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interviews - Horrorphile

Q&A WITH JULIEN ZENIER - DIRECTOR OF SNIP

July 30th 2010 03:13

Julien Zenier was born and raised in France, but has lived in Madrid, Spain, since 2003. He cut his teeth on commercials and "Making Ofs" before completing his first short film, Snip, in 2008. I saw Snip at the 2009 A Night of Horror International Film Festival and was suitably impressed. I look forward to more movies from this talented filmmaker.

Horrorphile: What are your thoughts on the current new wave of European horror, in particular, French and, of course, Spanish filmmakers?

Julien Zenier: Well, I don’t know if we can speak of “new wave” for the Europe horror genre. I’ll say, firstly, that the French and the Spanish movie, although close, are different. France’s conception is a little more “arty” while Spain is maybe more “hand-crafty” (in a traditional, pure cinematographic way). For instance French production companies sometimes seem to risk more (Vinyan by Fabrice Du Welz or Gaspar Noe’s features) but are often unable to produce a good genre flick. In Spain films are generally produced in a way that is similar to the Hollywood studio system, without its economic potential. On the other hand, they’ve got this great sensibility and knowledge in making interesting genre movies. We have some great emerging and experienced directors, and that’s fantastic because it develops a kind of a healthy “competition”. I think it strongly stimulates you to do something of your own, and maybe one day be a part of this adventure.

H: When were you first seduced by the horror genre? What are some of the first movies that caught your attention?

JZ: I was a huge fan of horror films in my adolescence, but everything began in my childhood: My father had this big VCR and I remember watching (while hiding myself) entire sequences of Alien, The Shining, The Terminator, and Blade Runner. I was completely mesmerized by those images! Later The Exorcist really disturbed me for a long time; I love the film and at the same time, watching it was always a painful experience.

H: What directors’ work, either living or dead, do you particularly admire, or that provides you with inspiration?

JZ: I particularly admire Verhoeven’s work and audacity, the movies of Mikhail Kalatazov... Aronofsky, Antonioni, Cronenberg, Kubrick... Jonathan Glazer and Gaspar Noe are also in “my” top list.

H: The sound design in Snip is very prominent, almost abstract. How important is sound in a movie? Describe the differences between sound design and a musical score and how they should work together?

JZ: The audio represents more than 50% of the whole movie experience. I think the sound design holds and lets breathe the images when a musical score takes more “space” and interacts directly with the emotions. All is about finding the best alchemy, knowing when the sound design or the score must be pointed up; a very subtle work.

H: Are you able to tell me a little about the special effects work in Snip? Was it all entirely prosthetics? Which special effects make-up artists are you favourites and why?

JZ: Snip was all entirely shot with prothestics for a simple reason: I don’t believe in CGI for those kind of effects. It often looks synthetic and your eyes automatically detect it. I needed it to look as real as possible; if the prosthetic work was fucked, the audience would have laugh and that wasn’t the purpose. I remember the work was barely done in one month by Gorka Aguirre and Cristina Iglesias from Quimera FX. We’d spent hours talking about making it the most realistic, with me repeating like a protecting mantra the words “visceral” and “organic”. We also checked a lot human anatomy books ... and they’ve made a fantastic job. As for special effects make up artists, I don’t have a favourite one.

H: Can a horror movie operate purely on visceral terms, or does it need to manipulate an audience on a psychological level just as strongly? Can you give me some examples of movies that you appreciate on a visceral level and/or on a psychological the other?

JZ: There are no rules. Ideally a good horror movie should operate both on a visceral level and on psychological level. The perfect example is what David Cronenberg did with his horror tragedies The Fly and Dead Ringers.

H: What are your thoughts on the current Hollywood trend of making tame horror movies i.e. PG-13 rated movies aimed at a much broader demographic?

JZ: Today’s movies are the result of the lack of good idea, economic pressure and the lack of time; it’s easier, safer and faster to remake or reboot something known by the audience than create something new. These are strange times, creatively speaking. You know, Hollywood movies are funded by The Majors. The Majors want to make a lot of money, so what they are doing is making sense.

H: Are there any taboos in cinema? If so, what are they, and should they be broken?

JZ: Of course, there are taboos in cinema! The taboos you can see in theaters are generally the same you can observe in our societies. Each year plenty of films talk about racism, incest, explicit sex, full nudity, war blunders, etc, but how many of them are doing it well and frankly? I tend to say that yes, taboos exist to be broken; at the very least we should try to play with them.

H: Too many horror movies rely on the use of CGI simply because it’s cheaper. What are your thoughts on the use of CGI in horror movies? Should CGI be employed in a horror movie at all?

JZ: I’m neither a hardcore fan of classic sfx nor an enemy of the CGI. As a filmmaker, you just have some different tools and try to use it the best way. The main criterion must be the story: How do I see this sequence? Does it work better with physical effects or can we do it with CGI? Again and again, I think it’s all a matter of balance.

H: Have you had any negative reactions to Snip from film audiences and/or critics?

JZ: I’ve read some negative reactions, for sure, but in general film audience and critics reactions have been, surprisingly, very encouraging.

H: It’s a very powerful, but very confronting film, what movie-watching experience has been the most confronting for you?

JZ: Aftermath by Nacho Cerda, without a doubt. Pasolini’s Salo made me also feel very uncomfortable.

H: What plans for a feature do you have?

JZ: Since Snip, we’ve been busy working for almost two years on a script adapted from Jim Thompson’s Child of Rage novel.

H: Would you be interested in being a hired hand for a big budget Hollywood movie (for example the remake of Hellraiser, which Pascal Laugier pulled out of), or would you prefer to make a movie from your own original screenplay?

JZ: I would be very glad in being a hired hand for a big budget Hollywood movie. It could be a fantastic opportunity! You can tell them I’m interested! More seriously, I’d like my first feature to be something smaller, but who knows?

You can discover more about Snip at the official website here

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Q&A WITH STEVEN KASTRISSIOS - DIRECTOR OF THE HORSEMAN

June 29th 2010 04:44

The savage and relentless Oz revenge flick that has seared the international film festival circuit is finally about to hit the big screen down under, opening July 8th for a very limited season in Sydney (Chauvel), Brisbane (Tribal Theatre) & Melbourne (Cinema Nova). Make sure you catch The Horseman big and loud!

Horrorphile: The revenge flick has been popular in both the exploitation and mainstream market, what inspired you to make The Horseman?

Steven Kastrissios: Revenge is a broadly fascinating and evocative topic. It can play out in any way from romantic comedies to violent thrillers. I went with the latter after seeing the UK film, Dead Man’s Shoes. It’s very different from The Horseman, but I was inspired to see a somewhat clichéd genre concept being played out in the form of a serious drama. So with our film, I wanted to marry a serious drama with an action thriller take and even a bit of horror thrown in for good measure. It was all designed to really ground the over-the-top elements with some sort of reality.

H: Tell me about the significance of the title.

SK: Book of Revelations 6:8. I figured a cryptic title would go well with the film’s genre.

H: Tell me about the writing process; was the basic arc of the two leads – Christian and Alice – always the same from first draft through to final?

SK: Yes. It took six weeks from idea to first draft and the only things that changed in the subsequent drafts was the ending and a bit of polishing here and there via one afternoon of script work-shopping with some actor friends. Plus the short film we shot from the opening sequence helped guide the tone from Charles Bronson to more Paul Schrader.

H: Did any of the drafts include more of Jessica’s story? Did you end up deleting many scenes from the final cut?

SK: There are a couple deleted scenes with his daughter, Jesse, the main one being a bedroom chat with her and her father Christian. It will be on the DVD. It worked ok, but it slowed things down and the mystery of their relationship actually adds a somewhat interactive layer to the film.

H: Can you describe the significance of Christian’s self mutilation?

SK: From the research I did, it fitted in with the realities of someone cut off from the emotions, which I could easily imagine an average middle-age man would be, in not acknowledging his own grief and therefore it finding its own way of surfacing. Plus I thought it would be interesting to see him doing it, rather then the usual teenage ‘emo’ girl.

H: Describe the significance of the opening sequence which juxtaposes Jessica’s decision process and Christian already in the middle of his revenge quest.

The Horseman Peter Marshall and Caroline Morasey

SK: It was originally cut as separate scenes, but in experimenting with the edit, I found it worked better intercutting them and also helped the pacing.

H: Although your background is in video editing, did you ever consider having someone else edit your feature?

SK: No way. It’s a huge responsibility and time commitment. We didn’t have the money and I simply didn’t know any editors that I would trust, who would work for free. Plus editing is by far the most fun and satisfying part of filmmaking. That said, I plan to bring on another editor to work with me on future films, as you do benefit from another viewpoint and being a writer-director-editor, you’re cutting out all chances of collaboration. But I screened The Horseman to anybody who visited my house and would grill them afterwards about what they liked and didn’t and why. I did about eighteen drafts of the edit, watching the film with a dictaphone and being very picky. So I ended up cutting almost an hour from the original cut for various reasons, mostly to do with pacing and keeping the tone consistent.

H: Including so many elaborate fights throughout the movie was an ambitious endeavour, yet the fight sequences stand out impressively, both in the choreography and in the filming and editing, tell me about Chris Anderson’s involvement.

SK: Chris is a legendary stunt guy who’s worked on everything from Mad Max to Peter Jackson’s King Kong. He had a gap in his schedule and wanted to support young local filmmakers. He was impressed with what we had done in the short film without any stunt people involved. He brought his team and equipment in and was a delight to work with. I was concerned about being steamrolled by an industry veteran like some others would have done, but Chris only intervened when we were having problems. I designed the fights by myself in my backyard like the weirdo-action-nerd I am and then we rehearsed them as a group, ironing out any bits that didn’t work. Chris and his team brought some ideas to the table, usually raising the bar on the stunts we were doing, as I wasn’t sure what was possible on our budget. But I soon learnt that where there’s a will there’s a way – especially with Aussie stunts guys!

H: In one of the making of featurettes you talk about Phil Judd and his involvement in the sound mixing stage, which apparently took a year. Surely this must have been laborious, not to mention costly (despite Judd’s generosity). Tell me about why this took so long and what it added to the movie.

SK: He basically worked on it when he had gaps in his schedule. He did a pass on it before our premiere at MIFF 08, then we recorded a whole new foley track in China and then he did another pass on the mix a few months later.

H: The nature of the movie, especially the evil intent of the villains, and the grey moral cloud over the anti-hero, is very dark and uncompromising. How has the movie been received at the international festivals, and especially America?

SK: We’ve mostly received very positive reviews from the genre crowd. The Americans love it. Our US premiere was at SXSW film festival and we sold it straight away. Harry Knowles held a private screening in his house for the whole Ain’t It Cool News team, which led to very positive reviews from the site.

H: What is your approach to screen violence? Do you believe cinema has any taboos that shouldn’t be broken?

SK: Rules are meant to be broken, but it all comes down to context. Although The Horseman revolves around the mistreatment of women, you never see it, as I wouldn’t want to shoot that sort of content.

H: What are some revenge movies you hold in high esteem? What are your thoughts on the exploitation cinema of the 70s, which The Horseman seems to channel, yet in a distinctly Australian atmosphere?

SK: My favourite revenge films are The Crow, The Limey, Dead Man’s Shoes. There are many, many other films that have revenge elements, but these are my favourite all-out revenge films. I’m not that big into films that you can’t take seriously, which is why I list these films and not others. That said, I do have a major soft spot for Commando. In terms of Aussie exploitation, Mad Max 2 is by far my favourite although it’s an 80’s film and was backed by Warner Bros, so not sure if it fits into that category. It’s unfortunate Aussie cinema never really matched that film in terms of action.

H: What are some of the immediate pros and cons on working with a small crew, on a tight budget, with limited locations, and a short shooting schedule?

SK: You can move really quickly, which actually helped the performances and action. Keeping everyone active and alert keeps it fun too.

H: Tell me about the digital cameras you used and the digital colour grading process you supervised.

SK: We shot on two Panasonic HVX-202 HD cameras, which allowed us to move quickly and let the actors go nuts, knowing they wouldn’t have to do it over and over again. I colour graded the film at home in Final Cut Studio’s Color, which is an amazing program. I then went to 2 Dogs Post in Sydney where I could view my grade on their calibrated monitors to do a kind of tech check and tweak any problem areas.

H: The movie’s gestation period has been long. When did you first start writing the screenplay, and when did you wrap shooting? Will it have an Australian theatrical season, or will it go straight to DVD?

SK: It will have a limited run at Chauvel in Sydney and Tribal in Brisbane starting July 8th. I wrote the script in 2005, we shot it in 2006 and finished the edit, colour grade and rough sound mix in 2007. It’s taken two years to do the festival run around the world, get a sales agent and release it. It came out in USA on June 15th and is also available in UK.

H: Finally, what can we look forward to? What do you have planned for the immediate future?

SK: I’m working on a few things, but it’s up to the gods as to what actually moves forward first. There are a couple creature-features, a post-apocalyptic thriller and many others in development.

Here’s a featurette with lead actor Peter Marshall talking about his career and working on The Horseman:

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Q&A with FAMILY DEMONS writer/director URSULA DABROWSKY

December 14th 2009 04:07

The low-budget horror feature is alive and well in independent Australian cinema, if Ursula Dabrowsky’s Family Demons is anything to go by. Made of the coppery smell of a bloodied rag Family Demons is the tale of a long-suffering teenage girl and her bitch of a mother. There’s no burying the hatchet here, it’s one long battle that cuts deep into the psyche of domestic violence, abuse, and the spectre of familial demons that haunt through generations.

Cassandra Kane as Billie

With a minimal cast and locations (basically one house, a hospital room, and a couple of backyards) Family Demons centres on the relationship (or lack of) between shy, retiring Billie (Cassandra Kane) and her drunken, abusive mother (Kerry Reid). The only other notable speaking parts belong to Billie’s boyfriend (Alex Rafalowicz) and the mother’s lover (Tommy Darwin).

Kerry Reid as Billie's mother

The movie has a theatrical element to it (the tiny cast and essentially one setting), but uses cinematic devices to skillfully shake the narrative up and deliver a neat twist in its tail that stings near movie’s end. Whilst the movie’s production values are basic, the central performances – especially that of young Cassandra Kane) - provide the movie with a strong backbone of contention. Billie’s mother (not to mention her mother’s repulsive lover) has to be one of the most reprehensible matriarchs ever to (dis)grace the movies. One only prays she’ll get hers …

Family Demons is Ursula Dabrowsky’s second feature, but the first to receive proper distribution. After having its world premiere at this year’s A Night of Horror international film festival here in Sydney where it won the Best Director award, it has gone on to win several awards, including Best Foreign Film and Best Actress at U.S. Fright Night Film Fest. The world rights has been picked up for international distribution by IFM World Releasing.

Hailing from the sleepy town of Adelaide Dabrowsky is quick to point out the dark, murderous history of the township at the beginning of Family Demons. It’s a fictional supernatural story, but it’s steeped in violent truths. I got to ask the writer and director of the movie some questions, and probed into Dabrowsky’s background, the nature of her story and also about the process of making a super low-budget feature.

Ursula Dabrowsky

Horrorphile: Can you tell me about your movie background; what short films and/or videos have you made, and what (if any) tertiary film education and/or film school?

Ursula Dabroswky: In the early 90’s, I studied experimental filmmaking at Concordia University in Montreal. In 1992, I moved to Adelaide, South Australia and set up Saylavee Productions Pty Ltd. In 1995, I made my first narrative short film, Snoop, which was self financed and picked up by the AFI Distribution Branch and screened theatrically with other short films around Australia and New Zealand. The short also toured the national and international film fest circuit, garnering a couple of awards. In 1998, I received a production investment from the state film funding body, SAFC, for my next short film, Grunt, that also did well on the film festival circuit. Around 1996, I started shooting my first self-financed feature, Getting the Dirt on Trish on weekends and finally finished it in 2001. It screened at several film festivals including the Flickapalooza Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Melbourne Underground Film Festival where I won a Best Female Director award. In 2003, I watched my first Japanese horror film Ju-on: The Grudge. I was totally inspired by the film and, although I had always been attracted to thriller films, after watching The Grudge I started thinking about writing horror. I decided to use a pseudonym Ursula Dabrowsky because it felt like I was re-inventing myself. Because I kept getting rejections for my horror scripts from the state film funding body, I decided to self-finance my first horror feature, Family Demons.

H: Which directors and/or movies inspired you to become a director? What are some of the current horror directors that you admire?

UD: Back when I was at film school, the directors that inspired me were the DIY indie filmmakers from New York. Directors like Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Susan Seidelman, Kevin Smith. They inspired me to make my films regardless of whether or not I got government financial backing. They inspired me to make films “by any means necessary” which is how I made Snoop, Getting the Dirt on Trish, and Family Demons. As for current horror directors that I admire, certainly Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on: The Grudge) and Ji-woon Kim (Tale of Two Sisters), inspire me stylistically as well as heaps of other Asian horror directors but lately the content and style of several European horror filmmakers have caught my imagination; directors such as Pascal Laugier (Martyrs), Alexandre Aja (High Tension), Neil Marshall (The Descent) and James Watkins (Eden Lake). My new screenplays, Demon Voices and Devil’s Haven, are strongly influenced not only by J and K horror but also what they are calling French “extreme horror”.

H: The theme of domestic abuse is always confronting; how much of the screenplay to Family Demons (if any) was based on real life experiences of your own or someone you know?

Ursula Dabrowsky directing and Hugh Freytag shooting Cassandra Kane

UD: All the films I make come from my personal experiences. I can’t seem to be able to create anything unless I have something personal I want to communicate with others. I can’t make films just for the sake of it. This has probably got a lot to do with my experimental filmmaking background where I was taught to use the medium of film as a way of communicating who I am and how I see the world and share it with others. Psychological and supernatural horror - sub-genres of horror - are the contexts that best suit the personal kinds of things I want to say with my filmmaking.

H: Why did you decide to have so few main characters in Family Demons, and was this a budgetary decision made early on in the screenwriting process?

UD: I wrote the script with ultra-low budget constraints in mind: few characters, few locations, etc. This way I have a greater chance of getting the film made. I am doing the same with all my film projects. I actually quite like the challenge of writing with budget constraints. You can get incredibly inventive and experiment and make a horror film that is just that little bit different.

H: Did you always intend to have the disposing of Billie’s mother’s body as the opening scene, and if so why?

UD: You need to set up a question at the beginning of any film, otherwise the viewer will be bored within the first five minutes. I don’t think people know that this was Billie’s mother, they just knew that Billie has killed someone, so the question that is set up right at the beginning is why is this young girl covered in blood and who has she killed and hopefully the audience is going to want to know what the hell happened and keep watching the film until they get the answer.

H: The movie opens with a description of Adelaide as a murderous township; is it the only reason why you set the movie in Adelaide? Are you from there, or spent much time there, if so do you have any visceral anecdotes?

UD: I moved to Adelaide in 1992 and found out pretty soon after I moved here that it was considered the Murder Capital of Australia. People who live here understandably don’t want Adelaide to have that kind of reputation, particularly SA Tourism (!), but it does, so they just have to live with it! It’s really the controversial author Salman Rushdie’s fault for giving Adelaide its eerie rep. He visited Adelaide in the 1980’s and declared it “a perfect setting for a Stephen King novel or horror films,” adding that “sleepy conservative towns are where those things happen” and this quote was used a lot. Even I used it for the movie opening of Family Demons. Lots of horrible murders happened before I moved to Adelaide but lots more happened since, for instance The Snowtown Murders. On top of that, Adelaide is a downright creepy place at night because it’s Deadsville. There is hardly anyone on the road or walking the streets. It’s so quiet and eerie. I am dumbfounded that there aren’t more horror filmmakers in this town [ed: perhaps they’ve all been killed off?] Perhaps it’s too close to home for them. But for me, rightly or wrongly, Adelaide inspires me in a perverse kind of way.

H: What kind of camera did you shoot Family Demons on? What was the budget? How long was the shoot? How did you get funding?

UD: We used a Sony Z1P [digital camera]. Production budget for the shoot was $6,500 for a two week shoot. We shot Family Demons in January 2006 in 13 days. All up, the entire film has cost me around $40,000 cash. If you were to include the deferrals, the entire budget for Family Demons is around $250,000. I did not go for funding at all because I didn’t think I’d get it. Despite the success of Wolf Creek, horror was still a dirty word with film funding agencies so I didn’t even bother approaching them. I did go for post-production funding because by 2007, I figured with the success of Wolf Creek, funding bodies would be more supportive, but I was wrong. I was unsuccessful each and every time I approached them and, if anything, this delayed the finishing of the film, because I’d put everything on hold while I was waiting around to get a response. The SAFC knocked me back, the AFC knocked me back twice, and the Adelaide Film Festival also knocked me back. So the entire film was shot and completed without any government support at all. As for the film funding bodies now changing their tune? Not sure. The SAFC have recently knocked me back for script development with my new psychological horror screenplay. I haven’t had much luck with film funding bodies.

H: What are some of the essential elements in low-budget filmmaking that a director should take heed of?

UD: Direct from a well written screenplay. Three-quarters of the hard work on the film has already been done.

H: Do you believe directors should restrain from making direct cinematic references to other movies? Why do you think paying homage in horror is something that other directors often embrace?

UD: It’s not a problem for me at all, in fact, it enhances my viewing experience. I watched Not Quite Hollywood and was reminded that Quentin Tarantino made homage to the Australian horror film Patrick in his film Kill Bill. Patrick, if you remember, was in a coma but could spit at people. Tarantino had seen the film and he got Uma Thurman to spit when she was in a coma in Kill Bill. It’s a compliment to Richard Franklin or Everett De Roche that another filmmaker stole their idea and used it in their film. What I don’t like is all the horror remakes that have been happening in the past decade. That is homage gone wild. When Hollywood studios are too afraid to take risks on original ideas and would rather prioritise making money by stealing horror stories from places like Asia and remaking them by turning them into vacuous, glossy products that have no substance in them anymore, that kind of thing that pisses me off. I see horror producers here in Australia doing the same thing. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight, unfortunately.

H: Do you think there should be any restrictions in content and depiction when it comes to making a horror movie? Should taboos still exist in the horror genre?

UD: No, I don’t think there should be any restrictions, but having said that, I hate gratuitous nudity and violence; to me it’s boring and lazy scriptwriting.

H:There aren’t many horror features directed by women that get decent international distribution, why do you think this is? What do you think of the international horror film festivals aimed at female directors?

UD: I subscribe to the blog Women & Hollywood. Melissa Silverstein reminds me at least once a week of the enormous gap between men and women in the film industry. Some say it’s because there aren’t enough role models out there for young girls to even think about film directing as a career, much less making horror films. Another reason I would say is that there are women out there who are much smarter than I am and figure the odds are so high against anyone earning a regular income from being a filmmaker, that they don’t even bother and instead do something that makes more sense. Sometimes that’s what I really think! But there is a gap and I’m aware that it doesn’t seem to be closing but I’m not going to let that worry me. I’m just going to keep doing my little bit to address the imbalance and by doing that, hopefully inspire other women out there to think about making their own horror films one day.

H: Can you tell us a little about your plans for the future and/or next feature?

UD: I have several screenplays in development and I love them all. One is based on my experience of working in a haunted heritage gaol back in August 2007 called Devil’s Haven and the other is a revenge type horror called Demon Voices. I’m hoping to make two more features that will then form part of Ursula Dabrowsky’s Demon Trilogy.

H: So, do you believe in ghosts?
UD: You bet.

Family Demons will be released on DVD in Australia and New Zealand sometime in 2010. You can visit the official website here.

Here's the trailer:

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EXCLUSIVE Q&A with LET THE RIGHT ONE IN director TOMAS ALFREDSON

August 19th 2009 00:24

Let the Right One In alternate movie poster art

Swedish flick Let the Right One In (2009) is now considered by critics and horror fans (and even non-horror fans) the world over as one of the very best vampire movies ever made. Pretty much an instant cult classic. To coincide with its Australian DVD release I was lucky enough to get a short Q&A with director Tomas Alfredson.

WARNING! CONTAINS MOVIE AND NOVEL SPOILERS!

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Q&A with A NIGHT OF HORROR film festival directors Dean Bertram and Lisa Mitchell

June 29th 2009 01:19

This has been a wee while cooking, but finally I got my answers! Back in late March the 4th annual international film festival, A Night Of Horror, screened in Sydney. It was a mix of short films and features, mostly independent productions, many of which were enjoying their premiere screenings. Some directors came all the way from America to present their movies, and in the end an American monster movie took the award for best movie: Splinter (for complete list of award winners click here)

In its first year A Night Of Horror ran for just three nights, now it runs for ten glorious days. It’s a modestly-mounted showcase that is steadily building a reputable name for itself, as well as providing a forum for filmmakers to meet and discuss the genre and the industry. Thank God for the festival team; Dean Dertram, Lisa Mitchell, Grant Bertram, Shane K, Dalibor Backovic, Bryant Johnston, Jack Sargeant, and others, for their dedicated work

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Q & A with BLACK SHEEP director Jonathan King

September 6th 2007 01:43

It’s always a bonus when you know the director of a movie as a friend or acquaintance. It means you can squeeze some juicy anecdotes and behind-the-scenes info, and even some exclusive pics!

With the New Zealand horror fauna flick Black Sheep digging gory hooves and bleating all manner of bloody chaos around the world I threw some questions at its first time feature writer/director Jonathan King, who lives in my old stomping ground, windy Wellington

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