Interview: Kyle Oliver – Director of The Manifesting Undead

Dread Central: So you said on the Indiegogo campaign that current horror films are turning people into zombies. Can you elaborate?

KO: I just feel like a lot of the newer ones aren’t doing anything for anyone. A good movie in general is supposed to make you feel something. A horror film is supposed to make you laugh, gross you out, scare the shit out of you, and keep you on the edge of your seat. It seems like when someone makes a hit, everyone just copies that formula right off the bat and doesn’t add anything to it. People are noticing the beats. They’re noticing when you’re about to use a jump scare and who’s gonna die first. And on top of that, a lot of these characters aren’t even likable. I’m not saying there haven’t always been horror films like this. I’m not a “purist.” I just think it’s getting worse. That’s not to say there aren’t some great ones coming out still. I really enjoy Tusk, The Babadook and The Lords of Salem, among others.

DC: So do you feel that The Manifesting Undead will be an example of what horror films should be?

KO: I definitely don’t want to brag about the film because at this point all we have is a script to show for. We’re still getting our cast together. But based on my script, for good or for worse, the audience isn’t going to be able to call what’s going to happen at any point. They’re gonna think they know what’s about to happen, and I’m gonna use that intuition against them, to make a lot of these overly formulated films work to my advantage. It’s going to make them feel everything a good horror movie should make them feel. At the same time, the ending is going to clearly and concisely bookend the story while still leaving them wanting more. I hope it’s one of those movies they’re still thinking about even after they leave the theater.

DC: How long have you been working on the film?

KO: Technically four years. The first incarnation happened four years ago. I made a short film with the same title when I was 16 or 17 and wasn’t happy with the result. I was still an unexperienced kid, so I canned it. But I loved the title. I worked out ideas for a year or so with the producers, Branden and Max, but still never landed on something that quite worked, so I used that time to work on different short films instead. The story went through at least 10 different incarnations, until Christmas last year, the perfect idea finally hit me and I went to work on what is now the final script. We’ve definitely been saving money and acquiring equipment for the day we decided to do our first feature; I just wasn’t 100% that it was going to be THIS particular idea until now.

DC: You will be working on an incredibly low budget, but this will add to the charm, right?

KO: Yes, the budget is incredibly low, but it’s all we’ve ever known. With all the experience our crew and myself have gained, I feel like we can easily make this $6,000 film look like a much more expensive film. My biggest worry is finding the right actors on such a low budget to help us make this work. So I’m looking at local theatre actors for that. Either way, I’m sure it will be interesting, and worse case scenario, it will be an example of what we could do with a much larger budget. If our budget constraints end up shining through, it’s still gonna work for what it’s meant to be: a low-budget horror film. Make no mistake; this is not intended to be anything other than what it is.

https://youtu.be/RHJlDvTaIEk

DC: So this is a revenge story?

KO: It’s a very unorthodox revenge story. It couldn’t be described as straightforward, but it’s definitely not watered-down or murky. You won’t even know it’s a story of revenge until the very end; it’s hidden within the backdrop of the slasher and zombie sub-genres so well. I don’t want to sound full of myself, but I think after 4 years of practice, tinkering, and trying my damnedest, I’ve finally come up with the right balance to make something like this work. The heart of the film is essentially only about a girl who is raped and murdered by the most vicious killer in my fictitious town, Butcher’s Pen (which all of my short films and features have been, and will be, set in).

DC: And it pays homage to classic ’70s horror films?

KO: Most definitely. In visual style and in original storytelling. I’m really inspired by a lot of exploitation films of that era. A lot of the gruesome low-budget flicks that came out at that time were both creative and visually shocking. I’m not so sure if you can shock an audience with gore and guts anymore these days, but I do know that creativity is a shocker for me because I see so little of it. Like I said earlier, I’m not a horror film purist. I love horror films of every decade and sub-genre, but I seem to like more horror films from the 70’s than any other decade. Everyone is different. I think the 70’s were the golden era of horror filmmaking.

DC: An interesting thing is that the plot also mocks the current paranormal horror fad. Can you describe this?

KO: I’m not so sure if it necessarily “mocks” it because that aspect is the most important part. In a way I guess you could say that it does because I use the clichés of paranormal thrillers against the audience, taking their expectations and going in a completely different direction with it. It’s also important because a lot of the aspects are based on my real-life experiences as a filmmaker/tech guy directing webisodes for a real paranormal investigation team. All of the main characters, who are ghost hunters in the film, are based on some of that team’s members and the experiences I had with them. I wanted to see if I could successfully pull off a genre mash-up without the story becoming this diluted piece of crap, which turned out to be a very difficult thing to do. I trashed so many drafts because they came off as pretentious. I think that’s why it has taken so long to get this one particular script finished, where normally I could have finished any other script in two weeks or less. 

DC: And needless to say, they’ll be loads of gore?

KO: Most definitely. I’m in talks with some FX people who have tons of experience doing makeup for small amounts of money with the strangest things. Toilet paper, Elmer’s glue, just anything they can get their hands on. We’re working on a version of zombies that are very “Southern.” Their skin will be dry, only appearing wet on fresh wounds. There will be nails and barbed-wire stuck into their flesh. When someone’s head gets blown off, expect more than a slosh of blood. I intend to spill up to one gallon per headshot, as far as you can really go before it becomes too much to seem real. We’re taking the headshots in Tarantino’s Django Unchained as a fine example of the gore we want. Flesh will be ripped, people will be stabbed. It’s gonna be fucking crazy!

DC: Lastly, you also say on the Indiegogo campaign that there will be “enough gore to drown Michael Bay.” So like most of us, I take it take you’re not a fan of his work? 

KO: I don’t have a huge problem with most of the films he’s directed. Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor, Pain & Gain. I get it; he’s found a formula that worked, made him a lot of money, and he stuck to it. Explosions, action-packed spectacles. It’s not my thing, but I get it. Millions of people watch that stuff. It’s popcorn fodder. The thing that really pisses me off in a bad way is when he takes perfectly great films, comics, or concepts and hires these inexperienced filmmakers (yes, like myself) to botch them. His Platinum Dunes company has butchered almost every great horror film of the 70’s & 80’s, including my all-time favorite horror masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. If you wanna hire inexperienced directors (like me), don’t give them classics to ruin. Let them either write or find their own original script, and give them a real chance. There’s no need to remake the classics and botch the execution. It doesn’t ruin the classics for me. I still have those. It just takes either a lot of balls or a large sense of entitlement to want to do that. That’s my real problem. If you absolutely must remake something, take a movie that had a great concept but a bad execution, and execute it with more class. But please, leave Leatherface and the Ninja Turtles out of it.