Latest / Cinema Yūgen / Out of the Darkness: Joe Hollow on Independent Filmmaking and Horror
Transcript
- 0:00G'day. That's right, it's that time again.
- 0:04Time for Cinema Yuga! We'll be right back.
- 0:08Music.
- 0:18Yes, welcome back, Cinema Yuga and guest this week, Joe Hollow,
- 0:23the mighty Joe Hollow, as the 74-time international award-winning writer,
- 0:27producer, director, actor,
- 0:29editor with 21 award wins for Best Feature Film, known for his unique creative
- 0:35vision and intense passion.
- 0:38His background in music contributes to his accomplishments as an award-winning
- 0:42film score creator and composer, adding to a very diverse and impressive skill set.
- 0:50He has worked with a lot of the greats in horror.
- 0:54Check the links in the description and now welcome him to talk about filmmaking
- 1:00and his new film, Flesh of the Unforgiven.
- 1:05Please welcome to Cinema Yugen, now the mighty Joe Hollow.
- 1:12G'day Joe. Thanks buddy, it's good to be here. Mate, first of all,
- 1:16congratulations. I got to watch your film last night, Flesh.
- 1:20Of the unforgiven and i have to say straight off the bat first of all well done
- 1:25fantastic horror movie but it's it's weird that i just i mean really recently
- 1:31like a couple of days prior to getting the screener for this i reviewed a film
- 1:35in which debbie who's also in your,
- 1:38film was in another film called the in-betweeners which was very good too it was.
- 1:43It was about struggling or a
- 1:46struggling filmmaker or the struggles of filmmaking
- 1:50of which you probably know quite a lot about joe tell us about the the struggles
- 1:55of independent filmmaking from your point of view mate well where do you start
- 1:59i mean you gotta tell us about the road to success joe you gotta go through
- 2:05the learning process which is really what i did i didn't you know i go to film school or,
- 2:10you know, I, I mean, I guess I've always been an artist.
- 2:12You start on paper, you know, but then I spent most of my life as a musician.
- 2:17And then I owned a studio for 16 years where I was an audio engineer.
- 2:21And more or less i just jumped into
- 2:24film i mean it's something i always wanted to do and you
- 2:27know i was talking to somebody that was out in california about potentially
- 2:32doing like a music video kind of thing so i
- 2:35had him direct it we hired a bunch of
- 2:37people and that went well actually that was the i worked with courtney gaines
- 2:42from children of the corn on that and that's where i met the late cleave hall
- 2:48and cleave if anybody's not aware he was a master of practical effects.
- 2:56And we were you know at the end of the day he you know
- 2:59he had asked me he says joey says you you're going to finish this
- 3:01thing and i said well i don't know he's well if you do he said
- 3:05you got to come back and you got to direct and i
- 3:07didn't i didn't know the first thing about directing i
- 3:11didn't know the first thing about the film business but he said you
- 3:13know he says brother you've been doing it all day he says you're doing
- 3:16it from the back and he's going out and portraying your voice he says just
- 3:19go after it so you know I did I just
- 3:22kind of jumped into it and you know that's where you make all your mistakes
- 3:25especially my first few films you know you're trying to write and produce and
- 3:30direct and you're wearing so many hats you know it was it was a tough first
- 3:35getting to go you know it took really 10 years before I straightened myself out.
- 3:41And how the business has changed since then hey
- 3:44yeah well i stepped away for a
- 3:47good amount of time and then you come back and it's just like you said
- 3:50it's it's a new platform it's completely different than what it was back then
- 3:54my last film before jumping into this one was 2014 yeah yes it's it's a playing
- 4:02field that is never fair nor is it ever steady because there's always There's innovation.
- 4:09There's always a myriad of other things. I mean, we have gone through probably
- 4:13one of the most turbulent times with the pandemic, and then on top of that, strikes.
- 4:19And then on top of that, you figure or configure AI into the mix now,
- 4:25which is this wonderful device which allows human beings not to think.
- 4:30Yeah. You mentioned COVID.
- 4:33That was that was a big blow too because right around
- 4:37that time i was gonna come back
- 4:39and and do a film and that's when covet hit so it really it shut everything
- 4:45down yeah and i was lucky at the time i had a friend down in texas mark hansen
- 4:49actor he was in the family film that i did back in 2012 and he was doing like
- 4:56a family style more of a faith-based christmas.
- 5:00Then it was a whole series, you know, it was going to be 10, 15 episodes.
- 5:04So that was kind of fun to do. So I used COVID to actually move over from where
- 5:11I was using Final Cut and I learned DaVinci.
- 5:15Oh, okay. So that's what started moving me into that direction.
- 5:18And it was a lot of fun, that project.
- 5:20But, you know, it took six, seven months editing, getting hands on.
- 5:24That really, that allowed me to step up to the plate, move it into this.
- 5:28You know because with flesh of the unforgiven you're
- 5:31probably i'm sure you're aware the budget was was so low you
- 5:35know we only went to that with eight thousand dollars so you gotta
- 5:37you there's you gotta do a lot of work you gotta do everything so you can't
- 5:42you can't screw it because my friend and filmmaker not sure whether you know
- 5:46todd sheets but todd's always saying you have to what is it uh he said it really
- 5:52well last time i spoke to him do you have to deliver the laundry where you have to deliver, you know,
- 5:57it doesn't matter what you, it doesn't matter how much you've got or the resources
- 6:01that you have or characters that you have at your disposal.
- 6:04If you make a statement, I'm going to do this, then you have to deliver the
- 6:09promises, you know, regardless of the kit that you have at your disposal.
- 6:15Do you think that's true? Yeah, absolutely.
- 6:18Especially if it's a horror movie. Now, a comedy is a different thing.
- 6:23A comedy can just be not funny.
- 6:25But if a horror movie is disappointing, I mean, do you find having made horror
- 6:29films that horror fans are very –.
- 6:32I don't know are they are they picky or are
- 6:35they well horror fans are very diverse right
- 6:39you know it's such a big community i mean you've got
- 6:42those that that want to have a lot of this they
- 6:45want to have a lot of that they don't want to hear this they don't want to see
- 6:48that you know so i mean the size of the community
- 6:51it's you know it's hit or miss a little bit i don't know if you could really
- 6:54make that perfect horror film right you
- 6:57know i mean when we were young it was all fresh to us so
- 7:00when you see the shining or you see the
- 7:03exorcist it's like my god this is the
- 7:06greatest thing i've ever seen you know today you
- 7:09know i mean you think about how the movies were back then and
- 7:12if you want to go back even a little farther you know and get
- 7:15into the late 60s and the 70s and you see how they
- 7:18changed over from the 80s to
- 7:20the 90s to what it is now after the millennium you know
- 7:23it's tough to just say i'm going to go after this specific
- 7:27genre of horror fan yes because i
- 7:31mean as you say there are so many and so many the sub
- 7:34genres which which are the order of the day how do you like for instance when
- 7:41you were starting off and and what was some of the films i mean you've already
- 7:45mentioned the exorcist and and some of the classic what's what were some of
- 7:49the probably more contemporary horror films that influenced you and your.
- 7:53Your style or as far as the films that you wanted
- 7:56to make anyway you know i mean it's really
- 7:59hard to say i've been asked that question before and you
- 8:03know i don't even know if i really have a favorite horror film
- 8:06the same with music you know
- 8:09i'm so yeah well i mean i mean not necessarily
- 8:12a favorite or a top four or whatever but a film
- 8:16or a group of films or even a filmmaker that uh
- 8:20whose work inspired you to well you
- 8:23know i i had there were a few different critics on this
- 8:26time around after doing flesh that said
- 8:29that they got hints of hellraiser and nightmare on
- 8:32elm street you know i absolutely love those movies
- 8:35so maybe you know secretly maybe they do inspire you
- 8:38a little bit you know i mean i can't
- 8:41i can't just say that going into flesh and starting
- 8:45to to write that i had any specific film in mind you know it just it just kind
- 8:51of cunts to you now this your character in this film has a terrible case of
- 8:57of writer's block is that something that you have struggled with.
- 9:03Before hence the reason as a writer
- 9:07i think you always make that turn you know you're always
- 9:10going to have your moments of it's just it's just not today right
- 9:13you know you got to learn to just kind of put it down
- 9:16and and pick it up when you're inspired you know you
- 9:19can't really force yourself to it's not happening but it's
- 9:22due on monday that's there you go.
- 9:25I mean i remember doing flesh it was you know
- 9:28i think i was more inspired getting through it i
- 9:31had the i had the idea of where i was going to
- 9:34go from point a to point b and plus i have
- 9:37a great partner in dave and dexler and he
- 9:40was there with me every step of the way so i mean there
- 9:43were even you know when you watch the film i don't want to
- 9:45give anything away but there was something crucial that i had written
- 9:48in that script you know where he said joe you
- 9:51know you can't do that you have to do this i wish i could just say
- 9:54it because you know people that haven't seen the film yet they
- 9:57may think to themselves i wonder if so i don't i don't
- 10:00want to say anything but you know i was
- 10:03so inspired going through that script luckily i
- 10:06didn't really face a lot of writer's block with
- 10:09flesh of the unforgiven plus i was working a day job so i
- 10:13i'm driving a bus now during the day to
- 10:16keep money coming in you know i've got a wife and two kids and you
- 10:20know coming back after the covid deal everything is
- 10:23so tough mine was so tough i had to take on a full-time
- 10:26day job so i'm driving in the morning and then
- 10:29i get a little bit of a break and then i go back in the afternoon so i'm
- 10:33driving the bus and trying to stay focused but i've got the script on the brain
- 10:37and i'm writing and then i'm wrapping it up getting back on the bus and dropping
- 10:42the kids off i'm coming back home i'm writing i get to spend an hour with my
- 10:46wife have some dinner look at the script before i go to bed and 8 p.m.
- 10:51Down 5 a.m. back up so i was lucky with flesh of the unforgiven but writer's
- 10:57block absolutely you you definitely get it it's i don't think you could avoid
- 11:02it i think every writer whether being poor or great you're going to run into
- 11:07some sort of writer's block,
- 11:10now it's it's very much the unromantic side
- 11:13of filmmaking i mean when you you do enough interviews and
- 11:16you talk to people and they say i'm in the film business and oh
- 11:19right yeah and and there's an
- 11:23automatic sort of thing when you talk about it with regular people
- 11:26who aren't in the business and when you say the film business automatically
- 11:29they think oh you drive a mercedes-benz you live in a big house money is not
- 11:36your issue but there's a there's a as i say to people there's a whole different
- 11:42side to the film business i mean i remember a man.
- 11:48Talking about actually an Australian bloke I met. I can't remember his name
- 11:53right now. But he actually went to the Academy Awards one year.
- 11:56And he said, you know, mate. I said, what was it like? He says, I'll tell you the truth.
- 12:00He said, Hollywood is a big facade, right?
- 12:05He said, on this side of the screen, everything's beautiful.
- 12:09You go behind that curtain, there's a bloke with a hairy chest smoking a cigarette. There's rubbish.
- 12:16There's stars trying to fix their makeup there's
- 12:20people swearing it's the most unglamorous thing
- 12:24behind the curtain you know what i mean
- 12:26so no look i i empathize
- 12:30with you i've met many filmmaker that has
- 12:33had to juggle real life as well
- 12:36as his real life and i
- 12:40give you a lot of props for for doing that because this film
- 12:43the flesh of the unforgiven although made for
- 12:46very little money is incredibly impactful i
- 12:50loved your performance debbie of course you don't
- 12:53you don't shrink from the gore there were moments in
- 12:56here where i thought of event horizon oddly
- 12:59enough mainly mainly that's mainly mainly
- 13:02that's because the not to give anything away but
- 13:05because of the video in this and he
- 13:08watches okay of the yeah of the
- 13:11video footage only because i remember
- 13:14when that film first came out i remember that particular footage like this footage
- 13:19that they eventually find of the crew that have had this massive satanic blood
- 13:24orgy if you will and they eventually piece it together and find out you know
- 13:29the secret that uh those those elements i found were.
- 13:34Were very good and also the your films kind of have a little bit more of the uh supernatural,
- 13:43element as opposed to i mean you've got the gore as well but is the supernatural
- 13:47is the sort of the stephen kingy supernatural element that is that something that you uh.
- 13:53Is that something that I what? The supernatural element that Stephen King kind
- 13:57of, you know, because it seems like this is a, this is part of a broader canvas, this story or a broader.
- 14:05Well, you know, the, the idea of it really actually started,
- 14:09you know, I want to say probably in 2009 when, you know, going back to the first question that you get.
- 14:17I mean, when I, when I started and I jumped into directing, I wanted to create
- 14:23this, this world that evolved around this death dealer.
- 14:26And I saw these different types of characters and, you know,
- 14:31I guess, you know, there is a comparison there.
- 14:33And I see it now with the critics when it comes to Hellraiser and the Cenobites and.
- 14:38You know, but I, I saw something different, something that was a little
- 14:41broader where each of these demons or
- 14:45minions if you say they have a past
- 14:48they have a history they have a individual storyline
- 14:51themselves they're not just props in the
- 14:54film and you know so i really i i
- 14:57i've been stewing on the idea of doing it and
- 15:00i shot something back in 2010 my very
- 15:03first attempt it was a failure miserably
- 15:06and when i came back to this
- 15:09and i was working with a producer friend
- 15:12a Nick Rompre up in Canada and she
- 15:15had all these locations and she wanted to do this and she wanted to do that
- 15:18and somewhere along the line it it just it it sparked me in the butt in the
- 15:23the combination of what I had and and something that we were discussing we wanted
- 15:27to do and I said you know what I don't have a lot of money I mean again we only
- 15:32went in with eight thousand dollars.
- 15:34So we really had to rely on a lot of that that drama that Debbie Rashan you
- 15:40know what she brought to the film and try to create this supernatural side with
- 15:46the Death Dealer and these different,
- 15:48you know, supernatural beings.
- 15:51And obviously I can only kill four of them.
- 15:53But I mean, I think that whole thing, it's really, it's been with me for about 15 years or more. Yeah.
- 16:01And I mean, I would have liked to have come out with it with a half a million dollar budget.
- 16:04You know, that would have been fantastic. You know, to have that,
- 16:07you know, amazing backdrop everywhere you go and these, you know,
- 16:11fantastic names and the big stars and, but I'm proud of it. I really think we
- 16:17did a good job with Flesh.
- 16:18Yeah. But I mean, you, that's not to, to, aside from Debbie,
- 16:23you've worked, you talk about big names, you've worked with some great names,
- 16:26the late, great Tony Todd, among them.
- 16:29Bill moseley michael barryman yeah just
- 16:32that's that's pretty incredible it's a pretty incredible
- 16:35lineup you know i mean some independents don't
- 16:39get the luxury of of getting anyone with with such experience but they're either
- 16:44restricted to friends or acting students looking for credits or whatnot i mean
- 16:50obviously that's a huge draw when you're an independent filmmaker to have people with you know,
- 16:57marketable names like Linnea Quigley and such.
- 17:01Yeah, Linnea's a sweetheart. You know, we all grew up to, you know,
- 17:05some of these faces that you've mentioned, you know, Tony especially,
- 17:09Angus Grimm, obviously Phantasm.
- 17:12And when I first started doing The Family, you know, that's when I met Tony
- 17:17and I brought Tony and Michael Berryman and Kane Hodder in to do that film.
- 17:23And, you know, tony and i we stayed
- 17:25in touch and going into disciples you
- 17:29know again really my my second film still learning
- 17:32how to be a script writer mind you still learning how to be a producer i mean
- 17:36so many failures on so many levels i'm so glad we at least get to walk out of
- 17:40that with a film and you know i grew up to you know when you want to step outside
- 17:46of horror some of the my favorite films are like The Godfather.
- 17:51You know, Shawshank Redemption.
- 17:53I mean, and these movies are, they're epic, they're powerful,
- 17:56and the dialogues are powerful.
- 17:57And it was very hard to see how I'm going to cast some of this,
- 18:03you know, especially, you know, with disciples bringing in these individual
- 18:07demons that were, you know, supposed to be Lucifer's highest counsel.
- 18:12And I saw this, I mean, look at the performance Al Pacino gives you in The Devil's Advocate.
- 18:19You know, you wouldn't expect something like that really in a horror element.
- 18:22That's some, I mean, just that dialogue between him and Keanu Reeves at the end of the film.
- 18:27I mean, it's stuff like that that really inspires me.
- 18:30So working with Tony and, you know, drawing up these dialogues,
- 18:34I'm saying, oh, am I going to hire him?
- 18:37To do something like this. And I had this conversation with Linnea Twigley and
- 18:42she said, well, Joe, she goes, who do you have in mind?
- 18:45I said, well, if we had the money, Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.
- 18:50And she says, oh, whoa, I said, well, you know, we have Tony.
- 18:55I said, how am I going to, you know, I mean, this is dialogue that had to be
- 19:00because this one character that turned out to be Angus Sprimm that was cast for that.
- 19:05They were he was dying and they they had
- 19:08these quotes going back and forth of great men
- 19:11their final last words and it you know it was
- 19:14mickey avelli and henry the eighth and i'm
- 19:17thinking who am i gonna get and it was linnea that came
- 19:20out she says well what about angus i says
- 19:24angus i said i i said would he even
- 19:27take my call linnea contacted him
- 19:30he did call and you know he was honest he.
- 19:33Says joe he says you know i'm i'm in my mid 80s now
- 19:36he says i do have a legacy i said it's not
- 19:39very likely i'm going to take this script he said
- 19:42but i promised linnea and i'm going to read your script and
- 19:46when he came back he said it's a
- 19:49shame hollywood couldn't see this
- 19:52script he said it has so much potential and
- 19:55he said the writing that and we still had a
- 19:58quabble a little bit back and forth because he said i will take the role
- 20:01but he said i'm too expensive for this
- 20:04movie we went back if what a true gentleman angus
- 20:07was and finally he took
- 20:09it and then i had that that great scene
- 20:12with him and tony at the end just really
- 20:15remarkable i mean that you know that's what really drove me
- 20:18to get specific faces in that film it
- 20:21wasn't the the drive to say
- 20:24you know look at this cast it's going to be the expendables of
- 20:27horror it's just this role was brink
- 20:31this role was for linnea and
- 20:34it was something we had never seen her in i needed this tough guy you know that
- 20:40had to play one of these you know some of the the filler scenes and i didn't
- 20:43want to have an average and i couldn't get bill mosley off the brain so that's
- 20:47how we ended up getting bill you know and Then there was also Nick Principe.
- 20:52I don't know if you remember him from some of Robert Green's films. Yeah, sure. Sure.
- 20:58But, you know, growing up with some of these faces and then actually working
- 21:02with them was a very surreal experience.
- 21:05Yeah, I can only imagine.
- 21:08It's one thing to watch them naughty and naughty on a little screen.
- 21:13But when you're standing next to them on a set and they're waiting for direction,
- 21:17I can only imagine that moment of like, well, I'm nerding out a little bit,
- 21:24but I've got to be a professional. Is that how it goes?
- 21:28Yeah, and you know, going back there just a little bit, Tony, he was such a humble guy.
- 21:35And you think Tony, he's so big, he's a little intimidating.
- 21:39He was such a humble guy. And he really wanted to work with Angus.
- 21:46When we shot that film, I mean, Tony was, from the very beginning,
- 21:50and I didn't think we were going to get him.
- 21:53And I kept telling Tony, you know, I don't think he's, you have to get Angus,
- 21:56we have to do, i have to shoot this film with angus he really
- 21:59went and i've got some pictures from that set behind the
- 22:02scenes i'll send you some after the interview thank you and it's
- 22:06just tony and angus so many candid moments together just just talking and you
- 22:12know it's some of the moments like that that really make those experiences special
- 22:15because they're of course they're legends they're some of our heroes but they're
- 22:19people yeah you know and that's what always that's what always makes me smile.
- 22:26Under my smile at the film business is when you meet, as you have.
- 22:33Or get to interview some of your screen idols, and the first thing they do is
- 22:40they start to tell you stories about working with their idols.
- 22:44And I guess what I love about it the most is then when they start talking like
- 22:49that, that brings them down. We're all now on the same level.
- 22:53We're all just a bunch of movie nerds who love movies.
- 22:56And and these guys that we we want
- 23:00and we aspire to be are exactly the same you
- 23:03know because they tell you stories of like you know
- 23:06i'm like you were just saying you know tony todd really wanted to work with
- 23:09angus scrimp right i mean i've
- 23:12told this story before when i was interviewing tim thomason and i
- 23:15knew that he had a very small part in a sam or
- 23:19sam peckinpah's last film and so right near
- 23:22the end of the interview i asked him i said okay tim tell us your
- 23:24sam peckinpah story and he's like well
- 23:27let me tell you the wild bunch for me was church
- 23:30so whatever sam peckinpah was going to
- 23:33ask me to do i was going to do right so
- 23:36he turns up to the set this day because his friend who was actually working
- 23:41on the picture organized him to show up so they show up and he's going to play
- 23:46cop which he does he's a motorcycle cop and so he comes up and And there's,
- 23:51he said, and there's Sam Peckinpah.
- 23:53And this is how Tim Thomas is. And he looks exactly like Sam Peckinpah.
- 23:58He's got the glasses. He's got the bandana.
- 24:01He's got a flask, which could be full of water or something else. Right.
- 24:07And Sam Peckinpah turns to him and he says, I want you to get on that bike.
- 24:11And he said, you see that brick wall over yonder?
- 24:14I want you to ride as hard as you can hard and fast. And I want you to slide.
- 24:18And I want you to slide on the bike and roll the bike right into the brick wall.
- 24:22And there's a pause a silence as Tim Thomason is standing there taking all this
- 24:28in because he thought he was just coming on to be an extra in a Sam Peckinpah movie,
- 24:33so there's silence and then all of a sudden Sam Peckinpah and his mate just
- 24:37fucking break and he's just like it's okay,
- 24:40it's fine we were just messing with you we just want you to ride up and you're
- 24:45going to pull over the car and we'll do the wide shot and then we'll come in
- 24:47and do your close ups don't worry but But he said, you know, the scary thing,
- 24:52Joe, he said, the scary thing is for 10 seconds, I thought about riding that
- 24:57bike, even though I'm not a stuntman, as hard and as fast as I could into that
- 25:00wall because Sam Peckinpah told me to.
- 25:04Right, right. and let's face it if you had the chance if you had the chance
- 25:09if I had the chance like if I had you know Sam Perkins Palmer wanted me to do
- 25:13something in a film which was you know reckless and,
- 25:18possibly hazardous I would in fact.
- 25:21Because it's him because it's him
- 25:24i might consider it so links
- 25:28will be in the description ladies and gentlemen to check
- 25:31out joe and all of his work flesh of the unforgiven
- 25:34joe where can the audience where are we
- 25:37going to be able to see this wonderful new film right now it's streaming on
- 25:42amazon prime video on apple tv we were very surprised and lucky that it came
- 25:48out so fast it was very unexpected i I didn't think it would have been out until
- 25:52potentially September.
- 25:54So I'm hoping by September there'll be quite a few more platforms that it'll be rolling on.
- 26:01But right now it's Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
- 26:04There you go. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, flesh of the unforgiven.
- 26:10Joe Hollow, that master of the macabre, he makes these masterful works for very little money,
- 26:15but he has a whole lot of passion and a lot of talent
- 26:18behind the darkness very inspiring
- 26:22joe mate we thank you here cinema
- 26:26yugen tries to praise and support
- 26:29uh the work of tireless independent creators such as yourself so well done for
- 26:36working your way through all the trials and tribulations and for people listening
- 26:40yes some filmmakers actually have other jobs other than than filmmaking to keep the home fires burning.
- 26:48But that joe you can tell them that shouldn't stop
- 26:51your creativity no that's right you got to
- 26:54keep driving follow your dreams man there you
- 26:57go you heard it from the man himself flesh of the
- 27:00unforgiven joe hollow check all the links in
- 27:03the description so joe have you got anything else that you've
- 27:07got on the boil that you'd like to plug no i
- 27:10think that was great and i thank you kent brother for everything
- 27:13i really appreciate you and everything you do yes joe hollow
- 27:16ladies and gentlemen great blog great filmmaker check all
- 27:19the links in the description flesh of the unforgiven
- 27:23and all of the great stuff joe has got coming
- 27:25up and re-releasing joe hollow check the links in the description now and as
- 27:33always my little eugenites thank you for listening to us on spotify or wherever
- 27:39you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts i'm ket hill and until next time
- 27:43you've been listening to Cinema,
- 27:46Zero Games.
- 27:50Music.