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By: Marcus Ingelmo
Evil Dread: Hey Dan, how are you doing today?
Not too good to be honest, Christian (FREAK OUT helmer) and myself went to see 'Norbit' last night. Last week I saw 'Ghost-Rider'. As a result I no longer like films and am considering going into street-theatre or ham-radio instead.
ED: First off, you made one helluva funny film so would you please care to tell those that haven't seen it yet a little of what it is about.
Thanks. FREAK OUT is ostensibly a parable for mans' inhumanity to man, a Bergman-esque essay of a battle of wills laced with observations of free will over determinism. Either that or it's a wacky no budget comedy/horror about a bunch of idiots who train a naive mental patient into becoming a shit-hot movie serial-killer.
ED: I bet you had a lot of fun when writing the script for FREAK OUT. How did the very idea of the film first come to life and how did you go about developing it?
I'd written a kids' horror movie in the vein of 'The Monster Squad' or 'The Gate' with these two characters called MERV and ONKEY, whilst away at University. Meanwhile Christian was making a short movie with the acorn of the concept of FREAK OUT, he'd pestered me for ideas as I was a horror buff so when we decided to put a feature together we combined the idea of his short with the characters of my original script and FREAK OUT began.
ED: Tell us about your relationship with Christian James, how long have you known each other and how come you started working together?
Christian doesn't cuddle after, no time for a courtesy cigarette either. He's out the door with one shoe on before you can even say 'Call me?' Ahem, we met at film school and being of like mind and having a mutual love of Joe Dante we started making stuff together. It was at the time when Tarantino first rose to fame so most of the other students where making terrible gangster movies and looking at us like we were scum. Ironically I think we were more attuned to what Tarantino was all about 'cos we were doing our own stuff and not going with the tastes of the moment. Upon leaving we didn't wanna become runners on the next Bond film so we decided to try and make our own 16mm flick like Edgar Wright had done a year earlier with a 'Fistful Of Fingers'.
ED: You play Onkey in the film, is that a character that you can actually relate to or is he more like your total opposite in real life? Was it a fun role to play?
Onkey is smoother with the ladies. I think Onkey is my red-flag to calm the fuck down. When I'm behaving in a way that befits Onkey I know it's time to turn it down a few notches and not be a dick, if that's at all possible. We often wondered how the cliched movie best buddy behaves when on his own; I think that's why we added the brief moment where he has his quiet time and stares at his reflection for a second. You can't be Stifler 24-7, some cracks will eventually have to appear.
ED: I think it's pretty darn stupid but I still gotta ask - political correctness these days is a big thing right. Were you ever worried that your film would offend a lot of people, because of all the gay-jokes and stuff it has in it?
I dunno, a lot of fans that have contacted us via MySpace or the website are teenage girls and we have even had a few gay guys congratulate us. So if they love the film I don't know who we are offending. I think the only people we seem to be pissing off are bitter wannabe film-makers who can't be happy for our following. We got a great review on a gay movie site awhile back so maybe FREAK OUT will be the next 'Showgirls' or 'Romy & Michelle'?
ED: So, are you a big fan of Larry Hagman? Have you sent him a copy of your movie?
As Onkey says to Merv; 'There are no innocent Larry Hagman fans!' No we haven't sent a copy to Sir Hagman, I'm not sure he'd understand the subtle references to 'Sleepaway Massacre' and 'Black Christmas'. During filming he fell ill like two or three times so we were praying he wouldn't kick the bucket before the movie got bought up as we REALLY would have been politically incorrect.
ED: Tell us a little about the progress and success of FREAK OUT, meaning how you started out till it eventually got picked up by Anchor Bay.
Wow, where to start? Okayyy. We got our buddies together, raised some cash, filmed a bit, ran out of cash, raised some more, filmed a bit more, this continues for three more years. We finish the film, mail it to websites, nervous as Hell. The reviews come in and they are all amazing. We can't believe it so we hit the festival circuit, ending with being accepted to Fantasia in Montreal. The Fantasia audience go crazy-insane for us. Due to this response and our wealth of great reviews we are taken to Anchor Bay UK who buy us up for UK, US and Canada and give us a two disc release... and a lollipop. That simple paragraph took about 6 years in total.
ED: I guess the response for the film has been pretty great. Have the response been kinda similar in the UK as well as in the US?
Pretty much so, the majority of our reviews have been unbelievable especially when considering that this flick was made out of our back yard and stars my Dad and Christian's dog. The US response has been phenomenal; people like you guys, Fangoria, Bloody-Disgusting, Quint from AICN, The Arrow, the list goes on. Admittedly we have had a few stinkers, but to be honest most of them really smack of envy. I'm cool when people critique it fairly, it helps in a way, but I got sent a review the other day where a reviewer said something like 'I'm going to do all I can to make sure people don't see this film' and he gave it 1/10! I printed the review up and pinned it on my wall 'cos it makes me chuckle. I'm guessing he's probably some lonely Comic-Store Guy type of dude..
ED: So what are your favorite horror flicks and were there any special kind of films you were inspired by when making FREAK OUT (apart from FRIDAY THE 13TH and EVIL DEAD).
Obviously, the Jason flicks which I know aren't great examples of the genre but I view them as these sort of great examples of Americana pop culture like I would an old pack of bubble gum or a collectible cola can. The genre movies that really influenced my as a kid were mainly the 'campy' shlock/comedy sub-genre; 'Vamp', 'Fright Night', 'The Monster Squad', 'The Blob' remake, 'The Stuff', 'Tremors', 'Night Of The Creeps'. But 'Nightmare On Elm Street' is still a personal fave as is 'Near Dark'.
ED: Honestly, can you even look at or use a spatula these days without it totally reminding you about your film?
I'm microwave ready meals and frozen pizzas all the way, man.
ED: So now that FREAK OUT has taken the world by storm, have you gotten a lot of groupies hanging around you?
Our fans are slowly beginning to come out of the woodwork and instead of these brain dead trolls that I was expecting, they are proving to be a great bunch of friendly, artistic guys and gals. I'm also getting sent stuff which is awesome.
ED: Which is your favorite scene in the movie and why is that?
Probably the shower sequence 'cos we had to come up with that in dire circumstances, it was a rewrite in which we had to incorporate what we had at hand and the segment proved to be one of the most rewarding sequences in the film.
ED: Let's pretend I'm a genie and I offer you one of these two things:
1. To get a perfectly working flying skateboard a la BACK TO THE FUTURE that you'd be the owner of for the rest of your life.
OR
2. To get to spend one night with any girl you choose, but that you'd never see her again after that night and that no one could know about it.
What would you choose?
Hmmm, I'd go for No.2, gimme Britanny Murphy or Rose MacGowan ..without the machine gun leg thank you. Then again?
ED: How did you get into filmmaking/acting in the first place? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do?
Yeah, I've always been a fan of the filmmaking process due to reading Fango as a kid and the acting bug was from being a fan of the early SNL gang. That's where the combo comes from.
ED: What kind of horror-comedies do you like and what do you think of films like SCARY MOVIE and such?
I despise the SCARY MOVIEs as they just feel like films made through nothing but corporate thinking; there's no love for the genre there. Two of my fave movies from that sub-genre have to be 'Return Of The Killer Tomatoes' and 'Wacko', two underrated cult classics.
ED: What kind of budget did you have when making FREAK OUT and was it a hard task to raise money for the film?
Very difficult to raise the funds. Industry folk were telling us there's no life in horror or screwball comedy; naturally there thinking changed a year or two later. In total FREAK OUT came in at just under $30,000.
ED: Do you watch a lot of new horror movies that comes out and have you seen any good ones lately?
Yeah sure. 'Wilderness' directed by Michael J Basset is one to look out for, he's the guy that made 'Deathwatch' and should have done 'Hills Have Eyes 2'. An underrated talent. And check out Jake West's 'Evil Aliens' 'cos Merv & Onkey make a Jay & Silent Bob style cameo. Looking forward to 'Hostel 2' and anything by James Gunn.
ED: What's your view on all these remakes that keeps coming out, do you think it's a good or a bad thing remaking films?
It's a shame, a damn shame. Primarily because I am sure there are a lot of worthy filmmakers out there that have certain beloved films that they would dearly love to remake. But that is not the process that is happening in Hollywood at the moment; it's not as if directors are going to studios saying 'Look, I have a really unique vision for a remake of 'The Fog'!' Studios are scanning their back-catalogues for titles and just rehashing them with no artistic forethought.
ED: What are you currently up to for the moment? Are you still promoting FREAK OUT to the masses or have you started to work on anything new?
FREAK OUT's eventually coming to a close. I do believe this is my last FO interview. As for the future? I've just co-written some re-shoots for 'Small Town Folk' which I'm also starring in, the guys realized the story needed a punch-up so we've just been filming some new stuff for that. As for my own stuff; Christian and I are just embarking on getting our next project off the ground, a dark college comedy.
ED: What type of films would you like to be making in the future? Do you feel that horror-comedies is your thing or are you open to all kinds of genres?
I look around me and see some low-budget filmmakers ploughing out cheapo generic crap after cheapo generic crap. None of these films have soul or get any kind of fan-base.
We are desperate not to make that mistake. We got an awesome release for our first film through Anchor Bay Entertainment and the sales on both side of the pond have been spectacular for such an underground production. We don't wanna become Cannes fodder. We'd rather make less movies with more quality. My next script is trying something a little different and it will hopefully speak to the right people. I love horror-comedy and am sure I will be dipping my stinky toe into those waters over the coming years.
ED: Anything else that you would like to add and say to the readers before we wrap this one up?
Thank you for buying FREAK OUT and if you haven't done so yet; thank you for buying FREAK OUT tomorrow.
ED: Thanks for all the great answers Dan, much appreciated! Best of luck to ya!
Cheers dude, love the site!
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