After the World Premiere of Deathgasm (review) went over like an out of control round of pyrotechnics at SXSW, the cast and crew sat down with us to discuss how winning a contest led to a grassroots effort to get the heavy metal horror comedy off the ground and into cinemas.
Producers Ant Timpson, Andrew Beattie and Sarah Howden were on hand as well as stars Milo Cawthorne and Kimberly Crossman. Last but not least, a hoarse Jason Lei Howden told us a little bit about how much fun it was to direct his dream movie.
DC: Some comedians have said they wouldn’t have come up with certain bits if it wasn’t for pot. Do you think Deathgasm would exist if it wasn’t for alcohol?
Jason Lei Howden (director): I’ve never touched a drop! Yeah, it’s funny you say that. The first draft was written over nine days and I was pretty drunk for most of that. Obviously, except for the rewrites. Sarah put some of it together as well.
DC: That’s a good method.
JLH: I think I was also trying to channel the teenage stoner mentality, the sort of stuff that would’ve cracked me and my friends up when we were sixteen. It sounds like it worked from the feedback that I’ve heard.
DC: It does have that vibe where you want to be back in your room as a teenager again with your posters.
JLH: A lot of it was based on my middle childhood apart from the demons and the girls, probably more demons than girls.
DC: And Milo, when I was a kid that’s actually how I did sound on guitar, just like you in the beginning of the film. Do you actually play?
Milo Cawthorne (Brodie): I play a little bit of acoustic but so badly. I play the drums a little bit. It was great because we’re all supposed to be a little bit awkward.
DC: Did you guys ever jam?
MC: We did have one jam and it sounded absolutely amazing.
JLH: We gave these guys a crash course in metal. It was like a Metal 101 class. I think it was good for these guys to meet some real hardcore metal heads that were actually sort of analyzing the way that he stands.
DC: How many bands were you aware of before as opposed to them submitting?
JLH: I hand picked the bands myself so as a metal fanboy it was the biggest honor. Especially, my favorite, Emperor, who were my favorite when I was thirteen or fourteen, this Norwegian black metal band that were involved in some of the church burnings. They’re on the straight and narrow now.
DC: The bands makeup is an homage to them.
JLH: Exactly. So, getting them on the soundtrack was amazing. Emailing some of my heros blew my mind.
DC: So Ant, would you talk a little bit about the Make My Movie Contest and how everything got developed.
Ant Timpson (producer): Yeah, it was a competition that’s the second time around, the first time we came out with a Rom-com. Then, I thought it would be kind of cool to do a horror version of that same scheme so we talked to MPI and the Commission and they were both into doing it again so we did another round. We just wanted a logline synopsis and a poster that encapsulated your vision so we got a really quick sense of what your project would be about. But really we just made it completely open to try and enthuse anyone to say, ‘Hey, I could actually make a movie. I’ve got a chance.’ Jason’s project Deathgasm was really one of the hot picks.
JLH: I was just stalking metal heads. I even contacted metal sites and got interviews.
Andrew Beattie (producer): It’s actually a good policy to do what Jason did and put heaps of projects in because the guys that won last time put in four or five projects also.
DC: About the effect, even though it looks like there was a batshit energy on set, did you plan everything out because of your effects background?
JLH: It did change, we had to tone some stuff down and figure out what we could do with what we had. Some stuff changed just before we called ‘Action’ where we literally just said, ‘Let’s do this instead.’ My background is visual effects and I messed around with practical effects when I was really young.
DC: Do you remember the first gag you did as a kid that you were really proud of?
JLH: I remember when I was thirteen at boarding school stuffing this school uniform with other clothes and throwing it off a building. It was based on a true story actually about his deranged psychopath who murders all these kids at a school. My teacher said I could borrow this video camera so I handed it in this thing but no camera ever came. But, yeah, I got into visual effects which has helped a lot. Actually Andrew is behind a lot of the physical makeup, he has a makeup effects background.
Mary Howden (producer): Most people on set the complexity of saying ‘We’ll fix it in post’ but with some of the effects we had to fix it in post.
Andrew Beattie: That’s not a unique experience for a horror film, that’s every film. One of the things you don’t think about is if you splatter a room full of blood, you’ve got to clean the blood up and that takes an hour and you don’t have that kind of time. Blood is just like water, it finds a way.
DC: Kimberly, was there way too much blood and testosterone for you on set?
Kimberly Crossman (Medina): I loved it. It was all a new experience for me dealing with all of those practical things. Everything else I’ve worked on hasn’t had the gore so I was really excited to work with the blood. I loved going home and showing my family at 3 a.m. because I would just get bloodier and bloodier over the twenty days.
DC: Were they proud?
KC: They were concerned but that’s okay. They knew I was having a ton of fun.
Ant Timpson: Kim doesn’t have blood, she has Red Bull.
KC: I love that what I thought about [heavy metal] has been completely contradicted. When these guys are talking about the unity and how everyone in the genre has been helpful and compassionate and generous with their time, those aren’t really qualities that I would’ve have thought, oh, the heavy metal genre is like this. I love that it’s really challenged me on that. Everyone gave more than they were required to give and I think that’s why this film will be a success because it doesn’t fall short anywhere. You’ve got a great soundtrack, you’ve got a great script, you’ve got comedy and talent …
Andrew Beattie: And nudity!
Written and directed by Jason Lei Howden, Deathgasm stars Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberley Crossman, and Stephen Ure.
Synopsis:
New kid in town Brodie and bad-boy Zakk quickly bond over their mutual admiration of heavy metal. But when these two metal thrashing losers unwittingly summon malevolent forces, their dreams of stardom may just have to be put on hold.