Video: WITCHING & BITCHING World Premiere Interview with Alex de la Iglesia

Alex de la Iglesia talks to Robert A. Mitchell at the world premiere of his latest film, Witching & Bitching.

OCULUS: Interview with Director Mike Flanagan

[MM Blogger Sasha James interviews the director of Oculus, Mike Flanagan. ~The Editor]

Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites; the upcoming Maleficent) has spent the majority of his life in a psychiatric hospital after the brutal and mysterious family tragedy that claimed the lives of both his parents. Convinced his father is to blame, Tim is released from hospital only to discover that his sister Kaylie -- played by Doctor Who darling Karen Gillan -- has spent the intervening years tracking down the real culprit: a cursed mirror with a 300-year murder streak. Oculus also stars Battlestar Gallactica fan favourite Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane (Argo, Dazed and Confused). 

Before its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, we were able to geek out with director Mike Flanagan (Absentia) about Doctor Who, The Shining, and Midnight Madness' rowdy reputation.

SJ: Oculus is based on a short you made in 2006 called Oculus: Chapter 3. How did you expand your short into a feature-length film? 

Mike Flanagan: That was actually really challenging. The short is just one man alone in a room with the mirror and a few video cameras. Finding a way to expand that into a feature took a long time, and really needed the right producers. My writing partner Jeff Howard and I kicked around several options, including allowing that story to simply be one act of the feature and bookend it with two other half-hour stories -- kind of like an anthology film. There was a lot of interest early in expanding the short into a feature, but most companies were leaning toward a found footage approach because of the cameras in the room, which was a direction we never really wanted to go. 

It took us a little while to hit on the idea that it was actually two people in the room who share a troubled past and have different interpretations of what is happening. The Mulder/Scully dynamic really felt right, and things took off quickly from there. 

When Intrepid Pictures came on board, they had a similar vision for an expansion of the short. They didn't want to do found footage -- which was a relief -- and they really embraced the idea that we'd take everything about the short we loved and try to genuinely expand the universe around it. We developed the script with Trevor Macy, Marc Evans and Anil Kurian at Intrepid, and very quickly hit upon the concept of the siblings locked in the room with the mirror, interwoven with the (possibly unreliable) story of their childhood. 

That allowed us to remain true to the tension and contained nature of the short while expanding the universe and characters in ways that added tension and allowed for us to really play with the non-linear aspects of the story. 

SJ: Where were you first introduced to Karen Gillan? Are you a fan of DOCTOR WHO? 

MF: I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who. I pitched her to the producers on the first day that we started talking about casting. We auditioned a number of actresses and it took weeks for us to get in touch with Karen, as she was shooting Doctor Who at the time. I used to come into casting sessions and open with "Have we heard from Karen Gillan?" We were just about nearing the end of the casting process when she surfaced. She loved the script and the short film, and suddenly she was a realistic possibility for Kaylie. 

We arranged a Skype [interview], which was a fairly embarrassing moment for me when I realized, at the end of the call, that I'd been drinking coffee out of my TARDIS mug the entire time. I pulled selections from episodes of Doctor Who to show members of our team who weren't familiar with her work. I found out she was in LA shortly before [San Diego Comic Con in] 2012, and I ran out of our production offices to meet up with her and try to talk her into doing it -- also an embarrassment as I just happened to be wearing a Doctor Who shirt that day and completely forgot until she noticed. I'm such a nerd.

The couple of weeks in between making our offer and closing her deal was one of the highest stress times of this entire movie for me. She was just perfect for the role -- such a rare blend of strength, attitude, and vulnerability. Once we had her though, I knew the movie was going to work. There's a sequence in it where she presents the history of the mirror, and it was an intimidating amount of dialogue for any actor to handle. She dominates it. Not many actors could pull off what she does in this film. 

I'm also a huge Battlestar Galatica fan, so, when we cast Katee Sackhoff, I was officially in geek heaven. 

SJ: It's rare to have a film with a brother/sister team-up, and I find it incredibly refreshing to see this relationship in Oculus. Why do you think there are not more brother/sister films? 

MF: Honestly, I think it's because people tend to lean on sexual tension to develop characters in genre films. Having main characters who are, were, or might be banging is an old genre staple. Which is odd because, if it's me, sexual tension is the first thing to disappear in a situation where lives are in danger. Kinda hard to sustain the mood, you know? 

I get why it's done that way so often, and it can be done very well. But siblings -- hopefully -- eliminate that dynamic entirely from the equation and, in my opinion, replace it with much more interesting subtext. These are people who know each other very well, as opposed to still figuring each other out; who are comfortable enough to be themselves without pretext; who love each other, truly accept each other. There's nothing frivolous about it. There's no politeness. They can say what they really think without fear of damaging the relationship. That ease of honesty is fascinating to me. Their emotional investment in each other and in their survival is so much deeper than a romantic one. For me, it's so much more dynamic. 

It was such a blast for me dealing with a sister dynamic in my last movie Absentia that I was really eager to dive further into a sibling relationship for this one. I also have a terrific relationship with my younger brother, and I am always struck by [how] our interactions with each other are different than my interactions with even my closest friends. There are films that use the sibling dynamic to great effect, and I wish there were more of them. 

SJ: Were there any films that influenced you while directing Oculus? The Haunting and The Legend of Hell House strike me as influences. 

MF: Those are certainly two of my favourites. I also spent a lot of time revisiting The Shining -- I would sometimes refer to the mirror as a portable Overlook Hotel -- as well as recent hits like Insidious and foreign fare like A Tale of Two Sisters. I was also influenced by Stephen King's short story "1408", which remains one of the most frightening stories I've ever read. I love a contained space, and I love stories that build upon a long history and mythology for their supernatural entities. 

SJ: Before Oculus was selected for TIFF, were you aware of Midnight Madness and its rowdy reputation? 

MF: Absolutely. I've been a fan of Midnight Madness for years just because I'm such a genre fan. It always has such a fascinating lineup, and the audiences are legendary. It was kind of surreal hearing that we were accepted, as I'd always viewed Midnight Madness as the pinnacle platform for exciting, unique genre films to meet their intended, enthusiastic audience. I'm still kind of pinching myself to be included in such amazing company. 

SJ: What films are you looking forward to watching at the Festival this year? 

MF: I'm really psyched for Horns. I love the book and am dying to see how it translates to the screen. I'm also lining up for All Cheerleaders Must Die; I'm a big fan of Lucky McKee. I'm really curious to see The Station; I love a good creature feature. I'm dying to catch Josh Waller's McCanick, which was put together by some very good friends of mine. I'd love to see Errol Morris' The Unknown Known. And, of course, Gravity. That trailer knocked me over.

Mike Flanagan's Oculus stars Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff, and premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival within the Midnight Madness programme. Further information about the film can be found on the Festival website.
 

OCULUS Final Screening:

Sunday, Sept 15th, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK 11

R100 World Premiere Interview With Hitoshi Matsumoto 松本 人志

Hitoshi Matsumoto (Big Man Japan, Symbol) premiered his latest film R100 last night at Midnight Madness. Robert A. Mitchell who was in the middle of all the hysteria and excitement talked with one of Japan's biggest superstars.



R100 Screening Times:
Friday, Sept 13th, 11:30 AM SCOTIABANK 9
Saturday, Sept 14th, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK 10

RIGOR MORTIS Midnight Madness Premiere Interview with JUNO MAK

Last night was the North American premiere of Juno Mak's directorial debut RIGOR MORTIS. It was a very rainy and humid night which very much felt like a Hong Kong evening. Robert A. Mitchell spoke with Juno about his first film as a director, influences and, of course, those hopping vampires from Hong Kong's glorious golden age of cinema.


RIGOR MORTIS Final Screening:
Friday, Sept 13th, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK 9

Juno Mak Talks RIGOR MORTIS: Exclusive Interview

First of all, I would like to say I feel very honored to be able to participate in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival ”midnight madness” section. I'm writing this email in Venice at the moment, where the film will be premiereing here tonight. -- Juno Mak writing from Venice

Robert Mitchell: What do you like about genre films?

Juno Mak: I guess what’s fun about genre films throughout cinematic history is mainly because of the specific ”sets of rules” that apply to them. Such as zombies, you have to shoot them in the head. Vampires with silver and all. And then we have ”gueng si”, the traditional hopping vampires from Asia. Glutinous rice, wooden swords, yellow amulets, taoist priest, etc., etc. These rules only apply to this particular genre. A funky, yet special, type of rules, may I say.

But these genre rules have been evolving throughout the years too. It's a sort of evolution amongst us storytellers.

RM: How are you putting your own spin on genre storytelling?

JM: I want to explore the evolution of this genre. More humane, more focused on the drama, the sadness. We have also gathered the original elements from the genre, deconstructed and reconstructed it. Giving it a new touch, and most importantly, I, personally, wanted to explore the emotional side of it. The struggles these characters go through in life. The main theme of this film is about ”the fear of being forgotten” or even the fear of losing youth. Some sort of loneliness among us as humans. The world changed, everyone changed and adapted to a better life. But these characters they didn't.

RM: What did you like about the orginal Mr. Vampire films that were apart of "gueng si"genre?

JM: To me, the original Mr Vampire films represent not only a big part of my childhood. But also a golden time period of the Hong Kong cinematic history. Anyhow, the ”gueng si” genre has been gone for almost 30 years now.

RM: You cast a lot of the original actors from the Mr. Vampire films, what made you decide to bring them into the film and what was it like to work with them?

JM: What really fascinated me was the wrinkles on the actors and actresses faces after so many years. It, for me, represented their sorrow, their struggles in the most powerful, yet subtle way. I'm sure they have been through a lot being on the film set of RIGOR MORTIS. I sensed that this was not only a sort of revisiting the genre for myself as a director, or even a script writer. It was  a revisiting for every one of them. A bond that belonged to them. I'm glad to be among the original actors.

RM: What would you say you have done with the "gueng si" genre conventions and made them your own?

JM:  RIGOR MORTIS itself is not a remake of the original, nor a sequel or prequel. To me personally its more like some sort of a revisit to the genre. The film is about life, not purely a gore slasher, but also an evolution of the genre, with a heavy yet dramatic twist on the story. I have personally taken out the comedic element from among the elements in the original. There might be some sort of humor in RIGOR MORTIS, but the film is not purely a comedy.

Thanks, Juno Mak from taking time out of your very busy schedule to talk with us. Can't wait to meet you in Toronto! -- Robert A. Mitchell

RIGOR MORTIS Screening Times:
Wednesday, Sept 11th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Thursday, Sept 12th, 12:45 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 2
Friday, Sept 13th, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK 9

Eli Roth Talks THE GREEN INFERNO With Robert Mitchell

THE GREEN INFERNO had it's world premiere last night and Robert Mitchell had the opportunity to talk with Midnight Madness' Prodigal Son, Eli Roth.


THE GREEN INFERNO Screening Times:
Monday, Sept 9th, 1:30 PM SCOTIABANK 13

COME OUT AND PLAY: Director Makinov Speaks To Blogger Robert A. Mitchell

The mysterious and elusive director of COME OUT AND PLAY known as Makinov made the film while wearing a mask to keep his identity a secret--as he believes that by "punishing the ego through anonymity," he can command "the wisdom of being one with nothing."  He did not appear at the world premiere screening of his film last night, but he did agree to answer questions via his twitter account @onegodmakinov . I screen captured our twitter conversation.

You can pose questions via twitter @onegodmakinov use the hashtag #mmadnesstiff

COME OUT AND PLAY
Fri., Sept. 14th, 3:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10
Sat., Sept. 15th, 6:45 PM SCOTIABANK 11

Rob Zombie Interview On The Making of THE LORDS OF SALEM

THE LORDS OF SALEM marks Rob Zombie's first time at the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. I don't think Mr. Zombie is given enough credit of how good a filmmaker he is. THE LORDS OF SALEM shows a filmmaker who definitely growing as a storyteller. I have always believed Zombie is a consummate visual stylist. Lords reaffirms this for me -- a film in which Zombie sits the camera down and sets up well composed shots influenced by Kubrick. His casting choices are always inspired and pay respect to the history of the horror genre. I recently had the opportunity to ask Mr. Zombie some questions.

Being born in Haverhill not far from Salem Massachusetts have the witch trails always a point of fascination? What was it about the witch trials that sparked your imagination and set in motion the writing of The Lords of Salem?

Growing up in Massachusetts I always thought the state had a cool spooky vibe and the reality of the witch trials certainly fed that vibe. The inspiration for the movie was an accident really. One day I just happened to buy a book on the witch trials in the gift shop of a hotel I was staying at. That book got me thinking about it and that was the beginning of the project.

You shot the film, then went on tour and then returned to edit the film as well as produce your next album. How did that gap between production and post help you approach what you shot as opposed to jumping right into an editing suite? What were some of the benefits of the challenge of balancing both projects?

In some ways it drove me crazy because I really just wanted to keep working on the film until it was done, but in other ways getting away from it helped me to solve problems that you can't solve sometimes just because you get too close and can't get any distance from the project. All in all this method worked out great.

The cast you and Monika Mikkelsen have assembled is a who's who of genre films. How do you approach casting? Do you write with certain actors in mind or seek out actors through more traditional methods, like auditions?

All of the above. For some roles I have a specific person in mind and for others I do typical auditions. Whatever it takes to find the right person for the role. One example of an audition that blew me away was Judy Geeson's read for the role of Lacy.

Watching your films and videos over the years I believe you are a consummate visual stylist. How did you approach the look of this film with cinematographer Brandon Trost?

We basically just talked about it over and over and over then decided on a course of action. I was always a big fan of handheld camera work, but suddenly it started to look like TV to me since so many TV shows use that style. So I wanted to do the exact opposite. Very steady camera work with all the camera moves being motivated by the action on screen. No shakey camera just for the fuck of it.

                   Rob Zombie interviewed at the world premiere by Robert A. Mitchell


How has your approach to directing evolved from House of Thousand Corpses to The Lords of Salem?

Well, with each film you hopefully develop a better set of skills that you can apply to the next film. If you watch those two films back to back I don't think you would never think the same person made both films. Lords is a far more sophisticated production.

I have been reading that The Lords of Salem is your darkest film to date. Is there anything you can tell the audience of the experience that awaits them upon watching The Lords of Salem?

Be patient and pay attention. It is not what you think it is

THE LORDS OF SALEM
Wed., Sept. 12th, 5:00 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 6

.

Nicolás López Interview AFTERSHOCK

Nicolás López is a leading force in Chilean cinema. He started his own film festival, production company and has made several feature films. With AFTERSHOCK Mr. López has teamed up with Eli Roth and what is poised to be an excellent cinematic thrill ride. I had the opportunity to talk with Nicolás and learned among other things what the true power of cinema really is.

                                      
                                   Exclusive On Set Photo with Nicolás López and Eli Roth

You have been quite instrumental in the film scene in Chile with your production company Sobras making such films as Promedio Rojo, Santos, the Que pena trilogy and have worked extensively in the marketing of the films. What are some of the advantages of making films in Chile? What are some of the difficulties?

Making movies in any part of the world is hard. The good thing is that in Chile I have final cut and we have created a mini-studio system inside my company (Sobras International) where we can develop, fund, shoot and release a movie in less than a year. All of this is thanks to the economic recession. Let me explain, my first two movies, Promedio Rojo and Santos were co-productions with Spain (meaning, Spain paid most of the bills). Promedio was a hit, Santos was a flop. But both movies were expensive for latin america (Santos had a 6 million dollar budget). Then the economy went to hell and we had to figure out a new way of making movies. I directed my third movie with a crew of 10 and a budget of 200k, completely funded by product placement. The movie was shot with the Canon 7D but with the intention of making a movie that looked like a mainstream romantic comedy from the U.S. That's how Que pena tu vida (or Fuck My Life) was born and ended up being the highest grossing Chilean film of 2010 and inspired a trilogy (Fuck my wedding -2011- and Fuck my family -2012-). Most of the marketing that we did was internet based (we created contests and viral videos for twitter and Facebook). Que pena was a romantic comedy about love in the time of Facebook and it was release on the same weekend as The Social Network. We were number 1 at the box office.

You also created the Sobras film festival in Santiago. What kind of film festival is it? Can you tell me what type of films you programmed? What is the current status of the film festival?

We had a good time with that fest and the movies were really close to the Midnight Madness selection. We stopped doing it 5 years ago when we focused on only making movies. I also had a distribution company for a year where we released some Alex de la Iglesia's movies in Chile. I would love to do a new version of the Sobras Film Festival, with shorts and online films.

You have been quoted as saying, "I want to make auteur cinema, MTV style." How does AFTERSHOCK fit into that goal?

Well, I said that years ago, when MTV wasn't turning every tragic teenage event into a reality show. But basically, I want to make mainstream movies with a soul (If that exist). I love making movies for an audience, and I hated when my second feature flopped. I prefer sex to masturbation.

The idea of AFTERSHOCK arose from your real life experiences following the earthquake in Chile in 2010. Can you describe some of your experiences after the earthquake?

It was like living in the middle of a Roland Emmerich movie but with cheaper vfx. I was sleeping, after the first day of shooting of Fuck My Life and suddenly the earth started trembling. At the beginning I was very calm but when my Nintendo Wii flew across the room and broke my Terrance and Phillipe dolls, I freaked out. I live in a 6th floor and you can see the skyline of the city from my terrace. Suddenly, all the sky turned white because of electric explosions and right next to me, my neighbor was hugging his pregnant girlfriend while the earth continued to violently shake. At that moment, the only thing that I could think was… "this is a great plot point for a movie". Yes, I'm dumb.

You worked quite extensively with Eli Roth on this film, what did you learn about filmmaking from him?

I'm used to making comedies, so I'm very used to seeing an immediate reaction of what I'm doing and basically if people laugh, the movie is working. With a horror film it is a completely new world. Eli was really helpful in finding the tone of the movie during the writing process and when we cut it. He's a director that I admire, but beyond that, he's a real friend that's always there to help you make the movie better. This movie is a mix of sensibilities. The first act it's like one of my Chilean rom-coms and the second part is like one of his movies. We called AFTERSHOCK "Fuck my Hostel". We share the same sense of humor and more importantly, both of us believe that the power of cinema is the only way of getting laid by 21 year old girls.

On your first film Promedio Rojo loosely translated Flunking Grades one of your marketing ideas was giving people with the most F grades on their report cards free passes to the premiere. Are there any ideas for the marketing of AFTERSHOCK?

It would be great to simulate a real earthquake in Times Square and then use all the security cam footage as marketing material.

AFTERSHOCK
Tue., Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Thurs., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 3
Sun., Sept. 16th, 3:30 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 9

AFTERSHOCK: Covered In Blood! Eli Roth Exclusive Interview.

Eli Roth is no stranger to the Midnight Madness programme of the Toronto International Film Festival. His first film as a writer and director Cabin Fever received its World Premiere in 2002 and instantly became a genre favorite. He would return to Midnight Madness in 2005 leading a new direction in American horror films with the extremely intense, visceral film Hostel. 2012 marks the return of Eli Roth to Toronto’s midnight showcase as the lead actor and producer in Nicolás López’ AFTERSHOCK. I recently had the opportunity to ask Eli some questions on his latest film project.

                            Exclusive Photo of Eli Roth on set with Director Nicolás López

How did you meet Nicolas Lopez? What did you see in his previous films that made you want to collaborate with him?

In 2004 I was invited to the Los Angeles Film Festival to be on a filmmaker panel, and after the event I was about to leave when the programmer Rich Raddon said "Don't go! There's a movie you HAVE to see. The director loves Cabin Fever - he told me to find you, he's this hilarious 21 year old Chilean kid, he made a crazy teen comedy, you can't miss it." That was Promedio Rojo. I remember Nicolas' introduction was so funny he had the whole audience rolling before the credits even started. 90 minutes later I was a huge Nicolas Lopez fan. We hung out that night and turned out we had a lot more in common than we realized. Specifically, we had made out with the same girl from this one particular film festival in Europe. (Different years of course.) After that we were pretty much bonded for life. The more I got to know Nicolas, the more I realized what a genius he was. At the age of 16 he produced Jorge Olguin's horror film Angel Negro, and then wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own MTV show called Piloto MTV," where he's a director who every week he had to do come up with a new show for MTV. It's totally nuts, and if you speak Spanish I recommend tracking it down on youtube. Piloto was a massive hit in Latin America and aired on MTV after Jackass. Nicolas had accomplished all of this by the age of 17, and by that time had a regular column called Promedio Rojo in the major newspaper of Santiago, where he wrote about what was going on in his high school. This wasn't like writing for the school paper, he was writing for the equivalent of the Los Angeles Times about his high school and exposing all kinds of things, which Que Pena Tu Vida they threw him out for. Nicolas wanted to make Hollywood style movies from the get-go, which was the antithesis of most of the artier festival type government funded films being made in Chile. I was amazed at what he had accomplished by 21, I didn't make my first film until I was 29. And over the years I've seen him grow into an incredible filmmaker. After Promedio Nicolas was the hot shot new director in Hollywood for a minute and everyone was throwing projects at him, but he went off and made this wild VFX comic book-style movie called Santos . It was a complete disaster, it totally tanked in Spain and Chile, and for the first time in his life he felt he had failed. He felt washed up at 23, and then just buckled down and wrote Fuck My Life, a romantic comedy about how difficult it is to break up when everyone is so connected and we're reminded of our exes every time we use twitter or facebook or instagram. He shot Que Pena in 11 days for $100,000 on a 7D and it out-grossed The Social Network in Chile, which was a massive hit there. It was box office smash, taking in fifteen times its budget. We talked about doing a film together, something high octane, in English, something scary and violent. I went down and visited him in Chile and we just started writing and scouting locations. It all came together very fast, but really sprung from our friendship and mutual admiration of each others' work.

You have produced several films before. What unique obstacles did you and the production team face on AFTERSHOCK? How did you overcome them?

I wanted to do AFTERSHOCK in the same way that Nicolas had made his Que Pena Films, which is down and dirty and fast, shooting all in Chile, with a Chilean crew. I had just spent several months in China shooting Man With the Iron Fists, and had nearly an entirely Chinese crew, so I was used to working with foreign crews, especially after the "Hostel" films which I shot in Prague and Iceland with local crews. I love going into another country and figuring it out. It's exciting to me, and with each system you can take something you learned onto the next one with you. I even had that experience on Basterds with the German crew shooting Nation's Pride. One of the major unique obstacles was getting a completion bond, which financiers require. It had never been done before in Chile. AFTERSHOCK is the first bonded film shot in Chile. It took a lot of education and trust and showing them that the team down there knew what they were doing, and the bond company was great and we came in a day ahead of schedule and under budget. I had to put up half my salary as collateral, which I got eventually, but it took me bonding the bond company, if that makes sense. The biggest obstacle was adjusting to the Chilean style of making movies, which I actually prefer in some ways. For example, there are no trailers - you just share a room to change if you need to. There's one make up artist for everyone, not a big makeup trailer with lots of chairs. It's just how it is. Things moved so fast it reminded me of what it was like to make a movie with your friends when you're a kid. There's no unions, so everyone's just picking up helping out. Nicolas and his producing partner Miguel Asensio have assembled a great team there. I also produced it with Brian Oliver and Mac Cappucino and Jim Holt, whose company Vertebra films were financing. We were all there, on the ground, bridging the U.S. system with the bond and the exchange rate and all that kind of stuff, plus I was acting in the film which took up most all my time. I had to go from writer to producer to actor, and then back to producer. It was a lot, but it was so much fun. It felt like we were breaking new ground, kind of re-learning everything we knew at the same time. It was a combination of adjusting the Hollywood culture and the Chile culture to create a new style that accommodates both.

How difficult is it to act as well as produce in the same film? Are there moments when you are in a scene and CUT is called and a phone is handed to you in regards to a producing concern? How do you stay in character?

Yes. It's very difficult, way more so than I anticipated. I want to do every job at the best of my abilities, so I tend to go all in and completely immerse myself no matter what it is, if it's writing directing, producing, or acting. I want to give in a great performance, and that takes intense concentration and preparation. But the way I can produce at the same time is to produce the film with good partners who can take over those duties while you're acting. They knew what my acting in the film meant, and we were prepared for it. Miguel, Mac, Jim and Brian were handling producing duties when I was acting, and if something needed to get done we just dealt with it. It's never an ideal situation and they don't want to bother me when they don't have to, but more often than not I was taking phone calls and signing contracts and solving problems completely drenched in fake blood, dust and sweat. It's also hard to shut your brain off, so after a while you just kind of give up on sleep until you wrap. It was like this on Basterds when I was acting and shooting Nation's Pride at the same time, it was really hard and just took all my focus at all times. After we wrapped photography we all got sick - it's like our bodies were fighting it and once we knew we were allowed to shut down we spent a week in bed not moving.

Can you describe what the process was like to write the screenplay with Mr. Lopez and Guillermo Amodeo?

We wrote the script over skype, and a lot of it was like a volleyball game, where we'd just bat it around back and forth. Guillermo had worked closely with Nicolas on his other scripts, and he's great with story and structure. I'll come up with a ton of ideas of ways to kill, as does Nicolas, and Guillermo can help wrangle them into an escalation of events. But really it started with Nicolas describing the earthquake to me and what he went through. He just took me through the events of the night, and the stories that happened to people he knew, and it was all there. It was horrific - the total collapse of society. The whole country shook violently for 3 and a half minutes, it was a notch under the Tokyo earthquake. It hit at 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday on the last weekend of their summer, so most of the young people were out at bars partying, dancing. Thousands of people drunk, girls in heels and tiny dresses, suddenly getting hands chopped off or having pieces of ceiling collapse on them. One of our leads Lorenza Izzo was in a club when it hit, and said when we were shooting the earthquake it was exactly what happened to her. In the very club we filmed at people were killed when the speakers fell on them. One kid lost both his hands and had his friends looking for them, but they couldn't find them and had to leave because the structure was collapsing. The prisons broke up, violent criminals got out, there was looting - and nobody could communicate. No police, no fire - it was chaos. A lot of the country is still destroyed from the earthquake, so we used real locations. The Santiago cemetery let us film in a wing that was too damaged from the earthquake to be usable, so while we were shooting we suddenly realized we were surrounded by broken open tombs with bones falling out. We didn't have to set dress it, I was lying on the ground and all around me were dust and bones that were rattled in the earthquake. It was crazy.

As well as your directing and acting you have been quite prolific as a producer, what do you look for in a story before jumping onboard as a producer?

I generally don't look for something, something grabs me, if that makes sense. It usually sparks from conversations with other filmmakers, or sometimes an idea just pops in your head and you know you have to make it. I hear a story, often based in fact, and then I say "we have to do that!" But one thing in common is I like to put a fresh spin on genres or types of films that people haven't done in a long time. Cabin Fever was my love of 80's horror, really gory R rated kids in the woods horror which had all but evaporated by the 90's, and was way too sanitized and politically correct for my taste. With Hostel  I wanted to bring the unflinching brutality I had seen coming out South Korea and Japan to American cinemas. I wanted to push the R rating as far as anyone had ever done. I wanted to make the movie people were afraid to see. With Man with the Iron Fists I just loved RZA's story, his whole conception of how to modernize and do an updated version of the films we loved watching on Saturday Kung Fu theater, and with AFTERSHOCK I realized there hadn't been a good realistic, violent earthquake disaster thriller since the 70's. We wanted something that was real, but a high octane, roller coaster thriller, something that when it hits just doesn't let up. So many disaster films are done with CG, which is fine, but we had the opportunity to do something that was modern and do it real by actually destroying things. Most everything you see we really did. A lot of the takes I closed my eyes because I was terrified someone would get crushed. Thankfully no one got hurt, but the film was made with that kind of energy. Nicolas would look at me after a take and just shake his head and say "Someone's watching over this movie." And you feel it when you see it. There's no substitute for the real thing.

AFTERSHOCK was shot in Chile, what were some of the unique aspects to making a film there as opposed to Los Angeles?

In Los Angeles, everything is union. It's much more expensive, and the departments are segregated into very specific jobs, and no one crosses over and does the other person's job. In Chile, it's non-union so everyone just pitches in and does everything. Also there's no agents, no managers, none of that. None of the Chilean actors are in SAG, so you're not dealing with overtime and turnaround issues, which is after an actor wraps you can't bring them in the next day until 12 hours later. People just do it for a flat weekly rate and that's it. It was really like a family, but that comes from Nicolas and Miguel Asensio his producing partner. They've all made so many movies together they're all friends and everyone gets along great. I was lucky to be able to just plug into their system, that was always the idea. And they are fantastic, we're planning to shoot a bunch of movies now. We call them Chilewood movies.

Why should folks check out AFTERSHOCK at Midnight Madness?

Nicolas Lopez is one of the most exciting talents out there, mostly unknown to English speaking audiences. His movies are very, very fun, I think people are going to be shocked and thrilled by what we did. There's nothing like AFTERSHOCK. You're discovering a new talent for the first time, and after I think people will track down his Spanish movies on Netflix. He's going to be a major force in genre cinema, and you can be there to be part of that moment when he crosses over and help support him. He deserves it. Also if you're a fan of my acting, you see me covered in blood for a lot of the movie. This is the first film I've starred in, and I wouldn't just do that with any director. I was offered lead roles in movies after Basterds and turned them all down because none of the projects excited me. Nicolas is one of the few directors I really trust as an actor, and I hope people will be surprised by what they see me do on screen. Plus the other cast members are superb - Ariel Levy, Lorenza Izzo, Andrea Osvart, Nicolas Martinez, Natasha Yarovenko - they're incredible. The audience who sees this will really be discovering exciting new talent.
 

                                                   Robert A. Mitchell interviewing Eli Roth


Midnight Madness and the Festival have marked crucial points in your career having launched the world premieres of both CABIN FEVER and HOSTEL. Can you talk about your relationship to the Festival and Toronto?

Toronto is the place where I was officially born as a director. I had a made a movie but somehow it wasn't official until I saw it in a theater with a paying audience. That first premiere at the Uptown 1 is one of the greatest memories of my life. When the doors opened it was like being at the center at the buffalo stampede from Dances with Wolves except with rabid horror geeks. My whole life I had dreamed of that moment and for the first time I really felt like everything I had envisioned since I was 8 years old was coming true. I had heard so many stories about being the hot film at the festival, I had always wanted that to happen. And the fans were so receptive, they went crazy, and the bidding war ensued and the rest is history. I feel like Cabin Fever helped buyers realize what a goldmine Midnight Madness is. There were many great films at the festival, but when Cabin Fever played a lot of buyers would leave halfway through the festival. After Cabin Fever sold and Lionsgate's biggest hit of the year for them, people got fired for not bidding on movies at midnight madness. The whole psychology shifted - especially when Saw played the next year. And now it's where people look to find the next big thing in horror or genre. Colin Geddes has such great taste in selecting an exciting, diverse program that give attention to films that really need it and deserve it. So my career is forever tied to Toronto, and I love that, that's why I wanted to bring Hostel there. Even when I shot Hemlock Grove in Toronto I moved into the TIFF Lightbox building because it felt like home for me. The Toronto fans welcomed me before they had seen a frame of my film - they gave me a chance and welcomed me with open arms. Many film festivals the audience is somewhat hostile, they want you to impress them, but the Toronto fans are genuinely appreciative you brought the movie there and they want to see it in the theater with a wild crowd, which is why we make them in the first place. And that's why it was important to premiere AFTERSHOCK here as well. I want Nicolas to feel the same reception I felt. I can't wait to show this to the Toronto Midnight Madness audience. It's one of the best audiences you can show a movie to.

AFTERSHOCK
Tue., Sept. 11th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Thurs., Sept. 13th, 6:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 3
Sun., Sept. 16th, 3:30 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 9