Exclusive: Director, Writer, & Star of DUG UP Describe Their “Stoner Redneck Zomedy”
Josh Millican
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I just brought Dread readers news about the horror comedy Bong of the Living Dead, but it isn’t the only stoner-centric splatter-fest coming down the pike. I recently got wind of Dug Up, which was pitched as a “stoner redneck zomedy”. Sold! The film arrives on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play this Tuesday (October 9th).
I wanted to dig a little deeper into Dug Up (pun intended), so I reached out to Dustin Rikert, the film’s director, his co-writer William Shockley, and lead actor Paul McCarthy-Boyington (Kill or Be Killed, Altered, The Human Race). I discovered that Dug Up was a true labor of love, not to mention an inspiration for aspiring indie filmmakers.
Check out their individual statements below, followed by the synopsis and trailer for Dug Up at the bottom of the article. Try not to fall over laughing—especially at the Pet Sematary spoof!
Dustin Rikert: “Dug Up represents one of the funnest summers I’ve ever had in my 18 years of filmmaking. The whole idea of the film was to craft a purposely campy “Zomedy” that pays homage to the kinds of 80’s horror classics like Friday the 13, Dawn of the Dead, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre that I loved as a kid. You could write a book about the adventures we had behind the scenes. It was Indie-filmmaking at its best and worst. A small group of people coming together to make something fun and memorable. It was one of the hottest summers on record in Vermont, but somehow everyone banded together. We had no money, but lots of ambition. My brother did the creature FX, my Mom the catering, and the cast we assembled based on the sheer belief in the script was incredible. Paul McCarthy-Boyington IS Trever Bo Chesney!! There hasn’t been a week that’s gone by in 7 years that someone hasn’t contacted me wanting to know when the film is coming out. I’m so glad that the world will finally get to see this delightful little labor of love! Thank you, [Executive Producer] Vince Morella from the bottom of my heart for resurrecting this film from the dead!”
William Shockley: “Dug Up was one of the funnest films I’ve ever done. After working with EP Vince Morella and Paul McCarthy-Boyington on a prior film, Dustin Rikert and I wrote the role of Trevor Bo Chesney specifically for Paul. We decided to shoot the film in Dustin’s hometown of South Royalton, Vermont. That was all fine and good, except we didn’t live there, and we had no gear there. Dustin was in Phoenix. I was in Los Angeles. So, we loaded up a grip truck and drove across America. We laughed, we cried, we talked for hours on end about every topic known to man.
“We got pulled over by the cops and lied our way out of a ticket, broke down in the middle of some small town where a biker-preacher man fixed the truck for free, drank beer on the lift of the grip truck in a parking lot of a town that didn’t serve alcohol in the restaurants, drove through a torrential blinding rainstorm on a pitch black night almost crashing more than once, found religion, lost our minds, and ended up making a classic stoner-stripper-T&A-zomedy. And that’s just the beginning of the story!”
Paul McCarthy-Boyington: “My character, Trevor Bo Chesney is a wild loose screw, kinda dude. He’s a romantic, who has big dreams, an idea man who is able to get everyone close to him involved. He’s a salesman, a pitchman, a schemer, but he is so emphatic on his beliefs, that his friends start to believe him too. He’s a fun character that William Shockley and Dustin Rikert created which I got to play with and expound on.
“William and Dustin were great to work with. They wrote a fun script and created a wonderful environment to really expand on. We were able to play, which would lead to some organic improv. I gotta say working with them, the crew, the other actors, the Rikert family, on their farm, in that beautiful environment, was just a magical time and experience!”
Synopsis:
Chaos takes over a rural town after a trio of residents accidentally conjure a zombie outbreak.
Are you a fan of raunchy, irreverent, stoner horror comedies? Are you excited to check out Dug Up when it hits VOD this Tuesday? Sound off in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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