Horror movies &stuff Interviews "Hellphone" Director Jason Marc Pierce!
We recently chatted with "Hellphone" Director Jason Marc Pierce! "Hellphone", an indie horror pic that follows a demon that possesses a cellphone in a small North Carolina town, and begins to wreak revengeful havoc. April Billingsley, Nathan Moore, and Phillip Ward star in the movie. That received a limited theater run last November near its shooting town of Greensboro North Carolina! It is also currently for sale in 2-disc format at Amazon! While it awaits the possibility of being picked up by a major distributor for a wide release on home disc. In this interview, Jason talks "Hellphone", his inspirations for it, and much more!
MR. H:How did you originally come up with the concept for "Hellphone" Jason?
Jason:It was one of those ideas that popped into my head at 3am. I immediately jotted down some notes and dictated a rough outline of the opening scene into a recorder. The big question with ideas that come in the middle of the night is whether they hold up in the morning. It seemed to, and when I ran it past a couple filmmaker friends and they liked it, I knew I had something. The initial challenge was figuring out how to isolate the action. If you think about it, a "spirit" in a phone could end up across the country in seconds. No way I'd have the budget for that, so I had to figure out a way to keep it all in one place. The revenge angle is what finally did it.
MR. H:From penning the script, to actually shooting the movie, and then to completing the movie. How long did the process take in total for "Hellphone" to be officially wrapped?
Jason:I came up with the idea in February of 2006, then wrote the script on and off over the next two years. I didn't think I could do it on a micro budget, so I kept writing other scripts that were simpler. But, my co-producer Stephen convinced me we could pull it off, so in 2009 we started the ball rolling. Principal photography was for 13 days in late August of 2009, then it was another year of editing, pickups and reshoots before we premiered on November 17, 2010. So, a little over 4 years from idea to the screen.
MR. H:Where did you begin your casting search for "Hellphone", and how did you end up with the movies eventual "final" cast?
Jason:Casting was quite an involved process. Stephen (my co-producer) would not let me cast someone until he could tell I was excited about the choice. We started local casting in April or May, and were able to cast Larry (Chief Casey), Caroline (Elisha) and Scott (demon/Paul Baker) from nearby in NC. I kept casting a wider net on the east coast looking for the leads, and eventually ended up looking in LA. April was someone who'd auditioned for Stephen a couple years prior, but she was working and I couldn't get an audition tape from her right away.
Once I saw it, I cast her, about 4 weeks out from shooting. Phillip is one of my best friends, and is in all my movies, but I didn't think there was a part for him in Hellphone. Hard to believe after watching him as Bill. Once I realized Bill didn't have to be a total nerd (how I imagined him as I was writing), it was easy to cast Phillip. That was 3 weeks out. He told me about Nathan, and I cast him about 2 weeks prior to shooting.The rest of the minor characters are local folks.
Oh - I didn't cast the part of "Jack" (the guy in the shower scene) until 2 days before we shot that. No guys I asked wanted to take their clothes off (casting Abigail in the same scene was pretty easy). I was actually going to have to be in that scene if we didn't cast someone, but thankfully a friend recommended Paul, and he was great. The logistics of directing and acting in that scene would not have worked well at all.
MR. H:What's the base plot for the movie "Hellphone"?
Jason:A vengeful spirit inhabits a cell phone and goes on a rampage. Alex, the young Assistant Police Chief must deal with the rising body count with help (and hindrance) from her jealous ex-fiancee Graham and her bumbling new boyfriend Bill.
MR. H:Do you see the current times we live in as a perfect storm for a film like this? Considering how attached we are as a people to our
electronic devices such as smart phones, cell phones, etc?
Jason:I definitely wanted there to be the undercurrent of how we are becoming slaves to technology, but I didn't want to hit people over the head. The movie is supposed to be fun. When I had a bigger budget in mind, there was a bit more about how everything crawls to a halt when technology is suddenly taken away. But with time and budget constraints, I just let it be there more subtly.
MR. H:Where did it come about to make "Hellphone" a horror/comedy. As
opposed to just a straight horror movie?
Jason:(*Spoiler*) I come from a comedic background, and have a hard time writing without adding humor. Also, I wasn't sure people would buy the monster in a straight horror movie. I wasn't sure they'd buy it with the comedy, either, but when I presented those pages to people, they loved it. Also, I wanted the walking phone in there as a direct homage to Evil Dead II. Can't do that without it being funny. (*Spoiler Over*) That being said, we shot it in such a way that I could edit it either as a straight horror or more goofy comedy. My goal, though, was to walk the line between them, and that's how I edited it, and I'm very happy with the result. While a lot of silly stuff happens, for the characters it is all real and really dangerous, so we were able to have comedy and some real tension.
MR. H:A small town in North Carolina is the setting for "Hellphone". Tell us a little bit about the town in the film, and why did you choose it above any other locations as a backdrop for the movie?
Jason:Madison and Mayodan NC are two towns about 30 minutes north of where I live in Greensboro. I have a friend who lives up in Mayodan, and he got me a singing gig in Madison (they are right next to each other, about a 5 minute drive). When I saw the town, I immediately could see Hellphone taking place there. A couple weeks later we were taken on a location scout by our local Film Commissioner, Rebecca Clark, and Madison was the first place she took us.
They welcomed us with open arms, let us use the police car, uniforms and the police station, the ambulances and all kinds of locations. It was close enough to Greensboro that we could commute to the shoot, and had that perfect "small town" look. I can't say enough about how amazing the people in both those towns were to us. There's no way we could have done this for $19,000 without their generosity.
MR. H:What kind of kills can we expect in "Hellphone"? Psychologically disturbing and supernaturally driven demises? (Wishmaster for example). Or more shock-horror-comedy kind of stuff? (i.e. Leprechaun)
Jason:Wow. Good question. I'm not sure how to even categorize them. More supernatural, but in a horror-comedy way I guess. There's a Hitchcock reference, a Scanners reference and then just some rather vanilla "death by phone call" deaths. I think I could have done a bit more with that, but we had to shoot quickly and adding gore effects takes a while.
MR. H:What currently are the distribution plans for "Hellphone"? With so many avenues available for genre fare these days such as DVD, Video On Demand, Digital Download, Limited Theatrical, iTunes, Blockbuster Online, and of course traditional theatrical. Just to name a few. You guys must be excited about the possibilities of really getting eyeballs on this movie.
Jason:We had a great premiere and theatrical run here in Greensboro last fall. We've been selling DVDs since then, and the primary goal is to sell DVDs. Currently we have our limited edition 2-disc version for sale on Amazon. I hope to get digital downloads going soon, and possibly VOD. I must say that distribution is hard for a creative-minded guy to sort out.
MR. H:You were born in '71, which means your teenage years were right
around '84-'90. What horror films from your teenage era. And beyond
and before...got you interested in the genre?
Jason:I actually hated horror movies as a teen, because I was easily scared. Children of the Corn really messed me up when I saw it in middle school. I didn't see a horror film after that until college when I saw Halloween. Scared the bejeezus out of me, but I liked that. I started seeking out scary movies (to a point), saw Psycho on the big screen (perks of being a film major), Silence of the Lambs came out right around then, and some friends introduced me to Evil Dead II.
I wouldn't call myself a horror buff, but I do enjoy being scared. I loved The Descent - actually had nightmares from that - and Drag Me to Hell was a hoot. Unfortunately I'm a bit jaded now, so being scared is tough. The Descent did it, and the first Paranormal Activity actually made my heart race for about an hour after it was over. Very odd feeling.
MR. H:You were born in Norristown PA. But later moved to Canyon Country CA. From being a young kid, till an adult now...do you consider yourself more of a West Coast or East Coast guy?
Jason:Another good question. Definitely East Coast. I visit my friend Phillip ("Bill" in Hellphone) in LA quite a bit, and while I love the climate, it is not my cup of tea out there. I've been here in North Carolina for 11 years now, so I even am starting to think of myself as a Southerner. I like the laid-back pace and overall friendliness here.
MR. H:"Hellphone" involves a demonically possessed cellphone terrorizing a small NC town. What elements from previous supernatural/demon horror films did you try and incorporate into "Hellphone"?
Jason:Well, the idea lent itself to all kinds of homages/references. Obviously there's the "don't answer the phone" stuff from Scream and earlier movies. We've got zombies of a sort so there's those movies. I had to get at least one Evil Dead reference in there. The head blow-up was a bit of Scanners and really any movie with a good brain explosion. I got to wink at Psycho with the shower scene. There's some Chucky there. And I bet there are other references in there that I subconsciously did that I'm unaware of. I did borrow liberally from the story structure of Slither since it, too, was set in a small town. If I got stuck in the script, I'd pop that movie in and see how they did it.
MR. H:What in your opinion is the hardest part of scripting a horror
film? What's the hardest thing to get right and what's the easiest
thing to get wrong?
Jason:Finding the balance of scares and humor was the hardest thing about this script. I would think that maintaining the tone is the challenge in any horror script. For me I kept censoring myself and tried not to go over the top too much. And now I wish I hadn't. The other big challenge once we decided to do the movie for $19,000 and with a 13-day schedule, was to make the script manageable within those constraints. I took out some action sequences, tried to consolidate locations and characters and streamlined the action. The shooting script was 81 pages, which was a good length for that kind of shoot. But, we had to sacrifice some stuff to get it shot that way.
MR. H:About the characters in "Hellphone". Will these be characters the viewer can take atleast slightly seriously? Or will they be the
A-typical annoying college students and or teenagers?
Jason:I like to think that you can take them all seriously. Even Bill, because he doesn't think he's funny. My goal was to have believable characters in an unbelievable story. The characters help ground it, and also add comedy to it in Bill's case. But, definitely not your typical horror-movie cliches.
MR. H:Who are some of your biggest influences as a filmmaker?
Jason:I think Joss Whedon is a genius. There's quite a bit of "Buffy" in my script (forgot to include that in the other question). Sam Raimi because his horror movies have no rules but work brilliantly. Hitchcock for suspense, John Carpenter, James Cameron, and more recently Edgar Wright. I think I want to be him when I grow up, he does crazy, ingenious stuff so effortlessly.
MR. H:Any early ideas for a possible followup to "Hellphone"?
Jason:I have 2 sequels in mind: Hellphone 2: Hellfrog already has a story and some script pages. I'm very excited about the possibilities there for ramping everything up. Plus, I think that's the best movie title I've ever heard. And then someone suggested Hellphone: The Musical and I have to do that if I can. The demon gets into a karaoke machine is what I think will happen there.
There is also the possibility of a non-comedic prequel that follows Paul Baker's murder spree in the 50s. But, I'm not sure how many Hellphone movies I want to make. Anyway, I'm in pre-production on a comedy film right now. We hope to shoot at the end of the summer. I'll keep you posted on that.
End.
Be sure to visit the official website for "Hellphone", to learn more about the film!
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