Screamfest L.A. 2017: Exclusive Opening Night Photos, Video, and Interviews with Dead Ant’s Ron Carlson and Tom Arnold

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With the 17th Annual Screamfest Horror Film Festival having kicked off last night at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA, with the World Premiere of filmmaker Ron Carlson’s horror-comedy feature film Dead Ant, we were there on the carpet to capture the excitement. Read on for our photo gallery, video, and interviews.

Taking place mere yards away from the raucous premiere of Thor: Ragnarok and with a carpet similarly buzzing, in attendance for Screamfest’s prestigious kick-off was Dead Ant director and co-writer Ron Carlson, as well as the film’s stars Jake Busey (The Predator), comedian and actor Tom Arnold, Rhys Coiro (“Texas Rising”), Leisha Hailey, Danny Woodburn, Michael Horse (“Twin Peaks”), Sydney Sweeney (John Carpenter’s The Ward), Joi Liaye, Nic Novicki, and Amber Martinez (Rough Night).

Also gracing the carpet were Dead Ant co-writer and Snake Outta Compton filmmaker Hank Braxtan and actress and producer Arielle Braxtan, Dead Ant composer Edwin Wendler, filmmaker Mike Mendez (Tales of Halloween, Big Ass Spider), actress and Screamfest alumna Bel Delia (The Tunnel), and actresses Selma Blair (Hellboy), Sarah Nicklin (From Hell She Rises), and Hollin Haley.

Chatting with Carlson on the carpet pre-screening regarding Dead Ant (the official synopsis of which is: “When the 1989 ‘one-hit-wonder’ glam-metal band Sonic Grave embark on a trip to Coachella in hopes of a comeback, their peyote trip pit stop in Joshua Tree incites an ‘unworldly’ vicious attack, and they must ‘rock’ themselves out of harm’s way”), the filmmaker said of his inspiration for the film, “I’m a fan of hair metal, and I don’t admit that often. And it’s a sub-genre of music that’s not around today. I mean, twenty-year-olds don’t know about it. So I thought, ‘The band in the film would be the underdog trying to make a comeback,’ and that would be more interesting than having, say, a band of young kids.”

As for the hair sprayed quartet’s antagonists, “At the end of the first act, there’s an issue with some ants,” offered Carlson, “and the ants force the band to come together, or they will die. And it’s kind of a metaphor, in that the band is also struggling to write a song for the festival they are going to, and if they can’t come up with one to play there, their careers will also die. And I wrote the song (they come up with) in the film! I mean, making the movie was great, but writing the song was fucking awesome. I loved working with our music producer, who really brought this great element to it, and our cast members actually sang the song (in the film). And they’ve been rehearsing it, and will play it tonight.”

The name of the song? In true Steel Panther fashion, it’s called “Side Boob” (and here’s a video of cast members Coiro, Hailey, and Busey and producer Michael Lanoue performing it live at the after party).

Chatting with Tom Arnold, he stated of his experience on Dead Ant, “Well, I love (the 1954 film) Them! from my youth. You know, after I read the script, I just wanted to make sure they could do the visual effects (justice), because you need to be able to do those (correctly). And then we started talking about the cast, and I suggested Rhys (Coiro) and they said, ‘OK.’ And I was like, ‘Well, now I have to do it.’ But it turned out really well. I love the cast, and I got to have some fun with a little bit of ad-libbing. It’s a comedy, but it also has the monsters, which is fun. But I really like my character of the band manager, and I ‘get’ his mantra of, ‘The show must go on,’ whether it be in the music business or escaping killer ants.”

Photo Credit: Dave Quan

The cast and crew of Dead Ant

For more information visit the Screamfest website, “like” Screamfest on Facebook, and follow Screamfest on Twitter.

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