Tag: Interview

An image from the vampire movie No Rest for the Wicked, starring Egor Venned as Baldur and Pilou Asbaek as Helge, set on the Faroe Islands.

Interview: Director Kasper Kalle and actor Egor Venned on their moody vampire film No Rest for the Wicked

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Another one of my favorite movies out of this year’s Fantasia Film Festival was No Rest of the Wicked, a queer vampire movie based on a 19th Century German story. The movie stars Egor Venned as Baldur, a young fisherman who meets a whaler named Helge (Pilou Asbaek). Initially, Baldur denies his feelings for Helge, considering the time period and Baldur’s small, conversative town on the Faroe Islands. Yet, eventually, he can’t deny what he feels, and of course, the movie has vampirism in it, too! The feature won two juried awards at Fantasia, including Best Director and Outstanding Performance (Asbeak).

I talked to Venned and Kalle for The Horror Lounge, and you can read some of the interview below.

The Horror Lounge: What was it like shooting at the Faroe Islands? The film does a great job depicting the natural beauty, yet danger of them.

Kasper Kalle: I’m not from the Faroe Islands. I’m from Denmark. For me, it was a big experience to come to the Faroe Islands and see it for the first time. I went there for the summer, and it was amazing. There was sun all week when I was there, which is rare for the Faroe Islands.

I also love using nature in my films. The landscape and nature of the Faroe Islands fit so well with the themes of the film. It’s so isolated, and the fog and mountains fit well for the mysteriousness of the film and the horror. But it was also really, really tough. The weather on the Faroe Islands can change in an instant. It was really tough, but I loved it.

Egor Venned: For me, I went back home to where I’m from. I was there three months in total, two months shooting, but I went there a month before to reconnect with my home. I was also ready for what we were going to get into with the weather. I don’t think the Danish crew were ready for all of that. [Laughs].

It’s rare for it to be sunny all the time. During some summers, you may never see the sun. That was a fun experience, those weather challenges, but we also got to shoot at all of these locations, including an old house from the 1600s that’s a museum now. We had learned about the history in school, so being able to incorporate so much of Faroese history and culture was just such a cool experience.

The Horror Lounge: Vampires have a long history of sexuality and even queerness. Can you address that aspect of the film?

Kasper Kalle: It’s based on a short story from 1884, written by the German author Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. It was written ten years before Dracula. When I read the short story, I could see the vampire theme, but it was so different. It was a vampire story but told in a different way, and I really liked that. We didn’t want it to be like all other vampire stories we’ve seen, but of course, it’s still about sexuality and love and the force within us that we can’t control. I think that’s typical for a vampire story.

The Horror Lounge: Egor, can you talk about working with Pilou and the relationship that your characters have in this film?

Egor Venned: Pilou is really loveable as a human being. He’s also just a very good actor, so acting with him is just really easy. It was my first experience acting. We had some conversations before starting and got to know each other. He took me under his wing and made everything less scary and less nerve-wracking. He said we’re here to play and we could make mistakes. Because of his easygoingness, it was a nice start. Once we got going, it didn’t feel nerve-wracking, and I got comfortable really quick.

Also, the whole team made me feel so comfortable and allowed me to just explore and give my take on it from the beginning. It all ended up working organically, especially with Pilou. Because of our chemistry in real life, we became friends really quickly. I had the best experience acting.

The Horror Lounge: Can you speak about the role of the town and the role that religion plays in the film?

Kasper Kalle: For me, it’s difficult to talk about the role of religion. When you’re from a Christian country, it’s just so deep in everything, in culture and your way of thinking. It’s so rooted in everybody. Even if you’re not actually religious, you still grew up in a religious country, and everything is based on that. For me, it’s not a critical comment on religion, but more about who we are and where we’re from. Religion is the culture.

The Horror Lounge: Baldur has quite a character arc in which he eventually accepts his feelings and who he is. Can you comment upon his character?

Egor Venned: In the beginning, speaking of religion and the conservatism of where he was from, they look at it as a dark force. Gay love is dark and scary. It’s demonic. He’s scared of it in the beginning. He has a lot of respect and love for his mom. He loves where he’s from, but at the same time, love is powerful. There’s nothing that can stop it. In the end, he needs it so bad. He’s willing to go to the length that he goes to. It’s just a story that love always wins.

Kasper Kalle: You start to think that Baldur has to go through this big development, but it comes natural to him when he falls in love. It’s actually the mother who goes through a bigger development. It’s more difficult for her to accept.

An image of C.J. Graham as Jason Voorhees from the movie Jason Lives

Jason Lives at 40: An interview with writer/director Tom McLoughlin and star Thom Mathews (Tommy Jarvis)

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Tom McLoughlin at the Jason Lives in Hell Event

When people ask me how I got into horror, Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives is a movie I often cite. It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw, and it had a self-awareness and humor that I really dug (this was a decade before Scream made meta such a thing).

This past weekend, I attended Jason Lives in Hell, sponsored by Horror / 365, a celebration of the F13 sequel’s 40th anniversary. I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to interview writer/director Tom McLoughlin and star Thom Mathews about the sequel’s enduring popularity, the future of the franchise, and the influence of the Universal Monsters on the movie’s look and zombie Jason. Read the full interview at The Horror Lounge. I included some of it below.

The Horror Lounge: Looking back 40 years, what do you remember most about the filming process and the movie as a whole?

Tom McLoughlin: It’s like one big dream. For one, we all bonded so quickly. Now, 40 years later, we’re all still friends. We text each other weekly. We do conventions, see each other, and hang out. That doesn’t usually happen with movies. We managed to keep it together. I never expected this. I thought it would play one weekend and the next weekend, it would drop off and then play a few drive-ins. There wasn’t the DVD and VHS world quite yet. It was still in its infancy.

It just keeps going. That’s probably the most amazing thing of this whole process. The rest of it was that they gave me permission to make the movie I wanted to make. It didn’t seem like that would happen. Usually, someone steps in. I was very, very lucky. Most of these things now are made by committee. You don’t know who will win the arguments.

The Horror Lounge: Thom, from your perspective, how it does it feel to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Jason Lives?

Thom Mathews: Unbelievable. You can’t predict these things. The length that it has and the franchise is amazing, including the game that came out of it. I thought it was genius that they made a game. The kids who play the game probably shouldn’t see the movie just yet, but they could play the video game and become fans. It was a genius idea from the franchise to do that.

The Horror Lounge: Can you address the influence of the Universal Monsters on Jason Lives? It creates such a different tone than other slasher movies.

Tom McLoughlin: The Universal Monsters were what I grew up watching. I wasn’t supposed to. My mother told me to turn off the TV. I collected Famous Monsters magazine. I always had to buy two because my mother would always find one and tear it up. [Laughs]. We were the offbeat, strange kids that did this. When you go to these conventions, it’s where all of these geeks come with tattoos from my movie and other people’s movies. We’re a club and a whole culture.

With Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and Wolf Man, I identified with them. It wasn’t like I wanted to be a filmmaker. I wanted to be them. That love continued on. When the job came along, I wanted Frankenstein’s influence, which, of course, is the lightning bolt. I put Karloff’s Market there. I gave away where I was getting the stuff from. If you took the color out [of Jason’s Lives], it looks like an old Universal horror movie with the contrasting photography. It definitely falls into the old monster category.

The other thing I did is that we have two people with agendas. Tommy wanted to burn Jason’s body. He has a strong agenda going through the movie, while Jason is going to get this kid, and anyone who he comes across is going to get it. That’s what he is. He’s a killing machine, and now he’s unstoppable. Traditionally, that’s what the best monsters are. You can’t stop it. It’s evil. It’s driven, and it’s a force.

Those elements, I think, have really helped its longevity. You can go back and watch it because it feels like a journey.

The Horror Lounge: Thom, you’re the third actor to play Tommy following Corey Feldman and John Shepherd. What was it like to step into a role that was already established? You bring so much weight to the character.

Thom Mathews: When I got cast for the part, I did my research and watched parts 1-5, with particular interest in 4 and 5. I was replicating and continuing a character that had already been stablished. I was looking for something that John and Corey did that I could use to carry on the character. There wasn’t anything that stood out, like a physical mannerism. I did my own thing and talked to Tom a lot. I always consider myself a character actor, so that was the coolest part. I just played it straight. I listened to the story and what Tom wanted.

The Horror Lounge: Jason Lives also has a self-referential element. This was well before Scream. Can you comment on that aspect, Tom? Was it intentional in the script?

Tom McLoughlin: I didn’t want to just make a slasher movie. I didn’t want to make a movie about killing women. Also, since it was the sixth one, what else could I do? The James Bond intro is the first example of me waving my flag, saying we’re going to have fun. If you read those old Famous Monsters magazines, there was always a sense of humor. I wanted to have that element. There was nothing I was imitating. When we talk horror, we have fun with it.

I really had egg on my face years later. I was offered the script for Scream and turned it down. I thought I had already done that and didn’t want to copy myself. When I didn’t read any other good scripts, I went back to my agent and asked if the script was still available. My agent told me Wes Craven grabbed it. It became Scream and Scream is still going. It wasn’t the best creative career decision of my life, but when I met Kevin Williamson years later for a show he was doing, he told me Jason Lives had so much of an influence on Scream. You just never know. I also turned down CSI. Every so often, you make these choices and you think they’re right at the time, but in the long run, you never know.

The Horror Lounge: Thom, what was your favorite scene? The characters are so distinct.

Thom Mathews: That’s all Tom. Could you imagine Paramount coming to you and telling you they want you to direct a Friday the 13th? Jason is in it. There has to be a certain amount of kills and make a story out of it. He came up with characters that you care about. There’s a love interest and romance possibility. You got to know and like the characters. You get invested in the characters, and that’s why people responded so well. It was shot beautifully, and the soundtrack was great. C.J. did a great job. No hard feelings to Kane Hodder, but C.J. is my favorite Jason. [Laughs].

The Horror Lounge: Thom, what was it like working with C.J. as Jason and Jennifer Cooke as Megan? These are the characters that Tommy is really tied to in the movie.

Thom Mathews: Well, C.J. was the monster. We never hung out. If I saw him on the street while we were filming, I wouldn’t know who he was. I never saw him out of wardrobe, and Jennifer was just a sweetheart. We were both young and happy to have a job. She was a very strong character in the movie. It was great to work with her.

The Horror Lounge: Can you talk about how you filmed that ending in the lake and the final sequence and confrontation between Tommy and Jason?

Tom McLoughlin: It was bits and pieces to make it happen. First, we used the real lake for the wide shots and C.J. going into the lake. When Megan [Jennifer Cooke] runs and jumps, she jumps into a pad. We framed it so you don’t see that. Then, we had to go to USC [School of Cinematic Arts] in Los Angeles that had a big, Olympic-sized pool. They put black tarps around the bottom. That’s where the fight happened. In the lake, you’d never see anything. The wide shots worked. We did all of that, and when it got to the point where we had to chop into [Jason’s] head, USC did not want to put blood and gunk into their Olympic pool. Then, I called up my dad. I wouldn’t have done movies if not for him. He was a USC film student. He loved the idea, but I told him it would really mess up his filter. He was out there with his camera, shooting. He was so excited to have a movie in the backyard. That’s where we did the close-ups of the chopping up [of Jason’s head].

The Horror Lounge: If the Friday the 13th powers that be listened to you, Tom, what would you like to do with the franchise and Jason moving forward?

Tom McLoughlin: I wrote a script called Jason Never Dies. It’s 13 years after he’s been put down, under water. He has algae and moss, and he’d look different, but it’s still the same stuff. It takes place on Thanksgiving weekend. Across the lake from Camp Crystal Lake is Camp Christian Lake, which is a retreat for religious groups. I have one nun and sixteen badass Catholic girls. One is a cutter. One sells drugs, and one is a chronic masturbator. They have attitudes, and they’re a badass club. Jason comes in there with an agenda. He’s looking for someone, but we don’t know who. It does harken back to Jason Lives. I can’t sell that thing or give it away because they have all the rights now and they’re taking it in different directions. One day, I’ll find a way to get it made. It also takes place in the snow.

Read the full interview by clicking here.