Interview with Indie Filmmaker Stacy Davidson
The Dhampir lucked out and got 10 Q & A’s with Stacy Davidson, writer and director of Domain of the Damned. He was also the director of photography on Gerald Nott’s The Flesh Keeper, visual effect supervisor on Mel House’s Closet Space and co-writer and director for the upcoming (and highly anticipated) Sweatshop. Stacy happens to be one of The Dhampir’s favorite indie directors and is really getting some attention for his work. Here’s what he had to say!
The Dhampir: For those unfortunate souls who haven’t seen Domain of the Damned, what is it about?
Stacy Davidson: Domain is your basic “lone drifter, along with a young woman and her nephew, and a whole bunch of drunken DJs on a remote broadcast show stumble into a roadside haunted house attraction which turns out to be crawling with genuinely undead creatures chained up as exhibits thanks to an ancient Egyptian curse which wards away the god of death, severely pissing him off in the process” flick. Oh, and there’s a creeping giallo-esque slasher with a custom-built sickle which releases rusty, spring-loaded blades for stabbing his victims and sawing off their heads. He fancies himself the walking incarnation of Death, but just wait ’til he gets a load of the real deal.
TD: What inspired this story, how did you come up with it?
SD: Every horror movie I ever saw, from Vampyr and Nosferatu, Poltergeist and Night of the Living Dead, to Tenebre and Suspiria, right up to oddball stuff like Aliens, The Thing, not to mention Hellraiser and the fun of American 80’s horror. I’ve heard it likened to The Convent in tone, but as long as we’re making Mike Mendez comparisons, there are also aspects The Gravedancers in there too (although I saw that later). Domain was the first feature I made, and I really just set out to pay homage to all my favorite horror sun-genres, while attempting to tell a completely original story and throw in my own bizarre brand of horror fantasy. The concept was to start off as a slow-burn horror story, it’s nearly a silent film in the beginning, and gently ramp it up through the evolution of the horror genre as the film progresses. The middle is like a tongue-in-cheek 80’s horror film, with all the crazy DJ characters, but then it gets more psychological and bizarre, and finally explodes into some pretty serious action for the 3rd act.
TD: You have done several screenings of Domain, so how are people reacting to it?
SD: Oh God yes, I have so much fun watching Domain with audiences. It’s tough to describe the thrill of watching your film get laughs, shrieks and cheers with a theater full of fellow horror fanatics, because I really make my movies for me. I make the movies that *I* always wanted to see. So when people get into it, it always feels like I’ve just made a few hundred new close friends. My tastes are kind of out there, and my inspirations are pretty diverse, so it always gets my blood pumping to know that it worked, and that people are digging the same stuff I’m into.
TD: What movies inspired you as a director/writer?
SD: It totally depends on the project. I love film, and my favorite films range from serious shit like Seven Samurai and The Searchers, to MST3K The Movie, Kentucky Fried Movie, and right on through most subgenres of horror. My favorite directors range from John Cassavetes to John Carpenter. I guess the original film that made me want to make movies was Star Wars. If there’s any one thing that got me into horror, it would probably be monsters. The Fox show Werewolf, the original King Kong, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Dracula. I had a Tom Savini book, and I remember staring at the detailed photos of Fluffy, trying to reverse engineer him at my work table, as I played with latex and plaster. The next big thing for me was Nightmare on Elm Street. Then Freddy gave way to Pinhead. Eventually I just started renting anything I could find on the horror isle that had a cool box.
TD: When is Domain going to be available on DVD?
SD: I just spoke to the producer today as a matter of fact, and he authorized me to move ahead with a release plan I had been preparing for a few weeks now. So it’s looking like it will be available on DVD before spring is over.
TD: Tell us about your new, upcoming film Sweatshop (read our interview with writer Ted Geoghegan here) and what it’s about.
SD: Sweatshop is a real 180′ from Domain. After a film that huge, I really wanted to do something more focused and high-concept. And after my experience with Robert Rodriguez’ grindhouse trailer challenge (I made Stormtroopers of the Apocalypse), I was really ready to do something that would feel like a drive-in type of flick. A fun, violent, insane 80’s splatter sort of flick. And it was important for me that it not come off as any sort of parody of 80’s flicks. I didn’t want to do something that would feel like an homage to Friday the 13th, anymore than My Bloody Valentine was an “homage”. I just wanted to shut my eyes and pretend it’s 1985, and just set out to make another fun-as-hell teen splatter romp with its own merits.
TD: What inspired the story?
SD: I kinda knew what sort of film I wanted to make, and I asked my friend Ted Geoghegan (Barricade, Nikos - read our interview with Ted here) if he had any scripts lying around that I could look at. He sent me a list and I pinpointed Sweatshop. It was exactly what I wanted to do: sexy, suspenseful and scary as hell, unconscionably violent and gory, and overall fun. I took his 50-page draft and did a page-1 rewrite, drawing it out to feature length and fleshing out a lot of the character development. As different as my draft was, Ted keeps saying it still feels like his story and his characters up on that screen. I totally agree, and I’m really enjoying the collaboration. This is the first time I’ve worked with another writer, and I think it’s safe to say Ted and I are having a friggin’ BLAST with this material.
TD: You have had open casting calls for extras, using bulletins and blogs on Myspace, is this going to be a “Stacy Davidson thing” or was it a one time deal?
SD: I did the same thing for Domain of the Damned, Stormtroopers of the Apocalypse, and the occasional music video. I actually brought Danielle Jones to Mel House for Closet Space (read review) from a MySpace bulletin (although we were already friends, I just didn’t know she’d be interested in the role). Now she’s in a major role in Sweatshop. Man, when I do a big shoot with extras, I want as many extras as I can get. MySpace is great for finding people in a pinch.
TD: From the people I have spoken with, you seem to have a growing fan base, people who are really into your work, does that surprise you?
SD: I do? Awesome! Man, its always surprising to me when people know who I am and have heard of my films. I grew up thinking only George Lucas and Steven Spielberg could make movies. Remember just a few years ago, we were in this world where you had to be from some far off magical land called Hollywood to make movies, and even then you had like no chance of getting anywhere. People who made successful regional films were so few and far between that they were legends, like Romero, Hooper and Robert Rodriguez. So yes, it surprises me when people recognize me in any way. Doubly so when they bring me donuts!
TD: Aside from Sweatshop, what other projects are you working on, and what can you tell us about what we can expect to see from Stacy Davidson and Odyssee Pictures?
SD: I have a few other projects simmering. I have a couple of monster movies, a sort of dark little conversational drama flick, and there’s always the Stormtroopers of the Apocalypse movie. People keep asking me if and when I’m ever gonna go make that, so I suppose that may be on the horizon. I’m also in talks about a sci-fi TV pilot, but nothing has been signed yet so there’s no news to tell there. All these things are just vapor until someone throws money in the pot and the project gets a motor on it, you get used to that real quick. It’s always tough to know what your next thing will be, it’s almost like throwing a bunch of kernels near a flame and waiting to see which will pop first.
TD: The Dhampir would like to thank you Stacy, for your time, especially because I am such a fan of your work and for sitting down to do this interview. It was great talking to you. I cannot wait to see more from this great new director!
SD: Thank you! And thanks for supporting my flicks!
Stacy Davidson on Myspace
Odyssee Pictures’ Official Site
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