EXCLUSIVE: Interview with VAN GORE director Keith Hodder

Greetings, horror geeks!  Today, I have a special interview with the winning director of the “The Hobo With A Shotgun Trailer Contest,” Keith Hodder.  His entry Van Gore, took home the bloody prize and has many people wondering whether or not the serial-killing artist will expand onto the big screen.  Check out what Hodder has to say about that as well as his thoughts on exploitation films and the future of some of his other projects.

Where did the idea for Van Gore come from?

When we heard about the trailer, I sat down a bit. Usually when I sit down and think, I get pretty lucky and ideas tend to come up that night or the next day. The idea of Van Gore just popped into my mind. It originally started as an artist that drained people’s blood. I started thinking about what kinds of weapons he would kill with; like sharpened paint brushes and palettes.  Originally he was supposed to wear a mask and every time he killed a different person he would paint a different expression on his mask. But we decided to toss that idea when we got the ultra-talented Garfield Andrews.

Was that the first idea that you had for a fake trailer for the competition or were there other ideas that came up that you shot down?

One of the ones that I shot down right away was a Blaxploitation film that had a white actor in “black face,” but I thought it would be a bit too risky. Yeah . . . I thought that one would have set me off the deep end way too quickly.  Then after that Van Gore came in. I know that Peter Strauss, my co-director and co-writer wanted to do something with a trio of girls but I never really heard his idea and I shot it down right away because I then wanted to do a slasher.

It is interesting, because the Blaxploitation genre hasn’t been explored as much as the slasher genre, but I can definitely understand the controversy surrounding it.

Yeah it could’ve offended quite a few people. Which, I wasn’t setting out to do.

Did you get to hear comments from Jason Eisener or any of the judges after it was picked as the winner?

After we won, the day of, Jason called me and said, “You won, you son-of- a-bitch.” He said he loved the trailer and that it was selected unanimously; which is incredible!  Eisener though had just a lot of good things to say. It is all incredibly touching stuff, for sure.

Now, did you get to see any of the other trailers that were submitted? Were there any that really stuck out to you that you liked?

For sure. I was so fucking nervous the whole time that I was literally on Youtube and the Hobo site every day scrounging around to see who the competition was. Like, almost paranoid. There were a lot of great ones, like Earwigs, which was in the top five. That was fantastic trailer.  Care Center Slaughterhouse  . . . pretty much all of the ones in the top five. Charlene She Wolf of My Heart  .  There was one of them that wasn’t even in the top called Sweet Fucking Bunny which was done by the young guys in Italy.  I thought that one was brilliant! It was really funny, had a lot of heart in it.  Like I said, there were a lot of filmmakers that came out and delivered and kept me on my toes. 

So were you inspired by Bucket of Blood or Color Me Blood Red?

What’s funny is that a lot of people brought that up on Youtube.  In all honesty, we have yet to see any of the films.  We will have to check them out.

When I first saw the trailer, it immediately brought those films to mind.  So I didn’t know if it was a direct homage to them.

I wish we were smart enough to know those films to make a direct homage.  But we’ve never seen them.  So we are going to have to get out and see those so we know what we are talking about when people bring them up.

Since I attended art school, I noticed in the trailer you kind of poke fun at the stereotypes of that world.  Especially with the art snobs who wear all black and who are wearing the berets and glasses.  Did you have anyone on set or know someone that was involved in that scene of people?

I am living in Toronto right now.  I don’t want to hate on Toronto, but Toronto is filled with hipsters.  I am going to Ryerson  for radio and television right now.  Everyone is really down to Earth there, but apparently Peter, who is taking new media studies, said that he drew a lot of inspiration for the collector character and the kids in the alley are based on pretentious people that he went to school with.  It’s pretty funny.  Other than that, Toronto is filled with hipsters and it was a very easy thing to stereotype.

So have you always been inspired by Grindhouse-esque films?  Is there any in particular that are some of your favorites?

What’s funny, oddly enough … I am still new to the exploitation genre.  I grew up on James Bond films and spy films and that sort of thing.  As for horror, it started off with Romero’s zombie films and there’s even a reference to the film Zombie (Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2).  Of course it isn’t one of Romero’s but there is a reference to Zombie in the trailer with the end shot; the famous eye-popping scene.  That’s a direct homage to that at the end of our trailer.  Other than that, inspiration really started kicking up when I was 17 and the original Hobo trailer came out and got a lot of press.  I fell in love with it and wished that I could do something like that so badly.  I told myself, if a contest like that came up again, no matter how busy I am, that I am going to do it.  To not let it pass.  Early inspiration was, honestly, Eisner’s Hobo With a Shotgun trailer and of course Grindhouse by Tarantino and Rodriguez.  Other than that, I am still very green to the genre.

I am curious, since you said you grew up with the James Bond spy films.  Have you ever seen Danger: Diabolik directed by Mario Bava?  If you haven’t and you are into the spy genre you should definitely check it out.

Yeah! What’s funny is that when I was talking to Eisner, he recommended that film to me as well! So I will definitely have to check that one out.

I noticed that your company, River Rogue Productions, has a film entitled The Tortured. Is that a film that you guys are currently making or is it something that’s coming out soon?

So, The Tortured was something that I shot with two different filmmakers.  One was Brett Driver the other was Nick Laraunt.  Larent is from LA and Bret is from Georgia.  We finally all got together after seeing each other’s films and we flew down to Georgia and shot the whole thing In Thomaston, Georgia in three days.  Cast all the actors there … all local. I am a big fan of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.   It’s mostly a film that is rooted in the philosophy that everyone has this dark instinctual being inside of them.  So, the film is about a team of mercenaries who are sent to hunt down a dictator.  They have a new member on the team and he starts to learn that things aren’t necessarily the way they seem to be.  He also learns that things aren’t exactly right with him as he once thought they were.  It is being edited right now by Nick Laraunt in LA, and it is something we plan to show around at festivals.

The teaser trailer for The Tortured is pretty impressive considering that it is a low-budget film?  Was it hard to get the production to look as good as it does?

Me, Nick and Brett are really big perfectionists.  We all came in very much prepared, like what we did with Van Gore. It helps to have a well scheduled plan and to know what you are doing.  We shot on two Canon 7Ds, which in themselves, are fantastic cameras and you can do a lot with them. I can’t stress enough how much we were perfection Nazis.  We really wanted to put in hard work so that we weren’t wasting any of the actor’s time and that everyone would be able to get something out of it. 

The final question I have for you, is what is the future of Van Gore as well as the future of River Rogue Productions?

With Van Gore we are definitely entertaining the idea of starting to get a treatment going.  We thought of some loose ideas where the story will go and kind of expanding Van Gore’s character as well.  Along with that, we want to do another short, either this summer, or as soon as possible.  The working title is White Trash and it will also be an exploitation piece as well that will be really over the top.  It will be the first time working with a female lead which is exciting.  Hopefully, in late 2011 or 2012 we will be doing a web series that’s based off of The Twilight Zone.  So, ideas are always coming and going and we are always trying to keep ourselves going.  With each project we try to push our boundaries.  So, if we have never done a fight scene, then fuck it … we will write in a fight scene in this scene.  And that’ll teach us how to shoot it and edit it.  Every film is going to be the next step for us getting better as filmmakers.

Well, the only thing that I ask, if you do end up expanding Van Gore into a full feature, that you need to have an ear gag.  Vincent Van Gough cut off his own ear …

That’s true! I totally agree. That’s funny cause we have been playing with an idea like that.

I appreciate your time.  Thanks.

No problem.  Mostly, we want to thank everyone who has said both good and bad things about Van Gore.  I want to thank them for checking out the video and spreading the word.  I can’t thank people enough. 

That’s it folks! I want to thank Keith Hodder for his time and for giving us the interview.  If you haven’t checked out the trailer for Van Gore, or any of the other finalists, you can do so by clicking here.

Also … don’t forget to check out Magnolia’s Hobo With A Shotgun right now On-Demand and in theaters May 6^th!  As if you needed a reminder.