How did you get into the movie business?
I started getting serious in the late 00s with Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street but it wasn’t until Volumes of Blood, that did far better than any of us anticipated, where I partnered with Eric Huskisson to create Blood Moon Pictures to house future productions. Since then, we’ve made VOB: Horror Stories, 13 Slays Till X-Mas and most recently New Fears Eve. Eric and I also recently served as producers on The Barn Part III which is now in the festival circuit.
The first feature you directed, Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street, came out in 2007. What has changed in the industry since then?
“There’s really no excuse not to make your movie.”
You direct, produce, write, edit and even act occasionally. Which aspect of filmmaking is your favorite and which do you find the biggest chore?
I do a lot less directing and acting these days, but they still happen from time to time, especially the abomination that is my acting chops [laughs]. I like and hate something from just about every position. Especially with writing. It takes me forever to begin because I can be a lazy fuck, but once I start, I have a very hard time stopping until it’s finished. However, my favorite aspect has to be producing. It gives me a chance to work with all the different departments and talent, which is nice because collaboration is something I love. The biggest chore would have to be securing financing, and scheduling is a close second, due to the logistical nightmares that come from that.
What do you think are the key ingredients to a good horror film?
This might sound like a copout, but so much is subjective when it comes to what is good. We all have different tastes and even I’m guilty of telling someone they have shitty taste in movies [laughs], but if the vision is there and the heart is there it shows. You can always tell by what you’re watching if the people making it enjoyed the process. I like a lot of different types of films but if your movie has interesting characters, an intriguing narrative, or if the movie is just a fun popcorn flick and you’re able to convey that experience effectively – or a mix of all that, then I think you’ll be successful with finding an audience.
New Fears Eve (2025)
Rating: B-
Dir: Eric Huskisson and P.J. Starks.
Star: Lily-Claire Harvey, Matthew Tichenor, Turner Vaughn, Jesse McDonald.
This unfolds, as the title suggests, over the last few days of the year. These lead up to the New Year’s Eve party being thrown in their office building by Hooper Industries. It’s a company of uncertain activity, run by utter dickhead Mr. Dugan and his almost as obnoxious secretary Stephanie (played to the hilt by genre veterans Dave Sheridan and Felissa Rose). The company is in trouble, and firings are imminent. But why let that get in the way of a great good mediocre time? Bonus excitement will be provided by a serial killer called The Doctor (McDonald). He is leaving behind a trail of corpses, killed in imaginative ways, and has decided to gate-crash the party.
I guess the lead characters are Leslie (Harvey), Brian (Vaughn), and Moses (Tichenor), a trio of Hooper employees. I say that, because they’re never much more than tropes: respectively, the Final Girl, the Square, and the Sex Pest. However, over the course of the movie, I will admit they grew on me somewhat. In a way requiring a fungicidal cream, perhaps. Still, it was unexpected. To be clear though, this is not a film dependent on its characters, or the dialogue, which is occasionally witty, frequently crude, and sometimes grating. The jury is out on the extent to which the last is deliberate. On the whole, I’ll give it the benefit, since the overall tone here is clearly not particularly serious.
The point here is obvious. It’s the kills, inflicted by The Doctor in a broad range of ways. They are all laudably practical in nature, executed with somewhat variable skill, but no shortage of enthusiasm. You will likely see things here you have not witnessed before. I know I did, whether it was one victim having their intestines flushed out of their abdomen and down a toilet (I’m not certain that’s how digestive tracts work), or the one impaled in the eye socket with… Oh, let’s not spoil all the surprises. The Doctor is also a cool creation. He’s clad in a plague mask and top hat, with glowing eyes. We never learn much about him, other than his surgical training.
It doesn’t matter. For this is definitely an unrepentant throwback to the era of straightforward slasher movies. Well, in most ways. The complete lack of gratuitous nudity is odd, especially given how obsessed some characters are with sex, e.g. Moses. Otherwise, though, there are few pretensions here. No social commentary. No ambitions to be the dreaded metaphor horror, and no apparent interest in being “clever” or “elevated” either. Instead, this is almost refreshingly pure in its pared back approach, and a single-minded devotion to triggering the old “Fuck Me! Rewind That!” reflex in the discerning horror fan. It certainly succeeded there, on a couple of occasions. This ends with the door open to a sequel, and I would certainly not mind seeing it.
New Fears Eve is a practical FX extravaganza: why did you choose to go that route?
It was sort of on purpose and by accident. In the original draft there were only nineteen kills. Once we gave horror fans an opportunity to buy into getting killed, it added over twenty-three more. Of course, we cut it off eventually because I was struggling to find ways to eviscerate people. Which if you know me and my penchant for coming up with creative deaths, is a huge problem [laughs]. I’m a big gorehound and slashers are my favorite subgenre. If I was going to make one then I wanted it to be full of the things I enjoy from the films that have inspired me, while also giving it my voice through the writing. Either way I love a good kill, so the rest is history.
Without giving too much away, some of the kills are highly imaginative. Where did the ideas come from?
“What is a more creative way to saw someone to death?”
New Fears Eve was co-directed with Eric Huskisson. How does having two directors like that work in practice?
Eric and I work well together producing so it wasn’t a big step for us to co-direct. Originally, he was slated to direct, but after a while it was clear that maybe it was a tad bit too daunting, plus I’d written the script, had the vision and was working directly with our DP Alex Clark on the visuals, especially with how the kills were filmed. It confused the cast and crew, so we made the decision to have me co-direct. He was working with the cast and crew on dialogue mostly, but there was crossover because I’d written certain portions of the film to be performed in a particular way. Overall, it was a smooth process, and I can’t think of a time we were ever stepping on one another’s toes.
13 Slays Till X-Mas (2020)
Rating: B
Dir: P. J. Starks, and many others
Star: Jay Woolston, Christopher Bower, Joshua Cornelius, Katie Stewart
I’m not going to lie, there’s something a little weird about watching a Christmas-themed horror anthology in May. High today, here in Arizona? A balmy 90 F. And make no mistake, this isn’t “Christmas adjacent”. There will be no Die Hard-styled arguments over whether or not this counts. Virtually every story involves Santa, presents, tinsel, or similar artifacts, firmly placing this in the festive season. We have reviewed other, similar anthologies before, such as the Phil Herman produced I Slay on Christmas. But for sheer volume, this beats ’em all. In addition to the thirteen stories promised by the title, there’s a wrapround segment, directed by Starks, and a faux trailer for Deard Santa.
It’s a lot to cram into a hundred minutes, before the (understandably lengthy!) end credits roll. But that’s perhaps the anthology’s strength. There is absolutely no chance to mess around, when a film-maker has little more than five to seven minutes, to get in, tell their story and get out. You might think there wouldn’t be enough time. This movie is here to prove you wrong. Obviously, you can’t expect great depth in characterization, or plot complexity. Anything approaching that only happens in the wraparound, set in a bar where a group of people have been summoned by a mysterious email on Christmas Eve. They while away the time (top) telling each other stories – inevitably involving a bit of the old Christmas ultraviolence – until the purpose of them being there is revealed.
There is, of course, the usual anthology situation, where some of the stories resonate more than others. Especially given the total of fifteen elements, this will happen. I can’t honestly think of one which hung about long enough to become dull. This probably speaks somewhat to the slow death of my attention span (thanks, social media!), but the truth remains. If you don’t like any of these stories, just wait. There’ll be another one along in a few minutes. I do want to pick out a couple I particularly enjoyed, however. Almost at the end is Killer Caribou, by John Hale, in which a couple of hunters pick on the wrong prey. It predates Bambi: The Reckoning by almost five years.
I also liked Santa Claws by Drew Marvick – I’m guessing this stars his own offspring, as siblings who bicker over whether Father Christmas is real or not. Kid actors can often annoy more than they endear: these do not. Though again, the brevity here probably worked in their favour. Otherwise, scrolling through my notes, I’m hard-pushed to recall any segment I would call a dud. There are a couple where, to be honest, I don’t remember much detail, although we are close to “blink and you will miss it” territory in some cases. But overall, I’ve a feeling I may well be revisiting this one again – once the weather is cooler and the nights longer and darker.
When we were speaking earlier, you said 13 Slays Till X-Mas was the project of which you were proudest – can tell us why in more detail?
Truth be told, I’m most proud of New Fears Eve due to the project being so much larger than anything we’d done before. Plus, it put us in a position to cross a lot of firsts off the list. I suppose what I was saying about being proud of 13 Slays, is how we persevered against the odds of a global pandemic, the immense budgetary constraints, and the various hurdles we overcame to get it finished. This included having to restructure portions of the project, find new talent because some of them had to drop out as a result of national restrictions, and of course adhere to stringent health protocols to keep everyone safe
Outside of your own one, of course, which segment in it do you think deserves particular praise?
I think Eric’s Scareionette segment. It was the first time he had written a story that we produced. Being a seasoned writer, I was always trying to give him input because I believed it could be a stronger piece. That’s not to say it wasn’t, but I was trying to enforce my way when he was wanting to do his own thing. Once I realized that I did step back. It was a solid crash-course on filmmaking once he got on set to direct for the first time and he struggled in certain regards, but he always pulled through. The segment does get praise and I’m really happy he’s able to celebrate something that is, unequivocally, him.
What projects have you got coming up?
I’m producing a film that is currently filming in Los Angeles called Half-O-Ween from two really talented guys, Stephen Wolfe and Tim Robinson. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be back on set for the final filming block of a revenge slasher I’m also producing called The Last Sleepover. Eric and I are headed to Pittsburgh at the end of May for the official premiere of The Barn Part III. Another reboot slasher flick I produced is The Boy from Below, which is also currently on the festival circuit, so keep an eye out for both of those. I just started writing the script for New Fears Eve: Part 2. I’m about fifty pages in and feeling pretty good about the working draft. There are a few other projects in development, but they’re not far enough along to share just yet. Needless to say, I’m staying busy.
When you look back at almost two decades of filmmaking now, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
The two biggest lessons are that perseverance gets you places so never think you’re annoying someone by touching base. There’s a possibility you are, but not following up gets you nowhere. The other is, never be afraid to fail. Everyone I’ve ever known who allowed that fear to dictate their moves never achieved their goals. I’ve failed repeatedly. Which is why the successes stand out and feel more satisfying. Every achievement is standing on the shoulders of a hundred failures. You’ll never know if you never try.