Grilling guerilla film-maker Brett Piper's back side (of his films, I mean! His films!)

Because I'm so long-winded or maybe because Brett Piper's a pretty fascinating and super-talented film director, writer, and special effects/stop-motion animation guru, I had to cut our interview in half. The first part can be read HERE. And now...on with the thrilling conclusion!

SRW: Shock-O-Rama is next from 2005, your first (to date) anthology film. The wraparound sequence finds Misty Mundae playing a fed-up scream queen tired of being typecast. In some very funny scenes, we see her fall in intestines (don’t ask), threatened by a weed whacker, and rant about her expected nudity. Was she basically playing herself?

BP: Oh yes.

SRW: The next tale in the film is a fun one set in a junkyard where a guy takes on alien robots (it’s Rob M. again, this time acting more tough with some goofy facial hair). Was the classic Twilight Zone episode, The Invaders, an inspiration?

BP: No, as much as I love that episode there was no connection. I just wanted to build a junkyard robot. 

SRW: The final story was a rare serious story detailing psychological/science fiction/sexual hijinx. Or something. Mainly it just seemed to be an excuse to put in a lotta cool effects at the end. Guilty?

BP: Mea maxima culpa.

SRW: Bacterium (2006) is a pretty serious film for Brett Piper. Everything’s more realistic. Not only does the film detail real world scares (infectious diseases, military overstepping boundaries, panic room politics), but it does so in a dark, unsettling manner. Furthermore, you have a pretty elaborate opening auto/helicopter chase, ending in a seriously fiery way, also unusual for your films. What happened?

BP: Raso at Pop Cinema had this sort of ongoing aspiration to sell movies to the ScyFy Channel (whatever it was called back them). One of the hooks he thought they responded to was everyday creatures becoming menacing monsters. We tossed around a bunch of potential threats until finally I said “What about giant germs?” And that's what we went with. The fiery opening came about when Johnny Sullivan, our stunt coordinator, called me up and said “How'd you like to burn down a barn for this movie?” He knew some firemen who were burning a barn as a training exercise so he set the whole thing up, including doing the full body burn himself. Our producer, Christina Christodoulopoulos, arranged to get us a helicopter for an entire day for only a few hundred bucks by sweet talking the pilot. It was quite a spectacular opening for such a small picture (the cheapest I did for EI/Pop Cinema). Then some clown doing a review said it looked like it was shot in someone's back yard. I guess he burns down barns in his back yard all the time. 

SRW:  (Stupid barn-burning critics...) Okay, the dilapidated mansion used for the main setting is pretty effective. Where’d you find that winner?

BP: That was at an army base, Fort Totten in Queens. We shot in what used to be the officers' housing. Again our producer, Christina C, set that up. She was pretty amazing. 

SRW: Rob comes riding in about 2/3 of the way into the movie and he brings the funny along with him. I knew you couldn’t keep the humor out, Brett (We're kindred spirits)!

BP: Damn right I couldn't. I wanted Caitlin Ross to be the girl in his bed, like their characters had gotten back together again after the events of Shock-O-Rama, but I believe she had moved to California by then. Not that there's anything wrong with Anju McIntyre, who is always a pleasure to work with. Also the army general (colonel? I can't remember) was written for Julian Wells, also someone I'd very much enjoyed working with in two previous movies. I don't know why she turned it down. I sent her several e-mails saying “Are you gonna do this thing or not?” and she finally responded “WHATEVER!!!”. Not very informative. 

SRW: Hey, it’s Muckman (2009), your requisite hillbilly swamp monster film (yay!). Are you more of a Swamp Thing, Man Thing, or Mud Monster (1978 TV movie) kinda guy?

BP: Swamp Thing. The comic book, not the movie. 

SRW: Here you’re indulging in some very astute and amusing reality TV satire again, this time attacking all of those ridiculous monster hunter type shows. Get ‘em, Brett! What struck me about this movie is the strong female leads (while not always likable, they’re gutsy and empathetic). On the other hand, most of the men in the flick are pigs of varying degrees. Then, just when I think you’re a closet feminist, boom, you blindside the viewer with a hot bikini clad girls fighting in the water scene. Is it possible to have your cake and eat it, too?

BP: Wait a minute --- do you have a problem with hot females wrestling in bikinis? You know, one of the many things I hate about feminism is that it's so limiting, both towards men and women. Why can't you be a smart, capable woman and still show off in a bikini? Women can have more than one facet to their personalities, you know. 

SRW: I believe Muckman started your collaboration with Polonia Brothers Productions. (By the way, I was really sorry to hear about John Polonia’s passing). To tell you the truth, this worried me at first; the Polonia films I’ve seen haven’t exactly been…um, stellar. But I needn’t have worried, the quality is still there. In fact, from what I’ve seen of your films, Mark Polonia’s acting has improved as well. Maybe it’s time to check out some of their later films (and I see you’ve done some effects work for them, too).

BP: Muckman was a total collaboration all the way down the line. Except that when Mark suggested we co-direct it I said “I don't think a movie should have two directors. And I want to direct this thing.” So he graciously acceded to my wishes, although he did direct some scenes himself, including one of my favorite shots,  following the Muckman as he prowls through the woods.  But it never would have been made without Mark, that's for sure.

SRW: 2012 saw the release of The Dark Sleep, another change for you (hey, change keeps it interesting, right?). While it’s a return to all things Lovecraftian (other realms, rat creatures, tentacle monsters, etc.), you’re going darker again. It’s pretty metaphysical, kinda like “Davey and Goliath go to Hell.” Are you just keeping things interesting for yourself?

BP: I wanted to do a movie about nightmare worlds so I could go crazy with the visuals. It was originally written under the title Nightmare House (pretty generic). I had the script almost finished when I came across an article about Lovecraft's story “Dreams in the Witch House” which I'd never read. I saw certain similarities so I dug out a Lovecraft collection my pal Anthony Polonia had given me and read it. I was amazed at how much our stories had in common so, since Lovecraft is public domain, I incorporated some of his material (Brown Jenkin, etc.) into my own. The movie became a Lovecraft “adaptation” retroactively. 

SRW: Brett, you’re the master of the exploitation title (especially those one word zingers), and the title usually tells exactly what the viewer can expect. Not here. Please explain the title. (I thought it sounded like a Marlowe noir.)

BP: I thought the meaning of the title was pretty self evident. Dark, meaning gloomy or twisted, and Sleep, which is where you have your dreams. Oh well.

SRW: Okay, it’s time to address something I didn’t like to see… Gasp! Is this the first film you’ve used extensive CGI? Tell me it ain’t so!

BP: It ain't so. The only CGI (if you can even call it that) is the floating geometric shapes (based on a dream I had while under ether at the dentist decades ago). Other than that I merely use the computer as a sort of optical printer to do my composites and such.  If I'd had the money I would have done traveling mattes in my earlier movies but they're much too expensive on film. Now I can do them on my computer, but I don't consider that CGI. The original images are still created in the real world through models and paintings and such. It's funny, as far back as Bite Me I had people complaining about the 'CGI” spiders. Nope, stop-motion all the way baby.

SRW: Whew, you had me scared there for a minute. 

Queen Crab crawled out of 2015, but really, it came from the ‘50’s. Another fun throwback, this one opens with a first for you (I think), a child actress. Will you ever work with kids again, Brett?

BP: I hope so. I love kids. There were kids in the original opening sequence of Battle For the Lost Planet/Galaxy, but it was cut and replaced with the old guy on the beach. And one of the package of stories I wrote along with Dying Day had Frankenstein's monster wash up on a beach in Maine where he was “adopted” by a group of kids. Also, now that I think of it, the werewolf story featured a little girl as one of the main characters. 

SRW: (You know, I'm glad to hear that because I hated the old guy on the beach sequence in Galaxy. Didn't fit). 

I got a real Night of the Lepus vibe from Queen Crab, from the neglected child of scientist parents feeding mutant strains of stuff to her pet crab to the titular monster. Am I right or is sometimes a horror movie just a horror movie?
 

BP: I don't remember Lepus all that well, except for some rather nice miniature work with a herd of big bunnies. The real inspiration was Universal's second string sci-fi movies from the Fifties, like Monolith Monsters, with the small town sheriff and all. 

SRW: What began as a comical duo of the sheriff and deputy didn’t quite end that way, as the deputy took a seriously “Lifetime Movie Husband Bad Guy” turn. The sheriff is played by your current actor of choice, Ken Van Sant. I almost couldn’t recall him from the first two features you made with him, but his acting’s growing stronger. What is it you like about Van Sant?

BP: Hell, Ken's just an all around terrific guy. We couldn't make these movies without him. Dark Sleep was shot almost entirely at his house! I don't think there's a movie Mark and I have made that wasn't at least partially shot on Ken's property. And he's always very enthusiastic and eager to work on these things. Couldn't ask for a better collaborator. 

SRW: Back to the fifties and back to the seriously weird abnormal eye motif, we have Triclops (2016). Not much to say about this one, but when I saw it, I breathed a sigh of relief as it appeared to have the most stop-motion animation in it than any other of your films. Just promise me, Brett, you’ll never go all CGI.

BP: I couldn't go all CGI if I wanted to! I don't have the tools. I edit and do my post on an outdated Mac G5! I don't even have stop motion software. I shoot my animation with a second hand digital still camera, one frame at a time. 

SRW: God bless Macs. 

Finally, your latest film is Outpost Earth (2019), which brings us full circle back to the Post Apocalyptic scenario. Are you feeling ready to embark on an entire new run of post apocalyptic adventures, Brett?

BP: Not really. I wouldn't mind doing another one if a decent story occurred to me, but I have no such plans at this time. 

SRW: It’s another ambitious undertaking, possibly the best looking of all of your films. Is this due to advances in technology (such as the dreaded…shudder…CGI)?

BP: Don't give me that CGI crap again, buster. I think I've disabused you of that notion. You'd be surprised how primitive some of the effects set-ups were. I needed a rig for the flying spaceship models so I tore the seat off a desk chair and clamped a two-by-four to the base. The shots of the Outpost itself were done with a miniature in Ken's driveway backed up with leftover foam cliffs from Triclops. Not exactly the kind of thing to impress the folks at WETA. I do agree that Outpost is one of my best looking films, which is partly a matter of cheaper and more efficient technology, but mostly just experience. I'm getting better at my job. Making movies is a constant learning experience.

SRW: Whew, this was lengthy. Thanks for being a good sport, Brett, and answering my sometimes rambling questions. What’s up next for you? Tell the readers where they can find your flicks or you.

BP: Redneck Mutants, now in production! More bug-eyed goofy monster stop-motion high-jinks, with a cast of favorites including Ken Van Sant in a dual role!  Look for it --- I don't know, it'll be out there somewhere!