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Interview:
So Jeff, why don’t you start by
telling us what your films about?
Stupid Teenagers Must Die! is a
loving tribute to the great and not so great low budget
horror films of the 80’s. All of the typical characters: the
cool hero, the innocent girlfriend, the goth chick, the
tough guy, the beautiful blonde girl, the shy guy in love
with the beautiful blonde girl, a couple of lipstick
lesbians and two big geeks all get together for a séance in
a haunted house. And believe it or not, weird things start
to happen!
The title of your film pretty
much kicks ass. Where did you guys come up with it?
During production and even at a
couple of screenings, the movie was called Blood & Guts.
Before we started sending off the movie to reviewers and
potential distributors, I thought “now’s the time to change
anything if you want something changed.” And I wasn’t crazy
about the title Blood & Guts because people weren’t getting
that the title was supposed to be over the top and funny.
Plus, after people saw the movie, they would say “With a
title like Blood & Guts, I was expecting a total blood
bath!” So I thought we needed to go even more over the top
so people would know for sure that we were making a
horror/comedy. Producer Sara Parrell and I made a list of
different titles; all with some adjective attached to the
words “Teenagers Must Die!” and let our cast vote on which
one they liked the best. “Stupid”, which was Sara’s idea,
was the one they dug the most. So that became our title even
though our executive producer, Curtis Andersen, hated it
when he first heard it. I think he’s gotten used to it by
now. Or he’s just accepted it.
We gave your flick a very solid
review along with many other horror sites. Why do you think
you film stands out amongst the zero budget indie trend?
We’re movie geeks and we made a
movie that we as movie geeks would like to see. Most horror
sites are run by fellow movie geeks that have a passion for
films like we do. So I think the horror sites that have
enjoyed Stupid Teenagers Must Die! have seen the fun and
heart that we put in the movie and have been able to look
beyond the fact that we made this thing on the cheap.
Have you had any negative
reviews? Like has anyone just ripped your film to shreds and
then took a big juicy shit on it?
The horror sites have been pretty
good to us but now that the movie is “out there” for the
world to consume, I’m prepared for the kids on the internet
to rip us apart on Netflix or IMDB. Actually, we just got
our first “one star” negative review on Netflix where the
dude said the movie was “Really poorly done on a budget of
about $1.50; shot on what looks like videotape and really
amateurishly done.” Actually, that one’s not too bad because
basically the guy is reviewing our budget rather than the
movie. I expect juicier shits to follow.
One of the elements that really
surprised me was the amount of nudity in the film, how did
you find such hotties to get naked for you? I’m sure a lot
of indie directors are looking for this answer.
Movie magic. That’s how the clothes
come off.
Were any boobs injured during
the filming?
I think a couple of boobs were
slightly bruised on a lunch break, but I wouldn’t say
“injured.”
I’ve always wondered this. As a
director, do you feel pressure to keep the hotter chicks
along longer in the film? I always get pissed when the hot
chick bites it.
Lucky for us, all of the girls in
Stupid Teenagers Must Die! are hot, so we could kill whoever
we wanted and still have beautiful ladies around for your
viewing pleasure. It’s too bad the guys are all such ghouls.
So what was your actual budget
for Stupid Teenagers Must Die? Did you even have a budget?
The Netflix guy was a little off.
It was more than $1.50. But not that much.
What was the shooting process
like? Were you guys weekend warriors or did you shoot it
straight?
We shot it straight throughout
April and May of 2006. I think we had a total of
thirty-something shooting days. That was the maximum amount
of time we could afford to rent the house where the whole
thing was shot. Then we packed up our stuff and moved out. A
family lives in that house now and they have no idea who was
there before them. I wonder if they’ll ever rent Stupid
Teenagers Must Die! and say “that house looks very
familiar…”
So now your film has national
distribution thanks to Vanguard Cinema. What does that feel
like? Did you ever expect that your film would go that far?
It feels awesome to know that the
movie is out there and available for purchase. There’s a DVD
store in Huntington Beach, California that used to sell
Laserdiscs back in the nineties. This was the place where I
bought all of my Laserdiscs when I was in high school. And
on the release date of Stupid Teenagers Must Die!, I drove
to the store and saw our movie on the shelf. Two copies. And
I bought one. Because I’m lame. And I put the other DVD in a
more prominent location because it was hard to see it in its
original spot. It was very, very cool to see a movie I had a
part in making on the shelf in a store where I used to buy
everything in my video collection.
The ending of your film has
potential for a sequel. Has this idea been discussed at all?
The idea has been discussed.
If you do make a sequel can we
have better lighting during any future lesbian sequence?
Maybe? Please!!!
So you don’t want the lesbian
sequence to take place in another extremely long “power
outage” scene? I’ll see what I can do…
So what’s going on in your life
now? Any new projects you’d like to mention?
I’m close to finishing a couple of
scripts that I would love to shoot. We’ll see what happens…
Thanks for your time Jeff.
Thank you! And if you Killer
Reviews readers enjoyed Stupid Teenagers Must Die!, please
post your own review on Netflix so that other dude will feel
like a chump!
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Director
Jeff C. Smith
