Interviews
HoH Exclusive Interview: Patrick Rea
By John Marrone
Jun 17, 2006, 19:21

Today we're talking with Patrick Rea - co-founder of SenoReality Pictures (with Ryan Jones) - producer and director to a number of recent horror shorts - most of which can be found within the Cell Shock series of N8Studios.com .  Patrick most recently presented his horror short, Hell to Pay (review), at the 2005 New York City Horror Film Festival - and has completed his first feature film, The Empty Acre.  Patrick was cool enough to take a time-out from his busy schedule and give House of Horrors a chance at some insight into the mind behind the work.

HoH:  Patrick - any reason that horror is the "realm" for most of your films?

Rea:  I’ve always loved the genre of horror since I was a child.  It’s definitely been the most influential.  As a kid, I used to watch horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Poltergeist.  A lot of the times I had to be pretty stealthy, so I wouldn’t get caught, since I was way too young.  Those films fascinated me, and still do.

HoH:  Are there any movies or filmmakers that shaped your tastes growing up - any that inspired you more than the rest...

Rea:  Directors like Carpenter, Craven and Raimi have always been and continue to be inspiration.  Carpenter being my personal favorite.  I would be lying if I didn’t say Spielberg and Lucas were huge influences, but as far as the horror genre goes, the work of Carpenter has always been closest to my heart.  It might sound funny, but his films relax me.  His style is very smooth and avoids beating you with a sensory assault.

HoH:  Where do you get the ideas for your projects.  Do you and Ryan bounce things off each other between projects - or are you resourcing ideas or  stories that were born while you were growing up or in film school?

Rea:  I would say it’s a little of both.  A lot of the ideas come from conversations we all have as filmmakers.  Ryan Jones, Josh Robison, the other key member of the team, and the local filmmakers all have the ability to play off of each other.  We all have great senses of humor.  When you get us all in a room, someone should have a tape recorder rolling to get all the weird ideas down.  In the case of our feature “The Empty Acre,” the idea stemmed from growing up in a small town in Nebraska.  I have a love for small towns, but there is something inherently creepy about them. 

HoH:  Filming in Kansas and the surrounding area really stamps this certain American flavor into each of the things Ive watched.  Going to school, farmlands, cattle, small towns, simple family.  Is this something that you consciously involve in your films - that sort of
intouchness with everyday life?

Rea:  Absolutely.  Scorsese always said to make films about what you know.  I’ve lived in the Midwest all my life, so I try to infuse a lot of that into our projects.  With “Acre” I felt the story had to seem very real.   I didn’t want the characters to be cartoony.  I wanted them to really be people I knew from this area.  I hope that will allow the audience to feel connected to them more.

HoH:  While shooting around Kansas has its unique benefits - as things progress and you get more of an opportunity to travel, is there anywhere else in particular that you'd want to shoot a film?

Rea:  Definitely.  I’ve always wanted to shoot a film on the ocean, Egypt, Ireland and Rome.

HoH:  With Hell to Pay - when the doll/husband got thrown in the blender - there was no blood used.  For a split second I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but decided in the end it was more fun to imagine what she might have seen in that kitchen.  I notice there's actually very little or no use of blood in any of your films.  Is there a particular reason you choose not to show any gore in your films?

Rea:  It’s funny you mention that.  I try to be pretty subtle with the gore.  Don’t get me wrong, I love films with gore, however, as a filmmaker I tend to stray away from it.  While attending the NYC Horror Film Festival, Roger Corman stated that he felt suggesting gore is more horrific.  I tend to agree.  The films I have the most respect for such as “Halloween” or even “The Exorcist” or the original “Omen” have very little gore.  It’s more psychological this way, which in the long run affects the viewer more.  Who knows, we may make a splatter film in the near future.  However, it would have to be a horror/comedy.  I love “Dead Alive”.  I wouldn’t mind doing something with that sort of goofy tone.

HoH: Last Laugh irked me.  I hate mimes.  We're you trying to disturb that nerve in most people that didn't want to see the mime come out on top?  Why couldn't the clown have beat his ass to death?  Please kill him slowly and violently in a sequel...

Rea:  Ha.  I agree.  The film was co-written and directed by myself and Kansas filmmaker Kendal Sinn.  We had a good time with that one.  I’ll have to ask him if he wants to do a short sequel.

HoH:  Horror shorts always get knocked by filmmakers as something they'd like to grow past doing - but I notice that you continue to work hard on short films.  Often they're the hidden gems of horror entertainment - yet the average fan in most cases will never get to see it.  Do you think there'll ever be more of a niche for them, as far as accessability to the horror fan public?

Rea:  Well, with the new technologies arising on the internet, and with cell phone distribution and such, I believe short form filmmaking is becoming more accessible to everyone.  Fangoria is doing a fantastic job with the Blood Drive DVDs (Fangoria article).  Two of our older short films were on the first disc.  It was available everywhere, which was awesome.  We are currently doing a series of two-minute shorts titled “Cell Shock” for a company called n8studios.  You can watch them at www.n8studios.com, and click on the Cell Shock logo.  As for continuing to do horror shorts, I find that they are great way to learn, so we can apply that knowledge to the feature films we want to make.  We make a lot of short films a year, and it’s always fun and sometimes gut wrenching to go a couple years back and view what we did in the past.  However it certainly shows the learning curve.  We just completed a short shot with the HD Varicam titled “Woman’s Intuition” written by Steve Deaver.  It looks fantastic and comparing it to something we did in 2004 or even last year shows an amazing step up.

HoH:  Any word on when those Killer Shorts programs will begin to air on Fangoria?

Rea:  A couple of our shorts are set to show on the Killer Shorts.  I’m just playing it by ear.  I think it’s tremendously exciting about FangoriaTV and we would love to do some original programming if the opportunity presents itself.

HoH:  The Empty Acre did have that Twilight Zone/X-Files feel to it.  Did you like the 1950's tv series or the modern series, personally, and what are a couple of your favorite episodes?

Rea:  I still watch the 50’s “Twilight Zone” late at night.  I loved the simplicity of them and how effective they still are.  Some of my favorite episodes would have to be “Eye of the Beholder” and of course “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”

HoH:  In the end of the film - when "the nothing" came for Beth, things became very psychedelic as it attempted to flood her mind with voices and images and get her to open the door.  Philip Johnson explained the connection between he and "the nothing", but in the end, it seemed maybe there was a little more to it than what he told.  Could you directly explain the connection between that character and the presence sucking that town dry?

Rea:  I wanted Phillip’s character to be the personification of the “it” in the film.  I thought it would be interesting to have a character, which had his childhood stolen by this thing and make him the semi-villain or accomplice.  He was taken as a child and fed off of by the “it” and now he is sort of bait on a hook to bring more people to be sucked in.  I really wanted to play with that fear of not going anywhere, always dreaming, but never actually doing, which to me is more terrifying than anything on this earth.  It’s a fear that everyone has.  Beth dreams of escaping, but she never really does, and the same for Phillip, but he didn’t have a choice.  He was swallowed up at an early age, and is now a slave.

HoH:  What is Four about and how is that coming along?

Rea:  “Four” is something we are working on that we hope to be shooting next summer.  It’s again in the vein of “The Twilight Zone” and “The X-Files.”  I won’t go into many plot details, but it’s something I’m very excited about.  It will be our second feature film, and will once again be shot in the Lawrence, Kansas City area.  There are so many talented people and it’s great to continue a working relationship with them.  Our independent film company is literally working in collaboration with several other Kansas companies, such as ThroughAGlass Productions and GunnPark Entertainment.  It’s an exciting time to be making films in the Kansas area.

Youre doing a lot of good work.  Original ideas, not merely dependant on gags or splatter or one-liners.  Stories.  I think there's a place for that in the industry.  Good luck to you and Ryan - keep up the good work and be sure to keep House of Horrors and all your fans updated on what you're doin.