AITH Interviews Alexandre Michaud
I’ve known
Montreal Writer/Director ALEXANDRE MICHAUD for about 5 years now (we worked on
his film War part of TIME ENOUGH: THE ALIEN CONSPIRACY together). Not only do we have a love for the two Bs
(babes/booze) in common but we also share a lust for blood and guts. Alex once again put his lust into motion via his latest flick CLEAN which is part
of the recently released
GOREGOYLES 2 DVD (BUY IT HERE)
and I figured it was about damn
freaking time that I got this kool mofo on the site. Let’s talk Urban Flesh,
Clean and Goregoyles!
What are some of your favorite
horror movies?
I’ve always been a big fan of Italian cinema. I love the old Argento and Fulci
films. My favorite horror filcks would probably be Opera and Bava’s Black
Sunday. Good inspired stuff.
This is the second installment in the Goregoyles series. What inspired you to
create a horror anthology in the first place?
GoreGoyles is NOT an anthology series. My original concept was to make
double-feature DVDs. Ever heard of a small movie called Grindhouse? Well, that’s
exactly what I had in mind when I started this project back in 2002. Take two
short feature films and present them together as a two-for-one. If you look at
my original promo material, you’ll see that everything was marketed as a
double-feature of indy horror flicks. … Take that Tarantino! AHAHA Anyway, the
distributor decided to market it as an anthology and there is nothing I can do
about it… Shame on them! 😉
You segment in the film is called CLEAN which is about a psycho hitting a
snuff party. What was the initial creative spark that got the story rolling in
your head?
I was looking for a way to make a very gory horror film to fit in the GoreGoyles
series and I had this idea of creating some kind of Grand Gignol horror Stage
show. I wanted to make a film where some sick fuck was making a show out of
killing somebody on stage. There’s probably a bit of Lewis’ Wizard Of Gore in
there I guess. After that spark, I simply built a story around that Snuff show,
added some political comments to the mix and there was CLEAN.
How would you describe the shoot? Smooth sailing or problematic?
Smooth overall I guess. The biggest problem was that it was a group film. Most
of the scenes have a cast of 10-12 persons at the same time and it was hard to
coordinate everybody’s schedules. On top of that, my main actor, Marco Calliari
is a professional singer and he schedule was already pretty damn thight to start
with. That’s probably why we ended up shooting most of the stuff at night
between one and 8 AM. Everybody had nothing to their agenda at night! Once
everybody was on the set, I think it went very well.
What’s easier for you to shoot; a sex/love scene or a gore/kill scene? Why?
A sex scene. I’ve directed so many gore scenes in my life that I can do it with
my eyes closed. Kill scenes are also fairly easy to direct on the set because
you can plan very well every single shot in advance, a thing you can’t do with
sex scenes.
I won’t even ask what Alex is doing in this pic…
I DON’T WANT TO KNOW! ; )
How gory is CLEAN? What’s its
rating?
It’s a NC-17 movie. There’s a lot of gore, lots of oozing guts and buckets and
buckets of blood. Listen.. You have a guy that gets decapitated with a shovel,
you have disembowelment (more than one), you have torture scenes involving razor
blades and Tabasco sauce, you have dismemberments and a lot more… Enough for
you?
Is there any female TNA at play in it? Enquiring minds want to know?
Yep. We have cool strip scene involving a giant stuffed dog that ends up as a
gore scene. Chantale Petrin did a great job with that scene. (Love ya Chantale!)
I hear that a feature length
version of CLEAN exists. Will that ever see the light of day on DVD shelves?
Yes. There is a feature version of my segment of GoreGoyles 2. CLEAN, the
feature version, should be out on DVD from Brain Damage Films, within the next
12 months or so. The long version doesn’t have more gore. The twenty extra
minutes are character development scenes where you can really see Marco
Calliari’s talent as an actor. I can’t wait for that release… It’s real good
stuff my friends. That’s the version they played at the Fantasia festival last
summer.
Is Goregoyles 3 a possibility at this point? If so, do you have stories for
it in mind yet?
Yes. GG3 is in production right now. I’m not involved as director. I’ll be only
Executive Producer (just like for the first DVD). I can’t say much about it at
this point but… yes… it’s coming.
Word has it that your first film Urban Flesh is going to be re-released; in a
new cut at that. What can you tell us about it?
Nothing much. It’s still a secret. I’ll get back to you once I have an official
release date and more details.
What’s next for you as writer/director? Any projects on the horizon?
As you said, I’m working on a secret version of URBAN FLESH right now so this is
using up most of my time. I’m also supposed to be working alongside director
Christian Viel on Recon 2023 later on this year (if Viel doesn’t fire me before
we start shooting).
Being that you are also a Montréaler; what would you say is the city’s main
perk: Its beer, its hot babes, its “free for all” strip clubs or its poutines?
The best thing is Montreal is a night of drinking local beer, watching hot babes
in a free for all strip club and eating a giant poutine before going to bed dead
drunk. 😉 You know what I’m talking about!
Thanks to Alex
for dropping by! See ya at the tittie bar bud! Lap dances are…ON YOU!
BUY GOREGOYLES 2 ON DVD TODAY!!
BUY GOREGOYLES 2 ON DVD TODAY!!