The Lashman is an upcoming horror film by director Cameron McCasland. The film has been getting a considerable amount of press lately because of the trailer and poster release. A lot of big name sites are covering this film before it even comes out in the film festival circuit. So, I contacted Mr. McCasland and he agreed to have a little interview with me. You can read the transcript below or listen to it here.
MGD: Hey, everyone, this is Mike or MGDSquan from HorrorSociety and I’m here with Cameron McCasland. Did I say that right?
Cameron: That’s it.
MGD: Alright, and he is the director of the upcoming independent horror film, The Lashman. So, can you tell us anymore information about that? The plot so far has been kind of vague; just the general camping, kids go to the cabin, kids get killed. Can you tell us anything more plot wise?
Cameron: Yea, a little bit. We’re obviously trying to keep things a little bit on lock down until we can show a little bit more. I can say that it is very much a classic kids in the woods kind of cabin movie. We tried to stay very much in the real house. We wanted to, I don’t know, not so much feel like we were ripping people off. Obviously there is a precedent for things like this, movies like Evil Dead or Friday the 13th. We wanted to be almost loyal to that. Some of the same things that you’re going to see… It’s sex, and fun, and all that good stuff. At the same time, [we] tried to pull back a little bit and do something a little bit different with it. The movie is a little bit southern, we tried not to be scared of that. It is funny because in the trailer that’s out, Jeremy, who isn’t the only person who has a lot of lines in the movie, sounds totally from the south, and it’s a total put on because in real life he doesn’t sound like that. It’s funny because his acting coach for the longest time had been trying to work out any of that in him. Plot wise, I don’t want to say too much without giving it away, but I think people who enjoy those types of movies will dig this movie.
MGD: I know I’m going to dig it. I’m excited. As soon as the trailer came out I was like, “This looks good! I can’t wait to get it on DVD.”
Cameron: Very cool.
MGD: What was it like working with the cast? I mean, I talked with Stacey Dixon not too long ago, and I’m actually talking with Kaylee Williams about it. What was it like working with these women and the cast and crew in general?
Cameron: It was good. The whole cast were real troopers. It was hot. We shot this last August. We actually started on August 13th, which is actually Friday the 13th and we thought that was a good omen for us. But, it was good. With an independent movie like this, everyone was working for nothing or next to nothing. It was long days. There were times were we took 17, 18 hours to get it finished. We shot it in the course of 12 days. We had a really good time. Kaylee, actually, got sick one day from the heat and had to go to the hospital.
MGD: Wow.
Cameron: …for lack of water and everything. She was a real trooper, though. She was up the next day and we got everything shot that we needed to get shot. Stacey’s a real blast. I’ve known her for quite some time. Her husband, Ben, is also a film director. The TV show I worked on here, Dr. Gangrene’s Creature Feature, their tattoo shop that they run , One Wolf Body Art, has been a long time sponsor of that. So, that’s kind of how I met Stacey. I’ve known her for years and years. It’s kind of a cool set up. Because I had been writing it and Larry Underwood, who plays Dr. Gangrene, he’s about the only person who was reading it as I went along. He just haphazardly mentioned it to Ben and Ben was like, “Oh, you should let Stacey read that.” The character in the movie was also named Stacey. It was funny because at the time we were talking about doing it I was like, “I’d love you to play this part,” but we had talks about changing the name of the character as to not have it have her name, but it didn’t bother her and it didn’t bother me so we just kind of stuck with it. Real sweethearts, both of them. We had a really good time. Some scary moments and things like that, but everybody who worked on the movie were real troopers. Working in that 100+ degree heat last August in Kentucky. So, it was good.
MGD: I can only imagine being 18 hours in the heat. That must have been killer. But you mentioned before that you wrote this film too as well as directing?
Cameron: I did. I wrote the movie. I produced the movie and I directed the movie. Every dime that was spent came out of my pocket. We didn’t do anything else. We talked about doing some crowd funding, but luckily I was able to come up with things. The last couple of years I’ve been able to work and produce on a couple of other things. Every time I made a little bit, I would save it or put it back into the film or things like that. Once I had it I was like, “Ok, we need to use all of this on a movie,” and that is kind of what we did. And so far we haven’t had to take any hand outs from anyone, which we’re real proud of that. I don’t really want to talk about what the budget is because at this point we don’t know. There were lots of things we needed to have, but at the same time we were trying to be real innovative in doing things that didn’t cost a lot of cash. But, yeah, I wrote it. I had the idea kicking around in my head. I did do what I wanted to do, we wanted to stay very classic. You take a group of kids, you put them in a car, and you take them out to the woods and you let certain things go down. Every time it’s a different song same dance kind of situation. We wanted to embrace that. I don’t want to sit there and go, “This is the most original thing.” I get it. People have seen movies with kids going to a cabin in the woods. I’ve seen movies like that, I love movies like that.
MGD: I do too.
Cameron: That’s what we wanted to make and we’re all real proud of it.
MGD: It was probably easy getting funding and general help because you were nominated for an Emmy a couple years ago, right?
Cameron: Yeah, I got nominated two years in a row for a series of PSA’s we did called Going Green With Dr. Gangrene and I can honestly say that that really has helped getting your foot in the door. A lot of the times there are a lot of people making good films who struggle time and time again to get taken seriously. You’re talking about getting actors who work for basically Pepsi and hamburgers and say, “I want you to come to the woods in Kentucky with me for two weeks away from your husbands and your kids and your friends and everything else and work in the hot sun for 18 hours a day.” That’s a tough sell. Getting nominated for the Emmy was enough so that you get some good actors who will take you seriously and go, “Ok, this guy has been somewhere before and this guy knows what he’s doing because he’s been there before.” It’s been really good for me. We’re real proud of Dr. Gangrene because it’s all real earth friendly stuff and we had a blast. We did it 3 years in a row. Each year we take on a new idea. We do monsters, we did zombies, we did the wolfman, we did the Frankenstein monster – stuff like that. Real tounge in cheek. They’re meant to be low key if you’ve ever seen them. It is a horror film so in essence it is very low budget. We kind of embraced that and run with it and they’re just a lot of fun.
MGD: Are scary films, or horror or thriller in general, something you plan on sticking with or do you plan on branching out into other genres of film?
Cameron: I love genre films, I love horror movies and everything like that. But, it’s not something where I see every movie I ever make being that. I’d really like to work in westerns a lot and I’ve got some different ideas. I watch tons and tons of horror movies, obviously, but at the same time I’m not the person who that’s the only thing that I do. In the long run there will be a lot of stories I want to tell and they’re not all terrifying. And I think that’s healthy.
MGD: Right. Back to the Lashman… It’s all shot. You just released the trailer and the press release, but is it done with post-production? Is the film done and waiting to be sent out? Where is it at right now?
Cameron: We’re actually still editing right now. I have one very small scene that I need to do. All the principal cast have been entirely shot, but we have this other little piece that kind of ties into the story. All that really happened was we ran out of summer and there is some water involved. I didn’t want to put anyone into the water while it was cold. The movie’s going forward. We’re cutting and there’s basically a place holder for this one little scene and we’ll probably shoot it sometime late March early April. Whenever it warms up a little bit that we can do it and make it safe for everyone. And then we’re sending it out for film festivals and doing that circuit. Kind of seeing what happens. We haven’t made any big rush towards the DVD. I love DVDs. Anyone who knows me knows I got a stupid amount of DVDs. With independent movies, it’s where films go to get discovered, but it’s also where they go to die. That’s the last stop. So we’re not going to rush it out to DVD by any means. I’m going to try and take it out myself and show it at some film festivals and just look for places that will play it. We’d love to play it in some really nice movie houses and things like that, but we’re also not opposed to playing it in bars and people’s living rooms and things like that. If there’s a place where we can show it and there’s an audience, we would love to show it to people.
MGD: You can try showing it up here [New Jersey]. I’ll look for things or places up here. I’m excited. When I find a movie that I like and there’s people who are willing to talk about it like you are, that makes me even more excited to see it. Fans and general people it’s been getting thousands of views on youtube already for only being out two or three days.
Cameron: Yea. Over the weekend, we’re right at about 10,000 [views] over 4 days. The press has just been really wonderful. There’s been a lot of really kind things written about us. Shawn Phillips, who’s in the movie, obviously has a huge following over at youtube. A whole lot of his fan base came out to be supportive of it and show it and share it. Social media, twitter and facebook, all the different avenues like that have been putting it out there for us over and over. I’ve gotten so many emails saying, “Hey, I posted it on my blog.” We’re all really happy. We love to talk about the movie. Obviusly there’s so much more I wish I could tell you, but it’s so early on. We’re all real proud of it. And we love to talk about it. I know the entire cast is always open to speak out about it. I haven’t put any kind of reigns on it to say don’t talk about it, don’t do this and don’t do that. Obviously aside from giving away major plot points I’ve told them to go out and talk about it with their friends, and anyone who asks you. I know Stacey’s doing a couple of appearances. I know she’s doing the Chattanooga Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest. This is the first year they’re doing that. She’ll also be in Nashville. I know Kaylee and Shawn are doing the Days of The Dead Convention. They’ll be up there. So anybody listening those are the conventions. Please go chat them up. I’m sure they’d love to chat about the time they spent making The Lashman.
MGD: Yea, maybe after this interview you can shoot me down some details about that and I can post it on the website after I post this interview. But, it’s crazy you even had someone in Germany talking about the film, right?
Cameron: Yea, it was weird. We had two separate websites, and forgive me for not knowing them off the top of my head, who posted stories. Just this morning, I had a google order out for The Lashman. So, everytime someone writes something about us I get an email back We like to know who’s talking about it. We like to know where it is going. There’s two different sites in German. My German is pretty bad. It seems like, from what I gather from people who do speak it a little better than me, they were saying kind things and they were digging it. But, I don’t really know. I sent out a lot of press releases and I’m sure they got through there some way. It’s pretty cool. It’s the first time that that’s ever happened to me where someone has taken it international and was talking about it on a different continent and speaking in a different language and we made it here in middle America. It’s pretty cool. I hope we go to Germany to watch it. I’d take it over there. Again, I hope their English is better than my Germany so I can communicate.
MGD: You could always use bablefish.
Cameron: Yea, totally. That’s the thing, though. Someone was showing me an ipad application now where you can talk into it and it will translate it. Or you can take a picture of a sign and it will translate it. And I’m thinking that is great.
MGD: Wow.
Cameron: Hopefully we can get around.
MGD: Apple’s got an application for everything now, apparently.
Cameron: Absolutely.
MGD: But, we can all look forward this.. The Lashman is definitely coming out in 2011 or are we going to have to wait a little bit longer?
Cameron: 2011 is the plan. It’s really going to come down to what the film festivals schedule is this year. The movie is going to be finished pretty quick and we’re going to put it out there. We’re going to submit it to a lot of places and from there it’s up to them if they want to show it or not. Other than that, we haven’t made any dead-set plans and we’re talking about touring, but obviously we’re going to be doing film festivals. We’re going to be picking it up and driving. We’re going to try and show it at as many places as we can because it’s a little movie, and we know that. We want to be able to get it out there and I know that no one is going to see it if we don’t take it out and show it to them. That’s kind of where we’re at. Again, the plan is for 2011. If anyone has a film festival or any place they want to screen it, they can hit us up at any of the social networks. Mention it and let me know about it and hopefully we can work it into our plans. We’d love to show it to you.
MGD: Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll make sure at the end of this article I put up your twitter, facebook, IMDB, everything like that. I think I’ve chatted you up enough. Is there anything else you want to make sure you mention about the film before I let you go?
Cameron: No, other than just hit up our website or our twitter. That’s the best place to get at us. Just check us out there. Follow us, like us, whatever. I’m on there too, my name is Cameron McCasland. If you send me a request, I will definitely talk to you. I’m very open with that. I’d love to talk to anyone who wants to see the movie.
MGD: Alright, well, awesome. Hopefully I can chat with you again after the film has been screened at festivals and what not. Maybe we can talk a little bit more in depth about what actually happened and what I saw on screen.
Cameron: Yea, that would be wonderful.
MGD: Alright, well, good luck with this. Make sure you let us know at HorrorSociety whenever there’s updates or anything going on. We’ll keep the promotion rolling as long as you’re willing.
Cameron: Alright, I really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
MGD: Ok, have a good night.
Cameron: You too.
MGD: Bye.
Cameron: Bye.
It seems like the cast and crew of The Lashman are really proud of their work. I hope that confidence translates over to a really great horror film, and I think it will. Mr. McCasland mentioned two film festivals where you can go to check out the cast of the film. Kaylee and Shawn’s can be found here and Stacey’s can be found here. Make sure you keep watch at HorrorSociety for any updates about this upcoming film.
Thank you for the interview, Cameron.
Also, connect with The Lashman at the following networks:
Twitter: @LashmanFilm, @CamMcCasland,
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/lashmanmovie
https://www.facebook.com/#!/cameronmccasland
Website: https://lashmanfilm.netfirms.com/
