Who wrote the music? Where did it come from? Did someone muck up the credit list?
In the case of Night of the Living Dead (1968), it’s been known for years that George Romero used stock or library music, which gave the film a very weird sense of watching some lost black & white classic, but without the heavy-handed bombast associated with giant bugs, or a Day-Glo Lon Chaney Jr.

Some cues do contain sharp brass performances and shrill strings, but they capture that sense of shock when zombies suddenly appear, and threaten characters; it’s also highly likely that if any one of us ever happened to stumble upon one or a phalanx of real zombies, it’s precisely that type of music which would be playing in our heads before the first bite sent us running into the hills.

NOTLD isn’t a B-movie, really, but it was made by filmmakers whose points of references were the shockers of their youth, and brassy, shrill scores were part of that generation’s entertainment, whether the music was original (as was the case of Universal-International’s This Island Earth), or bought and paid for from a library (such as the brilliantly awful The Brain That Wouldn’t Die).

Romero, however, didn’t want to replicate the monster music of his youth, so he chose cues from the Capitol Hi-Q music library, a wing of Capitol Records that offered filmmakers music they could buy with the intent of using ad nauseam in their film, be they in theatres or TV.

The relative freshness of the music stems from the library’s own newness in 1968, which perhaps ensured the cues – be they for “horrific” scenes or plain shock stabs – were tinged with contemporary scoring approaches, which were still in vogue by the mid-’60s.

The eerie first track (“Eerie Heavy Echo”) that plays under the opening credits is noteworthy for the weird, electronically processed notes that become increasingly strained, grabbing the listener’s attention, and making it quite clear that if one sticks around for the rest of the film, things will get a lot darker. (Electronically tweaked notes also figure in cues such as “Acoustic Space Station, Take 8,” as well as the variations of “Eerie Heavy Echo” that conclude the film.)

Romero seems to have made a point in sticking with cues where there were virtually no overt melodies – just short motifs and phrases, often based around just a handful of notes to keep things simple, and less likely to weaken the film’s docu-drama feel.

The CD presents the cues in chronological order, and the 40 cues that make up the 51 minutes worth of score were written by many composers (Spencer Moore, William Loose, Jack Cookerly, John Seely, George Hormel, Ib Glindenmann, Phil Green, Stan Livingston, Harry Bluestone, and Emil Cadkin), so one has to admire the way Romero maintained stylistic and mood continuity by using cues such as “Shock Suspense,”  “Heavy Agitato,” and “Chase,” whose generic library titles belie two-note motifs not dissimilar from what appears in the opening “Eerie Heavy Echo” cue.

More familiar ’50s horror scoring is evident in “Black Night” (with its Bum-bum-bah! brass finale), the frenetic “Fire,” and the lengthy two-parter “Serene Heart” and “Tension,” which evolve from sweet saccharine strings to agitated brass.

(Then there’s the variations of “Heavy Dramatic,” parts of which may have appeared in numerous el cheapo ’50s and ’60s monster movies. For some reason, 1961’s The Beast of Yucca Flats and 1957’s The Astounding She-Monster come to mind, but who knows who used what from where.)

The musical clichés do work in the film as well as the CD, and there are some fun surprises for vintage library music fans. “Dramatic Eerie” uses a female voice like a spooky Theremin, “Mystery Hour” is filled with meandering bass notes and intersecting string figures reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho (1960), and the nocturnal “Mysterioso” relies on woodwinds and double bass to set an unnerving mood.

“Space Drama” has beautiful waves of dissonant brass and strange warbling horn sounds, and it’s also indicative of the infiltration of jazz into orchestral film writing during the late ’50s and ’60s. “Dream” contains vibes, and “Somber Emotional” consists of desperate thematic fragments, and an amusing use of clarinet where its blaring atonal sounds (not unlike a snake charmer’s horn) eventually become in-tune when the strings shift to a chord that’s complimentary to the clarinet… and then flip back again to restart the wonky disharmony.

The CD also includes the actual music box tinkling heard in the film (actress Kyra Schon nabbed the fully-functional prop after the film was done), and the album closes with a bonus track: one of the great radio ads used to publicize NOTLD (“A bizarre adventure in fear… A night of TOTAL TERROR!”).

This debut release from new label Zero Day Releasing is actually meant to compliment the label’s NOTLD documentary, Autopsy of the Dead (2009), and is the most exhaustive representation of the actual library cues to date.

A prior LP from Varese Sarabande was comprised of fifteen cues, and while that platter ran approximately 48 minutes, it included a few brief bits of dialogue preceding music for the opening cemetery scene, the shooting of Ben, and the funeral pyre. Two other tracks also began with the electronically processed music stabs designed by Karl Hardman, and one cue began with Helen’s processed death screams as her daughter kills with an implement in the basement.

The Zero Day CD offers up superior sound, and producer Jim Cirronella’s dogged research yielded better source materials. Cirronella also contributed lengthy liner notes, with a detailed overview of the Capitol Hi-Q library that was used in many TV shows, and films such as The Incredible Petrified World (1957) and Teenagers from Outer Space (1959).

For an interview with producer Jim Cirronella, and further details on the production of this CD and the Capitol Hi-Q library, click HERE.

Mark R. Hasan

mondomark.com

The name for this legendary creepy canid was provided by the Ioway Indians, roughly translated as “carrying off dogs.” It is said to be a four-legged animal similar to a wolf or hyena which lives (or lived) in the midwestern United States, most notably in the Montana region. Little is known about Shunka, but according to the native peoples of the area, he was indeed a real animal.

(Shunka Warak’in by Eerie Eric)

The first modern report of a creature fitting this description dates back to the 1880’s when Israel Hutchins and his family first settled in the Madison River Valley of Montana. The Hutchins family became a prominent part of the Montana landscape after establishing a large ranch near the town of Ennis. Israel’s grandson, zoologist Ross Hutchins, would later describe the possible encounter with Shunka Warak’in in his book Trails to Nature’s Mysteries: The Life of a Working Naturalist published in 1977. He writes:

“One winter morning my grandfather was aroused by the barking of the dogs. He discovered that a wolflike beast of dark color was chasing my grandmother’s geese. He fired his gun at the animal but missed. It ran off down the river, but several mornings later it was seen again at about dawn.”

The beast was also seen by others as it prowled around the homes and ranches of the area. Hutchins recorded the description as follows:

“Those who got a good look at the beast describe it as being nearly black and having high shoulders and a back that sloped downward like a hyena.”

The mysterious creature eluded the trigger-happy pioneers for awhile, but finally its luck ran out.

“Then one morning in late January, my grandfather was alerted by the dogs, and this time he was able to kill it. Just what the animal was is still an open question. After being killed, it was donated to a man named [Joseph] Sherwood who kept a combination grocery and museum at Henry Lake in Idaho. It was mounted and displayed there for many years. He called it ringdocus.”

As in many cases of strange animals loose in the countryside, it was initially proposed to be an escaped circus animal. It was Ross Hutchins, who incidentally has a Ph.D. in zoology, that put forth the circus animal theory. However, there was no circus for hundreds of miles around the small Montana settlement, so this seems rather unlikely.

Original Photo of The Beast (Hutchins)

Although the taxidermy specimen had been long lost by the time Hutchins published his book, he did have an authentic photo of the mounted “ringdocus” which he included. The creature in the photo seemed to fit the description of the Ioway Indian’s legendary Shunka Warak’in, but were they one and the same? The creature appeared to be a unique animal that is neither dire wolf nor hyena, and is very unlikely to be any kind of dog hybrid. The closest animal that lived in the area, which might account for an unknown species, was the Borophagus. The Borophagus was a type of hyena-like dog typically found in North America. The only problem with that explanation is that the Borophagus existed during the Pleistocene era which dates back millions of years ago! Could some descendants have survived? There is no way to know without having the actual taxidermy creature.

But alas… something that rarely happens in dubious cases like this, actually happened. The taxidermy specimen was found! After reading a story about it in 2007, another grandson of Israel Hutchins, Jack Kirby, managed to track down the exhibit to the Idaho Museum of Natural History in Pocatello where it had been on display unbeknownst to everyone in the cryptzoo community. Taking the specimen on loan, Kirby reported measurements of 48 inches from snout to rear (not including the tail) and 28 inches high at the shoulder. It is nearly black in color, just as Hutchins had originally described. Even stranger, the thing has faint impressions of stripes on its flanks making it a true mystery.

New Photo of The Beast (Kirby)

It’s not easy to identify the creature as any known dog, wolf or hyena… so what exactly is it? Is it a poorly mounted black wolf? Is it the same beast the natives call Shunka Warak’in? DNA analysis could potentially reveal the secrets, however, DNA tests ain’t cheap. So for now, we’ll just have to keep wondering and hoping that finally one of crytozoology’s strangest cases may turn out to be a real monster! Er, well at least a new kind of creepy dog. So until then, perhaps he could work his way into a made-for-tv movie on the SyFy channel – albeit he would need a little pumping up for effect – or perhaps lend his name to a new dance craze. Come on everybody, do the Shunka Warak’in!

Selected sources:
Cryptozoology A to Z – Loren Coleman & Jerome Clark ©1999 Fireside
www.cryptomundo.com – © 2005-2010 Cryptomundo
www.forteantimes.com – © Dennis Publishing Limited

2. Name one horror film per band member that best represents his personality, and why.
That’s a tricky one… For me it would have to be one of my favorite movies, the original The Wolf Man. My favorite horror movies are from the 1920s to the 1950s, especially the Universal Classics. And The Wolf Man is a nice spin on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theme. I’m actually a pretty nice guy, or so I’m told, but sometimes my primitive inner-self takes over and I run wild, metaphorically speaking. But that’s part of my personality – as if my alter-ego Rod Usher was really a part of me – so I’m okay with that.
Our drummer, Doc Caligari, took the name from the German expressionist classic movie. He’s a huge fan of the movie’s style and we always wanted to work on a live show that resembles it, but I think his personality is better reflected by other movies, like Re-Animator. Doc likes horror movies that are bloody and sickening, and he is also the inventor in the band. He builds our props and tinkers with everything just like a mad creator. And he gets in a very bad mood when things don’t go his way.
Sarge von Rock invented his name because he liked the idea that he’s a nasty and mean WWI sergeant who feeds on the soldiers he has killed. I’m not sure if there’s a movie out there that reflects that, but he does like recent flicks like Dead Snow. In reality Sarge is a lazy sweetheart, somebody you would expect in a romantic comedy. And Migore Drake… he would be at home in a Science Fiction movie, because is a total tech-nerd. He has everything new and technically sophisticated, so he would be perfect as Bishop in Aliens, I think…

3. What does the title of the new album, New Blood, represent? I noticed that the tracks are bookended by “New Blood” and “We All Bleed Red?” Is there a significance to all this?
Even though we’re not too fond of torture-porn movies, we do like the horror movies that we watch to be scary and bloody. Not romantic teenybopper films. And the recent Twilight hype represents everything that horror and punk-rock are not. Both are not safe, nice and sweet. Horror and punk need to be scary and sometimes bloody. So, “New Blood” is a spin on “New Moon.” We also chose this title because we felt that our new album sounds like we had a huge injection of new blood. We felt fresh and rejuvenated and the songs reflect just that. And that’s also why the first and last title deal with blood, to show that the new blood flows from the beginning to the end.

4. How about the album imagery of the subway car? Reminds me a bit of Midnight Meat Train. How would you describe the concept for the album art?
We’ve always modeled our album covers after movie posters. Just look at our Land of the Dead cover to our second album. And, yes, Midnight Meat Train was an inspiration, because we really loved the cover and the movies. But an even bigger inspiration was Let the Right One In, which had a comparable cover as well. We didn’t want our girl to look like the monster right away, we wanted the viewer to be unsure about whether she is the victim or the one out to get you. Even though the album is called New Blood, we like to keep the gore a bit hidden in our artworks and photos, because that what is hidden can be a lot more terrifying, then that what you can see right away.

5. Why, several albums in, did you decide to finally release a song in German? What is the track about?
On our second album part of the song “Passion For The Kill” is in German and on our third album the track “Der Tod Steht Dir Gut” is all in German, cause the fiends liked the first experiment so much. And then “Der Tod Steht Dir Gut” became an underground club-hit for us and a live-favorite, so we wanted to continue that tradition, just like we have a Poe-inspired song on every album. “Hier Kommt Die Dunkelheit,” the track from the new album, superficially reads as a regular horror tale about a disease that sweeps the country, but if you look closer, it’s actually a tale about globalism and the things that go wrong in it’s wake. The little guy on the block feels threatened by it and it’s mostly those who have money and power anyway that profit from it, so it can actually be seen like a disease. But in the end we don’t want to judge, we just want to bring up the subject for discussion. That’s what horror should do and that’s what we try to do with most of our songs.

6. You cover Johnny Cash’s “Like the 309″ on the deluxe album bonus disc. Tell me about the decision to cover the Man in Black, particularly this latter day track?
I know it’s trendy to like and cover Johnny Cash, but we didn’t care. All in the band are big fans, especially of his Sun Records period. Cash seemed like the person who actually went to hell, looked death in its eye and fought his own demons. He made many wrong decisions and almost destroyed himself and his family. A little bit like a modern E.A. Poe. But Cash lived to sing about it and wore the black to take a bit of the world’s sins on his shoulders. He was a rebel in the country scene and had a kind of pre-punk-attitude. That makes him so tragic and interesting. “Like The 309” was the last song that Cash wrote before he died and the lyrics deal with death, too. So there many reasons to cover one of his songs and especially this one.

7. You guys have been all over the place – what’s the scariest goddamn thing that’s ever happened to you while touring?
We had a little near-death-experience when driving on the autobahn at 200 km/h when a tire burst. Good thing the van didn’t turn over or there were other cars close by, that way I hit the breaks hard and was able to drive to the side. Other then that, there was nothing really scary. We like to visit ghost towns, castles or museums while on tour, but sadly enough we’ve never seen a real ghost. I once almost had a heart attack while visiting the Hamburg Dungeon. Some guy dressed up as a vampire suddenly stood in front of me and I almost shit my pants. But actually I love to be scared. It’s good to let out some genuine emotion here and there and still feel that one is still alive…..ähhhhh, did I say alive? I meant “undead.”

The list includes CD as well as the odd DVD / Blu-ray releases featuring isolated score materials (see Image Entertainment below).

Not included is Space: 1999, Season 1 from A&E (USA) and Network (UK). It’s sci-fi, but it did have its share of weird monsters (and monstrously bad scripts & acting), and the Blu-ray set will feature select isolated score materials.

Wait a minute. I guess I did include it after all.

- Mark R. Hasan

BSX Records (USA)

Dexter: Season 4 (Daniel Licht)

2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (Patrick Copeland)

Chris’ Soundtrack Corner (Germany)

Papaya dei caraibi / Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals (Stelvio Cipriani) – early Sept.

Film Score Monthly aka FSM (USA)

TV Omnibus: Volume One (1992-1976; incl. music from The Phantom of Hollywood, and Earth II) (various) – 5 CDs, ltd. 2000 copies

GDM (Italy)

Addio zio Tom / Goodbye Uncle Tom (Riz Ortolani)

Drammi Gotici / Gothic Dramas (Ennio Morricone) – early Sept.

Un tranquillo posto di campagna / A Quiet Place in the Country (Ennio Morricone)

Howlin’ Wolf Records (USA)

Midnight Movie (2008) (Penka Kouneva)

Image Entertainment (USA)

Thriller: The Complete Series (1962) – DVD set features isolated music & effects tracks for select scores by Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens

Twilight Zone: Season One (1959-1960) – Blu-ray features isolated scores, as on standard DVD set – Sept. 14

Kritzerland (USA)

The Boy and the Pirates + Attack of the Puppet People suite (Albert Glasser) – ltd. 1000 copies

Earth vs. the Spider (Albert Glasser)– ltd. 1000 copies

Lakeshore Records (USA)

Piranha 3D (Michael Wandmacher)

Vampires Suck (Christopher Lennertz) – Aug. 31

La-La Land Records (USA)

Batman (Danny Elfman) – 2 CDs, ltd. 5000 copies

Beach Blanket Bingo (Les Baxter)

The Lone Gunman / Harsh Realm (Mark Snow) – ltd. 2000 copies

Predators (John Debney, Alan Silvestri)

MovieScore Media Sweden)

Deadline (Carlos Jose Alvarez)

Within (Jeff Toyne)

Perseverance Records (USA)

Red Sonja (Ennio Morricone)

Unforgettable (Christopher Young) – ltd. 1200 copies (coming soon)

Phantom Soundtracks (USA)

Spikes (2010)

Silva Screen Records (UK / USA)

Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy (Jacob Groth)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Brad Fiedel)

Tadlow Music (UK)

Lawrence of Arabia (incl. bonus themes from Solar Crisis + Resurrection)(Maurice Jarre) – 2 CDs, re-recording

Varese Sarabande (USA)

True Blood: Season 2 (Nathan Barr) – Sept. 14

COMBICHRIST
Making Monsters
METROPOLIS

GENRE: INDUSTRIAL

Combichrist’s Andy LaPlegua wasn’t talking about vampires, zombies or werewolves when he named his band’s fifth album Making Monsters. Instead the Norwegian EBM pioneer is talking/screaming about human monsters – the kind that lie, cheat, steal and deceive. Like his previous four records, LaPlegua has designed Making Monsters as an industrial dance floor grenade, set to explode with propulsive beats, lusty lyrics and sinister synths. First single “Never Surrender” is a dystopic dance club anthem fuelled by hate and self-disgust. Similarly danceable but doom-laden are the aggressively hedonistic and jarring “Just Like Me” and the misogynistic “Forgotten” (“You’re such a fucking slut”). Slower tracks like the epic instrumental “Fuck Machine” and the icy “Through These Eyes of Pain” provide some respite from the musical misanthropy of “Throat Full of Glass” and “They,” but ultimately Combichrist records are about the satisfaction of lust and instinct while you dance yourself to death. Consider this music to dance to as your soul dies.

1/2

Making Monsters is available digitally starting Aug. 31 and will be in stores Sept. 28.

We caught up with Craig David Wallace today, the creator of Todd & the Book of Pure Evil, a new Space TV series about Crowley High student Todd (Alex House) who dreams of two things: 1) becoming a metal god and 2) banging/going out with ultra-hot fellow student Jenny Kolinsky (Maggie Castle). So when he comes in contact with The Book of Pure Evil, which grants his every wish at a steep price, he goes for it.
The series debuts 9 pm EST on Space on Sept. 29, with a preview show airing a week earlier on the 22nd at 9. Horror fans will appreciate the ’80s scary movie vibe as well as the metal-friendly humour. Think Bill & Ted meets The Evil Dead.
Craig and his cast will be previewing the series and meeting & greeting the slavering public tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 28 at the Toronto Fan Expo. Check here (http://www.spacecast.com/shows/fanexpo.aspx) for times and places.

Here is Craig discussing the influence of horror and metal on his show.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MANIAC BUTCHER
Masakr
Negative Existence
This kvlt Czech duo released a half-dozen full-length albums, a live album, and a handful of splits and demos in the latter half of the ’90s before packing it in at the turn of the decade. Ten years on, they’re back to put the black in metal again.

Forget the cheesy band moniker and the unintentionally hilarious self-produced video for “Co Dobré Pro Mne, Dobrým Jest” (“What’s Good for Me, That is Good”); Vlad Blasphemer and Barbarud Hrom totally deliver on the promise of “No keyboards! No female vocals! Only pure black metal!” Actually, there are keys in the opening track, “Desatero krutych zim…,” but only as an eerie atmospheric lead-in to the crushing doom riffs that start the song proper. From then it’s all full-bodied, punk-inflected, second-wave bombast in the vein of peers Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest, and Khold. But, for as much as the band honours the past, they still sound remarkably relevant, as in the unaffected melodeath touches of “Projizdka hvozdem hlubokym…” or the complex yet swingin’ riffs that drive the mid-paced “Bezbozne rouhani…” The lyrics are all in Czech and the song titles ridiculously long, but English translations are available on their website. Among the subject matter tackled are the band’s hiatus, werewolves, demons, Satan, and the glory of battle. Hails! GM

For more info on Maniac Butcher, go here.

Director Philip Carrer’s suvivalist horror film If A Tree Falls plays the Festival of Fear this weekend, and we caught up with the budding director to talk about why the film is so identifiably Canadian, his villains and the importance of horror film festivals.

Tell us about the origins of the story.

If A Tree Falls literally came from a pent up DIY filmmaking process between myself and the writer, Ryan Barrett and our love for 70′s style horror films. We went to Chad Archibald who operates Black Fawn films to see if he liked the idea; with no doubts, he did. Chad and I directed and produced a film together called Desperate Souls which was released by Lions Gate back in 2005. We got a thing for making low budget horror movies and wanted to make another one, but with this film, we took all the things we loved about our favourite horror films, such as a no-budget approach, a slow build to a final murderous ending. If A Tree Falls is a mashed-up story of various “missing persons” events that happened in Canada throughout the last 30 years. We of course took some of these stories and expanded on them, adding and subtracting ideas, doing our own thing with them. Completely blowing them out of proportion. Nothing in this film actually happened, except maybe some of the earlier beginning character banter that the writer Ryan Barrett included from his personal life.

Tell us about the production, including where and when it occurred and the circumstances.

The production of this film took place in the summer of 2009 in Ontario. We filmed in real nowhere countryside/forest places. The film’s budget was too low to mention. To give you an idea, I was the producer/director/camera/cinematographer/editor and also created the score. Ryan Barrett wrote/produced and operated the sound and took care of the environment on set. We didn’t even have a boom pole; we literally taped the mic to a stick and hid it behind the actors. Some people thought we were nuts for doing this, but we wanted to make things on set as real as possible. It was a real experiment with the actors. We actually rejected a small funding agreement at the beginning. We really wanted to see how far we could get with what we had. The film turned into some sort of experiment. Actors, a camera, a script and the country. No crew, no lights. Everything was naturally lit. It was mostly just myself and Ryan Barrett, with the actors, putting them in real situations. I wanted to try and get close to the actors and get the best performance. Some real intense scenes were created on set, and after doing a take, it was hard for the actors to break out of character because there were no distractions. We were out in a forest or field, alone.

The film’s style evokes 1970s pictures like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. To what extent were you trying to evoke classic survivalist horror films which had come before?

We were trying to evoke the mood and feeling that some of these ’70s survivalist horror movies had. Not the locations, environments or action, because we know our limitations. I grew up as a kid watching all these movies, I remember seeing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time as a kid, and I was blown away. Still to this day, after seeing that film a hundred times, I’m still blown away. I’m also a big fan of John Carpenter’s [TV movie] Someone’s Watching Me and of course The Devils Rejects. The feeling and mood these films gave at times inspired me greatly with this film regarding shots, colour and pacing within scenes. I’m just a fan. This movie was made by fans for fans of a very specific genre horror film of that 70′s type vibe.

If A Tree Falls takes place in Canada. How conscious were you of setting this film in Canada?

I love filming in Canada; there are some amazing hidden gems. Not to mention there are barely any serious “toned” horror movies that take place in Canada. All the names used in the film are actual locations one would see on a road trip out east. Everything in the film had a touch of Canadian identity, including some of the dialogue; one of the villains is seen earlier, he uses the word “eh” a lot. Simply, we’re Canadian horror filmmakers; why not just use Canada eh?

Tell us about your villains? Who are they?

The villains in this film are my favourite. We really want this film to be about them, their image, their look and what they represent. We went into great detail with them, even gave them names in the script. Each one has a purpose. On set, none of the actors saw the actor’s real faces before we shot, we kept both groups separate. Imagine you’re a 7-year old looking down upon four ants on the ground in an isolated area. You know exactly what to do to control or move them. You could crush one at any moment. You can save your power and play with them first. You can test them, see how far you can drive and annoy them, then when you get bored, kill them all or just pick one to live. This is without reason. Now inject reasoning behind this, a reason that is more unconscious of itself but part of the mood you are in. What got you to be in that mood? Did something happen to you earlier that day? We wanted the villains to act as if there was something “bigger” behind all this. They wear stockings over their faces, revealing the random “deformity” that everyone has. It was not a mask that seems manufactured like you see in a lot of horror films. Since this film takes place outside in the wilderness, we wanted the masks to be as natural as possible; we wanted it to be organic looking. Some people will be left puzzled about whom the villains are, but it was never about that. It was about the process the villains put these victims through. I loved the villains so much in this film, I wish I could have had more villain storyline, but that would have ruined them. We are saving that for the high budget sequel, wink.

If A Tree Falls is screening at the Festival of Fear. How important are horror festivals like this to spreading the word about your film?
We can’t wait for IF A TREE FALLS to play at the Festival of Fear! We’ve been coming to this festival since it started; we are HUGE fans of Rue Morgue magazine. When we had our world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, it was like being with a bunch of people you knew for years. Festival of Fear will be like being back home again. Horror/genre festivals are so important to films like this, because of the support behind them. Who else do you think we made this film for? We are horror fans first. We made a film we’d think some of our fellow horror fans would like too, not all, but some. Us horror fans, we sometimes forgive the budget and constraints that go into making a horror film. I noticed that horror film festival audiences usually look for the heart of the film more so then others. You can tell when the filmmakers were having fun making it. We want to get a “nylon head” following for this film, so when we do a sequel, we can really go nuts and crazy with the bad guys. Horror festivals also play more off-beat horror films, which gives our little film a chance to gain a fan or two because it is not your typical run-kill-run-kill horror movie.

Paige Albrechtt and director Philip Carrer

Are you afraid of the outdoors? If so, why?

I’m not afraid of the outdoors, but at the same time, more specifically, sometimes trees in the fall season give me the willies. I remember one dark cloudy fall day when I was a kid, around Halloween; I found hoove prints in the mud in my front yard. I followed them to my tree house. They were also printed on bottom of the tree house floor. Were they hoove prints or just my imagination?….still to this day, I swear what I saw was real. There is something scary about trees in the fall. From the shadows they make to the noise. I don’t know, it’s just scary to me.

IF A TREE FALLS presented by PHILIP CARRER and others screens this Saturday, Aug. 28, at 3 pm in Room 206B of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.