or try differently. But I think once a film is finished; you have to move on. I'm probably most itching to change about five things in the mix and to have shot the original opening we couldn't afford to shoot which involved a violent car crash killing the daughter in the movie- but this is all like opening a can of worms. I'm focusing on the next project now.
ED: When did you first get into the whole horror scene and what is it about horror that attracts you?
I started shooting horror and science fiction films in Tennessee when I was ten years old, first on Super-8 film and then later on crappy VHS because I wanted synch sound. My parents weren't too inclined to let me sneak in to see R rated horror films, so my high school pal Mark Lee Fletcher would make poor VHS copies of the horror films he could get his hands on. So many a late unsupervised night, we would devour the classic horror films of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. It's funny, but the poor quality of the degraded VHS made these films seem even more horrific.
I think death had always fascinated me, ever since my father put a halloween skeleton in my bed when I was three years old- my first memory. But I didn't start getting really drawn into horror until after my mother died and the darkside of life reared it's ugly head. Then it started being about real horror, not the fun kid films about how much blood can we pump out of the tube. It took about nine years for this to start manifesting itself into films like Freez'er (i.e. Cold Blood.) For me, it's about exorcising demons... or maybe it's really "exercising" them, because it's not making the demons go away. Maybe it's making them stronger in a wierd, dark way. All I know is what I write and want to make seems to fall into the horror genre.
ED: Please list some of your favorite horror films and what is it that makes them so good?
There are so many horror films I love. I fear listing them for leaving so many out. But hear goes a short list: Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" because of how it handles with nightmares and the reality of threats that are just "in your head." John Carpenter's "The Thing," for its wonderful paranoia, icy coldness, riveting effects and beautifully bleak ending. George Romero's "Day of the Dead," the ultimate zombie film with "the worst enemies are ourselves" theme, such a great look at the clash of two worker cultures- the scientists and the military.. and of course the first sympathetic zombie who you were routing for.
Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" for creating the scariest atmosphere ever in a well lit, beautiful hotel. Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" for its fearlessness in killing its protagonist in the first half hour and chilling black and white photography, editing and score. Sam Raimi's original "Evil Dead" for its photography and editing and great element of how do you kill your possessed girlfriend you love before she kills you and "Evil Dead II" for its pure zaniness, the ultimate splatter-stick. The original Japanese "Ring" for having the guts to blend the "scientific" paranormal with the supernatural and for giving me a horrific nightmare that night.
More recently, "Session 9" for its amazing atmosphere and slow building dread. "Broken" a 2006 Indie U.K. horror film for its intensity and performances that keep a "simple" movie engaging. "The Devil's Backbone," one of the best ghost movies ever made. An even though it's more war and fantasy than horror per se, I have to mention Pan's Labyrinth because it's such a masterpiece.
This list could go on and on.
ED: Could you see yourself making anything but psychological horror films in the future or is that where you feel most at home with?
Dark Remains was a supernatural horror film, so that was a pretty big break for me from my first two films. I have several ideas on the long term burner that aren't psychological horror per se - there's a "zombie" like film I like to do down the road, a science fiction horror film, and a creature film as well. But I really don't think of what type they are until after I sketch out the film. I don't sit down to dream up a type of horror film. It's what comes to me. And a lot of what comes to me could be classified I guess as psychological horror. But most of them cross a bunch of horror types. As for other genres, there are two very dark, bizarre comedies I've written. But even these have a lot of horror elements in them.
ED: What do you think of all these remakes these days, is it a good or a bad thing and have you seen any decent remakes lately? Also, if you had to remake one film, which one would you choose?
Remakes… sigh… As a whole I'm not a fan of remakes; I'd rather see new stories or at least very new takes on old stories. But to just redo what was done before for a new audience, why? You can still rent the old films. Now there are some remakes I really like, mainly because they did something different or had a new way of saying it. I did really enjoy "The Hills Have Eyes" remake. And I admit, I liked it better than the original. So that was a remake that had a purpose for being made. But sadly I think the real reason most remakes are done are not to make a better film or even attempt to make a better film- for the most part I think they're just made to either cash in on the name value of the original movie, or someone thinks- hey that's a good story the new kids haven't seen, let's do it again- slam dunk. I think that's the wrong reason to remake a film.
If I had to remake a film... that's a tough question. All my favorite movies are my favorites, and I wouldn't want to touch them. I might wish I had made them, but I wouldn't presume to remake them. The only one I would consider remaking would be a really good idea that was lurking in a mediocre film. But I can't think of one off hand.
ED: What are you up to for the moment? Have you started writing/working on anything new and do you have anything coming up in the near future?
We're in development right now on a horror film I wrote last year. It's a pretty bloody film, but not in the slasher sense. I'm very obsessed with it, but it's too early to spill the beans on it.
ED: Anything else you want to add and say to the readers before we wrap this up?
No, you've covered it all. Great questions. To the readers, I'll just close by saying I'm so glad there are horror fans out there who really embrace the genre and go looking for low budget films. Thanks!
ED: Thanks a lot for all the great answers Brian, it's truly appreciated and I'm looking forward to some more of your kick-ass horror movies to come!
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