The Arrow
interviews Matt Hastings
Veteran
of the TV shows “The Outer Limits” and “Higher Ground”,
director Matt Hastings
now makes his directorial debut with the very fun looking DECOYS which
by the trailer looks like a reversal on “The Faculty” where a
group of students ARE the aliens causing a ruckus in the school. I had
the chance to chit-chat with Matt about the film (which opens limited
on February 27th in Canada) and here’s what he had to say.
ARROW:
You wrote DECOYS with Tom Berry. How did the idea come about?
MATT:
The idea was one that Tom and Paul Graton had. Paul is one of the
top executives at the SPACE CHANNEL. They always wanted to work
together and wanted to get into the
feature film business. They had this idea and gave me a treatment, a
synopsis of the movie they wanted to make. They had seen my other work
from the Outer Limits, Higher Ground etc. and hired me to write the
script.
ARROW:
How would you describe the tone of the film? Humorous, serious,
scary?
MATT: It’s very unique. There are
certain moments of drama and pathos and there is also humor and
very good scares. It’s a rollercoaster ride!
ARROW: Horror often acts as a metaphor and reading the
outline of DECOYS, I could see how it could be open to make a
social statement of some kind. Did you go that way?
MATT:
I think the film is a romp and is highly
entertaining first. Sure, there are messages, but nothing oppressive.
Our first goal was to highly entertain!
ARROW:
This was your first feature length directorial gig. How did you
approach the film from a visual standpoint?
MATT:
I’m a very visual guy and I’m a fan of very
visual directors. I took all the influences that I had and used
them in this film. I also found innovative ways to shoot particular
scenes and shot some footage on DV cam. I like to think that the
visual style is kinetic. I used a lot of different lenses and didn’t
shoot anything traditionally. I tried to keep it as interesting as
possible.
ARROW:
That sounds like my cup of tea! How about the special effects?
I’m assuming you have a lot of those in the flick, since it involves
chicks with tentacles.
MATT: LOL. No, those
are real men!
ARROW: Oh god, my last date!
MATT: LOL. Yes,
they’re all based on ex-girlfriends of mine!
ARROW: LOL. So I’m curious, what would
you say is the ratio of practical effect and CGI effects in the
picture?
MATT:
That’s an interesting question. What we did is combine both the
prosthetics and the CGI. They were developed simultaneously where the
prosthetic people and the CGI team both worked together. So there are
scenes that seemingly blend practical effects and CGI effects. We’re
pretty stoked about it. I’m a giant fan of horror and sci-fi, and even
though we were dealing with a limited budget, the whole team and
I wanted to give out great effects for the bucks. We didn’t just put
an alien here, or an an alien there…we were very particular about
the designs and everybody just kicked ass with them!
ARROW: So with sex and violence in the film, did you have any trouble
with the MPAA?
MATT:
There’s not a lot of sex in the movie, but there’s a lot of sexiness.
We didn’t want to make a “sex” movie, we wanted it to be sensual,
funny, intelligent and as I said before…entertaining. As for the
violence,
you see some stuff and some stuff you don’t see. Being a big horror
fan yourself, you know that sometimes the most frightening stuff is
the stuff you don’t see, that happens off-screen or through a sound
effect. We really wanted to reach a broad audience.
ARROW: What’s the rating actually?
MATT: I believe in
Canada it’s the equivalent of a PG-13 in the States. There’s brief nudity, really brief, one scene
for about 3 seconds.
ARROW: What
kind of distribution do you guys have secured so far?
MATT:
Lions Gate Films is handling us in Canada, Crystal Films is handling us
in French Canada and in the US, we have three major distributors looking at it. It would be nice to get a theatrical in the States,
but as you know, since you’re experiencing this stuff yourself…it’s very
difficult.
ARROW: Oh yeah!
MATT: If we get a
any kind of theatrical distribution, it’s a pie in the sky for us, but
we’re very confident in getting something strong like an HBO or a
SHOWTIME premiere and a release on DVD.
ARROW: A straight-to-DVD release nowadays
is no longer looked down upon…it just “is”. Especially within the genre
and I see it as very positive.
MATT: Yes and
you see a lot of smaller budgeted films that just blow up on the DVD
market. If you can create a good DVD, which I think we’re doing,
with a lot of strong EXTRAS and behind-the-scenes footage, they can become
cult films and find their own fanbase. You know, we put all the
money on the screen, nobody will be driving off in a Mercedes after
this.
ARROW: LOL!
MATT: We all
really worked hard, many of the actors were first time feature film
actors and I was a first time feature film director and I was
obviously very happy to be doing the gig and was not jaded at all.
ARROW:
That always helps.
MATT: Yes, it does. And the visual effect guys and the prosthetics guys… just gave their
all and I think it shows on screen.
ARROW: Sequel? Is that a thought if it makes
money?
MATT: We’re actually
in the middle of writing the script for the sequel. We are hoping that DECOYS
does well, we’re confident in it and are planning the sequel. Of
course, if it tanks…there won’t be one, but if it does moderately well,
makes its money back, we’ll be back to shoot the follow up.
ARROW: Beautiful! Last question What’s you
favorite horror movie?
MATT: It’s kind of a tie
between “The Shining” — when you watch the film, you’ll see some Kubrick
influences — and “Alien”. That film scared the shit out of
me! I had
never seen anything like that when I first saw it.
ARROW: Good choices. Thanks Matt!
MATT: Thank you
John!
I’d like to thank Matt for dropping by the site and would like to wish
him, and all involved on this production, the best of luck with DECOYS. It sounds
like it was a genuine labor of love for the cast and crew and I for
one, am very curious to see how it comes out. Thanks again, Matt! Talk
to ya when the sequel is on the way!
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