[Rondal Scott, chief cook and bottle washer over at Strange Kids Club, pops in for a Sinister Seven with claymation wiz Lee Hardcastle. This is Rondal's first piece with us, so please return whatever you just swiped from him and make him feel welcome.]

Lee Hardcastle may not be a name that everyone is familiar with yet, but it will be. You’ve probably seen his work without even realizing it – maybe even passed it along to some friends because it was funny (The Thing with penguins, anyone?). Either way, you’re likely to be seeing a lot more of this up-and-coming director. His short film, T is for Toilet, is slated to appear later this year alongside films by Ti West (House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace, Kill List), Srdjan Spasojevic (A Serbian Film) and Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun) in Drafthouse Films’ The ABCs of Death.

Unlike many of the other films in the anthology, Hardcastle’s entry is concerned less with straight-on horror and more with insanely fun claymation zombies, chainsaw-wielding maids and crude fart jokes. It’s a world that is hardly predictable, but always entertaining – sort of a bouncy house of ’80s horror nostalgia. So hold your breath and don’t drink the Kool-Aid, we’re going in…

Last year was sort of a breakout year for you, Lee. What were some of the highlights of 2011?

You’re right and with [good] reason. It was the year I gave it my all, whereas before it was more like a hobby. The first victory was getting through the international finals for a second year in the Jameson Empire Awards Done in 60 Seconds contest with The Exorcist. After that, my straight8 entry (A Zombie Claymation) was selected to screen at Cannes. The ABCs of Death film anthology was the big one, though. I’m still in disbelief that I actually won that.

Speaking of The ABCs of Death film competition, can you explain a bit about the film and the concept behind your short?

The ABCs of Death is an ambitious anthology horror film made up of 26 short films, each representing a letter of the alphabet. The competition that the producers (Drafthouse Films) ran was to find the 26th director to make a short for the letter “T.”

I submitted a claymation titled T is for Toilet. The video is about three minutes long and tells the story about a little boy who is forced to give up the potty and begin using the toilet. What should be a straight-forward lesson in toilet training turns into an over-the-top massacre when the toilet transforms into a scary monster.

So what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever been afraid of?

The strangest thing that makes me feel like throwing up with fear is the thought of sharks. I love Jaws. It’s a fantastic film, my favorite Speilberg film in fact, and I’m very comfortable watching it, but to go swimming in the ocean? I get that “shark paranoia” and have about three shark nightmares a month where I’m swimming away from sharks, trying to hop on a ledge or something.

I’ve seen sharks in aquariums and that’s fine. It’s the image of a great white – God, it turns my stomach and I’ve never seen one in real life! If anyone has a brilliant explanation why I am so scared of sharks, please get in contact. It’s so strong that I feel I’m destined to be eaten by a shark.

Were you always fascinated by stop motion and special effects, even as a kid?

Pretty much. It was ages before I was even allowed to touch a video camera, but I used to watch a show in the UK called You’ve Been Framed where people submitted their home videos of people falling over or having accidents. Every now and again they would show some hilarious clips where people had achieved some far-out, wacky in-camera effect, which just blew my mind and opened that door of possibilities to me.

There are actually very few stop motion artists that I admire. People like Ray Harryhausen, who so many cinema lovers admire, just haven’t inspired me or anything. If I’m being totally honest – and it pains me to say this because I know how highly respected he is by some of my own heroes – I always thought his animation was crappy. I appreciate it now that I’m 27 and understand the art and history behind it, but when I was child I would see Jason and the Argonauts and laugh at how lame it was.

I’m probably shooting myself in the foot but it’s the truth and I can’t help how I feel. I’m a twat. Sorry. I think the biggest artist that I do admire is David Daniels and his strata-cut work, not to mention Will Vinton and Nick Park, who both entertained me as a child.

You’re obviously a fan of horror films, given the numerous homages to the genre in your work. What are a few specific films that have influenced you?

I can name a few, but they’ve inspired me on so many different levels for different reasons. My parents, being parents, would only let me watch the occasional horror film; one that stuck with me was The Monster Squad. I was also obsessed with the Ghostbusters cartoon when I was a little boy.

Evil Dead II was one of the films that really drove my desire to be a filmmaker. Me and another guy in high school shared a love for this film for the same reasons and all we would ever talk about was Evil Dead II. Then we started making our own films and both of us were imitating the camera shots/movements from the film.

And then there was An American Werewolf in London – that just freaking traumatized me.

You’ve also got Hamster Hell that you’re working on, which is turning out to be a pretty twisted web series. How did the idea for these shorts come about?

I wanted to do a series, one with cliffhangers at the end and recaps at the start because it’s such an addictive format for an audience. The challenge was to think of a story that was cheap enough to produce that I could spread over eight episodes, and I came up with Hamster Hell.

Last summer I spent a lot of time with a 2-year-old boy – that doesn’t make me sound weird, does it? Anyway, when you hang out with someone that young and innocent, you’re pulled out of your own world and forced to see the world through their eyes. It’s a strange thing to explain, but it was this experience that sparked both T is for Toilet and Hamster Hell.

The character of the kid that I’ve written is fascinating for me because he’s so human and when you tap into that vein – when you feel this character living and breathing – the story writes itself. Also, I was inspired by stuff like Beavis & Butt-Head; their general stupidity and the consequence it has on the world around them is hilarious.

What’s the worst thing you ever did to a pet when you were a kid?

Let me say that Hamster Hell is based on true stuff. The cruel stuff isn’t anything that I did, but everything that happens in that series was taken from hundreds of hamster stories I witnessed and heard during my early years of high school.

Yeah, I had a few goldfish before eventually owning a hamster and I loved it to bits, but my darkest moment was really innocent and is the heart of Hamster Hell. I was about 8 and my mum took me to a marsh where there were hundreds of frogs and I thought they were the best thing ever.

So, when my mum wasn’t looking, I stole a frog and took it home. I played with it for hours in my bedroom before it just died and I suddenly realized how stupid I was and I was so torn with guilt that the next time I went to church I made a confession where I sobbed all the way through telling the priest my story. Every time I see that scene in The Goonies with Chunk confessing, it reminds me of myself.

You can watch a few of Lee’s videos at the links below:

T is for Toilet

Love Automatic Music Video

The Exorcist in 60 Seconds

Tagged: A Zombie Claymation, Lee Hardcastle, stop motion shorts, T is for Toilet, The ABCs of Death