If you haven't heard of Long Pig yet, you will soon. Well, I guess you're hearing about it right now. So that's even better.
The film, an indie effort about a cabal of cannibals, already has a small cult following online, thanks to the film's promises of strong gore, subversive themes, and, of course, babes. I recently spoke to Carlo Rodriguez, the producer and writer of the film, about his views on the film he's producing, the troubles with preplanning a feature, and his ambitions for a movie about the troubling and familiar taste of human flesh.
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House of Horrors: How much of the plot can you divulge? What is the film about, exactly?
Carlo Rodriguez: The story is, on Halloween, a bunch of typical college students get lost in the woods, and end up being hunted by this cabal of people [cannibals]. We didn't want to make them the usual cannibals. We didn't want them to be hillbillies. We wanted to make them more shadowy. We wanted an oppressive, faceless threat.
What the executive producer [George H. Russell] wanted to do was make a commentary on things, while making a horror film. He had certain issues in mind. So w e chose cannibalism for a metaphor. The idea of eating a person, literally and figuratively. It's the idea of one generation being consumed by the older generation.
HoH: Now, in certain films, like the original Dawn of the Dead, or Hostel, the commentary is pretty overt. Is the plan to kind of hide the commentary, or just put it out front and center?
CR: Well, I always thought that we could say more than less, so what we [the producer and I] found was common ground in visual imagery. For example, we talked about how Halloween was about someone hiding under the guise of the faceless thing. So, we have three main characters in the movie wearing political masks. One is George Bush Sr., one is George W. Bush, and the other, believe it or not, is Arnold Schwarzenneger.
HoH: (laughs)
CR: And he asked, "Will that sell the message?" So I thought, well, how about this: most college kids, their first vehicle is a junker. So we found the oldest, biggest land cruiser we could find, and so, in the story, they had to constantly put oil in it to get them from one destination to the next. So we have this scene where the person in the George W. Bush mask is holding onto all these bottles of oil, by his land cruiser. We figure most intelligent people will pick up on that imagery.
HoH: It's good to see that you're trying to put some ideas in there, along with the gore and scares and all that good stuff. Were there any horror films that pointed toward how you approached this one?
CR: Well, the Romero films, not in terms of their style, but in how they said, "Hey, you think it's about this, but it's really about this." At one point, w e talked about the original Dawn of the Dead, and the remake, and we said, "Where is the commonality?" We knew they were different, but where was the common ground?
And what we decided was that the original was about the rise of the shopping mall and mindless consumerism, whereas the remake, it could be argued, it was about rabid consumerism, the gotta-have-it mentality, waiting for the opening of the store to get whatever it is.
HoH: Everyone who gets eaten in this movie deserves to get eaten. True or false?
CR: Umm . . . false, although a lot will. I will say this: there will be a couple of survivors. And we've tried very hard to make it so they aren't the usual suspects. I mean, ten minutes into a movie like this, you can usually figure out who's gonna live and who's gonna die.
HoH: Yeah, you can just look at the way people are standing in the poster.
CR: Exactly. I knew I wanted to take a lot of conventions of the genre and turn them on their head. In a movie like this, half the fun is the body count, and seeing how the people die. But we hope that some people die, who you never expect. Some people will die where you say, "Oh, I liked that person, I didn't want them to die!"
HoH: From what I've seen of the film, you've built up a pretty big cast for the film. How difficult is it to ask some of these people, "You want to be in our movie about cannibals?"
CR: We got a strange mixture. About half of them are hoping to grow in their craft and make this into a career. The other half consisted of other filmmakers, and people who thought to themselves, "Well, I always wanted to do this." It's a weird chocolate-and-peanut-butter mixture. It's interesting to work with people who have different mindsets.
For example, if you've been following the threads, you've seen Michelle Vanegas, who's just incredibly professional. She's definitely someone you're going to hear from in the future. She's already working on her second movie.
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| Actress Amy Nolte poses for a publicity still. Rawr. Call me, Amy. |
HoH: So, most people treat the project in a very professional manner?
CR: Obviously there were different degrees, but, by and large, we had a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of people weren't paid. They did it because they loved movies, or because they loved horror movies.
HoH: You mentioned earlier that principal photography wrapped, for the most part. Was that a difficult process?
CR: It did not go smoothly. And one of the big lessons I learned was that, the more that I plotted things out and tried to plan things, the more things went wrong. For example, we were filming a big chase scene and one of our actors, Brooke Riley, injured her ligament, so I couldn't do anything I'd planned or hoped to do with her.
And then, of course, one of the big blows was, we'd had this actress come and audition for a role, but we offered her a different role. I expanded that role because I liked the dynamic, we went through and rewrote all these scenes, and then a couple weeks later she dropped out of the project.
Still, I loved the experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
HoH: Once the film is complete, what are the plans for distribution?
CR: We're hoping for distribution from Blockbuster. We'll have it available on Amazon.com, and Netflix. . . . and of course we'll sell it on our website.
HoH: Do you plan on this film being a springboard into bigger and better things?
CR: The executive producer hopes to do a line of films, some horror films. That is the goal. If Long Pig makes money. (laughs)
HoH: Now, are there any horror films you saw recently that you enjoyed?
CR: Well, actually, the producer, myself, and the administrative staff for Long Pig went out in January. They hadn't had a lot of experience with horror films, so we went on a field trip . . .and ended up seeing Wolf Creek and Hostel.
Hostel went over with a thud. With Hostel, they looked at me and said, "We aren't gonna do that, are we?" But they all enjoyed Wolf Creek. And they were obviously interested in Saw, since those films cost so little and made so much. I had to explain to them that, you know, that wasn't normal.
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| Rodriguez prepares the red stuff while Grace Carpenter looks on. |
HoH: But on the other hand, the good horror movies out there are often done with small budgets.
CR: That's right. And what I told them is if you get the right combination of story, panache, style, that if you just go for it, and don't try to make a "success," it can work. Just try to make a good movie.
HoH: I have one more question: do you think you could ever go cannibal? And if so, would you go for the thigh, or
CR: wait, if I were a cannibal, what part would I prefer?
HoH: Yeah, because you gotta understand, most people don't know how it's served.
CR: Well, I guess I'd go for the same part I always go for on Thanksgiving dinner. I'd always go for the leg.
HoH: Fair enough. Before we finish up, was there anything you wanted to add?
CR: I just want to say, a lot of these young actors and college students, I really enjoyed working and interacting with them. And thanks to the executive producer, for giving me the opportunity to work on the project. We all had a great time doing it. So I just want to say thank you all.
You can learn more about Long Pig by visiting the website right here. The site has plenty of sweet clips, and links to forum threads chock-full of babes. We at House of Horrors thank Carlo Rodriguez for his time and anticipate the release of Long Pig.
