A: I think my love for the cinema came when I saw the original Pippi Longstocking film one Sunday morning on the boob tube. I fell madly in love with Pippi and imagined myself going on adventures with her and the monkey. When I grew up I found out that none of it was real, but the closest thing to getting back to that moment was making films myself.

          A: Through a friend of a friend I met Victor (“Jeepers Creepers”) Salva when he was still living in the S.F. Bay Area. He showed me that making movies wasn’t some abstract magical thing, but a practical enterprise that while difficult was totally achievable. I was fortunate enough to work on a film of his that was never released. Because of that experience I went on to start my first feature, “Naked Beneath the Water.”

          A: “Naked Beneath the Water” was originally shot from about 1992 to 1995. It was an extremely low budget ‘backyard video.’ That was a term Victor used for films that you basically did in your backyard with friends a family. Back then there was no internets or DVDs. I basically tried to sell VHS copies through magazines like Film Threat and Alternative Cinema. I also had an offer from Frank (“Basket Case”) Henenlotter to distribute the film through Something Weird Video, but the soundtrack had been ripped off from some of my favorite composers and so there was a legal problem with that. He had said just to get a casio keyboard score and slap it on there, but being the film snob that I am I couldn’t do that.

          Years later there were three inventions that made me pull this movie back off of the shelf and fix it up: the aforementioned interenets, DVD and of course Final Cut Pro. After watching the original version and realizing how bad it sucked I re-shot about 70% of the film and totally changed the second half of the movie. Plus I got a great score from Shawn Clement. The rest is infamy.

          A: I was hiking with a friend of mine and we were both keen to make another horror film. We had throw together a bunch of ideas and I was just kidding around when I uttered the title for the film, but as soon as the words came out of my mouth I knew it was actually kind of cool. From that I just started writing the script. I’m a big Roman Polanski fan so I think his film, “Knife in the Water” was also influential when it came to the concept of people in crisis were trapped with one another.

          A: The film is a love story and a gorefest all at the same time. I hate horror films with cardboard cutout characters. So, I wanted to make something that gave a little to both worlds. Cool gross stuff for people who only watch films for the blood and pus and then some actual storytelling for people who want something more. It’s kind of a kiss, kiss, bang, bang movie. It jumps from action to drama and back to action which hopefully leads up to the finale where shit just gets crazy.

          A: The biggest problem with making this movie was how very little daylight hours there are in the month of December. We constantly fought this and would quite often have to turn night into day. My DP, Jim Wright is a genius when it comes to stuff like this so you could never really tell unless you were looking for it, but that kind of stuff takes time. So we had some long hours on this film. By the end of the original 12 days I was a wreck.

          A: You really never know for sure until you get into the editing room, but on set I said very little to my actors. They just kept hitting out of the park over and over. It actually got kind of boring for me. But I’m extremely thankful for such a great cast. However, to really answer your question I knew this movie was going to rock when we started getting the music back from Mario Salvucci. He did such an amazing job on the score. I especially love the theme he did for SNZN.

          A: I think I prefer editing to everything else. I am by myself finally in a room with all this raw footage just waiting to be molded into something hopefully cool. Directing is my second favorite. It’s fun to sit at the monitor and watch the actors perform. That is if they are good. Producing sucks. It’s all the crap work that needs to be done to make the movie. Acting…well, I don’t pretend to be a real actor. I like acting in really bad B-movies. Especially if it’s a Jeff Leroy movie. Because he blows shit up & I like helping him do that.

          A: Well, I just finished up another movie called, “Breath of Hate” that stars Ezra (“The Hills Have Eyes”) Buzzington & Jason (“Clerks 2”) Mewes. It’s another horror movie, but also sort of a weird romance movie. It was written by Wes Laurie who was my producing partner on “Silent Night, Zombie Night.” I love these awesome characters he created and the script is great. The shoot went really well and I thought the performances across the board were fantastic. I’m looking forward to sitting down and doing the editing thing.

          I hope that one year from today I’ll have both “Silent Night, Zombie Night” and “Breath of Hate” out on DVD or in the theater and people will have said nice things about them. Maybe even get a couple of jobs due to these movies.

          A: There are a few: I would love to work with Ray Wise, Angela Bettis, Amy Smart, Bruce Campbell, Jeffrey Combs, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Alison Lohman, Sam Rockwell, Sarah Polley & Monica Bellucci.

          I’ll find something to cast all these people in at some point in my career.

          A: My advice is just to get out there and make a movie. Don’t talk about it. I know this is trite so let me take it one step further. Having worked for a distribution company for a while I saw that when you are in the low budget arena there are only three genres that do well: Urban, Horror and Christian movies. So, don’t spend your movie on some film that nobody is going to want. Figure out a concept or a story that you want to tell and put that within a framework of something distributors will want.

          Then don’t make a movie and never talk about it. I know you think you might look like a whore if you constantly find ways to get press about your movie, but it’s better to be a whore than have your film collect dust on the shelf in your closet. Nobody is going to care more about your film than you. Use that passion to get out there and make other people passionate about it.

          A: Just want to make good films that people like & actually earn a living while doing so. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, maybe more would be fine, but just as long as I’m doing something I believe in.

          A: Yeah, go check out “Werewolf in a Women’s Prison!” It never got a proper DVD release, but you can buy it off Amazon or whatever. It’s an awesome movie by my pal, Jeff Leroy. I play a small part as a sleazy businessman. You have naked girls and a werewolf. How can you go wrong??