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Interview:
I know Mad Cowgirl isn’t a
traditional horror film by any means but, are you a fan of
the genre?
Absolutely. I grew up in the
drive-in theater as I had a younger brother and baby sister
who couldn’t be taken into walk-in movie theaters, so our
parents took us to see movies in the drive-in. At that time,
you had distributors like Crown International, Film Ventures
and Cannon who would have their films run as the 2nd “B”
features running for the night say, after, something more
mainstream like “Saturday Night Fever.” So I always looked
forward to the “B” features in those days, which tended to
be some cool grindhouse horror film.
Later on, I was fortunate to have
grown up during the heyday of VHS, when you had all these
cool independent video companies putting out all the great
horror flicks on video years after they’d been last seen. As
a 12 year old, it took a lot of convincing to get my mother
to rent me 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast. But I told her
these were old movies, not nearly as graphic as the films we
had at the present (I was also not allowed to go watch
Friday The 13th 3-D at the cinema either).
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would
be off limits to me until several years later, when I was
allowed to rent it. Oh yeah, Abel Ferrara’s “The Driller
Killer” was also on my mother’s “banned for Greg” list,
probably because the cover has this guy’s bloody face with a
drill sticking into it. I actually just saw the film for the
first time a few months ago and it’s not even a horror
film!!! Some great marketing those video guys did for the
film in the 80s. It’s quite a good psycho-drama though in my
opinion.
In Los Angeles, we also had a
couple of local syndicated stations that ran horror films
late at night and that’s where I got to see cool stuff like
Deep Red, Dementia 13 and Phantasm for the first time. Even
the more obscure stuff like Exorcism at Midnight and Dracula
Vs. Frankenstein. Other local channels ran the Hammer and
Universal horror classics as well. And you could catch artsy
horror like Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu and Carl Dreyer’s
Vampyr on the Z Channel, which we had. House of Wax was also
re-released in 3-D to theaters at that time at well. It was
a good time.
Horror at the moment seems to be
stuck on graphic torture films like SAW, HOSTEL and the
recent CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. What do you think
of these flicks? Are they garbage or worth a viewing?
Not sure how old you are, but I
don’t think that audiences today have the same excitement
you or I had upon discovering a cool Argento film or even a
scary Asian film like Kwaidan or Onibaba. I even was freaked
out by Salem’s Lot when it first aired. I don’t think
anything today stands up cinematically to the horror films
of the 70s. But I do like Alexandre Aja, Guillermo Del Toro
is a genius and Eli Roth loves 70s horror. So the 70s horror
film has excellent allies with these guys.
Is there anything that scares
you in real life?
My mortality and the ever present
knowledge of it.
I like to ask this one from time
to time. If you could be slain by any horror movie monster
or villain, who or what would it be and why?
1st request: The frozen monster
from the Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing flick “Horror
Express”. This monster sucks all the energy and elements
from your body and makes your eyes look like egg whites.
Your brain becomes “smooth as a baby’s bottom” as a
supporting character mentions.
2nd request: Not quite a horror
movie monster though but a cool killing machine: the Flying
Steel Ball from “Phantasm”.
OK, let's talk about Mad Cow
Disease. I assume you researched the disease before hand
right. What exactly happens to a person when their infected
with Mad Cow Disease? I heard they sneak into farms and yell
at cows all night, any truth to that?
Yes, it is true. They yell, scream
and complain all night, and then they move to Hollywood to
become actors.
Actually, my knowledge of the
disease was limited to whatever news reports I watched and
what I could find online. It was frightening to see what a
powerful and unflinching disease this was, how it create
pores in your brain, eventually making it into a jello-like
sponge. I wondered what is must be like for a person to be
in such an advanced stage of the disease and what that
person’s sense of reality was like. What’s even scarier is
how the government has pretty much ignored these warnings
and continues to encourage us to eat more beef, imported or
homegrown. Beef is a great business!
Mad Cowgirl has many story
elements like Mad Cow Disease, kung-fu, horror, comedy and
religion. What sparked such an eclectic mix?
More than anything this was a
reaction to Therese, the lead character’s descent into
insanity. The idea that her reality would have no lineage or
relation to anything whatsoever. That she would have no
foundation, no grounding. It was also a great opportunity to
shoot kung fu, as I’m a big fan of 70s kung fu cinema.
Mad Cowgirl has been quoted as
being a "Complete Mind Fuck", which I can't help but agree
with. Was that the effect you were going for?
No and to be honest the film
started out as a straight forward drama about faith and
religion, me being inspired by a viewing of Andrei
Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. But as we got into shooting the
film and I was so immersed with the characters, that I too
feel I went a little insane and obsessed in wanting to
convey to the audience the completely overwhelming
phantasmagoria that Therese lives.
Unfortunately the only kung-fu I
know is from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If I wanted
to watch some old school kung-fu action, what should I be
watching? Give me three titles.
Master of the Flying Guillotine,
the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Fist of Fury
So let's talk about the
beautiful Sarah Lassez, who stars as Therese in your film. I
imagine it was difficult to find someone with exceptional
acting skills and who would give themselves to the material
like she did. Where did you find this girl?
Sarah was one of the leads in my
first film, Until the Night, a Cassavetes-like drama of
bickering and complaining people.
Do you know if Sarah has a
boyfriend? If yes, do you think I could take him?
I think she’s dating The Rock now.
You might be able to take him with proper martial arts
training.
Because you wrote and directed
the film and Sarah is in every scene. I imagine you two had
to have a strong relationship. What was that dynamic like on
set? And how much liberty did Sarah take with the material?
I created the world for Sarah and
she was free to do as she wanted so long as it was within
the world we had discussed. I think that definitely she
helped with the creative process of her character and I
don’t think that any film such as this could be created
successfully without a complete trust between the actor and
director.
Remember the sequence when
Pastor Dylan is on the floor doing sit-ups while Therese is
lying in bed naked smoking a cigarette? Well, I couldn't
help but notice Sarah's ass was half covered with the sheet.
Very sexy image by the way. Is there someone on set who is
in charge of setting that sheet back up after each take?
Just curious…
I think that would have been me.
Only because we had a closed set and it was just the two
actors (Sarah and Walter), the boom guy and myself. The
people staying in the motel room next to us insisted we were
shooting a porn film. I guess it might have been hard to
prove otherwise.
I imagine you shot quite a bit
of footage for this film. Do you know how many hours you
ended up with?
We probably ended up with about 30
hours of footage. I had originally intended the film to be a
3 hour plus Bollywood-type film complete with extraneous
characters and subplots, as well as Intro, Intermission and
Exit Music.
How close is the final product
compared to your original vision? What changed the most?
The dropping of the subplots and
supporting characters. I’m very happy with the film, though
I wish I had left the intermission in after that 45 minute
mark. It would be nice for the audience to go out and buy
popcorn, have a smoke or to get another Pabst Blue Ribbon
from the fridge.
So what are you working on now?
Please tell me it's a lesbian kung-fu action movie.
Well not quite – but it does happen
to be a lesbian-women in prison-mathematical science movie.
Thanks for your time Greg. Any
final thoughts or comments?
Bye
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Director
Gregory Hatanaka
