by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com

Around here, we love it when people get lost in the woods and the only thing that turns up is their sandals.  It's even better when the only thing to survive is their cameras.  

Whether they run into a ghost, a witch, a family of cannibals, or even a Kardashian or two, it's always fun to see what survives.  

Indie filmmaker Jason Horton took a few minutes to talk with us about his latest movie MONSTERS IN THE WOODS (review) and what happens when a film crew goes up against more than just a deadline.  

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Thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with us.  We know you’re busy with MONSTERS IN THE WOODS hitting shelves on February 21st (and currently available on VOD), so we really appreciate whatever time you can spare for us.

No trouble at all. This stuff is a big part of supporting your movie. I actually enjoy it. I'm narcissistic like that.

MITW takes its viewers to familiar settings as it follows a low budget film crew into a secluded part of the woods.  Savvy horror fans will recognize the set up as something they’ve seen before, but will appreciate the twists and turns you throw them.  What seemed like another ‘found footage’ flick quickly becomes something more as both the body count and the surprises begin to pile up.

Taking the familiar and adding a twist to it seems like it should be the standard approach to satisfying an audience, but it seems so rare these days.  Giving an audience what they expect seems so much safer, but it really just leaves them bored.  With the curves you threw at the audience in MONSTERS IN THE WOODS, was there ever any pressure to play it safe and just make another BLAIR WITCH? 


As a filmmaker, going over familiar territory in a familiar manner just doesn't interest me. I'll leave that to the Len Wisemen's and Brett Ratner's of the world. When I start writing a new project (if it is green-lit) it can take up year or more of my life (script, production, post, promotion and release). So it has to excite me creatively, take me to somewhere I haven't been, or if I have been there, I want to look at it a new way.

Flying in under the radar with such a low budget in Hollywood, does that free you to do whatever you want onscreen?

It does to an extent. But, unless you are paying for everything yourself, you always have to answer to someone. I did have creative control on Monsters in the Woods, but certain concessions in production and casting were made. 

People seem to think that when you have a low budget that you get some kind of free pass in the quality department, that viewers will accept certain shortcomings, but is that true? It seems like you have to fight even harder to get the respect that other filmmakers simply buy.

You're absolutely right! That frustration is part of what led me to do MITW. It can be demoralizing to sink so much energy into something just to have it panned out of hand because of the budget. I find that most true-blue-hardcore-horror fans are usually forgiving of a technically defcient movie has long as there's some redeeming value. But most folks...they just want to see a movie. They don't give a fuck how much it cost or how hard you worked on it. They just want to be entertained. So yeah, it is hard to get respect for any movie that made for under 50k. People are often unaware that the big ultra-low budget stuff they've actually heard of (Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, El Mariachi etc..) had a lot more money pumped into them before anyone outside of a film festival saw them. They'd be shocked to see the actual 25k version. 

Coming from a decidedly outsider approach to Hollywood, what aspects of your style seem to work best for you?  Now that you’re shooting in California, in the hub of things, what tricks have helped you the most in your new environment?

I think working on the fringes of Hollywood taught me to be more independent. The more I learned to do myself, the less I had to depend on others to get my movies completed. In LA it's not too hard to find people to work on your stuff, and that collaberation is awesome. But in New Orleans there just wasn't the same talent pool(at least back in 2003.) So I had to learn to shoot, edit, write, do sound design...everything. Then once I got to LA, because I could handle so many aspects of production myself, I was able to get a lot more bang for my budget buck. Hopefully, as the budgets go up this will become moot.

Horror is probably the most malleable of film genres.  It can be used to tell almost any kind of story whereas other kinds of film have to follow their own rules, but in horror you can examine almost anything you want and it still works as a scare piece.  In MONSTERS IN THE WOODS, you’re able to candidly discuss what it’s like to work on a film and still tell the story that’s true to your characters.  Incorporating such autobiographical elements to the plot add more depth to the film than just people running around spouting off jokes.  How did you find the right balance of fact versus fiction? 

The trick is to recognize what parts of your life work dramatically for the piece and which don't. I have to constantly remind myself, "just because it really happened doesn't make it interesting." I fully believe that learning to personalize my work as been the best thing that's ever happened to me as writer. I once read an interview with Tarantino where he said something like "if you're not embarrassed by how personal your work is, than it's bullshit." 

Was there a moment when you were tempted to go overboard and really vent about the industry or did you know going in just how much you wanted to say?

As long as the stuff your using fits dramatically I don't think you can go overboard. I had written maybe 6 scripts before Monsters in the Woods and some of them are pretty damn good. But not a one of them came from a personal place. Then two things happened to me. I made a movie (Trap) that I felt was really good, and I couldn't sell it. Then I had this crazy romantic relationship  that just imploded. It was awful time in my life. I was frustrated, angry, sad, lonely, bitter and Incorporated all of it into Monsters in the Woods. And it was cathartic. By exploring these feelings in a dramatic nature, I worked through them. Plus it was good for the work. Because the movie came from this "real" emotional place it was more resonant. 

The writer/director runs the risk of losing perspective of the film and how it develops.  Some say it’s supposed to be two separate jobs, while others see it as one title:  storyteller.  When you were writing the script, were there people you could turn to for their honest reactions?  If so, are they the same people from project to project?

Somebody once said "when you make a movie, you make it three times; once when you write it, once when you direct it and once more in editing." I find that to be true. I also think that if you bullheadedly try and stick to your "vision" at the script level, you're cutting yourself off from discovering new things in both production and post. My producer Robert Bravo as been with me for two movies and he's really good with developing scripts. I've worked with him on a half a dozen. I bounce ideas off him. He also has a background in FX and can draw. The early creature designs on Monsters in the Woods were all him. Then in production, I leaned more on the executive producer, Al Gomez. He has over 20 years of onset experience and was a working actor himself, so he always had helpful input there. Then in both production and post I have Blaine Cade, who's been with me since Rise of the Undead. In addition to acting on MITW, he also did the production design. 

Thank you, by the way, for using practical FX and monsters in your movie.  I dug the creatures and how you shot them, and the reveals of them worked even better on the second viewing.  Without giving too much away about who and what they are, can you describe their inception? 

The monsters actually didn't start out as that important. We were going to shoot the movie for 1/3 of the final budget. I wasn't sure we were going to be able to show them much if at all. At one point we were going to have heads only. Once Al Gomez and Hilliary Barbour became involved our budget went up. But, it wasn't until Robert Bravo started sketching that the monsters started to become real for me.

What was it like to see them fully realized for the first time? 

Neato! 

When you wrote them into the script, was that how you pictured them?

They actually turned out much better than I had imagined. I gave Tom Devlin's 1313fx a lot of leeway to be creative and they certainly were. They basically took Bravo's basic design and re-worked the head. My only gripe was I wanted them to be slimier. 

To the layman, a movie comes out on DVD and is quickly eaten up, but to the cast and crew, it’s a work of love that’s taken months or even years to produce.  How long was it from the initial idea to the film finding its audience? 

From writing to release MITW took 2 years. (Although I also directed and edited "Should've Put a Ring on it" during the same time period.) I wrote MITW in January 2010. It took 8 moths to put everything together. We shot in September 2010. I finished the edit and sound design in January 2011. It took us three months to find a proper composer. The score for Monsters in the Woods was finished in June 2011. We got picked up by Osiris in October 2011. The movie is being released in February 2012.

What do you think is the biggest misconception that the audience has about the film process?

That's it's easy and glamorous. It's not. It's every bit as back-breaking as any "job-type-job."

In a sea of other filmmakers and films being produced in and around Hollywood, how do you stand out?

I have a unique voice. Every movie I've made has familiar elements, but it's how I combine, re-arrange and present these elements in new and exciting ways  that sets the work apart. And as far micro-budget moviemaking goes, I can stretch a buck further than most.

What do you have to do to get noticed? 

I think the trick to getting noticed when working on micro-budget flicks is to try and get the audience to forget they are watching a micro-budget flick. If you can do that for any decent length of your 90 minute run time you have a good chance. 
Remembered? 

You have to either be really bad, or really good.

Being a quality film isn’t always enough.  How hard is it to get your film to its audience?

The movie has to be commercial. You have to have something that will sell. It sucks to have to think like this, but whenever I start a new script, before anything else, I come up with a logline, trailer and poster ideas. Then I ask, would I buy, rent or go see this. Then I start the real work.  

One of the aspects of MONSTERS IN THE WOODS that I’m going to take with me is how much the cast and crew seemed to genuinely enjoy each other.  The commentary track shows a group of friends that, while professional, all seemed to be happy to be hanging out again.  That sense of fun rubbed off onto the finished film, making it stand out from other films.  Was that apparent during the casting process, or just a damned happy accident?

Making movies is awesome. And there are so many talented people out there, cast and crew. There's no reason to surround yourself with anything other than great folk. I had worked with most of the cast and crew from MITW before and will continue to do so. They are my friends.

At the end, no matter how many people work on a film and no matter how much they bleed for it, the final judgment, the final praise or blame, falls squarely on the director.  Would you like to take a moment here to dispel that notion and share some love with your cast and crew?

1313FX gave us better monsters than we could afford or imagine. Ben Adams gave us studio quality sound, The actors gave me better performances than I could've hoped for with no rehersals and limited takes. The producers fully supported me. Blaine Cade designed/built our weapons and cave set on his own property. Vidjay Beerepoot gave us a great score. Me? I wrote, directed and edited it. In the end it is my piece. They did what they did at my behest. If something is off, it's because I allowed it to be. But when it works...well I guess I can take credit for that too.

Have you been in touch with any of them lately as you get ready for the Feb 21st release?

Yes. We're actually getting together next week to record some cast and crew interviews for the net.

Monsters, zombies, things in the woods.  What’s next for you?  Is it time for a nice relaxing romantic comedy (please no) or do you already have something in mind?

I have about 12 other scripts finished in various genres. The one I'd most like to do is about a Veterinary Technician and a struggling actor who moonlight as hitmen. One of their intended victims ends up a vegetable after they shoot her in the head. They spend the rest of the movie trying to recover and dispose her body, while their regular lives get in the way. It's a noir/action/comedy thing, kinda like a surreal and ultra-violent Weekend at Bernies. But we'll see.   

Thank you for your time, Mr. Horton.  We can’t wait to see how the audience reacts when they finally get a chance to see MONSTERS IN THE WOODS on DVD or, right now, actually on VOD.