Posted: 10/30/2007 Author: Views: 708

by Timothy Snarr

Ivan E. Rection is a director at Anabolic Video Productions and a lover of all things horror. I caught up with AEBN’s featured director of week, the genius behind such films as Nice Rack 15, Dawn of the Head, and Texas Asshole Massacre, to talk about his career and his work. In celebration of Halloween, Ivan discusses his own Halloween experiences, the inspiration behind his horror spoofs, and he shares stories about the haunted condo in which he currently resides. To see Part 1, click here.


TS: Since you have a background in the horror genre, would you say Halloween is your favorite time of year?

IR: Yeah. It is. Honestly, I don’t really go out and party on Halloween, but what I love about Halloween is that I can go and buy props for movies. So, like, two weeks ago, when Halloween stores opened up their doors, I went and bought a bunch of clown masks and everything else because…look, we do our porn movies, or spoofs, or horror films. I buy stuff and then I ride around [to see] what I have for locations and props. So, I love buying Halloween stuff. I love watching movies during that time of year. You get all the great classics coming through cable and you can watch them. It’s always funny, because I have the DVDs but it’s different watching them on TV. It’s like a special, because they’re showing it for everybody. It’s kind of like…let’s say Halloween is being shown on HBO. If I’m watching, I’m watching with millions of people. It’s like it’s different than just watching by myself on DVD. So, I love this time of year for that. Maybe this year I’ll go out and trick-or-treat or something. I’m not sure. I’m just a very big kid (laughs). I do love this time of year, because it seems like everybody is happier. Halloween starts, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, so that part I enjoy, because it’s fun and it starts a snowball effect of people having a good time with their families.

TS: When did you first discover your love for horror? When did you realize, ‘Man this is it. This is the coolest shit ever’?

IR: It probably started in film school, back in ’93 or ’94. I used to watch horror movies, but I would say The Exorcist I still can’t watch by myself at night.

TS: That’s a tough one.

IR: I’m still afraid of it. Thriller gave me nightmares…the music video Thriller. With Jaws, I couldn’t take a shower for a week. So, I was a kid that…I was afraid of horror movies. I liked to watch, but I was afraid of them. Then, when I started going to film school, I met up with some of my friends, who I still have, who were filmmakers and horror fans. We started making them, and it was at that point I kind of didn’t want to do anything else, because with horror, when you’re shooting horror films, it’s a lot looser environment. It’s about how you’re fond of being creative and getting dirty and nasty and I love that part. I love psychological thrillers, because I think those are the best horror films. But, I also watch the schlocky stuff, because you watch something really silly and you go home with a smile on your face. So, it’s probably in the ‘90s that I really got into horror films. My friends would show me old, Italian films and gross me out, because I’m very squeamish. It’s funny I, like, dig horror movies and I watch horror movies, but I look away when something really bad happens. I’m getting better at it but still it’s like [makes grossed out noise]. It’s kind of like when I shoot porn. I am squeamish. I look away. When I’m shooting, I look away. I make sure I got the frame and I look away. When I edit, [it’s] the same thing. I look away (laughs). But, all my life, I’ve been a fan of horror movies, because it brings out an emotion in you when you’re watching them and then when you’re shooting them…it’s fun, because I’ve worked on dramatic movies. Comedies are fun, but comedies get very stressful on set because people have to be funny and it’s hard to be funny unless you’re being spontaneous. With dramatic films, it’s hard too, because everybody is somber and sad and they don’t make eye contact with the actor and stuff like that. But, in horror films, your head’s getting cut off. Cool! You’re bloody! (laughs). So, I love that part of it. I love the schlocky movies. I love scaring people with actual scares rather than something jumping out of the bushes. Sorry, I’m long-winded. I have a lot of energy (laughs).

TS: No, not at all. I’m enjoying listening to you.

IR: So, it goes back to the early ‘90s. The first feature I ever worked on was a horror film, so that could be it. It was in ’93, I think. I got to see my first decapitation and my first, you know, guts being pulled out and from that point on I was…the movie was really bad, but the effects were cool and it was a fun environment and I think from that point on I really wanted to make horror movies.

TS: Who are some of your favorite directors and what are some of you favorite horror flicks?

IR: You know I’m so bad with directors’ and actors’ names. The Exorcist is obviously my favorite because of what it does to me when I watch it. Recently, there have been a few that I really liked. I liked The Feast. It’s a Project Greenlight movie. It starts off with people dying and ends with people dying (laughs). There’s not much to it, but it’s very entertaining, very descript, great dialogue. The Exorcist is one of those movies. Rosemary’s Baby…I love Rosemary’s Baby just especially for that one shot with the old lady sitting in the bedroom, on the phone, and you can’t see her so you look around the corner. I remember reading an article or interview with the director of photography. He said the reason they set up the shot like that of the old lady sitting in the bedroom…all you see is her back and she’s on the phone talking about the devil child or whatever she was talking about. [The director of photography] sat in the back of the theater when the movie first premiered to see the people’s reactions. Every person in the theater leaned over to their right to see what was going on around the corner. Everybody was like, ‘What’s going on around the corner in that bedroom?’ So, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist…the older movies. The newer ones seem to be more about, ‘I’m going to rip out your eye and I’m going to freak you out that way.’ That’s not scary; that’s gross. If you want to gross someone out, more power to you. But, I think scary movies are psychological. It could be visual, but if you have a bad script then it doesn’t make for a scary movie; it makes for a fun, gory time.

TS: What scares you the most?

IR: What scares me the most? Darkness scares me the most. Actually, ghosts scare me the most, because my place is haunted. I’ve lived in a few places that were haunted.

TS: I was going to ask you about that.

IR: You hear stories…like, actually, The Others…I loved that movie. But, after I saw it, I watched it at home at night after I saw it…all I could think about is, ‘What if my house is just like this movie?’ I mean, I don’t want to give away the storyline, but, after the movie, I sat there and was like, ‘Oh, my God! This could be my life. This could be my house.’ I love that movie. That movie is very scary, especially at the end. I still get goose bumps thinking about it. Like, ‘Well, what if that’s how really it is?’ So, it’s ghosts and knives. I mean, you can shoot me and that’s fine. But, if you cut me, it seems like it would hurt so much that now I’m afraid of knives…killers with knives. The movie that scared me which was a really stupid movie: Shocker. The guy ran around with a big butcher knife and he’s bald and he’s…it was on a few weeks ago and I sat and watched it and I’m going, ‘Wow. This is really bad and cheesy, but holy crap! It’s that guy!’ He’s a director…The Great White Hype…he directed that movie The Kingdom. Well, he’s the kid, the teenager in that movie. The killer, ‘The Shocker’, [is the guy] who played the boss in The X Files. You know, so it’s like this weird cast there. He runs around with a butcher knife and winds up cutting people. For some reason, that movie scared me. I don’t know (laughs.) The Others scared me psychologically because I was thinking about how it might be like my house.

TS: Let me ask you about your condo. I read some stuff about some of the experiences you’ve had in your condo. For any new readers that might just be discovering you as a director, do you want to talk about some of the experiences you’ve had in your little haunted, Hollywood condo?

IR: (laughs). Yeah, it’s a very unique situation there. My folks owned the condo next door and for years there used to be a family with two kids living there. For years, my dad would hear a sound that’s very distinct that started when he moved into the place. It was a marble hitting a wooden floor, bouncing and rolling…and [he didn’t] have wooden floors! [He] just figured that in that condo, through the wall, he just thought it was the kids playing. When I moved into the place, whenever I was downstairs, I would hear the sound only coming out of the bedroom. It was a marble hitting a wooden floor, bouncing and rolling. It was kind of freaky. But, if you go up there, you would never hear it. A few times I let our dog, the family dog, into the bedroom. The dog would walk in there, look at the wall and just stare at the ceiling and would not move.

TS: That’s scary.

IR: So, I eventually stopped letting the dog come over. I have a cat, because I’m never home so I can’t get a dog. I had to get a cat. I would lock the cat upstairs at night, because when she was in heat, she would go nuts. So, I had to lock her upstairs, because I would sleep downstairs. I wouldn’t sleep upstairs; I would sleep on the couch. The cat would be upstairs in the haunted room. All night I would hear her running around back and forth hitting the door. I’m going, ‘Is she being thrown into the door? What’s going on?’ I eventually got it fixed and now when I go upstairs the cat doesn’t follow me into the bedroom. It will stand in the doorway and look.

TS: That’s crazy.

IR: It creeps me out, because I used to sleep up there and when my ex would come in from out of town we would sleep upstairs. Eventually, within a few days staying there, we would both start getting horrible nightmares whenever one was gone from the bedroom. Let’s say we’re both sleeping, and one of us decides to go downstairs to use the computer, or whatever. The other one would get nightmares and wake up. When we were together it was okay, but individually, without even knowing the other person was gone, we would have nightmares. So, it wound up eventually that we’d put the mattresses in the living room. The bedroom now is a big prop room. It’s got three clowns in there, big mannequins, everything else. It became a prop room, because, during the day it’s okay, but at night…goose bumps. You get goose bumps and the hair stands on the back of your neck. It’s not very comfortable. I stay away from that place at night. Unfortunately, there are quite a few places that I’ve lived that I’ve had experiences in. But, now I live here and I pay a mortgage, so it’s different than renting a place and going, ‘I’m out of here.’ I can’t really leave this place (laughs).

TS: I read that you actually decided to do a little Ghost Hunters experience on your own by trying to film some of what was going on in your condo. I know you posted one of your videos on YouTube. Do you want to talk a little about that?

IR: Yeah! That was funny, because for a person who lives in a haunted place, I shouldn’t be watching Ghost Hunters the TV show, but I love it. They do these silly things in there where they’ll do eerie music or sound effects during transitions that I’ll sit and watch all the time. It’s kind of one of those things where the show is really cool, but they’ll put music over the footage and [they shouldn’t do] these sound effects because it takes away from the experience. My ex…she was sick and feeling down one night, so I figured I’m just going to go and videotape a Ghost Hunters episode, edit it, and send it to her. So, I got my night vision camera, started shooting around my living room, started to run upstairs and I’m recording myself. As soon as I got upstairs, I got so freaked out, because I’m in this black room, I have my night vision camera, I have my LCD right there so I could see myself, and I’m thinking, ‘What if something moves behind me? I’m going to have a heart attack and die! That’s going to be horrible.’ So, I shot as much as I could then I freaked out. So, I’m running downstairs in genuine fear of something behind me and then my cat trips me and I was falling. So, I did that little video, I edited it, I sent it to her just to cheer her up, and then I eventually put it on YouTube. Now, I’m getting all these comments on there like, “You’re too fat!” or “You’re an idiot!” (laughs). I’m going, ‘Whatever. You’re the one watching it!’ (laughs). There’s something fun at the end and I…purposely, when I cut it, I added music and sound effects, because there’s the whole inside joke of how Ghost Hunters is shot. It’s fun. You can still watch it. It’s got a lot of views and you get comments from, “That’s funny” to “You’re an idiot,” “You’re fat,” or “That’s cool.” To me, it’s all fun. I’m a 35-year-old child in that video (laughs).

TS: Well, let me talk about something that freaks me out and that’s a clown. I know you did a little clown vignette for your Sexual Predator 2 movie, I believe. So, how is it that porn could not make clowns less frightening?

IR: (laughs). You know, I’m glad you asked me that! That’s like my favorite segment that I’ve shot in any movie…in an adult movie. It’s great, because when Evolution first let me shoot, the first movie I did for them it was basically…I was directing it, but I had them holding my hand through it. The Sexual Predator 2 was the first, first, first movie I ever did that was my own the way I wanted it and everything. So, I had this clown idea written for almost a year and when I went to shoot it I wanted to make sure I got the right people for it. I wanted to get a big guy, which was Buster Good. I wanted to get a little girl, which was Kat. The vignette is…it’s kind of funny, because I remember when we were shooting it. I’m under the blankets with her and we got a clown hand and I’m touching her with the clown hand. It’s one of those things where I love the movie Killer Clowns from Outer Space. I wanted to do something like that. To me, it was fun to do, because there were times in the vignette where it’s one take, but Kat is in the closet with the clown and the doors are open. Then we pan over to Kat looking in to the closet. She closes the closet door and then we pan over and the clown is gone. We pan over to her; she looks around, and doesn’t see anything. Then we pan over to the door and then the clown is there. It’s all one shot. It’s really cool, because it’s not just the guy…kneels down and gets back up. It was just one shot; it looks freaky! The scene was crazy. It was a very rough scene. The cool thing was that I actually used, when she was watching a scary movie on TV…I used footage from one of my horror films of a zombie walking around. So, I got to throw in a little bit of mainstream stuff in there. I’m not necessarily into clowns. Everybody thinks I am, because my whole office is filled with crazy clown masks and a seven-foot killer clown from outer space. The reason I have all this…I buy all these masks is because I have a huge idea for my next feature, and I’ll be shooting a clown scene. So, I have these masks for a purpose. People think I have a clown fetish; I don’t. It’s strictly because the cool-looking masks are very scary and perfect for my movie. That’s the reason. I love that vignette. It’s my baby, because it’s the first thing I ever shot in adult that was mine…100% mine. I cherish that clip (laughs).

TS: I remember you said the other scene that you really appreciated was the chase scene at the end of the Texas Asshole Massacre.

IR: (laughs). Yeah! That…those two things right there are really my babies, so to speak. The chase scene…the night before…a couple days before, my ex and I sat there and we got the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and watched the movie, because she had never seen it. I specifically wanted her to watch the end chase scene, because I wanted her to do the whole final chainsaw dance. We were thinking that, at the end of the movie, Leatherface actually cuts himself and hurts himself. I’m like, ‘How are you going to do this with a three-foot dildo? You can actually hurt yourself if you fall on it and ram it up your ass!’ (laughs). I was wondering how we’re going to pull it off. It was one of those crazy days, because Gia, who was the other girl in the scene, was running late and she had to leave early. We had two hours to shoot all that footage. We went to the location and just took out the camera and started shooting. I didn’t have a specific place in mind. I just wanted to shoot enough footage [to] where I could piece it together. I knew the sort of shots I wanted, but I wanted to make sure I shot enough to where I could piece it together in post-production, because we didn’t have time since Gia had to go to the airport. The one thing I really enjoyed about the chase scene is that there were shots of those two running and the camera is right in Gia’s face. What we did there was I bought a fish-eye camera [lens] for my little Cannon camera and she was holding it in front of her. She was running and holding the camera herself. After four takes, the camera broke (laughs). Actually, it broke so bad that everything on that take was out of sync. I don’t know what happened there. Or, maybe it went out of sync on the first take and then everything from that point on was just kind of like the camera was (45:00). But, that one was a lot of fun. I think a lot of people shoot chase scenes with naked girls whether its mainstream or porn, so it was kind of fun to do. After I finished that chase scene, I showed it to all of my horror buddies. They all loved it. They were like, ‘Give me a copy; I want to show it to my friend. Give me a copy; I want to show it when my friends come over.’ I really enjoyed it. That was really a highlight of my time with Extreme for sure.

TS: I know all those movies like [Texas Asshole Massacre] and Dawn of the Head and Sex Sense are part of your Slut-O-Rama franchise if you will. How hard was it to convince a guy like Tom Byron about your vision for doing that line of movies? How hard was it to get him to buy in to what you wanted to do?

IR: I think that the reasons he let me do it was because of my success in horror filmmaking. At the time, I was working on a feature with a couple friends of mine. It was a horror/sci-fi/action feature. I brought the footage to show them and I told them from the moment they had me do stuff for them, I told them at some point I wanted to be doing features. The good thing about working for Evolution and Extreme was the creative control they gave me. Basically, the way it worked is no kaka and no fisting. Everything else is free game. They let me do whatever I wanted. I was surprised what they did at Extreme, because Texas Asshole Massacre they didn’t see until the movie was on DVD already. My first comment about the movie was, “Well, you (47:00)” I was like, ‘Okay, whatever.’ It was…they never questioned what I was doing. All I had to do was…I gave them a treatment of the script. I gave them a few storyboards of what I wanted to do and ideas, and from that point on they were like, “Do whatever you want, however you want it. We trust you.’ That’s how Dawn of the Head came about. They said the same thing with The Sex Sense. It was like that…The Sex Sense actually wound up being never (47:30). The freedom I had was unbelievable…kind of do your thing and the trust was there and go out and do it. I can’t wait to do more here. Anabolic is giving me free reign to do features as well. So, hopefully I can continue doing the same kind of movies.

TS: I was going to ask you if you were going to continue to do the spoof thing being over at Anabolic now and whether or not they were going to allow you to do that. So, you are going to continue?

IR: Yes. They’re doing one feature per year. That’s their plan, so they’re giving me the freedom to do what I like, obviously with certain restrictions and certain guidelines. I do have the ultimate control of what I can do. All I have to do is give them the script and they’ll approve what they can and we’ll go from there. But, definitely I have so many ideas for what I was going to do at Extreme that I’m bringing over here and of course I’m modifying them, because the budgets are bigger here and I have a lot more access to different types of people and different talent. So, it’s very exciting, because I’m writing a lot of stuff down. I’m talking to my horror friends and getting ideas from them. I actually have a magician friend…him and his friend sat there and wrote out 20 little vignette skits for me and they were like, ‘Thank you,’ and I’m just kind of like happy to…I appreciate it. At some point, I’m going to have my magician people collaborate with me. It’s kind of like with Dawn of the Head. I had two other mainstream friends…mainstream filmmakers in the movie, but they just covered up. One played a clown at the beginning of the movie and the other one wore the ski mask on top of the car with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it…in the car.

There’s much more with Ivan. Go to http://www.xpeeps.com/nashsilverstein to find the Ivan interview in its entirety.