INT: Michael Davis

Having
directed “Eight Days a Week”, “100 Girls” and
“100 Women” (he loves them females…I respect that),
“Monster Man” is Michael Davis’ first directorial genre
effort. Although bathed in outrageous comedy, there was enough plasma,
guts and human atrocities in this film for me to firmly call it a
horror flick. I had the chance to break necks with the man behind the
wheel of this mad ride and here’s what went down. 

ARROW:
Are you, by nature, a fan of the horror genre?

MD: Whenever I have seen good horror, I have loved it. I loved
“Evil Dead 2″…I think it is one of the most cinematic
films in history. I took my girlfriend, now my wife, to it on
Valentine’s Day. This film led me to seek out some of the Hong
Kong films like “Chinese Ghost Story”. I am by nature
more of a sci-fi and action fan. I grew up loving James Bond…In
junior high, I wrote two James Bond novels for myself.

I guess I come to horror late because my parents wouldn’t let me
watch it. I know most fans and filmmakers of the genre started on
it as kids. The closest I got was buying those old Warren
publications of Eerie and Creepy magazines…but I was interested in
them for the illustration style (and the hot Vampirella like babes)
, I thought the Marvel and DC comic book style was
boring. Since I was into drawing, I thought there was a greater
variety to the drawing styles in those mags than other places. Esteben
Morato and his El Cid series I believe was the series I liked
best. The guy who designed Johnny Qyest worked for Eerie. I
convinced my mom to let me buy them because of my artistic 
interest…not my interest in the zombies. But somewhere in my
subconscious, this horror stuff must have stuck. Frankly, I
probably didn’t read the stories but I did pour over the pictures.

Anyway, it
must have helped…I went to art school at Parsons School of Design
and majored in illustration. After film school, I became a storyboard
artist and did such things as Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Ninja Turtles,
Mighty Joe Young, Medicine Man…I had the most fun of any of the
five features I’ve written and directed making “Monster
Man”. But, I can’t say I am in the same league with the
Eli Roths of the world and say I grew up on horror films. But I’d love
to make another horror film. It’s a great genre…and I love
the cinematic potential of it.

ARROW: How did the
inspiration for the “Monster Man” screenplay come about?

MD: The producers of my
previous two films 100 GIRLS and 100 WOMEN make their movies through
foreign presales. They had tested the market place with the title
Monster Man, but they had no story. They felt it was a title that
they could sell and asked me if I was interested in making a movie
with that title. I thought it was an opportunity to work in a new
genre. My last three films, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, 100 GIRLS, and 100
WOMEN were all romantic comedies. So, I said sure.

They didn’t have much money and I also struggled with the title. I
dreamed about making a  horror film like SHALLOW GRAVE or
something like that but I kept coming back to the title. It had a very
drive-in movie quality to it. I felt I had to come up with an idea
that matched the title. It was also important to me that although
I was working in a new genre that the new film had a continuity with
my previous work.  After much head scratching, I stumbled upon
the idea of a monster driving a monster truck. It made me smile.
It seemed to fit the title. I had been a fan of the PS2 game
Twisted Metal which had crazy vehicles creating mayhem. I was
also a fan of Road Warrior and Duel so I felt like the idea was at
least coming from someplace in my heart. I feel good movies are
made when there is some honesty to your desire to make it not just
fortune and glory. So, since I had these influences, the idea seemed
honest to me and I went from there. My last movies had all taken place
almost in a Rear Window-like single locations so the chance to do a
road trip with space was also appealing. My last three films,
also had male characters talking about girls and sex in a CLERKS
inspired way.

So, I thought great. I can still continue my voice, I can have
these guys talk about chicks and stuff in between being chased by a
monster truck. My previous movies had focused on the romantic comedy
elements but some of the best comedy came from the moments between the
two buddies…this idea afforded me the chance to finally do a real
buddy comedy. I also had started experimenting doing animations on my
computer using iMovie. I made an animated trailer of the movie that my
producers showed at Mifed. It was a hit and people started
investing. I like that my drawing ability and animation skills
can be used to show people exactly how I’m going to film the movie
later.  It’s like taking storyboarding to the next level. I
know guys like David Fincher and ILM have the computer generated
animatic programs, but they leave me cold. There’s a certain emotion
that only a drawing can create. I’ll put my animated storyboards up
against their cold cgi junk any day. Anyway, I’m off on a
tangent.  Lets say my animated mini film was a good sales tool to
get the film going. It helped Lions Gate pick up the movie before
we started shooting.

ARROW: Were your
intentions with the film to both frighten and amuse the audience at
the same time? Which emotion did you want to trigger first and
foremost?

MD: I feel like there are two kinds of horror films: 1- the
kind that make you laugh with disgust like Evil Dead or  2-
scary, eerie films like The Ring and the Exorcist. In my opinion,
to make an super scary film like The Exorcist (I was bored with the
Ring) is that you have to maintain a consistent, creepy tone to keep
the tension up, you can’t break it for one moment for comedy or you’ve
blown it. You have to keep the hairs on the back of the audiences neck
all the time, then you can get them. I don’t know if I can make a
film like that. 

One because I can’t resist making people laugh and because I’m
afraid to bore people. Those atmosphere type movies are risky, it’s
hard to hold an audience in that suspended state. I also think it
takes a lot of nifty camera work, lots of shots, cool production
design, and lighting to create this mood.  This all takes time
and money none of which I had.  I’m sure there are some low
budge horror flicks that can pull this off but hey I decided to rely
on my strengths and I like to laugh so I guess to answer your question
I wanted to trigger laughs first. My goal was simple. I find in most
horror films, the blood and attack scenes usually always work because
they’re visceral even if done poorly.  Where some of these
films aren’t as successful is the scenes between the horror set
pieces suck. They’re usually boring. The  characters are
uninteresting and we can’t wait for them to die.  My goal was
to make the scenes between  the horror scenes fun and
funny.  Hence, the buddy comedy stuff- the Velcro, the Rosebud
dissertation, the comic wrestling, the hood ornament/pubic hair
parallel if I can make that work, I felt the blood and guts stuff
would work…I don’t know if my blood and guts stuff is scary to be
honest with you.  I’ve seen light weights freak out at it, but
the hard core fans…I don’t know…but I bet it’s hard to get any
hard core fan to be freaked. I didn’t get scared once in Evil Dead 2
or Scream but I had fun. So, my philosophy was “hey, I’m not a
master of horror and suspense but I’ll just have fun with it. If
people are scared great…if they laugh…that’s just as good.” 
I didn’t want my comedy to be spoofy or campy…Unless you have
Bruce Campbell, that can get tiring. So, I consciously tried to get
funny…get real performances from the actors. I think the actors have
to believe they’re in the situation.  I think this helps the
movie…

Although there are definite nods to many films like Jeepers Creepers,
I didn’t want to spoof them spoofs are hard to maintain the energy
and comedy. To tell you the truth, my main goal was just to try to
make an entertaining movie in the genre.  I didn’t have much
time or money. I didn’t want to paint myself into a corner and make
a movie more ambitious than my budget.  Hence, I tried to create
scenes that were fun and disgusting that didn’t require time and
lots of money. Hence, the genesis of the road kill licking
scene.  I was not attempting to reinvent the wheel, I was just
trying to make it fun and also have a stamp on it. so fans of my
romantic comedies would say…hey…that feels like a Michael Davis
movie. So,  yeah,  I fell back on what I know best…laughs…but
I hope there is some visceral thrill in seeing some guys head crushed
by a vise…or a cool Monster Truck knocking the guys off the road…I
like the idea of someone sandwiched between a corpse and the weight of
a monster truck.  We’ve seen people with corpses, I just think
it’s fun to see them mushed with one. My favorite bit in the whole
film is the kid’s chronic bloody nose being the ‘trail of bread
crumbs” that leads Fuck Face to the blade that stabs him. Although,
I used comedy as a crutch, I hope I gave the audience enough
blood and violence to satisfy their expectations of the genre.

ARROW: Did you find
it hard to find the proper dosages between the laughs and the scares
to make an overall balanced film?

MD: Every audience member is different. I always say someone
can watch a Woody Allen movie and say that was boring cuz there’s
nothing cinematic about it. Or someone can watch a John McTiernan
movie and say the dialogue was flat. There’s no pleasing everyone. I
guess I just put in stuff that delights me and hopefully others will
like my choices.  As I said above, I don’t know if my film is
scary, maybe there are too many laughs but that’s what I do my main
goal was to have most of the laughs spring from the characters not
from spoofing. All of Harley’s funny stuff comes from his
testosterone fueled philosophy. I believe his character thinks about
this stuff. Adam’s Velcro fetish is funny and establishes who he is…I
believe somewhere out there in the world, someone has gotten a bloody
nose while making out. So I put it in to make the romance scene just a
little bit different than the other ones out there.  For me,
there’s enough of a balance. If I had more money, I’d put in more
scares. Give me a big budget and I’ll gladly take out laughs for
scares.  I’ll create an Alien or something, with no money, I’ll
stick with what I know.

For me, the film is tonally consistent and works. That’s how I
start. Hopefully it works for other people. To tell you the
truth, I was scared shitless that I wouldn’t have time to pull off
enough of the action, suspense stuff. You may notice the trick; I
have two truck chases, I use several of the same angles for the meat
of the two chases. I made the second one different by adding a
curved section of the road and added the corpse in the backseat to
create a visual difference but it was basically a two-for-one set up
kind of filmmaking. The corpse in the backseat may have undercut the
terror of the second chase by adding a gross, funny element but I
couldn’t have afforded to do a completely different kind of chase.
So the corpse element was a way to make the second chase different
(even though they’re almost  the same from a camera set up
perspective.) So, some of the comedy was born of necessity rather than
a balancing act between comedy and horror. The scene where Adam
“eats someone” is not original but it was cheap to do. I felt it
was better to have something than nothing. Again, I was just
trying to make something work with very little. So, I was flying by
the seat of my pants, adding blood, adding comedy, going by my
instincts, hoping like hell that the mix works. Hopefully, it does
with the audience. I know I have a good time watching it, that’s as
far as I can make it work.

ARROW: I
particularly enjoyed the clever dialogue found in this picture. It had
me on the floor! Were any of the characters based on yourself or
people you know? If not, where did you find the inspiration for them?

MD: I can’t tell you when, how, or who but the girl doing
Yoda while having sex actually happened to me…I had a Velcro wallet…and
I liked the sound it made. I always wanted to make jump cut music out
of the rip-rip-rip noise. This movie worked well for it. I
keep a notebook with me so that when I hear something interesting I
can write it down and use it later. For instance, I was buying a book
and some girl commented on the color of my eyes. She went on to say
she had “root beer colored eyes…” I loved it and wrote it
down. I used it in the movie cuz I think there is some goofball
poetry to it. I am insecure about writing dialogue. I don’t
think I am good with it off the cuff but because I have a master list
of these little gems, I forge forward knowing that I can refer to this
list I have. If I listen, every day I find something to write in
the book. I also collect odd ball philosophies and
trivia. The Rosebud trivia is true. Fructose in semen is
true. Thus, it’s easy to make comedy from it. The pubic hair
parallel to hood ornament is just from my twisted mind…but hey…it’s
right there in front of us all to make the comparison.

ARROW: So what’s
your process as a screenwriter? Do you have any odd “rituals” that
you do when you sit down and aim to create?

MD: Well, referring to my collection ideas is one way. I doodle
a lot before I write. I used to be a storyboard artist…sometimes, I
doodle the sequence before I write it. The match dissolve from the “guy
in the vise’s” eye to the antenna mascot came from doodling. Once
I liked the visual, it spawned the antenna ball’s appearance in
other places in the movie. I like when the car is run off the
road, and the kid first fixes the antenna ball before anything
else cuz he’s so anal. The antenna ball hood ornament on the
monster truck would never be there if I hadn’t doodled first. I also
jot down a brainstorm list of everything the concept naturally calls
for like a monster truck crushing the car— a obvious scene for
horror,  the road leads to road kill…okay, now I need to do
something fun with road kill…that leads to road kill tonguing. I won’t
start writing until I know I have enough fun stuff. Once I have
something I liked for every scene, then I write.

ARROW: Monster Man
has its fair share of stunt set pieces, especially when it came to
that monstrous Monster Truck. What would you say was the trickiest “stunt”
scene to shoot?

MD: The truck chase was the hardest because there were so many
layers of communication. I would be in the camera car in front of
monitor. I’d give the AD a note to tell to drivers of the Monster
Truck then he’d talk into the walki—by the time the command was
given the framing was different, it was frustrating. Brother Fred’s
make up took three hours and then I’d shoot for an hour and then he’d
have to pee…uh, we won’t go into how that problem was solved.

ARROW: The gore in
the film was fairly prominent. Was the MPAA easier on you since most
of it was played for laughs or did you have to do lots of snipping to
appease them?

MD: The MPAA was great. We didn’t have to make any changes. I
guess it was the comedy. My editor, Kevin Ross, also has knows what
they like and don’t like and cut the film to make sure we didn’t
have problems. Funny, I make a gory film and I have no problems, but
my cute little EIGHT DAYS A WEEK got an NC-17 the first time out. Go
figure.

ARROW: What’s next
on your plate, project-wise?

MD: This business is brutal. You’ve got to have a lot of
things going for one thing to hit. I have an American “John Woo-like”
action film called SHOOT ‘EM UP. I’ve actually planned all the
action scenes by doing anime-like animation on my computer. I’ve got
17 minutes of animation which shows how all the action set pieces
would be done. It looks like you’re watching the movie, shot
and edited except it’s drawn. The script actually got recommend
coverage at New Line but they didn’t bite cuz they spent all their
money on “Lord of the Rings” at the time of submission.
I am currently shopping SHOOT ‘EM UP.

I’ve also got a science fiction piece called XENOPHOBIA with Renee O’Connor
(from Xena) attached going into the Sci-fi channel. We’ll see what
they think. I’ve been approached by different people to do
another horror film. If the money is there, I’d love to do another
one There’s actually a kid’s picture that may happen with Miramax,
that’s in the works. And I’m also writing a new action piece.
Oh, I am also thinking of selling my blood and sperm cause the
movie business is so tough. I’m serious. Hopefully, one of these
things will break or I’ll be calling you for a job.

ARROW: I hear ya on
the roughness of the biz, dude! Having said that, “Monster Man”
begs for a sequel. If successful, would you be up to delivering it as
a writer and director?

MD: Hell yeah! I got this idea, instead of a rural piece with
Monster Trucks it will be the complete opposite. It will be urban and
it will be about these little demons that drive mini-Coopers kind of
like “The Italian Job” meets “Ghoulies” I don’t
know…it’s a start.

I’d like to thank Michael for his time and for the horror delight that
was “Monster Man”. Keep popping those genre films out dude
and we’ll keep watching!

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