A: Sure. I’m originally from Massachusetts. I was born in Boston and I grew up in the Berkshires in a little town called South Egremont. I spent a lot of time outdoors all year round. Didn’t get to watch much TV, and the nearest movie theater was about 5 miles away in a neighboring town. The first movie I saw on the big screen was “The Jungle Book”. My mom and I hoofed the five miles on foot to the theater that day - it was worth it!

          I was mostly taught at home by my mom, and when I was a teenager we moved to Virginia Beach. There, while working at a movie theater I met the Bernhard brothers Chad and Brian – now my two oldest friends and long time collaborators.

          My mother always encouraged me to be creative. It started with writing at first – short stories and scripts, then acting in local community theaters productions. I completed my first short movie when I was nineteen. We shot it on my friend David’s video camera on 8mm tape. Later, I studied writing, acting, and filmmaking in college, and graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2000.

          Basically everything I do creatively is always driven by a strong desire to express myself. I love the film/video medium. I think there’s a tremendous amount of room there for experimentation and pushing boundaries. I’m a huge horror nut and I love comedy as well, so a lot of the flicks I make end up falling under these genres. What I love the most about horror is the flexibility it offers. Drama, action, adventure, suspense, hell even comedy… it can all be found in horror movies at one time or another, though not always at the same time or in the same movie. Add in extreme situations, warped perspectives, distorted realities, and the sky’s the limit.

          A: Hmmm… Like I was saying before, I started out writing and acting when I was a teenager, and expanded into filmmaking between 18 and 19. Early inspirations were Oliver Stone, “The Muppets”, “The Wizard of Oz”. My friend Chad is a huge horror buff and first introduced me to the likes of Raimi, Romero, Jackson, Carpenter, Cronenberg, etc. sometime in the 90s… Cronenberg, Raimi and Jackson had a big impact on me for sure.

          I made a few shorts on video in the early to mid 90s, before I went to the School of Visual Arts. At SVA I learned more about the technical side of filmmaking. I really tried to push my own boundaries a lot during that time creatively and emotionally. By the end of my time there I felt like I’d come out with a much stronger sense of self and purpose. I think in some ways college can be a bit of a sadomasochistic experience that leaves you either crushed and useless by the end or better prepared to face your next challenge.

          A: The goal with “LovecraCked! The Movie” was just to create a fun and entertaining flick. It’s a Lovecrafty mix of camp, creeps, gore and more, and hopefully there should be a lil’ something in there for everyone. That’s pretty much sums it up I’d say.

          A: I spent about 6-8 months online and off posting a call for entries for the anthology. I put up flyers in schools, handed out postcards, emailed filmmakers, posted on forums, message boards and film sites anywhere and everywhere. Some filmmakers submitted already completed Lovecraftian flicks, and others made theirs from scratch in response to my call for submissions. In the end I rounded it down to the 9 you saw and cut them in between the segments of our 30 min mock/spoof (the original "LovecraCked!") where they seemed to fit best. And that's how "LovecraCked!" became "LovecraCked! The Movie". The original LovecraCked! mockumentary short was initially planned as a stand alone 30 min film. As we were drawing to a close with production on that original short I had the idea to include other films/filmmakers and expand it into a feature anthology. More Lovecraftiness for the audience, a better chance at distribution, and more exposure for all the filmmakers involved. That's the long and the short of it all;-)

          A: Many of the journalist scenes were shot in southern Germany – Bavaria basically. Production on the original short started in Germany because that was where I was living at the time. We completed shooting in NYC after I'd moved back to the states. The castle scene, the temple scene, the lake, the woods, the gothic church... all those locations were in Germany.

          A: Sure. Like a lot of low budget productions we had our fair share of bumps in the road. The scene on the temple steps was one of the tough ones. The location was a Greek-style temple in Bavaria. It was a bit of a tourist trap, so we had to arrive at about 6am to get it all to ourselves. Even then we often came across a few people. Once we found ourselves sharing the location with a couple of friendly vacationing Neo-Nazis. My wife Anna, who’s from the area, supplied them with some touristy info about other cool spots to check out. They were very appreciative and went off in search of these other sights shortly. Anna then went to find her mother who had been creeping through the woods trying to avoid the departing Arians on her way back from a nature call. It was really quite surreal and produced just a bit of temporary anxiety.

          In many ways that location proved to very troublesome. The steps were very steep so it was difficult not to trip for real as I walked down them as the “Journalist”. When it came time to toss my very obvious dummy-stand-in down these steps… it turned out to be no easy task. I must have hurled that floopy bastard close to a hundred times. Our first dummy wasn’t heavy enough and his balloon head exploded after a few failed tosses, so I constructed a new sturdier more substantial dummy, which proved to be just what the doctor ordered, though no less difficult to launch. All told it took us a about 3 or 4 days to get what we needed, during which time we also had an audience of rather curious Austrian tourists watching our every move.

          Another scene that posed difficulty was the crazy stockbroker interview in the Manhattan financial district, which found us pleading with the guard of a federal building to let us continue shooting, and where my camera man and I found ourselves dangerously close to being run over by NYC city public buses as we had a rather fiery debate about how to best cover the scene. Ahhh, memories.

          Even the first scene we shot in the ruins of an old German castle seemed jinxed as we were plagued with technical difficulties and rain.

          Most of the scenes we shot posed some pretty unique challenges, often due to our low budget. I could probably fill a small book with bizarre, silly, painful production stories. Maybe someday I will.

          A: That’s a good question. If there was a time I felt like that, it was probably both during and immediately after the premiere of the flick here in NY. I was pretty satisfied in the days leading up to the show, but seeing people laughing, screaming, groaning, and going quiet at all the right moments, really made me feel like we’d succeeded.

          A: Working on securing major distribution for “LovecraCked!”, and putting together some nice extras for that release as well, including a lost segment called "Coo-coo-Cthulhu". In the realm of new projects: I have a film in postproduction that is planned to be included in another anthology feature being put together by friend and fellow “LovecraCked!” collaborator Justin Powers. I'm also writing the scripts for a series of psychological horror features I'd like to make next. The films would follow the same story and characters over the course of 3 or 4 parts probably. Right now I'm fleshing out the story for the whole series and working on a draft for the first feature. We also have a number of other scripts and story ideas I'd like to see produced, but for now I'm focusing on the psychological horror series. I must admit I'm pretty excited about the way the first script is coming together, it almost writes itself!

          A: Well, those projects I mentioned already will likely take up a fair amount of my time. I’d like to be shooting the first of those psychological horror films within the next 12-18 months. A lot can happen in a year that’s for sure. Who can really say for sure what’s in store, but I’ll definitely be keeping busy.

          A: Hands down it’d have to be Gary Oldman. Best actor living today. He’s a human chameleon with unrivaled focus and commitment. Christian Bale is a close second for much similar reasons. I’d also really love to work with Mindy Clarke from “Return of the Living Dead 3”. She’s a real modern day femme fatale, naturally charismatic and seductive, and not afraid to take risks.

          A: Mainly I just want to make movies that I’d want to see, and get paid enough doing this to support myself. Does that mean I wouldn’t “sell out” given the chance? Absolutely! I mean really, what have I got to lose? I’d make big movies, even movies I wasn’t quite as excited about, and I’m sure it would still be fun. Plus more notoriety and financial success would also help facilitate projects I’d have a stronger vested interest in. It’d also be nice to have more money and resources to use for humane and charitable purposes. I’d really like to be able to do more there.

          A: Well, someone will probably have seen whatever I pick anyway, but I’ll just mention these two just the same: “The Woman in Black” and “Rabid Dogs”. The first is a little known made-for-TV ghost story which is on par with Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” and sent real chills up my spine. The second film “Rabid Dogs” by the late great Mario Bava is a sadistic action/thriller about a robbery gone wrong. It takes place almost entirely in the cramped confines of a moving car and had me riveted from start to finish. Completed posthumously, the flick didn’t get released until more than 20 years after it was shot. As many of Bava’s movies have, I feel certain that “Rabid Dogs” would have had a strong influence on some of the films and filmmakers of the time had it been released when originally intended. If you haven’t seen these two films, seek ‘em out, they’re both well worth it.

          A: I’m a Cylon. Yeah, yeah I’m a big BSG nut. Alright… hmmm… I do a really good Schwarzenegger impression… Something special… Ahhhhh!!!! I don’t know! Damn you, these are tough questions! Okay, okay, here’s some streaming real time shit just for you. When I was 12 I wanted to be a political cartoonist! I sent my panels in to the local paper. They sent me back the nicest rejection letter I’ve ever received. I love comic books! Someday I want to write one. Warren Ellis, Scott Mccloud, Richard Sala, Brian K. Vaughan, Frank Miller, Joshua Dysart you rock!

          And on the streaming goes...One night when I was a teenager I decided all of a sudden to up and get a nipple piercing. Yeah I was impulsive like that. Feeling bored in a stagnant, tourist trap like Virginia Beach? What better to do than have a hollow steel needle rammed through your nipple? So with that solid rational I ambled on down to the oceanfront. The piercing parlor on the strip offered me a two for one deal. Who could turn that down? I mean two bloody nipples for the price of one? It just made good economic sense. Following a rather rapid piercing I went to the local movie theater to hang out with friends and coworkers, and of course show off my bloody, harpooned chest. Within a week two other guys there went and got both their nipples pierced as well. That had to be a first. Yes, yes strange goings-on. But that’s what you get when you ask me to tell you something special about myself, and no I don’t still have the rings in;-)

          A: Actually the last movie I watched wasn’t a horror. It was “Little Miss Sunshine” and I gotta say I was pretty impressed. Deserves all the props it gets. A great flick! Last horror horror movie I checked out? Probably “Pan’s Labyrinth”. I was very impressed. Definitely some of the best work del Toro’s done. As far as a favorite horror flick that most probably haven’t seen? Hmmm… Well, a couple years ago I got to see the very rare 1981 made-for-TV movie “Dark Night of the Scarecrow”, and it was every bit as good as I’d heard. A simple, intense, down right creepy flick that was largely overlooked and would have rivaled theatrically released horror of the time. Highly recommended.

          Elias: My pleasure, Spoon! Thanks for having me on Obscure Horror!