an interview by
ENTERTAINMENT INSIDER
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An Interview with the cast and crew of Dead Serious
by Adam Barnick
In a small bar in Brooklyn, thirty or more people are crowded into a bar that seems to be shrinking in size and increasing in heat as time passes. Yet the excitement doesn’t fade as the hours creep on, in one of the last shooting days of Dead Serious, a lower-budgeted but ambitious independent horror film starring genre veteran Felissa Rose and a cast of eager newcomers.
The soundmen are testing volume levels for actor Tom Cahill’s scream, which will end this scene. Tom is delivering an ominous monologue regarding his plans for world conquest; towards the end, Felissa maces her attacker and escapes, not before triggering a monstrous transformation within him..
Assistant director Dawn Leuchter-Malka gets the crew running quickly, setting up for the following takes. Director Joe Sullivan confers with his script supervisor Jules Santos and Michael Hein, producer and co-writer of the film.
 “Can you believe it’s digital?” Hein states, as I peep over his shoulder at the color monitor and see a sharp and vivid image that fools for film. Director of Photography Bud Gardner has worked with the producer before, and executes arresting visuals with relative ease.
Sean Marks, art department assistant, scoots past me, strapping on a pair of rubber gloves as he goes to redress the bathroom set; either bloodying it up, or cleaning it off, I’m unsure. I’m staying out either way.
The plot of Dead Serious reads as: A religious zealot and his terrorist cult take over a gay bar in New York City. Their plan is to remove the scourge of homosexuality from the planet. But little do they realize that when the natural order is tampered with, the wrath of the undead is awakened. Now a group of unlikely heroes must fight to survive the night and save the city.
While there seems to be enough gore and a lot of dark humor to please genre fans and entertain newcomers, it’s nice to see a Romero-sized helping of social commentary mixed in.
Alan Rowe Kelly, director of the recent DVD release I’ll Bury You Tomorrow, plays one of the featured extras in this film, and offers his thoughts on how well the shoot's gone so far: “Working with Michael Hein’s been unbelievable, knowing everything he’s done for the past couple of years, and now actually getting to work on this project with him, it’s been a great experience; he runs a tight, tight ship, really well-oiled machine.” Actor Michael Weingartner, playing Felissa’s husband, chimes in:
Michael Weingartner: I’m really enjoying working with Patrick, Felissa, and Bryan, who I spend the bulk of my screen time with, and we really feed off each other very well. We come from very different backgrounds; Patrick (Swearingen) and I come from a comedy background, Felissa being the horror veteran, Brian (Gianci) being a damn good actor. I think the four of us really have worked well together.” Michael along with Felissa are two innocents trapped in the bar once hell on earth is unleashed.
 Halfway through the next take, the theme song of the neighborhood ice cream truck kicks in and ruins the sound. It isn't the first time, and won't be the last. CUT!
On the next take, Cahill delivers his monologue flawlessly and without interruption; the shot is in the can. Special makeup effects man Anthony Pepe quickly whisks him to the makeup room, where a new, more frightening face will replace his own in the upcoming scenes.
I take advantage of the break between setups to speak to Michael Hein, producer and co-writer. Michael is the founder of Moo Dude Films, director of the indie feature BIOHAZARDOUS and co-produces the annual New York City Horror Film Festival each October. Very focused, passionate, and probably never gets the chance to sit down.
MICHAEL J. HEIN, co-writer/producer
AB: What’s your opinion of the shoot so far?
Michael J. Hein: It’s been brilliant. My cast, my crew, just kicking ass for me. Really. We’re running something that really should be shot over 2 full months, and we’re doing it in a month. I can’t say enough about the cast and crew, it’s like one huge family.
AB: You have some cast and crew from your previous film(Biohazardous).
Michael J. Hein: Yeah, we like to call it the Moo Dude family, I tend to like to work with the same people, and always bring on new, fresh people. Felissa and I had been looking for a project to work on together, saw an opportunity on this film and just grabbed it. She came in and read for the director, blew him away as I knew she would.
AB: Was this a project you were going to direct, and decided to produce instead?
Michael J. Hein: No, actually it was always set that Joe would direct this; he had worked for me on two films, basically trying to get his directing chops up to snuff; and he kept saying “Michael, I have this script, it’s a horror thing, you’re the New York horror guy, and I’d love for you guys to do it.” I read the original treatment..I really thought it was fresh for a vampire film, thought it needed more gore, more blood for our fans..the horror fans of these low budget films! So I said if I could go into rewrites, I’d be interested. And (Joe) was into that! He said definitely, let’s do this together! So I went in, and I basically rewrote the third act, amped it up for the horror fans.
AB: When will you be stepping behind the camera again?
Michael J. Hein: Next thing I’ll be returning to the camera and flat-out directing, is a film called The Word, which is my first dramatic piece. It’s a morality play, written by Tom Cahill; we’ve got the funding in place, same setup, Bud (Gardner) is going to shoot it, right now we’re just adding to it-it was originally a 30 page stage play. I just produced a love story called Cyclone through Moo Dude, I also did a short for a guy who interned for me, Will Spodnik, who wanted some help making this short- called This is How my Brother Died.
AB: What’s your take on (director Joe Sullivan's) story?
Michael J. Hein: One of the things I loved about the script, and the original treatment-I’m straight, Joe is gay, I loved the idea of him trying to make a statement about the state of things today, where people are coming down on gay marriage, everything floating to the Right..it’s about the whole religious Right, abortionists, it’s not a Democratic/Republican thing… this is our little ‘fuck you’ to them, with a lot of blood and gore thrown in, and a great cast and crew; I really think we’re making a film that’s going to be a lot of fun above all…it’s not a preachy film, but the message is there.
Michael is called back to set and I tiptoe across a sticky, bloody floor to the film’s lead Felissa Rose, one of the most energetic and upbeat actors I’ve met. Clearly enjoying herself, I’m happy to say none of the madness or fear she is regularly called on to exhibit is to be found. Having a loyal cult following since her turn as the evil Angela in 1983’s Sleepaway Camp, Rose is currently enjoying a career renaissance in such films as Dante Tomaselli’s Horror and Satan’s Playground, and will be producing and starring in several new projects this fall.
Felissa Rose (Susan Rosario, lead)
AB: Tell me a little about your character.
 Felissa Rose: I play Susan Rosario, very much unlike myself; she’s prim and proper, conservative, vegetarian, married to this straight-laced man, she does everything by the rulebook, and winds up in this bar trying to get her husband, and we wind up in the middle of this crazy takeover/hostage situation. I start out snooty, but I let it go..by the end I toughen up and I escape from the vampires and I’m a hero! So it’s cool, I live. (laughs)
AB: Was the appeal in that it was such a flip from your regular personality?
Felissa Rose: I think being completely polar opposite to myself, it’s always fun to do because you have to get into a different brain…I have tattoos, she would NEVER do that; she hates going outside in the sun, everything’s buttoned up, and I like to go wild and have fun and take risks, so it’s cool to get inside another person.
AB: What do you tend to look for in the scripts you see? All the fans of Sleepaway Camp are grown and making movies now..you’re doing picture after picture.
Felissa Rose: I’ve been fortunate with that! I read the script first, and obviously if I feel connected to the story and I like the subject matter, which is generally horror, definitely if I’m intrigued by the role that I’m gonna play, and then the people; I speak with the director and the producers.
AB: A lot of horror can be just effects-based, are you finding this to be more character-driven and better-developed?
Felissa Rose: So much is usually just about the gore and the killings, and (actors are) just kind of the meat puppets, but we had so much rehearsal on this before we started filming. Joe has been great-it’s been great as an actor, I love to work my craft and get to know the other actors that you’re gonna be in close quarters with, so this has been a real artistic project.
AB: What’s your next project after this?
Felissa Rose: A Moth to the Flame; That’s actually in the Fall; (and) There’s a new network called Scream TV, I have my own show on that I host, and I interview genre celebrities. It’s called Screamology.
2nd Assistant Director, Hilla Medalia comments when I ask how the shoot’s been so far: “It’s been long days but we’re getting everything done. As far as the crew and the cast, it’s been great. It’s my first horror film, when I first got the job I was like..”horror film?” but it’s a lot of fun. It’s opened a new world..and we have great actors.”
Actor Brian Gianci concurs: "My character is snooping around in this gay bar, he’s an agent working for the FBI; and he’s trying to get information on this guy Maxwell Vaughn who just bought the bar (played by Paul Coughlan) He’s the leader of this terrorist organization, and I’m investigating him; Turns out the shit’s gonna hit the fan, on this one night, there’s going to be a hostage situation where supposedly they have a serum to cure homosexuality; anyway it turns into basically me and him (points to Michael Weingartner) trying to handle the situation.”
AB: Have you worked on any of the Moo Dude productions before?
Brian Gianci: Never, this is my first, my intro to the ‘family’. It’s been great working with (them), nonstop laughs, Michael (Weingartner) is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, (motions to Felissa) and Felissa’s one of the sexiest women I’ve ever met. (she laughs) But that’s just between you and me. Awesome crew, really professional. This is my first big film.
AB: How many days have you been on the set so far?
Brian Gianci: Just about three weeks; I come out pretty much unscathed..so far I have no wounds.
At last there’s a brief respite while the DP sets up some quick inserts that can be knocked off rather quickly..extreme close-ups of hands, etc. I successfully corrall Joe Sullivan, the director, and get his two cents. Joe is an extremely pleasant, soft-spoken fellow, eager to share his thoughts on the genre and his take on it, as well as his contribution to it.
Joe Sullivan, writer/director
AB: How did you get involved with Michael? What was your background before this?
Joe Sullivan: Shorts, and I’d done some work as an assistant on several indie films; I was introduced to Mike (Hein) through a mutual friend who worked on a film called Cyclone, shot around Coney Island. We worked on another film in Kentucky called Olden County, both those films I was script supervisor for Mike. We started talking, Mike was convinced he could do a horror film for a very low budget. I showed him the script, and the rest is history.
 AB: You had this script ready several years ago?
Joe Sullivan: I wrote this script basically a few years ago and I can’t remember why I put it aside. I just took it out quite by accident, I was looking to write a script for a short and I said “Well maybe I can use something from this, let me go back and read it again.” Reading it, I said “Why did I put it away?” It was doable, funny, exciting..
AB: Was it always your intention to make a horror film that would have a good degree of social commentary? Do you feel this is one where there’s a lot under the surface, if people choose to look for it?
Joe Sullivan: Yes, that was what really attracted me to putting the story together. Was making a film that is hopefully funny, scary, gory, and also has a social message- well not a “MESSAGE” but a social context.
I don’t want to be preachy, but it’s there; this movie’s about a lot of things; conformity, enslavement, about how most humans don’t want to think, they want other people to think for them. I think it was H.L. Mencken who said something to the effect of-I probably have the quote slightly wrong-“Americans live in terror of the possibility that, somewhere, somehow someone is enjoying themselves.”
AB: Here we have the crazed religious leader whose mission is to stop people he perceives as ‘ruining society.’
Joe Sullivan: I’m gay, of course I’m really concerned about these issues, but what I really wanted to say was 'leave these people alone!'
AB: Why is it their business...
Joe Sullivan: Why is it anyone’s business? To convert or change someone..if you say something like that you’re going to be preaching to the converted. But if you make a movie that’s entertaining, exciting, gory, then people who choose to, can look at the ramifications of the movie; and those who don’t can have a good time. That’s OK too.
AB: This is your first feature, have you noticed a degree of difference between this and your shorts’ production?
Joe Sullivan: In some ways it’s like an extended short, of course it’s much more complicated; and because of our tight shooting schedule, we’re shooting a lot more in one day than I’m normally accustomed to. Even considering the fact that we’re basically shooting the movie in one building, the logistics of dressing sets, of using the cramped rooms (and) stairways, it has problems I never encountered on a short; and the fast pace means a lot of more decisions have to be made quickly, on the fly.
Working with Bud Gardner, an excellent, very experienced cinematographer, has really helped the process for me. And of course Mike- he’s forgotten more about filmmaking and horror movies than I know. With those guys it's been possible to do it. Without them, I don't know..
AB: Were your other shorts in the horror genre?
Joe Sullivan: More like thrillers, there were horror overtones, a lot of my scripts have been either horror, sci fi, action/adventure, sometimes a combination of all three.
AB: Horror is one of the few genres you can be easily subversive in.
Joe Sullivan: Horror and sci fi; they’re not about vampires and colonizing other planets, they’re about us, here today, but we put it under a different guise.
AB: Horror dares to suggest the world isn’t perfect.
Joe Sullivan: Everything isn’t perfect, we’re in a world where we can die at a moment’s notice through no fault of our own.. Stephen King said horror is the only popular genre that is really comfortable with unhappy endings. The monster isn’t dead.. and the killer gets away. Death is all around us.. from an earthly point of view, every person’s life has an unhappy ending. And horror attempts to deal with that fact.
There’s a real reason why people keep coming back to horror- it satisfies a need in us to have this kind of story. To experience the precariousness of life. The total danger of life, to go through this, be purged and be strengthened, until the next time…(it) allows us to experience this with a certain amount of detachment- we’re safe but we still allow ourselves to believe it’s real.. If it’s done well, it’s satisfying. And helpful.
With that, Joe returns to the fray. Tom Cahill emerges from the makeup room; disfigured, fanged, ready to party.
Rest assured they will wrap for the night before I find a way to get the blood off my boots. -----------------------
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