Composer Corey Allen Jackson to Score Black Forest

Film composer Corey Allen Jackson recently signed to score the horror-comedy, Black Forest: Hansel & Gretel & the 420 Witch. Black Forest stars Molly Quinn(Castle, The First Time), Lara Flynn Boyle (Men in Black II, Waynes World, Happiness) & Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Saw, Robin Hood: Men in Tights).

Synopsis:
A brother and sister battle a witch who lures teenagers into her suburban home with her special blend of marijuana where she then proceeds to kill and eat them to maintain her youth and beauty.

Dual 2008 - REVIEW

Ask yourself this... what makes a film good? Is it the story? The characters? The actors? The director's attention to detail? All of the above? Can a film be successful with a great cast and a so so story, or vice versa? What is it that really sets one film apart from another? I'm a firm believer that good direction and a great cast can carry a "meh" storyline pretty well. But, such is not the case here... I'll elaborate a little further in a bit.

DUAL follows drifter Luke Twain (Michael Worth) in the late 1800's when he discovers a town where all the inhabitants have been brutally murdered. Making a choice to remain and uncover what took place there, he finds himself in a strange game of cat and mouse with a mysterious man that still has one final mission.

After seeing Worth in several different roles, I can honestly say that he breathes a life into each character that is rarely seen on the indie film circuit. Whether he's playing a bank robber, a werewolf, an autistic boxer (my favorite) or a "here I come to save the day" cowboy, you can bet he's gonna bring his A game. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something about him. Maybe it's a naivety... or maybe it's honesty... or maybe it's just damn good acting. I don't know but I like it. Karen Kim costars as Ember, a prostitute smitten with Twain. I haven't seen all of Kim's work but I do know that 90% of the time, she's kicking someones ass so it was hard for me to imagine her the way her character was described. It was pleasantly surprising to see a much softer, more endearing character. The two of them played well off each other. And what would a western be without a mysterious stranger? I'll answer that... Nothing. That's where the magnificent Tim Thomerson comes into play. You won't see much of him until the last hour or so of the film but as usual, when he's on, he's on.

Steven R. Monroe steps into the director's chair and cranks out another visually stunning showpiece. Even after seeing several of his films, his camera work still amazes me. He's got an eye for detail and a passion for film making that is evident throughout his resume. Just watch one and you'll see what I mean. Corey A. Jackson contributes quite the haunting score that helps build a lot of tension throughout the film. I remember Corey saying to me "As a composer I don't want the music getting in the way of the story. Then I haven't done my job. I'm supposed to support it or kind of give it an emotion." Can I just say... NAILED IT!

Now, back to my earlier statement. Not quite a horror but definitely a thriller, Dual has A LOT of major components to it. Miss a couple of minutes and it's likely that you'll have a hard time figuring out what's happening. I'm not going to go into great detail here because I don't want to ruin it for viewers the way someone ruined it for me (asshat!). Worth has weaved quite a puzzling tale with this one. Just when you think you've figured it out, something happens to throw you off. The story alone, gets the job done. The direction and the actors are just the icing on the cake. I found Dual very intriguing and was pulled in the second Luke Twain made his grizzly discovery. I'm sure there will be those that dislike it (the asshat). It does take a while for the action to get going but in my opinion the end result is worth the wait.

Be sure and check out the trailer here!

INTERVIEW - Director/Actor Michael Worth

Last week, I had the opportunity of rounding out the interviews with "my guys" when Michael Worth called in. After a run in with the "ticket lady" and couple of recording errors, we ended up having a really great conversation and I even managed to get in a few questions (surprise surprise).

Not only that but I found out that he has a pet crow... and it talks! Toward the end of the interview, I could hear the crow, Moki, yelling "Wow" in the background. Hysterically funny and very cute. (Sorry Mike, had to steal the Moki pic) Come to find out, Michael is an animal lover who has rescued everything from mules to squirrels to little Moki which just goes to show that not only is he a great filmmaker but he's also a very caring person with a kind heart (I already knew that though).

TC: You got your start in 1992 with a few martial arts films. What was that like?
MW: It’s funny because I’m kind of addressing this a little bit in [stupid recording cut out] and now Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen and that is… that I’ve been doing martial arts since I was a little kid and it’s completely separate from my film career. It’s like a lot of actors out there play football their entire life or they play soccer all their life but they don’t become soccer actors or football actors. What happened with me was that I was lucky enough to sort of move out of it. My introduction to leading roles were in these sort of low budget martial arts films. As soon as you do one and somebody sees you have a talent for something they hire you to do a bunch more and as a starving actor you gotta take these roles as they come. The first group of films I did when I got here were like three or four back to back for the same company. I was able to use the martial arts to get me into making films but then I just didn’t wanna go that route, it wasn’t really interesting to me. I started doing guest spots on tv shows and playing different characters so all of a sudden I wasn’t gonna be the next martial arts action hero because that was never of interest for me to do. And right now in Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen I’m adding a character that I’m playing myself who’s dealing with that issue.

TC: I’ve seen you tweet a lot about Bruce Lee. Is he kind of a mentor or iconic figure for you?
MW: For a lot of kids, especially when they get involved in martial arts, he was such a… my own father, who I loved very much and he’s not here anymore, my parents were separated at a very young age and you tend to find that missing father figure at times and for me it was Bruce Lee. He motivated me to, not just do martial arts but to go after my goals. There was just so much to him philosophically that, as a kid, it was what I needed.

TC: Jabberwocky is a new film that you’re doing with Steven R. Monroe. Can you tell me a little about that?
MW: I’m not sure exactly when it takes place. It’s a medieval period film and takes place in sort of a mythical land. It’s got a great group of characters that all live in this village and they’re dealing with this creature that even for them is kind of mythical. It’s not like they have Jabberwockies walking through town every day.

TC: Is that gonna be a SyFy movie?
MW: Yeah that was made in conjunction with the SyFy channel. When I came on board… I got called in like 2 days before filming began. Steven called me on a Friday and said “Hey we’re shooting in Bulgaria do you wanna come be in this movie?” Steven is one of those directors that’ll call me up and say “Hey I got a movie for ya”. I didn’t know what it was I would just say yes anyway because he’s someone I trust and he’s got a real integrity to him in terms of making films. I know he’s not there to just try and make a buck and walk his way through a film. He’s actually trying to make something good out of it. So I just said “Yeah, I love Bulgaria, I love you so I’m on my way.” I actually read the script for the first time somewhere over the ocean on my way to Bulgaria. I didn’t even know what I was playing. I could’ve been a frog for all I knew.

TC: When I talked to Steven last he was telling me about Left in Darkness and how you were kinda apprehensive about spending three hours in makeup.
MW: Oh yeah because I’d done Buffy the Vampire Slayer a few times and I remember that… it’s one thing if you’re going to play the lead in this film, it’s this great intense character, I’ll wade through some intense makeup for four or five hours but our guy was like come on out and it was more of like a co-star coming out and playing Monica Keena’s dead step-dad and I had to put that makeup on and I was like “Oh God, but once again, for you Steven, alright let’s go.” And Corey is another one. The first time I worked with him directly was when we did Dual, a little independent western that Steven and I did, he was just… the music in that movie just blew me away. He really put himself into it. Both Steven and I, whenever we do projects, he’s always the first guy that jumps in our heads to try and get involved. All of us kind of come from this idea that if we’re gonna do something… I mean the truth is that it’s gonna be around forever so why just half ass it? The second I start half assing anything in this business I’m gonna become a construction worker or something. Why bother doing it? Stop and you think about when you were a kid… for me it was like I would’ve worked for the rest of my life for free to be able to make movies. Now that I’m doing it, I don’t ever wanna lose that. The second I find myself being like [whines] "nah, nah, nah" I’m gonna slap myself.

TC: Aside from the SyFy films that you’ve done, do you do a lot of work in the horror genre?
MW: Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve seen Dual yet but if you get a chance you should take a look at it. So far, that has been my only entry into anything close to being horror. But the reason I did it was because I wanted to take a western and make it a thriller/horror at the same time. I don’t mean that in a sort of convoluted sense though. I certain films coming out and I think there’s this sort of convoluted idea of “let’s put this together because it’s gonna sell” rather than “let’s find an interesting way to tell a genre.” David Mamet was once saying to me about telling a story… he said “The greatest thing is [stupid recording cut out AGAIN] find new ways of telling a genre.” I thought, there’s something to truthful to that because why remake The Good, The Bad and The Ugly over and over and over again. We all love that movie but what’s interesting about trying to repeat something? For me, when I did Dual I was trying to blend the two elements together. Truthfully I’ve been waiting to be inspired to make a really, really good one. It just hasn’t hit me yet. Dual is a little Indie film, like God’s Ears, they were made for roughly the same amount of money and those are the two films out of everything I’ve done in this business that I’m most proud of and aside from Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen, they’re probably the least expensive movies I’ve made which is an example to me of how one can make important movies without having to have millions and millions of dollars.

TC: Would you agree that most of the more unique ideas are coming from Indie Films these days?
MW: Yeah I think that’s true. Today there’s this thing where the cameras used to shoot are getting less and less expensive and there’s a lot of filmmakers that think… "ahh, now I can make my movie because the camera is cheaper to rent." The camera is such a small micro element of making a film that a lot of people lose sight of what it really takes to make a good film. It’s not like a painting where you have one artist and a canvas. It’s a collaborative art form. You have writers and directors and set designers and score and actors and all these different people that have to be on the top of their game. So, for me, when I watch a movie and it doesn’t really appeal to me, I’m not one of these people that will say “Oh God, I can’t believe that made this piece of crap.” Because I know for the most part and sometimes this isn’t gonna be true but, for the most part, most people are trying to make a good film. I’ve made some films where I was trying to make a good film and it didn’t quite work. But I really was trying. There are a lot of films out there where people were trying to make something good and it just didn’t work out. But, there are a lot of Indie’s that are successful because they take more risks. Not stupid risks but risks that they believe is gonna benefit the audience. You might fail but people will say “that didn’t really work but I can kinda see what he was trying to do.” With Indie films there is this balance that you need to find because you have the Indie films that make very little money and then you’ve got these gigantic hundred million dollar studio films. It’s really hard to find something in between. When you make these hundred million dollar movies you’re now in a spot where you can’t take any risks because if you do then you might lose your money. Some people can take more risks if they’re making a film for a hundred thousand dollars or so then they can in the larger productions.

TC: Now you do a lot of work with the same actors…
MW: For me, I can’t really speak for Steven but for me, when I do films you do develop a chemistry with some people in real life. The reason I’m using these people isn’t because I have some distributor coming up and saying “We want these people in there.” I’m using them because I love them and I think they’re great. We get on set and we like a shorthand of sorts. I just mumble something and they go “Oh I know what he wants.” It’s the same with Steven. I know Monroe and when I come as an actor on one of his films he just has to throw out one sentence and I get exactly what he wants me to do.

TC: God’s Ears kind of shows your passion for film and that film really blew me away. How hard is that, writing, directing and acting in a film?
MW: I learned a lot making that movie because I had just come off of writing all of these SyFy, genre specific movies, which I love and it’s great but I was ghost writing. There’s a good half dozen films that were for SyFy for Lifetime that I was ghost writing on. I was so used to having people come and say “here’s step number one, here’s what’s happening in step number two, here’s formula number three” and it was like… what about the old days? People use to write projects because they had some idea that grew out from inside them that affected them because it was part of their lives not because it was part of the formula. So when I wrote God’s Ears it was completely, 100% going against any formula. I didn’t wanna think about the first act, the set up, the foreshadowing, nothing. I just wanted to make a movie that I felt really strongly about. It has been, in terms of the audience anyway, the most satisfying project I’ve ever been involved with. I’ve watched it affect and touch people in a way nothing I’ve ever done has before. I’m not saying it was me, I’m just saying that I think by sticking to that methodology of doing something from the heart rather than from the playbook.

TC: Is Autism something that has affected your personal life in any way?
MW: Not in my personal life but because I knew people… when I started writing the script I had already, not in my family, but I had already known people with Autism and people in the industry and stuff. And I’d watched it and sometimes we get involved in our own lives and we’re like “ah damn, I didn’t make as much money as I wanted to on this job” and we’re whining. Then sometimes you look at someone else and you go “look what they have to deal with every moment”. I don’t know how much I should be complaining in life when I look at certain people and see what they have to go through every day. Making that movie was, in a sense, self reflective of that. I wanted to make a movie that reminds people… what are we complaining about? Here’s a character that has way more than we ever have to deal with and he’s going through life just fine and he’s finding his way. So yeah, it did touch me personally but not necessarily in my family or anything like that.

TC: What role did Kerry Connelly have in God’s Ears as far as how your character acted or reacted in certain situations?
MW: Kerry’s family had been investors in Dual, the film I did with Steven Monroe, Tim Thomerson and Karen Kim in 2007 so I met her through that. My experience with Autism was through her and her work so I brought her on to the project so I could keep it authentic. One thing I didn’t wanna do is play a character. I didn’t want to go in and my acting was based on like ticks or things that I perceived watching people have. I really wanted to get her very intimate knowledge of how these people actually think, the best that we know this, and proceed in life. She actually stayed involved in the project from beginning to end to sort of keep me in that truth.

TC: I have a friend who has a high functioning Autistic son and every time I’ve seen God’s Ears, he’s the one person that always comes to mind.
MW: It’s really great to hear that because one of my goals was not to make the character, Noah Connelly, as being too unreachable for people. Sometimes you see films where they portray someone that’s, let’s say Autistic, and it’s so extreme that you can only sit back from a distance and watch them AS a character in a sense. So that’s something that I wanted to get across with the character is that he goes through the same things that we all go through. I’m really glad that you had that reaction.

TC: I’m a huge fan of Henriksen and Thomerson so I’m really excited for Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen.
MW: I don’t know how the film is gonna turn out but one thing that I can say with certainty is you’ve never seen either of them like they are in this movie. The two of them together are just hilarious. Lance is one of the funniest people you’ve ever seen. He’s use to playing the intense brooding characters but this time he’s breaking that mold. He’s actually out goofing Tim. It’s really funny. We might shoot a little bit tomorrow night over in Burbank for Lance’s signing because there’s a scene in the movie where… what I’m trying to do… the reason I even made this movie in the first place is that I’m trying to weave reality into this fictional film. Where almost everything that happens in the film, even though there’s sort of a fictional line in the movie, it takes place during real events. In other words there are real things happening in the course of this so it’s all blended together.

TC: What gave you the idea to do this film?
MW: I’m one of these guys that don’t like the idea of just walking through my career or life trying to repeat myself or trying to do what’s marketed at me. That’s not why I became a filmmaker. I wanted to use it as a means like a painter would. A painter doesn’t say “today the market wants a painting of the Mona Lisa so I’m gonna paint the Mona Lisa”. They go out and they get inspired by a tree or a rock and they paint it. For me, that’s why I make films. Granted, you gotta make money sometimes but Bring me the Head of Lance Henriksen came about because I was inspired by what I saw around me with people like Tim and Lance. Particularly it was a lot of the things that these actors go through in their careers. I thought it was a great way to focus on a movie about a character who has had a career then all of a sudden finds… wait a minute, what is going on with this career? Is it changing? Is it me changing? Are the people changing? Is it just getting old?... and utilizing that. All of the stories that weave in and out of this movie are mostly real stories. There’s a lot of things that the characters, everyone from Cerina Vincent, Tim Thomerson and Adrienne Barbeau, it’s all including, bring to this sort of fictional narrative, real life things that actually happen to them. It’s really fun.

TC: Do you remember one specific story from either Lance or Tim that had you rolling or touched you in a way?
MW: Those two have a lot of stories! I’m trying to get them to tell as many of them as possible on camera. Some of them they have to be careful because they’re talking about other people. As long as they’re positive it’s ok. Tim has a lot of great stories and I always pick on him… the funniest thing is getting them to tell stories about each other. Tim always tell this story about being on the set of Near Dark and Lance and Bill Paxton were like wrapped up in their vampire rolls and he was scared of them all the time because they were so weird on the set.

TC: How much longer do you guys have to shoot on that?
MW: Well I’m cutting a version of it now and it’s gonna give me an idea of what I have left to shoot. I know I have a couple of scenes left to shoot, I’ve got this scene with Tim crashing a casting session because of a movie that’s a sequel to a movie he made a long time ago and he finds out he’s not in is so he’s trying to figure out how to get into the project. I’ve also got a scene where there’s a party being thrown at someone’s house, kind of a reunion for everyone that was in Sasquatch Mountain. Other than that, that’s all I know that I’ve got left to shoot. As I cut the film it gives me a better idea of what I’m missing.

TC: Do you have an approximate release date for it?
MW: No, I don’t know that yet but I’ll probably have everything shot by the end of this month and then my guess is, with editing, it’s possible I could have it done and going into festivals as early as August or September. Maybe even July.

TC: I also heard that you had a little brush with being Robin in Batman Forever?
MW: I went in to read for… well I didn’t even know what I was reading for because they were just sort of secretive about it. They were cruising video game places and boxing gyms to look for somebody to play Robin. And I happened to get in through a boxing instructor, a guy named Jerry Poteet. Before I knew it I was meeting with Joel Schumacher to screen test for the film and signing contracts. It was me, Chris O’Donnell and one other guy that were up for the lead. Of course they went for Chris and he did a great job. It was funny because after I didn’t get the part, they called me up later and asked me if I’d play his brother. I was in Hawaii at the time shooting an episode of Marker so I couldn’t come back. When I got back they asked if I wanted to at least fight Robin so I said yes. An old friend of mine, Don “The Dragon” Wilson was in the scene so we got to hang out for a week. It was a lot of fun.

TC: What influence did your Mom have on the career path that you took?
MW: When I was a kid, I wanted to make movies so badly so my Mom took me to a camera store and they had these old cameras and I went up the owner and started bargaining with him. I think that he was so taken by this 11 year old kid trying to haggle with the prices that he ended up selling to me for like $25 instead of $40 or something like that. That started my passion for making movies.

TC: And the first film you shot with this camera was ‘The Tire’?
MW: Oh yes! The Tire which was recently stolen and made into a movie called Rubber. [laughs] That was my movie as a kid. It was about a killer tire. I thought for sure nobody will ever write this. Who’s gonna make a movie about a killer tire?? I remember watching tv and seeing the trailer for Rubber and I was like… What the hell? No, but it is really funny. Let that be a lesson to all the young filmmakers out there… if you’ve got an idea, make it quick!

TC: Other than your Mom getting the camera for you when you were younger, has she been really supportive in the path that you chose?
MW: My mother has been by far the biggest supporter of my career. That woman has never once said to me “are you sure you don’t want to try something else?” She saw from the get go what I wanted to do and she has always… I mean… not only that but she’s always been an investor. She’s put money in my movies. She put money in God’s Ears. She put money in Dual and Ghost Rock. She’s always been someone there for me that I knew I could rely on to talk me back into it if I was starting to slip. She’s been like that since I was a little kid. I mean, she’s in my movies. She makes a cameo in God’s Ears and then my Grandmother actually plays my Grandmother in the movie as well. So I always keep my family close. Not only did they act in the film but they were also the caterers. My Grandmother would work on camera and then as soon as we’d cut she’d go start cooking lunch for the crew.

TC: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into the business?
MW: One of the things is, if it’s something that you really wanna do and something that you’re really passionate about... it’s sort of equateable to what I’d say about marriage... which is tenacity. That’s what’s gonna have the most success is sticking with it. There’s gonna be times when you feel defeated and let down. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known since being in LA that have come out and then just disappeared. I’ve seen them come and leave. There are people in this business that are not very talented but they’re doing very well and there are people who are very talented that just get frustrated and leave. So, the best advice I can give is to just have a tenacious nature. Just stick with it because it’s the people that stick with it who are gonna have the most success. Besides that, do you really wanna do something else? You’ve got one life and if this is what you wanna do how happy are you gonna be if you just give up? I don’t ever wanna say “I wish I’d tried to give this career a go.” I’m giving it a go and I’ll always give it a go until I’m old like Tim Thomerson. [laughs]

TC: [laughing] Should I leave that comment out or can I put it in?
MW: You can put that in just make sure to put that I laughed after. He doesn’t read the internet anyway so I can pretty much say what I want about him. [laughs] Tim Thomerson, if he saw a computer, he would not know what to do with it. This is a true story… There was this one time that he called me up and he said “Mike, how do I send a text?” He did not know how to send a text on his cell phone and he still doesn’t. So if that’s any indication… you can say whatever you want about Tim Thomerson online and he’ll never know. He’s a really great guy though. There’s a lot of people in the business that you cross paths with and you see them acting together and you think they must be best friends. But a lot of them don’t have lives with each other outside of the business. Tim is one of those few people in my life that… we’re just really good friends and we always have been. It’s rare to meet people like that. Lance is another one. Lance and Tim and John Saxon we’ve stayed really close with each other and we actually go to each others houses and have BBQ’s and that kind of thing. [laughing] For some reason every time I’m with Tim, Lance will call. I’ll usually put Tim on the phone and Lance will be like “Who the hell is this?” As a matter of fact when we were shooting Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen one time Lance called right before I started a take and I handed the phone to Tim and he talked to him for like two minutes and then he handed the phone to me and Lance said “Who was that?”

Thanks so much to Michael for calling in and giving an awesome interview! I look forward to Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen and future projects. Much love and appreciation!!

Corey Allen Jackson to Score Animated Feature The Littlest Angel

Corey Allen Jackson (I Spit on Your Grave, War Wolves, Left in Darkness, Sasquatch Mountain, It Waits) will bring his scoring talents to The Littlest Angel, an animated feature based on the 15th best-selling hard copy children's book of all time written by Charles Tazewell.

Synopsis: Having recently arrived in heaven, 5-year-old LITTLEST ANGEL wants to return to Earth with his friend HALO, a dog angel, in order to retrieve his treasure box. While on Earth he is abducted by the creepy owners of a traveling freak show. LITTLEST is finally rescued by his angel friends and returns to heaven just in time for their Christmas Party at which LITTLEST offers up his treasure box as a Christmas present. The Littlest Angel is directed by Dave Kim (2012, The Golden Compass & Australia) and produced by Mr. Kim and Lance Thompson. (Attack of the Sabertooth & Elf Bowling the Movie)

Look for a DVD release, Christmas of 2011.

INTERVIEW - Composer Corey A. Jackson

In my opinion, composers for film and television or even video games are severely underrated and never given the credit they deserve. I recently had the pleasure of having a little chat with I Spit on Your Grave composer Corey A. Jackson. Our hour long conversation at times came off more like a bullshit session but it was a lot of fun!!

TC: This will be a hard interview for me because I don’t know the first thing about composing music.
CJ: Neither do I but don’t tell anyone.

TC: How does it all work? Do you watch the film first and then put the music to it or does the director already have something in mind?
CJ: Normally I don’t even see the film until the edit is locked. Well locked edits don’t really exist anymore but supposedly locked. Then I’ll watch it and usually the director and probably the producer and composer will all usually sit around and it’ll probably already be temped with something. I remember It Waits, the first picture I did with Steven a large amount of the temp was from the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre score. So they kinda stick that in there to preview scenes and see if it’s working for them. The good thing is they know if it’s working for them bad thing for me because I have to try to come up with something and not rip it off. But that score actually sounded nothing like it so we got to kinda do what we wanted to on that one.

TC: I’m sure it’s the same if you’re writing or directing. There may be a shot that sticks in your head that you use and then it’s “oh, you ripped off so and so”.
CJ: Well you only have twenty four letters and there are only twelve notes on the piano so things are gonna get repeated. Now I have heard some blatant things but… you never know what’s going on behind the scenes of any production so I try not to even judge anymore. When I started out, I was real cocky and I was like “Ah, I could do that better.” But once you get into it you realize, maybe you can’t do better, you’re not in complete control of anything. You can only do the best you can with what you have and that’s all you can do. It’s like that with any job. I get questions now like “how do you become a film composer” and it’s like… you’re not gonna be out here doing this unless you have to because there are few things in life more difficult in terms of location. When you’ve got two thousand people going for the same job… and it’s the same with acting. I know so many great actors that are waiting tables. It’s just so competitive. You do it because you have to, there’s no other reason.

TC: How long does that process usually take, from the time you get it to the time you’re done with it?
CJ: It should take a month [laughs] but I think It Waits was two and half weeks. I Spit on Your Grave was three weeks so it’s not a whole lot of time.

TC: How long did it take you on Complacent because I just watched that and the score is really… it kinda lends new life to the whole film because it’s a really powerful score.
CJ: Well thank you. That’s probably the only score that Steven and I, and he would probably tell you, it’s the only one we’ve ever disagreed on and in the end he was right. Since I was a producer on the film I wasn’t thinking creatively for the whole shoot and then when we got to it he said “I need something temp to score with so just write me something real quick.” So I wrote… um… actually I was listening to a lot of U2 at the time and I said, I’m gonna do something like Joshua Tree, or influenced by Joshua Tree, because I just love that band. And so I wrote two queues just so he’d have something to put in there and he put them everywhere and he didn’t wanna change them. Then I was like “No dude, I didn’t really score it, that was just for you.” And he said “No, it works perfectly. Trust me.” Then I finally sat down and watched a cut and I was like “Okay, you’re right.” That was the problem with producing because I was coming from a completely different mindset than when you just compose and it completely threw me for a loop.

TC: Complacent was your first producer credit right?
CJ: Yeah.

TC: I talked to Steven about it a little bit. Wasn’t Complacent something he had on the back burner for a while?
CJ: Yeah, well you know it all came about so strangely. We were at a Christmas party at his house and we started talking and stuff and were kind of like “Ok, well maybe we can put this thing together.” It took a lot of favors and a lot of sweat and I can’t believe Complacent actually came out because it was so… well I was always confident in Steven but we just didn’t have a lot of preproduction time and the budget was so minimal and everyone just came in, I mean like Adrienne Barbeau, Cerina Vincent and Kerry Green and all those guys just came in and were just amazing. Amazing people to work with, it was really cool.

TC: All of those are pretty familiar faces to y’all.
CJ: Yeah, I was really nervous when I met Adrienne, you know, because I’m such a John Carpenter fan. The Fog and Escape From New York and all that, I met her and I didn’t even tell her who I was. She said “And you are who?” [laughs] She had this little grin on her face because she knew I was nervous. I was just being a dork.

TC: How many projects have y’all actually done together?
CJ: Hmm, let’s see… It Waits, Left in Darkness, Sasquatch Mountain, Dual, Complacent, Spit… I’m forgetting something. And Michael, I don’t know if you’ve seen Michael’s film, God’s Ears yet.

TC: I have not, (I have since watched it… FABULOUS!) but I want to so bad.
CJ: It’s really good.

TC: Michael sent me a link a while back to hulu.com where you can watch it and it had all the… you have to set up an account and all that and I just haven’t had a second to spare to do that. But I plan on doing that very soon.
CJ: Yeah, it’s a nice story. They did a really good job on it.

TC: Are you working on that ‘Love in a Texas Sky’ with him or is that just Michael Worth?
CJ: That’s one we’ve been trying to… that was gonna be our second production and now we’re talking about doing maybe, kind of a supernatural thriller instead. It’s just easier to market than dramas. We all love dramas but they’re not big sellers. It’s kinda one of those things that if we can get [stupid recording crapped out] Both of them are so great though, just great scripts. We wanna do Texas down in Austin.

TC: You’ve done a lot of work on video games too.
CJ: Yeah, I have.

TC: Is there a big difference between doing the score for a movie as opposed to a video game?
CJ: Yeah quite a bit in a sense that, whereas in a movie it’s kind of the storyline that dictates everything. Like if there’s a lot of dialogue you really try to… I usually, I hate even being in on dialogue unless it’s suppose to be something really impactful to the viewer then you kinda sneak something in. Video games are so stage and level driven that… like on The Punisher we got to really like just write it just balls to the wall. [stupid recording crapped out AGAIN] There’s a lot of action so you didn’t really have to pay attention to that type of thing. So, dramatically it’s really different but they’re both equally as much fun to do.

TC: I have to say before I started reviewing films, I never even paid attention to the music in a film because it was always more of a visual thing for me. Then you go and read other reviews and people are talking about the music and I started paying more attention. I told Steven the same thing, with Left in Darkness, I didn’t really care for the story itself but with the music that you did and the direction that he gave it with the lighting and all just brought it to a whole new level and saved it for me.
CJ: Oh cool.

TC: I’d love to go back and watch all of these now so I can pay more attention to the music. Sasquatch Mountain is one of my favorites that you guys did and for the life of me I can’t get the music in my head, if that makes sense.
CJ: You know, that’s actually a compliment because you don’t… as a composer I don’t want the music getting in the way of the story. Then I haven’t done my job. I’m supposed to support it or kind of give it an emotion. You know, Steven will say “make this more melancholy or something right here.” So you kinda don’t want people noticing it and that’s part of the difficulty of film scoring. It’s probably the most difficult thing to do is to get in and out without people noticing.

TC: You also do a lot of work with Bill Plympton as well right? How did you get in with him?
CJ: You know I got in with Bill and Steven the exact same way and it’s the way everyone says you can’t, I sent them a demo and they listened to it. I was very lucky in that respect because everyone told me you can’t just blindly send demos to people and I said “well I gotta do something.” And I still do it to this day. But the first thing I did with Bill was Hair High and he called me and said… well I was actually at home in Oklahoma with my brother who is a big fan of Bill’s… but he called and I said “Bill Plympton?” and my brother looked at me and said “Are you shitting me!?” [laughs]. He just needed a cut off my demo to license to fill in spot that he needed music for to finish the film, and I said “Great”. Then he called again and asked if he could use some more of this music for this and I said, “No. I will score it for you but no, you’re not licensing anymore.” I wasn’t quite that direct with Bill but that’s kind of the short version. Since then, I’ve worked on pretty much everything he’s done. The last two projects we did he was on the short list for the Oscar and it was so disappointing we didn’t get it.

TC: Is there a big difference between scoring for a regular movie as opposed to an animated movie?
CJ: There is a difference. I mean generally you kind of think about the same things. You can kind of flex your composer muscle a little bit more because you can, I know that sounds stupid, but you can kind of write maybe some more difficult stuff because with animation you can hit a lot more things. Watch the old Warner Bros. cartoons. Watch it and then rewind it and listen to the music. That music is insanely difficult to play. Since there’s so many hits to make it work it’s a little more difficult. And with Bill it was more of a mixture of modern scoring and old scoring so we kinda did a little bit of both. So it is a little different. You kind of take a different approach but dramatically you still watch out for the same things. If that makes any sense at all.

TC: When you compose music, please forgive me if I sound stupid, is all computerized or do you have an orchestra that you work with?
CJ: God, I wish I had an orchestra. [laughs] You do everything on the computer beforehand. You write it and you mock it up, if there’s no budget for an orchestra, you’re mocking up something that is probably gonna sound like one. If you’re doing an orchestra, it’s a general representation of what it’s gonna sound like once it’s recorded. If it’s gonna stay on the computer, sometimes you have to write it differently because if you write how you would for a real orchestra in a computer, it sounds really bad. The technology is getting better but it’s never gonna be as good as the real thing. On the bigger budgets where I’m helping people out, yeah you usually get the orchestra. The last orchestra thing I helped out with was Vampires Suck and Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

TC: Have you been keeping up with any of the negative press on ‘I Spit’?
CJ: I do a little bit because I’m really curious to see the pros and then the cons. You’ve got the die hards that say it never should’ve been remade because the original was so great. I personally didn’t think the original was great, I thought it was novel. It was different, it was so 70’s. Some of the best films every made are from the 70’s. I find the dialogue interesting. If someone can champion it with all of their heart or if someone can just say… Oh my God, somebody wrote a review and said that Sarah was too boyish. Can you believe that crap? So, somehow he’s condoning pedophilia now? It’s really interesting how people react and I knew, even when we made Complacent, that it was gonna be a love it or hate it film and Steven’s stuff seems to be that way. He seems to strike a cord with people but with the history of this film I knew it was gonna be a love it or hate it but also as a remake, I think he nailed it. It’s so good.

TC: Horror is good if you don’t take it too seriously, it’s a movie. I’ve read reviews where they attack Steven’s character because of it and it just angers me.
CJ: Yeah, you know Steven didn’t write it for one thing and then you hear, “Steven Monroe’s script”, and it’s like man, you don’t know how movies are made. The director does get all the kudos so he also takes a lot of shit. He looks at it like that’s his baby and he’ll take it but a lot of people give directors shit that don’t have anything to do with the decision making.

TC: I know as far as ‘I Spit’, the decision to make it was already made before Steven was even brought in so it wasn’t even his idea to remake it.
CJ: You know he didn’t tell me for the longest time that he was doing it then he told me he got it and I was like, “are you kidding me?” He fought like hell to get me and Neil Lisk in on that. You know we lost Neil a couple of months ago? He was such a sweetheart. It was very sad. He was such a hard working guy. He had such a good eye. He and Steven were really great friends and they could trust each other and they had the dialogue and you know…

TC: That’s another thing I love about you guys. Y’all have done so much work together and I think that to do good work, you have to have people around you that you trust.
CJ: Yeah, definitely. I’ve been really lucky that Steven took me on and kept me on and has fought for me when he could. He introduced me to Michael because he and Michael were friends before. I think I’ve done two films with Michael, War Wolves and God’s Ears and he wrote Dual. But it is so hard to make it to the next level out here and Steven is on the cusp right now with I Spit where he’s got nice offers coming in and stuff but as soon as he gets to that next level he’s got all these people on top of him saying, “you need to use these people and these people and these people”. And that really happens to a lot of people that helped someone… and that’s not any fault of the people… if someone told Steven, “I’m making a 15 million dollar movie and you’re my director but I’m picking your crew,” what do you say to that? You either don’t work or you work and if he said he was doing this film but they want a different composer, I’d say take the damn film. You’ve got a family to take care of, do it. There’s not question about it, I’d support him 100%. Would I love to do the film? Heck yeah but it’s not always reality.

TC: And that says a lot about your character as well because not everyone would say that.
CJ: There’s a backstory to that… I am a five year cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with stage 4 Non Hodgkin Lymphoma about five years ago. I’m perfectly fine now and I don’t keep it secret but I don’t advertise it as well. Sometimes it hurts your career. Some people don’t wanna work with that and it’s usually someone who’s lost somebody with it and that’s a lot of people. But I remember when I was first diagnosed I did Left in Darkness, I think I was diagnosed two weeks before I started scoring it. Steven said, “I want you to do this.” I said “Okay, I’ll do it.” My wife didn’t understand how I could watch that with all that I was going through but it was keeping me busy. Following that, a few months later we did Dual and it was a little further into the treatment and the further you go into treatment the more debilitating it becomes. It’s just more exhausting. Steven said, “Look, we need a score for this to try to get it into Sundance. If you can’t do it we’ll throw someone else in there and we’ll wait for you. “ That’s the kind of guy we’re talking about. Ever since he said that to me I’m like… I knew we could get along, we understood each other’s dialogue, when he’d point at the screen and say “I need this”. We had that kind of rapport almost instantly… but when he said that thing I knew I was dealing with someone pretty damn special. First of all, he could’ve just found somebody else, instantly, and who would’ve blamed him? That was the reason I talked to him when we started doing the Complacent project. If I was gonna do it, I wanted it to be me and him. I didn’t wanna do it with just anybody. He would probably brush off all that and blah, blah, blah but that’s the kind of person we’re dealing with. He and his wife are pretty special people.

TC: I’m gonna forgo my horror roots for one review and put out something on Complacent.
CJ: Oh cool, you know that’s been one that people have either loved it or hated it. It’s not a happy story, there’s some hope at the end but it’s not a happy story. It’s like a 40-something story. You know we were thinking of people our age and stuff that they go through. To watch Steven work with those guys, I would be off… like the dinner scenes… I’d be just around the corner watching. It was really organic and it was just really cool to be there.

TC: Is that the first time you were on set while a film was being shot?
CJ: I was on set for Left in Darkness for a little bit.

TC: That was one of the Stephen J. Cannell films you guys worked on?
CJ: Yeah, that was the last one we did with him. He was really nice. I went up to him and told him I was a big fan and that I grew up with his stuff and he was cordial. The thing I remember about him most was that if there was candy in the room… and he was just the fittest guy, he worked out all the time, just svelt… and I remember we were at the dub for Left in Darkness and he would just horde all the jelly beans or whatever candy was out. It was just one of those things that if he was talking to you, he had a handful of candy.

TC: You've done quite a bit of work in the horror genre. Is that a genre you've been into for a while?
CJ: I’ve been a horror fan since I was probably five or six, I can’t remember. Whatever year Prophecy came out. The kind of nature gone wild movie. They were on an Indian reservation and some company was dumping stuff in the water supply and it started basically deforming some of the people. Then some creature developed out of it. I remember I went to see that when I was really young and I couldn’t sleep for three days after that. I have no idea how it stands up today but ever since then I’ve always liked horror.

I want to extend every thanks to Corey for taking the time to call in and for putting up with my ramblings (not seen here). When I hung up the phone, I had a whole new respect for music in film and the effort that goes into something that is purposely tucked away in the background. One thing is certain, if life really had background music, I'd want Corey A. Jackson to compose mine.

Complacent 2010 - REVIEW

Yes, yes, I know, this is a horror site but as Bleaux Leaux says "all horror all the time can stunt the creative process". So, I decided to venture outside my comfort zone and take on a drama by one of my new favorite directors, Steven R. Monroe. I'm sure it's obvious by now how I feel about Monroe, Corey A. Jackson and Michael Worth, they're "my guys" and so I struggled with whether or not I could objectively review this film. With that said, I distanced myself from all of that and watched it again and I'm confident that I can give a fair review without leaning toward one side or the other.

Complacent is a portrait of the middle American lifestyle. The 9 to 5 at a desk job, cookie-cutter homes with manicured lawns, golf three times a week, Florida vacation each year with the family. Only problem.... No one loves the other.... No one strives for more.... No one sees outside his or her own front yard.... They just coast... Question is, can you really go through life like this without deteriorating from the inside? Myah (Cerina Vincent) decides that you can't, you have to do more, want more, care more and it sets off a chain of events within the group of friends that is at times amusing and at times heartbreaking, but eventually fatal in both reality and metaphor.

Filmmakers have to be confident in the cast they choose. Monroe has done lots of work with Vincent and Worth and he knows that when he puts a script in their hands, they're gonna knock it outta the park. Which is exactly what they did. They have an amazing onscreen chemistry that makes it possible for them to play off each other's strengths.
In fact, the entire cast gave stellar performances but it was Keir O'Donnell who stole the show. His portrayal of the dedicated but betrayed family man was spot on. As a viewer, I always want to be able to relate to a character and he nailed the emotion that comes along with it.
Elisa Donovan plays the disrespectful, alcoholic adulteress to a tee. It's evident by their performances that this is a couple in trouble. They also have an onscreen chemistry that helps a lot in the progression of the story.
Kerri Green plays Beth, the dependent, mentally abused housewife who wants nothing but to keep the peace between the two sides of her family. She does a great job in this and shows just how much she's matured as an actress since her role in The Goonies. Her character is easily relatable and from the get go you sympathize with her.
Joey Kern is Robert, the controlling business exec who would rather spend his days golfing than with his family. His performance was probably the weakest of the bunch but still good.
Monroe's wife, Melanie and Christopher Showermancome in as the only happily married couple of the bunch. Their characters aren't really explored that deeply and I'm assuming it's because they ARE happily married.

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age but this film was like an emotional roller coaster for me and I think it's because I can relate to each couple in one way or another. I've been the happily married person. I've been the mentally and physically abused wife. I've been cheated on. I've had the white knight ride in and rescue me so as far as storyline, I feel like Monroe did a great job capturing the despair of the differing situations. He also utilizes the moving/shaking camera shots well which seem to draw the viewer into the story more with a kind of personal POV.
Corey A. Jackson, in his first producer role, also did the score and in my opinion, it brings a very powerful feel of desperation to the film. It also just goes to show you how the simplest of scores can make or break a film.

There is no gray area with this one, you either like it or you don't. It's slow paced with a lot of music overlayed shots of the characters contemplating their situations. I found it engrossing and sad and at times shockingly realistic. One part in particular had me covered in goose bumps because I felt for every character involved. Again, this is why I don't watch dramas. More often than not they have no affect on me but occasionally, I'll watch one that hits a little too close to home and forces me to deal with emotions that were put away a long time ago. Monroe does give the audience a little glimmer of hope at the end but don't go into it looking for a happy ending because it's just not there. Obviously, there will be people who disagree with me and that's ok. I'm smart enough to know that it's quite possible my emotions are fueling my fondness for this film. Regardless, it's a film that has done to me exactly what Monroe intended it to. It got in my head and played with my emotions and stuck there. Kudos to Monroe and everyone else for delivering a raw, eye opening film that I enjoyed very much.

Steven R. Monroe

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Steven R. Monroe director of I Spit on Your Grave 2010 but unfortunately due to technical difficulties... ok operator error... our interview didn't record. However, the show must go on and out of respect for the completely awesome and totally underrated Mr. Monroe, I felt I should do something about it. I'm not 100% certain that this is THAT something but I felt that ignoring it would just make me seem lazy. Believe me when I say I'm insanely mad at myself and embarrassed that I blew it but I will do my best to give him the credence he deserves.

After over an hour on the phone, I can no longer say I'm a fan of Steven R. Monroe's films... I'm now a fan of HIS. Not only is he a fantastic filmmaker, he is one of the most down to earth people I've ever had the pleasure to talk with.
You may be saying, "eh, she's just saying that because he is who he is", and I'd have to say, you don't know me very well. I'm not the easiest person in the world to impress. I've dealt with a lot in my life and I have a pretty thick skin but Steven got to me. He has spent his entire life in the industry, his mother was a theater producer/director, his father was a cameraman and his sister is a respected editor. You'd think he'd have a bit of a chip on his shoulder but he doesn't. He loves his job and he loves his fans and he works damn hard to put together something that touches, inspires or sticks with fans of all genres.

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of remakes, they're either poorly done by directors and actors who are just looking for a paycheck or they're just taken in a completely different direction in which case, to me anyway, they shouldn't be called a remake. Steven, also not a big fan of remakes, stuck close to the story line of I Spit and did so with grace and elegance. He's taken a lot of shit from a lot of people who want to attack his character (which pisses me off) regarding the film but he also realizes what he signed on for when he made the decision to do it. He handles the criticism like a pro and says that he only wishes people would do their research before busting out a review or slamming him personally.
As for the cast of I Spit, he says from the very beginning he wanted to do it with a lesser known cast because he felt a big name would do more harm than good. He's also extremely defensive/protective of them when it comes to reviewers critiquing them in a negative way. He doesn't understand how anyone could watch this film and say that those actors did a poor job.

We also discussed in detail his work on the SyFy originals. His most recent work, Jabberwocky is done filming and they are in the process now of adding the CG to it. As far as an air date, all he could tell me was some time in the Fall 2011. Jabberwocky stars Tahmoh Penikett, Michael Worth, Kacey Barnfield and Raffaello Degruttola and chronicles the story of a young squire along with his brother must become a warrior to save his people and the woman he loves after a horrific beast is unleashed on the Kingdom.
Other SyFy originals under Steven's belt are Mongolian Death Worm, Ice Twisters, Wyvern, Ogre, and, one of my favorites, Sasquatch Mountain.


He spoke fondly of the friends and coworkers that he's lost along the way. He described them all as great people to know and work with. Neil Lisk was his long time friend and director of photography on many films including I Spit. He did a couple of films for Stephen J. Cannell and had the pleasure (I'm way jealous) of working with the very talented Dennis Hopper.

He's not all horror and SciFi though. He's working closely with Michael Worth to get a drama called Love in a Texas Sky up and running. He says it's something that he's wanted to do for a long time and now has the opportunity to get it started. He's also teamed up one again with composer/producer Corey A. Jackson, Michael Worth and actress Cerina Vincent on a drama called Complacent about a group of friends living the average American lifestyle until they're forced to deal with all the underlying issues in their relationships.

Although I may have failed at bringing you this interview, rest assured that Steven will never let you down. He's proven that he can take even the meekest of scripts and give it new life with his direction. He cares about his fans and wants nothing more than to please them, you, us, visually. Personally, I haven't watched any of his work and thought "Man this is shit,". He works hard at what he does and stands behind what he does 100%. He'll let the haters keep on hating and he'll just keep doing what he's doing. Why not? He ROCKS at it!
Much thanks to Steven for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me... even if I did fuck it up... it was definitely a pleasure and the highlight of my reviewing/blogging career. I look forward to seeing your next project!!

Left in Darkness 2006 - REVIEW

I found this film the other day on Chiller TV and I was apprehensive to say the least. Chiller is known for highlighting the lower budget B-movie but I've seen some pretty great ones on there as well. After a day or two I was finally able to sit down and watch it. I was extremely excited to see that one of my new favorite directors, Steven R. Monroe (I Spit on Your Grave 2010)had done it. What's more, composer Corey A. Jackson was also involved in this straight to DVD thriller.

On her 21st birthday, Celia (Monica Keena) and her friend Justine (Jessica Stroup) head out to a frat party. Celia is still struggling over the death of her Grandfather Joe (Tim Thomerson) and blames herself for the death of her mother during delivery. While at the party, she is drugged, raped and murdered. She awakens in the spirit world alone and understandably scared. Once she returns back to the main room, she is met by her Grandfather. But is it really him or is it a "Soul Eater", creatures that roam around outside the house who look human but can transform into a zombie type creature that corrupts innocent souls. Aided by Donovan (David Anders), her guardian angel, she tries to learn the rules of the spirit world, however as she goes on, she realizes that things in the spirit world aren't as they appear to be and she just may be in a place far worse than hell itself.

Anders is impressively precise and mature throughout. He delivers his lines with confidence which makes him extremely believable. Not to mention how well he pulls off the "Am I good or bad" part of his character. He was one of the best things in this film. The other? Why Tim Thomerson of course. He steals the show as the Soul-Eating Grandpa and commands the scene every time he's in it. Or maybe I'm just a huge Tim Thomerson fan... could be. Keena does her usual horror damsel thing well. I don't remember ever seeing anyone in a horror movie that is quite as good at crying as she is. This kinda makes up for her laughable running scenes. I was literally LOL'ing every single time she went running down the road. And WTF is up with her lips?? Monica, Monica why would you do that to yourself?? I had to rewind a couple of times to hear the dialogue because I was so distracted by her HUGE upper lip that never seems to move.

I'm sort of on the fence about this film. It was enjoyable and somewhat interesting, but I couldn't help but feel that it could've been so much more. Maybe with a higher budget or a better script we could've seen something really special. The plot structure was good but I think the dialogue really hurt it. There were several things I didn't understand AT ALL. We're taught (or at least I was) that when you die you pretty much stay at that age in your afterlife yet Anders character aged significantly since his death when he was eight.

Also are writers Philip Daay and Jane Whitney trying to tell us that everyone who dies is thrust into this limbo and given a choice between heaven and hell? I would hope death is a little more fair than that... On one hand you have Keena who is the victim. She's guilty of nothing more than too many botox injections and yet she still has to pass the tests put before her. On the other hand there's Doug (Chris Engen), a rapist and murderer who is given the same chance for redemption? I'm not sure that part was thought out well enough. The good news? Jackson excels at his part and does a great job at creating a tense and disturbing score. Monroe does his thing and as usual makes a lower budget film seem as if it had a budget of 4 million. He keeps it moving at an exhausting pace and creates a disorienting, nightmarish atmosphere. He is clearly becoming a master of darkness and shadow and does a great job at creating an ambiance of dread with little more than some incredibly effective mood lighting. As the lights go out, the suspense is amped up through what is happening and the race to get moving generates some good moments.

I'd say this one is good for a one time watch. It's nothing fantastic and it's not perfect (like me) by any means but it's entertaining. Don't go into it expecting to be scared or gross out. It's not really a horror film for gore hounds or those looking for a huge monster fest but it you want to see something a little different than the usual blood bath then it should do the trick. Just keep that in mind if you decide to watch it.