The Minds Behind THE DÆMON!H

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You're directing.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Shelby Novak, co-host of the Bloody Disgusting podcast and joining me today are the writer

directors of the oh my god.

I didn't ask you this before.

I say the demon.

I've seen others say the Damon.

Okay, great.

It's the yes to both.

You guys can talk.

It's fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, the demon.

That's how I've always pronounced it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So the demon.

But if you'd like to say the Damon, that's fine too.

Matt Davino and David Yohe.

Thank you both so much for joining me today.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Of course.

So I was mentioning to you both off air, but I watched the film last night.

I like to be fresh in it before an interview and.

Wow.

Wow.

You go in.

I am so glad I went in blind.

I suggested my audience to go in blind.

I'm not going to reveal any spoilers throughout this interview because honestly, the less

you know the better, but we will go.

We will get into some of it because I have not seen a good existential cosmic love crafty

and horror like that in quite a while.

And I was absolutely blown away.

And as I just said, and as the film has been described as lovecraftian cosmic horror,

I definitely agree.

But how would you both describe the demon?

Yeah, I mean, it's a good description.

Yeah, that's a good description for it.

Lovecraft was for sure a big inspiration of the film.

It's not specifically one of lovecraft stories, but it dabbles in the myth of a lot.

But we just kind of used.

A specific if you know lovecraft, you'll figure it out just by the title.

A specific God from lovecraft's mythos as almost our maguffin for the film.

It was just like our way through the story of people dealing with grief and loss and personal issues

and just being real broken people and trying to live life and figured out and getting

cost into one hell of a journey through all kinds of crazy shit that we'll get into.

Amazing.

I think the balance of that is to explain it is that if you're a lovecraft fan,

you'll find this really refreshing because it's something that hasn't been told in this way or manner.

And if you're not, you don't have to worry about it.

If you just like something different, weird, something you have to think about a little more,

then yeah, it's definitely an existential dread type of cosmic horror film,

but you don't have to be a lovecraft avid reader to understand to get the vibe.

It's just going to be weirder for you, but they both work.

I agree.

And if you are a big lovecraft fan, there's a bunch of fun stuff for you.

Easter eggs.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I was going to say if you are a lovecraft fan though, yeah, there's a lot to dig into in this.

So, well, aside from the supernatural, this movie has a very powerful message

about grief and overcoming your past.

And is that something that you hope people take away when watching this?

Yeah, I'll jump in first, Matt on this one.

Matt knows where I'm going.

So, yeah, I think it's weirdly something, Matt and I started out at the beginning

just to try to do something different.

I mean, it's really hard in the business.

Everything's been done or it's a mixed match.

Or a mix-up or a reinvention of something that we've seen or regurgitated,

things that we've watched from the past.

But one of the clear directions, Matt and I wanted to take with it,

was just to really not let the audience know where it was going,

but it had to be in a genuine fashion, not just chaos for chaos,

because it really stemmed from a lot of the things you just talked about.

We were experiencing kind of like generational trauma, grief, addiction, loss,

and then put up against a backdrop of COVID during the time when we wrote it.

And knowing COVID was going to not be a thing in a couple years, hopefully,

you know, that it would be just a blip on a radar.

It had to be something more timeless, so keeping it not just ambiguous,

but keeping something that just kind of tested that weird, uncontrollable.

It's there, but you can't see it type of thing.

But then, you know, we have to pay off at the end, which we're not going to get into.

I guess maybe we can't, I don't know later.

Yeah, I think we're in a genuine place.

Yeah, Matt and I were both going through it.

So to answer your question, it definitely came from a very genuine place.

Even on different levels, Matt and I were just going through some really heavy stuff.

And we just put it on screen and gave the audience kind of a ride

and used the Cosmic Core as a great vessel,

just to kind of put something honest on screen.

Beautiful, beautifully said.

So how did the idea for the story come about?

Matt called me and said, hey, let's make a movie.

I mean, I was in hell.

Okay, I got to answer this with two.

No, I'll let Matt jump in. I got to let him talk.

But he did save, like, there was, you know, it's, yeah, it's well known.

But just at the time, you know, there was a huge tragedy within my family and Matt,

you know, as both of our, like, real passions were, you know, we're just storytelling.

And then moviemaking, we got to a point where we had done enough on a level,

you know, a short form that we really wanted to make our first feature

and kind of use what we've learned, you know, over years and years and years of building shorts.

And I was in no position mentally just to be like, oh, let's go create some fantastical, you know, you know, journey

because we love, you know, Spielberg and John Carpenter and Cameron.

We love everything everyone else loves.

So as an authentic, you know, kind of like filmmaking, you just want to try and put your own stamp on something.

And Matt was like, let's make a movie.

And I was not in the place to do that.

I just kept pushing it and saying, hey, no, we have this, we have this, let's do it, let's do it.

And then it really started from that.

And then we just start throwing up on the pages.

You know, everything in real life.

And then that's kind of how it started.

But Matt, please give a different take on that.

But that's mine.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like Dave said, like we've been, we've been writing together through out COVID.

Like once, basically as soon as like people were like allowed to be six feet away from each other,

we would literally go as days back yard and like sit on like benches six feet away from each other and just like right.

And come up with shit and like a lot of the stuff we were writing was like much bigger scale than this.

And you know, we still have that stuff in our back pocket for the future.

But it just got to the point where we were like.

We should just figure out how to like make something because we had been.

It's funny.

We Dave was talking about short to actually met each other during a panel discussion of two short films that we had playing in the same block at New York City horror film festival.

And then we were talking after we were like, oh, hey, you live in LA.

You live in LA.

Great.

Like we should be friends.

And then like Dave basically became my brother after that.

And we.

We had this like little short film club called the sort of kinds.

I guess it wasn't little.

There was like a lot of people involved in it.

And we made something like 23 short films in two years with the group.

It was just like a collective.

We'll all get together every month and make a short film.

And like, you know, we'll use my camera and your lenses and your lights.

And we'll just pitch in and people act in each other's things.

So when Dave said like we've done enough short films, we were ready to make a feature he's not kidding.

But also all those short films are online.

If you want to check out the sort of kinds that they still exist.

I did check out a few of them.

I saw them on your resume, both of you.

So yeah, they're, they're great.

Awesome.

And then Tyler, who plays Tom in the film, is an old friend of mine.

He, I met him, I'm him on Craigslist.

Back when you could find film gigs on Craigslist like 15 years ago.

It was like need editor for hip hop music video.

And I was like, yep, I need work.

Hello, how are you?

And he come over and we do these like super cheap, like cool, key music videos.

And I'd cut him and he directed him.

And we just were friends.

And then like our wives became friends.

And he has this cabin in Michigan.

And we went and visited him and his wife, my wife.

And I went and visited him and his wife at the cabin in Michigan.

And the second I got there is like, this is the fucking best place ever to make a horror movie.

And, and we just have the location.

It costs us nothing.

Like, let's just write.

Let's write a script around this location.

And so basically, you'll see it in the trailer once you see the trailer.

But the film takes place at this secluded, the main location is this secluded cabin on Lake Michigan.

Right on the shore, there's no other houses around.

You have to take 200 sared down through the woods to get to the cabin.

Or just like, all right, we have a location for free.

We have cameras like, let's just go make a movie.

And it was then, then we had the wrapper.

And it was just like, what do we want to talk about?

Well, let's just talk about all the shit we're going through and put it on screen.

And that's what we did.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Well, I wanted to ask about that Lake House because, yeah, it's the stairs.

Everything about it was so eerie.

And how was it filming out there amongst nature?

Was there, were there any particularly like difficult days on set?

You want to tell us about?

Yeah, we can go to that for a couple of hours.

I mean, this isn't just the normal, yeah, it's not like the normal filmmaker.

I mean, it should happen.

We all know it.

If you're in the business, you know, you're going to run into, you know,

it rains when it's supposed to be sunny, you know, no one shows up that type of thing.

It just happens.

You know, so you can't control it.

This was like by far the most brutal I've ever seen where the location itself had zero cell service.

So there was no way to contact anyone for like a mile radius.

You couldn't get any signal.

The stairs mat made it sound like a 200.

I think it was like 238.

I didn't count or anything.

But yeah, I think it was like 238 steps straight down to the sand.

I mean, it's something that you usually have like a day on, you know, we did a whole movie there,

which is probably not the smartest, but I think what it yielded for us was a really distinctive look.

And something, you know, when when hard becomes the good thing, you know, like hard translates on the screen a lot better when it's not easy,

because everyone can do easy.

So this was the epitome of like, this was hard and it sucked.

But, you know, God bless JR and Tyler and everyone else that put it into this to make that part, you know,

it just the look of it really translated on screen.

So it became a character and it's a, yeah, the location was everything.

So, but it did suck, you know, no doubt.

I won't get in the WASP story, but or the hornets whatever they are in there.

I mean, feel free.

It's still my favorite story ever.

It's a WASP story.

Well, you know, you have to be that way, but you know, see, stay on ground.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're a tripod down on a hornets nest in the ground and they started tacking everyone.

Yeah.

The only funny part about this is I didn't know because I was on a phone call doing some producing work in between takes and everyone screaming around me.

And I'm like, what is going on?

And they're just running out into the 30 degree water and lake Michigan and diving in when taking off their shirts.

And they're just like, there's a WASP and then in comes, you know, Matt is just panic face going, my dad's alerted this.

I need to get better drill down.

All in PAs and I hear them getting better drill rush down to set.

And I'm just like, all right, anyways, can we get like a 50% discount on the crane?

They didn't really know what they were expecting.

It's the most funny.

Like if you can snapshot filmmaking in a bottle, it was like that moment.

Yeah.

It's pretty much, you know, filmmaking 101.

So it was great.

Oh my God, that's hilarious.

I mean, even watching it, I was like, you know, sometimes, you know, there's a there's some trickery to make it look more secluded.

But I was like, no, this, I think this was an actual very secluded location.

So I was so excited to ask about the location itself.

I mean, those stairs just looking at him.

Oh my God.

Yeah, it sucked.

It sucked.

I'm a fat guy.

I hate it.

And I was dead every day.

I was like, oh, God, it was like the worst even for the skinnies.

It was bad, man.

They were just dying every day.

I was like, you know, and there's no, oh, there's no restroom down there.

So what you're down, yeah, it was like, you know, you better.

You better handle everything, you know, after a after breakfast, you know, because you're not, you're not coming back up.

And if it is, it's like a 30 minute, 40 minute trek.

Get ready for some cardio.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're going to have to have them back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All the way up.

All the way down.

Good God.

Oh my God.

Everything's at the top.

Yeah.

Everything at the top.

Logistically, the worst.

Like if you're going to plan a shoot.

It was like, oh, we didn't know that when we got here.

No cell service.

Oh, you know, so, yeah, it was like a literal work of blood, sweat and tears this movie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think your first feature has to be, I mean, everyone does.

I think once you join the club, you realize you cut your teeth.

You're not.

You're not getting the fire.

I love it.

I love that.

Yeah.

So, well, speaking, you said the location itself was a character.

And it absolutely was.

I wanted to ask about one character.

Was there any symbolism I could be totally off behind Kathy wearing white all the time?

Or was that just a random wardrobe choice?

No, we went through wardrobe.

Sorry, man.

I know you're going to jump on that one, too.

Then we went through wardrobe.

Yeah.

There were specific choices.

I think you, it's not not to be vague for vague sake and not because people are listening.

They want to know.

But it is, you know, it does lean a little bit more towards art house and for you to be more interpretive.

There's a lot of stuff in there.

Like, I mean, literally every time I watch it, I kind of see it differently.

So I know audience members are going to get that.

There's just a lot in there.

And on the second or third time view, and you're going to see it differently going, oh, shit.

I didn't even notice that.

And all that stuff starts to click.

So the fact that you picked up on that note, you know, I haven't been asked that before.

But it's definitely deliberate, you know, yeah.

I thought so.

Yeah.

Okay.

I won't get into it.

But, you know, mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's a biggie back on that.

I think, like, if you want to talk about symbolism, go look at all of the kill scenes.

And, and how everyone's killed in the film.

And what that means.

That's like, just that.

That was.

That was really pretty on the face.

People dying this.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Just kidding.

Like, yeah, they're like cool.

No, I crazy go or and all that, but like.

Oh, yeah, cool set pieces, but they all.

There's specific meaning between.

Behind every single one of those choices that we've been.

Absolutely.

I was picking up on some of those.

Again, I didn't want to get into it because so many people have not seen this yet.

But the Kathy thing I figured that was I can keep it pretty spoiler free.

There's a particular reason I wanted to ask to because.

White is usually used as a symbol of.

Purity and things.

And, you know, I won't get into it again.

It's kind of a.

Not a tourist.

Someone trying to live pure.

Looks yes.

Okay.

That makes sense.

I think it's something that has to be the first one.

You know, the first one is someone who's hiding something that, you know,

wants to be an image of something.

But then maybe a certain side piece suffocates them in the end.

I can't tell.

What's happening?

Week.

Oh, boy, when Clint showed up in the woods.

Ooh.

When he had side piece melts on you and it kills you and stuff.

It's a good, venient.

I know it's like.

Don't you know what this is?

I thought we'd discuss this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

taking all the air out of you.

Yeah, I love it.

I really love the symbolism and the kills.

Well, and I wanted to talk to you about the practical effects.

I mean, the whole movie opens up with a pretty gory effect.

So it's not really a spoiler.

I mean, when his arm kind of just bloodily explodes,

I mean, beautiful opener had me immediately.

And then we get a very like, I wasn't sure if the blood

was going to come back for a while,

and then it comes back in a big way.

There's a certain set piece of someone I hesitate to give

spoilers, but there's someone cut in half so beautifully.

So it was bisected so beautifully that I was like, I couldn't,

I was, I had to pause because I was like, wow,

what a beautiful set piece.

I love this so much.

So what made you, I go with so much practice, so many practical effects.

Oh, I mean, it's like Dave said earlier.

Go ahead, Matt.

Kids of the 80s.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're kids of the 80s.

We love carpenter and all the like Sam Raimi films, you know,

the evil dead films, just we have our little homage to Sam Raimi

at the top of the stairs, our little like quick cut montage.

You'll, if you know, you know, anyways.

Yeah, we just, we just love practical effects.

It's like it feels better.

It looks better.

Like yeah, you can do anything with CG these days.

And like it has its place, like there's, there's good CG.

And like there's, there's the reasons to use it.

But like, it's just, we just want to do everything with our hands

and, and, and have it feel real and set.

And then also, I mean, a giant part of it was just Joel Harlow

and Dan Reiber being part of the film.

I love Joel.

Yeah.

Joel's amazing.

Um, yeah, if you don't know who Joel is, he's a Academy award

winning creature designer and make a better, because I just

interviewed him a few months ago on this very podcast.

So go listen to that.

He's amazing.

Yeah, Joel, sweetheart, we love him.

Yeah, he helped us so much on this film.

And then like Dan, Dan did a bunch of the builds of the actual

like sculptures and, um, and prosthetic makeup and arms

exploding shit like that, you know?

And then Joel really, really dove into our final set piece, which I

don't want to talk about.

But, um, I know I wish we could, but it's such a, it's something

that like you really can't give away because when it appears, I

just, I could have watched that for hours.

Like I, I literally thought I was like, I want this as like a

screen saver, like, I don't know, it's, yeah, it's gorgeous

and horrifying.

Yeah, it like, honestly, I was like, I need this somewhere just

kind of as ambiance, which is says a lot about me, but like, it

was just so gorgeously horrific.

And you just, and every filmmaker loves their film on the big

screen, but, you know, just to add on to that.

Man, seeing that, I would, I thought that I was like, I wish I

could have caught this at some sort of screening, because I

want to see this huge, you know, without my first logo in the

corner, you know, yeah, it's practical.

We shot that in the cloud tank, like they just held it so much

fun in the best way, because it felt tangible and for something

that is cosmic and left crafty and to feel tangible, I think

is a feat to overcome in and of itself.

And I think you did a beautiful job at that.

That's wonderful.

Thank you for that.

It really was the intent to come and drive.

Yeah, yeah, get, get way better people around you.

That's all and make your film a lot better, you know, yeah,

that's your whole job as a director, right?

Bring the best people on you can be better, everyone better

vision, yeah, be best.

So what was the casting process like there's so much emotion

and physicality, especially at certain points of this movie,

was it difficult to find the perfect actors for these roles?

No, no, not just to speak for you, Matt, but just Matt had worked

with so many people.

He was like, yep, we're going to use Sarah here and I love Oscar.

You know, he made Oscar at that party.

I'm like, oh, yeah, Oscar's cool.

And it was literally, we just had, oh, I love, you know, Dave McClain's awesome.

We're going to use him and, you know, I have a friend Blake.

I'm like, Blake's great.

We'll use Blake.

He's like, oh, I got to live here.

She did crazy stuff.

I mean, he just, we had it.

That was probably the easiest thing was that it was kind of cast as we wrote it.

And Matt was just like, yep, we're going to use these people and then, you know,

Matt and I just have a huge trust and we've seen our work and we know kind

of where we're at and we kind of find this perfect middle ground.

They kind of complement things, you know, and that was one of them.

Matt just brought like 80% of this cast to like, I love working with these people.

And that's really kind of what you want.

When you go out to do, you know, your first film, you want to have a good family sense,

you know, what was it summer camp?

You know, it was definitely summer camp, you know, so it's one.

Yeah, amazing.

Yeah, we just want to make a movie with our friends too.

The whole, the whole crew and people that we work with forever too.

So yeah, it was our first film in it.

It was the first feature for a lot of people in their DPs first feature.

A lot of the actors first features like just it was our film family, as they say,

from years and years and years of making shorts and, you know, doing commercials

and, you know, paid gigs and things like that.

But like just people that you click with over over the years of working in the film

industry and and you keep those people tight.

Like you keep the good people around you that like we're going to do a project

the other something.

We're going to do a project the other someday.

And that's like what this whole project was for everyone from the beginning.

Like we, before we had any idea how we were going to fund it,

we just said, we're going on this date and we're making a movie who's coming with us.

And like the whole crew sign up before they even like knew if they were going to get paid or not.

Well, and the same thing with the cast.

Like before we knew if anyone was going to get a set up front, everyone was down.

That's like the type of production this was amazing.

Well, because the characters they every actor in this movie really brought

something really grounding to each role.

Like, and I know this is a big compliment to the writing as well.

Every one of these characters felt like someone I've met before be it good or bad.

And I really appreciated that about this.

There were, I mean, there were several of the characters where I was so frustrated

in the beginning in a good way.

Like within the movie because I was like, oh my God, I have met this asshole

before, Mani in the beginning.

And I've also met, you know, the person who's just like not overcoming their own trauma.

And it's a little frustrating even though they mean well.

And I've met, I've met the Cathies.

I have definitely met the Cathies and the Thoms and everything.

Like I have met these people.

And it was just so interesting to watch such realistic people fall into this.

They weren't like caricatures of, you know, archetypes or anything.

They were just like, your friends, when you hear your friends went on vacation

and they never came back, you know, like I felt like that could happen.

And I love that.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, the fun of that writing that was, you know, man, I try to not just do misdirection

for misdirection sake.

It was like, we want to give the first half to feel very comfortable.

Like you've seen this type of movie before.

It's a slow burn, but it is those character moments of like you're kind of unlikable.

They're real though.

They're just like, but now that you know them.

And once we get you to the, you know, the lake house, that second half just starts to cook.

And that's when the cosmic meets all those personalities you're talking about.

And then who would do what in certain scenarios?

And then you start, you blend that to where you really don't know where it's going to go.

And that was like the fun for us is to kind of give you a unique ride that you hadn't seen before.

So we really want to really bring that to the, if you're going to say something,

you know, obviously have something to say if you're going to pick up a camera.

I really believe that, you know, it's a lot of work and it's a lot of hell and effort

to get it seen, to even get to this point.

You know, you got to hit so many levels, but to execute, you know,

starting with the riding was Matt and I to really kind of bring something that we hadn't seen before,

but felt familiar enough to where you go on the ride.

And when you're dealing with cosmic horn, everything doesn't, isn't quite explain.

You're in a dangerous gray area.

And so the more you can kind of hand hold your baby through the whole thing

and then let you end on a feeling and you're like, I don't know what just happened,

but I'm fuck, I've never seen that before.

And that was kind of the goal with the characters and the visuals

and everything that we just really fought throughout the whole thing

to kind of bring something that you hadn't quite seen,

but felt familiar enough for you to stay on the boat with us, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

One thing I, how do I phrase this?

The fact that they were so realistic characters

added to the feeling at the end of grief, because it really, like I said,

it really felt like I know these people.

It wasn't watching over-the-top movie characters,

you know, experience these things.

It was like, oh no, these aren't like, these people aren't that bad,

even though even if they've done bad things or they're annoying,

or depending on the character, they're not that bad.

And I'm so sad and this is, it really added to the gravity of the situation

and how big all of this felt and how small I felt by the end of the movie,

which is what I love about cosmic horror and things of that nature

because you feel so small at the end and, oh, did I?

Yeah, it's hard to attain that.

I mean, you're talking about scale and scope,

and it's hard when you don't have big budgets to kind of go out and give that mass

and to kind of give you, you know, we shoot Tide the very beginning,

everything is very intimate, and it just keeps expanding

until obviously the ending, which is about as big as...

Bigger than anything, everything, yeah.

Yeah, I think the fun part of it, you know, not the fun part,

but a lot of films now, it seems like they just used the grief thing as a mechanism

to kind of get going and we're like, okay, so the woman just lost her child

or the woman just lost her husband,

and we're going to put her in this scenario,

but it feels very arbitrary.

It doesn't feel like that's real,

and that now we're living this thing of like, you know, we are those characters

in all different facets.

We saw it happening real-time where, you know, I lost a family member very close

and I saw other family members just dive down addiction trains to the point of like,

they were about to die, and then you had COVID surrounding it,

and then you had, hey, only 10 people can show up at this funeral,

and it was just like, what the fuck is happening?

And then you had other things going on, you know,

won't get into specifics, but just look really heavy shit.

And those characters were all the way we felt, like, you know,

a little bit of Jess is part of me.

They're not one characters in all of us,

but just the idea of, you know, I was watching,

and Matt was watching, and we just said,

oh, these four characters need to embody this and not make them caricatures,

but like, you know, this is real.

And then we saw, like, people trying to reach people.

Like, I know I spent a hell of a lot of time after, you know,

that tragedy and all of my family just trying to reach certain people

that I couldn't, no matter how much I'm like, hey, I've been there

and all that kind of, like, collective, I've been through it,

so let me help you.

And it's like, that doesn't always work.

And, you know, sitting across from people crying, saying,

hey, please don't do this.

Kids are coming for Christmas tomorrow.

Those kind of conversations, it isn't in the movie,

but it's in the movie, if that makes sense.

Like, all of that feeling and that weird,

just remembering past things.

And what did always like this and that's just real life shit.

And we just put that bow of making it, we're horror fans.

So you have to pay off at some point.

And we, that tension kind of build that bottle, you know,

kind of pressure that we pop at the very end.

And I think you would admit, and most people do,

that the last 30 minutes are just like fucking bonkers,

you know, it's like it's worth a ride.

It is.

The last 30 minutes are worth the bonkers of being patient.

Let's say it, but yeah, that was, it all came from,

yeah, just real, real, real life stuff.

Those characters are really built around like,

people we know or parts of ourselves

that were like, hey, let me be honest about this.

You know, so yeah, they're very, it shows.

Yes, the scene with Jess talking to Manny was so hard for me to watch.

It was, it was difficult to watch her explain,

you know, all of these horrific things she went through

and then him being like, I don't fucking care.

And get fucked, you know, and it was like, it was so real.

It was so real.

And I had, I've dealt with a Tom in my life before.

I won't get into that.

But like, it was, they were like, and these characters,

I think if people have dealt with grief, addiction,

family members who have dealt, you know,

or dealing with the family members who are also going

through those things, it's, it's a really,

it's a hard watch in the best way.

It feels like it really, it really got under my skin.

And then it actually got under my skin and under their skin.

And then it was, it was beautifully paced.

I will say that.

I know it's called the Slow Burn.

And I would agree, but wow, wow.

So I, I wanted to ask you, what movie do you think would be

a good double feature for this?

I know Dave's answer.

Yeah, damn it.

We've been asked that one before.

Let me take this one.

It's a great way to find the vibes.

It is.

You know, like again, I have to say the same thing.

So let Matt go.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll have to, I'll have to say that thing.

Just it's, yeah.

It's my other favorite card in the core.

I feel like, yeah, it's the same director.

Yeah, that part, you know, but I feel like if you're going to step

anywhere in your JC's library, like a lot of people think

they are because they use the font in their title.

It's like, you can't even get near that guy, man.

He's, you know, he's JC for a reason.

And he's John Carpenter, Jesus Christ.

So I think to maybe we'll try to ride those coattails.

But yes, a lot of it was inspired on my side,

structurally like Prince of Darkness.

So that would be what I felt is a movie that builds up

to where you're not sure where it's going.

You just know here's all the elements.

And then you get to the ending and you're like,

I don't, they've never really disclosed

how they're even going to try to stop this.

They just, it's just, it's happening in real time.

It's just happening.

Yeah, and that's how ours plays.

It's just, it's something that's happening.

And then we put our going into a bottleneck and, you know,

get them to that, basically the church in Prince of Darkness.

And then, you know, everything starts to swirl,

you know, metaphorically and physically.

You know, so, yeah, it's, uh, they're about John Carpenter

cocktails and people we've heard, you know,

like the Babadook and the Shining.

I think those get played out too much.

We're not even near that.

Let's just be real.

Those are kind of master classes with, you know,

good budgets and genius filmmakers.

And ours is a genuine from the heart, you know,

with everything we've learned.

And I think it's, you know, very good first effort.

And I think it's a different watch.

But yeah, if you're, you know, double feature it,

yeah, it's heavily inspired by John Carpenter, I would say.

I love that.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, do you have any advice for aspiring filmmakers

before I let you go?

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Man, I don't think before we made it.

Before we made this, I would have been like,

you get all this people, they're like,

you're either going to joke like run.

Don't even do it.

You know, yeah.

And that's right.

And they're not exclusive.

And then also, you know,

are you willing to kind of be in the die trying phase

for the rest of your life, you know?

So if you're meant for it, you'll do it.

I just think that's really it.

I think it's not a matter of luck.

I don't think it's a matter of anything.

I think it's when you need it as much as air,

and you want to breathe,

you're going to make it happen.

And that's how this came about.

There was no magic to it.

I couldn't repeat this.

It'll probably never happen this way again.

So I think any time you can get something made,

build the support network and film family,

like Matt mentioned earlier,

and do short things and kind of grow into it.

Too many people kind of do one short film.

I think I'm never doing that again.

I'm doing a feature from now on.

It's like, why don't you do a short,

like a feature and let show that you can be,

you know, kind of show what you can do

and get really good at that.

And then when you get to the feature level,

like Matt and I solve so many problems,

because of our experience that

gave us, and I think you'll agree,

it gave us a really good look,

like almost like a low grade studio look

compared to what other films

are putting out at this level.

Absolutely, I would agree.

I'm really proud of that.

But that came from experience.

That's not a lot.

That came from Matt and I really cutting our teeth,

doing a lot of short form stuff

and commercials and building those people

and knowing when you need practical effects,

you go to Joe Harlow.

You don't try to do that.

That's the only thing you can go to the grad

if you want it to look great.

You go and do, you know,

you get the best in the business.

So yeah.

Yeah, I think Dave covered it,

but it's like, do 20 shorts, do 30 shorts.

Don't do a handful of them.

Yeah.

And, and write, if you want to be a writer,

write every day.

I mean, Dave and I probably have 20 plus scripts

sitting on hard drive somewhere

that haven't been produced.

That you've got to learn to write somehow, you know?

And then to get your first one done,

it's like, do whatever you got to do to do it.

Like it, writing around what you have access to,

I think is a great idea for your first feature.

Like we did using the people

that you've built relationships with

and will die for you

to, because they're your family,

is that's how you get your first feature made.

You know, there's, there's edge cases

where someone writes an amazing script

and they get, you know, $10 million

and they get to go do it with all kinds of money

and, and have trailers and shit.

But, you know, that's not common.

All right, so actually not today.

Just, I think just getting a movie made at all

or not, I shouldn't say getting a movie made.

Making a movie happen at all is a miracle,

because it's not like, stop asking permission,

I guess, is the best way to say it.

Is there's, there's, yeah.

No one is going to give you permission to do this

and there's no one that's going to hand it out to you.

Like, you just have to just be belligerent about it.

Like, I am doing this.

And like, we said a date, it's what we did.

It's what, if we didn't say,

we are going to shoot this movie on this date,

I doubt it would have happened.

And once we started telling people,

like, we are going to Michigan in October,

on October 1st, and we are shooting this movie.

People got behind us in ways that we could never have expected.

So, so do the work to get ready.

Do, it's, you know, do a lot of work to get ready.

And then when you're ready, just, just do it and do it.

However, do whatever you have to do to make it happen.

I love that.

Yeah, it's a cyclical environment too.

You've got to give a lot.

I think that's what people don't realize.

It's not all about you.

It's not just about your art, people sacrificing,

giving you tons of money so you can go make art.

You know, it's where art meets commerce.

And there's a lot of giving.

I think if you go into it,

go help a bunch of people make stuff.

So, when you do pull your card and say,

hey, I'm all in, I'm selling the farm.

I'm going to make my first feature.

Those people will come no doubt.

So, I think it's a lot about giving,

you know, not to quote Danny Glover.

But, you know, we make our lives by what we give.

And I'm a firm believer in that.

So, I think the more you do that,

the better your film is going to be,

regardless on every level.

So, yeah, that's a really good point.

Like, go hold a boom on someone's set.

Like, go, go PA.

Like, yeah.

Like Joel helped us because I was for free.

For sure.

Because I was shooting Joel's short films

as a DP, like I'm a DP as well.

And I was shooting his short films

that were his passion projects

that I got connected to him through

another mutual friend that was producing.

And then Dave came out.

I was like, I'm just going to PA.

Like, I just want to help.

Like, I want to be part of this.

So, like, people remember stuff.

People remember when you go help.

And when you're a good person.

That's the other thing too.

Like, don't be a jerk.

Because people want good people around.

We don't want to say good things.

Yeah, we kill you.

Yeah, we have to do it.

Yeah, exactly.

Do it.

Do it.

I mean, bring in crustables.

Bring in crustables.

That's a good point.

Yeah, bring in crustables.

And when you watch everyone light up,

you're feeling going to be amazing.

It should be sponsored by uncrustables.

And you'll be fine.

Don't worry about it.

You know, there's something about an uncrustable

after a long day.

Or like at the right point in the day.

It's beautiful.

It's magical.

Watching a crew just sit there and eat on a...

There's not going to happen.

But I was just like, oh, this is the best sandwich ever.

Yeah, it is.

It is the best sandwich ever.

Beautiful.

I love the moment like that.

I love that.

Like when you are directing your short...

I always want to ask about crafty,

but I always feel like we are doing it.

But like, I love crafty to me as one of the best parts

of movie making.

Right?

Yeah.

If you can feed your crew

back to the question email,

they'll do anything for you.

Yeah.

They'll like, they'll stand in traffic for you

if you don't do like...

Yeah, just...

And go back to the logistics question.

Yeah, when you're...

Yeah, but when you are literally on a ridge,

you know, 200 feet down or whatever it was,

you know, turn and steps down.

And there's one restaurant within like 10 miles

that felt like, you know, thank God, you know,

Tom Spiller did the work to kind of

basically partner with the restaurant

to give good meals to...

Oh, amazing.

...to work in your ass rock.

Yeah, we didn't skimp on that.

You know, we really tried to put all the money on the screen,

but the only thing that really wasn't was

booze and food.

And then your crew runs on booze

and food at least ours did.

I don't know.

I mean, for thousands of years,

this humans we run on booze and food.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

They ain't at all.

But I know they ran through.

They ran through quite a bit of booze.

But hey, you know, it's all on screen.

So God bless them.

I was actually really wondering about that

when I saw the stairs.

I was like, how were they tossing sandwiches

down the stairs?

I don't know how this all happened.

Look at the top of the gears.

Get your meal and call it.

Yeah, there was very little down

because we also didn't want to litter on the beach.

It was very like a beautiful shoreline,

you know, off of Link, Michigan, you know.

But yeah, there was the whole idea of, you know,

all right, there's going to be food upstairs.

And thank God we had what was called the crewhouse,

which was maybe about five or six houses down.

I don't know if I can how far it was, maybe two or three,

but there's really big lots, you know.

So it's quite a walk.

It's quite a hike.

But that crewhouse, you know,

hosted like 17, half of our cast and crew

slept there.

But there we had, you know, that's where we had the food.

And luckily the house that we rented had like a full bar

with bar taps and beer taps outside.

Oh, my God.

They let us go into the town a little bit.

They know that, you know, we're all full blown,

you know, booze heads.

And it's like that was gone in day one.

So half of our crafty budget went towards,

can we get another bottle of whiskey?

Yep, sure.

Yeah, it was great.

It was fun.

And once summer camp, you know, for adults, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amazing.

Well, thank you so much to both of you.

This movie is so fantastic.

If people would like to make sure to keep up to date

with any of your future creative endeavors,

where can they find you on social media?

If you do social media.

Stevenspielberg.com.

Or let me think, no, no.

Matt, where you just Instagram, what are we doing?

Are we just going to film the demon movie?

What are we doing?

Yeah, Instagram, the demon movie.

Right.

And then I'm Divo Cam, DEVO, C-A-M.

And then Dave has an Instagram too.

Yo, I'm a Yo-Hee Bear.

So my last name, why are we H-E-B-A?

That's so cute.

Hey, Art, yeah.

I was told Yo-Hee Bear quite a bit growing up,

but now I am just basically embodied the whole bear thing.

And there you go.

So I am Yo-Hee Bear.

I love it.

Well, I will have those in the show notes for everyone

to go follow these two.

And I cannot wait to see what else we get from you.

But also, please go check out the demon.

It's available now on screen box.

It's such an incredible movie again.

I'm not telling you anything.

Don't go into it, no, reading anything else.

It's just such a ride to experience on its own.

Are you aware and different?

Go get weird and different with us.

Yes, go get weird and different, you guys.

It's the weekend.

Go get weird and different.

So yeah, go check it out now.

Thank you too so much.

And I will see you all on next Wednesday.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

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