November 23, 2015

Of all the various sub-genres within horror, I’ve always had a deep love of horror /comedies, in particular “dark comedies.” Knowing this, my Icons Of Fright co-creator Mike Cucinotta strongly recommended I check out a little indie film called SUMMER OF BLOOD about an unlikable & unmotivated slacker that becomes a vampire. He had just discovered it on Netflix Instant and ended up watching it twice in a row and sure enough, within the first 5 minutes, I knew I was about to do the same. The dry, sarcastic humor paired with the vampirism backdrop was a refreshing take on that tired sub-genre, but really its triple threat Onur Tukel (who wrote, directed and starred) that made me realize I was watching a brilliant new voice in comedy.

This Tuesday, November 24th, his latest feature film APPLESAUCE will be released digitally on VOD, as well as on Blu-Ray and DVD and it’s just as strong a premise and just as hilarious as SUMMER OF BLOOD. During a dinner conversation, Ron (Tukel) tells the story of the worst thing he’s ever done in his life. Back in college at a party, he got in a fight with another student which ended in him accidently slamming a door on his hand and severing 3 of his fingers. Ouch! Just regaling this story sets off a chain of events that completely ruins the lives of his friends, and it only gets worse when someone starts mailing Ron severed human body parts! We caught up with Onur to ask him all about crafting these two wildly unique black comedies.

Blumhouse.com: First off, love both SUMMER OF BLOOD and APPLESAUCE. They both tackle horror themes and tropes in such a refreshingly funny way. Starting with SUMMER OF BLOOD, where’d the idea originate to focus on the vampire mythos? I know for me as a genre fan, there’s such a glut of “zombie” or “vampire” films that when another one comes along, I always approach them wondering what is going to be different about this one. With S.O.B., I love the irony of a guy who doesn’t really care if he lives being turned into a vampire and hence becoming immortal. Was that concept where this started?

Onur Tukel: Thanks for the nice words, Robert! It probably all started in 1998, when I made a vampire film called DRAWING BLOOD. That was the only movie I’d made that ever recouped its investment. In 2013, I thought it might be financially sound to make a vampire film again. Being 40 that year, I wrote the script based on what I was feeling at the time, which was pretty much feelings of worthlessness. I was asking myself if I was capable of caring about anything other than myself. Could I get married? Could I really commit to someone? Could I grow up? How can I explore these concepts in the format of a vampire movie? How can I rant wildly about the stuff that troubles me and have an audience buy into it? “I know,” I thought. “I’ll make it bloody as hell!” The low-budget horror movie is a wonderfully creative exercise. You can throw all rationale out the window and explore your unconscious in ridiculously violent ways. The idea of being liberated by death; it is so wonderfully absurd. Dying would mean no more responsibility, no more pressure to grow up and be an adult. It’s not very original, I admit, but it is so very relatable and now probably more timely than ever. As A.I. continues to evolve, the mystery of consciousness continues to unfold, the idea of living forever in a contained digital world becomes somewhat plausible, it shapes this concept of immortality. What could one really do with eternal life? Where does God factor into this? Would we not be Gods ourselves at this point? I knew God would factor in to SUMMER OF BLOOD somehow, vampires being supernatural and all. So God can be added into the mix somewhat playfully, unapologetically. It’s fun working in the realm of vampires. It can get very existential.

BH.com: The premise of APPLESAUCE feels like it easily could stem from a dinner with friends or at a party where someone suddenly presents the question, “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” Was that the impetus for this story? Is there any truth in this premise amongst you and your friends?

OT: I get a lot of complements on the dinner scene at the beginning of the movie when my character tells the story of the “worst thing he’s ever done.” Audience members tell me that they get lost in the story, they find it compelling, fascinating. I’ve been telling that story for years because it happened to a friend of mine in college. It was at a party, everyone’s having a good time, and then just like that, someone gets offended and starts an argument and boom, chaos ensues. Blood spurts from an open wound. Suddenly there’s a severed body part on the floor! When something like that happens at a party, it becomes legendary, almost mythical, like an urban legend. My friend was quite traumatized by it years afterwards. He told me that he called into a radio station and confessed the entire ordeal on air and it was almost cathartic, like burying an old ghost. I asked him if I could use his story as a catalyst for a feature film. We conceived the story together but I didn’t include his name in the credits. You never know, right? Sometimes life imitates art. And that question, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” It’s a doozy of a question. Not very original, but pretty compelling. I might have pulled that from a great movie in the 1980s called CLASS, starring Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy. I freakin’ love that movie. And there’s a scene early when the two actors sit in a dorm room sharing a bottle of vodka. They’re drunk and sharing sordid stories from their past. After Rob Lowe tells his story, he asks his friend, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” And then McCarthy tells that story, how he cheated on the SAT. I wasn’t consciously thinking of this scene when I wrote APPLESAUCE, but it’s always been with me. I saw it when I was a teenager and that scene still resonates. It’s such a wonderful question. Again, very relatable. We’re all horrible people. We cheat. We lie. We steal. We support wars without empathizing with the country getting bombed. Fear and paranoia brings out the absolute worst in people. These are big themes in APPLESAUCE.

BH.com: I unapologetically love DOOGIE HOWSER so I love Max Casella and I think he’s terrific in your movie. I also really liked Trieste Kelly Dunn and Jennifer Prediger. There’s something about the natural rapport you guys have on screen that I immediately buy that you’re all long term friends. When it comes to casting your films, how does that work and what do you look for in your actors? Or in this case, are these people you’ve been friends with for years and had in mind while writing it?

OT: You should unapologetically love DOOGIE HOWSER. THE WONDER YEARS meets ER! It was fantastic. Max Casella is fantastic. Jennifer Prediger and I are dear friends. We’ve worked on two previous movies together, RICHARD’S WEDDING and RED FLAG. Anything I write, I try to include a character for her because I find her inspiring to be around. She’s also hysterical and she just makes me happy. The night before we began production on APPLESAUCE, Prediger and I got a little drunk and painted a large picture together. I have it hanging on my wall in my apartment, reminding me everyday that she’s out there making the world a better place. She moved to LA though so I’ve lost all respect for her. That’s a joke.

I’d never worked with Trieste and Max before this but was fans of their work prior to casting. I want to work with talented people, but for me, a positive attitude is the most important aspect of casting. I want passionate people. I want people who will embrace the chaos on my film sets. I was on a low-budget film set once, and there was a seasoned actor that I recognized from a few Woody Allen movies. I watched him work, treating people like shit and complaining vociferously the second the production went into overtime. This guy is forever burned into my memory as a dick. Sure, maybe he was having a horrible day. Maybe his hemorrhoids were flaring up. Maybe he just didn’t want to be there. But when you are a fucking pill, you drag down the entire production. I want to be around talented sweethearts, hungry for a good role. I had one brunch meeting prior to casting Max Casella and by the time our eggs arrived, I knew he would be playing Les. On set, he knew more about the script than I did. I learned a ton from him. He’s a beautiful person. I’d hung out with Trieste Kelly Dunn at festivals and whatnot and we clicked immediately. I need a loose cast. I need everyone on set to be breezy. I need to be able to say what I want without mincing my words. I need the cast and crew to be the same way. Making films is stressful. If you’re among friends and you trust everyone, it’s a little less stressful.

BH.com: How long does the writing process take for you with your scripts, and how much of it is scripted verses improvised? Because they’re such a natural flow to the dialogue in your movies that it feels like eavesdropping on a conversation among a small group of friends in New York.

OT: I’m terrible at writing prose. I’m an idiot when it comes to grammar and spelling. I have no patience for writing or reading description. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about that stuff when writing dialogue. SUMMER OF BLOOD is a little all over the place and is probably more anecdotal than story-driven. I wanted story to drive APPLESAUCE. So when I figured out the plotpoints and made my outline of scenes, my story treatment, etc. and I felt confident that I had a nice structure of events, I banged out a first draft as fast as possible. I can average 20-30 pages a day sometimes, just filling the scenes in with as much perfunctory dialogue as possible to get the damned thing written. I’m always quite terrified before I start writing, because I’m afraid the words won’t come. But once I let go and start banging those keys, the unconscious takes over. I’ve made a deal with myself. “Don’t worry about how bad this is going to turn out. Just get the damned thing written. It’s a first draft. If you get through this story and it holds up, you’re halfway there. 80% of this dialogue is going to be unusable and that’s okay.” And then, a short time later, 4 days, 5 days, 2 weeks, whatever, there it is. A first fucking draft. I put it aside for a little while. I come back, I read it. If I hate it, I won’t do a rewrite. I’ll just abandon it. If I can see the potential of the script, I’ll start rewriting the hell out of it. And that’s when it comes to life. I avoid getting specific with blocking, location descriptions, costumes, props, etc. etc. because that will all be dictated by the logistics of production. The script is never finished. Scenes are always dynamic. I rewrite up to the moment we shoot the scenes, ripping out dialogue, adding new dialogue. When I usually hear something that sounds like bad acting on set, it’s usually just bad dialogue that needs to be reworked. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to write scripts in the past few years that have attracted talented people. I’m taken back to something I think I remember seeing in the movie PERSONAL VELOCITY, by Rebecca Miller. Parker Posey is a book editor and she’s reading her boyfriend’s thesis and it’s obviously badly written. She mutters to herself, “Why can’t you just write like you talk.”

BH.com: I always like to hear about peoples first introductions to the horror genre, because a lot of times, we see those movies far younger than we should and at such an indelible age that they stick with us forever. What were some of the earliest horror recollections you have and any particular horror films stand out as favorites?

OT: Michael Myers chasing Laurie Strode through the suburbs of Haddonfield. That simple staccato score banging suspensefully as I leapt on the bed in absolute terror! I was 8 or 9 at the time and watching that shit upstairs in our old, drafty house.

Jason Voorhees as a child leaping out the water to pull the last survivor of FRIDAY THE 13TH in the water. After the movie my older teenage brother warned that Jason was under the bed. So I crawled in bed with my mom, too scared to sleep alone. It didn’t keep me from watching every sequel through the years, transfixed and wide-eyed!

Seeing EVIL DEAD 2 in the theater as a high schooler was similar to seeing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC, REVENGE OF THE NERDS or BACK TO THE FUTURE. It was a miracle. The pinnacle of what cinema could achieve. The kind of event that you would talk about with giddy abandon. An impossible feat. Horror was always funny to me as a teenager. But this was one of the few first time it all seemed deliberate and completely gonzo.

A year later, HEATHERS came out. And I was knocked out again! Daniel Water’s script was perfection.

BH.com: In the same regard, your style of “black comedy” is so pitch perfect and I think the fact that it’s often placed in a “horror-esque” premise makes it even funnier. Are there any dark comedies that you would consider influences on what you were trying to accomplish, or just in general personal favorites?

OT: HEATHERS. I was in high school, watched it on VHS with my two best friends. It blew our minds wide open. It was stylistic. It was brilliantly written, like it had it’s own unique language. The heroine was beautiful and charming. But it was Christian Slater’s smug outcast anti-hero that won me over. Smooth, cool, rebellious, fearless…cutting through the angst of being a teenager one sarcastic quip at a time. Bugs Bunny with a grudge. A 1980s trenchcoat terrorist, a mix of Jack Nicholson and Jesse James. “So this is dark comedy?” I thought. “I like it.”

Another dark comedy that I love, I didn’t discover until later, way after I graduated college. LITTLE MURDERS written by Jules Feiffer and directed by Alan Arkin. The acting and writing in this movie is freaking insane. It’s still so relevant and really brave, even compared to today’s standards.

Todd Solondz’s HAPPINESS, of course. When Dylan Baker’s character describes having sex with a child? It doesn’t get any darker than that. But it’s funny. How the hell do you pull that off?

I think Woody Allen’s darkest movie is probably DECONSTRUCTING HARRY. The writing is angry as hell and the main character seems incredibly lost. The creative process saves him, though. Anybody in the arts might relate to this. Without creative expression, many of us are doomed.

VAMPIRE’S KISS and AMERICAN PSYCHO always pop up as well. I’m drawn to movies about solipsistic lunatics. They make me laugh.

BH.com: Thanks again! Loved both movies and can’t wait to see what else you come up with in the future!

OT: Incredibly nice of you, Robert! Thank you!

Dark Sky Films releases APPLESAUCE on Digital EST and VOD, as well as Blu-Ray and DVD Tuesday, November 24th, 2015.