FANGORIA® - Celebrating 30 Years of Horror 1979-2009 - Horror Movies, Music, Comics, Books, and more. Dedicated to the Preservation of All Things Horror...

I first became aware of out/gay filmmaker Jason Paul Collum when I was surfing around the internet in 2007, right as SOCKET was starting to make the festival rounds. I hadn’t heard of his gay horror film, OCTOBER MOON, until I found his website. I emailed him, and we struck up a correspondence that continues to this day. We’ve actually met in person once, in Chicago, for a nice cup of coffee and chit-chat about indie filmmaking.

Collum spent time in Los Angeles in the late 90s working on low budget films and making the contacts that would lead him to working with J.R. Bookwalter and the out, gay, one-man horror factory that is David DeCoteau. A move back to the midwest lead to a job writing for FEMME FATALES and CINEFANTASTIQUE, but after both magazines relocated to LA, Collum was finally driven to make the film that he had to make-OCTOBER MOON.

In this first of three parts, Collum and I discuss his work before moving to Los Angeles, the first gigs when he arrived and his first project with the incomparable Brinke Stevens.

SEAN ABLEY: So we'll get to OCTOBER MOON and NOVEMBER SON in a bit, but let’s talk about your early work, which as I recall you downplayed in the behind-the-scenes on OCTOBER MOON. So, MARK OF THE DEVIL 666: THE MORALIST. What’s the scoop with that? And is there any way we can actually see this flick now?

JASON PAUL COLLUM: See it now? God, I hope not. I usually teasingly refer to it as a steaming pile of poo. It’s really not as wretched as I tell people, but it’s such a super low-budget film: shot on Super VHS and filled with my college friends as the cast. I’d been asked by a company called Moore Video/MDM Productions to write a sequel to the MARK OF THE DEVIL franchise… they didn’t even know how many “Parts” there were beyond the second film. Through my own research, I discovered the other chapters, and that none of them were true sequels. The entire franchise is made up of retitled, unrelated movies from completely different countries!

I was originally going to tie it into the original film, having the current characters be descendants involved in a witchcraft plot. That was nixed early on and we decided to just make a mystery/slasher film about a more modern “witch hunt,” with a killer offing those he felt responsible for society’s downfall: hookers, drug users, homosexuals…blah blah blah. I played “Peter,” the chubby, poorly dressed video store clerk with gay-porn under his mattress-essentially I played myself.

This was a big moment for me: The first baby steps into coming out. In 1994 only about three people knew I was gay, and one of them was the clerk at the local porn shop. At the time I told people I was playing the character because none of my friends wanted to play a gay man. I lied. I never asked anyone else. Ironic as it seems, I wanted to play the gay guy because I was afraid to ask someone else, and because it licensed me the opportunity to creak that closet door open just a bit and peak out.

It did have one hook I’d like to claim: It used the same “self-acknowledgement” angle SCREAM used in 1996. All the murders mimicked famous horror movie kills from flicks such as ALICE, SWEET ALICE, BLACK CHRISTMAS, etc., which was they key element in revealing the killer. SCREAM did it much better, but MOTD 6 did it first.

The reason I’m not happy with it is because I had no control beyond filming it. We filmed in Wisconsin in the summer of 1994, I made an extremely rough cut/assembly literally from VCR to VCR in my bedroom, then all postproduction was done in Virginia by MDM and I did not see the film again until it was released to VHS on July 11, 1995. It was too long, slow moving and the soundtrack is humiliating. Really, really awful.

I was going back to do a complete re-edit from scratch a few years ago, and actually had Tempe DVD lined up to put it out, but Moore Video “lost” all the master tapes. People occasionally order copies from my website (VHS only), and so far as I know Moore Video is still in business and the title is on their sale page, so if you’re desperate for a copy, I’m sure one can be found…just be forewarned… 

ABLEY: And then there’s 5 DARK SOULS and the sequel, 5 DARK SOULS, PART II: ROOTS OF EVIL. Give me the details on those two films.

COLLUM: MARK OF THE DEVIL 666 had actually made some decent money, so they asked me to do a Part 7, but I turned it down. Then they wanted me to make a series of movies based on Jeffrey Dahmer, baby killer Susan Smith, and the Polly Klaas case (all to be shot on VHS), but the stories were all fresh in everyone’s minds, and I thought it would be in poor taste. Then they offered me a chance to write a sequel to DERANGED [1974] (with Tim Ritter attached as the director), but the whole project fell apart from lack of financing right after I turned in my first draft.

As a result, Moore asked me to write/direct a sequel to THREE ON A MEATHOOK [1973]. The script was about five teenagers out to kill for curiosity and boredom. So they trick three unpopular classmates into the woods, figuring no one will miss them. The title 5 DARK SOULS popped into my head one night and since I didn’t think anyone remembered THREE ON A MEATHOOK, I convinced Moore to change the title.

This also offered me a chance to come out just a bit more in my storytelling and in my life. Many more people new about my gayness at this point, and I worked it into the subtext of the story. The main geek character Will (Matthew Winkler) was clearly in love with popular and handsome lead villain John (Christopher D. Harder), even though it’s never spoken outright. It’s implied through some minor dialogue and physical gestures John is aware of the crush and uses it to get Will to join his group in the woods.

If you watched all of my films in chronological order from 1994 thru present day, it’s a safe bet you can watch my progression in real life dealing with my own state of mind on how “out” I was at each point. I just realized it recently myself…

Anyway, I gathered my college friends, brought in a few actors who’d been in other films like Mick Wynhoff [AMERICA’S DEADLIEST HOME VIDEO] and Tina Ona Paukstelis [ASWANG: THE UNEARTHING], and shot it on Super VHS from the coldest November 1995 until a very hot August 1996. It’s also super-low budget and has many, many flaws, but I actually still like it. I had a little more say in the final version and the music score. And at the time, considering what elements I had available to use, of its ilk it’s not too shabby; guerrilla filmmaking at its best. I’ve considered remaking it some day and even had a few offers to do so, but it would need a legit budget to ever happen.  

ABLEY: The original and the sequel were shot two years apart. What was the reasoning behind doing a sequel?
ab
COLLUM: 5 DARK SOULS made money and got some decent and not-so-decent reviews. I’m a lifelong lover of sequels in general. Yes, I went to the theater to see JASON X because it was a sequel. Yes, I rented SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5 because it was a sequel. I tend to like familiarity. So while the world really didn’t need a 5 DARK SOULS, PART II (or a Part III for that matter), my “creative” energies insisted on doing one. Moore Video was very happy with the results of the original, so I offered to do the follow up and make it a true sequel (which by the late ’90s was not a common thing).

Unfortunately, the postproduction experience became more of mix between the other two movies for Moore. I assembled a two and half hours (!!!) rough cut assuming they’d trim at least an hour out, but they essentially took the entire rough cut, laid an “OK” score over it and called it a day. Needless to say, the movie bombed. And then I went and shot 5 DARK SOULS, PART III: RETRIBUTION in 2003 anyway because a few fans stroked my ego and said they wanted one. I never finished it. The master tapes have been sitting on a shelf in my office collecting dust for six years. Maybe some day…

ABLEY: These two films feature Darcey Vanderhoef and Tina Ona Paukstelis from OM and NS. You seem to like working with the same people over and over again. I certainly feel that way myself; I use the same people from project to project. Who are the members of your “repertory” company, and why do you like working with them again and again?

COLLUM: I would say my “repertory” actors have been Brinke Stevens, Tina Ona Paukstelis, Darcey Vanderhoef, Julie King, Jeff Dylan Graham, Karen Dilloo and now Judith O’Dea. That’s not to say they’ll be in every single movie I do, but those have been my best resource people, and whom I’ll more than likely work with again at some point.

There are a lot more people I’d like to hire again, but there are also A LOT of actors I’d still like to work with whom I haven’t yet. I still plan to hire all of the girls from SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT over the course of the next several years, plus others I’ve been a fan of since childhood and want to involve some day, but there are only so many characters in each story, so it’s going to be a case of one at a time.

As far as my “rep” group, I choose the same actors because I know their skills and how best to utilize them. I’ll typically write specific roles for specific actors. Plus, I know that they know me and my quirks. They know and have come to expect there’s a good chance I’m going to rewrite a scene, hand it to them and expect them to film it 30 minutes later. They know they usually are only going to get two or maybe three takes at a scene if they’re lucky. They know when I’m going to be anal about a certain shot, and when it’s something they can discuss changing because it doesn’t work. Much of it is based on trust, comfort level and loyalty.

ABLEY: JULIA WEPT. Looks like this is the first time you worked with Brinke. Love her! Tell me about the film and working with Brinke.

COLLUM: I was working in Los Angeles on a series of films as an assistant director and production coordinator for David DeCoteau, but I really had this burning desire to make something of my own. I appreciate so much the opportunities that David gave me, but at the end of the day all those films were his, not mine. I would watch them and not really see how my being on set had made any type of creative impact on the final product.

So in late 2000 on a visit back to WI, I suddenly had the idea to write a short movie, which I could film in four days and would use as a sort of “visual” resume to land some directing/writing gigs. I shot for a single day with Brinke Stevens, Jason Sechrest and gay porn star Jack Simmons in Los Angles a few months later, then on another visit home filmed most of the movie in Racine, WI. I had my college friend Javier Rivera edit it and compose the soundtrack, and was proud to say JULIA WEPT was the first movie I could truly call 100 percent mine. I called all the shots (with suggestions from Javier), so this was my proudest moment up to that point. And it worked. I got Tempe Entertainment to back SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT as a direct result of JULIA WEPT (which is why it’s included on the DVD as an extra-shameless plug).


I asked Brinke to be in the movie because she was helping open doors for me and, although I couldn’t pay her much, I wanted to pay her back for her graciousness and friendship. She really guided and watched over me in those first years out in LA. Besides being a fan, I swore to always give her meaty roles and hopefully continue to increase her paychecks with each new film.

ABLEY: I have to say, I think Brinke has aged incredibly gracefully. She’s still gorgeous and yet looks her age. I assume she’s consuming the blood of virgins on a daily basis.

COLLUM: I don’t think there are any virgins left in LA for her to consume, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind trying…

But seriously…do you realize this woman first began playing teenage roles when she was 27 years old and still played an 18 year old in 1998’s VICTORIA’S SHADOW?! She was 44 years old!!! I think right around JULIA WEPT and into OCTOBER MOON is when she started transitioning from the college sex pot roles into the mom or the aunt. I think she’s liked keeping her clothes on and showing off her actual acting talent more. People just don’t give her credit as an actor because she was known for so much of her career as “the body” or “the shower girl.” Then she did MOMMY [1994] where she stayed dressed and I noticed this sparkle. I think it was the first chance she’d had to truly perform as an actor. She got fantastic critical reviews for that film and that always stuck in my mind, so when I wrote JULIA WEPT, OCTOBER MOON and NOVEMBER SON, I gave her more to do. And you know, she remembers all of her dialogue and spits it out verbatim in almost every single take. Sharp as a tack! Of all the actors in OCTOBER MOON, she received the most kudos from critics.

I remember being on the set of THE FRIGHTENING [2002] and she was playing the mother of the lead character, and when she walked on set the actor said, “She’s my mom?!? I wish my real mom looked like that!”

I really had to frump her up in NOVEMBER SON. She’s still so cute. As a result of the events of OCTOBER MOON, her character has transformed from a kitschy, kinda sexy/funky ad exec who hangs with the gay folk into a depressed, lonely woman. So we had to tone down the makeup and hair, put her in less stand out clothes… kind of calm her down. She looks a bit more midwestern woman in this one, but if we do an OCTOBER MOON 3, she’ll be all sexed up again.

TO BE CONTINUED... Monday, March 9, 2009.