My 2010 Movie Watch-List

A few years back here I noted how I had always had trouble keeping track of the various films I would watch and see. Despite the fact that Moon in the Gutter is now over four years old, it just dawned on me a year or so ago that this was kind of an ideal place to to keep a movie watch list of sorts. Throughout 2010 over on the side-panel I have been keeping a list of pre-2010 films that I caught up with for the first time. Ironically, I probably watched less movies in 2010 than any year in recent memory due to several factors including work, planning my wedding and the fact that I caught up with a lot of television shows that had alluded me previously. Here's the list of films I did manage to catch up with though with my rather lame star ratings beside them. I'll be the first to admit that listing these is basically for my benefit, so I can keep track of them, but hopefully someone might get a couple of recommendations out of it.

In Alphabetical Order:

500 Days of Summer ****1/2



A Dragonfly for Each Corpse ***1/2
A Single Man ****1/2
Abigail Lesley is Back in Town *****
Adam **1/2
All About Steve *
Antichrist *****
Axe ***
Bali **
Bathing Beauty ****
Before Night Falls *****
Best Friends (1975) ***1/2
Bitch Slap *
Blow Dry ***
Blue State ***
Bright Star ***1/2
Capitalism: A Love Story ****1/2
Cassandra's Dream ****
Delicious ***
Dimples *
Don't Go in the House ***
Don't Go In The Woods ***
Down in the Valley ***1/2
Felicia ***1/2
Forced Entry (1975) *1/2
Franklyn ***1/2
Frontiers ****1/2



Giallo **1/2
Gospel According to Al Green ****1/2
Half Nelson *****
Hitchhike to Hell **1/2
Horrible (Absurd) ***
How I Got Lost ****
I Could Never Be Your Woman *1/2
Incendiary ****
Inside ***1/2
Jennifer's Body **
Lars and the Real Girl ****
Last House on the Left (Remake) ***
Life Blood ***
Live in my Secrets ****
Man on Fire ****
Management ***
New York, I Love You **
Next Door ****1/2
Night of the Creeps ***1/2
Night of the Lepus **
Not Quite Hollywood *****
Nothing But the Truth (1941) **1/2



Nympha ***
Out of Time *1/2
Patrick Lives Again ***1/2
Pitfall ****1/2
Pootie Tang **
Pro-Ball Cheerleaders (1979) **
Psychomania ***
Putney Swope *****
Recount ****
Rest Stop: Dead Ahead **1/2
Return in Red ***
Rings of Fear ***
Rolling Thunder ****1/2
Roommates ****1/2



Saint Ange **
Scent of Heather ***
Serious Moonlight ***1/2
Smash Cut ****1/2
Soul Men **
SpaceCamp ***
Splinter ***1/2
Stanley **1/2
SuperChick ***1/2
Taken *1/2
Tears of the Black Tiger *1/2
Tetro ****
The Bodyguard (Sonny Chiba) ***



The Boogens ***
The Box ***1/2
The Descent: Part 2 *
The Final Destination *1/2
The Forest ***1/2
The Fourth Kind *
The House of the Devil ****1/2
The Invention of Lying ***
The Isle **1/2
The Joneses ***1/2
The Original Kings of Comedy *****
The Parent Trap (1998) ****
The Pick-up Artist ****1/2
The Promotion ***
The Quiet ***
The Ring Finger **1/2
The Rocker ***1/2
The September Issue ***1/2
The Soloist **
The Violation of Claudia ***
The Young Victoria ***
These are the Damned ****
They Drive by Night *****
Tommy Boy **
Torture Garden **
Training Day ****
Trouble Man **1/2
Twentynine Palms ***1/2
Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl ****
Virtue (Carole Lombard) ***



Wanda Whips Wall St. ***1/2
Whatever Works ****1/2
Whiteout *

Of the films released in 2010, here is my list for those that I saw during the year:

After.Life **1/2
Black Swan *****
Body Heat ***
Book of Eli **
Date Night **1/2
Dinner for Schmucks ***
Due Date ***1/2
Edge of Darkness ***
Get Him to the Greek ***1/2
Going the Distance ***1/2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ****
Hot Tub Time Machine ***1/2
Inception ****
Iron Man 2 ***1/2
Kick Ass ****1/2
Knight and Day ****
Let Me In *****
Love and Other Drugs ***1/2
Machete ****
Malice in Lalaland ****1/2
Morning Glory **
Never Let Me Go **1/2
Paranormal Activity 2 ***1/2
Piranha 3D ****
Resident Evil: Afterlife ****
Robin Hood **1/2
Salt ***1/2
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World ****1/2
Shutter Island ****
Splice ***
The A-Team *1/2
The Crazies *
The Expendables ****
The Fighter *****
The Girl Who Played with Fire ****1/2
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ****1/2
The Killer Inside Me ****
The King's Speech ***
The Last Exorcism ***1/2
The Losers *
The Next Three Days ****
The Other Guys ****
The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story ****1/2
The Runaways ****
The Social Network *****
The Tourist **1/2
The Town ****1/2
True Grit ****1/2
Unstoppable ***1/2
Winter's Bone ***1/2

Consider anything I have given 3 stars or more a recommendation.

The Art of the Movie Poster: A Daria Halprin Birthday Edition

More Tarkovsky than Romero: Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil: Afterlife

No matter what he might accomplish in his career, filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson will always be known as modern cinema's “other Paul Anderson”. Pity, as the less distinguished Anderson has in the past fifteen years quietly established himself as one of the most striking visual stylists on the planet. Of course he has also become one of modern films major critical punching bags as he is deliberately guilty of two things many critics consider criminal, with those being that he loves making genre films and, in those films, the style IS the substance.



Few films from 2010 have slipped under the radar more than Anderson’s dazzling Resident Evil: Afterlife, a mind-blowing visual treat that stands as one of the most compelling and strangest major studio productions in recent memory. Afterlife took the same expected critical pounding as the rest of the Resident Evil franchise but that was inevitable as the mainstream critical community loves to attack or ignore these films. Had Afterlife been a film made outside of a recognizable franchise by a ‘respectable’ director it would have been heralded as a major trailblazing achievement.



The much maligned British born Paul W.S. Anderson kick-started his directorial career with the terrific crime-drama Shopping (1994), a film which offered Jude Law an early starring role. Anderson’s place as an action director was solidified though with his second feature, the interesting but much maligned Mortal Kombat (1995). Anderson’s position as one of modern films most interesting young talents should have been noted with his third feature, the haunting Event Horizon (1997) but few seemed to notice how visually gifted he had become within the span of just a few years.



Anderson would continue to improve and refine his very original eye as a filmmaker on the entertaining Kurt Russell sci-fi vehicle Soldier (1998) before hitting box-office paydirt with his exciting Resident Evil (2000), the wonderfully entertaining first film in one of the decade’s most successful franchises. Hampered by a particular harsh censors board that removed every drop of blood from it, Anderson’s opening chapter to the financially lucrative Resident Evil franchise was a critical disaster but immediately became a rather huge cult-film thanks to its unforgettably sleek look and the performance of the astonishing Milla Jovovich, who immediately became the premier action heroine in all of modern film. Of course the critics hated it but few films from the period managed to be as stylish and as entertaining as the first Resident Evil film and time has proven it one of the most influential films (for good and bad) of the past decade.

Anderson frustratingly stayed out of the directors chair for the first two Resident Evil sequels and instead delivered the disappointing AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004) and the terrific Death Race (2008), a remake of the Roger Corman cult-classic that operated as one of the most brutal and entertaining satires on modern audiences’ reality-show obsessed mentality as any other film in recent memory.



After two take the cash and run sequels, Resident Evil: Afterlife was expected to be a pick-up the paycheck only work from the (now married in real life) team of Anderson and Jovovich but instead it is the best of the series. From it’s audacious slow-motion and rain-soaked manga-inspired opening to its self-referential final frame, Afterlife is a truly visionary work that actively works against the hallmarks of what good-filmmaking is supposed to be and instead becomes a eye-popping piece of surreal motion art fuelled by some of the most adventurous set-pieces in recent memory and an effortlessly cool performance by Jovovich, who simply can’t be topped in this kind of film.



2010 was a particularly boring year for English-language film and Resident Evil: Afterlife was one of the few works that truly surprised me. Along with Edgar Wright’s tremendous Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Afterlife is visually the most entrancing and audacious work of 2010, with Anderson’s architectural gift for framing matched perfectly by the production design of Arvinder Grewal and the art direction of Brandt Gordon. Afterlife frankly has more imagination in its opening credit sequence than Inception has in its entire running time (and I liked Nolan’s work for the most part).



Afterlife is also graced with the best sound-design of the year by Coll Anderson, whose rumbling efforts here are worthy of an Oscar-nomination. The sound is indeed one of Resident Evil: Afterlife’s greatest assets and nowhere is this more apparent than in the career best score granted to the film by tomandandy.

The team of Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn have been one of the most consistent and interesting film composing teams in all of modern film with their work in films like Killing Zoe (1993), Waking the Dead (2000) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) showing them as fearless and innovative. They really top themselves with their work on Resident Evil: Afterlife, a brilliant score made up of Enoesque ambient soundscapes and harsh industrial pieces that sound like a dream collaboration between Killing Joke and Throbbing Gristle. The Milan soundtrack CD (and deluxe digital download) is one of the finest recordings of the year.

I think perhaps the thing I admire most about Resident Evil: Afterlife is the methodical and hypnotic pace Anderson and Editor Niven Howie give the film. Described by sluggish and dull by some fans of the franchise, I found the deliberate pacing of the film overwhelmingly refreshing. Anderson has become a supremely confident filmmaker and with Afterlife he allows us time to really soak in his great visual flair. While it has all the trademarks of a modern action thriller (from slow-motion gunfights to elaborate choreographed fight sequences) Resident Evil: Afterlife is in fact a big-budget Art-Film which owes more to Tarkovsky than Romero.



Resident Evil: Afterlife can now be seen in all of its bold glory on DVD and Blu-Ray. The discs contains a number of valuable extras, all of which highlight its striking visual style and the nervy dedication of Milla Jovovich, a great actress who finally got some needed and just acclaim for the recent Stone.

Paul W.S. Anderson thankfully doesn’t look like he is going to cater to any idea of ‘respectability’ anytime soon as his next projects are Death Race 2, The Three Musketeers and hopefully another Resident Evil film. He will, no doubt, continue to draw much disdain from critics and many film fans but Anderson, with his rejection of most 'good' movie hallmarks, has become one of the most interesting auteurs on the planet.

Resident Evil: Afterlife is his boldest and geatest achievement so far…

Kinski: Two 1981 Calendar Pages

An Alternate Michel Gentil Titles Sequence at Tomb it May Concern

David at the always amazing Tomb it May Concern has unearthed an alternate title sequence for one of Jean Rollin's Michel Gentil productions, and I wanted to supply the link here. Thanks to David for posting this very interesting variation. My post on this film, with the other different credit sequence can be found here.

A Lovely Video Tribute to Jean Rollin

Valentine De Luxe has made this lovely tribute video to Jean Rollin and I wanted to share it here for those who hadn't seen it.

Jean Rollin, poète de l'image from valentine deluxe on Vimeo.

Operation Screenshot (Films Of The Seventies) Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974)

The Art of the Movie Poster: Robert Bresson's Une femme douce (1969)

We Are Nearing 100 Memorial Links

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I added a whole slew of additional Jean Rollin Memorial Links this morning. We are coming close to that 100 mark. Thanks to everyone who has been sending me the links and I will continue adding them as they come my way.

A Rare Passion Flower Hotel Slide

A Slight Rant and a Big Thank You

Nothing gets under my skin more than elitist film critics, fans and self-appointed ‘experts’ who live to force their view of what ‘great art’ is, and isn’t, on anyone unlucky enough to be in their vicinity. Recently while perusing a certain message board concerning Jean Rollin’s untimely passing I was angered by one of these elitist blowhards who not only questioned Rollin’s place in film history but questioned that anyone actually cared that he had passed. I don’t ask that everyone be a fan of Rollin’s canon, one of art’s defining qualities is that it will never be universally loved, but how dare someone take it upon themselves to state that others shouldn’t admire his work and mourn his passing.

I get so sick and tired of so called film lovers who only admire what they consider ‘high-art’ and who dismiss anything they see as beneath them. My only consolation is that their ‘work’ will be forgotten while the films of directors they routinely reject like Rollin, Franco, Metzger, Sarno and Borowczyk will continue to prosper and find new fans and admirers with each passing year.

Since Jean Rollin passed away less than a week ago he has been granted some of the most eloquent and passionate tributes by a mostly online community of writers who have been touched by his work, often in a very profound way. These are talented writers who aren’t getting paid for what they do. They are writing because they have a very genuine passion for film, and they are among the most knowledgeable and articulate film historians on the planet.

I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has posted these wonderful tributes these past few days to Jean Rollin, an artist who faced harsh criticism throughout his career and will no doubt face the same jabs in death. Those snobby ‘lovers’ of film, like the gentlemen at that message board, look to take-out anyone who goes against their perceived and small ideas of what makes a great artist. They will sadly always be in our midst, looking to put out the creative fires of our most imaginative artists, but their narrow viewpoint ultimately means NOTHING.

Take comfort in THE FACT that Jean Rollin’s work will survive long after the words of these so called purveyors of fine-art are completely forgotten.

I know I do…

A Moon in the Gutter Q&A with Producer and Director Herschel Zahnd III

Today I am very pleased to present this new Q&A with Actor, Director and Producer Herschel Zahnd III. I have stated here before that I wish more films were shot in the wonderfully cinematic Louisville, Ky., so I was thrilled to find Herschal's striking shot in Louisville micro-budget feature Girl Number Three earlier this year. I greatly admired Herschal's first-feature so I am very happy to present this Q&A with him, which should prove a fascinating read to inspiring your film-makers and theater directors.



Moon in the Gutter: Now I believe you were born in Jeffersonville, Indiana? Can you tell us a bit about your early days and how you first became interested in film?

Herschel Zahnd III: Well I was born in Seymour, Indiana, about 40 miles north of Jeffersonville. I have lived literally from the top of the state, Fort Wayne, to the bottom. I moved to Jeffersonville after I got married.

I became interested in filmmaking very late in life, by today’s standards. It wasn’t until I had graduated College with a theater degree and had formed my, then only Theater, company, Renegade Art Productions, LLC, that I gave any serious thought to Producing and Directing a Film.

I have always loved movies. I was introduced to Star Wars and Indiana Jones by my parents, and subsequently became obsessed with, what was then, those SIX films. In an effort to abate that obsession, they had my watch all sorts of other films. That is where my love of film was born. My first movie was actually a Star Trek film that I made using Star Trek action figures and my Dad’s RCA VHS Camcorder. Though at that point it just sounded like fun, not a career. Early in life I wanted to be an archaeologist, wonder why, and I am still obsessed with History. I spent my middle and high school years with every intention of being a Medical Doctor. However, by my Junior Year of High School I realized that I did not have the math and chemistry proficiency to realize that dream. So I turned to what had become my true love, Theater.

My dad had showed me the film version of Lil’ Abner and I fell in love with it. I turned to him and said that I would love to be in the show some day. We moved back to Seymour in 1997 and that fall the Seymour High School Choir was doing Lil’ Abner as their Fall Musical. I auditioned and won a role as a Crony and Chorus member. From that point on I was hooked. I participated in over 20 musicals, plays and concerts during High School Several that I Directed and one that I wrote.

Did you get interested in the Horror genre fairly young or did that passion come a bit later?

MUCH LATER! I grew up in a very conservative Christian home. My parents did not allow me to watch horror films, and truthfully they were quite right to do so. The truth is I think the Horror Genre is Wonderful, I love it, but I think exposure to it at too young of an age is a bad thing.

I grew to love the genre in college. My roommate would go home most weekends and leave me alone. I didn’t have a lot of friends and no money to go out so my Friday nights consisted of a trip to the Public Library to pickup a stack of movies that would watch over the weekend.

It was then that I was introduced to names like Roger Corman, Wes Craven, John Charpenter, and Clive Barker. It was also then that I got hooked on Trash Horror. The SCARCROW movies, SLEEPAWAY CAMP, SORORITY MASSACRE, ect.

To this day I love bad horror films. Though I am a bit more finicky than I used to be.

I saw where you involved in Theater during your college days and I know you are still actively involved. Would you say that you have more of an enthusiasm for theater or film, or are they both equal for you?

My true love is entertaining. I have been blessed to do it in about every form imaginable. From plays, to musical, operas, Shakespeare, ballet, film, television, and webisodes I have gotten to do it all.

Though I see Film as being my true calling and my career, I will always love the theater more. I feeling of finishing a performance and the crowd roaring to it’s feet as you step out for your bow is for me the essence of life. I got to experience it for the first time while playing Kenney Kenickie in GREASE. The Crowd went nuts when I took my bow. I live for it!

The other side of the coin is Film. The greatest tragedy of theater is that eventually, the show will close. Some of the greatest performances of our time occurred on stages with no cameras there to document them. Save the few hundred people that were there that night, no one else will ever see them. Once a film is shown and released, it is there for all time. Especially now. In the early days of film, it was possible for all the prints to be lost. Some of the lesser-known Charlie Chan and Charlie Chaplin films are great examples of this kind of loss. Now, however, once DVDs hit the market there is little chance that it will ever completely disappear. My film was bootlegged to the internet and so long as there is power to the server it is stored on it will always be there. The eternal nature of film appeals to me. All the hard work and countless hours spent won’t be lost because the audiences quit coming night after night and Disney needs space for Lilo and Stitch: The Musical.

When I am asked, “What do you want to do?” I always respond, “As Long as I am working in the arts, I don’t care.”

Tell me how you first got involved in filmmaking and what did your early work consist of?

I became interested in film at first purely as an actor. I did several student and independent films as minor leads and bit characters. In early 2004 I got a hair-brained idea for a script and wrote and outline the finally turned into a screenplay by 2006. At that point I had raised about $2000.00 to make the movie, and I had a guy that claimed to have camera and was going to shoot it. Well, his camera turned out to be a off brand high-8 and a really bad one at that. I made the choice at that point to invest the money I had raised and buy a camera of my own.

I purchased a Canon XL1 and started to learn how to use it. I made several short films and got into Wedding Videography. I also had to learn how to edit, direct for film and all the other things that most people don’t think about when they utter those famous last word of a fool, “Making a movie can’t be THAT HARD! I bet I can do it!”

I soon made a successful short film called TOLERANCE and produced a TV Show called THE NECROVILLE PICTURE SHOW.

These were all small projects and largely light comedy.





Onto GIRL NUMBER 3. Tell me about the genesis of the film from comic to screen and how you became involved in it.

This is a LONG story. In October of 2007 I was running the haunted house at the Waverly Hill Sanitarium. I was also working at UPS as a supervisor. It was then that I met Nathan Thomas Milliner. He gave me a copy of a newly printed comic he had written and drawn called GIRL NUMBER THREE. I read the thing as soon as I got home and then told my wife to read it. By that afternoon I was on the phone to Nate and struck a preliminary deal to turn GN3 into a film with him Writing the screenplay and me directing.

More than 28 months elapsed between the night Nate handed me the Comic and the first Public Screening of the film. We faced casting difficulties and location changes. We shot in some of the coldest weather Louisville had ever seen. We were tested so many times in so many different ways. One prominent local filmmaker looked at me at one point and said “I would have given up by now.” That was just never an option for us. We resolved to make the film no matter what. We were challenged, we fought the battles, we were victorious.

I though the film was a cool hybrid between the fairly extreme Grindhouse Revenge thrillers of the seventies and early eighties Slashers. Were there any particular films you were trying to emulate while making it? Any you recommended you cast or crew watch to prepare?



There were certainly elements of classic films that we wanted to homage but never copy. The horror genre is challenging because it is hard to do something that hasn’t ever been done, it’s ALL been done!

There was no chance of creating new and innovative FILM stuff on the budget and the knowledge we had. This was a learning film. There was not one film school graduate on the production team. We were going on what we knew from watching other films and from what I was able to learn from reading.

For me style and intent became important factors. We have all seen death bye axe in films before, but have you even seen it done by a girl in a French Maid costume motivated by revenge, kidnap, and rape…well maybe but not everyday.

Since we were making and Black & White Film, and yes it was always the intent to do the film in B&W. We didn’t do it because our color correction budget was nil. That just happened to be a bonus. I watched A LOT of Hitchcock. My mother-in-law is always saying that films today show too much. I agree. I love the idea of letting the audience imagine what is happening off camera. Our own imagination is far more gruesome than anything a f/x department can create. Audiences are too spoon-fed today. The great films of the golden age hid the blood and gore and people passed out and puked in the theater. Now they walk out saying “Those intestines were so fake.” I wanted to make a movie that forced the audience to think again. I did add more gore into the film after some test screenings but the film is much less gory than any Hollywood horror film. I like it that way.

As far as getting the cast to watch anything. I tried to direct them based on their experience, I believe in real method acting. Not the common perception of The Method, but the real thing taught from Stanislavski and Stella Adler. This is a Theatrical approach, which is what I know best, and it worked really well. Especially with Julie Streble.

I’m really drawn to D.I.Y. productions and it was so great seeing a film like this set and filmed in Louisville, which I think is a really underutilized town that is ripe for more filmmakers. It made me think of the late William Girdler, who was a fantastic Kentucky based director in the early seventies who shot films like Three on a Meathook, The Zebra Killer, Abby and Sheba Baby in Lousville. Are you familiar his work?

I really don’t know Mr. Girdler’s work. But since you recommend him I will look him up!



One of the main factors that elevated Girl Number Three from your average microbudget film was the quality of the performances. I was especially impressed with your leading lady, Julie Streble. Can you tell us a bit about her and how she came on board the film?

Juile is friend, first and foremost. I met her while I was doing a run of the Sondheim classic A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. I was playing the romantic lead and she was in the chorus. One night in rehearsal the girl playing opposite me was out and Julie stood in for her. I was captivated by her beauty finally understood how my character was supposed to feel. We were cast opposite each other in The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyle and Mr. Hyde. After that show I was a huge fan of Julie Streble. I have cast her again and again. She has turned in stellar performances each time, and each time she comes back I find new ways to challenge her. She always rises to the occasion.

Julie was my first choice for the role but the script called for MAX to undress on camera. A the time Julie was not prepared to do that so I had to move on. We searched and searched for other actresses but found none. During the time we were searching Julie changed her mind and decided she really wanted to play the role. She auditioned and we were blown away. We cast her and never looked back. She filmed beautifully and hit all the right moments at all the right times. She was flawless.

I was also impressed by how you managed to keep the film visually interesting, which I think is rare for films with this low of a budget as the shots are typically just more functional than anything else. Was it difficult for you to maintain the cinematic quality in your shots due to time and financial constraints?

I thank you for this complement, but I think it is undeserved. I think the cinematic look of the film is one area that I came up lacking

By the time we were ready to film I had found myself a mentor. He told me that one of the best things I could do was to keep the camera off a tripod. The film had to move. Well my handheld technique is good but not good enough to do an entire film. I had a dolly but no track. We were shooting in a one hundred year old warehouse so smooth floors didn’t exist. I did the next best thing. I used pans and tilts whenever possible. I utilized the zoom on my one lens as much as I could. I wanted every shoot that could to start “in motion.” I shot the film entirely in 24p and in a 16:9 aspect ratio. This allowed the film to look cinematic while being shot on Mini-DV. So I had my look but when you see the final film there is a problem. The cinematic look goes away from time to time. Here’s what happened.

I did what I could to maintain a consistent look, but he problem I ran into was that I didn’t really have a crew that knew the cameras as well as I did nor did we have access to multiple cameras. So when scheduling dictated that I had to run two units, the B-units were not able to maintain the same look. Not their fault. There simply was not enough of me to go around. My mistake was that I tried to make Girl Number Three an artistic one-man show, not smart. I wanted to control the film. To be a successful filmmaker one has to rely on partners and collaborators. First time filmmakers hear me well, DELEGATE!

The film is shot in Black and White, another aspect that really sets it apart. I suspect it was done to match the comic but did you plan to do that from the get-go, or what was your ultimate motivation for not shooting it in color?

As I already mentioned it was intentional. The comic was printed in Black & White. So we wanted to make the film look as much like the book as possible. The book was a graphic novella, which means that it was basically a short story with about 20 illustrations. At the outset we resolved to recreate every illustration exactly as it appeared in the book. The Black & White was part of that. The other thing was that I just wanted to do something different. We have been kicked for it a couple times, but it is one of my favorite elements of the film. Funny story: When we premiered the film, a little kid came up and watched the trailer and said “The movie isn’t in Black and White is it?” We said, “Yeah isn’t that Great!” He looked at us like Christmas was cancelled and walked away.

How has it been trying to get the film distributed and are you happy with the final product?

We are self-distributing right now. You can purchase both the Single Disc Edition and the Double Disc Edition at the official site.
I would be lying if I said that the movie was perfect. I would love to go back and fix things. That being said, I LOVE MY MOVIE. We created something that is truly unique. There are not many films out there like Girl Number Three. There will most likely not be another anytime soon.

I know it has played at quite a number of festivals. Has there been any particular feedback or praise you have received that surprised or meant a lot to you?

Honestly just the fact that people come and watch is the greatest praise that I get. When we premiered the film I was so nervous that no one would come I was sick. We had a LINE to get in to see it! The first screening was a mess. There were technical difficulties and more than 20 minutes of the movie was skipped. Yet, people stayed to the end! They stayed for the Q&A afterward. We have gotten wonderful praise and harsh criticism, but the truth is that we have affected people’s lives. Just for a brief moment, but we were there. That is the greatest praise I can hope for.

You’re currently working on a stage version of Sweeney Todd in Louisville. Tell us a bit about that.

I like to pull off the impossible. We I was asked to suggest a show for the Halloween Season, “Since Sweeney Todd can’t be done.” My reply was “ Why can’t Sweeney be done.” Eight months later I am getting to helm the show both as a producer and getting to play the iconic Sweeney Todd as well.

Our production returns the show to a more traditional setting. There will be throat slashing and the audience will see the bodies slide out of the chair and down the chute.

I am proud of the cast and crew we have assembled. They are amount the most talented I have ever gotten to work with!

What are your plans after Sweeney Todd? I certainly hope we can look forward to another film from you.

Well I am partnering again with Nathan Thomas Milliner on another comic of his called A Wish For The Dead. It is a tribute to George A. Romero, which means of course that it is a Zombie flick! Nathan will be directing the film and I will be acting as the cinematographer . I am also honored, at Nate’s request, going to be starring in the film as well.

I am also in development on two other films. I never stop thinking up new ideas. I am sitting on about five great scripts that I will be pursuing over the next few years, not all in the horror genre but most are. I will be taking some time off in the beginning of 2011 to write and prep for a very busy summer!

Finally, for a bit of fun, I was hoping you could maybe mention five films and five plays that mean a lot to you professionally and personally.

Wow that is hard! I will probably have to mention a few groups. And that wouldn’t be a third of all the wonderful films and theater that I draw inspiration from.

Films

The Star Wars Saga (As a whole)
The Indiana Jones Films
Silence of the Lambs
Sergeant York
The Red Curtain Trilogy (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet, and Moulin Rouge)

Plays and Musicals

The Works of Stephen Sondheim Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George, and Assassins
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom Of The Opera, Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy
August Wilson’s Jittney
Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Excellent, thanks so much Herschel for taking time out of your busy schedule for us and all the best of luck with your future projects.

My Favorite Closing Shots: All the animals come out at night...

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976)






Shaun Costello's Water Power (1976)






William Lustig's Maniac (1980)