By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Out of all the genre projects showcased during the pitch session of the Frontières International Co-Production Market at last month’s Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, the most outrageous was RECREATIONAL VAMPIRE. RUE MORGUE got words with writer/director Benjamin Roberds and producer/effects artist Katie Gregg (who previously teamed on the award-winning short YOUR HOUSEPLANTS ARE SCREAMING) at the fest, and we’re also sharing their funny Frontières pitch video below.
“RECREATIONAL VAMPIRE is about an RV that is a vampire,” explains Roberds, who wrote and co-directed the 2013 zombie opus A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT. “Two couples have a car accident on a lonely highway in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, and they have no other option than to hitch a ride with a monstrously suspicious RV. And they quickly discover that it’s inhabited by a psycho hillbilly family who wants to feed them into the toilet grinder, one by one, for fuel.”
This crazy concept was inspired by a real and quite scary incident the couple were involved in. “I was three months’ pregnant,” Gregg recalls, “and we were driving to a wedding, and a truck smashed into the back of us. I guess they were speeding and not paying attention, and they completely totaled my car. The rearview mirror smacked me in the face, and I knew I was injured, because I started to feel warm liquid dripping down my face. Ben was on the other side of me, so he couldn’t see it. And then I slowly turned to him and said, ‘Ben, don’t freak out, but I’m bleeding.’ ”
“And I definitely freaked out,” Roberds says, “because her eye was gushing blood, and it felt like we were stranded on another planet, just being on the side of the highway, because all the cars that passed were so spread out. I was just waving my arms around, trying to get someone to stop.”
“I’m just happy it cut me right above my eyeball, like seven centimeters,” Gregg says. “So there was a lot of blood, but the eye was fine.”
“And she got an ultrasound, and everybody was OK,” Roberds adds.
Things don’t go so well for the foursome who board the RV, and Roberds says that identifying with their terror will be key to the movie’s tone. “It’s such an absurd concept,” he notes, “but the RV is an ecosystem that in my mind, I take very seriously. So while it’s set in this bizarre world, I would direct it in a way that’s completely respectful and serious to that ecosystem, which is, for these people who are trapped in the RV, that’s their reality. And I hope that the audience feels that reality, so in the back of their minds, they’re like, ‘Well, this is ridiculous, but right in front of their eyes, this is terrifying.’ ”
Gregg is already at work creating both the murderous characters and their death devices. “Right now I’m building the jaws of death, which is the main character Hutch’s weapon of choice. It’s like the opposite of the jaws of life.”
“Hydraulic cutters that pop your head like a grape!” Roberds laughs.
“And then, of course, there’s the toilet grinder,” Gregg continues. “I haven’t started on that yet, but it will have operational gears and saws. And then there are the prosthetic makeups, like Mama, who lives in the shower and filters the blood that comes through the pipes and becomes fuel for the RV. We’re going to make some sort of SLITHER-like costume and prosthetic for her.”
“Katie has done a lot of this kind of stuff for our music videos, as well as YOUR HOUSEPLANTS ARE SCREAMING, where I was a human houseplant, being taken care of by a giant plant monster,” Roberds says.
The RV’s freakish inhabitants seem like perfect roles for an ensemble of established horror names, though the duo haven’t gotten into serious casting at this point. “I’ve got a long list of options,” Roberds says. “We don’t know if we’ll go with big stars; that all depends on the budget. We haven’t really reached out to anybody yet, but I’ve got that list in my head.
“We’re just trying to make a really fun movie that people will go into and have a good time,” Roberds concludes, and we sure hope they succeed in that ambition. We’ll keep you posted on RECREATIONAL VAMPIRE updates!
