Talking With The Dead: 15 Questions with Mike O’Mahony

1. Maniac Films seems to be on the fast track to success with the upcoming release of your first feature film entitled Deadly Detour! Can you tell us what and how you got into the horror genre, as well as what led to the formation of Maniac Films?

As far back as I can remember I have always been a horror movie fan. I guess after years and years of watching and studying them I just decided it was time to take a shot at it and make my own. There were several different times where myself and a group of friends had the idea of making a movie but it never got past talking about doing it. Finally I decided that I’m actually going to do it, so I got in touch with Andrew Hall to see if he would be interested…. He was. Maniac was formed when we had our first casting call I was stressing over not having a company name and Andrew made a comment about me acting like a maniac, So I said “OK, that’ll do”. That was about a year ago.

2. It would seem that you are keeping a tight lid on this movie! The film is loosely based on the story of the Glendale Goatman out of Prince Georges County, Md. What can you tell us about the history of the Goatman and which “historical” premise did you use for the film?

The story of the goatman varies depending on where you get your info from. As far as where exactly he is from, what he looks like and what his habits are. As you said the movie is “loosely” based on the story of the goatman. We took the general idea of it, gave him a back story that we liked and make him far more aggressive and violent than any of the stories about him that I have read. We did stick to the urban legend a little and did some of our shooting in Glendale Maryland, aside from that we pretty much did what we wanted. I think people that are familiar with the story of the goatman will be pleasantly surprised.

3. The story of the Goatman has a lot of different variations depending on which mythology you are falling, similar to Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil and the Chupacabra. What was it about this particular urban legend as opposed to the others that made you decide to make a full length feature about it?

One of the reasons was that I wasn’t very familiar with him and had never known of any movies to have been based on him. Another was that I thought it was an interesting character that we would be able to have a little fun with. I wasn’t very interested in making a “monster movie” as much as a psycho/serial killer/slasher type movie. The goatman was human enough for us to have all the slasher characteristics but it still be a cool creature feature.

4. Unlike creature films of our youth that used a person in a suit, many films of today use CGI. Was there every any thought on using CGI for your Goatman, and how do you feel it compares to the legendary monsters of our youth and the latest offerings of today?

Never. I am not a fan of CGI at all. I would take a man in a rubber suit and 20 gallons of red syrup any day over CGI. It always come off as looking fake to me, I’m much more of a fan of the practical f/x.

5. It looks like you wore many different hats on set. Not only were you the director and producer, you were also responsible for some of the special fx as well! How were you able to juggle all of these responsibilities at the same time yet keep the film on a consistent shooting schedule?

The downside of doing all of that is the amount of stress and the lack of sleep that doing everything causes. The up side is that I knew that everything was ready, and it was how I wanted it to be when I needed it. I actually enjoyed the challenge and plan on doing it the same way for the next 2 films I have lined up. I had a very good cast and crew so if I needed a hand with a blood pump here or a severed head there… Everyone was very helpful and willing to get dirty.

6. Lets talk blood and gore for a few moments. Looking at some of the behind the scenes pictures, you guys have not skimped on the grue. Between you, Joe Bucci, Julie Ann Hamolka and Andrew Hall, you guys really brought a lot of realism and stomach churning gore to the screen. What specific roles did each of you have in the fx department, and how long have you guys been doing this?

Well Joe Bucci was responsible for the Goatman masks. I gave him a general idea of how we wanted it and he just ran with it. He designed, sculpted, molded, fitted, and painted the masks. He exceeded all of the expectations that i had, and turned out to be a real pleasure to work with. He has being doing it for a few years now I believe. We got Julie as sort of a coincidence, we had casted her to play our Ashley character and it turned out that she had gone to school for fx make up so I had asked her if she would be interested in acting and doing all of the make up and she dove right in and also did a great job. Myself and Andrew were responsible for the rest, we would stay up nights before the shoot making gallons and gallons of blood, and guts and limbs. When I first approached Andrew with the idea of making a movie we were practicing f/x before we even had a story written. I think the moment we realized that we were onto something was when we staged a fake stabbing on my front lawn and my neighbor called an ambulance for me after I pretended to stab myself. Both Andrew and myself and Julie have about 2 years each of experience doing different areas of fx.

7. As a fellow fx artist, I must say that I am extremely impressed with several of your fx. Can you walk us through a few of the fx such as the young lady severed in half, the throat slit, and of course the infamous drill sequence (Viva Fulci! and the Driller Killer!)?

Sure. Well the lady cut in half was a pretty cool effect I thought of at the last second. It’s pretty simple and basic to do, We just dug a hole and buried her up to her chest in it, and tore the back of her shirt so we could rig a fake stomach. I had made the lower half of her a few days prior, so after we buried her we threw that next to her and threw enough blood and guts all over her to make it semi believable. It almost seems a little less exciting when you know how it’s done but it’s a very effective trick and I was very happy with the end result.

The slit neck was actually a little more involved. We had 2 machetes, one complete one and one with a notch shaved out of it. We did a couple takes of the whole one being waved at our actor the then the notched one around his neck. We also had several hoses strapped to him while we had the notched one on him, so we have what looks like a machete in his neck and blood squirting all over the place. After that we did a latex application across his neck to look like a good wound… When it comes to special f/x my personal motto is that if you pack enough blood into it, almost anything will look good. The drill in the head wasn’t actually in the movie. When Andrew and I had first started we were doing photo shoots in my basement to gain experience and build hype around what we were doing, so that is what the drill scene is from. That was the first bit we did.

8. Your cast consisted of James Costa, Brian Harrington, Corinne Liz, Jon Owens, Murphy Richards, Terrence Salmon, Julie Ann Hamolka, Stacie Hartman, Tina Khaladze, and Erich Ficke. What initially drew your attention to them and ultimately cast them in the roles that they played?

Well we had our initial casting call in which they all tried out. We had a bunch of people come in fill out papers and basically sell themselves for 60 seconds to us. I did my best to talk each person out of participating by telling them how terrible it was going to be and how much work it would be. After that, all the people that weren’t discouraged by my schpeals were called back the following week to actually perform from our script. Each of the people you mentioned not only performed well but they were all still very much interested in participating even though I told them all if would be hell. Ultimately I picked the people I thought would see this through, take it serious and work for free and live in subhuman conditions for 2 weeks. They all did, and each of them did a great job.

9. Many of your cast members also doubled as your crew. Do you feel like that helped or hindered the production, and what was the ultimate decision in deciding to do this?

I think it totally helped. Like I said before we had the best cast and crew. The fact that there was less people around, meant less people to try to organize, less mouths to feed, less hassle, and ultimately I think it made us all work better together because it was the same small group of people working together everyday. In fact I did several night shoots in which I called several of the actors from Deadly Detour to come help me with crew work and again they all showed up, worked their asses off, and did a great job.

10. You had a budget of $10,000 for this film. Just looking at the sheer amount of special fx alone in this film makes that mind boggling! With such a small budget, how were you able to allocate your funds in such a manner to not only include awesome fx, but also be able to bring in the crew that you had and secure your filming locations?

Basically in writing the story, I wrote around what we had access to and what I felt we could get permission to shoot at relatively cheaply. The majority of our budget went into the f/x which I feel is most important in this sort of movie. The cast and crew donated their time because this was something they wanted to be apart of and not a job, or something we had to pay them to do. Which is a little surprising considering some of the stuff some of them had to do for their roles.

11. Working in micro budget horror films myself, I know how hard it can be to get publicity and a distribution deal. What are you doing to get publicity for your film and do you have any kinds of plans for film festivals and movie distribution once editing is complete?

Up until now I have been keeping pretty quiet on the film. I didn’t want to build hype around it and then have to try to maintain it for 12 months. So I waited until we had all of the filming done and a trailer cut to start putting the word out. As far as distribution and film festivals go… I plan on entering it in as many festivals as humanly possibly. There are several companies I plan to approach for distribution, but I am fully prepared to distribute it myself.

12. Lots of people get into the film industry because they sit down, see a movie and say “I can do that.” It is obvious from what I have seen that your talents extend beyond that. What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of making this horror film and what, if anything, would you have done differently?

The whole process was pretty hard and very time consuming but I very much enjoyed all of it. At this point I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I’m very happy with how things have turned out so far.

13. Anyone who gets into this line of work has directors, actors and films that were key influences in their lives. Who are some of these people for you and what films are they?

Thats a very good question. In fact I ask that same question to all the potential actors that come into our casting calls. For me, my favorite directors are usually the ones that do what the want despite the facts that their type of film may not make too much money. Ed Wood is definitely up there, as well as John Waters, Dario Argento, Herschell Gordon Lewis. Lucio Fulci of course. Early Peter Jackson Films were great as well as early David Lynch films. Lloyd Kaufman and Troma films are big at the Maniac house. I could go on and on about what directors I like, but basically the ones that do what they want to despite controversy, public opinion, or lack of money. Movies is another topic I could go on about. All the movies by the directors I mentioned, Plan 9, Night of the ghouls, Bride of the Monster, Pink Flamingos, Bad Taste, Dead Alive, Eraserhead, Wizard of gore, The Toxic Avenger movies, Poultrygeist is a newer Troma one that I really liked. Cannibal holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, Taxi Driver, Irreversible was a newer movie that was great. Texas Chainsaw, The Evil dead movies, etc etc etc. There is also a couple of newer ones I have just found that I really liked. I picked up God of Vampires at a convention recently and thought it was great, I have also seen a couple movies from Timo Rose that I thought were really good.

14. You have obviously enjoyed the experience of making this film because you guys have a second film in the wings. What is next for Maniac Films, and will we be hearing the Goatman bleating in a sequel to Deadly Detour any time soon?

Well there is a couple shorts in the making that we will be filming soon, but our big project coming up is “Fatal Tide”. We should be filming that in early 2010. Check our page for updates on that. I’m very excited about that one. As far as another movie with the goatman… I would totally do a sequel. If Deadly Detour goes over well and people want another one I would do it.

15. You guys have a lot to be proud of with the completion of this project. Is there anything that you would like to say to your friends and fans?

Well the majority of my friends have helped out in one way or another on this so I would like to say thank you to them. As for any Maniac fans out there I say if you keep watching them I will keep making them. Check out the Maniac films page at www.myspace.com/bloody_maniac and you can view our trailer for Deadly Detour at http://vimeo.com/6567609. I’d also like to that you Mike for taking the time to do this interview and supporting independent cinema. And to those you who want to become involved in Independent Cinema stop by our site and get in touch!