Interview/Review with Andrew Wiest - director of Dead Noon

By Wayne Simmons

Even as a REVENANT staff writer, I feel justified in saying that the zombie is the most frequently butchered of sub-genres when it comes to your average indie horror flick. I mean, no disrespect meant to budding filmmakers, but what is it about the ol’ blue crumblies that has you reaching for those handhelds with such fervor, boys? Is it the fun-to-be had-make-up effects? The ill-fated and often ill-executed zombie walks? Or perhaps it’s the common misconception that making a good zombie flick is cheap and easy?

Well, it’s not I tell you…

…In fact, let’s face it readers, many zombie flicks on a low budget (hell, on any budget!) end up a little on the shit side. It’s a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless. Exceptions exist, of course; Ireland’s Conor McMahon successfully delivering a slice of rural delight with DEAD MEAT. English camcorder classic, THE ZOMBIE DIARIES, throws a little BLAIR WITCH into proceedings, seemingly before even Georgie-Boy (ALL HAIL!!) himself got in on the handheld action with DIARY OF THE DEAD. And, of course, the Aussie indie UNDEAD shows how things can flip sunny-side up when slice-dicing a little down-under zombo-apocalypto-mojo.

Up steps Andrew Wiest to throw his (Stetson) hat in the ring. Born into a wild-western family consisting of movie-lovers and drive-in-theatre proprietors alike, young Andrew enjoyed a popcorn-pickled wrangler-clad menagerie of flicks in his youth, from the John Wayne classic westerns, such as BIG JAKE, to spaghetti heavy-hitters, such as the Man With No Name trilogy. It was only later that Wiest became accustomed to definitive horror heavies (the ménage a trios of Romero’s classic Dead flicks to the low-fi/campy deadlights of Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD series), such adding to the cocktail of chaos that inspires DEAD NOON.

DEAD NOON tells the story of beady-eyed outlaw, Frank, an old-school gunslinger who falls in love with the wrong woman, suffering at the hands of local Sheriff, Kane, for the pleasure of such. Fast forward in time to the present day and the Kane legacy lives on, two brothers jostling over both office and girl in a love triangle that threatens the stability of the law in these goddam parts. Ol’ Frank, aided by his undead army of six-shooters drags himself out of hell (where card gaming seems to be in vogue) to wreak unholy vengeance on the Kane boys, seeking to end their family lineage once and for all. Can the Kane’s keep their eyes on the game (and off co-star Lilith Fields’ arse) long enough to rock-shock their way out of trouble, or will history be revamped, the West being won by flaming headed-zombies with a penchant for revolver-totin’?

My copy of DEAD NOON spat out a low-budget affair, albeit a low-budget well-spent. There was hammy acting on display (perhaps intentionally so?), the occasional joke that fell flat, some scenes hanging around a little too long, others a little too short. All things I had come to expect from indie horrors…

… What I didn’t expect, however, was an excellent flick, despite the understandable flaws such a tight budget unfurls. We’re talking quick-fire direction, some fuck-off-wow(!) gun-fighting scenes, a sparkle of half-decent CGI (yep, CG-cotton-pickin’-I!) and a musical score that had me shaking my sly-holstered little tootsie from blood-splattering start to gun-twirling finish of this zombie western (yes, ZOMBIE WESTERN – say it LOUD, say it PROUD, kids!).

With a six-spinner biro (?!) at my hip, I slumped on by the local saloon in cyberspace to chew some tobacco and shoot the shit with Andrew Wiest, writer and director, hoping to get the skinny on the rumor that DEAD NOON had been picked up by LIONSGATE and a certain Mr. Kane Hodder was tipped to appear in the final (spit-and-polished) cut…

Rev: Howdy pardner. Tell us this, zombies and westerns... two genres that don't often (ever?) mix - what the hell are you cottin’ pickin’ thinkin’?

Andrew: I worked at a video store in Bozeman, Montana and we used to watch normal movies and then try to figure out which ones would make good zombie movies. For example, picture Aguirre the Wrath of God with zombies--it would make a heck of a zombie flick. Anyway, I was telling this to a friend of mine, Matt Taggart, who later became a Co-writer and producer on DEAD NOON; now he had just watched HIGH NOON for the first time on my recommendation and instantly thought it was a prime candidate for the zombie treatment. I agreed and DEAD NOON was born.

We changed it up a lot, obviously, but that's where the initial idea came from. Funny thing is, when we started I don't think there was a single zombie/western movie out there. We were in post-production for almost two years and in that time both THE QUICK AND THE UNDEAD and UNDEAD AND ALIVE came out, both featuring zombies and cowboys. I've seen them both and ours is considerably different. Ours, after all, has walking skeletons--something the other two don't offer. That's right, if you've always wanted to see a posse of cowboy skeletons, look no further than Dead Noon.

Rev: Talk us through your choices of actors/ actresses for the main roles within the flick… and HEY! What’s this we hear about KANE HODDER being lined-up for a LIONSGATE release of DEAD NOON!?

Andrew: My casting process goes something like this: I write a script(usually a very short, rough draft that is not even remotely ready to be read by anyone); send it to my good friend Rob Bear(who is in all of my movies and is fantastic); he then reads it, determines which actors he thinks would be good for certain parts, then begs them to come work for me alongside him for no pay, swearing up and down that the 36 page script I sent him will actually be a really cool 90 minute movie that will be worth their time to be a part of.

He always gets me great actors that for some crazy reason keep returning to work with me from movie to movie. The system seems to be working so far. I'm excited to say that in the final version of the movie, the Barnholtz Entertainment/Lionsgate release, we have Kane Hodder. That's right, Jason Voorhees himself. After selling the movie to Barnholtz, the decision was made to add a horror icon to the movie and Kane was kind enough to do us the honor. So, on February 9th I directed some new scenes featuring Kane out in Los Angeles. He was an absolute blast to work with and really is a sweet heart of a man. He'll probably kill me now for saying that but it's true. You won't find a nicer guy than Kane Hodder.

Rev: DEAD NOON was filmed on a tight budget. How did you, as a director, make the best of this?

Andrew: I had made one other feature before for like $1,500 and that really helped to prepare me for Dead Noon. I learned a lot from my first movie, especially about what not to do the next time around. It was a real dialogue heavy comedy called PIZZA, PESOS, AND PISTOLEROS, a throwback to the 90's indie flicks like BLOOD, GUTS, BULLETS AND OCTANE, turns out flicks like that don't really sell in this day and age. I knew this time around I wanted to make something that could sell... a horror movie with a lot of action in it, the kind of action you don't see in ultra low budget movies; you know explosions, automatic weaponry, walking skeletons, the works.

In order to do this, I knew I needed someone who could do an incredible job with the effects, who would be committed, flexible, and would work for free. I found all of these qualities and more in my very good friend, James Teague. Jim is the reason we were able to achieve so much with so little. He dedicated almost two years of his life to doing the effects for the movie for absolutely no pay; in fact, he wound up putting plenty of his own money into finishing DEAD NOON. We shot it real run and gun and then Jim and I (mostly Jim) would figure out how to fit the effects in later.

We really had no idea what we were doing but we were both committed to making a cool movie. I shot everything hand held, often running with the camera, spinning it upside down, etc. and then poor Jim would have to go in frame by frame to add explosions, blood, bullet ricochets, walking skeletons, whatever I demanded of him. It was painstaking, tedious work. Doing the kind of effects that Jim did on hand held, crazy action shots is no easy task. I also have to mention that all of the actors and what little crew I had worked for no pay which was also a big factor in getting this movie made.

Rev: How useful has the progression of technology been to the indie filmmaker?

Andrew: It's been huge. There's no way we could have made this movie a few years ago for the budget we made it for. I mean, we made it for $4,000. That would have been unheard of on an effects heavy movie like DEAD NOON 5 years ago. A lot of why I wanted to make this movie was to really push the envelope in terms of what's been seen before in a really low budget movie.

Most low budget movies are just people sitting in a room talking, including a lot of horror flicks. I think it's because people get it in their heads that if they don't have a million dollars then they can only shoot in 2 or 3 locations and they certainly can't do action. That's ridiculous thinking now days. With the tools available to Indie film makers; we should be seeing a lot more really inventive stuff than we're seeing. A great example of what can be done now with absolutely no money is a short movie called DIE-CAST, made by some kids over in England. They used DETONATION FILMS, the same company that we used for our explosions, to make a really fun short for I'm sure about 5 bucks. With resources like DETONATION FILMS out there and tools like AFTER EFFECTS and FINAL CUT PRO, Indies have no excuse not to take it to the next level.

Here's a link to their site, check it out: www.diecastfilms.co.uk

Rev: When there was little in the way of pay going around - how difficult/ easy did you find it to motivate your co-workers?

Andrew: This was a project that everyone was really into and they all just went in guns a blazin'. There wasn't any complaining about the lack of pay or the hours or the miserable cold Wyoming weather, well... maybe about the weather! We all just had a ridiculously good time making a ridiculous movie. The hard part was the post-production. It was basically just my wife, Jim, and I stuck with the thing for a year and a half doing the editing and the effects, trying desperately to complete the movie while barely scraping by financially. We also did various reshoots over the course of two years. In fact, I just shot some new material for it out in Los Angeles about a month ago. It's the shoot that never ends.

Rev: Any tips on courting the mainstream?

Andrew: I really didn't do a lot of courting, I just got kind of lucky and they came to me. The company that bought the movie is BARNHOLTZ ENTERTAINMENT, and they're the ones who got Kane Hodder in the movie and have taken on the task of finishing it and getting it released through LIONSGATE. They actually got a hold of me in April of 2007 about the possibility of distributing my previous feature and I told them about DEAD NOON which was nearly complete. They told me to send both movies to them and sure enough, they picked up DEAD NOON. After that, I re-cut it and shot a new scene to bulk out the running time.

I delivered the new cut in August and this version generated a lot more interest. That's when they decided to add Kane to the movie. That was a lot of fun. They flew me and Rob Bear, who plays Frank, out to L.A. to film the new scenes with Kane. I had a lot of say in the new material and was allowed to direct it and write most of it. Kane was great to work with, just a real class act guy. Right now we're working on getting a final cut of the movie that we all are happy with, it's really close to being finished...finally.

Rev: What have you learned about the business?

Andrew: A lot. I went in completely cold, having absolutely no idea of what I was getting myself into. I made a number of mistakes along the way but I now have a much better idea of what to expect the next time around. I planned on being able to get distribution of some sort, but I wasn't quite expecting it to go this big or to garner this much attention. It's really cool. I made this movie to open doors for myself and everyone involved and it's doing just that.

Rev: What will you do differently?

Andrew: Because of DEAD NOON I now have producers, managers, and people with all around way more business sense than me interested in working with me. That's what I plan to do differently, surround myself with business savvy people who can help me deal with Hollywood and get financing so we all get paid next time.

On behalf of everyone at Revenant Magazine, I'd like to thank Andrew for his time and we wish him all the best with Dead Noon and future endeavors.

Dead Noon Teaser Trailer

For Mor Info. On Dead Noon check out:

www.deadnoon.com

Dead Noon Official Myspace page