With her trusty stuffed shark Brutus by her side, Madeline Deering makes shot on video exploitation fare for the 21st Century. Her first film, Spirit Animal, is a fun environmentalist slasher. Her latest flick, Bathtub Shark Attack, features a maniacal shark that squirms around various drains and comes up in bathtubs, sinks, and even toilets, to lay waste to victims. Oh, and the shark is also an ancient god.
It’s as hilarious as it sounds. And the shot on VHS look gives the movie a feeling out of time, and even an otherworldliness. I was lucky enough to see the film on the big screen at Creature Feature Weekend in Gettysburg this past April where it was, appropriately, the midnight movie.
Madeline was gracious enough to sit down via computer transmission to talk about her life and her work.
Wicked Horror: What’s your background as a filmmaker? Did you do shorts or anything before your first feature, Spirit Animal?
Madeline Deering: I went to film school. Started in 2009, graduated in 2011. I went to Douglas Education Center. They had Tom Savini’s filmmaker’s program. It’s in Monessen, PA. So it’s about a half-hour, 45 minutes from where I am now, in Pittsburgh. They actually filmed RoboCop in Monessen, which is really cool. Or parts of it. So I went to that school and made some connections like my now-cinematographer Joe [Russio]. We connected right away. So, I did a short film in film school, some other stuff. And then after I graduated, I had to survive and get the day job. Then I worked on some low-budget stuff here. Lucifer’s Unholy Desire, I did some sound work on that. And after all that, I was doing a lot of surviving–work and stuff–and I finally just decided to dive head first and try to do my own stuff.
I wanted to do a shot on video slasher, so I did Spirit Animal. Actually, before I did Spirit Animal I wanted to do a short film. And I love shark movies. Sharknado was huge at the time. That was before shark movies really took off. So I had written a short script for Bathtub Shark Attack. But everything just sort of fell apart. And it was like, “What happens when your short film falls apart? Well, let’s just do an actual feature!” And you know, eventually things worked out and I was able to raise the money for Bathtub Shark Attack and got that done.
WH: When did you become interested in shot on video horror?
MD: When I was younger, we had this video store called That Tape Place, and they had all the weird stuff.
WH: There’s always one of them!
MD: There was the other store, Video World, and I rented all of their horror. But they didn’t have the weird stuff. This was back when I was on horror movie message boards, so I was on those, and I kept hearing about some of the weirder stuff. Yeah, I went to That Tape Place and I rented Killer Nerd for my seventh-grade birthday party. It’s a homemade horror movie, and my friends and I were like, “We can make this!” And it’s still one of my favorite movies. My favorite shot on video movie. So that’s what started it. Then I saw Redneck Zombies, and Camp Motion Pictures, I was buying some of their DVDs. I saw Video Violence and stuff like that. Cannibal Campout.
You know, it’s just fun to think you can just grab your camcorder and film a movie. And it’s easier now, because we didn’t edit on tape. We uploaded our footage to the computer and edited that way. Editing on tape seems like an ordeal.
WH: What was the inspiration behind Bathtub Shark Attack?
MD: A little bit of everything. It’s a mix between shark movies and cult movies. Or movies that take place in one apartment. I always talk about my inspiration being stuff like Rosemary’s Baby, Slime City, Basket Case, but obviously also movies like Jaws or Sharknado. But it’s really movies about cults. And I like movies that take place in one apartment or whatever. Even Critters 3, which is underrated in my opinion. Those are a lot of the inspirations, and I also wanted to do something really different with the shark genre. So I came up with the idea of the shark god and stuff like that. I think it’s a mix of movies like that and creature features. We actually named the apartment building Broslin Apartments after Hotel Broslin in Basket Case. Stuff like that. Weird neighbors. I live in an apartment building myself, so I have different types of neighbors, you know. So I took some of my own experiences, too, and put them in there.
Yeah, there’s so many inspirations and I know I’m missing some, but Rosemary’s Baby was a main one, even though that’s kind of a weird inspiration for a goofy shot on video shark movie.
WH: How’d you come up with the mythology of the shark god?
MD: Well, Dakuwaqa is an actual shark god, based on something real that they worshiped in Fiji. I just wanted to look up whether there were any shark gods and Dakuwaqa came up. And there are no other movies that I’ve seen that have used it. Dakuwaqa is mentioned in Sharknado 5 very briefly. Because I remember when it came out, before I made my movie, I was like, “Oh man, they’re going to steal it,” but they never even mentioned it again.
So I was looking up different kinds of shark gods because I kind of knew that’s what I wanted to do. And rather than make up my own name, I found one. And in Fiji it’s said they would sacrifice little animals to their shark god so they could swim without getting attacked by sharks. It was kind of something like that. So, I didn’t really use any of the real mythology.
WH: Okay! I didn’t realize there was a real shark god out there somewhere.
MD: I tried to make it so that they’d try to sacrifice people to the building or to the shark. That it would keep them living forever. I don’t really know how I came up with that. It was just taken from different kinds of religions or different types of cults. I’m fascinated by cults and these different types of gods. And it’s always fascinating. I just kind of took the idea and we ran with it.
WH: Who designed the actual bathtub shark?
MD: So, Sean Donohue–I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work, but he’s definitely one of my favorite filmmakers – he did Death-Scort Service. He was going to make a movie called Toilet Shark. And the movie didn’t get funded, but he had this shark, and he’d designed it to make it look like it was made out of poop. If you watch the movie and you’re like, “Oh, that shark looks like it’s made out of poop, it’s supposed to. And he had it sculpted by Marcus Cooke, who’s an amazing effects artist. Sean had said, “If you’re interested, I know you want to do a shark movie, I have this shark and I’m not going to use it.” So he sold it to me, and he thought it would be good for my movie, so I said yeah. But that’s also why this shark, spoiler alert, has a penis.
WH: It came with the penis?
MD: Yeah, it came with a penis, so I worked it into the script. [laughs] So, you’re not going to buy a shark with a penis and not use it, right!
WH: Right!
MD: Yeah, he designed the shark to make it look like it was made out of poop and it worked for us because the shark is going through drains and stuff. I think it has a really cool look as it is, whether it’s made out of poop or not. There’s the scene where it comes out of the toilet, so…that’s how it came to be. Marcus did a great job with it. I’m glad I got to even have those two involved. I think they’re both legends, and I love them both.
WH: Both of your movies have opening sketches that take place in a bar. Is that your way of paying homage to creature feature hosts and stuff like that?
MD: In a way. How that started was — Spirit Animal was originally in smell-o-vision. I had the cards, but they’re so hard to get anymore, they’re so expensive. And I wanted something to start, because I remember I hadn’t watched Polyester in years and I know there’s an opening sketch with a scientist, so I knew that’s what I wanted. Originally, we were going to get Toby Radloff to do it, but we just decided not to. Then we were like, “Hey, my friend Tom Gross, he’s a famous actor. That’s kind of an inside joke, but we just decided we were going to do an opening sketch where he explains how smell-o-vision works. So it’s kind of an ode to that, and definitely an ode to Monstervision and stuff like that. Horror hosts. We just thought it would be funny if we got him to do it to explain everything. And we also have the drinking game for Spirit Animal. Which we really never created one for Bathtub. So we wanted to bring him back for Bathtub, and it was also fun that we had him on later as a bartender. Yeah, it’s kind of become a running joke to always have him as a bartender! So, yeah, I think it’s fun. And, also, to find a lost VHS tape — this movie’s never been seen before, that kind of thing.
WH: Where did you get the idea for smell-o-vision and splash-o-vision?
MD: Definitely a mix of William Castle, who I’m a big fan of. I love that he wanted to make his movies interactive, and I wanted to do the same thing. But actually my main inspiration was the movie Popcorn, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Rented that from That Tape Place as well–that movie just blew me away. I loved the idea of the all-night horror-athon. I grew up in a small town and we didn’t have anything like that. And I just thought I wanted to recreate that idea of people coming to see the movie in 3-D, smell-o-vision, the electric shock thing, whatever that was called. Stuff like that. So I wanted to make movies interactive, because I feel like people really don’t do that much anymore. And 3-D is starting to fizz out, too. I mean, it’s still around, but for a while it had that big boom. Yeah, I wanted to do stuff like that. Because I don’t want people watching a movie bored, playing on their phones. I want friends to get together to watch these movies and do these fun, stupid gimmicks. Make it fun again, ya know?
WH: Yeah!
MD: Yeah, Popcorn was my main inspiration, if you’ve seen that movie. It’s one of the best.
WH: Your leads in Bathtub Shark Attack have this great, I want to call it anti-chemistry. Sort of repelling each other. Where did you find them? How did you cast them?
MD: I had worked with Ben [Dietels] before. Actually, I first met Ben, who plays Chad, at a screening of his movie, Slaughter Drive, and I bought all this stuff from him. And it’s the first time I met him, but I like to support independent film. So I’d known him since then and always wanted to work with him. After I did Spirit Animal he came to my premier and he always wanted to work with me. So I made this film, Trash Removal, which was part of this anthology called Natasha Nighty’s Boudoir of Blood 2. So, I worked with him on that. He always said, “Hey, if you need me for whatever…” So I thought he’d be perfect for that role. And for Cyndi I got Ruby Craft, and I had never worked with her before, I just put out auditions. And her audition was good, and I thought she’d be great for the role. You know, those two just played great off each other. And originally they were sort of going to start off more romantically involved. We all just decided it would be funnier if they just seemed to hate each other from the beginning.
Yeah, a lot of people like to talk about how funny they are together. Because I remember that first day of filming — I think we had only done a script reading or meeting online — that was the first time they’d met in person. Funny from the getgo.
WH: So you die in both your films. Do you plan on dying in all your films as sort of a Hitchcockian cameo?
MD: Yeah, I always want some sort of cameo. In my next movie it’s a little bit different. It’s a horror-romance type movie. There’s not many deaths in it, but it’s still pretty twisted. So I probably won’t have a death in that one. But in pretty much everything else. I at least want some type of cameo, yeah. And it’s fun to do. I came up with the idea of the antennas stabbing my eyes out [in Spirit Animal]. So always look for me. I’ll probably be wearing something with a shark on it! [Laughs]
WH: So, not to get too serious or anything, but your characters all seem to live lives of quiet desperation. What attracts you to working-class characters?
MD: I’m a working class person, myself. I mean, I work two jobs and do the film stuff. I think it’s a struggle to get by, so it kind of makes them relatable, too. Living paycheck to paycheck and you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to survive. I mean, I don’t live in the nicest apartment. But, you know, I make by. So I guess characters can be kind of relatable.
I try to make the movies take place in the ’90s, but I don’t always tell the year because if someone’s like, “Hey, that shake weight wasn’t around then,” I can say, “Well, I never told the year.” But, yeah, living paycheck to paycheck is hard, so it’s relatable. Also, for Bathtub, yeah they’re down on their luck and they’re doing their best to survive and they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do, and they’ve got to deal with this fucking shark in the bathtub. [Laughs].
WH: Last question: Who is Brutus, and how does he find himself in all your movies?
MD: Well, one of my best friends, Brittany, brought him home one day. That was before the IKEA shark was so big. That must have been right after he came out, when she went to IKEA with another friend of ours. She sent me a picture and I was like, “Oh my god, I need him!” She named him Brutus. I always started to put him in my movies. And it just became a joke. And all of a sudden, thanks to Matt Skinner, he was like “Yeah, you should put Brutus on IMDB. I’m going to put him in Air Fryer Slaughter.” And all of a sudden he’s showing up in all of these movies that aren’t even mine. But it just kind of became a running joke. Especially with autographs and stuff, I just started bringing him to conventions, and now everyone knows who Brutus is. Honestly, I don’t know how this happened, but I like it!
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