New German indie will create a lot of positive buzz, says director
Peter Koller, the writer-director of the German/Austrian horror film
On Evil Grounds, thinks the movie will do really well when it plays at this year's FanTasia Film Festival.
Koller gave more details on the story, which involves a quick twist, “The plot is about a couple who wants to buy a loft in a desolated factory only to find out that the owner and his real estate broker are demented serial killers, but it soon turns out that the couple is way more deranged than the two killers.”
Being that nearly everything has been done before,
Koller explains that this is nothing new, but he did try to play with the rules a bit, “It doesn’t sound really new, right? If you take something like this serious you’d just have another bad-guy-with-an-ax-chasing-the-chick-around-a-rotten-house-movie,” he tells us, “I wanted to play with the rules of the horror/slasher genre and not have the victims act like the ones you are used to from a normal slasher movie.”
In the film everyone is a bad guy, and it’s not to be taken too seriously, “In this one they [Romeo and Juliet] are just as bad as the bad guys. Basically everyone in the movie is an amoral asshole or just plain stupid… nobody behaves according to the expectations the audience have from watching countless slasher movies. Let’s say it is satire that you can enjoy with popcorn, pizza and a six-pack of beer.”
Koller also explained that the film is sadistic, yet not to be taken seriously. He goes as far as to say people were laughing at a rape scene, “The violence comes more in a form of a sadistic joker. These people have fun hurting each other or play sadistic games to each other. If the story would have been handled in a serious way it would make a really mean movie, but I made it all so over-the-top to make the audience laugh in moments where they are not sure whether they are even allowed to laugh - because your moral code would forbid you to do so.”
He continues, “If the movie works, people will even be laughing at rape. At the premiere in Austria even women found that certain scene extremely funny. [They were] a bit hesitant and shy at the first moment, but when the ice was broken the whole audience was cheering at a rape scene!"
Koller also reveals that the film has one juicy kill and that the film is “just as bloody as
PULP FICTION. Otherwise it is mostly meaningless violence without justification. In other words: pure fun.”
So if it’s violent and fun, what exactly could it be compared to? Koller’s answer got me extremely excited, “It’s
TOM & JERRY for adults. People are mean to each other, hurt each other and hunt the hell out of each other. There is no suspense as you would expect it in a horror film and it is not as serious as a thriller. What’s funny about it is that some of the shooting crew thought it [was going] to be a really tough slasher-thriller only to find out during the shoot that I was going in a direction that was more like ‘a horror movie directed by
Monty Python and
Tex Avery’ ”
Bring on the cartoon violence!
Check out the film at the FanTasia Film Festival in Montreal this July.
20th Anniversary Edition DVD of "Monster Squad" on July 24th
Lionsgate will be everyones best friend next month when they release the long awaited
The Monster Squad on DVD in a special 2-disc 20th anniversary edition.
The DVD will be featured in collectible packaging and is loaded with extra features, including a five-part retrospective, classic interviews, deleted scenes, commentaries and more.
The 1980s cult-classic streets on July 24th.
For those who dont know the plotline :-
Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy and the Gillman – adjourn to earth in search of a powerful amulet that will grant them power to rule the world. However, a bunch of kids regarded by their peers as losers and outsiders uncover the devious plan and prepare for a counter strike. Now, our heroes - the Monster Squad - are the only ones daring to stand in their way...
You can pre-order your copies
here.
(References - bloody-disgusting.com, amazon.com, aintitcool.com, hollywoodreporter.com, variety.com)