By BILL REICK
Rejoice, fans of neon alien blood splatter. Your new favorite movie is here.
Joe Begos returns to the big screen with his sixth flick, JIMMY AND STIGGS. And we’re emphasizing “the big screen” here, because this movie is the first in a slate distributed by The Horror Section, an independent studio dedicated to making and theatrically distributing unrated, no-holds-barred horror films for theatrical release globally. The company, founded by filmmaker Eli Roth, is focused on building a robust intellectual property library and creating the world’s premier horror brand. If JIMMY AND STIGGS is any indication, the company is off to the races, as this first release is one for the ages.
Following fan favorite fright flicks like Bliss and VFW, Begos began the cosmic journey way back during the pandemic, only to hit pause to make Christmas Bloody Christmas. Here’s the crazy part: He filmed it all in his own apartment. Throughout the years-long production, he pieced together an instant crowd-pleaser, as JIMMY AND STIGGS might be his most fun, raucous horror movie yet.
I was incredibly excited to speak with Joe and to hear everything I could about the tumultuous schedule that led to his awesome latest release.
I wanted to ask you how you are and how your apartment is doing.
You can see it behind me. Still all fucked up.
Whoa, we’re on set! And I’ve heard your carpet is kind of permanently destroyed now?
Yeah. I think I’m due for [replacement]. They owe me some hardwoods, but yeah, it’s pretty fucked up. I mean, it’s cheap carpet to begin with, and then there’s only so many times you can steam clean it before it just doesn’t, you know, pull up the shit anymore.
Fair enough. Have all the railroad ties come down okay?
Yeah, but there are still giant holes in the ceiling. So, I mean, probably should have just left them in. It’s better than a hole letting heat in from the fucking attic.
I guess you’ve answered the age-old question: Which would you rather have, a good movie or your security deposit back?
Yeah, movie.
I’m super excited for the opportunity to talk to you. When I watched them, I hadn’t put together that VFW and Bliss were from the same guy, because they were released in such quick succession. While making VFW, did you pick up any tips from those acting legends like George Wendt, Fred Williamson that you applied to your role in JIMMY AND STIGGS?
Filmmaker Joe Begos in “JIMMY AND STIGGS”
Um, no, not really. But, you know, I did learn a lot about directing just because when you’ve got guys like that and they’ve all got different personalities or ways of being directed, but like having to direct them in the same scene, you know. That taught me a lot about directing, which then I was able to bring to figuring out how to direct myself. And then figuring out how to direct myself led me to like learning how to direct other actors better in Christmas Bloody Christmas.
So it’s kind of like an ever-evolving thing. You know, always taking particles from whatever actor-director relationship I have, up to my own actor-director relationship, to learn how to direct actors better and be able to pull the best performance out of them.
And is your JIMMY AND STIGGS co-star Matt Mercer a friend of yours, just as he appeared to be in the movie?
Yeah. I made him grow his hair and his beard out. Usually, he’s got kind of, like, hair like you with no beard*. And I was like, “Hey, you’ve got to grow your shit out to look like a hesher. Filming is only going to take a few months.” And that was five years ago. (*Writer’s Note: This interview included video, and Joe Begos could see that I am bald!)
I know continuity’s for suckers, but was there ever any contention with keeping that hair and the beard for that long? How much of a consideration was beard trimming throughout the years-long production?
Well, Matt had to do it a little more often. Though if you really pay attention, his hair does fluctuate. Mine, I think it’s just because I’ve had this for so long. I mean, I haven’t cut my hair and my beard in, like, years. I think that they’re just like in stasis where they are. So, I think there was maybe one point after I made Christmas by Christmas where I trimmed my beard a little bit, but my hair and my beard have kind of stayed the same. I don’t know why. I think it’s because I don’t trim them. So maybe it’s just getting all tangled up. I don’t know. But yeah, the continuity… There is some behind-the-scenes footage of me cutting Matt’s hair and beard. You know, I was hair and makeup on this, too.
You started the movie during the pandemic, and then it ended up stretching much longer than the lockdown restrictions. You had to step away from it to make Christmas Bloody Christmas, so JIMMY AND STIGGS encompassed that whole movie’s production?
Yeah, we took a year off. So, I shot half the movie before Christmas Bloody Christmas, and then took 14 months off for Christmas, and then did the rest of the movie afterwards.
And in the meantime, you’re habitating on set. The apartment you live in is the apartment that you were filming in the whole time?
Yeah. So, it was pretty fucked up that whole time. I was in post on Christmas. We shot in Northern California, so I wasn’t here for the actual production [of Christmas Bloody Christmas], but while we were in post and all that stuff, I was still living on the JIMMY AND STIGGS set. The place looked like this before I shot, sans the blood splatter. So, it wasn’t that big of a change. But there was still equipment and props everywhere. And it was this thing where it’s like, Well, I’m going to have to drag all this shit out again anyway. Might as well just fucking leave it. So, it was kind of like an active, half-hot set as I was in post on Christmas Bloody Christmas.
How many times were you waking up in the middle of the night and stubbing your toe on stuff?
I’m still doing that.
One of the things that I loved about your apartment is that it felt really authentic. It didn’t feel like somebody was dressing up a set to look like a metal head guy was living there. It felt real. And that’s because it was!
Yeah. That’s what it looked like when I was writing the movie. I was in that sensationalist setting, you know, just smoking weed and writing. So, it got me in the mindset of it. But yeah, the neon and the dark colors, that’s how my apartment usually looks. So, it’s kind of the same now. Some of the rooms look cool with the blood splatter, and I got black lights in here. Like, why clean up the alien blood? Well, I’m kind of lazy, but also, it looks cool.
Yeah, it looks sick. Where did that come from? Making it in your own space, where did that come from? Was it a frustration with having to wait between other projects or just not wanting to sit around until they come knocking for you?
Well, it started because people were making movies on their laptops and on Zoom and on fucking cell phones. And they were selling pretty quickly because there was a dearth of content, a dearth of movies. And I was like, Well, I can do that. I own my own film equipment. All my best friends are my collaborators. How about I make something in my apartment? My apartment looks fucking dope! It doesn’t look like an Airbnb … Why don’t we do something here, and we can quickly get it out before the end of the year, and hopefully sell it?
But that was five years ago, so obviously, I wrote the most complicated thing imaginable to kind of do low budget, and then we shot on film, and I was still financing it for the most part. I was getting people to chip in when they could. So, it also became the thing where we would run out of money, and then people would go back to work, and I wasn’t paying anybody. You know, we were all doing it for an ownership piece in the movie.
So there’s all these things that were building up where it stemmed from being a pandemic movie, but ultimately, for the most part, it wasn’t a pandemic movie. I put so much work into it, I’m not going to not finish it, you know? Thankfully, the continuity for a movie that takes place over one night, and it was shot over five years, isn’t too apparent, but I think if we went any longer, it might have been.
It’s pretty seamless. I was doing my research to have this conversation with you, and I was shocked that it was not filmed over just a couple of months. I’m sure you can tell when things are shot years apart, but with fresh eyes…
Yeah. Well, mostly just because I was there for it. But there are times – like when Stig first shows up, and it’s like that seven or eight-minute fluid scene – that it’s not one take, but it’s a lot of long takes. There’s one point in the middle of that where the camera whip pans, and it’s a two-year difference, but it’s in the middle of a loud, really fast-paced argument, and we whip pan two years. And the flow isn’t interrupted or changed or anything like that.
Then there are other scenes when I’m fighting the alien, for instance. I know for a fact that when I’m fighting the alien in the hallway and I blow it away with the shotgun, there are shots in that little 45-second scene from all four years of shooting. As I go, I’m like, “Oh well, it’d be really nice if we got this insert doing this,” and then we cut. “Oh, actually, this insert would really sell at this over here.” So, that scene in particular has a lot of different fuckin’ shit in it.
I just want to congratulate you because any movie is a miracle. This one’s particularly miraculous because pulling all of that off and making it as awesome as it is is nothing short of incredible.
Joe Begos’ apartment may never recover from the alien carnage of “JIMMY AND STIGGS.”
Why did you choose to shoot on 16mm? It just looks so much better. Were there any challenges that you wouldn’t have had if you chose to shoot it digitally?
Just because it was financed piece by piece, we couldn’t really just pick up and shoot on a weekend unless I had the money to buy a bunch of film. Ultimately, in the scope of the budget of things, the cost of film isn’t really that crazy. We did it on multiple other movies. That was really the only challenge. Other than that, there are no additional challenges to shooting on film.
It’s essentially just as easy shooting on digital, which I think is a misconception that a lot of people have. And before we shot Bliss, which was my first movie on film, a lot of my camera crew was a little nervous about it. We’d never done this before. But then we watched American Movie. I don’t know if you’re familiar with American Movie, the documentary, but it’s [about] these two guys who are not only doing what we’re going to do, but they’re cutting the film’s negative, too.
So, I think if they can handle it, we’ll be okay. That basically shows you the misconception about how difficult it is. I mean, those two guys who are… I love that movie, but, you know… They’re not the smartest guys, and they’re handling it all themselves. So, film was essentially built to be like dummy-proof. The entry-level position used to be a film loader. I just think it’s a big, big misconception.
Watch this space for part two of Bill Reick’s exclusive interview with director Joe Begos, coming soon!
