Caffeinated Clint
Hot off the acclaimed relationship drama “Complacent” (which premiered last week in Los Angeles – and thanks for all the terrific feedback we’ve received!), filmmaker Steven R. Monroe explores a far more disturbing side of human behavior in the highly-anticipated remake of horror classic “I Spit On Your Grave”. Had a bit of a chinwag with Monroe earlier this week about it.
Now how does one go from a relationship-drama like ”Complacent” to a brutal horror film like ”I Spit On Your Grave”, man?
Easily actually. Complacent was a drama and I Spit horror but it really does not matter to me. I’m a director and I approach each film as a film not a genre. It was not until recently that the industry began pigeon holing directors and you either do this genre or that one of you do TV or you do movies… I have done, drama, sci fi, action, adventure, western, horror, thriller and am still told I cannot do comedy because I’m not a “comedy” guy, but anyone who has seen Complacent knows that there are plenty of laughs in that film… But doesn’t matter, point is you are a filmmaker or you are not and jumping genre to genre is not an issue for me, it’s very fulfilling actually. William Fredkin was not a Horror director when he did The Exorcist and still is not today and that was the best horror film ever made.
Looking forward to Dennis Dugan’s remake of ”The Fly”, then! Now I take it you were working with less restrictions – largely financial – on “I Spit” than say, one of those SyFy Channel movies you’ve done?
More restrictions actually, the budget was smaller than the SyFy films.
What!?
Yeah, I did though have 3 more shooting days on I Spit than on the SyFy movies I have done, those have 15 day schedules where I Spit had 18 because the money the production usually has for CG on the SyFy movies went into more shooting days on I Spit.
Just quickly, how did ”Mongolian Death Worms” go? Fun?
Yes, last night on SyFy actually it premiered… I hear it was well received mostly because it is fun, it’s an adventure film and that is what Neil Elman the VP of Creative at Cinetel and the writer of the movie and I wanted. He wrote a great fun, FUNNY, adventure film and allowed me to take that vibe to the screen. It was fun, tough shoot, nasty weather and some nasty people involved in the film, but Sean Patrick Flanery made it easy and I am grateful to him.
Flanery is great. So how did you get the job directing “I Spit”?
I had done several SyFy movies for Cinetel when I heard they acquired the right to I Spit. I immediately went to Neil Elman and Lisa Hansen and began to lobby for the job. Almost a year later when they were close to going into production Lisa Hansen and Paul Hertzberg met with me knowing that I would give them a good film for the budget they had knowing they had to get a theatrical release. Also it was because of films like Complacent and others that I had done for them that they knew that I could get the performances that would make the film believable and give it a theatrical scale.
And is it a scene-for-scene remake of the original – or more of a Reinterpretation?
Neither, but very reflective and true to the original script. All the characters are the same, what happens is the same. I gave the film a very different look that the original and made it very raw and real. There is one new character played by Andrew Howard who is brilliant. Meir Zarchi was involved from stage one on the film and gave everything his blessing and he is very, very happy with the entire film. I wanted to be very careful to the feelings and wishes of the fans of the original. I even duplicated a few shots and Sarah Bulter who plays Jennifer Hills this time around even duplicated some of Camille Keatons mannerisms just for detail. It was at the forefront of my mind from day one to make sure that this film does not piss off fans. I hope it shows and I hope the fans are happy.
So having said that, the original was banned for years in a couple of countries – here in Oz, for one- because of how graphically violent it was. Did you reign “those scenes” in a bit for fear that that might happen to this one?
No, not at all, and in some aspects the scenes are even more graphic and disturbing. It is a different time than when the original came out and what I wanted to do with this version is give a realism that makes the film more dramatic and upsetting therefore your sensor to the violence, rape and nudity is less because you feel like it is really happening and not just exploitive like many films are. We have always expected to have trouble with the MPAA on this one but all agreed to make the best film and then deal with that when and if it happens.
Will fans of the original like your redo, you think? Or will they go all ”Elm Street” over the fact that it even exists?
I honestly feel once they see it or the trailer which actually came out on Itunes last week that they will like it and embrace it. We got fantastic and supportive reaction from all the fans at last weeks Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas where there were over 6000 fans and we premiered a few scenes, the teaser/trailer and did a panel. Before that there were a lot of pissed off fans, blogs and websites, many of which were saying things about the film with absolutely no information at all. Kind of annoying that some of the horror websites – you know who you are – spread negative misinformed info to the fans and get them riled up before they even have factual info. It’s kind of a bummer that what is a great thing, in the internet for movie fans is also spoiled by people that do this kind of thing constantly – again, you know who you are!
I’m not a fan of headlesswhores.net either! What’s the release plan?
Fall theatrical release 2010 by Anchor Bay. Check out the website ispitonyourgravemovie.com for info, it should be up and running very shortly.
And is ”Wasteland” next?
My next film is actually looking like it is going to be one of my films, a drama titled Love and the Texas Sky about a group of friends in Austin, TX. Love, death, relationships, dreams, and music. It is a very passionate project for me as I have been trying to get it made for 15 years now if not more. All involved are very excited.
