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 LMC:
Why did you start with horror?
SM:
I’ve
always been in love with the genre. My two favorite films are
Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I saw Texas in the movie
theater when I was 12 years old. It was a re release. We went to
see a double feature Sleepaway Camp and Texas. We watched Sleepaway
Camp and afterwards, I said do you want to hang around for this next
movie, we were like sure why not. Well, after it was over you had
to peel us out of the seats. Also, the horror genre is one of the
best genres to do low budget. Sometimes the low budget feel
enhances the movie. A lot of my favorite directors started out with
horror: Carpenter, Cameron, Scott to name a few. There are a lot of
diehard fans out there too. You have web sites and fanzines. How
many fanzines are there for romantic comedy?
LMC:
You also composed the music?
SM:
Yeah,
I have a background in piano and I’ve done a lot of digital
composing. 5 years ago I couldn’t do it with my own computer, but
now thanks to the magic of sampling and some of the software out
there, I was able to do it.
LMC:
Did
you get sense of how to pace the music and what was appropriate for
what scene?
 SM:
I have a basic knowledge in musical theory. When I was shooting the
film, I had a lot of the music in my head and in the editing room,
went from there. I look at Carpenter who does a lot of his own
music and Halloween has the most appropriate sound track for a
movie. I saw a survey in Entertainment Weekly about the greatest
film soundtracks and Halloween didn’t even make the list. I just
can’t believe that. I mean, you play that simple theme to anyone
and immediately they recognize it.
LMC:
What’s next?
SM:
I’ve
broken this up into 3 scripts. We are already looking at making the
other two. This is actually the 2nd film in the series.
It was the only one I could do on this budget because the prequel
needs named actors to pull it off because it is much more dramatic,
very dialog heavy and big sets. The sequel has a lot of action and
car chases for instance, so that will require a big budget.
LMC:
Are you finding more doors opening for other projects?
SM:
Budgets are getting higher for me. As far as doors really opening,
it is pretty tough for everybody. A lot of competition in this
environment. Even directors of hit films aren’t guaranteed to make
it. I do have an advantage in that I have something in my past and
people are willing to hear my project pitch. They know I have
succeeded before and have an advantage over Joe Director who walks
in off the street. The sequels are planned, so that is nice.
I’ve got other scripts in the works.
Many thanks to Stevan
for taking the time for this interview!
 You can
read more about the movie in the April issue of Fangoria.
Also,
check out the movie website:
http://www.malevolencemovie.com
and catch all the buzz at:
http://www.ctc-pr.com/malevolencebuzz.html
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