five with frights:- ian messenger
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IAN MESSENGER creator and writer of "The Hog"...
MR. FRIGHTS: So, how does a former MMA fighter start down the dark path of filmmaking?-
IAN MESSENGER: Because he was a terrible fighter probably! No, I'm kidding. It was something my family didn't like having me do, seeing me all bruised up and stuff wasn't what they wanted for me. After a long talk with my parents, my Dad eventually said something to the effect of, "You have your fingers on the undead pulse of the horror community! Why don't you try and do something with that? Writing.. Movie making... anything but getting punched in the face!" I moved on, I love horror so it wasn't a huge step for me.Honestly I'm much better suited for this, plus, telling chicks you're a writer ALWAYS helps. ...and just to clear things up my MMA record is 4-1. -
MR. FRIGHTS: You've just finished "The Hog", was this project in some way special for you?
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IAN MESSENGER: Absolutely! This was everything I've ever wanted to do. It was bloody, loud, and fun. Creating my own Jason or Freddy is something I've always wanted to do. I told the Director (Chris Hinton) that and we sat down in a Denny's one night for two or three hours with a notebook and just kicked ideas back and forth. Then I got to see Reid all done up in his horror gear and I was just so happy.. I kind of felt like a proud father, ya know? Here's my big murderin' baby on screen for the first time, I almost got teary eyed.
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MR. FRIGHTS: You've done some other work in horror, is there a place where fans can check out this work (your writing, other shorts, etc.)?
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IAN MESSENGER: Well, for the films, The Hog is the first one. Keep your eye on CatchMeKillMe's twitter accounts for that. As for my writing, I've worked out some stuff with Bloody-Disgusting.com and they'll be debuting my writing sometime in June. The first story that will be going up is "Animal Control", a story I hold really near and dear to my heart.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Where do you think horror will take you next?
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IAN MESSENGER: I want to be iconic. Is that cocky? Sure it is, but I want people to hear the word horror and think "Ian Messenger". Isn't that why we all pursue our hopes and dreams? Maybe we'll be the best at it. I don't know, maybe I'll be the next Youtube sensation like that kid who sang "Chocolate Rain", what was his name? Tay Zonday?
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MR. FRIGHTS: Why do you think they never say "When I bite into a Peppermint Patty it makes me feel like I'm standing champion style on top of a pile of corpses I just dispatched with my chainsaw"?
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IAN MESSENGER: Because the marketing team of Peppermint Patties sucks! I'd have a jar of those minty little bastards in my living room if that was their slogan.
Hit the Grab Bag Questions below to go on with the interview...
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
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MR. FRIGHTS: The key to making good horror is...?
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IAN MESSENGER: Understanding terror, dread, fear.. all that good stuff. I remember reading Cliver Barker's "Dread", I was around 12 years old and really clicking with it. It left a big impression. For years after I would go around asking people what fear was to them, what it meant, how it felt. ...looking back on that, I was a creepy little kid.
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MR. FRIGHTS: What's the most important thing in your stories?
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IAN MESSENGER: The monster or the killer. Whatever atrocity is coming to kill the reader! That's the most important part for me anyway. Without a goodbad guy everything else kind of sucks. I mean, if you aren't afraid of the monster in a horror story it's kind of pointless, ya know?
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MR. FRIGHTS: If you were a giant monster who ate people, do you think you'd mind the squishy internal unmentionables that go with gulping someone whole?
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IAN MESSENGER: Oh, God! I'd probably puke the first couple of times I ate someone whole and something popped in my mouth. The other monsters would totally make fun of me.
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MR. FRIGHTS: If you could name one thing you're hoping to get out of an audience with regard to "The Hog", what is it?
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IAN MESSENGER: Reaction. Negative or positive, I want the internet to be screaming "The Hog!". Hopefully it's positive so people will want to come back for moreor hopefully it's so bad, people will come back to laugh and mock us on our next endeavor.
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MR. FRIGHTS: When and where do you plan on screening the new flick?
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IAN MESSENGER: Once we get a couple of more shorts made we have a deal with a local theater to play our stuff. I'm actually thinking about letting Mr. Frights debut it when everything's all said and done, just let him debut "The Hog" as a stand alone on the website.