Full Transcript for Imprint Deep Dive: Deathstalker With Writer/Director Steven Kostanski

00:02:12.139 --> 00:02:16.599 most important, I don't know, for your career, absolutely. What 37 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:19.919 was the film that got you inspired into makeup effects? 38 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:26.169 What drove you to this desire to create, just to 39 00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:28.689 make some incredible creations on screen? 40 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:34.710 I mean, all sorts of movies influenced me. I had 41 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:37.770 lots of things growing up that definitely pushed me into 42 00:02:37.830 --> 00:02:41.379 the direction of wanting to be creative and be an artist. Uh, 43 00:02:41.449 --> 00:02:46.759 but the thing that made creature effects and making as 44 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:49.039 a filmmaker, making movies full of creature effects, the one 45 00:02:49.060 --> 00:02:52.000 that really pushed me over the edge was army of darkness. 46 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:55.759 And I feel like every movie I make has a 47 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:58.240 little bit of that movie to it because I'm just, 48 00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:00.259 I'm so obsessed with it. It's a movie I could 49 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:04.250 watch at any time of day. Uh, it's just one 50 00:03:04.270 --> 00:03:07.379 of my favorites. And I remember I, Like, as a kid, 51 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:10.699 I was not really into genre stuff that much. I mean, 52 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:16.669 I was into sci-fi and fantasy, specifically, like, Star Wars, 53 00:03:16.729 --> 00:03:21.110 and I was really into Godzilla movies. Horror as a 54 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:24.169 genre intimidated me. I was kind of, you know, I 55 00:03:24.169 --> 00:03:27.389 was scared to dip my toe into that world. And 56 00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:30.669 I saw an ad for Army of Darkness in a 57 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:33.830 comic book I had, and it was the, you know, 58 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:40.020 that kind of Frazetta-esque artwork of Bruce Campbell standing on 59 00:03:40.060 --> 00:03:44.340 top of his car with the chainsaw hand. But there's, like, skeletons. 60 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:45.960 One of the skeletons has a Roman helmet. There's just 61 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:49.139 so many, like, anachronistic elements in this poster that, as 62 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:52.379 a kid, I was like, this looks crazy. Like, what 63 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:54.780 is this movie? And so I rented it for the 64 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:59.310 next sleepover I had with my friends, and I loved it. 65 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:02.250 It blew my mind. I had not seen a movie 66 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:06.849 like that that was just packed with imagination in like, 67 00:04:07.090 --> 00:04:10.180 in every respect, like in the filmmaking, in the creature effects, 68 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.039 the gore and the set pieces and the action, the 69 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:16.060 camera work, all of it was just so off the 70 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:20.740 wall and imaginative. And that really got me thinking like, well, 71 00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:23.470 I want to, I want to do this. And so 72 00:04:23.910 --> 00:04:28.129 my parents then subsequently bought me Army of Darkness on VHS. The, 73 00:04:28.149 --> 00:04:31.670 I believe it was the Anchor Bay VHS release at 74 00:04:31.709 --> 00:04:35.060 that sweet spot, like, kind of just as DVD was 75 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:39.480 coming in where tapes would have bonus features at the end. Uh, 76 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:43.439 I don't know if you remember that era of tape, but, uh, 77 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:46.220 so I watched army of darkness on the Sanger Bay 78 00:04:46.259 --> 00:04:48.240 tape and it had bonus features and it had the 79 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:52.259 making of at the end. And so I watched these 80 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:55.480 guys that can be effects making all these monsters and 81 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.680 they like, you know, any bonus feature that's K and 82 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.639 B and Sam Raimi specifically, there's lots of like goofing around. 83 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:05.000 It's very silly. And that, that was like a hundred 84 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:06.819 percent of what pushed me over the edge. Cause I 85 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:09.420 was like, Oh, these are like just guys like up 86 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:14.509 to that point, I thought filmmaking and creature effects was, uh, 87 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:17.370 it was like people in lab coats and very sterile. 88 00:05:17.389 --> 00:05:20.930 The concept of Hollywood was very inaccessible to me. The 89 00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:23.189 idea of filmmaking, it's like, Oh, that's like science. That's 90 00:05:23.209 --> 00:05:27.379 the thing scientists do, you know? And watching the guys 91 00:05:27.449 --> 00:05:29.420 at K and B just kind of like goof around 92 00:05:29.459 --> 00:05:32.779 in their heavy metal shirts and make rubber masks. I 93 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:35.209 was like, Oh, this is just like, this is just 94 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:38.170 guys messing around. Like I can do that. I'm a 95 00:05:38.189 --> 00:05:41.209 guy I like to mess around. So yeah. After that, 96 00:05:41.230 --> 00:05:43.620 it was just suddenly everything I was doing was all 97 00:05:43.629 --> 00:05:46.829 about making my next movie, my short films with my 98 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.240 friends doing stop motion. I just was fully obsessed with 99 00:05:50.259 --> 00:05:51.740 the idea of like, I want to make movies that 100 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:54.860 are as fun and imaginative as the stuff that Ramey 101 00:05:55.079 --> 00:05:59.439 is doing with his, his genre movies. Yeah. Yeah. 102 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:02.079 What's interesting was with army of darkness is of course, 103 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:04.399 as you know, it's a, I think it's the only 104 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:08.519 PG 13, um, um, evil dead film, the rest of 105 00:06:08.610 --> 00:06:12.449 like hard R ratings. And like this one was tame, 106 00:06:12.490 --> 00:06:16.709

but it was so enjoyable to watch. Absolutely. Because we 107 00:06:16.750 --> 00:06:23.829 all know evil dead as the, um, probably the most crazy, violent, um, 108 00:06:24.149 --> 00:06:28.149 insane films that they released. But, army of darkness has 109 00:06:28.290 --> 00:06:30.250 something to it. And I get what you mean because 110 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:33.910 like the walk, like the, the army of skeletons, you know, 111 00:06:34.269 --> 00:06:38.089 going around, that was, that was amazing. That was really 112 00:06:38.350 --> 00:06:41.310 fun to watch. And it was, well, I guess you 113 00:06:41.329 --> 00:06:43.089 can call it kid friendly, I guess. 114 00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:45.300 Well, yeah, that's worth pointing out is that it was 115 00:06:45.329 --> 00:06:48.000 a good gateway drug for me to horror movies. Cause 116 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:50.480 I worked my way backwards then. And I watched evil 117 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:53.699 dead too. And then I watched evil dead. And you know, 118 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:55.800 by that you watch it in that order and it 119 00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:59.139 gets pretty insane. Like, Oh yeah, that's a lot of process, 120 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:01.019 but it was the right way to do it. Cause 121 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.000 by the time I got to the end of evil dead, 122 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:04.990 I was like, Oh, I'm fully on board now. Like 123 00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:09.449 I can handle like the ultimate experience in grueling terror 124 00:07:09.850 --> 00:07:13.149 because I kind of like did the proper stepping stones 125 00:07:13.209 --> 00:07:16.589 of the full on comedy of army of darkness, the 126 00:07:16.910 --> 00:07:19.209 horror slash comedy of evil dead too. And then the 127 00:07:19.269 --> 00:07:24.029 full on horror of evil dead. So yeah. It led 128 00:07:24.069 --> 00:07:27.170 me into the genre, held my hand nicely into the genre. 129 00:07:27.430 --> 00:07:30.769 It wasn't too punishing of a transition as a kid. 130 00:07:31.509 --> 00:07:35.439 Speaking of a hard R rating, I don't know if 131 00:07:35.459 --> 00:07:38.600 you realize you have the distinction of having a banned 132 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:40.220 movie here in Australia. 133 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:42.180 Oh yeah. 134 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:48.350 Which is not hard, not hard, considering Australia has always 135 00:07:48.470 --> 00:07:52.949 been pretty bad at banning and censoring films. So this 136 00:07:53.029 --> 00:07:57.250 is the Australian release and they cut it down. So 137 00:07:58.389 --> 00:08:02.730 I actually saw this, so we're going back into your past, 138 00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:06.569 but I saw this at a Night of Horror film 139 00:08:06.610 --> 00:08:12.060 festival when it first played in Sydney and it was uncut. 140 00:08:12.459 --> 00:08:16.000 So I watched this again last night just to remind 141 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:19.459 myself and, yeah, I do see it has been cut. Sorry. 142 00:08:20.089

--> 00:08:22.579 Can you tell us a bit about this one and 143 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.779 how it feels to have a banned movie in Australia? 144 00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:30.620 I mean, it's pretty crazy that that movie... I guess 145 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:32.509 I'd say that about all my movies. It's crazy that 146 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:35.950 it exists. Father's Day especially is such a weird combination 147 00:08:35.990 --> 00:08:40.110 of elements of Astron 6 and Troma. I mean, I 148 00:08:40.669 --> 00:08:44.289 was the lucky one in that I was so focused 149 00:08:44.350 --> 00:08:46.870 on the creature effects that I didn't have to navigate 150 00:08:46.970 --> 00:08:52.100 the Troma budget filmmaking machine the way Adam and Matt 151 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:56.759 and Jeremy and Connor did. I was just making creature 152 00:08:56.779 --> 00:08:59.240 suits out of garbage and stuff at my workshop. I 153 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.220 was kind of shielded from the chaos of that. It's 154 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:07.220 certainly like a weird outlier in my filmography and also 155 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:11.809 very much a time capsule of 2010 when we shot it. 156 00:09:13.149 --> 00:09:15.389 Cause yeah, I don't, I don't think we'll be making 157 00:09:15.409 --> 00:09:18.490 a movie like that ever again, but I'm very happy 158 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:22.720 that it exists. And what's funny is that for what 159 00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:25.980 I'd argue is like the most extreme movie that I've 160 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.360 been involved in. It's the one that like my mom 161 00:09:29.379 --> 00:09:31.330 went to the theater and watched it and loved it, 162 00:09:31.490 --> 00:09:33.649 which is crazy. Cause I thought for sure she'd watch 163 00:09:33.690 --> 00:09:37.809 it and then, you know, tell me how disappointed she was. 164 00:09:38.490 --> 00:09:41.279 The fact that the movie is, as crazy as it 165 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.419 is and like, you know, it can be banned in 166 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:46.299 some countries. In fact, that's so crazy and yet still 167 00:09:46.379 --> 00:09:52.350 accessible to, you know, my mom who doesn't watch trauma movies, 168 00:09:52.370 --> 00:09:54.889 doesn't even know what trauma is. It's like, Oh, I'm 169 00:09:54.929 --> 00:09:56.789 really proud of that. I'm proud that it's a movie 170 00:09:56.830 --> 00:10:02.190 that for its, for its extreme, components, it's still accessible 171 00:10:02.269 --> 00:10:04.809 to a lot of people. So, and it's, and it's 172 00:10:05.610 --> 00:10:07.700 stood the test of time. Like I watched it in 173 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:09.460 the shop, not that long ago, showed a bunch of 174 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:14.539 my shop coworkers, the movie, and they, they really enjoyed it. 175 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:16.259 I was not expecting them. It was one of those 176 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:18.960 situations where we're supposed to be working and But by 177 00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:21.159 the halfway point, everyone had just put their tools down 178 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:23.519 and was just staring at the TV as the movie 179 00:10:23.539 --> 00:10:25.620 played out because they were so mesmerized by it. 180 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:26.960 So, yeah. 181 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:30.220 So, have you seen the cut down version? 182 00:10:30.899 --> 00:10:32.899 No, I'm very curious about it, though. I'd love to 183 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:34.210 know what is cut. 184 00:10:34.899 --> 00:10:37.730 I had to think about it because it's been a 185 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:42.049 long time since I saw it in the cinema. And 186 00:10:42.289 --> 00:10:44.509 at that festival, it did win a whole bunch of 187 00:10:44.610 --> 00:10:50.990 awards as well, which I noticed that But I think 188 00:10:51.090 --> 00:10:57.429 what is mainly cut is like dicks. That's what's cut. 189 00:10:57.649 --> 00:11:01.649 I think there was like a dick cutting scene. 190 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:05.960 Yeah, there's a scene where Chris Brockman is, I think 191 00:11:06.019 --> 00:11:09.200 he's naked and he's holding his dick and he's like 192 00:11:09.259 --> 00:11:11.259 cutting it with an X-Acto blade and then he sticks 193 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:12.279 a needle into it. 194 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:13.820 Oh my. 195 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:18.700 Yeah, it's a little rough. I can understand them wanting 196 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:21.879 to cut that but yeah and actually yeah there's a 197 00:11:21.899 --> 00:11:26.139 part where he like eats a guy's dick um yeah 198 00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:28.120 there's quite a bit of dick stuff. 199 00:11:28.940 --> 00:11:32.200 Yeah so yeah as I recalled it was all the 200 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:36.309 dick stuff that is cut out pretty much so it's 201 00:11:36.389 --> 00:11:38.870 like a dickless movie now which. 202 00:11:38.809 --> 00:11:43.470 Is so funny considering that like prestige TV and movies 203 00:11:43.570 --> 00:11:46.629 now I feel like there's a lot of dicks and 204 00:11:46.649 --> 00:11:48.470 they're done in the same fashion we did them in 205 00:11:48.509 --> 00:11:52.169 that like it was all fake dicks all those moments 206 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:56.070 like they're all prosthetic dicks and now i mean working 207 00:11:56.230 --> 00:11:58.879 on that show the boys it was just nothing but 208 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:02.299 glue and fake dicks onto guys so you know it's 209 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:05.840 maybe we're just ahead of our time that's probably. 210 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:09.399 I think so maybe someone at the australian censorship board 211 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:10.919 is really not into. 212 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:15.019 Dicks Yeah, I'd love to know what the deal is 213 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:18.639 with your censorship board and why it's so strict, because 214 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:23.059 I don't know, I feel like Australian cinema is pretty open-minded, 215 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:27.159

so it's surprising to hear when something like Father's Day 216 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:31.610 gets axed to shit, what's the logic behind that? 217 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:39.629 Yeah, Australia's always been quite serious on banning films and 218 00:12:39.929 --> 00:12:44.090 censorship in the cinema, so... It's always been a thing, 219 00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:47.169 but I was surprised that it was kind of still 220 00:12:47.230 --> 00:12:51.580 happening at this time when this was put out. So anyway, 221 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:56.399 I was just really fascinated about that film because it's 222 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:59.460 just so out there. And, yeah, at that festival it 223 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:03.620 played at midnight, which was great. And, yeah, it was 224 00:13:03.659 --> 00:13:06.240 a great experience seeing that. So I wanted, even though 225 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:09.360 we're talking about Deathstalker, I'm like, I've just got to 226 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:10.559 ask about this film. 227 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:13.100 Well, that's awesome, isn't it? It's cool that you got 228 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:14.960 to see it at a midnight screening. It's such a 229 00:13:15.059 --> 00:13:18.940 fever dream of a movie, watching it while you're, you know, tired. 230 00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:23.559 It probably makes the experience even more insane. So that's 231 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:27.019 cool that you were able to catch it at its initial, like, 232 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:29.039 kind of theatrical run. That's pretty sweet. 233 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:30.659 It's okay. It woke me up. 234 00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:34.090 That's good. That's what you want in a midnight movie. 235 00:13:34.129 --> 00:13:35.509 You want it to snap you awake. 236 00:13:36.450 --> 00:13:39.250 I think I lay awake all night after that, so. 237 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:40.779 Nice. 238 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:42.679 Awesome. 239 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.179 Can I ask a bit about, yeah, how you started 240 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:49.970 out with that Astron 6 film collective? 241 00:13:51.330 --> 00:13:55.850 Yeah, I mean, we were all kind of like like-minded 242 00:13:55.909 --> 00:14:00.320 filmmakers living in and around Winnipeg, Manitoba. This is like 243 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:04.799 the mid-2000s, so I'm still in university, going to University 244 00:14:04.820 --> 00:14:07.799 of Manitoba. Matt and Connor were going to University of Winnipeg. 245 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:10.879 They're from Kenora originally, which is a town that's like 246 00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:13.490 two and a half hours outside of Winnipeg. We all 247 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:17.190 met at a... Like, I'd known Adam already. He was 248 00:14:17.230 --> 00:14:19.610 a friend of a friend, and we chatted a few times. 249 00:14:19.870 --> 00:14:23.009 And I remember, actually, one of the first encounters I 250 00:14:23.049 --> 00:14:25.649 had with him was in a mutual friend's basement where, 251 00:14:27.070 --> 00:14:29.529 for some reason, we were just left alone hanging out together. 252 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.629 And he just... was just like listing trauma movies i 253 00:14:33.649 --> 00:14:35.840 was supposed to watch and like i think he saw 254 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:38.460 like oh this young kid i should like mentor him 255 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:41.340 and like teach show him the ropes on movies because 256 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.340 i was still pretty inexperienced at the time but uh 257 00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:48.779 we all kind of connected through this film festival this 258 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:54.870 local festival that would do would screen indie winnipeg horror 259 00:14:54.929 --> 00:14:57.669 movies like short films every halloween it was like a 260 00:14:57.750 --> 00:15:02.340 little mini film festival slash contest And so we would 261 00:15:02.379 --> 00:15:04.620 submit our movies. And at the time, like we were 262 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:07.580 all so small scale that, that seemed like as big 263 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:10.120 as it was ever going to get to us was, uh, 264 00:15:11.100 --> 00:15:13.610 you know, I do my stop motion movies, Matt and 265 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.259 Connor would shoot their little horror comedies. Adam would shoot 266 00:15:16.330 --> 00:15:19.750 his movies and we would all submit them and go 267 00:15:19.789 --> 00:15:22.090 watch them in a theater. And then judges would pick 268 00:15:22.169 --> 00:15:25.769 the top three. And so our lives kind of revolved 269 00:15:25.809 --> 00:15:29.519 around this festival for a while. And, there was one 270 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:33.490 year where we all had competing movies and we started 271 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:38.190 chatting and there was like a competitive, like air to 272 00:15:38.289 --> 00:15:40.429 everything a little bit where it's like, I I'm looking 273 00:15:40.470 --> 00:15:42.129 at Matt and Connor being like, who are these guys? 274 00:15:42.149 --> 00:15:46.669 They're clearly like charming, handsome boys who can do comedy 275 00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:49.049 really well. And their filmmaking skills are good. And I 276 00:15:49.070 --> 00:15:51.409 think they're looking at me being like, who's this guy 277 00:15:51.610 --> 00:15:54.169 that can do effects and stuff and do animation and, 278 00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:56.850 I think we're all a little threatened by each other, 279 00:15:56.889 --> 00:15:59.389 but then the more we hung out, the more we realized, 280 00:15:59.750 --> 00:16:02.450 oh no, we're all just, even though we're such different people, 281 00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:05.950 we're all passionate in the exact same way. And so 282 00:16:06.509 --> 00:16:10.549 we started collaborating. I started doing effects for everybody's movies. 283 00:16:11.129 --> 00:16:14.840 Jer started doing music and titles for everybody. Matt and 284 00:16:14.899 --> 00:16:19.259 Connor would act in everything. And then before the next 285

00:16:19.299 --> 00:16:24.139 year's Winnipeg Short Film Festival, or Winnipeg Short Film Massacre, 286 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.750 it was called. Before the following year, when we all 287 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:29.429 had our movies ready, we were like, hey, wouldn't it 288 00:16:29.450 --> 00:16:31.830 be cool if we all had a video logo at 289 00:16:31.870 --> 00:16:36.950 the beginning? Because this is, I believe, 2005, 2006 at 290 00:16:36.990 --> 00:16:42.700 this point. And we're all like, the concept of VHS 291 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:46.620 nostalgia wasn't the thing that it is now. So at 292 00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:49.799 the time, we were like, oh, remember stuff like Vestron 293 00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.440 video or Gorgon video or Wizard video? It's like, we 294 00:16:52.460 --> 00:16:55.779 should do something like that. And so that's... Adam and 295 00:16:56.610 --> 00:17:00.730 Jeremy came up with Astron 6. And Jer animated a logo. 296 00:17:00.769 --> 00:17:02.549 And so we put it before all our movies. So 297 00:17:02.590 --> 00:17:07.450 then that year's film festival, three of the movies had 298 00:17:07.470 --> 00:17:09.390 an Astron 6 logo at the beginning. And you can 299 00:17:09.430 --> 00:17:12.400 hear people in the audience being like, what the hell? Like, 300 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.660 what the frig is Astron 6? Like, and why do 301 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.359 they have so many movies in the festival right now? 302 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.910 And yeah, it was like after that, we really... decided 303 00:17:23.950 --> 00:17:26.589 like oh we should just all make our stuff together 304 00:17:26.670 --> 00:17:29.630 like clearly nobody else out there is doing what we're 305 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:32.980 doing and we all compliment each other nicely it's like 306 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:37.279 we're at simultaneously at odds and complimenting each other in 307 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:41.099 interesting ways so let's just keep this going and so 308 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.339 that led to a few straight years of just us 309 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:46.519 constantly shooting short films which then led to us making 310 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:52.349 features like Man Board, Father's Day Matt and Adam made 311 00:17:52.390 --> 00:17:55.430 The Editor Jare and I did The Void even though 312 00:17:55.450 --> 00:17:58.269 it's not an Astron 6 movie it's like you know 313 00:17:58.309 --> 00:18:00.789 it's like the spirit is alive in all of these 314 00:18:00.869 --> 00:18:03.490 things because you know we all still keep in touch 315 00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:07.579 and so yeah there was like a real heyday I 316 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:12.079 want to say like 2006 to what 20 I guess 317 00:18:12.099 --> 00:18:15.119 the last thing we officially did as Astron 6 was 318 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:20.369 Chowboys which we screened in played Sundance in 2019 I 319 00:18:20.369 --> 00:18:24.869 think it was so we had a good run and 320 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:28.289 you know, it's definitely informed all the work we've done since. 321 00:18:28.390 --> 00:18:30.170 And I still try to put those guys in my 322 00:18:30.210 --> 00:18:35.750 movies everywhere I can. I mean, Deathstalker really should be 323 00:18:35.809 --> 00:18:39.950 called Deathstalker goes through Astron 6 land because it's like 324 00:18:39.970 --> 00:18:43.329 the first character we encounter is Adam and then he 325 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:47.130 encounters Matt and then Connor later. So, you know, I'm 326 00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:52.049 like squeezing that Astron 6 kind of flavor into everything 327 00:18:52.069 --> 00:18:53.880 that I do. So, Yeah. 328 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.069 Yeah. Speaking of the void, like I've got my copyright here. 329 00:19:00.089 --> 00:19:04.690 This is one of my favorites from. from 2016 when 330 00:19:04.730 --> 00:19:07.710 this came out. When I first saw this film, I 331 00:19:07.750 --> 00:19:12.019 was literally blown away by it. The one thing I 332 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:15.779 love about your film, Stephen, is your insistence, well, I'm 333 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.079 going to say insistence because I've seen it in most 334 00:19:18.099 --> 00:19:21.319 of the films that you've seen, of practical effects. There 335 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:23.940 is nothing like practical effects to watch in a movie. 336 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:29.339 Like CGI, you can tell instantly that it's CGI. But 337 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:35.839 with practical effects... It's incredible. Like, I absolutely love The Void. 338 00:19:36.059 --> 00:19:39.170 And where did you come up with that, as it 339 00:19:39.210 --> 00:19:43.269 says here, with this twisted nightmare? Yes. 340 00:19:43.289 --> 00:19:46.009 I mean, it's funny, like, Jer and I came up 341 00:19:46.069 --> 00:19:50.289 with that. The initial idea for that, I believe, started... 342 00:19:51.809 --> 00:19:56.670 while we were at Fantastic Fest in Austin for Manborg 343 00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:00.150 and we were at like a barbecue lunch or like 344 00:20:00.210 --> 00:20:02.539 filmmaker lunch or something and we were bored and we 345 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.970 were just kicking around ideas being like well what's next 346 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:08.700 and we're just talking about the idea of like what 347 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:12.019 would we have made a a serious horror movie. And 348 00:20:12.039 --> 00:20:15.839 then we just wanted to challenge ourselves because, you know, like, 349 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:20.460 Astron 6 especially, and even, like, my subsequent movies, like, 350 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:25.509 Psycho Goreman, Deathstalk, or Frankie Fria, it's like, there's a 351 00:20:25.529 --> 00:20:29.769 lot of humor and it's, you know, it just sets, like, 352 00:20:29.789 --> 00:20:31.250 a certain kind of tone where, like, well, what if 353 00:20:31.329 --> 00:20:36.089 we really challenge ourselves to make a scary monster

movie? 354 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:41.109 Because that seems like almost like an insurmountable task. Like 355 00:20:41.150 --> 00:20:43.950 that's like a tough mountain to climb because how many 356 00:20:44.089 --> 00:20:48.559 scary monster movies can you even really list? Like one, 357 00:20:48.650 --> 00:20:51.740 and I'm not talking like ones where you have to 358 00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:58.099 kind of like reframe it a bit. And like, like, like, 359 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:01.079 you know, maybe it's like nostalgia speaking on behalf of, 360 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:03.349 of your opinion of it. It's like, you know, you 361 00:21:03.369 --> 00:21:06.549 can think of like the thing, uh, I would argue 362 00:21:06.569 --> 00:21:10.119 like possession, uh, I'm sure you guys could list a 363 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:14.549 few like horror movie monster movies. Like, I guess you 364 00:21:14.569 --> 00:21:18.950 could categorize jaws as a scary monster movie, but it 365 00:21:18.970 --> 00:21:24.450 just seemed like a really interesting and fun challenge for 366 00:21:24.509 --> 00:21:26.690 us to tackle. So that was the start of it. 367 00:21:26.809 --> 00:21:32.039 And that started a very long, like the movies like 368 00:21:32.099 --> 00:21:34.460 sold as a grueling nightmare, but making that movie was 369 00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:37.700 more of a nightmare than anything. that is on screen 370 00:21:37.819 --> 00:21:40.339 it was like a living hell to make that movie 371 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.759 if I knew what we were going to go through 372 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:48.559 to get it made like before I started making it 373 00:21:48.579 --> 00:21:51.559 before I signed a contract I probably would not make 374 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.160 it because it took years off my life getting that 375 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:59.339 thing done but I do appreciate that people seem to 376 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:04.099 love it it's funny you hyped it up so much 377 00:22:04.140 --> 00:22:06.380 but at the time when it came out I don't 378 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:09.259 feel like it got a lot of hype, especially when 379 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:12.140 it played like in the U S I don't know 380 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:14.269 what people were looking for from it, but I felt 381 00:22:14.309 --> 00:22:19.410 like the, the response was pretty lukewarm initially. Uh, and 382 00:22:19.450 --> 00:22:22.069 it seems like over time, over the past decade, it 383 00:22:22.089 --> 00:22:25.470 feels like people have grown, uh, to appreciate it more, 384 00:22:25.910 --> 00:22:28.180 which I mean, it does seem to be a thing 385 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:31.220 that happens with a lot of horror movies. Um, you 386 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:33.559 got to give these things time, but you know, it just, 387 00:22:33.970 --> 00:22:35.849 it sucked at the time to go through help making 388 00:22:35.869 --> 00:22:38.910 the movie and then screen it. And then people are 389 00:22:38.950 --> 00:22:41.549 just kind of like, Oh, okay. It's like, Oh, cool. 390 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:45.940 That was like five years for that, for that reaction. 391 00:22:46.619 --> 00:22:50.240 So all of that's to say is like, thank you, Tony, 392 00:22:50.299 --> 00:22:52.359 for hyping it up so much. Cause it feels good 393 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:54.059 this many years later to have people. 394 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.579 I love it. I love it. 395 00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:01.299 Definitely say anyone listening or watching, if you haven't seen 396 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:03.680 the void and you're a horror fan, you should say it. 397 00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:08.839 Because it's a great horror film. I think I noticed 398 00:23:09.299 --> 00:23:13.900 on horror forums and groups and stuff, people were really 399 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:18.779 into it. I mean, over here in Australia. 400 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:23.660 That's good. I'm happy to hear that. It does seem 401 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:26.480 like every once in a while it'll pop up. Like 402 00:23:26.539 --> 00:23:29.420 somebody will put it on a top ten list or something. 403 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:34.309 I know a few months back, James Wan... was, like, 404 00:23:34.869 --> 00:23:37.589 kind of, like, live posting that he was re-watching it 405 00:23:37.990 --> 00:23:40.410 and just, like, posting pictures of his TV as it 406 00:23:40.450 --> 00:23:43.390 was playing. And, like, my managers reached out and were like, 407 00:23:43.450 --> 00:23:46.390 holy shit, like, you know, like, the head of Atomic 408 00:23:46.450 --> 00:23:50.279 Monster is, like, watching your movie and hyping it up. 409 00:23:50.410 --> 00:23:53.539 So there's, like, real genre people that appreciate it, which 410 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:59.359 is really nice. So, yeah, I mean, one thing that 411 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:03.140 I always say, as an indie filmmaker especially, is, like, 412 00:24:03.589 --> 00:24:05.349 the worst thing you can do is make a movie 413 00:24:06.490 --> 00:24:10.569 that even if it's like initially has some success and 414 00:24:10.630 --> 00:24:12.150 some heat behind it, the worst thing you can do 415 00:24:12.210 --> 00:24:16.549 is make a movie that gets forgotten. And I'm happy 416 00:24:16.609 --> 00:24:21.359 that the void has been remembered and seems to continue 417 00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:26.039 to be remembered and appreciated and revived. And cause especially 418 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:27.900 in the horror genre, it's like, you know, it's a 419 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:32.299 community that when they appreciate something, they like keep giving 420 00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:38.210 it love. It's, It's not a disposable thing. So I 421 00:24:38.230 --> 00:24:42.019 appreciate that this many years later it's still being talked 422 00:24:42.059 --> 00:24:44.859 about at all because that's such a hard thing to 423 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:47.759 accomplish as a filmmaker when there's so many movies, there's

424 00:24:47.779 --> 00:24:50.680 so many shows, there's just so much stuff competing for 425 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:54.950 people's attention right now. So yeah, it's just really great 426 00:24:54.970 --> 00:24:55.269 to see. 427 00:24:56.470 --> 00:25:00.369 Maybe because it is quite a serious horror that appeals 428 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:06.099 to genre fans. And wasn't just like a popcorn horror 429 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.269 movie that people kind of casually go and see in 430 00:25:09.289 --> 00:25:11.150 the cinema. Who knows? 431 00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:12.450 Yeah. 432 00:25:12.509 --> 00:25:14.869 Like I think maybe it was more because that was 433 00:25:14.910 --> 00:25:17.230 the movie I made after Man Borg. So it was 434 00:25:17.289 --> 00:25:23.019 maybe a kind of steep drop into grim darkness that 435 00:25:23.099 --> 00:25:26.480 people weren't expecting. I mean, I maintain that the movie 436 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:29.660 maybe could have been a little lighter at moments. It's, 437 00:25:30.789 --> 00:25:34.069 pretty damn grim but I think that's also just my 438 00:25:34.190 --> 00:25:39.490 personality is that I just I want some levity to 439 00:25:39.549 --> 00:25:44.730 keep me going but clearly the horror genre and the 440 00:25:44.769 --> 00:25:49.009 horror fans there's definitely a big contingent of genre fans 441 00:25:49.029 --> 00:25:53.009 who want their stuff grim and dark so yeah I 442 00:25:53.049 --> 00:25:56.150 appreciate that those people get a lot out of them. 443 00:25:57.710 --> 00:26:01.440 Indeed I'm sure that's what people like about it, the 444 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:02.759 nihilistic qualities. 445 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:09.660 I mean, that's definitely a representation of the nihilistic misery 446 00:26:09.700 --> 00:26:11.440 that we were going through as we were making it. 447 00:26:11.549 --> 00:26:16.089 It was like a direct representation of me and Jeremy suffering. 448 00:26:17.349 --> 00:26:21.390 Like that put on screen very vividly. So yeah, maybe 449 00:26:21.430 --> 00:26:24.529 that's also why I bump on it a little bit, 450 00:26:24.609 --> 00:26:29.250 because I'm just seeing my own personal hell that's also 451 00:26:29.289 --> 00:26:31.450 why I haven't really revisited the movie in a very 452 00:26:31.509 --> 00:26:35.109 long time, because I feel like it'll just trigger a 453 00:26:35.170 --> 00:26:38.569 lot of buried trauma that I'm trying to move past. 454 00:26:38.630 --> 00:26:42.509 But again, glad people love it, and glad that it's 455 00:26:42.549 --> 00:26:43.490 still being talked about. 456 00:26:43.930 --> 00:26:47.480 Yeah, it's great, I'll tell you that. But before we 457 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.319 get to Deathstalk, I've got to talk about one more film, 458 00:26:50.380 --> 00:26:53.400 which of course you're wearing the shirt for, and I believe, 459 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:57.079 and I know this was a huge hit in Sydney 460 00:26:57.140 --> 00:26:59.079 cinemas when it was at Monster... I believe it was 461 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:00.240 Monster Fest, I think. 462 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:01.940 Oh, sweet. 463 00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:07.009 Psycho Goreman. Like, this was... Now, this was something. I really, 464 00:27:07.180 --> 00:27:08.250 really enjoyed this one. 465 00:27:08.789 --> 00:27:09.029 It was. 466 00:27:09.049 --> 00:27:09.549 Thank you. 467 00:27:09.950 --> 00:27:12.250 It was definitely not what I was expecting, to say 468 00:27:12.289 --> 00:27:16.289 the least, but it... Yeah, the inside cover out here 469 00:27:16.349 --> 00:27:18.930 from Simon Sherry. He did a damn good artwork, as 470 00:27:18.970 --> 00:27:19.289 you said. 471 00:27:19.349 --> 00:27:19.849 Awesome art. 472 00:27:20.549 --> 00:27:24.059 Yeah. And I believe this is the... Was this the original? 473 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:27.500 No. yeah I mean I think that was one of 474 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:31.400 the first posters we had done done by the artist 475 00:27:31.500 --> 00:27:37.039 Blitz Cadet yeah it's I think that was the Beyond 476 00:27:37.099 --> 00:27:42.660 Fest poster for the movie it was crazy that the 477 00:27:42.700 --> 00:27:45.279 movie came out it was supposed to premiere at South 478 00:27:45.319 --> 00:27:50.000 by Southwest I think it was like March 22nd 2020 479 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:57.150 and I don't know if you remember that month Oh. 480 00:27:57.230 --> 00:27:59.690 I remember. I think we all remember that month. 481 00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:05.779 It was a rough month for everything. One of my 482 00:28:05.819 --> 00:28:09.400 biggest career disappointments is the fact that what I'd argue 483 00:28:09.539 --> 00:28:11.960 is what should have been my most successful movie came 484 00:28:12.019 --> 00:28:15.240 out at the worst time to be releasing a movie. 485 00:28:16.700 --> 00:28:19.819 What I did appreciate though was that the festivals that 486 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:22.640 did play apparently went over really well. It's good to 487 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:27.779 hear that it went well at MonsterFest. yeah I know 488 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:29.839 Beyond Fest I think they did it was like a 489 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.180 drive-in screening too where they like everybody was in their 490 00:28:33.220 --> 00:28:37.259 cars watching it I don't know they found it was 491 00:28:37.299 --> 00:28:42.200 interesting watching film festivals try and navigate a pandemic because 492 00:28:42.259 --> 00:28:47.400 it led to some fun interesting screenings but yeah absolutely 493 00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:48.940 very proud of that one. 494 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:52.420 It's a good one I wrote a feature on it 495 00:28:52.779 --> 00:28:56.019 for a magazine here in Australia when it came out 496 00:28:56.420 --> 00:28:59.140 and it was just a normal kind of one of 497 00:28:59.180 --> 00:29:04.140 those free magazines for the community like a we call 498 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:07.289 them street press here

they've got music and film and 499 00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:10.410 okay they're in all the shops and all the bars 500 00:29:10.509 --> 00:29:14.490 and whatever and yeah I used to get really just 501 00:29:15.130 --> 00:29:18.730 normal films to write about and then I got that 502 00:29:18.769 --> 00:29:21.900 and I'm like oh that's perfect so I wrote a 503 00:29:21.940 --> 00:29:28.160 feature about it and um The creatures in that are, like, fantastic. 504 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:32.359 I really like the brain. The brain guy. 505 00:29:32.420 --> 00:29:33.759 Everybody loves Alistair. 506 00:29:33.940 --> 00:29:35.190 Yeah, the brain. 507 00:29:35.210 --> 00:29:36.710 Such a sad goof. 508 00:29:37.450 --> 00:29:41.420 Yeah, and the... Is it, like, biogas? That Biocop kind 509 00:29:41.539 --> 00:29:41.859 of guy? 510 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:43.539 Yeah, Biocop shows up at one point. 511 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:47.529 But why are you so mean to Biocop? Like, his 512 00:29:47.589 --> 00:29:49.450 life is just so awful. 513 00:29:50.569 --> 00:29:55.349 Yeah, but it's funny watching him suffer. You know, it's like... 514 00:29:55.750 --> 00:29:59.400 It's just Three Stooges logic. It's like, you like watching people... 515 00:29:59.890 --> 00:30:03.339 get beat up and knocked around I don't know I 516 00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:07.940 feel like it's just something so endearing and also I'd 517 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:12.519 argue relatable about Biocop like sometimes sometimes you wake up 518 00:30:12.539 --> 00:30:14.009 in the morning and you're just like I don't want 519 00:30:14.029 --> 00:30:17.410 to be here anymore but you drag your ass through 520 00:30:17.430 --> 00:30:19.990 it and you just do it and that's Biocop that's 521 00:30:20.029 --> 00:30:22.269 his life he. 522 00:30:22.150 --> 00:30:24.309 Just doesn't get a break no he. 523 00:30:24.289 --> 00:30:28.089 Really doesn't and I will take any opportunity to drag 524 00:30:28.130 --> 00:30:31.140 that guy back back on the job and make them 525 00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:32.839 do stuff because i love. 526 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:37.559 It ron have you seen psycho gore man or the void. 527 00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:39.539 No i'm afraid i haven't sorry i'm a bit out 528 00:30:39.579 --> 00:30:42.779 of my element so i apologize. 529 00:30:42.529 --> 00:30:44.630 Well that's it we're having a double feature here soon 530 00:30:44.650 --> 00:30:47.190 for those two you gotta watch them they're. 531 00:30:46.990 --> 00:30:50.349 Great that's quite a roller coaster of a double bill. 532 00:30:50.109 --> 00:30:53.109 Oh you've done work i've done i've done crazy double 533 00:30:53.150 --> 00:30:56.190 features before like um One time I had a Ken 534 00:30:56.210 --> 00:30:58.779 Russell double feature with the devils and crimes of passion. 535 00:30:59.099 --> 00:30:59.900 That was a good one. 536 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:06.220 One time I did, uh, Sophie's choice and ghostbusters. It 537 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:06.839 was pretty good. 538 00:31:07.660 --> 00:31:10.380 That was some, that's something. 539 00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.660 I don't remember why we landed on that, but yeah, watching, getting, 540 00:31:14.779 --> 00:31:17.900 doing ghostbusters. Second was very weird. It was like, Oh, 541 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:20.549 I had to process the last movie, but I guess 542 00:31:20.630 --> 00:31:22.450 I'll laugh at Bill Murray now. 543 00:31:22.769 --> 00:31:26.039 So, yeah, Oh, doubles. 544 00:31:26.130 --> 00:31:26.519 I love them. 545 00:31:27.339 --> 00:31:28.150 Oh, so do I. 546 00:31:28.500 --> 00:31:32.720 The oddest double I ever heard of was Cheech and 547 00:31:32.779 --> 00:31:36.440 Chong's next movie plus 2001 A Space Odyssey, and that 548 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:36.920 was in New Zealand. 549 00:31:36.940 --> 00:31:38.900 I don't know. That kind of makes sense, though. 550 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:39.640 It works. 551 00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:41.079 Maybe it does, yeah. 552 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:42.119 It does work. 553 00:31:42.579 --> 00:31:44.849 Yeah, if you have it in your mind, that makes sense. 554 00:31:45.470 --> 00:31:48.109 And the one that really upset the locals was Maniac 555 00:31:48.170 --> 00:31:49.269 and I Spit on Your Grave. 556 00:31:50.369 --> 00:31:51.490 Oh, that's harsh. 557 00:31:51.650 --> 00:31:52.849 They wound a lot of people up. 558 00:31:53.819 --> 00:31:58.079 Yeah, that's a pretty, like, grim... Oh, I couldn't get 559 00:31:58.140 --> 00:32:01.279 any good in that. You'd need to take a shower 560 00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:09.680 probably between movies to just... Maybe a bath. Yeah. Islam. Indeed. 561 00:32:09.700 --> 00:32:12.930 All right, we'd better talk about Deathstalker. 562 00:32:13.410 --> 00:32:18.529 Absolutely. This is, of course, Imprint Films are releasing this 563 00:32:18.569 --> 00:32:22.160 on September 30th, 2026. And of course, we're talking about 564 00:32:22.259 --> 00:32:33.059 the new Steven Kostanski film, Deathstalker. Who is he? They 565 00:32:33.099 --> 00:32:34.420 say he was once a knight. 566 00:32:37.509 --> 00:32:44.130 Before the war against the Dreadites. 567 00:32:44.230 --> 00:32:49.400 Surgeon with a sword. Dreadites! 568 00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:51.369 Oh, wow. 569 00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:04.890 The answers to only one name. I. What name would 570 00:33:04.910 --> 00:33:05.210 that be? 571 00:33:24.829 --> 00:33:25.990 Deathstalker. 572 00:33:28.170 --> 00:33:29.009 My old friend. 573 00:33:30.329 --> 00:34:04.960 Come and get it. The mighty Deathstalker! I saw this 574 00:34:05.019 --> 00:34:07.000 for the first time a couple of days ago because 575 00:34:07.059 --> 00:34:10.139 it only screened once, I believe, in Sydney. I think, Ron, 576 00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:11.199 you were there at that screening? 577 00:34:11.610 --> 00:34:12.230 That's right, yes. 578 00:34:12.789 --> 00:34:16.170 Monster Fest last year, last October. Oh, Monster Fest. Oh, okay. 579

00:34:16.289 --> 00:34:16.690 That's good. 580 00:34:17.349 --> 00:34:22.849 It was almost a full house, and it was all Conan, 581 00:34:22.889 --> 00:34:24.030 Sword and Sorcery fans. 582 00:34:24.050 --> 00:34:25.170 They were all people my age. 583 00:34:26.050 --> 00:34:28.989 In the theater and they're all cheering it on. Like 584 00:34:29.329 --> 00:34:35.610 it was, um, like watching a fight, you know, it was, 585 00:34:35.630 --> 00:34:38.269 it had that kind of air about it in the cinema. 586 00:34:38.289 --> 00:34:42.730 And it was, it was so much fun. It reminded me. 587 00:34:42.699 --> 00:34:45.920 Of, I did kind of structure it like a, it's 588 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:48.599 like a tournament fighting movie. Almost. It really is just 589 00:34:49.340 --> 00:34:54.119 fighting one, one escalating bad guy situation after another. So, 590 00:34:54.980 --> 00:34:56.980 That's the kind of crowd reaction I wanted to have, 591 00:34:57.059 --> 00:34:57.320 for sure. 592 00:34:57.360 --> 00:34:59.880 It was kind of like rock and roll wrestling meets gwa, 593 00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:04.579 kind of thing. And I thought it was great. And 594 00:35:04.599 --> 00:35:06.679 the fans loved it. It kind of reminded me when 595 00:35:06.699 --> 00:35:08.260 I was an 11-year-old kid, I was taking a seat 596 00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:09.139 at the Beastmaster. 597 00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:10.659 Oh, nice. 598 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:14.139 And I just remember how wild it was to me. 599 00:35:14.199 --> 00:35:15.739 I said, wow, this is really intense. 600 00:35:16.699 --> 00:35:20.030 It just reminded me of Estevez from Repo Man. 601 00:35:20.070 --> 00:35:23.510 And I just remember that bat thing sucking out the child. 602 00:35:23.170 --> 00:35:24.159 And all the blood coming out. 603 00:35:25.190 --> 00:35:27.269 I just started shaking in the theater, you know, my 604 00:35:27.289 --> 00:35:30.670 11-year-old me, me shaking. But, I mean, after when I 605 00:35:30.670 --> 00:35:32.719 watched Gwar, I had that air about it. I mean, 606 00:35:32.760 --> 00:35:34.539 watching Death Talk, I had that air about it. 607 00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:39.719 Yeah, Beastmaster was a big inspiration, for sure. Beastmaster, Krull 608 00:35:39.739 --> 00:35:42.420 was a big one. Weirdly, it was like kind of 609 00:35:42.500 --> 00:35:45.920 every movie except the original Death Stalker, even though when 610 00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:49.500 I watched it, I realized, like, oh, it actually does, like, 611 00:35:49.619 --> 00:35:57.719 some of the structural stuff is very similar, like, thematically, but... Krull, Beastmaster, 612 00:35:57.739 --> 00:36:00.800 a bit of Legend, The Sword and the Sorcerer is 613 00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:06.340 another good one. There's lots of Conquest. I just re-watched Conquest. 614 00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:09.460 That movie rocks. I don't know if you've seen Fulci's Conquest. 615 00:36:11.480 --> 00:36:14.780 There's lots of weird sword and sorcery movies that I 616 00:36:14.780 --> 00:36:18.869 want to reference more than anything. I was treating this 617 00:36:18.929 --> 00:36:22.550 as this should be I don't want to say kid-friendly 618 00:36:22.570 --> 00:36:26.039 because it's violent as hell, but this was trying to 619 00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:27.900 be a bit of the Army of Darkness to the 620 00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:30.539 sword and sorcery genre for me, where it's like, I 621 00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:33.340 want people to watch this one and be like, oh, 622 00:36:33.380 --> 00:36:36.239 I love the kind of tactile vibe of all the 623 00:36:36.300 --> 00:36:39.079 violence and the creatures and the puppets and stuff. And 624 00:36:39.099 --> 00:36:42.989 then that leads them into the pit of classic sword 625 00:36:43.010 --> 00:36:45.750 and sorcery and get into stuff like Conan and things 626 00:36:45.769 --> 00:36:46.550 like that. 627 00:36:46.590 --> 00:36:47.889 Oh, it's definitely there. 628 00:36:47.929 --> 00:36:51.769 Conan is the big literary sword and sorcery one. It's 629 00:36:51.809 --> 00:36:55.829 got the Dante-esque story line He's suffering. 630 00:36:56.650 --> 00:37:00.150 Yeah, Conan, that movie's on another level, I think. Every 631 00:37:00.170 --> 00:37:02.210 time I watch it, I'm like, is this one of 632 00:37:02.409 --> 00:37:05.329 the best movies? Because it sure... It is. 633 00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:06.909 It's immovable. 634 00:37:06.929 --> 00:37:10.090 It sure hits so hard every time I watch it. 635 00:37:10.139 --> 00:37:13.340 It's such a... The thing I like about the genre, 636 00:37:13.380 --> 00:37:17.360 and that movie specifically, it's so passionate. There's just a 637 00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:21.769 real passionate energy to it. Arnold. 638 00:37:23.010 --> 00:37:23.250 I'm. 639 00:37:23.150 --> 00:37:26.030 Just so convinced I'm so in it. There's no snark. 640 00:37:26.469 --> 00:37:31.079 There's no like winking at the camera. It's just like, no, 641 00:37:31.099 --> 00:37:34.780 we're following this guy's revenge journey. And it's so satisfying. 642 00:37:34.840 --> 00:37:38.880 And the, the conviction that everyone is like delivering their 643 00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:44.070 lines with, uh, like James Earl Jones, uh, his mom, 644 00:37:44.110 --> 00:37:48.829 his big monologue about, about power. And when he makes 645 00:37:48.869 --> 00:37:51.269 the girl jump off the cliff, uh, Like all of 646 00:37:51.309 --> 00:37:53.760 that stuff, I'm just like, this is so fucking awesome. 647 00:37:53.820 --> 00:37:57.739 Like movies, no modern movie can pull this off. So 648 00:37:58.139 --> 00:38:01.260 that Conan to me is, that's like the gold standard 649 00:38:01.300 --> 00:38:05.199 of not just story and fantasy, but I feel like 650 00:38:05.260 --> 00:38:08.179 in movies in general, it doesn't get any better than that. 651 00:38:09.070 --> 00:38:10.769 Yes. Yeah. 652 00:38:10.789 --> 00:38:15.530 Oliver Stone said in his autobiography that he wanted to

653 00:38:15.550 --> 00:38:19.920 be bigger than that. He wanted to be like Ralph Basquiat, 654 00:38:20.019 --> 00:38:23.250 full of monsters and creatures. But they just scaled down 655 00:38:23.289 --> 00:38:27.250 and down and down to it and minimized it. 656 00:38:27.469 --> 00:38:30.989 Which is interesting, because when I first watched it as 657 00:38:31.030 --> 00:38:34.070 a kid, especially post-Army of Darkness, I was like, I 658 00:38:34.090 --> 00:38:38.469 want more monsters in this. But watching it as an adult, 659 00:38:39.010 --> 00:38:41.780 with a little bit more life behind me, I'm like, no, 660 00:38:41.860 --> 00:38:45.260 the I don't want to be distracted by monsters because 661 00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:49.079 I'm so invested in his personal journey that it's like, 662 00:38:49.099 --> 00:38:52.199 that's way more, it's way more compelling, way more interesting 663 00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:54.519 to me. Not to say we don't have some cool monsters. 664 00:38:54.539 --> 00:39:00.250 Like that snake is pretty weird. The snake transformation is cool. There's, 665 00:39:00.329 --> 00:39:02.750 there's lots of, there's lots of juicy shit to eat 666 00:39:02.809 --> 00:39:05.409 up in that movie, but yeah, I don't know. There's 667 00:39:05.429 --> 00:39:08.769 just like a very grounded reality to that movie that 668 00:39:08.869 --> 00:39:13.179 is unmatched. I don't think any other, any other sword 669 00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:15.579 and sorcery movie pulls it off in the same way. 670 00:39:16.380 --> 00:39:20.400 And that is where, um, like sword and sorcery differs 671 00:39:20.579 --> 00:39:25.969 from like other genres. So like adventure, historical swashbuckler, that 672 00:39:25.989 --> 00:39:31.690 it does have these outsider characters and they're, usually amoral and, like, 673 00:39:31.769 --> 00:39:37.280 Deathstalker is quite an amoral character and they're usually driven 674 00:39:37.429 --> 00:39:42.039 by personal gain or adventure, not like these big kind 675 00:39:42.119 --> 00:39:48.510 of heroic save-the-world things. But they get dragged into... something 676 00:39:48.699 --> 00:39:52.269 greater than themselves. And that's like how the genre kind 677 00:39:52.329 --> 00:39:56.690 of works. And that's definitely the case with the first Deathstalker. 678 00:39:57.369 --> 00:39:59.769 And also, I think, your Deathstalker. 679 00:40:00.409 --> 00:40:02.869 Oh, definitely. That was what appealed to me. Exactly what 680 00:40:02.889 --> 00:40:05.829 you're saying is like, you have characters who are just 681 00:40:05.889 --> 00:40:10.510 surviving in these universes, these kind of uncompromising, punishing universes, 682 00:40:11.250 --> 00:40:18.190 fantasy worlds, and against their will, they are forced to become... 683 00:40:18.369 --> 00:40:21.710 a hero in some way, but it's like, while at 684 00:40:21.730 --> 00:40:25.429 the same time using their, their survival skills, the things 685 00:40:25.449 --> 00:40:27.670

that they use to just like look out for themselves, 686 00:40:27.710 --> 00:40:30.150 that ends up becoming assets for them down the road 687 00:40:30.289 --> 00:40:33.409 as they, as they fight these insurmountable evils. It's like, 688 00:40:34.530 --> 00:40:38.820 it's like unit fantasy worlds that these movies occupy, a 689 00:40:39.780 --> 00:40:43.840 traditional hero would never succeed. And that was also something 690 00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:46.530 I tried to suggest, like with the, uh, like the 691 00:40:46.610 --> 00:40:49.630 kingdom that keeps being alluded to the Abraxian kingdom and 692 00:40:50.210 --> 00:40:52.449 like the, the heroes and the warriors of that, like 693 00:40:52.909 --> 00:40:56.789 they're way more traditional heroes. And that's why they're just 694 00:40:56.829 --> 00:40:59.099 getting wiped out. Like, that's why it just starts with them. 695 00:40:59.539 --> 00:41:01.460 The guys in the cool gold armor are just getting 696 00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:07.420 massacred because, you know, they, they follow like very traditional 697 00:41:07.739 --> 00:41:10.869 concepts of good and bad and, Deathstalker, the guy that's 698 00:41:10.909 --> 00:41:13.860 essentially a vulture that comes along and just steals their 699 00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:17.159 stuff so he can buy some booze and a pulled chicken. 700 00:41:19.340 --> 00:41:23.239 He's the one that gets stuck. He's the one that 701 00:41:23.260 --> 00:41:26.989 gets burdened with the task of saving this universe because 702 00:41:27.010 --> 00:41:30.809 the other guys, the traditional goody-two-shoes guys just aren't good 703 00:41:30.849 --> 00:41:33.789 enough for it. I think that's a theme that carries 704 00:41:33.809 --> 00:41:36.480 through a lot of the fantasy genre. It's something I 705 00:41:36.519 --> 00:41:37.119 really enjoy. 706 00:41:38.500 --> 00:41:43.320 And throughout the Deathstalker series, we do have a few 707 00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:48.000 different Deathstalkers. Can you talk about the casting of Daniel 708 00:41:48.039 --> 00:41:51.400 Bernhardt in this one? And, of course, he kind of 709 00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:55.489 started out, I know, in Bloodsport and a whole bunch 710 00:41:55.550 --> 00:41:59.730 of action movies. So, yeah, because it's a big role 711 00:41:59.789 --> 00:42:02.730 to fill. It's like a famous role. 712 00:42:03.670 --> 00:42:06.889 Yeah, I mean, Daniel seemed like such a perfect choice 713 00:42:06.989 --> 00:42:11.900 to me because the character I was writing in my head, 714 00:42:12.059 --> 00:42:14.059 even at that early stage when I was just coming 715 00:42:14.119 --> 00:42:17.679 up with the movie, I think I was watching, it's 716 00:42:17.719 --> 00:42:22.030 like Bloodsport 4, The Dark Kumite, and just watching him 717 00:42:22.070 --> 00:42:26.050 in that, I started, the gears started turning on this 718 00:42:26.090 --> 00:42:31.230 idea of like Deathstalker being an older, wiser, kind of grizzled, 719 00:42:31.250

--> 00:42:35.269 a little bitter Deathstalker who's just seen everything. That idea 720 00:42:35.329 --> 00:42:39.539 was fun to me, and watching Daniel, like, fight in 721 00:42:39.579 --> 00:42:43.860 a weird tournament in this blood, this fourth blood sport 722 00:42:43.900 --> 00:42:46.800 movie that at the beginning, I believe says it takes 723 00:42:46.840 --> 00:42:49.690 place in New York city, but it's clearly like Bulgaria 724 00:42:49.789 --> 00:42:53.849 or something. Just that, just the absurdity of that. I'm like, wow, 725 00:42:53.889 --> 00:42:56.530 this guy's been in the straight to video trenches, but 726 00:42:56.550 --> 00:42:59.550 then he's also done giant movies. Like, you know, he's 727 00:42:59.610 --> 00:43:02.429 in matrix reloaded. He has a substantial role in that. 728 00:43:03.010 --> 00:43:07.280 He's like trains like Bob Odenkirk. He does all, he, 729 00:43:08.119 --> 00:43:12.039 he's done everything. And I liked that. I, the idea 730 00:43:12.059 --> 00:43:14.219 of bringing someone to the role that you just look 731 00:43:14.239 --> 00:43:15.960 at their face and you're like, I know this guy 732 00:43:15.980 --> 00:43:19.559 has lived a full life. Like that was exciting to me. 733 00:43:19.619 --> 00:43:23.300 And so when I came up with this idea for 734 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:26.550 a death stalker in my head, it's a sequel treated 735 00:43:26.630 --> 00:43:30.389 as a reboot because the money people needed to be 736 00:43:30.429 --> 00:43:32.989 that way. But to me, this is death stalker five 737 00:43:33.030 --> 00:43:35.489 and it's years later. And he's just kind of like 738 00:43:35.869 --> 00:43:37.869 worn out and been through so much shit that he's just, 739 00:43:38.409 --> 00:43:40.829 kind of over it and i wanted that to parallel 740 00:43:40.869 --> 00:43:44.010 daniel a little bit in that you know he's older 741 00:43:44.090 --> 00:43:48.349 wiser had like 30 plus years of a film career 742 00:43:48.909 --> 00:43:53.139 where he he's acted done stunts fight choreography he's done 743 00:43:53.219 --> 00:43:57.239 everything and so he basically just he just was death 744 00:43:57.260 --> 00:44:00.340 stalker there was no like how do i guide him 745 00:44:00.420 --> 00:44:02.199 into this role i just felt like no he is 746 00:44:02.900 --> 00:44:06.639 he's the guy because he literally is living that life 747 00:44:06.719 --> 00:44:09.369 right now. Just like kind of a, a parallel version 748 00:44:09.429 --> 00:44:13.909 of it. So it was, there was no discussion of like, Oh, 749 00:44:13.909 --> 00:44:16.110 should we get a different guy? It was just like, no, 750 00:44:16.130 --> 00:44:18.849 we'll get Daniel. And you know, we, we hopped on 751 00:44:18.909 --> 00:44:20.929 a zoom call and we chatted a bunch and like 752 00:44:20.969 --> 00:44:26.219 became friends instantly. Uh, he's a very passionate, uh, passionate, 753 00:44:26.300 --> 00:44:29.800 creative guy. Like he's also a filmmaker and

you know, 754 00:44:29.820 --> 00:44:33.449 we just brode about filmmaking and movies we liked and, 755 00:44:34.099 --> 00:44:35.940 me being a nerd i just couldn't help myself but 756 00:44:36.039 --> 00:44:39.199 like grill him for stories about working on all the 757 00:44:39.239 --> 00:44:42.119 various projects he's been on so it's just like a 758 00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:45.400 really good match it was just a fun dynamic and 759 00:44:45.510 --> 00:44:47.730 it just it bled into what we were doing on 760 00:44:47.809 --> 00:44:51.090 set and i think he crafted a really fun version 761 00:44:51.130 --> 00:44:54.670 of this character that stands on its own which i 762 00:44:54.710 --> 00:44:57.710 thought was important because i did not have any interest 763 00:44:57.769 --> 00:45:01.739 in trying to just remake anything from those movies. That 764 00:45:01.780 --> 00:45:04.619 was why I took this project on. I was like, oh, 765 00:45:04.679 --> 00:45:09.500 I'm just going to make a Steve Kostanski fantasy action 766 00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:13.860 epic in the same way that Jim Wynorski made his 767 00:45:14.260 --> 00:45:19.690 fantasy action comedy with Deathstalker 2. That's very much just 768 00:45:19.849 --> 00:45:22.230 a Jim Wynorski movie. So my logic was, well, I'm 769 00:45:22.250 --> 00:45:25.150 just going to make a Steve Kostanski movie and I'm 770 00:45:25.170 --> 00:45:26.530 going to do it the way I want to do it. 771 00:45:27.070 --> 00:45:29.289 And I'm not really going to feel beholden to anything 772 00:45:29.530 --> 00:45:34.960 too specific. And Daniel, when Daniel like became like solidified 773 00:45:35.139 --> 00:45:36.800 into the role, I feel like the whole thing came 774 00:45:36.840 --> 00:45:39.380 together around that because I could just see it in 775 00:45:39.420 --> 00:45:42.210 my head. I was like in love with the idea 776 00:45:42.250 --> 00:45:46.750 of pitting Daniel Bernhardt against a bunch of Steve Kostansky 777 00:45:46.829 --> 00:45:50.610 rubber monsters. That's the movie I want to watch. That's 778 00:45:50.710 --> 00:45:52.980 the movie we're going to make. So, yeah. 779 00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:56.780 And right from the beginning, from the opening scene, it's 780 00:45:56.860 --> 00:46:03.320 like ultra-violent, gory, so the audience knows what to expect 781 00:46:03.420 --> 00:46:08.489 and that introduces us to this approach which is horror 782 00:46:08.590 --> 00:46:14.010 and creature-based rather than those 80s films that have that 783 00:46:14.090 --> 00:46:18.710 kind of eroticism to them. They're kind of like almost 784 00:46:18.769 --> 00:46:22.679 like Playboy movies. They've got that aspect to them. And 785 00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:28.079 you've definitely moved away from that. Can you talk a 786 00:46:28.119 --> 00:46:32.010 little bit about how you decided to approach it as 787 00:46:32.090 --> 00:46:36.369 horror and that those elements, did you think maybe they're 788 00:46:36.409 --> 00:46:38.590 not relevant today? 789 00:46:38.610 --> 00:46:42.230 I mean, it was a thing that I was batting 790 00:46:42.250 --> 00:46:44.489 around as I was coming up with the movie a 791 00:46:44.550 --> 00:46:47.590 little bit, but then as I developed it and as 792 00:46:47.650 --> 00:46:51.510 I wrote it, committing to this idea of him being 793 00:46:51.639 --> 00:46:55.269 older and beat up and tired there was just no 794 00:46:55.369 --> 00:46:58.590 room in the movie for that it just felt extraneous 795 00:46:58.670 --> 00:47:00.789 it felt pointless so I committed to this idea of 796 00:47:00.849 --> 00:47:05.369 like okay when I watched the first Deathstalker that poster 797 00:47:05.449 --> 00:47:10.199 promised me a big ogre monster thing and that's not 798 00:47:10.260 --> 00:47:14.960 in the movie but there's also a scantily clad lady 799 00:47:15.019 --> 00:47:18.320 on the poster and it delivered on that so my 800 00:47:18.360 --> 00:47:22.659 version what I'm promising is like the other half of 801 00:47:22.719 --> 00:47:25.659 that poster I didn't get is what I wanted to make. 802 00:47:26.199 --> 00:47:28.760 It's like, I'm going to cram all the monster shit 803 00:47:28.940 --> 00:47:32.199 that those four original Deathstalkers didn't give me. Those are 804 00:47:32.219 --> 00:47:35.690 all going to be in this one. So it's just 805 00:47:35.949 --> 00:47:39.590 delivering on a promise that I felt wasn't fulfilled earlier 806 00:47:39.650 --> 00:47:43.530 in the franchise and basically flipping the script on its head. 807 00:47:44.130 --> 00:47:46.469 So yeah, I mean, and I just like hard committed 808 00:47:46.489 --> 00:47:49.630 to that much to the disappointment of some fanboys and 809 00:47:49.670 --> 00:47:53.289 that's fine. But, I mean, to me, it's like I 810 00:47:53.550 --> 00:47:57.090 made the movie I wanted to make, and I'm very 811 00:47:57.150 --> 00:47:59.920 proud of it, and I'm happy with how it turned out. 812 00:48:01.579 --> 00:48:06.440 And I have to reassure listeners that there are boobs 813 00:48:06.639 --> 00:48:10.079 in the movie on the swamp creature, so you do 814 00:48:10.119 --> 00:48:14.579 get to see some. There is a fantastic swamp creature. 815 00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:19.969 Yeah, we got some nice boobs. big titties on a 816 00:48:19.989 --> 00:48:22.630 swamp monster and we got also a severed cock at 817 00:48:22.769 --> 00:48:25.369 one point I would argue that the movie is very 818 00:48:25.429 --> 00:48:29.369 horny just not in the way that not in the 819 00:48:29.409 --> 00:48:31.510 way that you'd throw a sticker on the box saying 820 00:48:31.570 --> 00:48:36.579 starring playboy playmate Barbie Benton or whatever which honestly that's 821 00:48:36.619 --> 00:48:39.980 the only thing I am disappointed about is to stay 822 00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:43.860 authentic to the franchise I wish that I'd cast a 823 00:48:43.900 --> 00:48:48.360 Playboy Playmate somewhere just to imitate that

sticker that I 824 00:48:48.429 --> 00:48:50.630 saw in the box when I looked at the box 825 00:48:50.650 --> 00:48:52.909 as a kid in the video store and it being 826 00:48:52.949 --> 00:48:55.309 like oh Playboy Playmate Barbie Benton and I remember my 827 00:48:55.349 --> 00:48:58.670 dad seeing it and being like oh interesting so yeah 828 00:48:59.369 --> 00:49:02.050 sad that I couldn't do that but happy that I 829 00:49:02.110 --> 00:49:05.800 got to jam it full of the most monsters I've 830 00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:07.219 ever put in a movie ever. 831 00:49:08.280 --> 00:49:12.199 And I must say that in the first couple of films, 832 00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:17.829 it's very unfortunate that the women seem to lose their 833 00:49:17.869 --> 00:49:22.050 clothing quite a lot while wandering in the forest. And 834 00:49:22.110 --> 00:49:26.010 by your movie, you seem to have addressed the fabric 835 00:49:26.090 --> 00:49:29.989 shortage that was happening in the first couple of films, 836 00:49:30.360 --> 00:49:34.159 which I can only assume in this, you know, fantasy 837 00:49:34.239 --> 00:49:39.159 landscape kingdom that they couldn't source enough fabric for. only 838 00:49:39.219 --> 00:49:43.750 just enough to make the smallest of G-strings. So that 839 00:49:43.809 --> 00:49:48.070 was great to see that the kingdom has full access 840 00:49:48.130 --> 00:49:49.349 to fabric again. 841 00:49:49.090 --> 00:49:51.380 By your film. Well, I can also tell you that 842 00:49:51.409 --> 00:49:56.260 the actors appreciated it as well. We're shooting in northern 843 00:49:56.360 --> 00:50:00.239 Canada in Sudbury in April, I think, so it was 844 00:50:00.699 --> 00:50:05.090 really cold. And, you know, technically Daniel was the most 845 00:50:05.159 --> 00:50:09.210 scantily clad person in the whole movie, and yeah he 846 00:50:09.230 --> 00:50:12.360 was cold as hell he had a rough go a 847 00:50:12.389 --> 00:50:18.099 few times navigating Canadian spring so yeah that was another 848 00:50:18.139 --> 00:50:20.300 element too was like do I want to torture these 849 00:50:21.099 --> 00:50:25.699 poor actresses by like having them in scantily scanty outfits 850 00:50:26.079 --> 00:50:30.750 so yeah it necessitated layering everyone up and giving them 851 00:50:30.889 --> 00:50:34.110 furs and coats and things which aesthetically was what I 852 00:50:34.170 --> 00:50:38.309 wanted and it also just helped out to yeah not 853 00:50:38.349 --> 00:50:41.329 make people miserable on set, which is always something you 854 00:50:41.349 --> 00:50:42.750 should aim for as a director. 855 00:50:44.409 --> 00:50:47.670 And in the film, so obviously, you know, you're the 856 00:50:47.769 --> 00:50:51.699 practical effects guy. We've got all the practical effects, but 857 00:50:51.820 --> 00:50:56.800 there's matte painting, there's stop motion animation. So you really 858 00:50:56.860 --> 00:51:00.940 go for everything in this film. Can you talk a 859 00:51:00.960 --> 00:51:05.579 little about all those different kinds of like practical effects 860 00:51:05.659 --> 00:51:06.889 that you've incorporated? 861 00:51:06.909 --> 00:51:10.019 Yeah. I mean, it's, it's funny that people are like, 862 00:51:10.079 --> 00:51:12.980 it's cool that you shy away from visual effects, like 863 00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:16.440 computer effects and stuff. And part of the sad reality 864 00:51:16.480 --> 00:51:18.980 of my low budget filmmaking world is that I just 865 00:51:19.039 --> 00:51:22.400 can't afford the effects. It's like the only option in 866 00:51:22.460 --> 00:51:25.400 a lot of cases is me building a thing in 867 00:51:25.440 --> 00:51:28.219 my little basement shop, like next door to me right now, 868 00:51:28.280 --> 00:51:30.739 like all the stop motion in desktop or I did 869 00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:36.230 myself in my basement, like built everything myself and, All 870 00:51:36.250 --> 00:51:39.179 the matte paintings, a lot of them were done for 871 00:51:39.679 --> 00:51:42.559 very cheap. It was really like, had to call in 872 00:51:42.599 --> 00:51:44.760 all the favors to make them happen. And I brought 873 00:51:44.780 --> 00:51:48.800 them in from multiple sources. Same with all the miniatures 874 00:51:48.900 --> 00:51:51.400 as well. So there's a lot of like labor of 875 00:51:51.460 --> 00:51:54.210 love from people who just wanted to make cool fantasy shit. 876 00:51:55.230 --> 00:51:57.449 But yeah, I really, from the beginning, I was like, 877 00:51:57.590 --> 00:51:59.650 we have to go this route. We have to do 878 00:51:59.690 --> 00:52:03.590 matte paintings and miniatures and stop motion because shooting in 879 00:52:03.650 --> 00:52:10.230 Northern Canada is, Unfortunately, it's not as picturesque as Argentino, 880 00:52:10.250 --> 00:52:11.769 which I think is where they shot the first one. 881 00:52:12.789 --> 00:52:16.010 Or we're not shooting in the Czech Republic or wherever 882 00:52:16.090 --> 00:52:19.869 where there's ruins and there's castles and you could just 883 00:52:19.929 --> 00:52:22.800 take a budget movie there and find a castle and 884 00:52:23.039 --> 00:52:25.780 there's all your production value. We didn't have any of that. 885 00:52:25.920 --> 00:52:29.559 So it was a lot of sets as well. Early on, 886 00:52:29.679 --> 00:52:34.010 I knew that I had to commit to, I don't 887 00:52:34.030 --> 00:52:38.320 want to say a budget TV aesthetic, but there's shots 888 00:52:38.360 --> 00:52:41.000 in this movie that feel like they could be in Xena, 889 00:52:42.119 --> 00:52:46.179 like a show like that, or Mortal Kombat Conquest, which 890 00:52:46.239 --> 00:52:49.159 starred Daniel Bernard, where it's stuff where you can tell 891 00:52:49.179 --> 00:52:51.940 you're in a studio, even though it's supposed to be outside. 892 00:52:53.199 --> 00:52:57.019 Me and my cinematographer, Andy Appel, we committed to the 893 00:52:57.159 --> 00:53:00.119 unreality of

the look we were doing. We were like, 894 00:53:00.699 --> 00:53:04.530 we want this to feel... we want the artifice to 895 00:53:04.570 --> 00:53:07.010 be tangible to people. We want that to be part 896 00:53:07.050 --> 00:53:10.210 of what's enjoyable about this film. And so, so yeah, 897 00:53:10.250 --> 00:53:14.860 committing to practical effects and to, to like matte paintings 898 00:53:15.340 --> 00:53:19.239 and miniatures, all these like handmade things help fill out, 899 00:53:19.559 --> 00:53:21.739 fill out the world in a way that we also 900 00:53:21.789 --> 00:53:25.130 just couldn't because of our budget. We just didn't, we 901 00:53:25.150 --> 00:53:28.320 didn't have these things at our disposal. So that's how we, 902 00:53:28.900 --> 00:53:31.920 we were able to realize the universe was through, through 903 00:53:31.960 --> 00:53:32.760 practical effects. 904 00:53:34.280 --> 00:53:37.639 And is that the first time you've like put stop 905 00:53:37.960 --> 00:53:40.030 motion animation into a film? 906 00:53:41.329 --> 00:53:44.809 No, I mean, there's stop motion in, there's a bunch in, 907 00:53:45.070 --> 00:53:48.530 in father's day. There's some stop motion stuff in that. Uh, 908 00:53:48.650 --> 00:53:51.769 Manborg is full of stop motion. I mean, I started 909 00:53:51.829 --> 00:53:54.469 in stop motion. That was my original, uh, kind of 910 00:53:54.530 --> 00:53:58.239 like filmmaking technique that I did, uh, in my early teens. 911 00:53:58.320 --> 00:54:01.619 Cause I, I knew early on when I got into filmmaking, 912 00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:05.500 I don't have friends that are actors, I don't have locations, 913 00:54:05.539 --> 00:54:07.420 I don't have a good camera, but I can make 914 00:54:07.699 --> 00:54:11.230 little figures and animate them. And so then that just 915 00:54:11.989 --> 00:54:16.809 carried into every subsequent movie I've made. Like, Psycho Goreman 916 00:54:16.849 --> 00:54:19.289 has stop motion in it, Frankie Frico's got a whole 917 00:54:19.329 --> 00:54:22.139 bunch of stop motion as well. The whole, like, mine 918 00:54:22.199 --> 00:54:26.000 cart chase at the end of Frankie Frico is stop motion, so. 919 00:54:26.500 --> 00:54:28.699 I try to find a place for it in all 920 00:54:28.739 --> 00:54:32.000 my movies because it's just fun to do. It's like, 921 00:54:32.280 --> 00:54:36.559 especially compared to the chaos of production of like being 922 00:54:36.639 --> 00:54:40.579 on set on a location, shooting a movie and navigating 923 00:54:40.599 --> 00:54:44.539 like a hundred crew members. It's fun to, uh, to 924 00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:46.460 be able to just sit in my basement and put 925 00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:49.800 some music on and just incrementally move a figure like, 926 00:54:50.340 --> 00:54:52.840 you know, millimeters at a time for hours on end. 927 00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:57.150 It's like, dare i say therapeutic by. 928 00:54:57.050 --> 00:55:02.969 Comparison and the um animation in death stalker it's like 929 00:55:03.070 --> 00:55:07.769 really classic it's very like ray harryhausen but obviously that 930 00:55:07.969 --> 00:55:12.329 that really influenced army of darkness as well in what they. 931 00:55:12.110 --> 00:55:14.820 Did jason and the argonauts is one of my favorite 932 00:55:14.860 --> 00:55:18.019 movies as like that one my love for that definitely 933 00:55:18.099 --> 00:55:21.619 predates army of darkness and is maybe why i was 934 00:55:22.429 --> 00:55:25.110 so into army of darkness because i as a kid 935 00:55:25.159 --> 00:55:27.559 like really young i remember watching like clash of the 936 00:55:27.599 --> 00:55:31.099 titans jason the argonauts the sinbad movies like all the 937 00:55:31.159 --> 00:55:34.679 harryhausen stuff uh my parents were just like feeding me 938 00:55:34.719 --> 00:55:38.210 that constantly and so yeah that's where my love of 939 00:55:38.269 --> 00:55:42.489 stop motion really started and the skeleton fight sequence in 940 00:55:42.750 --> 00:55:45.610 jason the argonauts is like one of my all-time favorite 941 00:55:45.829 --> 00:55:49.610 stop motion sequences it's like so complex. I still don't 942 00:55:49.710 --> 00:55:52.030 fully understand how he was able to pull that off 943 00:55:52.090 --> 00:55:55.570 at the time on, on old like analog technology too. 944 00:55:55.869 --> 00:55:57.750 So yeah. Great movie. 945 00:55:59.730 --> 00:56:04.010 And, um, so at the moment with like kind of 946 00:56:04.110 --> 00:56:09.010 cinema goers and the movie watching public at the moment, 947 00:56:09.190 --> 00:56:13.449 I find there seems to be this real preoccupation with 948 00:56:14.090 --> 00:56:18.079 re like realism and, um, the story has to be 949 00:56:18.219 --> 00:56:23.559 really plausible and everything has to be really believable and 950 00:56:23.840 --> 00:56:30.380 that maybe we've lost our appreciation of fantasy or suspending 951 00:56:30.440 --> 00:56:36.079 belief and using imagination when we're watching films. Maybe if 952 00:56:36.119 --> 00:56:38.889 you want to talk a little about that because this 953 00:56:38.989 --> 00:56:45.030 is a work of pure fantasy world-building imagination and also 954 00:56:45.210 --> 00:56:51.579 fantasy do you think that the artistry is really like 955 00:56:51.659 --> 00:56:57.519 more important than say realism or I don't know how 956 00:56:57.559 --> 00:56:59.599 to ask the question, but there you go. 957 00:57:00.079 --> 00:57:03.550 I get what you're saying. And yeah, I'm pretty bored 958 00:57:03.800 --> 00:57:09.289 of realism. I think there's like a difference between realism 959 00:57:09.530 --> 00:57:14.510 and emotional truth and this is me getting real like 960 00:57:14.929 --> 00:57:19.840 a university film student right now, getting on a soapbox. 961 00:57:19.920 --> 00:57:26.159 But like, I feel like movies that are like hailed 962 00:57:26.219 --> 00:57:30.079 as like the greatest movies of all

time, like, you know, 963 00:57:30.119 --> 00:57:32.889 like Kubrick films and stuff you watch, like even some, 964 00:57:32.909 --> 00:57:35.949 like the shining to stay within the genre we're talking about, 965 00:57:35.969 --> 00:57:40.480 like something like the shining it's like, there's lots of weird, 966 00:57:40.679 --> 00:57:44.099 unrealistic things happening in that movie, but there are, there 967 00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:48.139 is a feeling and a tone to it that it 968 00:57:48.199 --> 00:57:53.909 achieves that feels very real and immediate and, and, and 969 00:57:53.949 --> 00:57:59.230 like really unnerving and unsettling. And I, I don't think 970 00:57:59.269 --> 00:58:03.690 it's a movie that needs to be more realistic. You know, like, 971 00:58:03.710 --> 00:58:07.050 I don't know. You don't watch classic movies and go like, Oh, 972 00:58:07.070 --> 00:58:10.289 I wish, I wish this was more realistic. It's like, no, 973 00:58:10.690 --> 00:58:13.230 I like the artifice of film is important. 974 00:58:13.650 --> 00:58:13.989 I don't know. 975 00:58:14.030 --> 00:58:17.150 I feel like some of it is like a bit 976 00:58:17.190 --> 00:58:19.849 of a side effect of people becoming a little bit 977 00:58:19.949 --> 00:58:24.309 too intellectual with cinema. And it's not to say like 978 00:58:24.789 --> 00:58:28.860 analyzing or dissecting things isn't important and fun, but I 979 00:58:28.889 --> 00:58:32.739 just worry that like everybody is an expert now and 980 00:58:32.840 --> 00:58:37.360 everybody's a critic and everybody's got their like, angle on 981 00:58:37.389 --> 00:58:41.380 like what this movie means and so we're kind of 982 00:58:41.420 --> 00:58:45.920 losing some of the like the opposite of intellectual is 983 00:58:46.019 --> 00:58:48.119 like the just kind of like the feeling like the 984 00:58:48.159 --> 00:58:51.639 innate feelings of watching movies like to me that's that's 985 00:58:51.659 --> 00:58:55.099 what drives all of my films and why i make 986 00:58:55.119 --> 00:58:57.300 the choices i make is that i don't i usually 987 00:58:57.340 --> 00:59:00.519 don't have like a 10 page essay explaining why i 988 00:59:00.559 --> 00:59:02.510 want to do a thing i'm like well this feels 989 00:59:02.679 --> 00:59:06.739 right because i i know the feeling i'm chasing in 990 00:59:06.760 --> 00:59:10.039 this moment of this movie and like I know what 991 00:59:10.099 --> 00:59:12.980 i need to to climb the ladder to get to 992 00:59:13.039 --> 00:59:17.760 that moment and it's not necessarily just hyper realism uh 993 00:59:18.059 --> 00:59:22.280 to get there you know so it's like i feel 994 00:59:22.300 --> 00:59:25.269 like fantasy should be like a tool in a filmmaker's 995 00:59:25.349 --> 00:59:28.289 toolkit you should be able to lean into it to 996 00:59:28.329 --> 00:59:32.590 evoke feelings and evoke like a dreamlike quality movie should 997 00:59:32.710 --> 00:59:36.909 feel like, should feel like dreams. They should, even if 998 00:59:36.929 --> 00:59:40.369 they take place in reality, it's, it is ultimately a fantasy. 999 00:59:40.750 --> 00:59:44.690 It's a performance. So why not lean into that? Yeah. 1000 00:59:44.750 --> 00:59:51.519 I don't like people who hyperanalyze movies and nitpick like 1001 00:59:51.719 --> 00:59:54.960 continuity errors or things like that. I'm like, what are like, 1002 00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.619 what are you doing, man? Like, yeah people are kind 1003 00:59:59.639 --> 01:00:04.789 of turning into wet blankets at times it's like that's 1004 01:00:04.989 --> 01:00:08.530 I don't know it's just not for me you know 1005 01:00:08.590 --> 01:00:11.010 like I want things to be weird and wacky and 1006 01:00:11.110 --> 01:00:15.550 crazy and I like I don't know I like when 1007 01:00:16.530 --> 01:00:19.389 a filmmaker takes a big swing and does something weird 1008 01:00:19.579 --> 01:00:22.820 and I'm like maybe it didn't land for me but 1009 01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:27.039 that's more that's more compelling to me than somebody that's 1010 01:00:27.099 --> 01:00:32.400 just like, here's a brutally realistic and straightforward interpretation of 1011 01:00:32.460 --> 01:00:34.860 an idea. It's like, no, I kind of want to see, 1012 01:00:34.880 --> 01:00:39.360 cause I feel like I'm just really rambling now, but 1013 01:00:39.380 --> 01:00:42.079 it's like, I want to see, I want to see 1014 01:00:42.139 --> 01:00:46.139 that director's vision. I want to see their perception of 1015 01:00:46.719 --> 01:00:51.690 reality and, embodied in that film and not just a 1016 01:00:51.750 --> 01:00:54.659 commitment to like well this is how reality works and 1017 01:00:54.719 --> 01:00:56.500 how we all perceive it it's like no I kind 1018 01:00:56.519 --> 01:00:58.900 of want to see again to go back to Kubrick 1019 01:00:58.960 --> 01:01:02.420 it's like how he perceives reality is how his movies 1020 01:01:02.800 --> 01:01:07.659 exist and how Tarantino perceives reality is the world that 1021 01:01:07.699 --> 01:01:11.780 his movies exist in like all the greatest filmmakers think 1022 01:01:11.820 --> 01:01:14.349 like that John Carpenter even it's like he's a good 1023 01:01:14.389 --> 01:01:19.440 example of like he crafts his realities also around the 1024 01:01:19.500 --> 01:01:23.539 kind of musical implications of his movies. Like the, the 1025 01:01:23.599 --> 01:01:26.900 score is such a character in itself for all of 1026 01:01:26.940 --> 01:01:31.110 his films. The score that's not, there's nothing to do 1027 01:01:31.119 --> 01:01:33.130 with realism. It has everything to do with him trying 1028 01:01:33.150 --> 01:01:36.190 to evoke a tone and a mood. And so that 1029 01:01:36.230 --> 01:01:39.210 to me should always be the priority, not is this 1030 01:01:39.329 --> 01:01:40.769 realistic or not. 1031 01:01:42.409 --> 01:01:42.550 Yeah. 1032 01:01:42.570 --> 01:01:45.550 I think all that nitpicking, it's like really

joyless. 1033 01:01:46.769 --> 01:01:47.150 Yeah, agreed. 1034 01:01:47.289 --> 01:01:52.289 And often when I read that kind of stuff, I think, well, 1035 01:01:52.670 --> 01:01:54.050 it can't be very fun. 1036 01:01:54.070 --> 01:01:56.179 Yes, yeah. 1037 01:01:56.360 --> 01:02:00.659 Watching a movie from that perspective, it's just rather than 1038 01:02:00.739 --> 01:02:04.579 just letting go and taking it all in. And I 1039 01:02:04.619 --> 01:02:08.099 guess that is what I personally love about fantasy and 1040 01:02:08.159 --> 01:02:10.739 horror and fantastic cinema. 1041 01:02:11.639 --> 01:02:14.820 Yeah, yeah. Like I want to be taken on. a 1042 01:02:14.860 --> 01:02:18.429 journey through somebody else's imagination because I feel like that 1043 01:02:19.030 --> 01:02:26.590 that will feed my imagination more than just some bleary 1044 01:02:26.829 --> 01:02:33.469 gray representation of reality you know like I I want 1045 01:02:33.489 --> 01:02:36.329 to see other people's imagination I want to be blown 1046 01:02:36.369 --> 01:02:39.010 away by stuff that I've never seen before or ideas 1047 01:02:39.050 --> 01:02:42.940 that I've never considered or and it doesn't necessarily have 1048 01:02:42.980 --> 01:02:47.000 to be like big epic genre stuff but just like 1049 01:02:47.159 --> 01:02:50.659 even just on a more human level finding interesting ways 1050 01:02:50.719 --> 01:02:55.400 to tell compelling stories and not just being like it 1051 01:02:55.440 --> 01:02:58.659 has to be reality all the time so yeah and 1052 01:02:58.739 --> 01:03:02.179 again I think that that is a symptom of our 1053 01:03:02.260 --> 01:03:08.530 like letterboxed culture of everybody's gotta write their review and 1054 01:03:08.590 --> 01:03:10.789 give it's like I give this movie two and a 1055 01:03:10.829 --> 01:03:14.699 half stars because of this it's like okay cool I 1056 01:03:14.719 --> 01:03:17.860 don't know. I'm really turning into an old man now 1057 01:03:17.900 --> 01:03:20.659 where I'm like, I miss the before times where all 1058 01:03:20.699 --> 01:03:23.900 my movie reviews came from my friend Kieran and his 1059 01:03:23.960 --> 01:03:26.760 brother Max sitting in their basement. That's the basement where 1060 01:03:26.800 --> 01:03:28.639 I met Adam Brooks and he talked to me about 1061 01:03:28.679 --> 01:03:31.659 drama movies. But going over there and them being like, 1062 01:03:31.679 --> 01:03:33.820 we just watched this movie called Man Bites Dog and 1063 01:03:33.840 --> 01:03:35.739 then they'll talk my ear off about that for a 1064 01:03:35.760 --> 01:03:40.599 half an hour. There's something way more human and rewarding 1065 01:03:40.659 --> 01:03:46.449 about that than seeing somebody's snarky two-sentence take on a 1066 01:03:46.510 --> 01:03:51.070 thing on social media. Anyway, rant over. I've got to 1067 01:03:51.110 --> 01:03:54.110 stop ranting now. 1068 01:03:54.730 --> 01:03:59.389 But that's the point of cinema.

You're going to escape reality. 1069 01:03:59.630 --> 01:04:03.730 I don't understand. That's how I go to the movies. 1070 01:04:03.769 --> 01:04:08.409 Every time I go and watch something, my reality, out 1071 01:04:08.449 --> 01:04:11.210 of my mind, just enjoy the film and enjoy what 1072 01:04:11.250 --> 01:04:11.530 it is. 1073 01:04:12.380 --> 01:04:17.150 And even like, you know, like I fully agree with 1074 01:04:17.210 --> 01:04:19.989 the escapist logic, but I also feel like it works 1075 01:04:20.050 --> 01:04:22.849 as a bit of therapy too, where whatever I'm going through, 1076 01:04:22.889 --> 01:04:24.829 if I'm watching a movie, even has nothing to do 1077 01:04:24.849 --> 01:04:27.610 with whatever shit I'm dealing with in my life. It's like, 1078 01:04:28.340 --> 01:04:31.679 I like it when I can kind of use the 1079 01:04:31.739 --> 01:04:36.139 catharsis of that movie to just reset my brain to 1080 01:04:36.219 --> 01:04:38.659 deal with, to go back and deal with that problem. 1081 01:04:38.800 --> 01:04:41.429 It's like, it's not so much like running away from 1082 01:04:41.590 --> 01:04:44.190 stuff and hiding in a movie theater so much as like, 1083 01:04:45.050 --> 01:04:50.619 I need to like recharge my brain with some imagination and, uh, 1084 01:04:50.820 --> 01:04:55.559 and some, some imagination, some storytelling and some, some emotion 1085 01:04:55.639 --> 01:04:57.739 to then kind of like give me the energy to 1086 01:04:57.780 --> 01:05:00.420 go back to facing the shit in my life, I 1087 01:05:00.460 --> 01:05:02.920 think is what, what movies are important for. And if 1088 01:05:02.980 --> 01:05:07.070 all you're doing is nitpicking and pulling them apart, it's like, 1089 01:05:07.110 --> 01:05:10.289 that just seems more like a, an exercise in anxiety 1090 01:05:10.489 --> 01:05:14.289 than in, you know, the therapy that movies should be. 1091 01:05:15.409 --> 01:05:17.369 That's a good point. Absolutely. 1092 01:05:17.389 --> 01:05:20.130 Yeah, I'll take it further. Like David Lynch said in 1093 01:05:20.170 --> 01:05:24.739 an interview, you know, movies create worlds, create universes. And 1094 01:05:24.880 --> 01:05:26.380 that's all I care about when I watch a movie. 1095 01:05:26.519 --> 01:05:28.820 I want to be in that world for a couple 1096 01:05:28.840 --> 01:05:31.260 of hours. Like I sat for once upon a time 1097 01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:34.420 in America on the big screen yesterday, and that's four hours. 1098 01:05:35.179 --> 01:05:35.559 I loved it. 1099 01:05:35.869 --> 01:05:37.699 I just love how it takes you into that world 1100 01:05:37.719 --> 01:05:41.360 of beautiful music. It's a nice slow pace. It's back 1101 01:05:41.400 --> 01:05:44.940 and forth from old age to childhood, how they become 1102 01:05:44.980 --> 01:05:47.840 who they are. And it's fascinating in every sense. And 1103 01:05:47.860 --> 01:05:49.269 the whole audience is glued to it. 1104 01:05:50.639 --> 01:05:51.469 Yeah. Yeah. 1105 01:05:51.570 --> 01:05:55.929 And like the kind of filmic techniques of it take 1106 01:05:55.969 --> 01:06:00.250 you on this nice ride. It sucks you in. It 1107 01:06:00.269 --> 01:06:02.309 absorbs you for a few hours and it spits you 1108 01:06:02.349 --> 01:06:07.750 back out. It's like... Yeah, that's what I want from 1109 01:06:07.789 --> 01:06:09.889 all my movies, that kind of experience. 1110 01:06:11.969 --> 01:06:16.920 I have endless questions, but I wanted to know, do 1111 01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:20.039 you have a favorite creature from Deathstalker? 1112 01:06:21.420 --> 01:06:25.039 Yeah, I mean, I don't want to put any of 1113 01:06:25.079 --> 01:06:27.260 them down. I think they're all amazing. I love all 1114 01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:31.599 of them. But I'd say Scarabus is kind of sitting 1115 01:06:31.619 --> 01:06:36.139 at the top for me, just because... I love mummies 1116 01:06:36.860 --> 01:06:39.670 and he's a bit of a mummy. He's so many things. 1117 01:06:39.690 --> 01:06:42.269 He's such a great example of a Steve Kostanski creature 1118 01:06:42.309 --> 01:06:45.610 design because I was like, I want a mummy. I 1119 01:06:46.150 --> 01:06:50.130 also want a Cyclops. I also want him to be 1120 01:06:50.190 --> 01:06:54.440 like Voldo from Soul Calibur, like kind of a weird 1121 01:06:55.280 --> 01:06:59.480 kind of androgynous twisty guy. It was just so many, 1122 01:06:59.699 --> 01:07:02.789 I was just piling things on. to see what would 1123 01:07:02.849 --> 01:07:05.289 stick and what he could turn into. And it evolved 1124 01:07:05.329 --> 01:07:07.250 into this idea of like, Oh, there's like this golden 1125 01:07:07.269 --> 01:07:11.769 kind of like spider attached to this guy's face. And 1126 01:07:11.809 --> 01:07:17.710 that's essentially puppeteering this zombie, this mummy and turning him 1127 01:07:17.750 --> 01:07:20.329 into this fighting machine with a saw blade, a spinning 1128 01:07:20.409 --> 01:07:23.590 saw blade on a chain that he chucks around. It's 1129 01:07:23.630 --> 01:07:28.139 like such nonsense that I love it. It's straight out 1130 01:07:28.179 --> 01:07:32.030 of mortal combat. this movie was made 25 years ago. 1131 01:07:32.050 --> 01:07:34.570 I feel like McFarlane toys would have made a figure 1132 01:07:34.610 --> 01:07:38.079 for this guy already. And you know, 15 year old 1133 01:07:38.119 --> 01:07:42.260 Steve would have bought it immediately. Yeah. I just had 1134 01:07:42.280 --> 01:07:44.960 a lot of fun designing that guy. It was another 1135 01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:47.340 great example of like working in tandem with the costume 1136 01:07:47.360 --> 01:07:51.579 department who did like Chelsea, who headed up that department. 1137 01:07:51.599 --> 01:07:55.010 She was so fantastic at kind of extending stuff that 1138 01:07:55.090 --> 01:07:57.510 I came up with. Cause that was really a case 1139 01:07:57.550 --> 01:07:59.969 of like, I sculpted a mask and some

hands and 1140 01:08:00.030 --> 01:08:03.380 she did all the mummy shit wrapped around them. And 1141 01:08:03.389 --> 01:08:07.280 it just all worked so beautifully together. I just kind 1142 01:08:07.300 --> 01:08:09.579 of like made the process really fun to be like, 1143 01:08:10.219 --> 01:08:12.219 I came up with a head and a rough concept 1144 01:08:12.260 --> 01:08:14.019 of what this thing is. And let's see what you 1145 01:08:14.039 --> 01:08:16.340 come up with. That's, that's how I like to design 1146 01:08:16.380 --> 01:08:20.170 my creatures. I'm not a big fan of like fully 1147 01:08:20.930 --> 01:08:24.920 committed to like visual designs. Like I don't, I don't 1148 01:08:24.960 --> 01:08:28.140 like to be like, here's a Z brush painted image 1149 01:08:28.420 --> 01:08:30.100 of what I want the thing to be. Just make 1150 01:08:30.140 --> 01:08:34.609 that exact thing. I kind of like having a sketch 1151 01:08:35.029 --> 01:08:38.369 or partial sculpt of something and being like, here's a 1152 01:08:38.550 --> 01:08:41.510 starting point. Let's go, let's go on this journey and 1153 01:08:41.550 --> 01:08:44.409 see what comes out the other end. And so Scarabist 1154 01:08:44.720 --> 01:08:47.500 I think was a really successful example of doing that. 1155 01:08:47.579 --> 01:08:50.039 I'm just being like, I have an idea in my 1156 01:08:50.079 --> 01:08:52.670 head of all this kind of, shit that maybe shouldn't 1157 01:08:52.729 --> 01:08:55.270 fit together, let's figure out how to make it fit together. 1158 01:08:55.810 --> 01:08:57.409 Turned into something super fun. 1159 01:08:58.829 --> 01:09:00.909 Did you have a favorite question? Tony? 1160 01:09:02.350 --> 01:09:06.760 Well, I gotta say, Doodad's my favourite. I thought Doodad 1161 01:09:06.800 --> 01:09:10.960 was such fun. Patton Oswalt did the voice very well, 1162 01:09:11.020 --> 01:09:14.720 by the way. How was it working with Patton Oswalt? 1163 01:09:14.760 --> 01:09:17.880 Because I love Patton Oswalt's comedy and I love But 1164 01:09:17.939 --> 01:09:19.680 one thing I did love about Patton Oswalt is his 1165 01:09:19.720 --> 01:09:23.979 passion for cinema because I have seen so many interviews 1166 01:09:24.100 --> 01:09:28.569 with him about his love of film and filmmaking in general. 1167 01:09:29.270 --> 01:09:30.789 How was it working with Patton Oswalt? 1168 01:09:31.109 --> 01:09:33.970 I mean, it was amazing. It was like a dream 1169 01:09:34.010 --> 01:09:35.789 come true getting to work with that guy. I didn't 1170 01:09:35.829 --> 01:09:38.229 even know we were going to get him, but he 1171 01:09:38.630 --> 01:09:41.210 agreed to do it. I had him, I'd actually met 1172 01:09:41.250 --> 01:09:44.449 him through another project that we were shopping around that 1173 01:09:44.489 --> 01:09:46.210 he was attached to. So I talked to him on 1174 01:09:46.229 --> 01:09:48.619 Zoom a little bit here and there. And so he 1175 01:09:48.659 --> 01:09:50.539 was familiar with my work, and he wrote a really 1176 01:09:50.600 --> 01:09:55.500 nice Twitter review of Psycho Goreman when it came out. 1177 01:09:56.300 --> 01:10:00.659 And so he's appreciated my work in the past. And 1178 01:10:00.760 --> 01:10:02.380 so we reached out and got him to do it, 1179 01:10:02.380 --> 01:10:04.149 and it was one of those things where it's like, oh, 1180 01:10:04.180 --> 01:10:06.420 he's available for six hours on this day, so I 1181 01:10:06.439 --> 01:10:08.300 hope he can get all the dialogue in that time. 1182 01:10:08.319 --> 01:10:11.590 It was really just like, cross your fingers and hope 1183 01:10:11.619 --> 01:10:15.449 it works. So he was in L.A. in a sound booth, 1184 01:10:15.510 --> 01:10:19.029 and I was up in probably here in winnipeg you 1185 01:10:19.069 --> 01:10:21.350 know at my computer we're over zoom going back and 1186 01:10:21.409 --> 01:10:24.069 forth and he's he's reading the lines and i'm giving 1187 01:10:24.109 --> 01:10:26.819 him notes and you know it's just a fun dynamic 1188 01:10:26.880 --> 01:10:31.739 dynamic because that guy he's a pro he just on 1189 01:10:31.760 --> 01:10:34.720 top of being passionate and passionate about film he's also 1190 01:10:35.859 --> 01:10:38.600 like he's just done all of it it's similar to 1191 01:10:38.659 --> 01:10:41.539 daniel it's like he's just he's been through it all 1192 01:10:41.899 --> 01:10:44.260 he's been in every type of thing he's done like 1193 01:10:44.979 --> 01:10:48.689 voice work he is no stranger to So it was nice. 1194 01:10:49.229 --> 01:10:51.449 I love working with guys like that who are just, 1195 01:10:52.050 --> 01:10:56.409 they're so dialed in on, on what, knowing what's required 1196 01:10:56.449 --> 01:10:59.779 of them in the moment. And they're like, you know, you're, 1197 01:11:00.340 --> 01:11:02.819 I've signed the contract. You paid me. I'm here. Let's 1198 01:11:02.859 --> 01:11:07.140 do it. They're like super pleasant to work with. Yeah. 1199 01:11:07.319 --> 01:11:08.859 It was just a great time. I can't hype them 1200 01:11:08.899 --> 01:11:11.739 up enough. He was, he brought a lot to the 1201 01:11:11.800 --> 01:11:14.890 movie and, and it was just like a great vocal 1202 01:11:14.909 --> 01:11:17.840 supporter of everything I do. So, Yeah, I love it. 1203 01:11:19.180 --> 01:11:21.819 But of course, we can't forget the physical performance of 1204 01:11:21.920 --> 01:11:25.439 Undo Dad, who was, I believe, portrayed by Laurie Field? Yes. 1205 01:11:25.699 --> 01:11:29.170 Yeah, Laurie's awesome. She did a great job. Had never 1206 01:11:29.210 --> 01:11:34.590 done creature performance before, and I always give my creature 1207 01:11:34.670 --> 01:11:37.350 actors this speech when they're new to the game of, like, 1208 01:11:38.229 --> 01:11:41.409 this sounds cool, like, being a creature in a movie 1209 01:11:41.470 --> 01:11:46.770 sounds cool, but like, you're gonna be miserable, you're get

1210 01:11:46.829 --> 01:11:49.989 shit glued to your face every day. It's going to 1211 01:11:50.010 --> 01:11:53.409 be hard to talk, hard to move, hard to do anything. 1212 01:11:53.569 --> 01:11:55.470 People are going to be staring at you all the 1213 01:11:55.529 --> 01:11:58.079 time being like, Oh, look at that freak over there. 1214 01:11:58.520 --> 01:12:01.779 Like that's going to really mess with your head. You know, 1215 01:12:01.840 --> 01:12:04.020 I like warned her of all the shit she was 1216 01:12:04.039 --> 01:12:06.239 getting into and she was so fine with it and 1217 01:12:06.300 --> 01:12:11.010 game and just like, I also having just hyped up, 1218 01:12:11.069 --> 01:12:14.210 like working with a professional who has, you know, had, 1219 01:12:14.210 --> 01:12:17.020 30 years of experience in the industry it's like working 1220 01:12:17.039 --> 01:12:19.210 with somebody like Laurie who's just a grounded down to 1221 01:12:19.310 --> 01:12:22.949 earth like wonderful lady who lives like a real life 1222 01:12:23.210 --> 01:12:26.529 and has no real skin in the game as far 1223 01:12:26.609 --> 01:12:31.350 as like you know like filmmaking or anything like that 1224 01:12:31.380 --> 01:12:34.039 it's like she just saw it as a fun opportunity 1225 01:12:34.460 --> 01:12:36.479 and it was just fun to work with her and 1226 01:12:36.539 --> 01:12:40.619 work with like a real human being who just like 1227 01:12:40.640 --> 01:12:44.130 I don't know she just kept everything grounded Everybody loved her. 1228 01:12:44.229 --> 01:12:48.670 She was so constantly pleasant to be around. It's a 1229 01:12:48.729 --> 01:12:53.470 role that could have very easily turned another actor sour. 1230 01:12:53.510 --> 01:12:56.810 They would have gotten mad being stuck in that mask 1231 01:12:57.090 --> 01:13:03.829 every day for weeks on end. She really brought her 1232 01:13:03.899 --> 01:13:07.909 A-game every day. Her and Daniel had a very funny dynamic. 1233 01:13:08.439 --> 01:13:12.779 It's funny watching her scenes Without Patton dubbed over top. 1234 01:13:12.859 --> 01:13:17.670 Because she sounds so Canadian. And it's like very funny. 1235 01:13:18.909 --> 01:13:23.630 Hearing a little goblin creature. Speaking a very thick Canadian accent. 1236 01:13:24.250 --> 01:13:25.569 Yeah. 1237 01:13:25.770 --> 01:13:30.640 It's very charming. So yeah. The whole team was amazing. 1238 01:13:31.479 --> 01:13:35.520 Yeah. The whole team was amazing. I can imagine that 1239 01:13:35.579 --> 01:13:38.560 this film. Was more of a dream to work with. 1240 01:13:38.909 --> 01:13:41.609 to work on than The Nightmare of the Void. Was 1241 01:13:41.649 --> 01:13:42.909 that correct? 1242 01:13:43.609 --> 01:13:47.289 Yeah, I think initially, I mean, this movie certainly had 1243 01:13:47.399 --> 01:13:52.060 its struggles. It's my most ambitious movie. The thing that 1244 01:13:52.119 --> 01:13:54.220 I missed about The Void was like, oh, The Void, 1245 01:13:54.260 --> 01:13:58.159 we were in an old high school shooting that movie. 1246 01:13:58.819 --> 01:14:01.960 And I guess just production logistics I missed. I liked 1247 01:14:02.119 --> 01:14:04.220 that that movie, we just went to the same place 1248 01:14:04.279 --> 01:14:11.829 every day. Whereas Deathstalker, we'd be out in these quarries 1249 01:14:11.890 --> 01:14:15.170 and things, out in these wild locations. And this was 1250 01:14:15.189 --> 01:14:21.239 definitely a movie where we had giant ambitions with pocket 1251 01:14:21.300 --> 01:14:26.340 change for a budget. And we really pushed the limits 1252 01:14:26.380 --> 01:14:29.119 of what you could do with very little money. We 1253 01:14:29.159 --> 01:14:31.859 could only afford two horses. So trying to get the 1254 01:14:31.970 --> 01:14:35.470 most out of those two horses was stressful. Now when 1255 01:14:35.529 --> 01:14:38.789 I watch original death stalker i just get mad because 1256 01:14:38.810 --> 01:14:40.930 they have so many horses in that movie and i'm 1257 01:14:40.970 --> 01:14:44.109 like how did you guys afford like 10 horses in 1258 01:14:44.149 --> 01:14:46.829 this shot i believe in the so there's a box 1259 01:14:46.850 --> 01:14:49.890 set coming out with death stalker one two and my 1260 01:14:49.930 --> 01:14:54.010 death stalker yes i did commentaries for both of them 1261 01:14:54.029 --> 01:14:57.510 and i'm pretty sure the rant i just gave uh 1262 01:14:57.689 --> 01:15:00.930 is in that commentary somewhere i think every time every 1263 01:15:00.949 --> 01:15:04.829 time there's like lots of extras or horses, I start 1264 01:15:04.850 --> 01:15:06.930 to get mad. I'm just like, why does this movie 1265 01:15:07.029 --> 01:15:09.390 have all this stuff when mine can't? 1266 01:15:10.770 --> 01:15:15.149 So that's the imprint release, which we're talking about here 1267 01:15:15.189 --> 01:15:20.529 on Imprintcast. Sorry, I'll just show another release. So that 1268 01:15:20.569 --> 01:15:25.810 was the first one, The Shout Factory. But the extras 1269 01:15:26.050 --> 01:15:29.609 are carried over from this release to the Australian release. 1270 01:15:30.689 --> 01:15:35.079 which we're getting with Deathstalker 1, 2 and your film. 1271 01:15:35.119 --> 01:15:38.560 It's got like a crazy lenticular case, but we'll go 1272 01:15:38.640 --> 01:15:41.979 through all of that. But, yeah, the commentaries are really 1273 01:15:42.039 --> 01:15:46.350 fantastic and there's also a really great feature which is 1274 01:15:46.430 --> 01:15:50.210 carried over to this release that's coming out, which is 1275 01:15:50.529 --> 01:15:55.210 all about the stop motion animation, which you did. So 1276 01:15:55.250 --> 01:15:58.350 that will be on the Australian release as well and 1277 01:15:58.430 --> 01:16:01.960 I recommend that. to everyone that picks up the release. 1278 01:16:02.020 --> 01:16:04.960 Cause that's really interesting showing behind the

scenes. 1279 01:16:06.140 --> 01:16:09.880 Yeah, that was a little video I cut together. Cause 1280 01:16:09.920 --> 01:16:12.920 I took a bunch of time-lapse footage of me animating 1281 01:16:12.939 --> 01:16:15.939 the skeletons for the movie. Something I'm trying to get 1282 01:16:15.979 --> 01:16:18.000 better at is I realized like I'm doing all this 1283 01:16:18.260 --> 01:16:21.020 weird practical stuff. People probably want to see these things. 1284 01:16:21.060 --> 01:16:23.189 So I'm trying to film myself more as I work. 1285 01:16:23.470 --> 01:16:27.090 And so, yeah, I cut that little five minute BTS 1286 01:16:27.130 --> 01:16:29.600 featurette on the stop motion. I wish, I wish I 1287 01:16:29.659 --> 01:16:33.390 could have done more for the release, maybe down the road, uh, 1288 01:16:33.510 --> 01:16:36.170 I'll be able to cut together a full creature effects 1289 01:16:36.210 --> 01:16:39.750 behind the scenes. Um, but yeah, you know, there's only 1290 01:16:39.829 --> 01:16:40.949 so much time in the day. 1291 01:16:41.489 --> 01:16:44.909 So I have to say, I'm sorry. I really liked 1292 01:16:44.930 --> 01:16:49.319 the little frog creatures. Like that's random, but like in 1293 01:16:49.359 --> 01:16:53.319 the foreground and just getting around. And it really reminded 1294 01:16:53.399 --> 01:16:58.539 me of say, um, star Wars, how like there's just, 1295 01:16:58.939 --> 01:17:02.140 there's something happening in the foreground, there's the action in 1296 01:17:02.159 --> 01:17:06.600 the middle, and then there's kind of something happening above. 1297 01:17:07.180 --> 01:17:12.939 And I saw that kind of approach in layering creatures, 1298 01:17:13.100 --> 01:17:16.399 all these kinds of things in the shot. 1299 01:17:16.859 --> 01:17:17.060 Yeah. 1300 01:17:17.119 --> 01:17:19.319 And that was very Star Wars to me. And one 1301 01:17:19.350 --> 01:17:22.569 of my favorite things about Star Wars is all the 1302 01:17:22.609 --> 01:17:26.329 just weird little creatures that pop up all over the place. So, 1303 01:17:26.810 --> 01:17:27.789 I loved the frog. 1304 01:17:27.970 --> 01:17:28.390 I loved it. 1305 01:17:28.390 --> 01:17:30.630 I'm like, oh, it's a little frog. 1306 01:17:31.310 --> 01:17:34.590 Well, we actually brought them back later in the movie 1307 01:17:34.630 --> 01:17:37.510 when we get to the climactic scene in the courtyard. 1308 01:17:38.510 --> 01:17:42.550 The reason for that was because the courtyard we shot in, 1309 01:17:44.189 --> 01:17:47.609 I guess it was frog mating season or something, but 1310 01:17:47.689 --> 01:17:53.180 there was just frogs ribbiting everywhere in the background. And 1311 01:17:53.239 --> 01:17:56.260 our sound guy was like, you're not going to be 1312 01:17:56.300 --> 01:17:58.979 able to clean this up. Like this is, this is 1313 01:17:59.140 --> 01:18:03.319 in every line, every thing people are saying in this sequence, 1314 01:18:03.359 --> 01:18:05.189 this like 10

minutes of movie, you're just going to 1315 01:18:05.199 --> 01:18:09.729 hear frogs. So in that moment, me and my first 1316 01:18:09.810 --> 01:18:14.090 AD and my DOP jammed out this idea of like, well, 1317 01:18:14.130 --> 01:18:17.329 what if there's just like evil frogs everywhere? So then 1318 01:18:17.430 --> 01:18:19.569 later when we did block two, we got this shot 1319 01:18:19.850 --> 01:18:23.310 of people walking by and there's like frogs with glowing 1320 01:18:23.369 --> 01:18:26.760 red eyes and And the whole reason for that is just, like, 1321 01:18:27.220 --> 01:18:29.859 just a visual explanation of, like, why you're going to 1322 01:18:29.920 --> 01:18:33.479 hear frogs for the remainder of the climax of the movie. 1323 01:18:33.579 --> 01:18:35.390 But it was a great excuse to bring the frogs 1324 01:18:35.439 --> 01:18:38.829 back because they're awesome. They look so cool. And, yeah, 1325 01:18:38.850 --> 01:18:42.069 they're a direct reference to the frog that shows up 1326 01:18:42.270 --> 01:18:44.569 in Return of the Jedi. I believe he's outside of 1327 01:18:44.850 --> 01:18:48.939 Jabba's palace the first half of the movie. I'm also 1328 01:18:48.979 --> 01:18:52.100 a big fan of just put a creature everywhere in 1329 01:18:52.319 --> 01:18:56.159 the movie. Put some weird thing that as an audience 1330 01:18:56.199 --> 01:18:59.119 member you can go like, well what's that guy's deal? 1331 01:18:59.399 --> 01:19:02.409 Why aren't we showing more of him? I like the 1332 01:19:02.470 --> 01:19:05.689 randomness of that. That's the kind of imagination I really 1333 01:19:05.750 --> 01:19:09.149 love in fantasy and sci-fi movies especially. 1334 01:19:10.039 --> 01:19:14.680 Speaking of universes, so we've mentioned Star Wars, but I 1335 01:19:14.779 --> 01:19:19.600 cannot resist asking about how your career has led you 1336 01:19:19.640 --> 01:19:24.100 to boldly go, where no one has gone before, to 1337 01:19:24.149 --> 01:19:27.060 the world of Star Trek. So I just, as a 1338 01:19:27.100 --> 01:19:29.229 big Trekkie, I had to ask about that. 1339 01:19:29.489 --> 01:19:34.109 Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, I mean, my time involved 1340 01:19:34.189 --> 01:19:41.270 in the unfortunately now-concluded star trek run in toronto ontario 1341 01:19:41.470 --> 01:19:43.350 where they kind of set up shop and they did 1342 01:19:43.390 --> 01:19:48.100 discovery and strange new worlds and section 31 and starfleet 1343 01:19:48.140 --> 01:19:52.439 academy uh i did a little bit of time early 1344 01:19:52.579 --> 01:19:55.930 on on discovery just being called out as a as 1345 01:19:55.979 --> 01:19:59.350 a makeup artist doing dailies because my day job is 1346 01:19:59.409 --> 01:20:02.649 prosthetic effects and i'm in the union there so i'll 1347 01:20:02.670 --> 01:20:07.130 get called out for all sorts of random projects when 1348 01:20:07.149 --> 01:20:10.770 they need lots of people to glue Klingon heads on 1349 01:20:10.810 --> 01:20:15.319 or whatever. So that's what that was. Somewhere in the 1350 01:20:15.380 --> 01:20:17.899 first few episodes of season one, there's a lot of 1351 01:20:17.939 --> 01:20:20.979 Klingons hanging out. So I got called in to help 1352 01:20:21.060 --> 01:20:24.630 assist with gluing on some Klingon makeups for that. And 1353 01:20:24.710 --> 01:20:26.869 then I think I came back and I did some 1354 01:20:26.930 --> 01:20:30.779 life casting for some actors for later seasons. And then 1355 01:20:31.020 --> 01:20:33.460 my most recent stint on it was I worked on 1356 01:20:33.720 --> 01:20:37.930 season two of Starfleet Academy, which isn't out yet. But 1357 01:20:38.109 --> 01:20:39.770 I got called in to do a bunch of sculpting 1358 01:20:39.810 --> 01:20:42.869 for that, which was super fun. Getting to sculpt aliens is... 1359 01:20:43.510 --> 01:20:46.590 I mean, can't say no to that. That's like a 1360 01:20:46.689 --> 01:20:49.470 dream job for me, is sculpting aliens for a big 1361 01:20:49.789 --> 01:20:53.060 sci-fi series like Star Trek. So, yeah, it was a 1362 01:20:53.079 --> 01:20:56.079 good time. It's unfortunate that it's now concluded. I don't 1363 01:20:56.100 --> 01:20:59.909 know what's going on with... If they're doing, like... hard 1364 01:21:00.010 --> 01:21:02.939 reset of what Star Trek is going to be, but 1365 01:21:03.409 --> 01:21:06.800 it seems like, for the time being, the run that 1366 01:21:06.819 --> 01:21:10.760 we had in Toronto is concluded. I guess we'll see 1367 01:21:10.779 --> 01:21:13.699 where they go, but maybe it'll come back. Who knows? 1368 01:21:15.420 --> 01:21:19.550 Sorry, controversial question. Star Wars or Star Trek? 1369 01:21:21.109 --> 01:21:26.069 I would say Teenage Steve would be like Star Wars 1370 01:21:26.250 --> 01:21:31.260 all the way, but then after... meeting my wife, Lisa, 1371 01:21:31.319 --> 01:21:33.520 who's a huge Star Trek fan. She got me on 1372 01:21:33.579 --> 01:21:38.560 board TNG and more specifically deep space nine. And after 1373 01:21:38.600 --> 01:21:42.909 getting through deep space nine, I don't know. It's like, 1374 01:21:43.189 --> 01:21:45.609 I'm my mind right now is definitely leaning in a 1375 01:21:45.670 --> 01:21:49.369 Star Trek direction, but that could change tomorrow. And when 1376 01:21:49.390 --> 01:21:52.810 people ask me these, these Sophie's choice type questions, it's 1377 01:21:52.949 --> 01:21:55.819 usually a day to day kind of thing in terms 1378 01:21:55.899 --> 01:21:58.590 of where I'm leaning and, but today I'm going to 1379 01:21:58.630 --> 01:21:59.989 commit to Star Trek, I think. 1380 01:22:00.569 --> 01:22:03.829 I totally get that. And yeah, Deep Space Nine did 1381 01:22:04.029 --> 01:22:08.310 really change everything. I think for Star Trek, it was 1382 01:22:08.369 --> 01:22:11.670 like a bit different. It's like got the war aspect. 1383 01:22:11.729 --> 01:22:13.170 It's yeah. 1384 01:22:13.229 -->

01:22:16.550 Amazing. Well, that, that not to go on a Deep 1385 01:22:16.569 --> 01:22:19.489 Space Nine tangent, but that's when I was like, oh, 1386 01:22:19.529 --> 01:22:24.159 now they're working in like Star Wars type space opera 1387 01:22:24.180 --> 01:22:27.840 drama and Into Star Trek. For me that's when it really. 1388 01:22:28.840 --> 01:22:33.119 Coalesced into a thing. That I fell in love with. 1389 01:22:33.159 --> 01:22:37.149 Not to say I don't love the original series. TNG 1390 01:22:37.210 --> 01:22:40.029 is awesome. But there's like. There's a coziness to that. 1391 01:22:40.770 --> 01:22:44.489 Whereas Deep Space Nine. I just loved the drama. And 1392 01:22:44.609 --> 01:22:48.989 the fun pairings of characters. Like seeing like Quark. And 1393 01:22:49.350 --> 01:22:52.250 Odo go on adventures together. Like come on. It's like 1394 01:22:52.270 --> 01:22:57.510 you're just pairing characters. space weirdos together and like trapping 1395 01:22:57.529 --> 01:22:59.850 them in an elevator together on the top of a mountain. 1396 01:22:59.930 --> 01:23:02.829 It's that you can't beat it. It's the best. 1397 01:23:06.029 --> 01:23:08.560 One thing we haven't, one thing we haven't mentioned before 1398 01:23:08.659 --> 01:23:11.520 we go on a little bit more about Deathstalker is, um, 1399 01:23:11.800 --> 01:23:14.119 the female cast of the movie. I believe there are 1400 01:23:14.199 --> 01:23:17.020 two main females. Of course, the first one is, um, 1401 01:23:17.520 --> 01:23:22.359 Christina or, or Yalo. I don't want to mispronounce the surname. 1402 01:23:22.479 --> 01:23:22.979 Or Elio. 1403 01:23:23.039 --> 01:23:29.119 Yep. Yeah, she plays Brisbane. And how did you cast her? 1404 01:23:29.140 --> 01:23:31.500 Because I thought she did a damn good job as Brisbane. 1405 01:23:32.399 --> 01:23:35.579 You know, she really clicked for me in one of 1406 01:23:35.720 --> 01:23:38.880 the chemistry reads. So we did auditions and we did 1407 01:23:39.340 --> 01:23:43.239 self-tapes and then chemistry reads, which are like where you 1408 01:23:43.270 --> 01:23:45.909 have two actors play off of each other. And we 1409 01:23:45.989 --> 01:23:52.579 did a chemistry read with Daniel and Christina. And they just.... 1410 01:23:53.850 --> 01:23:54.090 I don't know. 1411 01:23:54.100 --> 01:23:59.189 Their dynamic was so fun and her energy was so like, 1412 01:23:59.210 --> 01:24:02.130 I don't know. She just, there was like a kind 1413 01:24:02.170 --> 01:24:06.010 of disdain and dismissiveness to her and a casualness and 1414 01:24:06.029 --> 01:24:11.439 a realness that made me so like really just fall 1415 01:24:11.460 --> 01:24:14.460 in love with the idea of her playing Brisbane. You know, 1416 01:24:14.500 --> 01:24:20.270 like I just, it just felt right in the conversation itself. I, 1417 01:24:20.869 --> 01:24:24.470 I really felt like, okay, she's the character now. She's Brisbane. 1418 01:24:24.670 --> 01:24:28.199 Because those are the important moments to me, where the 1419 01:24:28.300 --> 01:24:32.659 kind of quiet interactions between characters, more than selling big 1420 01:24:32.739 --> 01:24:35.699 epic fantasy stuff. Because that's part of my problem with 1421 01:24:36.699 --> 01:24:39.279 some of the budget genre fantasy stuff, is I feel 1422 01:24:39.310 --> 01:24:43.189 like it's a lot of elevated fantasy talk that doesn't 1423 01:24:43.250 --> 01:24:47.329 have any real emotion or resonance to it. And so 1424 01:24:47.369 --> 01:24:49.869 I wanted to try to find people who could sell 1425 01:24:50.699 --> 01:24:53.619 the humanity of it, and I thought she really sold it. 1426 01:24:54.800 --> 01:25:00.670 Hmm. And another cast member was Nina Bergman, who played Grendel, 1427 01:25:00.909 --> 01:25:05.149 the head of the thieving council, I believe. Yes. She 1428 01:25:05.210 --> 01:25:08.689 had a great accent, I've got to say. 1429 01:25:09.760 --> 01:25:12.380 Oh, yeah. That was a character where it's like, she 1430 01:25:12.439 --> 01:25:17.199 needed to leave an impression. When you're on a quest movie, 1431 01:25:17.579 --> 01:25:21.289 where it's like, you're just kind of going from set 1432 01:25:21.329 --> 01:25:24.069 piece to set piece, place to place. When you encounter 1433 01:25:24.109 --> 01:25:26.729 a character, they have to be memorable. They have to. 1434 01:25:28.630 --> 01:25:33.689 They've got to leave their mark on the audience. Nina 1435 01:25:33.750 --> 01:25:36.310 really just... In her read, it was similar. It was 1436 01:25:36.380 --> 01:25:40.340 a chemistry read with her and Daniel. In that chemistry 1437 01:25:40.399 --> 01:25:43.399 read was when I figured out, oh, hey, maybe there's 1438 01:25:43.500 --> 01:25:46.479 history with the two of them. Because that actually wasn't 1439 01:25:46.560 --> 01:25:49.500 on the page. That was not there initially. And she 1440 01:25:49.520 --> 01:25:53.100 just brought that energy to it. And once that locked in, 1441 01:25:53.159 --> 01:25:56.619 I was like, oh, okay. Now this is interesting. The 1442 01:25:56.699 --> 01:25:59.420 idea that maybe they had a thing for a bit. 1443 01:25:59.479 --> 01:26:02.659 And so when he left the Thieves Guild, he's leaving 1444 01:26:02.739 --> 01:26:06.359 her as well. So she's bitter about that. And I 1445 01:26:07.140 --> 01:26:09.939 don't know. You're just adding a layer of subtext to 1446 01:26:09.979 --> 01:26:13.359 their dialogue now that makes it more interesting and more compelling. 1447 01:26:14.060 --> 01:26:18.159 And yeah, I mean, her performance totally sells it. Her 1448 01:26:18.199 --> 01:26:21.569 physicality we had a lot of fun coming up with 1449 01:26:21.609 --> 01:26:25.970 her just sitting uh sitting on her big weird throne 1450 01:26:26.029 --> 01:26:28.439 that we found and giving her little things to do 1451 01:26:28.449 --> 01:26:30.460 this is like what i like doing with actors is 1452 01:26:30.539 --> 01:26:32.939

just giving them business to do while a scene's playing 1453 01:26:33.020 --> 01:26:34.819 out because i hate when people are just standing and 1454 01:26:34.899 --> 01:26:38.199 talking it's like no i want you like doing something 1455 01:26:38.659 --> 01:26:41.489 while the conversation's happening so her like look at it 1456 01:26:41.550 --> 01:26:44.609 stuff like the like riches that these people are bringing 1457 01:26:44.670 --> 01:26:46.970 her her just kind of casually tossing them aside and 1458 01:26:47.029 --> 01:26:49.550 her eating her apple and I don't know. It was 1459 01:26:49.590 --> 01:26:52.630 just like, there's a lot of like fun, fun stuff 1460 01:26:52.829 --> 01:26:56.130 like for her to play around with. Yeah. I thought, 1461 01:26:56.189 --> 01:26:59.029 I thought it was a super fun, super fun time 1462 01:26:59.069 --> 01:27:01.310 working with her. Yeah. 1463 01:27:02.350 --> 01:27:05.189 But there was one, one small performance. I got to 1464 01:27:05.229 --> 01:27:08.260 tell you about for me, it was so memorable because 1465 01:27:08.279 --> 01:27:12.880 it was so hilarious. Prince Baldor, you know, he is 1466 01:27:14.260 --> 01:27:17.619 the flamboyant Prince and he got, and he always says, um, 1467 01:27:18.130 --> 01:27:20.829 I'm feeling a bit cold. Can I have a blanket? 1468 01:27:21.250 --> 01:27:25.100 I'm sorry. That really kills me. Every time when I 1469 01:27:25.140 --> 01:27:28.560 saw that moment, it was so funny. That was another 1470 01:27:29.079 --> 01:27:31.739 character choice as well. Did you feel that in that 1471 01:27:31.800 --> 01:27:36.279 moment that there had to be some comic relief before 1472 01:27:36.840 --> 01:27:39.579 extreme violence or all that stuff? 1473 01:27:39.619 --> 01:27:43.960 Yeah, I mean, that sequence with Prince Balder, like it 1474 01:27:44.079 --> 01:27:49.670 comes right before... in screenwriting terms, the Dark Knight of 1475 01:27:49.710 --> 01:27:54.479 the Soul moment where people get separated, Deathstalker is quote-unquote dead. 1476 01:27:56.460 --> 01:27:58.420 So to lead up to that with something a little 1477 01:27:58.460 --> 01:28:02.060 lighter and more fun made sense. And casting Connor, of course, 1478 01:28:03.140 --> 01:28:08.529 that was just a no-brainer. I'm going to slot in 1479 01:28:08.590 --> 01:28:13.310 my Astron 6 guys wherever I can. And I wanted 1480 01:28:13.329 --> 01:28:17.050 to give him something nice and juicy. especially since I 1481 01:28:17.090 --> 01:28:19.670 mean I gave him his own entire movie with Frankie 1482 01:28:19.689 --> 01:28:23.289 Frico but he had an extended cameo in Psycho Goreman 1483 01:28:23.310 --> 01:28:26.010 that got cut out so he basically has like one 1484 01:28:26.050 --> 01:28:27.689 or two lines in that movie and I feel bad 1485 01:28:27.729 --> 01:28:30.090 about that so with this one I wanted to give 1486 01:28:30.130 --> 01:28:32.850 him a full scene to chew on and yeah I 1487 01:28:32.890 --> 01:28:35.829 just gave him the room to play around and it 1488 01:28:35.890 --> 01:28:38.210 was a lot of fun it's like scenes like that 1489 01:28:38.250 --> 01:28:42.340 are fun to do for me because I don't like 1490 01:28:42.380 --> 01:28:44.520 he's doing all the leg work I just have to 1491 01:28:44.579 --> 01:28:48.420 point a camera at him and him and his assistant 1492 01:28:48.479 --> 01:28:51.020 played by this guy Don who I really love they're 1493 01:28:51.060 --> 01:28:55.090 just their dynamic is like old man like helper basically 1494 01:28:55.189 --> 01:28:59.529 is like Alfred his butler so you know, bringing him 1495 01:28:59.569 --> 01:29:02.510 his cloak and he's too old to really be doing anything, 1496 01:29:02.829 --> 01:29:03.850 any physical labor. 1497 01:29:03.869 --> 01:29:04.710 I don't know. 1498 01:29:04.729 --> 01:29:06.430 It was just like a really, that was a fun 1499 01:29:06.449 --> 01:29:08.569 day on set. We had a lot of laughs that day, 1500 01:29:08.590 --> 01:29:11.250 lots to play around with in the edit, lots of 1501 01:29:11.270 --> 01:29:11.770 fun footage. 1502 01:29:12.890 --> 01:29:16.569 And you did bring in the humor from the second Deathstalker. 1503 01:29:16.670 --> 01:29:20.949 So for those that don't know, the first Deathstalker plays 1504 01:29:20.979 --> 01:29:25.460 as a pretty straightforward, like sword and sorcery. But the 1505 01:29:25.520 --> 01:29:30.939 second one is like almost a, um, of a swashbuckler 1506 01:29:30.960 --> 01:29:34.859 it's got all swashbuckler elements more so than kind of 1507 01:29:34.880 --> 01:29:38.550 sword and sorcery and it's just basically a comedy really 1508 01:29:38.770 --> 01:29:44.149 it's just full of one-liners and innuendo but you brought 1509 01:29:44.210 --> 01:29:48.909 that humor and combine that with the serious aspects. 1510 01:29:49.550 --> 01:29:52.529 Yeah well Deathstalker 2 is definitely my favorite of the 1511 01:29:52.590 --> 01:29:55.729 franchise like I can put that movie on any day 1512 01:29:55.789 --> 01:30:00.310 it's so fun Jim Wynorski uh master filmmaker in my 1513 01:30:00.350 --> 01:30:04.140 opinion he's made some real real bangers in his time 1514 01:30:04.300 --> 01:30:06.939 but death stalker 2 it's like just such a well-paced 1515 01:30:07.520 --> 01:30:11.119 movie and it's it does the comedy thing right where 1516 01:30:11.159 --> 01:30:14.399 it's like there's just so many jokes and bits and 1517 01:30:14.520 --> 01:30:17.630 one-liners that even if one doesn't land or if one 1518 01:30:17.670 --> 01:30:19.649 makes you like roll your eyes we're on to the 1519 01:30:19.710 --> 01:30:22.170 next one like five seconds later you're on to the 1520 01:30:22.229 --> 01:30:25.319 next joke so it really doesn't matter Yeah, the movie's 1521 01:30:25.340 --> 01:30:28.020 so crammed full of stuff. It was a big inspiration 1522 01:30:28.079 --> 01:30:33.649 for my movie. Maybe not necessarily, like, tonally exact. Because,

yeah, 1523 01:30:33.670 --> 01:30:36.029 it does feel like it's so silly it's a parody. 1524 01:30:36.550 --> 01:30:39.289 And I wanted to have a little bit more gravity 1525 01:30:39.369 --> 01:30:41.890 to what I was doing. Just in terms of, like, 1526 01:30:41.909 --> 01:30:44.640 the energy, the flow, the momentum of it, I really 1527 01:30:44.779 --> 01:30:47.579 like and appreciate. And the timing of a lot of 1528 01:30:47.600 --> 01:30:49.739 the humor. I think it's a lot smarter than people 1529 01:30:49.779 --> 01:30:53.119 give it credit for. Like, there's some really well-timed, well-executed 1530 01:30:53.159 --> 01:30:55.489 jokes that... And even though I sort of do a 1531 01:30:55.529 --> 01:30:58.609 similar gag in mine, the best title reveal in all 1532 01:30:58.649 --> 01:31:02.670 the Deathstalkers is still Deathstalker 2, when the lady says, 1533 01:31:02.729 --> 01:31:06.310 I'll have my revenge, and Deathstalker 2. And then flames 1534 01:31:06.380 --> 01:31:11.039 come up, and it says Deathstalker 2. Still makes me laugh. 1535 01:31:11.680 --> 01:31:15.600 Still a great moment. So, yeah. Highly recommend it. If 1536 01:31:15.619 --> 01:31:18.920 you're going to watch one of the original run of Deathstalker, 1537 01:31:18.939 --> 01:31:21.840 there's obviously... I have to hype up my own because. 1538 01:31:21.659 --> 01:31:23.119 That's what we're talking about. 1539 01:31:23.220 --> 01:31:25.380 Of the first four, if you're going to watch one, 1540 01:31:25.439 --> 01:31:29.229 I'd say watch Deathstalker 2 because it's always a good, 1541 01:31:29.310 --> 01:31:31.270 every time I put it on the shop, people are 1542 01:31:31.289 --> 01:31:34.010 like right into it. We always have a fun time. 1543 01:31:34.310 --> 01:31:37.130 It's just a good, it's a good party movie, especially. 1544 01:31:38.470 --> 01:31:42.850 And Jim Wynorski was known for Chopping Mall. I'm sure 1545 01:31:42.930 --> 01:31:46.850 heaps of people have seen Chopping Mall, but to prepare 1546 01:31:46.890 --> 01:31:50.289 for this episode i was like looking at his filmography 1547 01:31:50.390 --> 01:31:53.149 he also did not of this earth return of the 1548 01:31:53.210 --> 01:31:57.300 swamp thing but i became quite obsessed with his film 1549 01:31:57.449 --> 01:32:00.819 parodies that he does and some of the titles are 1550 01:32:00.859 --> 01:32:07.939 so great the hills have thighs yep the bear wench 1551 01:32:08.439 --> 01:32:11.979 project which is his version of the blair witch project 1552 01:32:12.000 --> 01:32:16.600 there's about four of those we've got The Da Vinci Co-Ed, 1553 01:32:16.619 --> 01:32:21.890 and The Devil Wears Nada. So I haven't seen any 1554 01:32:21.899 --> 01:32:25.670 of those ones, but I must say I'm quite intrigued. 1555 01:32:26.289 --> 01:32:27.149 And that's just. 1556 01:32:26.949 --> 01:32:28.569 The tip of the iceberg. 1557 01:32:28.590 --> 01:32:34.710 I definitely stopped at his mid-90s outfit, and I've read

1558 01:32:34.770 --> 01:32:37.550 those titles and seen clips of them, and they're not 1559 01:32:37.649 --> 01:32:39.850 quite in the same vein as the movies of his 1560 01:32:39.890 --> 01:32:44.909 that I love and put on a big pedestal. I 1561 01:32:45.029 --> 01:32:48.649 love that he just keeps going. That guy, he's one 1562 01:32:48.670 --> 01:32:53.529 of a kind, Jim Wynorski. No other filmmaker like him. 1563 01:32:54.189 --> 01:32:57.170 I love that he's just still doing what he's doing. Again, 1564 01:32:57.250 --> 01:33:01.270 he's made some of my favorite fun movies out there. 1565 01:33:01.289 --> 01:33:07.460 Return of the Swamp Thing is highly recommended. It's my 1566 01:33:07.520 --> 01:33:08.800 favorite version of Swamp Thing. 1567 01:33:11.460 --> 01:33:13.960 One thing I've got to mention also, because as we all, 1568 01:33:14.279 --> 01:33:19.909 as we love fantasy films, they have majestic orchestral musical scores, 1569 01:33:20.470 --> 01:33:23.729 but your Deathstalker, I've got to tell you, has an 1570 01:33:23.869 --> 01:33:29.449 incredible metal score, and I absolutely loved it. Blitz Berlin, 1571 01:33:29.930 --> 01:33:31.840 they did the music for your film, and I believe, 1572 01:33:32.479 --> 01:33:35.659 I noticed, from what I read, Slash from Guns N' 1573 01:33:35.699 --> 01:33:38.520 Roses is the executive producer of the movie, but was 1574 01:33:38.560 --> 01:33:43.640 also in Blitz Berlin, and I love the music score 1575 01:33:43.659 --> 01:33:48.819 for this film in particular. It certainly matched it perfectly, 1576 01:33:48.850 --> 01:33:51.199 in my opinion anyway. It really did. 1577 01:33:51.829 --> 01:33:53.909 Well, I mean, I've had a long relationship with the 1578 01:33:53.949 --> 01:33:57.710 guys at Blitz Berlin, like me and Martin. We have 1579 01:33:57.729 --> 01:34:00.189 such a shorthand at this point. It was so easy. 1580 01:34:00.810 --> 01:34:03.010 I mean, I shouldn't speak for them. They did a 1581 01:34:03.430 --> 01:34:05.189 ton of work in a short period of time, but 1582 01:34:05.210 --> 01:34:07.430 as far as on my end, it was a very 1583 01:34:07.529 --> 01:34:11.630 easy process telling them what I wanted. and what I 1584 01:34:11.670 --> 01:34:14.430 imagined for this score. I mean, they did, they did 1585 01:34:14.489 --> 01:34:17.189 some work on the void. They did the score for 1586 01:34:17.210 --> 01:34:21.060 psycho gore, man, for Frankie Frico. And now does stalker. Uh, 1587 01:34:21.100 --> 01:34:23.760 I hope to continue working with them on future stuff. 1588 01:34:24.739 --> 01:34:27.460 Cause we, again, the shorthand is great. The work they 1589 01:34:27.500 --> 01:34:29.460 do is amazing. I also love that. I just see 1590 01:34:29.500 --> 01:34:32.359 them getting like better and more advanced the further they go. Uh, 1591 01:34:33.100 --> 01:34:35.539 I mean, it probably helps that I keep challenging them 1592 01:34:35.600 --> 01:34:39.300 with different movies from different genres. Like every movie we do, 1593 01:34:39.319 --> 01:34:42.930 the score is different. Like, Psycho Goreman, I was telling them, 1594 01:34:42.970 --> 01:34:45.229 make it feel kind of like Highlander a little bit, 1595 01:34:45.270 --> 01:34:49.979 like a little Queen-ish at times, like kind of rock opera-y. 1596 01:34:50.420 --> 01:34:53.460 Frankie Frico is very much like, give me a Richard 1597 01:34:53.520 --> 01:34:57.340 Bain score from a 90s Full Moon movie. And then 1598 01:34:57.380 --> 01:35:04.079 with Deathstalker, it was like, I want definitely more John Williams, 1599 01:35:04.520 --> 01:35:07.279 a bit more Jerry Goldsmith. I want it to feel 1600 01:35:07.300 --> 01:35:10.100 like an epic sweeping score, but also... cause I'm a 1601 01:35:10.119 --> 01:35:12.840 big fan of the doom games and the composer for 1602 01:35:12.880 --> 01:35:17.140 those games. Uh, I'm totally blanking on his name right now, 1603 01:35:17.159 --> 01:35:20.859 which is insane, but those are like very orchestral and 1604 01:35:20.899 --> 01:35:26.729 metal scores, uh, Mick Gordon. And so that, you know, 1605 01:35:27.130 --> 01:35:30.909 that's where they kind of melded the orchestral and metal 1606 01:35:30.989 --> 01:35:34.470 components to the death starter score. And so just to clarify, 1607 01:35:34.489 --> 01:35:36.489 slash isn't a part of blitz Berlin, but he did 1608 01:35:36.550 --> 01:35:39.630 contribute to the score, uh, him and Bear McCreary made 1609 01:35:39.670 --> 01:35:42.689 a theme song that plays over the end credits. Yeah. 1610 01:35:43.229 --> 01:35:46.670 And then Blitzman took pieces of that and integrated it 1611 01:35:46.710 --> 01:35:49.609 throughout the movie. And then also, I believe they brought 1612 01:35:49.649 --> 01:35:53.859 Slash in to just do some guitar solos sprinkled throughout 1613 01:35:53.920 --> 01:35:54.380 the movie. 1614 01:35:55.060 --> 01:35:55.319 Okay. 1615 01:35:55.760 --> 01:35:58.680 Yeah, it's easily my most epic score to date. I'm 1616 01:35:59.640 --> 01:36:01.800 very proud of it. I listen to it all the time. 1617 01:36:02.539 --> 01:36:06.159 It's a great driving mix to put on if you're 1618 01:36:06.199 --> 01:36:06.949 stuck in traffic. 1619 01:36:07.949 --> 01:36:08.890 It certainly is. 1620 01:36:10.810 --> 01:36:13.659 And shall we talk just briefly a bit because we're 1621 01:36:13.699 --> 01:36:17.439 talking about this set coming out with the first two 1622 01:36:17.479 --> 01:36:21.140 Deathstalker movies. We'll talk a bit about the first one maybe, 1623 01:36:21.159 --> 01:36:25.180 just so people maybe that haven't seen it. So this 1624 01:36:25.279 --> 01:36:28.810 is a German Blu-ray. 1625 01:36:29.289 --> 01:36:29.569 Yeah. 1626 01:36:29.869 --> 01:36:32.510 So that was the first Blu-ray and it's this cool, 1627 01:36:32.989 --> 01:36:36.090 it's got a book. I can't open the book. It's 1628 01:36:36.130 --> 01:36:40.659 got boobs in it. But anyway, yeah, it came

out 1629 01:36:40.720 --> 01:36:45.180 that and I realised that this is uncut. So it 1630 01:36:45.220 --> 01:36:49.760 does actually say uncut. So here we go, Australia again. 1631 01:36:49.779 --> 01:36:54.869 What we had in Australia previously on VHS and DVD 1632 01:36:55.449 --> 01:37:00.550 must have been cut. So I'm hoping and I'm pretty 1633 01:37:00.670 --> 01:37:07.090 sure that this edition coming out will be uncut. so 1634 01:37:07.149 --> 01:37:11.069 that it will be similar to the US editions, which 1635 01:37:11.329 --> 01:37:17.029 were uncut. I mean, yeah, basically it just had more boobs, 1636 01:37:17.329 --> 01:37:23.829 if that's even possible. More boobs. So if that was 1637 01:37:23.869 --> 01:37:28.029 a draw card for you, you can pick up the 1638 01:37:28.069 --> 01:37:31.949 set that's coming out. You know, if you are upset 1639 01:37:32.130 --> 01:37:37.789 that the, latest Deathstalker only had the swamp boobs, then 1640 01:37:38.109 --> 01:37:40.850 the uncut version will give you more, so that should 1641 01:37:40.909 --> 01:37:47.800 make up for that. So, yeah, so that one and 1642 01:37:47.850 --> 01:37:52.079 number two were cut. They have extended sex scenes. They've 1643 01:37:52.119 --> 01:37:57.039 got a little bit more violence, I noticed, so we 1644 01:37:57.079 --> 01:38:02.369 should be getting that. And the first Deathstalker, which was 1645 01:38:02.430 --> 01:38:07.689 directed by James Spardellati. I can't say it. It's such 1646 01:38:07.710 --> 01:38:13.699 a tongue twister. James Spardellati was part of, like, Roger 1647 01:38:13.760 --> 01:38:18.560 Corman's sword and sorcery cycle from the 80s. So they 1648 01:38:19.260 --> 01:38:24.970 produced all these sword and sorcery pictures in Argentina because 1649 01:38:25.189 --> 01:38:30.199 Argentina was going through a economic crisis their film industry 1650 01:38:30.859 --> 01:38:35.359 had really suffered and Corman saw that he could make 1651 01:38:35.439 --> 01:38:39.300 pictures there like on a bigger scope for not much 1652 01:38:39.420 --> 01:38:43.000 money and it was of course in the wake of 1653 01:38:43.039 --> 01:38:49.840 the success of Conan the Barbarian and Beastmaster, Excalibur, all 1654 01:38:49.899 --> 01:38:55.239 those films. And the director had actually worked on Beastmaster 1655 01:38:55.359 --> 01:38:59.720 and some of the crew came over from Beastmaster to 1656 01:38:59.779 --> 01:39:05.909 work on that first Deathstalker. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, 1657 01:39:05.989 --> 01:39:10.630 so this cycle of films also included films like The 1658 01:39:10.670 --> 01:39:15.930 Warrior and the Sorceress in 1984. Wizards of the Lost 1659 01:39:15.989 --> 01:39:23.369 Kingdom from 1985, Barbarian Queen also from 1985. They were, 1660 01:39:23.470 --> 01:39:27.930 of course, like the whole genre, heavily informed by the 1661 01:39:28.050 --> 01:39:32.359 art of Frank Frazetta and Boris Valero, who did the 1662 01:39:32.539 --> 01:39:37.859 iconic poster artwork, which attracted you to Deathstalker in the 1663 01:39:37.899 --> 01:39:41.340 first place when people went to the video store and 1664 01:39:41.359 --> 01:39:47.399 it promised sex. and often the covers were better than 1665 01:39:47.420 --> 01:39:50.989 the films. So that's what people say. I would argue 1666 01:39:51.010 --> 01:39:55.670 I really, really enjoy the films. But you definitely knew 1667 01:39:55.729 --> 01:40:02.409 what to expect. Apparently that first Deathstalker had up to 1668 01:40:02.409 --> 01:40:06.260 400 extras in some scenes and they were paying them 1669 01:40:07.600 --> 01:40:12.079 as little as $ 3 a day. Apparently they're in Argentina. Yeah. 1670 01:40:13.000 --> 01:40:15.840 So they really kind of made the most of it. 1671 01:40:17.359 --> 01:40:21.130 It's a sword and sorcery film firmly in the realm 1672 01:40:21.250 --> 01:40:28.289 of exploitation cinema with sex, violence, all those really un-PC 1673 01:40:28.750 --> 01:40:33.500 things that we love about 80s films and these films 1674 01:40:33.560 --> 01:40:39.500 in particular. It had Richard Hill as Deathstalker and he 1675 01:40:39.579 --> 01:40:45.500 returned for Deathstalker 4 in 1991. It, of course, starred 1676 01:40:45.680 --> 01:40:50.699 Playboy cover girl Barbie Benton as Cordiel and she was 1677 01:40:50.779 --> 01:40:54.409 also Hugh Hefner's girlfriend for quite a long time. She 1678 01:40:55.069 --> 01:40:58.289 was well known for being on the Playboy cover many 1679 01:40:58.350 --> 01:41:04.220 times and other kind of B movies and, like, tits 1680 01:41:04.279 --> 01:41:08.630 and ass spectacles like this but i'd say that she's 1681 01:41:08.710 --> 01:41:14.630 probably overshadowed by lana clarkson who played uh kyra and 1682 01:41:14.750 --> 01:41:20.149 she was also later the barbarian queen and she was 1683 01:41:20.270 --> 01:41:25.720 famously murdered by phil specter and he claimed that she 1684 01:41:25.779 --> 01:41:31.600 committed suicide but she died from um being shot Apparently 1685 01:41:31.619 --> 01:41:34.189 it came out in court he had threatened other women 1686 01:41:34.229 --> 01:41:38.510 with guns and he was ultimately convicted of her murder, 1687 01:41:38.770 --> 01:41:42.369 so he did murder her. But his defence and the 1688 01:41:42.449 --> 01:41:48.630 media treated Lana with this really disgusting misogyny. They painted 1689 01:41:48.710 --> 01:41:53.300 her as a washed-up B-movie star who was really unhappy 1690 01:41:53.359 --> 01:41:56.579 with her career because she had apparently appeared in all 1691 01:41:56.619 --> 01:42:01.710 these awful films and, She was apparently embarrassed by her 1692 01:42:01.789 --> 01:42:05.310 body of work. But this was not true. So I 1693 01:42:05.350 --> 01:42:09.590 just wanted to take this moment to say that Lana 1694 01:42:09.630 --> 01:42:14.359 was so well loved for her barbarian sci-fi and these 1695 01:42:14.460 --> 01:42:18.720

horror roles that she did. She's really beautiful on screen. 1696 01:42:18.819 --> 01:42:23.260 She's really charismatic, great presence. She's super fun and she's 1697 01:42:23.359 --> 01:42:27.680 really powerful as a warrior woman. And I just want 1698 01:42:27.699 --> 01:42:31.079 to mention that she should be remembered as such because 1699 01:42:31.159 --> 01:42:35.699 she got treated really, really badly at the time of 1700 01:42:35.760 --> 01:42:38.899 her death. So I just wanted to say that about 1701 01:42:38.960 --> 01:42:40.680 Lana because she is very lovely. 1702 01:42:40.699 --> 01:42:45.729 I also just want to point out there is a, 1703 01:42:45.779 --> 01:42:49.859 I believe a UK DVD release of Death Stalker that 1704 01:42:50.149 --> 01:42:51.979 on the cover, you can look this up, you just 1705 01:42:52.119 --> 01:42:54.890 Google image search it. It's a blue cover with a 1706 01:42:54.989 --> 01:42:59.130 sword and the, text on the case aside from just 1707 01:42:59.149 --> 01:43:04.949 saying Deathstalkers says featuring Lana Clarkson victim of the Phil 1708 01:43:04.970 --> 01:43:10.729 Spector murder case like that's like on the DVD as 1709 01:43:10.850 --> 01:43:15.960 a selling point for the movie which is insane that's 1710 01:43:16.039 --> 01:43:18.500 outrageous yeah. 1711 01:43:17.920 --> 01:43:22.060 That's disgusting yeah so that's why I just wanted to 1712 01:43:22.100 --> 01:43:25.899 take a moment in this episode to send you know 1713 01:43:26.079 --> 01:43:30.770 our fan love because she was awesome in these roles. 1714 01:43:30.930 --> 01:43:37.630 Like I've always loved her, great presence, love a barbarian lady, 1715 01:43:38.229 --> 01:43:41.689 totally awesome because these films sit in that kind of 1716 01:43:42.250 --> 01:43:49.189 dichotomy between exploitation where they obviously objectify women for fun. 1717 01:43:49.430 --> 01:43:54.270 That's fine. It's fantasy. It's innocent, you know, in that sense. 1718 01:43:54.449 --> 01:44:00.220 But they also... portrayed women in these roles that were 1719 01:44:00.279 --> 01:44:04.119 quite atypical to mainstream cinema as well so there is 1720 01:44:04.159 --> 01:44:11.460 that weird kind of split there that they embody like 1721 01:44:11.579 --> 01:44:17.069 both objectification and empowerment so it's just whatever you take 1722 01:44:17.170 --> 01:44:20.020 from it I think and I always you know, took 1723 01:44:20.119 --> 01:44:24.539 them as, like, really amazing, like, strong warrior lady characters 1724 01:44:24.970 --> 01:44:27.569 and absolutely loved that because, you know, the guys get 1725 01:44:27.630 --> 01:44:31.630 their he-man and their muscle man with the sword and then, 1726 01:44:31.750 --> 01:44:35.029 you know, lady comes out and fights and is powerful 1727 01:44:35.729 --> 01:44:38.920 and does the same things basically. That's what I've always 1728 01:44:39.000 --> 01:44:44.819 loved about the genre. But I do know that when, yeah, and, like, 1729 01:44:45.220 --> 01:44:47.800 I don't want to spend time talking about him. But 1730 01:44:47.840 --> 01:44:51.729 when Phil Spector died recently, they actually, here in Australia, 1731 01:44:52.310 --> 01:44:59.630 did an obituary on the news and did not mention 1732 01:45:00.029 --> 01:45:04.090 the murder. They talked about his musical career, and I 1733 01:45:04.170 --> 01:45:07.010 just thought, yeah, fuck you, basically. 1734 01:45:07.729 --> 01:45:08.630 Yeah, that's gross. 1735 01:45:09.850 --> 01:45:13.630 Yeah, I was disgusted. And I'm sure like a lot 1736 01:45:13.670 --> 01:45:16.949 of people, this is a tangent, in news now there's 1737 01:45:16.970 --> 01:45:20.470 a lot of like younger people. They just copy stuff 1738 01:45:20.550 --> 01:45:23.949 from other news sources. It's kind of not like it 1739 01:45:24.130 --> 01:45:26.630 used to be and they've just gone, oh, yeah, this 1740 01:45:26.710 --> 01:45:30.039 guy died, he did this, this, this, without even knowing 1741 01:45:30.060 --> 01:45:35.180 what he did. So anyway, we remember you, Lana, and 1742 01:45:35.460 --> 01:45:37.539 we love you as the barbarian queen. 1743 01:45:38.520 --> 01:45:40.899 What I love about her performance too is I feel 1744 01:45:40.920 --> 01:45:43.979 like she sells it. well and that you can speak 1745 01:45:44.010 --> 01:45:47.770 to like the other actresses in these movies uh even 1746 01:45:48.430 --> 01:45:52.170 like my personal favorite monique gabrielle who is like yes 1747 01:45:52.210 --> 01:45:56.210 maybe giving a bit of a silly take in death 1748 01:45:56.229 --> 01:45:57.869 stalker 2 but like i don't know there's like a 1749 01:45:57.930 --> 01:46:03.409 conviction to all the performances that i do think elevates 1750 01:46:03.470 --> 01:46:08.590 these things out of exploitation a bit like like lana's 1751 01:46:08.609 --> 01:46:11.680 deliveries I don't know. I just, I feel like there, 1752 01:46:11.840 --> 01:46:16.960 there's a legitimacy there that, that makes things, I don't know. 1753 01:46:16.979 --> 01:46:20.079 It just tells you on the universe, the Deathstalker universe. 1754 01:46:20.739 --> 01:46:23.420 And like, there's, I don't know. It's just an effort 1755 01:46:23.439 --> 01:46:25.100 that I feel like if a movie like that was 1756 01:46:25.149 --> 01:46:29.409 being made now, I feel like the actress playing that role, 1757 01:46:30.609 --> 01:46:32.529 even like playing Death Star, it's like, there'd just be 1758 01:46:32.569 --> 01:46:35.850 more winking, I think. And so, yeah, I don't know. 1759 01:46:35.869 --> 01:46:40.439 That's something I always enjoyed about the Deathstalker movies. specifically 1760 01:46:40.939 --> 01:46:44.640 and like the male and female actors is that they're, 1761 01:46:45.039 --> 01:46:48.279 they're just felt like a commitment to the bit that 1762 01:46:48.340 --> 01:46:52.659 was the movie and a commitment to like the universe 1763 01:46:52.680 --> 01:46:56.899

that they occupied. Like I, I never got, I never 1764 01:46:56.939 --> 01:46:59.050 got a sense that people were like looking into the 1765 01:46:59.090 --> 01:47:01.510 camera and being like, like rolling their eyes and be like, Oh, 1766 01:47:01.529 --> 01:47:03.909 I'm doing a fantasy movie here. It's like, there was 1767 01:47:03.930 --> 01:47:07.090 like a legitimacy to it and like a real professionalism 1768 01:47:07.149 --> 01:47:11.819 and an effort despite the budget, but maybe betraying some 1769 01:47:11.859 --> 01:47:15.970 of the visuals, it's like, I always felt the performances were, 1770 01:47:16.199 --> 01:47:19.390 were legitimate and like the effort was always there and 1771 01:47:19.430 --> 01:47:22.090 that helped carry these movies a long way. 1772 01:47:23.050 --> 01:47:26.850 And she is fabulous in Deathstalker too, because she plays 1773 01:47:26.869 --> 01:47:31.270 the dual role. So she's the princess and she's the 1774 01:47:31.449 --> 01:47:35.210 evil princess. So she's, she's in dual roles, which would be, 1775 01:47:35.859 --> 01:47:39.750 It was really fun. Apparently she really liked the evil 1776 01:47:39.850 --> 01:47:43.210 princess role because she got to be evil and nasty. 1777 01:47:44.130 --> 01:47:49.689 But she was a model, Playboy or Penthouse, I can't remember. 1778 01:47:49.810 --> 01:47:53.239 She was, you know, another cover girl that, as with 1779 01:47:53.319 --> 01:47:55.880 the tradition of these films, they would get the cover 1780 01:47:55.899 --> 01:47:59.199 girls to be in them to sell the movie and 1781 01:47:59.260 --> 01:48:01.239 as a bit of a novelty. And I guess there 1782 01:48:01.300 --> 01:48:05.689 is that expectation, which is a misconception sometimes, that these 1783 01:48:05.779 --> 01:48:11.130 ladies can't act, you know, or that they're dumb or something. 1784 01:48:11.970 --> 01:48:17.050 And her performance, you know, is totally the opposite because 1785 01:48:17.050 --> 01:48:21.189 um apparently you know she was unsure how to approach 1786 01:48:21.300 --> 01:48:25.859 the role and she was told just to be herself 1787 01:48:26.659 --> 01:48:29.680 and be genuine and be and you you really get 1788 01:48:29.760 --> 01:48:35.239 that her personality shining through and she delivers comedy perfectly 1789 01:48:35.760 --> 01:48:38.359 and that's a really hard thing to do it's actually 1790 01:48:38.479 --> 01:48:43.050 really hard to be funny especially when in this kind 1791 01:48:43.090 --> 01:48:47.329 of artificial sense of acting it's super hard to be 1792 01:48:47.470 --> 01:48:51.340 funny and she does it she's evil and she's funny 1793 01:48:51.939 --> 01:48:55.920 and for the whole movie she really really carries it 1794 01:48:56.000 --> 01:48:59.779 she has great interaction with death stalker so yeah i 1795 01:48:59.800 --> 01:49:04.199 reckon she makes the movie she's got so many good lines. 1796 01:49:04.279 --> 01:49:07.760 Oh yeah well her chemistry with john terleski as death 1797 01:49:07.779 --> 01:49:10.079 stalker i think is one of the best parts like 1798 01:49:10.779 --> 01:49:13.039 I really enjoy when the two of them are bouncing 1799 01:49:13.100 --> 01:49:17.159 off of each other. Their banter is super charming and yeah, 1800 01:49:17.319 --> 01:49:20.420 it just brings like an energy to the movie that 1801 01:49:20.779 --> 01:49:24.090 a very Jim Winorski energy to the movie that I 1802 01:49:24.149 --> 01:49:27.329 really like. I think, I think they're both really awesome 1803 01:49:27.630 --> 01:49:29.529 in those roles. Yeah. 1804 01:49:29.789 --> 01:49:33.289 And part of this eighties wave of sword and sorcery 1805 01:49:33.550 --> 01:49:36.310 is that there was this kind of, like you said, 1806 01:49:36.399 --> 01:49:41.529 there's no irony. There's no, wink wink like you said 1807 01:49:41.550 --> 01:49:48.270 it's quite almost naive in playing there's a yeah a 1808 01:49:48.329 --> 01:49:53.039 naivety to the genre in you know building this fantasy 1809 01:49:53.100 --> 01:49:57.680 world and these like crazy scenarios but also playing it 1810 01:49:57.840 --> 01:50:01.579 quite genuine and as it is and i think that's 1811 01:50:01.659 --> 01:50:06.470 a lot of the appeal of the genre Because, yeah, 1812 01:50:06.770 --> 01:50:09.310 now a lot of things are approached with that kind 1813 01:50:09.350 --> 01:50:12.869 of ironic, this is silly, I know that I'm being silly, 1814 01:50:12.890 --> 01:50:19.130 you know, self-aware thing. They're totally kind of not, yeah, 1815 01:50:19.260 --> 01:50:20.720 not self-aware. 1816 01:50:20.729 --> 01:50:21.899 Yeah. 1817 01:50:22.359 --> 01:50:24.939 Yeah, well, sincerity, I think, is important. That's something that 1818 01:50:25.000 --> 01:50:29.359 I push on all my actors and, like, through Deathstalker especially, 1819 01:50:29.439 --> 01:50:32.100 I was like, yeah, this is going to get wacky 1820 01:50:32.159 --> 01:50:35.829 and crazy and you're fighting a lot of like inanimate 1821 01:50:35.970 --> 01:50:41.229 rubber objects and like barely moving puppets. But despite that, 1822 01:50:41.430 --> 01:50:45.300 like treat it like this is the most serious situation 1823 01:50:45.340 --> 01:50:47.340 you've ever been in, in your life. Cause it's only 1824 01:50:47.460 --> 01:50:51.880 funny if, if you believe the, the people on screen 1825 01:50:52.359 --> 01:50:55.300 are like in that world and in that moment, if 1826 01:50:55.340 --> 01:50:58.420 they're winking at you and they're throwing shade over any 1827 01:50:58.460 --> 01:51:01.090 kind of drama that's happening, like it just, it doesn't work. 1828 01:51:01.210 --> 01:51:04.590 It's a real thrill, like post guardians of the galaxy, uh, 1829 01:51:05.100 --> 01:51:07.699 problem which like I love that movie I think it's 1830 01:51:07.739 --> 01:51:11.979 great but I feel like that kind of started this 1831 01:51:12.140 --> 01:51:17.439 wave of kind of like ironic filmmaking ironic

performance of 1832 01:51:17.520 --> 01:51:21.149 like let's be serious for a second and then let's 1833 01:51:21.159 --> 01:51:23.710 stop and be like well that just happened like wasn't 1834 01:51:23.750 --> 01:51:27.630 that crazy and yeah it's like a style of filmmaking 1835 01:51:27.689 --> 01:51:30.829 I really don't enjoy and that's something that's real nice 1836 01:51:30.909 --> 01:51:35.229 about the classic Corman era not just of the sword 1837 01:51:35.250 --> 01:51:38.529 and sorcery movies but like all Corman budget movies like 1838 01:51:38.850 --> 01:51:42.750 I was just re-watching Carnosaur the other day and that 1839 01:51:42.789 --> 01:51:47.949 movie's real dead serious and it's friggin Carnosaur it's like 1840 01:51:47.989 --> 01:51:51.510 a big puppet dinosaur in it so you know like 1841 01:51:51.789 --> 01:51:53.810 that helps me enjoy the film when you know that 1842 01:51:53.899 --> 01:51:59.300 everyone's got like everyone's committed to making this movie work 1843 01:51:59.800 --> 01:52:04.859 and not just being like I'm above this. I'm going 1844 01:52:04.880 --> 01:52:07.760 to roll my eyes now. Like if you're, if the 1845 01:52:07.800 --> 01:52:10.180 people on screen act like they're above it, then there's 1846 01:52:10.239 --> 01:52:12.270 no way that the audience is going to be engaged. 1847 01:52:12.350 --> 01:52:14.189 Cause they're like, well, you're not into it. Why should 1848 01:52:14.229 --> 01:52:16.069 I be into it? So, yeah. 1849 01:52:16.869 --> 01:52:20.890 Good point. 1850 01:52:21.029 --> 01:52:22.590 Anything else we need to cover? 1851 01:52:23.800 --> 01:52:26.659 I think we just about done everything because as we, 1852 01:52:26.760 --> 01:52:31.420 as Suzanne mentioned, The original Deathstalker, Deathstalker 2 and Steven's 1853 01:52:31.479 --> 01:52:35.770 Deathstalker is in this one beautiful set, both on 4K, 1854 01:52:36.250 --> 01:52:41.229 UHD and Blu-ray, six-disc steelbook edition. 1855 01:52:42.170 --> 01:52:43.369 Lenticular cover. 1856 01:52:43.729 --> 01:52:45.430 Lenticular cover, absolutely. 1857 01:52:45.590 --> 01:52:49.880 I'm sold on the lenticular cover. I already own so 1858 01:52:49.899 --> 01:52:51.619 many versions of Deathstalker. 1859 01:52:52.399 --> 01:52:57.569 I don't own any. I've seen Deathstalker. 1 and 2. 1860 01:52:57.569 --> 01:52:59.289 I haven't seen 3 or 4 and, of course, I 1861 01:52:59.329 --> 01:53:03.250 just saw Stephen's. I don't own any versions of Deathstalker, 1862 01:53:03.289 --> 01:53:05.710 so it was a great opportunity to discuss this release, 1863 01:53:05.729 --> 01:53:11.770 which I'm definitely owning, for sure. And I don't know 1864 01:53:11.810 --> 01:53:14.180 what more to say. Ron, do you have anything to 1865 01:53:14.229 --> 01:53:17.800 say before we... Now. 1866 01:53:18.180 --> 01:53:21.039 We've covered everything, everything Deathstalker universe. 1867 01:53:21.060 --> 01:53:21.659 This is great. 1868 01:53:22.579 --> 01:53:25.500 Stephen, it's very interesting you mentioned the first Deathstalker, the 1869 01:53:25.579 --> 01:53:28.789 poster art. That's what sold me as a kid. I 1870 01:53:28.810 --> 01:53:30.789 was 13 years old. It just got released on video. 1871 01:53:30.810 --> 01:53:32.189 And I thought, oh, wow, look at this. 1872 01:53:32.609 --> 01:53:35.329 Got to find a pig monster. I thought I'd be 1873 01:53:35.369 --> 01:53:38.390 full of pig monsters. And then it turned out to 1874 01:53:38.430 --> 01:53:44.939 be a Playboy showcase. Warrior guy was just horny loser. 1875 01:53:45.000 --> 01:53:48.119 He just wanted to get laid. He gets in a 1876 01:53:48.180 --> 01:53:49.460 fight so he could have sex. 1877 01:53:49.520 --> 01:53:51.779 And he's like, oh, come on. This guy's boring. 1878 01:53:52.039 --> 01:53:57.739 Well, was it Jim Winorski that said, like boobs are 1879 01:53:57.779 --> 01:54:03.220 the cheapest special effect I think that maybe I'm misquoting 1880 01:54:03.640 --> 01:54:06.199 but like you can tell that that was the methodology 1881 01:54:06.560 --> 01:54:10.939 with those movies was like well the guys will rent 1882 01:54:10.960 --> 01:54:14.220 this they'll initially be disappointed that it's not on the 1883 01:54:14.279 --> 01:54:19.020 level of like Conan or something but will like distract 1884 01:54:19.050 --> 01:54:22.449 them with boobs long enough that they'll forget about it 1885 01:54:23.510 --> 01:54:28.909 well You know, that made sense back in 1983 or whatever, 1886 01:54:28.989 --> 01:54:35.300 but it doesn't really fly in 2025, 2026 in this case. 1887 01:54:35.319 --> 01:54:38.100 When everyone used to go to the video store and 1888 01:54:38.140 --> 01:54:42.000 they would put, like, the gore and the boobs on 1889 01:54:42.039 --> 01:54:45.720 the back cover, and it's like, you'd go through looking 1890 01:54:45.760 --> 01:54:48.989 at all the, like, horror videos and stuff and find 1891 01:54:49.029 --> 01:54:53.649 the goriest pictures on the back or, like, boobs. 1892 01:54:53.770 --> 01:54:54.369 Like, ooh. 1893 01:54:55.109 --> 01:54:59.329 Whatever, and then you'd hire that one, and sometimes it 1894 01:54:59.369 --> 01:55:02.670 would be great, sometimes not so great, but yeah. 1895 01:55:04.350 --> 01:55:06.149 I do miss that era, and I wish we could 1896 01:55:06.189 --> 01:55:09.210 go back to it. I miss, I'm sure you guys 1897 01:55:09.250 --> 01:55:13.569 do too, just missing the video store aisle and not 1898 01:55:13.609 --> 01:55:18.409 knowing what you're going to get, and just that I 1899 01:55:18.449 --> 01:55:20.579 can feel it still when I think back to it, 1900 01:55:20.619 --> 01:55:26.039 that vivid feeling of discovery, of like, gone you've like 1901 01:55:26.119 --> 01:55:29.680 opened the Pharaoh's tomb almost and there's just like artifacts 1902 01:55:29.920 --> 01:55:32.979 everywhere and you're like what the hell is this movie 1903 01:55:33.140 --> 01:55:35.859 Ice Pirates that

looks crazy why is it in a 1904 01:55:36.079 --> 01:55:38.770 box for some reason you know and just like picking 1905 01:55:38.819 --> 01:55:42.630 up random stuff but also just the fact that if 1906 01:55:42.670 --> 01:55:46.210 you picked up one movie in some cases like Ghoulies 1907 01:55:46.270 --> 01:55:48.390 it's like oh well there's also there's four of them 1908 01:55:48.449 --> 01:55:50.890 or Deathstalker there's I'm not just looking at one I'm 1909 01:55:50.909 --> 01:55:52.949 looking at four and I remember as a kid that 1910 01:55:52.989 --> 01:55:55.550 being part of the cell as well was like well, 1911 01:55:55.569 --> 01:55:59.989 they made four Carnosaurs, so there must be good, right? 1912 01:56:02.310 --> 01:56:09.250 You know, that was Roger Corman's thinking, actually, perfectly. So 1913 01:56:09.390 --> 01:56:15.029 all of those films, like Deathstalker, Barbarian Queen, like that, 1914 01:56:15.270 --> 01:56:17.569 what is it, Wizards 1, whatever. 1915 01:56:17.649 --> 01:56:21.060 Yeah, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom. That one, yeah. 1916 01:56:21.380 --> 01:56:24.829 Yeah, there's two of them. So apparently his reasoning behind 1917 01:56:24.909 --> 01:56:28.789 that was so when the first Deathstalker was released, it 1918 01:56:28.850 --> 01:56:33.300 actually did quite well in cinema for such a modestly 1919 01:56:33.439 --> 01:56:39.319 budgeted picture. It made between initially $ 11 and $ 12 million 1920 01:56:39.460 --> 01:56:45.380 back then. So it like grossed 11 times approximately what 1921 01:56:45.420 --> 01:56:47.819 it cost to make. So it was, you know, really 1922 01:56:47.880 --> 01:56:51.239 successful and then did really, really well on video and 1923 01:56:52.430 --> 01:56:56.270 for years and also on TV, so selling it to 1924 01:56:56.310 --> 01:57:02.550 TV and it playing on TV. And Corman's thought was that, okay, well, 1925 01:57:02.609 --> 01:57:07.149 this did well, so we make a second, second one 1926 01:57:07.300 --> 01:57:11.319 and a third one, and it's basically like you're still 1927 01:57:11.399 --> 01:57:14.899 promoting the first one with a sequel, but it makes 1928 01:57:14.979 --> 01:57:19.079 it appear more successful than it is. So even if 1929 01:57:19.140 --> 01:57:22.680 the film was not successful... make another one and people 1930 01:57:22.720 --> 01:57:26.920 will think, Oh, well that must've been really successful because 1931 01:57:26.960 --> 01:57:30.300 there's a second one. So I'll, you know, I have 1932 01:57:30.319 --> 01:57:32.779 to go see the first one and the second one. 1933 01:57:33.659 --> 01:57:35.899 Yeah. And even like, as a kid, I remember the 1934 01:57:35.939 --> 01:57:40.239 logic being like, like I'd watch one, it wasn't great, 1935 01:57:40.539 --> 01:57:43.239 but I'd still rent the other ones. Cause I'm like, well, 1936 01:57:43.260 --> 01:57:45.699 maybe the other, maybe they get better, you know? And 1937 01:57:45.770 --> 01:57:50.329 it's thinking back, that's such like such shrewd marketing logic. 1938 01:57:51.460 --> 01:57:54.500 for these budget film companies like a full moon or 1939 01:57:54.600 --> 01:57:58.329 empire pictures or something where it's like maybe it gets 1940 01:57:58.390 --> 01:58:03.609 good by trancers four it's like i totally get it 1941 01:58:03.689 --> 01:58:06.329 it's like you see on the shelf not just one 1942 01:58:06.390 --> 01:58:09.569 movie but like four or five movies and it's like 1943 01:58:09.590 --> 01:58:14.189 well there's there's four lethal weapons that so and those 1944 01:58:14.229 --> 01:58:17.399 are big movies there's four death stalkers those must be 1945 01:58:17.579 --> 01:58:21.539 big movies too so yeah clearly i need to start 1946 01:58:21.579 --> 01:58:22.760 doing this if i want to. 1947 01:58:22.699 --> 01:58:27.260 Start i think sorry sorry what's next for you? If 1948 01:58:27.300 --> 01:58:30.439 you can say anything or what would you like to do? 1949 01:58:30.539 --> 01:58:34.720 Like what universe or world would you like to venture 1950 01:58:34.779 --> 01:58:35.520 into next? 1951 01:58:36.619 --> 01:58:39.619 I have a project lined up for next year. I 1952 01:58:40.399 --> 01:58:43.930 think we're going to shoot like May or June. So 1953 01:58:43.949 --> 01:58:46.489 I'm putting the pieces together for that still long ways away. 1954 01:58:46.510 --> 01:58:49.710 It could fall apart at any moment as movies tend 1955 01:58:49.729 --> 01:58:52.210 to do, but it's kind of going back into the 1956 01:58:52.270 --> 01:58:55.369 serious realm of something like the void. It's a monster movie. 1957 01:58:55.810 --> 01:58:59.489 And I'll spoil anything about it. But, yeah, it's like 1958 01:58:59.529 --> 01:59:05.329 kind of a darker horror film with a monster. And so, yeah, 1959 01:59:05.350 --> 01:59:09.380 that's what I'm in the process of developing and doing 1960 01:59:09.520 --> 01:59:13.340 early prep for right now. I mean, I have all 1961 01:59:13.380 --> 01:59:19.050 kinds of scripts floating around in conversation with people about stuff. It's, 1962 01:59:19.770 --> 01:59:21.850 you know, it's a hard industry to really, like, lock 1963 01:59:21.930 --> 01:59:25.909 in what the next... week even of my life is 1964 01:59:25.949 --> 01:59:28.829 going to be I've been working a lot in effects 1965 01:59:29.029 --> 01:59:31.170 as well I've been doing a bit of work on 1966 01:59:31.189 --> 01:59:34.689 the new season of Reacher and there's been some indie 1967 01:59:34.729 --> 01:59:38.590 movies I've done some work on so yeah I don't 1968 01:59:38.609 --> 01:59:43.430 know it's just bouncing between effects work and developing projects 1969 01:59:43.529 --> 01:59:47.470 for directing and then yeah just spending time at home 1970 01:59:47.569 --> 01:59:50.289 with my family which has been a lot of fun 1971 01:59:50.649 --> 01:59:52.489 so yeah And. 1972 01:59:52.489 --> 01:59:55.909 Is there any particular genre or kind of thing

that 1973 01:59:55.930 --> 02:00:00.029 you would love to do? Like space, like monsters in, 1974 02:00:00.090 --> 02:00:02.270 I mean, you've done the psycho gore man, but like 1975 02:00:03.270 --> 02:00:07.710 in space or like supernatural or vampires or anything kind 1976 02:00:07.770 --> 02:00:09.800 of with monster stuff. 1977 02:00:10.659 --> 02:00:10.899 Yeah. 1978 02:00:10.920 --> 02:00:13.180 I mean, I have a sci-fi horror script I'm trying 1979 02:00:13.220 --> 02:00:16.739 to get off the ground. That's very, uh, it's kind 1980 02:00:16.760 --> 02:00:19.180 of in the world of say like an event horizon 1981 02:00:19.520 --> 02:00:23.399 or even a moon trap, if you know, moon trap. Yeah. 1982 02:00:24.079 --> 02:00:26.840 I just really want to make stuff with biomechanical monsters. 1983 02:00:26.960 --> 02:00:30.060 So I wrote a script that has lots of those 1984 02:00:30.140 --> 02:00:33.279 in it. So, but it's tough. Like I work in 1985 02:00:33.319 --> 02:00:35.680 the indie world where you get no money to make 1986 02:00:35.699 --> 02:00:39.909 your movies, pitching people a sci-fi horror movie. It's a 1987 02:00:39.949 --> 02:00:42.250 tough sell because people are like space. So what you 1988 02:00:42.289 --> 02:00:46.199 need like spaceships and stuff. And that's, They just see 1989 02:00:46.220 --> 02:00:49.489 the budget skyrocket. So it's tough. But I do feel 1990 02:00:49.550 --> 02:00:52.210 like things are starting to maybe come together for it. 1991 02:00:53.729 --> 02:00:56.329 But yeah. We'll see what happens with that one. But 1992 02:00:56.369 --> 02:00:59.170 that is where I'd like to go. Because I keep 1993 02:00:59.210 --> 02:01:04.350 trying to tackle different corners of the genre. It's like 1994 02:01:04.390 --> 02:01:13.180 I did sci-fi kid family tokusatsu action with Psycho Goreman. 1995 02:01:13.720 --> 02:01:13.960 I did. 1996 02:01:14.640 --> 02:01:19.579 little troublemaker monsters with Frankie Frico did sword and sorcery 1997 02:01:19.619 --> 02:01:23.859 at death stalker. I'd love to do budget sci-fi horror, uh, 1998 02:01:24.439 --> 02:01:27.619 with this next one, which I also feel is very 1999 02:01:27.659 --> 02:01:30.640 in keeping with the Roger Corman theme I have going 2000 02:01:30.720 --> 02:01:34.420 because he definitely has his run of sci-fi horror genre movies. 2001 02:01:34.439 --> 02:01:37.720 And that's part of what inspired this is I was like, well, 2002 02:01:37.760 --> 02:01:41.779 he did the death stalker run of fantasy movies, you know, 2003 02:01:41.819 --> 02:01:44.550 his sci-fi horror movies, uh, got a lot of traction 2004 02:01:44.590 --> 02:01:47.369 too i'm a big fan of uh forbidden world and 2005 02:01:47.869 --> 02:01:51.550 galaxy of terror as well so yeah sort of inspired 2006 02:01:51.609 --> 02:01:54.170 by it by those types of films and those types 2007 02:01:54.189 --> 02:01:57.729 of budget sci-fi films specifically so it's a genre i 2008 02:01:57.789 --> 02:01:59.850 really want to play around in at some. 2009 02:01:59.689 --> 02:02:04.420 Point and i just had a personal comment about psycho 2010 02:02:04.439 --> 02:02:09.340 gore man that um I love how diabolical that little 2011 02:02:09.380 --> 02:02:12.819 girl is and I think it kind of reflects how 2012 02:02:12.939 --> 02:02:17.079 diabolical little girls can be when they're kind of thought 2013 02:02:17.140 --> 02:02:20.460 of as, you know, sweet and often, you know, in movies, 2014 02:02:20.539 --> 02:02:23.800 sweet and then we get these diabolical girl characters and 2015 02:02:23.899 --> 02:02:27.939 I like the bad seed or whatever. I love a, like, 2016 02:02:28.100 --> 02:02:31.939 diabolical girl and she is one of the most diabolical 2017 02:02:31.960 --> 02:02:34.949 girls screen and I love that you know it's this 2018 02:02:35.210 --> 02:02:38.930 evil galactic monster like the ultimate evil but she is 2019 02:02:39.010 --> 02:02:43.229 like way more evil and menacing and I love that 2020 02:02:43.250 --> 02:02:46.760 because so many of those 80s films are all about 2021 02:02:46.880 --> 02:02:50.899 boys right yeah they're all about but you know like 2022 02:02:51.159 --> 02:02:54.510 the gate and the explorers and whatever they're all about 2023 02:02:54.560 --> 02:02:57.909 boys yeah I found it kind of funny and some 2024 02:02:57.970 --> 02:03:01.170 reviews and some people said, Oh, that girl's so annoying. 2025 02:03:01.229 --> 02:03:04.680 And I thought, no, we've had like the whole eighties 2026 02:03:04.760 --> 02:03:08.880 was full of annoying boys. So now we've got a 2027 02:03:08.920 --> 02:03:10.460 diabolical girl and it was. 2028 02:03:10.460 --> 02:03:11.159 All for me. 2029 02:03:11.180 --> 02:03:13.590 Awesome. I found it so hilarious. 2030 02:03:14.050 --> 02:03:16.810 I appreciate that because it is true to life. Speaking 2031 02:03:16.869 --> 02:03:20.409 from experience with like people in my life who have 2032 02:03:21.250 --> 02:03:24.869 young daughters, like, yeah, they're all weirdos, they're all crazy, 2033 02:03:25.029 --> 02:03:28.050 and it's awesome, and why are we not capitalizing on this? 2034 02:03:28.170 --> 02:03:32.670 It was very inspiring to talk to some of my 2035 02:03:32.710 --> 02:03:35.189 friends' kids and just be like, oh, you're totally in 2036 02:03:35.220 --> 02:03:39.779 your own universe, and you make your own laws, and 2037 02:03:40.060 --> 02:03:42.239 the world works the way you want it to at 2038 02:03:42.279 --> 02:03:44.939 that age, and that's just such an interesting time to me, 2039 02:03:44.979 --> 02:03:47.439 and that's when the idea really came together, and I 2040 02:03:47.479 --> 02:03:51.119 was like, what could stand up to an intergalactic like 2041 02:03:51.220 --> 02:03:55.060 space warlord it's like yeah obviously like a 11 year 2042 02:03:55.079 --> 02:03:58.199 old girl who just is like mean to her brother 2043 02:03:58.420 --> 02:04:02.119 like of course she

would have the attitude to stand 2044 02:04:02.199 --> 02:04:04.439 up to that guy and not just stand up to 2045 02:04:04.479 --> 02:04:06.920 him but like piss him off and annoy him as 2046 02:04:06.979 --> 02:04:10.020 well like know how to get under his skin so 2047 02:04:10.340 --> 02:04:12.539 yeah thank you I appreciate that it's always good to 2048 02:04:12.579 --> 02:04:16.909 hear when people connect with that character because yeah she 2049 02:04:16.970 --> 02:04:20.090 is annoying but that's the whole point that's again true 2050 02:04:20.109 --> 02:04:20.529 to life. 2051 02:04:21.270 --> 02:04:24.489 I found her a joy. That's great. 2052 02:04:24.689 --> 02:04:28.319 Next time I talk to her, I'll let her know. Yeah. 2053 02:04:28.520 --> 02:04:29.000 Loved it. 2054 02:04:29.460 --> 02:04:29.979 Amazing. 2055 02:04:30.920 --> 02:04:31.319 Oscar. 2056 02:04:31.960 --> 02:04:35.659 And speaking of joys, it was an absolute joy and 2057 02:04:35.699 --> 02:04:37.970 a pleasure to have you on the show, Stephen. Thank 2058 02:04:38.010 --> 02:04:42.670 you so much. Most importantly, for your time to talk 2059 02:04:42.689 --> 02:04:46.430 with us about your new film, Deathstalker means the world. 2060 02:04:47.180 --> 02:04:49.359 Oh, thank you. Great chatting with you guys. This was 2061 02:04:49.420 --> 02:04:52.090 super fun. I'm always down to go on these weird 2062 02:04:52.100 --> 02:04:55.930 deep dives into genre movies. These are the conversations I 2063 02:04:55.970 --> 02:04:59.149 like having. So you guys want to do it again sometime? 2064 02:04:59.229 --> 02:05:00.510 Let's make it happen. 2065 02:05:01.229 --> 02:05:01.550 Done. 2066 02:05:01.590 --> 02:05:01.890 Yeah. 2067 02:05:01.989 --> 02:05:05.689 Thank you so much for being so generous, generous with 2068 02:05:05.729 --> 02:05:10.909 your time. And yeah, it was awesome because like I mentioned, 2069 02:05:10.930 --> 02:05:16.479 I've been kind of, following since father's day and before 2070 02:05:16.539 --> 02:05:20.640 that and reading about like astron six in room or 2071 02:05:20.699 --> 02:05:24.390 magazine and stuff way back when. So yeah, it was 2072 02:05:24.489 --> 02:05:25.069 really great. 2073 02:05:25.090 --> 02:05:28.010 Well, that's awesome. It was super fun chatting with you guys. 2074 02:05:30.149 --> 02:05:34.039 Thank you so much. And, um, Once again, I'll mention 2075 02:05:34.060 --> 02:05:37.600 this one more time. The Deathstalker series, the Deathstalker collection, 2076 02:05:37.640 --> 02:05:42.079 which includes one, the original Deathstalker, Deathstalker 2 and Steven's 2077 02:05:42.140 --> 02:05:47.250 version of Deathstalker. They'll be out on September 30th, 2026 2078 02:05:47.250 --> 02:05:50.289 from Imprint Films. And then I believe a couple of 2079 02:05:50.329 --> 02:05:53.729 weeks later from other retailers here in Australia. And of course, 2080 02:05:54.510 --> 02:05:58.409 Imprint Films ships worldwide. So wherever you are in the world, 2081 02:05:58.989 --> 02:06:02.630 make sure you grab a copy because... it's a great set. Definitely. 2082 02:06:04.029 --> 02:06:06.159 Once again, Steven, thank you so much. And of course, 2083 02:06:06.199 --> 02:06:09.720 thank you to my family, Suzanne and Ron for joining 2084 02:06:09.739 --> 02:06:14.520 in on this episode. And, um, yeah, we'll discuss more 2085 02:06:14.649 --> 02:06:16.829 soon and we got plenty more to do. We've got 2086 02:06:16.850 --> 02:06:20.989 plenty more episodes planned for you, everybody. So, Thank you 2087 02:06:21.029 --> 02:06:23.229 so much, everybody, and thank you all for joining in 2088 02:06:23.270 --> 02:06:26.489 on this episode, and hope you all have a good one. 2089 02:06:26.890 --> 02:06:29.430 See you soon. Thank you for listening and watching this 2090 02:06:29.489 --> 02:06:32.989 latest episode of Imprintcast. Imprintcast is a part of Someone's 2091 02:06:33.010 --> 02:06:36.600 Fair Productions podcast network. Thank you so much for listening 2092 02:06:36.619 --> 02:06:38.340 and watching, and hope you all have a good one.