Eye On Horror
Eye On Horror
The Cinematography of Malum with Sean McDaniel
This week, the boys talk about dental issues, "fish beans", while Jacob reviews Inside starring Willem Dafoe, Jay and Jacob review Joh Wick Chapter 4, Correia reviews an hour and a half long making of documentary of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (he promises its worth it) and The Lake, new 4K releases of Martin and Freeway 2:Confessions of a Trickbaby before talking to Cinematographer of the new film Malum, Sean McDaniel! Covering everything from his beginning, the challenges of the location, lighting design, to taking on the task of reimagining the cult hit The Last Shift. Its all new on Eye On Horror!
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Welcome to Eye On Horror, the official podcast of iHorror.com. This is episode 103. Otherwise known as season six, Episode Four. I am your host James Jay Edwards and with me as always is your other host Jacob Davison, how you doing Jacob?
Jacob Davidson:Doing all right. I had just dealing with some dental stuff, but you know,
James Jay Edwards:Ouch did you get good drugs at least?
Jacob Davidson:Well, it hasn't happened yet. I'm going in for the surgery tomorrow. So
James Jay Edwards:Oh okay,
Jacob Davidson:and I'm not looking forward to it. But
James Jay Edwards:So you're in the pain portion, not the drug portion.
Jacob Davidson:Well, that's a good thing. It doesn't actually really hurt that much. It's just one of those things where they caught it early, but they need to go in like that. Yeah, I'm getting I'm getting to you know, this is why there's so much horror about dentistry and like The Dentist by Brian Yuzna
James Jay Edwards:also with us as always is your other other host Jon Correia, how you doing? Correia?
Jonathan Correia:It's fascinating hearing other people talk about these things as someone who hasn't been to the doctors outside of like emergencies in like 10 fucking years.
James Jay Edwards:I've had so much dental work done in my life that I swear I'm just completely I mean, even if I had a toothache I probably wouldn't even notice it just because my mouth is probably just permanently numb to any of that Comfortably huh? Comfortably numb? stuff. What's been going on you guys what you've been watching. Not much has come out since last time we talked not much like real horror,
Jacob Davidson:right? Well, yeah, the closest I can think of is I saw that William Defoe movie Inside that was kind of a horror movie. It's like basically a one man show with like Willem Defoe, as this art thief who was airlifted into this artist's private penthouse the steal a painting but it goes wrong and like he's locked in by the security system because it's like a Smart House situation and he's abandoned by the rest of his team. And he has to make do with whatever resources he can find inside the penthouse and he starts to go more and more crazy and like it's funny it's kind of weird and disturbing and like it's just if you love a Willem Defoe performance, especially one where he goes nuts like this is your type of movie. Have you
James Jay Edwards:guys heard of a movie this probably from 20 Maybe 30 years ago called Captured? It's it's about a dude who get stuck in a car and it's in a garage and this is what I remember it so you think as I watched it, it's one of those movies you can find and like that dollar DVD burner bin
Jacob Davidson:or Tubi!
James Jay Edwards:it's probably on Tubi Yeah, and I remember the one time I've seen it, it was was the weekend after a really bad breakup for me so I was like drifting in and out of sleep and depression and it was one of those probably three in the morning watches but it's about a dude it's this car has this crazy security system and this guy who I don't know if he's trying to break into it or steal it or something, but he gets trapped in this car by the security system and it's like, from what I remember like he loses fingers and limbs and stuff to the security sets it's what it kind of reminded me of when he said that he gets trapped inside this art art collectors house you know maybe they've captured it's just on a smaller scale. I think it's called Captured that sounds
Jonathan Correia:like that would be a great double feature with that Stuart Gordon movie
Jacob Davidson:Stuck. Stuck.
James Jay Edwards:yeah. Oh yeah, it's Stuck
Jonathan Correia:in the windshield. Yeah, and she like drives home and then like in the in the garage and stuff
James Jay Edwards:based on a true story.
Jacob Davidson:And yeah, I think it's Captured from 1998
James Jay Edwards:Is it Yeah,
Jacob Davidson:I just looked it up on IMDb a car thief breaks into a man's house it was on a low because his career is being taken away the man locks up the thief in the car and tortures him
James Jay Edwards:there you go there Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Okay, so maybe it's not the security system here
Jacob Davidson:and with and with Wishmaster's Andrew Divoff Oh, and Nick Mancuso
Jonathan Correia:there we go Tubi double feature Tubi should have it they have everything
James Jay Edwards:it's not good
Jacob Davidson:I would expect them to, oh okay
James Jay Edwards:Captured is not a good movie but it is kind of an interesting is an interesting concept. You know, he traps him in this car, you know?
Jacob Davidson:Conversely, I thought Inside was great. I really dug it like I'm I'm a Defoe fan, I Stan Defoe, but no, it was really good. I dug it and it does kind of kind of wrap you in that kind of claustrophobia and kind of encroaching madness that his character goes through.
James Jay Edwards:Does he spill his beans though?
Jacob Davidson:He spills caviar at one point.
Jonathan Correia:That's fish beans, fish.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, sure.
Jonathan Correia:Right?
James Jay Edwards:Okay. I
Jacob Davidson:know. Yeah, it did get me a little The Lighthouse vibes. But ya know, it's it was pretty fun. I'd recommend it. This is
Jonathan Correia:why I'm not invited to fancy parties because we will be like caviar. Oh, fish, beans, no Correia. Also you weren't supposed to wear sweats. Come on,
Jacob Davidson:I can see that.
James Jay Edwards:Especially your Mars Attacks jogger sweats.
Jonathan Correia:That's what I am wearing right no! How did you know, you didn't even see.
James Jay Edwards:I didn't know I just took a flying guest. Probably the closest thing to horror that I saw is John Wick 4. Yeah, yes, it is. I think it might be the best one of the bunch, which I was kind of reluctant going in because it does have a three hour running time. And you guys know what I think about three hour running times. But you know, I did like the Midsommar Director's Cut, Boogie Nights is my favorite of all time. I liked Babylon. And I like John Wick Chapter Four. It is, um, it definitely closes the Wicked verse. I mean, it wraps things up. Donnie Yen plays the other hitman who like
Jacob Davidson:Cain,
James Jay Edwards:yeah, he's given his his name by and it's actually your your, your Stan. Bill Skarsgard plays the main villain.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, the marquee.
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, he's, he's, it's funny because we as we were walking out one of the reps, not one of them. One of the theater reps was like, I wish that I had every one of his outfits. He's like a very well dressed villain. Yeah, they costumed him really well, because he's like rail thin. So they put him in like these, you know, tight suits with like, yeah, it's they costumed him really? Well. Yeah, Donnie Yen. It's sort of like a Rogue One ish. He plays like a blind hitman. And there's one it's funny. There's so much humor in John Wick and of course, the stunt choreography is on point. It makes you wish there was an Oscar for that category. We added that category in the San Diego Film Critics Society awards, and I'm going to be trumping for for frickin John Wick 4 but there's one scene in particular and Jacob is gonna know exactly which scene I'm talking about that has total Homer Simpson. It just totally cracked. It's just it's one of those is this really happening to John Wick? It's
Jacob Davidson: two words:Springfield Gorge. Yeah, and although standout for me, had to be Scott Adkins as this German Hitman name Killer heart heart, Conan Harkin, who's who's got like a gold grill he's in like, he's in like a fat suit or something. So he's like, he's just like, this huge guy is obsessed with card games. And like he's basically the jaws of John Wick like Jaws from James Bond, you know, Richard keel with the giant metal teeth. So I just really love it when they throw in, you know, like a standout character like that. And, ya know, just a whole sequence at this insane Berlin
James Jay Edwards:Yeah. The standout for me, I think is nightclub. Shamir Anderson, who plays his character's name is actually nobody, whenever they asked him there who you he says nobody. And he plays a guy who is he's kind of tracking the, the bounty on John Wick and what he's do, it's actually kind of a clever business move, he is kind of protecting him, and he's knocking off the other hitman, we're getting close to him until the bounty gets high enough for him to go after it himself. So he's kind of on John Wick's side, until he's not. But um, and he the reason that I like him so much is he's got a dog buddy who, who runs around with him his that's like his sidekick is a dog and, and the dog actually, you know, he can say, you know, he'll say like, nuts and the dog go and like, that's pretty, pretty cool. And yes, it does all tie back to John Wick's entire motivation for all four movies, him losing his dog.
Jacob Davidson:And also it has one of the best homage as I've seen to The Warriors, and yes, a long time.
James Jay Edwards:Yes. When Yeah, it's a they're putting out the call on the on the Hitman radio, which the John Wick universe is hilarious because you got hotels and radio stations, you know, it's sort of like the Warriors because they had a radio station that the warriors that the gangs and all listen to, but yeah, they have a disc jockey, a black woman who's like, oh, right, boppers, what to do, and then they start playing Nowhere to Run.
Jacob Davidson:Exactly. It's the same song. Yeah, it's like a new version of the song, but it's the same song. Yeah. And then they also and they do other songs, too, like Paint it Black
James Jay Edwards:Yeah. Yeah, they do. So it's a pretty well made movie.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah. No, it's brilliant. Like the choreography alone. Oh, my God.
James Jay Edwards:The stunt work. Yeah. I mean, it's the Stahelski, Chad Stahelski, the director of all of the movies, he's a sold stuntman. I mean, I think he was Brandon Lee's stuntman. I think he had to finish The Crow actually, is what word on the street is that when Brandon Lee died during filming, they used one of his stunt men as a stand in to get what they needed. And it was to Stahelski is I assume that's the rumor.
Jonathan Correia:I can see why he's so adamant against using blinks on set. Worked on the crow like that.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah, that's that. That does make sense. Yeah.
Jonathan Correia:He's a big supporter of yeah, there's That's not needed. And it's like, yeah, well, I mean, coming from the guy who, like, you know, brought back gun-fu, and like, has one of the most successful action franchises of the last 10 years. Like, we can listen to him. Yeah, for sure. There's no reason to add any extra risk.
Jacob Davidson:He's the maestro.
Jonathan Correia:I haven't seen John Wick 4 yet, but I did finally watch one of my most anticipated films of the year. or at least since the trailer dropped about a month or so ago. Have you guys heard of The Lake?
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, it's a monster movie From
Jonathan Correia:Oh, yeah, it is. It's a Thailand/Chinese production. And The Lake follows a mysterious monster that rises from the Mekong River and attacks Bueng Kan cuts off people from the outside world. And so you follow a few different groups of people as they are trying to figure out A:
What the fuck is going on and B:like, what to do with it. And it's basically like Thailand's, like big attempt at doing a big monster movie, and it's really cool. Like, they were very adamant about pulling off the creature very well. The design is really cool. It's one of the coolest looking monster kaiju I've seen in
James Jay Edwards:a while. I was gonna say, Is it like a Kaiju? Or is it like a Creature from the Black Lagoon size? I mean, is it a giant monster?
Jonathan Correia:I don't want to, I don't want to spoil too much. But you get both. Okay, again, Oh, okay. Well, then that's the thing too, is that you do have like the more kaiju one, but there is another one, there's at least two in here. Okay. And that one is more like like an 8-10 foot tall monster that just like rampages through people. It's It's insane. So
James Jay Edwards:you have like, you have like a crypticzoid. And then you have a Kaiju basically speak in my language.
Jonathan Correia:It's like you're getting a small Godzilla and a Creature from the Black Lagoon. And both are gnarly, cool. But the cool thing about it is that they go really hard with the practicals. Like, I think I read that the director said it was 60% practical effects with the monster and 40% CGI. So there's a lot of really cool moments where even when you see like the big boy, or the big guy, one moving his head around and stuff, like it's all practical, except for like, maybe its tongue and even the CGI in it is really good. There was a few shots of it running that was completely CGI, and it looked really well, you can definitely tell that the makers of this movie are huge monster fans, and there's little homages and taking little bits and pieces from all these different things. There's a lot, it's constantly night and raining because it all takes place during a big rainstorm. So there's a lot of shots with the giant monster that really feel like Jurassic Park, but it's a lot of fun. I mean, it's I'm seeing a lot of bad reviews where I don't understand because it pulls it off. It does fall into some tropes you know, the editing is a little rough in some places. And there's just like it bothered me at first some of like the switching around story and the editing and left me very confused in the beginning but I grew to appreciate that a bit because oftentimes with monster movies they explain the rules so early so you're sitting there going, Oh, well he can't You can't do that. It's not gonna work against that monster like you're really kept in the in a mystery of like, what is going on kind of with them. So I grew to love that a lot towards the end of the movie, but yeah, the lake it's on video on demand right now. I think it's getting a Blu ray release in May. If you'd like monster movies. It's a hell of a fun time. Definitely up there for my favorite monster movie of the year. Although Troll last year. I fucking love Troll.
Jacob Davidson:Okay, I got to see that one too. Yeah,
Jonathan Correia:it's on Vudu for like six bucks right now to run
Jacob Davidson:Not too bad
James Jay Edwards:The Lake is?
Jonathan Correia:Yep. Now. I also know because Jacob also got a got a package in the mail. Yeah, as did I.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah.
Jonathan Correia:We both got our 4k Martin releases from Second Sight. Yes.
Jacob Davidson:Finally, I'll be honest, I haven't had the chance to really go into it yet. But I am pretty excited about it. And I did go through the packaging. And I mean, it is exactly it's got like all all the discs we've got the book. It's got the art cards. Huge box. Yeah. You know, it's just one of those things where, you know, it's another Romero movie that sadly tied up in a lot of legal red tape for release. So you know, like, Yeah, this is why the last release for Martin was I think DVD on Anchor Bay like 20 years ago.
Jonathan Correia:Yeah. Arrow put out the Immortal Edition around that same time. And that's about it.
Jacob Davidson:So yeah, no Second Sight put out this 4k. And thankfully, 4k is region free. So thank you DiabolikDVD for making this possible.
Jonathan Correia:Well in the in the it's a great release. And the good thing also that Second Sight did was they put all the features on the 4k Disk as well as I know sometimes when you import a 4k, the blu ray is region 2 locked and that's where all the features are not the case with
Jacob Davidson:thankfully, for me, since I don't have a region free Buber Blu Ray Yeah, but the but you don't need it because you have the soundtrack from
Jonathan Correia:features are great. There's an hour long documentary where they get a lot of the people that were involved with it, producers, DP actors, they interviewed them and they do a little bit of location scouting and in the town where it was shot, showing like oh, this is where he did it. And it was such a great educational piece on like, what Romero was going through at that time, because Martin was the film before Dawn of the Dead and basically Romero didn't make any money until dawn. So there was like some rough years in there where he was making movies, but they weren't taking off. They weren't getting great distribution. And so they were talking about like how a lot of like that team would be working on like multiple different projects, whether it was the TV show like The Winners are some local commercials and stuff all just trying to like keep the business afloat and when they would shoot like the TV stuff, they would save the ends of films and use that to shoot Martin with so film stuff. Yeah, yeah, sure. Well, the film was already taken care of for Martin and even when they got to that town they met up with these two brothers The Duba brothers, who were local documentarians making a lot of short films, they have one of their shorts on the disc, which is really good and basically those two brothers hooked him up with all the locations just calling friends and this town was so excited to have like a production come in like everyone was opening their doors they were like Alright, oh shit What's all that noise outside there's a parade Alright, let's go film in the parade and that's how you get the final scene and in Martin it was it was really cool getting all the behind the scenes the only sad thing is is of course while Second Sight cause took five years for this to come out they there was an uncovered the three and a half hour Director's Cut day it's all black and white of Martin because apparently George A. Romero took that print to a location to show them like this is the type of stuff that we do and then just left Left the reels there and so that was uncovered these farmers were like yeah, no, they my dad has had held on to these 16 Mil reels for all these years and then stuff happened second site wasn't able to secure it I think the Georgia A. Romero foundation Ship to Shore. don't hold me to it but I believe they are trying to get them so that they can restore it and I saw that there was a lot of excitement from like the original people involved with the movie about it and then like it dropped off then like about a Yeah, but but to listen to it in my car unfortunately my I do year or so ago, the reels went up for an auction and sold for like $52,000 Oh no news on it sense because it you can get those prints like you can own them but you can't do shit with have a portable record player kind of but it's a cheapo ya them without Rubinstein's permission and stuff. So I don't know if we'll ever be able to view that gor- what sounds like an amazing Director's Cut. I hope we can but until then the Second Sight disc is incredible, highly recommend it. And it has the whole soundtrack on CD two which is phenomenal so know that that record? Ooh, that's one of my favorite vinyl.
James Jay Edwards:Can you imagine trying to drive with vinyl?
Jacob Davidson:Put on the dashboard.
James Jay Edwards:Yeah, your CD player probably skips and it's a CD so vinyl all over the place that'd be fun another thing I saw not really horror but applicable that so I don't wanna spend too much time on it but I saw Shazam: Fury of the Gods either you guys
Jonathan Correia:see it or not? Yeah, I like the first one.
James Jay Edwards:I mean, it's okay for what it is. I don't think it's deserving of all the hate it's been getting it's a Shazam movie. So you understand that? You know, the Shazam or what the group of kids that turn into their to the superheroes there. They call themselves the Philly Fiasco in this because whenever they save people, they always seem to take the blame for destroying you know stuff as well. So you know, yeah, like superheroes do. But I mean, it's it's pretty fun. I mean, there are these three witches that come back. You know, these three gods I shouldn't say not witches that come back. But the third act goes absolutely batshit crazy. I mean, there are dragons and Cyclops and Minotaurs and unicorns, and I mean, there's so little of everything. It's pretty. It's pretty fun though. I've heard that DC is disappointed in and have already stopped promoting it. And it's only been out for a couple of weeks. But it does, you know, like all good superhero movies. It does the post credits thing where it leaves it open for more to come. So who knows? Of course,
Jonathan Correia:I mean, the whole the whole what's left of the Snyder-verse with the regime change all that stuff. Especially since Black Adam, it's been messy. Yeah. I like the I like the first Shazam! movie. And you know, I'm really stoked to hear that the director is wanting to go back to horror and he's kind of done with superhero movies now so hopefully we'll see that but that's also understandable dude, he's been doing making sure like working on Shazam! movies for like fucking seven
James Jay Edwards:years. Yeah, and this one you can see because you know, all these monsters are come out at the end. You're like, Okay, this is Sandberg. This is him flexing his horror here.
Jonathan Correia:I mean, they did that with the first movie. That's why the demons
Jacob Davidson:there's so many demons is Yeah, they were
Jonathan Correia:in the first Shazam! movie. Like terrifying legitimately, I was like, Holy fuck, these are gnarly. But speaking of comic books, someone on Twitter not too long ago pointed out that there's a special feature for Ghost Rider:
Jacob Davidson:He did? Spirit of Vengeance. Remember that movie, tried rebooting Ghost Rider with the directors of Crank and it was supposed to be more mature and not to 2000's comic booky and it was gonna be all weird. And they released that awesome trailer, where he's like pissing fire and stuff and everyone was like, so hyped and then the movie came out and then left and like no one has really talked about it since. Well, someone on Twitter pointed out that there's an hour and a half making of documentary on Ghost
Rider:Spirit of Vengeance that catalogues the entire filmmaking process and it is mesmerizing, like I went out of my way to find a Blu Ray copy of it, and I bought it solely for this special feature because it is one of those like mid 2000s DVD or Blu or DVD blu ray extra where they're where they it's like hyping it up and it's like, oh, here's the pre process. Oh, here's the production process, but the filmmakers and whoever cut this hour and a half together were very candid, very straightforward about all the things that went wrong with it. Like you legit see, the directors go from being very excited, very pumped to be doing what they're doing. And then like, by the end of it, they're just like, driven into the ground and are just like, yeah, and then this thing happened. Like it was so much went wrong during the making of it. Like
Jonathan Correia:Yeah, this was before Idris just blew up. But suddenly, like everything that was with that movie, suddenly, it makes sense, but it was really cool, because it's again, it's the guys who did the Crank movies, so they're fucking nuts anyways, and they were showing like, there's one shot in the movie where you see Idris Elba's character. Yeah, cuz remember how interest Elba played a Frenchman in that movie? it was real funny.
James Jay Edwards:We got to get Idris Elba and Bill Skarsgard to play dueling Frenchmen.
Jacob Davidson:Literally dueling French. Yeah.
Jonathan Correia:But there's a shot where he like his bike or something explodes and he goes flying off this like Hills side cliff and he like doesn't turn around in a shooting. And the cameras go in with them. And they showed how they pulled it off. And it was actually one of the directors strapped into a crane with the stunt actor who was filling in for interest with it. They actually flew them out over the fucking edge of this giant cliff. And he's got the camera and and they showed like one take where the camera just suddenly got snapped out of his heads and like the entire time, I'm just like, oh, well, I'm suddenly like, they were safe. And they were good. But like the director was just like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna put somebody else there. And I love doing the camera. So like those two filmmakers were very hands on. They were like on the cameras. There was like all these great behind the scenes shots where they're like going down this long road on motorcycles. And you see one of the CO directors with a camera in his hand and he's wearing rollerblades and he's just holding onto the back of a fucking bike. No helmet on, nut job, nut job. This is someone who's co directing like a big budget. Man, but yes, even if you're not a fan of the Ghost Rider movies, it's a special artifact that hour and a half log documentary and you can get Spirit of vengeance or the to film collection for like under 10 bucks and I'm telling you the hour and a half Doc is well worth it.
Jacob Davidson:All right now keep that in mind. Also, I was doing more Cinematic Void the last week they're still doing the March Movie Madness stuff with for movies and movie theaters. And last week, they played a movie that's been on my watch list for a while because of the subject matter. Bigas Luna's Anguish, starring Zelda Rubinstein if either of you seen Oh, I
James Jay Edwards:think I saw it years ago. Is this the one where the guy in his he lives with his mom and does this? What I remember about it is a bird get caught behind like a big ole dish hatch? Yeah, there
Jacob Davidson:is a segment about that. But it's a lot more to it because yeah, it starts off as gotcha
James Jay Edwards:all I remember about it.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, okay. It kind of starts off as like this typical slasher movie type thing where Michael Lerner is this optometrist who is being controlled by his domineering and like weird hypnotist mother, who played by Zelda Rubinstein, a starring Michael
James Jay Edwards:Lerner as in Friday 13th Part Five Michael Lerner?
Jacob Davidson:no. Michael Lerner from like Barton Fink. Let's see he was in Elf, Maniac Cop 2
Jonathan Correia:be was a Mayor Eber in Emmerich's Godzilla.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, he was that he was. But anyway, yeah, so yeah, it starts off like a typical slasher, and like, this dude's going around gouging people's eyes out. But then it turns out that it's a movie that's being watched by this audience with like, these teens, and then shit gets real weird with like, kind of like a crossing of the movie, and the audience and like stuff that's happening in the audience kind of correlated to that I don't want to spoil it. But ya know, just seeing it theatrically, though it did an incredible job of kind of playing with toeing the line between the screen you know, the movie screening and the audience reactions and the reactions of the real audience with fake audience is and the series is going to end tonight they're playing Peter Bogdanovich's Targets. So I'm pretty stoked because it's one of my all time favorite horror movies because it is genuinely still one of the most disturbing and relevant horror movies to this day. Also one of Boris Karloff finest performances.
Jonathan Correia:That's awesome. I wish I could go to that screening tonight. Damn these meetings.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, and fortunately though, Targets is coming to criterion blu ray, man.
Jonathan Correia:Thank God I especially after the BFI had to cancel their 4k that broke my heart.
Jacob Davidson:Really? I didn't know that. Yeah,
Jonathan Correia:I had it pre ordered on Diabolik and everything got canceled. I was so selfish but hey, I still getting a Blu ray so I'm happy yeah, it is hard to find ya know, I've
Jacob Davidson:had my Warner DVD of Targets for like God like several years so I'm glad I can finally upgrade. Yeah, I'm
Jonathan Correia:definitely gonna have to find a copy of Anguish on DVD or something because that sounds awesome.
James Jay Edwards:Sorry, the name I was thinking of was Larry's earner from Friday 13th.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, that's not Shelley.
James Jay Edwards:Well, yeah, that's the name I was thinking of when when you brought that up. So Mystery Solved there.
Jacob Davidson:It's all good. But yeah, I don't think there actually is a official release for Anguish, like I think it's off on video, but I'm sure you can find it somewhere and other to be,
Jonathan Correia:yeah, that. That one's gonna have to be a track and down like I've been getting into Mae West movies. So I've been trying to figure out a way to watch her final movie Sextette, because that movie sounds insane. She was like 82, playing a 26 year old.
Jacob Davidson:What?
James Jay Edwards:No.
Jonathan Correia:And Timothy Dalton is one of our lovers in the movie, Robo star as well.
James Jay Edwards:How old was Timothy Dalton at the time?
Jacob Davidson:What is this movie?
Jonathan Correia:It was an early 80's. So it was like I want to say like bond era Dalton do yourself a favor. Look up Natasha Leone on Sexette. And she explains like the movie and under like a minute, and it's incredible. And the best part of the of the clip that I saw it, she explains the whole thing. And then it just cuts to Ringo Starr. And he's like, yeah, that movie was a lot of fun.
Jacob Davidson:I can imagine.
Jonathan Correia:No, it was like a TMC thing. So it's a very short clip. But as soon as I watched it, I was like, I need to watch this fucking movie.
Jacob Davidson:Speaking of Natasha Lyonne movies, I also
just watched a Freeway 2:Confessions of a Trickbaby from Vinegar Syndrome before
Jonathan Correia:Jacob, what do you think?
Jacob Davidson:I thought it was amazing because it is just so batshit insane.
Jonathan Correia:Have you seen the first Freeway? No, I haven't. Okay, they're there. They're only connected in the fact that it's like 90s Cinemax, you know,
Jacob Davidson:edgy fairy tale adaptations skills. Yeah, it's like the first movies Little Red Riding Hood. The second movie is Hansel and Gretel.
Jonathan Correia:And they have that one scene where they put down crack rocks.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, trail of crack cocaine to find their way home.
Jonathan Correia:But of course, crackhead fights and
Jacob Davidson:oh, man,
Jonathan Correia:weird one man, but it's so good. And she's phenomenal. And I've never seen her play a character like that.
Jacob Davidson:I was looking at the credit. She actually produced it too. Oh, wow.
Jonathan Correia:That's awesome. Man. She she's had a cool ass career and like the beginning to now like she was always changing stuff up and like those early films of hers are very interesting.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, no, definitely.
James Jay Edwards:Right. Now we are joined by a very special guest. We have Sean McDaniel, who is the cinematographer of the upcoming Malum How're you doing, Sean?
Sean McDaniel:I'm good. Thanks for having me.
James Jay Edwards:Thanks for being here. The question I always like to start off with with our guests is how did you get started in doing what you do?
Sean McDaniel:I started making movies when I was a kid. And that kind of just continued on, I guess to now. I mean, for me, at first, I was really doing everything I didn't know a lot of other kids who wanted to make movies and I would talk them into being in mind and I would just kind of make all you know, do all aspects of it. And yeah, that was just my drive. I went for undergrad Film School at University of Florida and then eventually went to USC for graduate. And yeah, just always found my focus was cinematography. And as I found more people to collaborate with realize that that was my strength and really gravitated towards there
James Jay Edwards:were these like, like VHS movies that you were doing in your backyard kind of thing. You're the first movies you were making? Not.
Sean McDaniel:It was actually yeah, the first camera had actually was like this little digital stills camera, and it would let you do like 32nd video clips like that. That was it. So I was like, okay, that's, that's what we'll use. And then graduated up to like mini DV was what I was using, mainly in high school, a little bit underground. Okay, and then, you know, we got some nicer cameras once I got to USC.
James Jay Edwards:So you skipped the VHS phase that the rest of us all went through?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, I feel like it was like just before like, I think that digital stills camera got that was like kind of a big deal that was like, Oh, it'll record 30 seconds of video, you know, onto this card instead of VHS. So that was kind of that was kind of a big deal.
James Jay Edwards:And you can stitch those 30 seconds is together into a into a whole film.
Sean McDaniel:Oh, yeah. Real amazing work that I was doing back then.
Jonathan Correia:I have such a love hate relationship with MiniDV because there's a bit of that nostalgia, but also when I went to film school, that's all we had. Like, I think we finally got a digital camera my senior year and it was a just like a Canon 6500 Mark three or something. And that was like the big tech for my college. And then like, you know, come on to LA and everyone's like, Oh, yeah, everyone's been working on Reds or something. I'm
Sean McDaniel:just like, yeah, all right. Yeah.
James Jay Edwards:I still have and it's actually my favorite camera to this day one of those Sony PD 150s The the the old cameras and all the skateboard videos were made from their analog DV cam tapes.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, so got my mini DV camera. It was a Bar Mitzvah president from my grandpa.
James Jay Edwards:When I was in film school, the new camera was the Canon Mach Five Mark five is that what it is Mach Five the simpler one was the T2I back then so right and these were basically DSLRs that could shoot up to 12 minutes of video.
Jonathan Correia:You got a little bit more leeway.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah in college that was definitely the mark fives were a big upgrade from what we had before.
James Jay Edwards:How did you get involved making horror movies? I mean, was that always what you wanted to do? Or is that just kind of where you found yourself LED?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I like horror a lot as a genre. I mean, the work that I do kind of spans a lot of different genres, I would say, there isn't really one, I would say I love more than any others. Part of what I like about the work is getting to do the variety of projects. But yeah, lately, I feel like I have been doing a little more horror, it's and it's been really fun to move into that territory.
Jonathan Correia:I was gonna say, looking, looking over your filmography, you're not all over the place. But like, you've had your hands and like all these different types of forms and whatnot, a lot of short form work, but there's always horror always pops up every now and then it sneaks up.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's a fun genre to work in. I mean, Malum is definitely kind of I would say, the horror project I've done that goes the hardest, which is what I liked about this movie, like in the scripts, when I read it is like, it really goes for it. And I think you know, that's what you want, when you're, you know what you're in for?
Jacob Davidson:Yeah. And actually, that's what I wanted to ask, how did you get involved with Malum.
Sean McDaniel:So I met Anthony, the director on another project, a short film that he was producing, and that I shot. And the directors are mutual friends of ours, and just somehow Anthony and I hadn't crossed paths before that one. And yeah, it was just that was a really fun project. And it was great working with Anthony. And I could tell that he would be a good collaborator, and just like a good person to work with. And so after that one, I kind of hit him up and was like, just, you know, hey, what are you working on and kind of mentioned that he was thinking about doing something new with The Last Shift and kind of has a little bit at the direction and it sounded really cool. And then eventually, I got a script and kind of went from there.
Jacob Davidson:Nice.
James Jay Edwards:What was it like? Because like you kind of just mentioned mallam is kind of like a remake of Last Shift. And Last Shift is only what maybe eight years old?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, I think it's 2013 2014. So
James Jay Edwards:yeah, so it's a Okay, so almost 10. What was it like remaking something that that's, that's that modern? I mean, what was there pressure to put it in a different direction? Or did you want to kind of stay close to the vibe of the original?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, I mean, that was interesting. So I liked the original I had seen it before. And then I gave it another few rewatches, after Anthony had mentioned that he was you know, working on this. And I think it was interesting, because I was thinking about a lot more at first. And then once Anthony, I started talking about it, it kind of I don't know, it kind of like fell away. And that wasn't even in response to anything of like, oh, let's purposefully avoid talking about the film, it was really just like the scripts. I mean, it has the same premise, kind of some of the bones are the same, but it really goes in a lot of different directions and has more of an investigation and mystery element. And so I don't know, we kind of just started talking about all that. And eventually, I didn't really think too much about the original kind of, yeah, it just became its own thing.
Jonathan Correia:I definitely did the rewatch of The Last Shift before watching Mallow. And you know, there was a question in the back of my head since it was announced of just like, why, you know, why, why do that? And the movie Malum answers it perfectly. I think, right off the bat, it's more exploration on the cult. It's, there's there's a lot of changes, but the core is there. And I mean, you guys use that space a lot better. But I mean, that's also 10 years of like filmmaking experience, getting things together, probably better budget, you know, and being able to sit on these ideas. But you guys were filming in a recently closed police station, right?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah. So I mean, that was actually part of the movie. When it was time to go, it kind of kicked into gear pretty quickly, because they found this decommissioned police station, and the city was getting ready to tear it down. And so they I think they were able to talk them into delaying. And so it was like, Alright, we gotta go. And so yeah, we just got really lucky. I mean, I think that was the thing like the first movie I wasn't I wasn't on the first movie, but I think similar deal of like, right, you get that location and so much of the movie is centered around it that that kind of determines a lot of what you're doing and so yeah, we just got lucky with the station offered a real variety of looks. I mean, it was huge. It was a four story police station has a full gymnasium, which you see in the movie, which is great for to shoot in and also kind of to turn into a soundstage almost for some of our sets. Yeah, and it just had a lot of different looks and it's provided a lot of opportunities really the first movie, I think it kind of works The thing I like about that one visually is that it has a very uniform look like a whole police station kind of looks the same and I think that works really well for that movie. And then in this movie, the police station has like just a ton of different looks to it kind of feels like this weird hodgepodge. I think they probably were like maybe adding elements throughout the years and extending things or at least remodeling it and we don't even you don't even see how many looks they're in this place like there's a bunch that didn't even work for the movie.
James Jay Edwards:So I was kind of wondering Is that because you say that you know you used you know like the gymnasium you know all different parts of the station. Did Anthony have the location in mind when he started writing the script or was stuff added as he got the location?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, so now the location they found that after that was when they were scouting just to preliminary scouts to find one but then once they did find it they had done a scout before I was on the project and you know kind of was pretty thorough I think but it wasn't it wasn't like a full tech scout or anything that we did a bunch later. But I know he made maybe a few changes then. And then once we got there for PrEP, we were able to spend more time and he was kind of writing, you know, some little subtle changes, like, yeah, the gymnasium there was something with a basketball and things like that. So I remember in early drafts, but I don't think he had thought we would find a police station with the gym. And so once we like, Okay, well, why not? Alright, perfect.
Jonathan Correia:That's awesome. What were some of your inspirations behind the looks of this? Because well, well, it is. It's very, you do so much with this very, I don't want to say bland space, because it's a pool. But it's it is a police station and police stations aren't going for decor, you know, they're going probably for efficiency and to keep things together. So what kind of things were you trying to do visually to kind of separate scenes, separate situations, or just kind of change the overall mood because there's a lot of moments where it's like handheld, but it's taking perspective, but it's not the main characters. There was like some interesting choices. So if you don't mind walking through some of that process,
James Jay Edwards:also stylistically, it's everything from like home video to cc camera to just traditional filmmaking. So it's a pretty versatile looking movie.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, yeah, that was definitely one of the things reading the script was like, Okay, this has says a lot going on. Even though it is yeah, in one location. And when we walked into that police station, it was pretty overwhelming. Like the first time we walked in actually, it hadn't no one had been in there since I think, basically COVID Like they when that happened, they were like, Alright, everybody out, and no one ever went back in for like years. So like, in the locker room, when we were they actually had to cut some of the locks off so we could get into some of the lockers. But it was just like, people stuff still there that they you know, I guess we're just like, well, I'm never getting, you know, those shoes back. And so yeah, it was really? Yeah, it was it was odd. Yeah, so getting in there, there's just this variety of looks. And for me, we're moving through so many different locations, we're returning to locations. But yeah, it could kind of look the same, right? Because it's all pretty much fluorescent lighting overhead. And so we kind of built these, I mean, you probably notice, when you're watching it, that there's these color shifts to the light so that certain locations have a color tone, one that kind of matches what's going on with that theme. But also, for me, it's just kind of like to help the viewer map where they are. And remember, right, because you might return to some of these locations pretty briefly. And you might not realize it, but just having that same color tone. Your brain is like oh, cool, great. I remember, I'm grounded in where I am. So that was a big thing. I was just going through and taking the tubes out and putting in our own LED tubes. So one for control. But yeah, to create that color palette, and then we could control everything wirelessly. And just like beat along pretty quickly, which was nice. They would kind of get ahead of us and set up the next location before we got there. So we could walk in. We're already kind of a little bit pre lit and then we can modify and you know, be ready to shoot.
Jonathan Correia:Gotta love those remote tudes, man. Yeah, just throw them up and be like, Alright, so we got most of our filler. What can we do for a game changer, those
Sean McDaniel:I mean, that was that was clutch. I mean, this is probably this is the first movie that I've done where I've my main package, just like didn't have any big HMIs on it was just like we're at night. None of these locations really have windows. There's just no reason for it. And I was like, I just want more and more tubes. That was what I was asking for. It was just very odd. Like it's not what you normally think of but it was Yeah, I mean it was very helpful for what we were doing. Yeah, sorry. Now got distracted talking about lighting and I can't remember where we started.
Jonathan Correia:No, it's definitely evident that you know, like you were saying in setting up the lighting to give you a bit of a mapping or giving you a bit of placement is very helpful because as great as Last Shift was a bit disorienting sometimes because of the fluorescent and again that's understandable time budget all that fun jazz. I actually in college we shot a found footage horror film, and we shot a old jail and stuff and there's like like you were saying there's no windows or at least nothing to really shine stuff through and that was a mess. That was college students trying to shoot found footage so the lighting was not great. That was lighting in here is fantastic. Yeah.
James Jay Edwards:Who didn't shoot found footage in college. It's so cheap and easy.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah, no it did it make it easy for especially for students.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, so the actually the found footage II kind of moments in the movie with the Cults.
Jacob Davidson:Oh, yeah, like I really liked that.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, so that's actually all mini DV going back to that. Yeah, so and that's actually my mini DV camera that I was in high school in college. So when we were talking about it talked about maybe shooting high 8 doing some other things and just Yeah, I ended up being like, well, the mini DV is really close. You know, I have this it's ready to go. And yeah, and as you know, the such a interesting look. And you know, we modified a little bit in post. Honestly, it kind of held up better than I was expecting like when we I really hadn't shot anything on it since you know, undergrad and so when we dusted it off, and we were looking at it later I was like oh wow, this almost looks too good a little bit.
Jonathan Correia:Can We digitize it just a little but just add a few more pixels or
Sean McDaniel:I think yeah, we just mess with it a little because it honestly, yeah, just held up a little too well, but it's kind of a fun format to bring out again.
Jacob Davidson:Yeah. And something wanted to ask about just considering the movies, kind of hallucinatory themes. How did you approach filming that and just kind of the more surrealist aspects?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, I think I mean, the interesting thing about that stuff is like I for me, even though the movie does have a little bit of a heightened look, I think I tried to grounded in realism, especially in the beginning, so that as it kind of builds towards the insanity that it gets to, it doesn't kind of play its hands too early. I mean, you know, you know, going in, things are going a little crazy, but I don't think especially if you know, the original movie, I don't think people are maybe ready for how far this one goes. You wouldn't expect it. And so, I mean, that was a big thing for me at first was just yeah, like, being kind of in this realism, a little bit naturalism. And then yeah, just as we go deeper, just kind of leaning in to what fit the story. And just locations. I mean, the gun range that we found that we shoot a good amount of scenes, and especially towards the end, kind of have an interesting look that kind of fit already. And so it was kind of leaning into that and then adding our own flair on top.
Jonathan Correia:we're gonna say, Don't go into holding, there's all that Black mold, like, has a lot of Black mold Was that real?
Sean McDaniel:That was all added by art department. But there actually was a few parts of the station where we were there was mold then they had to send people in to treat it. And we were like, No one goes over there for a few weeks during prep. And they had to do like a check. Because yeah, it's true. I mean, no one. That was the thing I forgot to mention, I got distracted by lightning, because when we got in there for that first scout, no one had been in there for years. And I guess like for whatever the way the AC works, they had to actually leave the heat on. So things would freeze over I don't understand what they're talking about. But basically, it was already a really hot summer in Kentucky. And then they had the heat on. So when we walked in it was I mean, it felt like it was probably over 100 degrees in there it was it was pretty crazy. So we had to do our whole first tech Scout just all of this is dying in this heat. And it was a it was kind of an Impressive, impressive and oppressive first way to to walk through that station and kind of fit. I feel like thematically just the way that we were feeling from all that he kind of pouring down on us. Yeah, so that made that first Scout pretty interesting. And that one was really just about narrowing things down like the place was just so big, about like figuring out what actually made sense for us what new opportunities that places offer. And so that was like really helpful and a really great fresh start because we did find like a lot of new stuff out a little subtle changes and we're able to just like narrow down specifics, which was great.
Jonathan Correia:That's awesome. That's also a testament to the set deck team. I thought all that Black mold was sounds like who had who had the time I guess off they killed it. That's terrifying. Was there any points where you guys were? Because it's like you said a big kind of leftover police station. Any moments where you genuinely got creeped out by like the environment and where you were at?
Sean McDaniel:Um, I mean, I don't know that there was any time that I was creeped out in there I just you know any spaces like that don't tend to bother me too much there was there were a few odd things I mean there's so there's elevators in the building because again it's such a huge station and one of the two inside on the ceiling just had like footprints running across like as if someone had like you know Spider Man like upside down just walked across the top of the ceiling like these these intense boot prints I remember the first time I noticed that it was just like every time I got in that elevator from then on I would just look up and look at them and just like I don't know how those got up there but there they are
Jonathan Correia:just seeing if there's a second set since the last time you were there
Sean McDaniel:luckily no no new additions Oh guy didn't even think about that. Glad I'm so glad
Jonathan Correia:that while you were there but that was it it would have been a terrible way to think
Sean McDaniel:I was just like how did they get there? I didn't think about that there could be more that's true.
Jacob Davidson:And where did they lead? Yeah,
Sean McDaniel:just just to see if that's the thing and it's not even like they ran down the wall all the elevators just the ceiling is very weird. It's like Did someone take it down walk on it put it back up like what? I don't know it's weird. Yeah, it definitely I mean yeah, it wasn't it wasn't like a chill place to hang out with and like you go hang out in there because then it had a full like prison level. So the the level where her with a holding cell iss and then we're here kind of like main office that she's in was the like prison level. So yeah, I mean, we didn't, I didn't hang out there more than necessary. That was also the only level that wasn't air conditioned by the buildings. So another reason also not to linger too much.
Jonathan Correia:Especially you said Kentucky in the summertime would be
Jacob Davidson:humity alone.
Sean McDaniel:Yes I grew up in Florida. So I'm a little bit used to it. But it's been a while for me since I've had a summer like that again. So was a little trying
Jonathan Correia:that's not really what's coming up next for you. I know, we know malam, when this episode airs will have just come out, select theaters and is going out there. But do you have anything that you can talk about? That's in the works right now or coming out for you in the future?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, there's some stuff in the pipeline. But yeah, unfortunately, nothing that I can talk about at the moment. We might have to wait a little bit longer.
James Jay Edwards:We had Andrew Gordon McPherson, who scored Kids Vs. Aliens last episode. And he, he kind of said the same. That's why we're kind of laughing about NDAs. Because, like, what do you got coming up, he's all every day I write music. And someday the people are paying me to write music will tell me when I can tell you what I'm doing.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, it's tricky to pull that stuff together. I mean, it's nice to be able to talk to you guys. And you've seen it like, this is actually the first talk I've gotten to do where people have seen the movie. So it's nice to be able to not be quite as on eggshells, about spoilers or anything and knowing that this is coming out after because, yeah, this has a lot, a lot in there that I wouldn't, I kind of forget, because you've been working on it for so long. It's like, oh, yeah, there's actually like a lot of nice surprises, not just the scares, but story wise, there's like some nice stuff going on there that you just get so used to, you know, watching it over and over again, forget that I can't accidentally give that stuff away.
Jonathan Correia:it's always interesting seeing a filmmaker redo something that they've done before, you know, like with Funny Games, or something of that nature, and it really does feel like like the bug, like you said, the bones are there, you know, there's like little moments, little pieces, the overall story, you know, the core of it's the same, but it really is taken in a completely different direction. And I think, you know, definitely your cinematography and, and the different story points definitely helped differentiate it. So it's if you're a fan of Last Shift or not, I mean, it's, it's Malum. It's not Last Shift.
James Jay Edwards:Watching either way.
Jacob Davidson:Exactly. Yeah. And ya know, watching them like that. It is interesting, that kind of directions this version took so yeah, no, I think fans of the original will like it, and it'll bring in a lot of new fans who will check out the original both ways.
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, I hope so. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing, like the first one was so great. I think that's why they wanted to do it. Like, I mean, I know it kind of has like a cult status. But I think you know, it didn't quite reach as far as it really should have. And so this whole this will do both things like people get to see this new kind of fun take, is this such a solid idea And he builds such an interesting world. I mean, that was my big thing. When he told me he was expanding on it. It's like more about the Cults. It's kind of mystery investigation element. I'm a big sucker for all that stuff. Like,
Jacob Davidson:yeah, I was gonna say like, I was gonna say watching it. I've been playing a lot of Resident Evil lately, so it kind of felt like watching a live action survival horror thing. It's,
Sean McDaniel:yeah, it does kind of have that vibe. It's like you're it has it's a third person. Right. And just as your character, you're almost playing. Yeah.
Jonathan Correia:I mean, it's assault. It's Assault on Precinct 13 with a satanic cult. I mean, how could you not love that premise?
Sean McDaniel:That sounds great. Right? I'm in
Jonathan Correia:that's to my favorite things right there.
James Jay Edwards:Exactly. So where can where can people see Malum? It's coming to select theaters, right?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah, it's gonna be in theaters nationwide. And theaters and tickets are up when those comes out. Yeah.
James Jay Edwards:After theaters. Is it going? Where's it going to Shudder?
Sean McDaniel:I think it'll just be on like VOD and digital platforms after it has a theatrical round. I'm not really sure. Actually.
James Jay Edwards:I don't know where I got Shudder was Last Shift on Shudder? Or was that Netflix?
Jonathan Correia:I've watched it on Peacock.
Sean McDaniel:Oh is it on peacock right now?
James Jay Edwards:back when Last Shift was released. There was a buzz about it. I remember, in the work meeting, people were like saying, you know, you got to see Last Shift. So I mean, you say it's like a cult following. But it was it was kind of like a like a horror. There was buzz around it. And I and I want it might have been Netflix. Actually, I remember it was easy to see. And that's why kind of the ball just started rolling. You know, Netflix is quote free.
Jonathan Correia:But yeah. If you haven't seen Last Shift, though it is on peacock right now. I know. That's where I watched it. I think it's also on Tubi or some of those other ones. And then of course, Malum is in theaters on March 31st. But this is airing on the third. So it'll already be out. So go get your tickets.
Jacob Davidson:Have you seen it already? See it again!
James Jay Edwards:Where can our listeners find you if they want to when these NDAs are finally up and you can talk about what you're doing next. Where can our listeners find you you got social media? You got a website?
Sean McDaniel:Yeah. So the website is Sean McDanieldp.com. And then I have an Instagram that's mainly pictures of cats and hiking and then sometimes set photos and stuff, which is just @ShawnMMcDaniel. Yeah, those are probably the best spots.
James Jay Edwards:My Instagram I never updated. I sorely neglected but my dog has a fairly active one. So
Sean McDaniel:yeah, mine mine is might as well be one for My animals to a degree, but that's fine.
James Jay Edwards:All right, well, thank you for joining us this afternoon and talk and Malum with us. Everybody see mallam? It's, you know, we've all seen it, and it's worth the time. It's a it's a great little reimagining of Last Shift. So yeah, everybody go see now and
Sean McDaniel:thanks for having me.
James Jay Edwards:No problem. Naveen, come back anytime. Our theme song is by Restless Spirits to go check them out. And our artwork is by Chris Fisher. So go check him out. As for us, you can find us on any of the socials on @EyeOnHorror or ihorror.com, which is the site that we all call home. Thanks, Sean, for hanging out with us and we will see everybody in a couple of weeks. So for me, James Jay Edwards.
Jacob Davidson:I'm Jacob Davison.
Jonathan Correia:I'm Jonathan Correia.
Sean McDaniel:And I'm Sean McDaniel.
James Jay Edwards:Keep your Eye On Horror
