Last October, I stumbled across a trailer for the dark, enigmatic indie horror Gut. I was immediately unsettled and intrigued by what I saw. Happily, my article caught the attention of Gut’s writer/director/producer Elias and, after some email chatter, he graciously sent me an advanced screening DVD. Needless to say I digested the film with great enthusiasm. This lead to further exchanges with Elias, culminating in a 90 minute, spoiler-rich conversation about Gut. But this is not a review of the film, rather the story of a great indie, and the battle it will face as it struggles for recognition in 2012 and beyond.
At the time of this interview, Gut had been submitted for inclusion to exactly 100 festivals—and had already been excluded from at least 25 and selected by a whopping Zero. As of this posting, however, the film has officially broken the streak and will be making its world première in April. More details on this soon.
Check out the interview with Elias after the jump as well as some new stills…
FS: Tell me about your influences.
Elias: I’ve always been a big fan of David Cronenberg, especially films like Eastern Promises, Videodrone, and Crash. And I thought Naked Lunch was a great partner to the book [by William S. Burroughs]. And then there’s Peter Jackson, but I’m more into his early work like Dead Alive and Heavenly Creatures. I’m also a fan of foreign filmmakers like Michael Haneke and Ki-duk Kim.
FS: Is Horror your favorite genre?
Elias: Horror can encompass all other genres and I like the freedom it offers, the freedom to go wherever the story takes you.
FS: Where did you get the idea for Gut?
Elias: I was really impressed by the success of the Saw franchise and I originally conceived Gut as a potential trilogy. I knew I’d be making a low budget film, so I wanted to write something that was not only doable, but would actually benefit from indie-style production.
FS: Describe the filming process.
Elias: I can’t say enough about my loyal and hard-working cast and crew, who worked for deferred payment, meaning no money up front. They were the life blood of the film during production.
FS: The actor who played Tom did a great job of quietly smoldering, but the actor who played Dan was the real stand out. What’s his story?
Elias: Jason Vail and Nicholas Wilder [who play Tom and Dan respectively] had great chemistry, and both worked tremendously hard. Nick was almost compulsive about his performance. Even after we’d nailed a scene, he’d want to do another take and another and another. In a lot of ways, I think Jason ultimately had the more difficult role as so much of his character’s emotions are internalized.
BEFORE
AFTER
FS: Who did the special effects? Pretty damn convincing!
Elias: Josh Turi of Design to Deceive did the body molds and prosthetics and Leighann Brokaw did all our other on-set special makeup effects. In post, Ricky Weissman and his crew did a lot of amazing work polishing, compositing and animating to bring things to the final level. I agree that the result is a pretty strong level of realism—especially for a film with a small budget. It’s very gratifying.
FS: Anyone else you’d like to mention?
Elias: We had a great camera and electrical department, headed by one of my best and oldest friends the incredibly talented Trent Ermes, who shot the film. Our AD Sharifa Williams also played a very important role, keeping us to 10 hr days on the average, which really helped to keep everybody happy and coming back for more. Nobody likes to work 16 or 17 hour days and I think there’s rarely a good excuse for putting people through that, low budget or not. Every member of our team was pretty much indispensable and I should probably list them all, but I think I’d probably get played off the stage if I tried, haha. Suffice it to say we wouldn’t be here without them and I hope they’re all as proud of the film as I am.
Our discussion over the next 45 minutes or so touched on what I perceived as potential subtext, but it turns out that any underlying message about the horror genre or links between violent films and violent behavior was complete conjecture on my part and unintentional.
Elias: It’s a story about feeling disillusioned with your life and surroundings and the disintegration of friendship. Tom doesn’t know what he wants anymore, and Dan’s just trying to hold on to their friendship at all costs.
Next we talked about reviews of Gut and, specifically, how I felt some other guys had gotten it wrong. Whereas I found the film’s ambiguity added multiple layers to the story (not to mention leaving it wide opened for a sequel), others seemed miffed by the lack of concrete answers and a clear-cut conclusion (especially as it pertains to the potential culpability of the main characters).
Elias: Some people just aren’t going to like it, and that’s the case with any film. A lot of people were giving me a lot of opinions, often conflicting, during the editing process. It was a struggle, but at the end of the day you gotta do what’s gonna let you sleep at night. I will say this: As far as the film’s conclusion goes, it just had to end that way. Nothing else felt right.
FS: Would you have done anything differently?
Elias: I will say that I probably underestimated how difficult it would be for a film to break-out without bigger-name actors, but that really wasn’t an option for us at the time, and I’m very happy with all the performances so I really can’t and shouldn’t complain. However, you shouldn’t take for granted the power of name-recognition. Ultimately, given our circumstances, there’s probably very little I would have changed during filming, but I did take away a lot for the next go around.
I asked Elias if he had any advice for indie filmmakers who might see a film like Gut as something to aspire to—and boy did he!
Elias: You have to really genuinely enjoy the process on every level, and your cast and crew needs to feel the same way. You have to love the script. You have to want people to see it. If you’re not completely happy with what you’re doing, then you’re wasting your time. As far as producing, do what you can to cut corners without sacrificing the film’s integrity. If your budget’s small, try to find actors and crew willing to work for deferred payment. Also, don’t try to write an epic blockbuster as your first film. I was impressed with what Paranormal Activity achieved with so little, and it’s a good example for indie and low budget filmmakers out there (hopefully we will be, too). After that, it’s positioning, networking…
FS: What’s your ultimate goal for Gut?
Elias: To have it seen by as many people as possible.
FS: Well Elias, here’s hoping Gut makes it through all the politics and BS of the film industry! Your movie certainly deserves to be seen. We can’t wait to hear about the premier in April. Please keep us in the loop. I wish you much continued success!
Elias: Thanks, Josh! Really enjoyed talking to you today!
Be sure to learn more about the film over at gutmovie.com!
Saucy Josh writes a blog for intelligent Horror Movie aficionados called Blood and Guts for Grown Ups: https://bloodandgutsforgrownups.wordpress.com/