Looking at these pictures, it seems a horror movie had a bloody orgasm all over my face. Yes, my indie spirit was renewed this past weekend as I played the role of kind- hearted punk "Matthew," doomed to have dirt crammed down his throat and his head kicked in by an incestuous brother/sister duo in Cory J. Udler's INCEST DEATH SQUAD 2... yes, Part 2. Even with a resume containing such eye catching titles as HELL ASYLUM, BAD MOVIE POLICE, and DEADLY STINGERS, I'd put money down betting this title is going to be the one everyone raises an eyebrow to. So why would I attach myself to something of this nature?
Indie spirit, baby! There's nothing quite like it. A (usually) young group of passionate filmmakers pulling together their limited resources and friends to unite in one simple goal... make a movie. There's little money involved - neither in making the feature, nor once it's been released to the public. Just that element of satisfaction that you had a group of people get behind you and create a story. Even if only 100 people ever see the damned thing, you've seriously accomplished something.
Now, when I say "Indie Spirit," I'm not talking movies even at the level of being produced by "indie" studios like Full Moon, Concorde, Troma, et al. These thriving creators don't have any sort of studio behind them. The director is usually the guy who works a full-time day job and is pouring every extra cent he can muster up into the minimal budget. Said monies don't go to the cast and crew - those dedicated folks work for free. Paying for locations and lawyers and big craft service (food) tables? Nope. The cash generally flows into the make up FX and occasionally the wardrobe, unless the cast is (preferably) willing to wear their own clothes they don't mind possibly getting soaked in gore. Filming takes FOREVER - not days or even weeks. It's more like filming what you can with who you can on weekends for the better part of a year, or longer. (Mike & Amy Watt of Happy Cloud Pictures spent the better part of this past decade completing their zombie flick THE RESURRECTION GAME.)
Making movies at this level is about true dedication. There is often a stigma about movies at this no-budget level. Poor acting, writing, production appearance, FX, editing, sound effects... Usually you'll hear critics, and viewers, bitch that the film "looked like it was shot in someones backyard." Well, yeah, it was... but to that I say "Did YOU give up 52 weekends of drinking and laying on your fat ass watching reality TV to pull together an actual movie?" Whether the product turned out watchable isn't the issue. It's all about the effort put forth by a tiny band of thieves to make one particular person's dream come to life. These productions are about friendship and love, because the people in front of the camera and lending their time behind it often aren't film professionals in any way. They're simply excited to see a friend succeed and maybe have something to show the grandkids 40 years from now... to have the novelty of saying "I was in a movie."
INCEST DEATH SQUAD 2 is the ideal example of this. Obviously I can't say if the movie is watchable at this point... it's not even done filming yet. But I knew going in this was something from Udler's heart. I arrived to find his crew consisted of himself (directing and operating the camera) and Annie Cliff (FX girl and boom mic operator). The fact that a boom microphone existed at all on the production threw me! So I knew Udler at least had and knows how to operate film equipment. The wonderful actors, Greg Johnson and Carmela Wiese (a.k.a. the incestuous killers) aren't actors by trade... Carmela is into holistic medicine. I'm not sure what Greg does, but I'm pretty sure killing people onscreen isn't in his daily routine. But as Carmela stripped down on camera right on a public road (with cars going bye every few minutes), I knew she was game. I joined right in. I was grabbed by the hair, had "mud" (i.e. some very tasty brownies) crammed in my mouth, was tossed to the ground, and "kicked" in the head repeatedly. My pants got muddy, I landed in a rose bush (resulting in some pretty irritating scrapes on my arms and near my right eye), had grass stuck in my teeth, bugs tormented me, and the fake blood SERIOUSLY burned my eyes. You know what? I LOVED every second of it.
There is such an energy to doing this sort of thing... being a part of something that so many believe in. My part of the shoot lasted just about 2 hours, and it seemed like 15 minutes. I didn't want it to end. While it may seem insignificant, I should note that when I left that morning for my two-hour drive to Evansville, WI for the shoot, my Diabetes blood sugar count was at an unhealthy 298. I ate a bad lunch (McDonalds) and had a HUGE dinner (steak, pasta), yet my numbers later read 186... now THAT shows a day of high energy and healthy movement.
Shooting IDS 2 also made me remember, and respect, where I came from. The productions I typically work on these days have investors, budgets, crews, a post crew and professional actors. That's not where I started out though. My days making movies for Moore Video (MARK OF THE DEVIL 666, 5 DARK SOULS, 5 DARK SOULS - PART II) were exactly the same kind of productions. Paying it back (or would that be forward?) for all the help and dedication I received from my own friends in the mid-90s to give up their free time to assist me in achieving my dream - that joined with that hunger and need for the kind of energy you find on a film set of any budget level was my main reason for being a part of this production.
It's that natural instinct, that Spirit I was born with, that feeds my passion to tell a story (or be a part of someone else's) and bring anyone else interested along for the ride.
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