Interviews Archives | Otaku No Culture

All The Scary Details You May Want To Know About Vampire Zombies From Space with Michael Stasko

In part two, fans might want to be careful in what gets revealed concerning all those Easter eggs that can be found in Vampire Zombies From Space.

Mike Stasko - WRITER_DIRECTOR_PRODUCER When Mike Stasko makes up one third of the core team who helped fine tune what Vampire Zombies From Space is, I’m really hoping for more! His latest film is almost similar to Casey Walker’s A Little Bit Zombie, a movie made more than a decade ago. Both deal with how victims eventually become a member of the walking dead, and to find a cure is rarely explored. I will post an old interview I did with him and include updates regarding his next horror movie, which is currently in post-production. And please visit this link to read part one with writer Jakob Skrzypa.

While the circumstances are completely different between these two particular films, I’m a sucker for zombie comedies. It’s a subgenre that gets a movie made at least once every two years, but not a lot of them stand out because they lack originality. The last time I laughed out loud was with Anna and the Apocalypse! The fact that it’s also a musical says it all.

There are honestly not enough movies being made that marry random genres together. I have to say it was by sheer luck that this movie and Night of the Zoopocalypse released nearly back to back. The dose of nostalgia and euphoria I had was on cloud nine. Afterwards, I had to fall back to the animated medium to rewatch Monsters vs Aliens to round out what I feel are in my top five favourites of this subgenre.

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When Vampire Zombies From Space is Too Delicious Not To Miss. An Interview with Jakob Skrzypa.

As Vampire Zombies from Space continues to tour film festivals this year, the producers hope word of mouth will encourage others to see this fun campy film. After Horror Hound and the Great Canadian Film Fest, it’s sure to gain cult status in no time!

In what’s fang-tastic about Canadian styled science fiction cinema is that fans don’t know what to expect. With Vampire Zombies from Space, Jakob Skrzypa dreamed up more than just another satire about an alien invasion from terrors birthed from Western European and Haitian folklore. Although ancient alien conspiracists may say otherwise, it’s safe to say in our world, they have earthly origins!

This comedian, actor and producer has a wicked sense of humour to which those familiar with the works from the Toronto sketch comedy duo Fun Uncle (YouTube Channel) will recognize. And for those who haven’t seen his works before, there’s a good chance they’ll want to investigate his back catalogue of works! Continue reading “When Vampire Zombies From Space is Too Delicious Not To Miss. An Interview with Jakob Skrzypa.”

[Interview] Catching Up With Chad Ferrin. From H.P. Lovecraft’s The Deep Ones to Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, What’s Next?

Beyond the Wall of Sleep is more than a tribute to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Although it’s meant to be a sequel to another tale, Chad Ferrin massaged what he got into a quirky fun tale about the (coming) end of days.

Chad Ferring Filmmaker Available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon

From a simple film thrown together last minute to becoming a trilogy to honour the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Chad Ferrin doesn’t need that long of a re-introduction. When I spoke to him about his first work, The Deep Ones, (interview link) the ideas for a modern age retelling of several tales have its charm. And he wasted no time in working on a direct sequel for the first.

But for the third, it’s a completely different beast, and I had to chat with him again about how that came to be:

When compared to where you were in the past with making The Deep Ones to now, with Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, where do you think you are as a filmmaker?

Well, it was originally going to be a sequel to my first film, Unspeakable. Roger Garcia initially came to me and said he wanted to do a sequel to that. He said he has an investor who is up for it, and when he didn’t like the draft, I turned it into a H.P. Lovecraft movie because I know that there’s always a demand for that. I intertwined the characters from that first movie into this new one, and it just kind of flowed. Susan Priver helped find another investor, and before we knew it, we began shooting.

Continue reading “[Interview] Catching Up With Chad Ferrin. From H.P. Lovecraft’s The Deep Ones to Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, What’s Next?”

Mad Cave Studios’ The Dark Pyramid Promises To Be Action-Packed! An Interview with Paul Tobin and PJ Holden.

The perfect combination of pulse-pounding adventure, chilling horror, and high-stakes mystery, The Dark Pyramid will take readers deep beneath Alaska’s Mt. Denali, where secrets as old as time threaten to change the world forever!

Mad Cave Studios
Release Date: March 12

Not to be confused with The Black Pyramid of King Amenemhat III of Egypt, Mad Cave Studios has their own ideas regarding The Dark Pyramid that’s in Alaska. Writer Paul Tobin said his boss, editor Mike Marts, came up with the idea and he filled in all the blanks. Unlike other takes, instead of exploring the conspiracy, he had better ideas. And when he partnered up with P.J. Holden, their second collaborative work together, what they fashioned will surprise readers.

This comic book miniseries will hit shelves March 2, and I spoke to them to learn more about this series. I’ve been keeping track of nearly every bit of lore regarding this mystery, and the fact other authors want to take a stab at the strange goings-on got my attention. But first, I asked about why they love writing/drawing for comics.

The Dark Pyramid - Paul Tobin — Paul Tobin (writer)

PT: Because my grandmother bought piles she got from garage sales and random buys. I’d always be digging through them to read whatever’s there. The stuff which stood out was old westerns, Tweety & Sylvester and some superhero stuff.

PJ: I remember the first time I saw a comic, it was a sort of love at first sight. I was a very reluctant reader, and it all changed one night, when the weather was bad outside, and there was this bunch in front of me. They were UK comics–Warlord, some Marvels and the like. I also remember finding a stash in a bin–I remember one had a picture of Thanos.

Continue reading “Mad Cave Studios’ The Dark Pyramid Promises To Be Action-Packed! An Interview with Paul Tobin and PJ Holden.”

Chatting with Paul McAllister about Monster House Publishing, Their Adorable Mascot Herman & The Future…

The great thing about Monster House Publishing is that they plan on testing the waters with their properties in other media fronts!

McAllister and German Herman Recycles - Monster House Publishing When Monster House Publishing gets to celebrate a milestone of being around for a solid ten years, I’m sure Founder and CEO Paul McAllister could not be any happier. He began this business after getting his first children’s book, There and Back Again, A Herman Tale, published, and realising there are others like him from his home province who love to get their ideas in print. That first challenge is often difficult!

If it had not been for the caring influence of teachers, librarians, family, and a well-timed visit to his elementary school by a local author carrying the message that “Anyone can become an author,” he very well could have slipped through the cracks. For much of his life, his ADHD and dysgraphia was a hurdle, and to see him overcome that to become the success that he is now is encouraging!

Today, Monster House Publishing aims to inspire a love of literacy in children across his home province, throughout Canada, and beyond by bringing fun and engaging stories by Maritime authors and artists to life. I had time to talk to him about how he got started, and where he’s at now since to persevere in today’s publishing climate is tough!

McAllister responded, “New Brunswick is a small province, and it’s a small industry comparatively speaking, and when I reached out to my contacts in the arts that I wanted to publish my story about Herman, I quickly found out that there wasn’t any anglophone children’s publishing company in existence‌ here. So, on a whim, I decided to self-publish. When I was registering the ISBN, through Library and Archives Canada, they asked what publishing company’s name–so right off the top of my head, I said Herman’s Monster House publishing–I made it up right there.

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[Interview] Steve Kostanski on Frankie Freako and The Love for Makeup FX!

“As much as I wanted to have way more elaborate stuff in Frankie Freako, puppet wise, the bottom line is it needed to be janky…” said Steve Kostanski.

Steve Kostanski and Frankie — **Frankie Freako is available to purchase on Amazon USA.**

Steve Kostanski always loved the magic that film offered at an early age, and when he was creating stop motion films in the garage, little would he know it would lead to a career in the special effects industry. While some people think of him as part of the Astron-6 collective, where they create 80s-centric, no-budget, mixed-genre movies, they have done independent works too, like this filmmaker has with Freddie Freako, to realise they’re a tight group says it all. His name is also there in The Void and Manborg, where he has co-director credit.

His efforts are to be commended since he loves the medium; he watched shows like Mega Movie Magic (1997-2004) on Discovery Channel to learn how film effects were created back then. And on that fateful day where he and his buddies saw Army of Darkness, he knew what he would do for the rest of his life!

“That was when it really clicked,” said Kostanski, as I interviewed him via Zoom. “For me, it seemed like they were normal guys having fun goofing around; except somehow it became accessible. What they made stopped being this nebulous idea from Hollywood and that led to me to seriously want to make it in the film industry.

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