September 11, 2023 • 26 mins
Best known for directing all 7 films in the hit Sharknado franchise, Anthony C. Ferrante joins to discuss the 10th anniversary of the original movie. We chat about Anthony's love of horror, how the Sharknado craze was born, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Horror, episode number seventeen. My name is
Brando. Coming up in just amoment. Director of all seven shark Nado
films, Anthony C. Ferrante.I'm excited for you to hear this episode
for a few reasons. It wasa lot of fun to speak with Anthony
(00:52):
and too. I've been holding ontothis interview for weeks, not to build
up anything suspense, but I don'tknow. If you're listening and you have
small children, they just they takeup a lot of your time. So
my four month old son, HarrisonHorror Harrison Horrrison, for the sake of
this podcast, in addition to myregular radio job and the Mothership podcast,
(01:17):
Appetite for Distortion just eating up somuch of my time. So I apologize
to you for not getting this toyou sooner. We'll talk more about that
and then what's going on with thispodcast and everything of that ilk after the
interview, because I want you toenjoy it. And if you are listening
on iHeart Radio or Apple Podcasts,the audio version of this podcast you could
(01:42):
watch on the Appetite for Distortion YouTubepage. There's an Appetite for Horror section
up there, and I conducted thisinterview over zoom, so you get to
watch Anthy and I talk rather thanlisten, if that's your fancy. And
if you're watching this on YouTube,you're like, shut up, play the
interview already. So here you go. How are you, Anthony? I'm
doing good. I'm here in NewYork. I got to do a bunch
(02:05):
of my favorite haunts last night whileI was here, so I'm I'm pretty
happy. Oh well, I'm gladto hear that. I'm also in New
York. I'm Queen's. I workwith Michael right there, but I work
from home. Obviously. I've beenwatching a lot of horror movies, including
rewatching The Shark NADOs with my threemonth old son, Harrison aka Horrison.
(02:27):
I've learned he's not that great withjump scares, so I've had to pause
it at times. Have you seenNicks? That was a movie I did
a couple of years ago. Thelast year came out and it's my little
indie horror film. Really proud ofit. It's really dark and different and
not what people expect. It's kindof a movie about trauma and addiction.
Nix Okay, I'm always looking fora new one. So I didn't.
I was not aware of that.I apologize not no, no, no,
(02:51):
It's fine if you see it,text me or twitter me, because
I you know, I love horrorfans actually seeing it because it's it's not
a traditional horror movie. We hadindependent and we go, well, you
know what it's going to sell basedoff of the monster on the poster,
but let's do something for ourselves andlet's make something that has a little bit
more depth to it. See peoplerespond, This is what I love about
you because people might think the directorof Sharknado, and they might think one
(03:15):
thing, but you have such ahistory and love and passion for the genre.
So before we get into the tenthanniversary, kind of where did it
all start for you? When wereyou bitten by that werewolf, that horror
bug that really got you into thisgenre and passion for your life. Well
the funny that you say werewolf,because that's what I was many halloweens,
because I loved you know, theywould rear all the Wolfman and were Wolf
(03:38):
of London on you know black thoseold black and white movies on TV.
So I love I love those.I think I got the love of horror
from my mom, and so Iwatched a lot, a lot of things
I probably shouldn't have seen as akid. And then I also had access
to the movie theater in my hometown, and they, you know, I
was reviewing movies for my class paperand they just give me a pass and
I'd go see everything. But whenI was in sixth grade, I was
(04:00):
sitting you know this, instead ofit recess, having recess with my fellow
students, I would be sitting therelooking at the newspaper about the movies I
wanted to go see that weekend.And and then all of a sudden it
sparked me where I'm like, Iwant to make movies. And it was
just one of those things that cameout of the ether. And I came
came from a small town in northernCalifornia where it didn't have access to equipment
(04:21):
or anything. So I started writingreviews for my class paper and and so
I used that as my entree intotrying to learn everything I could about film.
And you know, horror movies affectedme. You know, it was
like, you know, I justI love them. It took you to
a different place, and you know, so getting a chance to actually make
(04:42):
films and pay it forward. It'sjust been you know, it's it's just
been an amazing experience for me.And you know a lot of a lot
of stuff. I've seen so manydifferent movies and not just horror films.
So you know, when you knowyou set out to do something, I
know pretty much everything that's been done. So how do you do it and
divert the tension? And then inthe case of the Shark Nato movies,
you know, paying homage to thingsthat you know, you know, if
(05:04):
people are paying attention, it's like, oh wow, they've just made a
network a reference with Howard Beale,you know. So I think I think
that's the part of the love offilm, you know, just kind of
going in there and hoping that maybeI'm affecting that one person that's sitting on
there, uh you know, theplayground at Recess going you know, maybe
(05:24):
one day I want to make moviesbecause because because you know, this is
the this is like I say ita lot, it's a one in a
million chance where you actually get togo and make a movie. But they
actually have a movie that is stillin the pop culture, pop cultural zeitgeist
ten years later is unfathomable, andwe're going theatrical after a TV run.
(05:45):
Yeah, so it's it's crazy,it really is. And I'm sure you
get this question a lot. Canyou take me back to when the idea
came about, because there have beenthose kind of movies before, you know,
Ice Spiders, mechadno sansquito. Yeah, you know, you go back
to the seventies. There's always aweird thing. But they don't always click,
(06:08):
they don't always hit. And you'retalking to somebody whose favorite movie of
all time is Killed Clouds from outof Space that hit, yep, that
hit, but not many of thosehits. So what made oh shark Nado
the light bulb go off? Anduh, well, I was. I
was a horror guy at sci Fi. I was right. I had done
a couple of movies for them,I had, I was, I was
(06:28):
writing a lot of scripts for themthat were horror based. And so you
know, you come up with abunch of different pitches, and a buddy
of mine who have written some scriptswith Jacob hair I was going, Okay,
you know what, in addition tothese horror pitches, let's come up
with two of the most ridiculous ideaswe can think of, and I think
Jake said shark Nado, and thenwe talked about lava birds and when we
when when we said shark Nado,was like, this is the best title
(06:50):
ever, and we fell in lovewith it. We pitched it to the
network twice it was rejected. Imade a reference to it and I scripted
I was writing for them called RedClover aka Lebric's Revenge, and then they
saw the title. They're going,we must make this movie. And then
then the Asylum started developing this thingcalled Shark Storm to go, you're using
this title Sharknado, and then youknow, I got sucked up into the
(07:12):
Sharknado universe to do it. Youknow, I lobbied to do it,
and Sci Fi didn't want me todirect it because they go, he's the
horror guy. He doesn't know howto do this, and so I had
to prove them wrong and make surethey never made another movie without it being
compared to Sharknado again. But weknew, we knew how crazy this wing
was. And again, every timewe said the word Sharknado to someone,
we it just made people smile.And so you know, there was something
(07:35):
about that title. I mean,yeah, they had Shark to Puss,
Nasquito, all this stuff, butwhat was it about Sharknado. I don't
know, but I think part ofit was, you know, the title,
also the cast, and then alsowe delivered on the premise with our
little tiny budget, and I thinkthat's, you know, was the promise
of the premise. And you'll seeyou see the trailer for a lot of
(07:56):
these movies and you go, oh, they can't sustain that for ninety minutes.
But then you see our Sharknado trailerand watch the movie, going,
this isn't stopping. How the heckare they doing this? This is like
a studio movie on you know,on a on a steroid budget of dollars.
You're absolutely right. It really isone of those movie. There's no
slow burn, It's it's kind ofright into it. Do you have a
(08:20):
well, we'll just think about theopening of the movie was originally the script
says Shark Nado attacks ship and Igo, well, we're gonna be on
a ship. Let's turn it intosomething. And then Jake and I were
going, let's let's do a drugdeal. But was shark fins on a
boat and it's like, I don'teven know how we got away with that
in this movie because it wasn't evenin the original scripts. So we're doing
(08:41):
you know, you know this bizarroaction film at the beginning of the movie,
is there, whether it's the firstone or not another one the second,
on any of the sequels that there'sa moment like that where you're like,
I can't believe we got away withthis. There's a lot of those
I can't believe we got away withit. I mean, I think just
him chainsawing his way out of theshark in the movie. But I go
(09:05):
back to terror Reid's robotic head.Like in the fifth film where it's the
end of the world, Finn isthe last man on earth and he thinks
his wife is his wife, butshe's actually a robot and and he has
her severed head cradling it and he'sscreen. And I always make fun of
when people say no in movies likeno, because no one ever says that
someone's good about rat to die.They're going, oh my god. And
(09:26):
so we do the whole thing wherehe's going no, and we out that.
So I think the thing that Ican't believe we did six movies.
I think more so than anything.How is it that we were able to
do six movies tell a complete story, the director and the two leads from
beginning to end, and we gotto finish it. We didn't get to
we didn't end up finishing it withsuddenly Eric Estrade's playing Finn. We finished
(09:48):
it the way it should be finished. And in the fourth movie, I
had the idea for what I wantedto do with the ending, and I
got to do the ending. Andwhat filmmaker can say that they started a
franchise and killed it. That's verytrue. Oh I love it brilliant And
I know you have a lot ofinterviews to do today, but I got
to ask about another film you workedon. That's kind of a niche that
(10:09):
and so you never know. Itcould have bombed, but that's the dentist.
Oh yeah, the dentist. Doyou have a favorite memory of working
on set there? Well? Well, well that I was. I was
the special makeup effects supervisor on itand second unit director, and I'd known
Brian Usna through Fangorian. He gaveme the opportunity to be involved in that
movie, and I learned so muchfrom him and Corbin Burnson was so amazing
(10:31):
in that movie. Jam Logan cameinto to do a lot of the makeup
effects on that film, and thatwas my first big movie when I moved
to Los Angeles, and I justI just remember us being in the makeup
effects you know room, trying todo this stuff, and you know,
we didn't know any better. Wejust kept you know, we were doing
twenty four hour days and we builtthis oversized mouth and you know, my
(10:54):
hand is the one jabbing the teethand I know that now. That's why
the dentists hate me, and that'sbecause they know idea this film. But
you know, we should mention thatSharknado theatrical experience. It's Shark Nado tenth
dot com. If you go tothe website, you can figure out where
the theaters are playing it. Butit's a completely different experience than the original.
(11:18):
The TV version we've remastered in fourK, added new shots, went
back to the original cut of themovie, and I was able to build
things in that we didn't have timeor money to do remixed it. So
it's kind of it's it's a remixof what you saw, so it's it's
designed for the theatrical experience, Soeven if you think you've seen the movie,
you haven't seen it this way,and it just looks incredible. So
(11:39):
for me to kind of revisit thatoriginal movie ten years later and in some
ways finish it, I think thatit's it's not only to get the original
fans, but it's going to getpeople that know the movie, but they
know it by name only, andso we have a whole new generation that
it could go there and understand whythis thing was the thing it was.
That it's just this crazy backcrap,crazy, the ridiculous shark movie that doesn't
(12:01):
stop amazing. I can't wait tosee it out in theaters. Anthony saying
thank you so much for your time. I hope we get to do this
again. No, thank you,brand I really appreciate and check out Nick's
my little horror film from last year. It's very dark, dark horror film
that I think. I think we'llsurprise a lot of people. It's not
what everybody expects from me. Ilike dark, I like sharks. All
good, All right, thank youso much, thanks Anthony. Anthony was
(12:24):
really cool. As you could tell, we could have kept going it I
love doing interviews where it makes youa bigger fan of that person's work.
I think that's the point, right, Like, yeah, you're going to
interview people that you admire and youlike that work already. But I think
there are those that you might notknow that you're first learning about the kind
(12:46):
of interview, and those are alwaysinteresting because you're learning along with the audience
and we're learning along together. Butwith the Shark Nado films, I don't
know if I've seen a seven.I've seen the majority of them, but
I decided to watch a few ofthem to prepare for this interview, and
(13:09):
I didn't really like them at first. At first, I have to preface
it with that I thought they whatthey were, which was corny, and
I like a lot of corny stuff. Hey, I'm a guy that killed
clowns from Out of Space is myfavorite movie, so I'm not gonna go
too up and end. But itwas just like it didn't grab me.
The Sharknado. I enjoyed it,but it wasn't like, oh, my,
(13:31):
one of my favorite films. However, doing the researcher and Anthony knowing
that this this guy's a student ofhorror, and then watching these films maybe
enjoyed them more. And then aftertalking with him, I just I'm now
a full fledged fan of these films. It just gives me a new perspective
on what they are and what itis. Yeah, it's a sci fi
(13:56):
B horror movie, a tornado filledwith sharks. I mean, how deep
can you go? But when youget to know the director, the mastermind
behind it, and think about hischoices, why did maybe he picked this
actor or why did this joke oris this a reference to something? And
I don't know, it makes youappreciate it more like if he happened to
(14:18):
a bit of jerk. I'm like, oh good, I've never to watch
shark Nado again. But now wheneverit's on Sci Fi or if I see
it at streaming, I'm more inclinednow to watch it because I've gotten to
speak. I spent some time talkingwith Anthony, and I really enjoyed it.
So this interview, as I mentionedat the beginning, was recorded a
few weeks ago from when I'm postingthis, and I would have had to
(14:39):
have gotten it out the very nextday for it to have been on time
with the tenth anniversary events. SoI apologize to Anthony, but I don't
think me getting out the interview wasgoing to make or break the events.
That's I'm nothing special. Hopefully inthe future of this podcast will build up
the based appetite for distortion has butthat's another story. So that just wasn't
(15:03):
going to happen. And then justtime jobs Appetite for Distortion and then just
watch I work from home with thisDIY studio, and when I'm watching him,
you can't get anything done. Forthose of you who are parents,
I'm saying, you're nodding your head. You're saying, of course you should
have known this. I can't getanything done. So at the time I'm
(15:26):
recording this, my wife has takenhorrorson out to her dance studio is having
some sort of involved in a sortsort of parade kind of thing. So
I have a moment to myself tofinally record this. But all of that
being said, that has not stoppedme from watching Horror. And if you
happen to fall upon this podcast orwhenever you do, because I've done the
(15:52):
Appetite for Distortion the Guns of Rosespodcast for seven years and to this day,
I still get people that said,they still find me. I just
found you, and we'll go backin my catalog. That's so cool.
So who knows when you're going tohear this. If you hear this today,
I post it. If you hearit years later or whatever. I'm
always going to be a fan ofhorror. So that's continued. And what
(16:15):
I usually do, and maybe youcan relate, is that I spend maybe
more time scrolling through the street,like the screaming services to be Amazon,
the ones I have or share Hulu, Peacock, just all of it,
trying to find that perfect horror movie, just to one I'm really feeling,
(16:37):
and I kind of just go oneand done. For the most part,
there are certain films that I willwatch again. Of course, my favorite
films of all time I will watchmore than once. But for horror,
I kind of just I'm on amission to see as much as I can,
to find the weirdest, to findthe most obscene, most offensive.
(17:00):
The corney is. So I'm like, I'm everywhere, but that takes a
lot of time, and sometimes there'snothing and you waste all this time and
you end up on something you reallydidn't like that much. It's like okay,
but that's I guess part of thesearch of horror and part of the
(17:22):
allure of the artwork that horror,especially, I think more than any other
genre, is known for, especiallythe beam movie horror where the cover looks
amazing, but it's some you know, some friends shooting on their camcorder,
which sometimes is great, sometimes it'snot. But that's again, that's the
beauty of horror. So and Iwill say before I everget sometimes there is
(17:47):
a big payoff where you find afilm that completely passed you by. No
matter what year, there are justa variety of films that seemed to pass
me by. I don't know how, no matter how much I search.
Uh. This was from twenty twentyone ankle Biters. Ankle Biters. It's
not what you think unless you seethe you know, the poster and these
(18:10):
four little blonde girls and their momand their mom's boyfriend. And wow,
these four little blonde actresses like legitkids. I don't know if any of
them were having hit ten. Areso funny, really act their age,
but it's shot so well, andit's so vicious at times and funny.
(18:36):
So I absolutely loved, loved,loved ankle Biters, And there was another
movie that I can't believe passed meby because you know, I just turned
forty and you know I, sothat means there's a lot of nine the
early nineties because born in eighty three, So the early nineties was like my
(18:59):
wheelhouse of like references when I knewabout things, and I don't know how
nineteen ninety four's brainscan completely passed meby. Never knew about it, you
know, with Edward Furlong, andit's totally nineties and totally awesome, totally,
So I really enjoyed finding these gemsafter searching and being like, what's
(19:23):
this. Maybe you've seen these,maybe you haven't. But I have done
a couple of rewatches ones that Iknew that, you know, while I'm
doing a lot of work, whileI am babysitting my son, I can
maybe have on the background low volumein this time, because he does He's
at that age where he's well awaresound and he will get scared. So
(19:45):
I have to pull back the reinsa little bit on getting him involved with
horror movies like that. But Irewatched The Devil's Candy with Ethan Embry so
good, so good. All hisreal tattoos. By the way, the
lead from Can Harley Wait just turnsinto this with a wig because he's like,
(20:10):
Mike me, like a lot ofmen have gone, I lost their
hair, so they gave him likea metal uh you know, look with
the long hair, and but allthose tattoos were his. And I just
thought it was so well done.The girl in it was awesome, and
the one that played his daughter justabsolutely awesome. And we are still here.
Is such a fun film. Anotherone I have watched repeatedly, and
(20:36):
it's just from twenty fifteen. Justso good. It's so fun. It's
just like a fun watch and justone of my more favorite current horror movies
that I just I gotta put onand I will. I just like it
every time. So I'm trying toget into these where because I may like,
(20:57):
no I've seen I've seen this film. Like I'll give you an example
right now, I'm currently rewatching Cometo Daddy. Sometimes if it isn't if
you just say that without any context, you're like, what the hell are
you watching? It's a comedy horrorwith Elijah Wood from twenty nineteen, and
I know I've seen it, butI really don't remember a lot about it,
(21:21):
Like I just want to go seeit, and I don't know.
I was legally smoking weed at thetime, and I don't remember a lot,
to be completely honest. So I'mrewatching it again and just enjoying it
more so I'm like, oh,yeah, this happened than that happened kind
of thing. But we are stillhere in the Devil's Candy. Those are
one one they could watch or repeat, and this one, for some reason,
(21:45):
there are people who love to hateit. But the Baba Duke,
I mean, of course extremely popular, but there's now that that class of
horror fan that's just like this isn'tI don't like the Baba Duke. The
Babba Duke is great, just theyeah, you want to strangle that little
kid, but once he realized he'sreally trying to save his mom, he's
just like annoying, like any littlekid is gonna be with the high pitched
(22:08):
squeals. But yeah, just anotherrecent modern era horror film that I just
think is well done and I reallyenjoy And somebody who usually I'd like to
go back to the eighties and ninetiesfor the top tier horror just the way,
because because the way practical effects weredone, Like some of them are
(22:32):
like yeah, like, oh,I know this is practical effects, but
and it may not look real,but I guess will always prefer it ten
out of ten times to special effects. I hate it, even when the
special effects are just with blood,go the trauma route, just go go
blood everywhere where you know it's cornsyrup or ketchup or whatever. But just
(22:56):
to see the computer generated image immediatelytakes me out. It just does.
So I obviously have a lot ofopinion to want to talk about horror more
than I have been able to.As my wife just says, the horror
Sin's coming back. See. Butnow I gotta I gotta wrap up.
This is how it is. Sohere's the deal with appetite for horror.
(23:18):
It's always going to be an outletfor me, for us to be able
to speak with and converse about ourfavorite horror movies, our favorite horror actors,
actresses, scenarios, topics. Ijust don't know how often it's going
to be. So, as Imentioned, you could find me whenever wherever
you listen to your podcasts. I'mheavily every day with the appetite for distortion.
(23:44):
Podcast, and I've been covered bymany an online rock magazine over the
years, and again there are peoplestill finding me to this day, so
no reason to give up. IfI have this microphone here in my home.
I think it's gonna be a lotof fun when Harrison aka Harrison is
going to be old enough to watchsome of our favorite horror movies for the
(24:07):
first time and get his reactions.But of course I'm speaking into the future,
and I think as far as thisyear, when we get close to
Halloween, I will probably have moreinterviews for you too, so look for
more in October, because there,of course they're with Halloween coming, there's
a lot of people promoting books andmovies, a lot of more promotions,
(24:27):
just like how Anthony was, butI will hopefully get those out on time.
So anyway, that does it forthis episode of Appetite for Horror.
It's funny if you listen to thepast. Though, in the past few
episodes, or even all these episodes, I've had a hard time coming up
with an ending because I'm an oldschool radio guy. I like to end,
(24:48):
start bookend my show with a certainsaying, and I couldn't figure it
out at first. At first,I was like, boils and ghouls.
I don't want to do that.Shout out to my friends at Dad's.
Dad's from the crypt. That's that'stheir thing, boys, boils and ghouls,
because I was at a big Talesin the Crypt kick for a while.
Anyway. Then I had that bigWalking Dead conversation with my radio buddy
(25:14):
David Brodie, and he just said, don't die. And I just thought
that was so funny. It's soovertly simple and just to the point I
thought, for a horror podcast,just don't die. However, I do
a lot of these recordings with mywife around and listening, and she heard
that and she's like, don't die. Yeah, And she never says that
(25:37):
she likes what I do. She'sthe kind of person, as I just
showed you, they will tell meif something sucks. She's like, don't
don't do don't die. That's notclever. I don't like that. I'm
all right. So she helped mecome up with well, until next time,
keep your appetite for horror safetiated.
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Horror, episode number seventeen. My name is
Brando. Coming up in just amoment. Director of all seven shark Nado
films, Anthony C. Ferrante.I'm excited for you to hear this episode
for a few reasons. It wasa lot of fun to speak with Anthony
(00:52):
and too. I've been holding ontothis interview for weeks, not to build
up anything suspense, but I don'tknow. If you're listening and you have
small children, they just they takeup a lot of your time. So
my four month old son, HarrisonHorror Harrison Horrrison, for the sake of
this podcast, in addition to myregular radio job and the Mothership podcast,
(01:17):
Appetite for Distortion just eating up somuch of my time. So I apologize
to you for not getting this toyou sooner. We'll talk more about that
and then what's going on with thispodcast and everything of that ilk after the
interview, because I want you toenjoy it. And if you are listening
on iHeart Radio or Apple Podcasts,the audio version of this podcast you could
(01:42):
watch on the Appetite for Distortion YouTubepage. There's an Appetite for Horror section
up there, and I conducted thisinterview over zoom, so you get to
watch Anthy and I talk rather thanlisten, if that's your fancy. And
if you're watching this on YouTube,you're like, shut up, play the
interview already. So here you go. How are you, Anthony? I'm
doing good. I'm here in NewYork. I got to do a bunch
(02:05):
of my favorite haunts last night whileI was here, so I'm I'm pretty
happy. Oh well, I'm gladto hear that. I'm also in New
York. I'm Queen's. I workwith Michael right there, but I work
from home. Obviously. I've beenwatching a lot of horror movies, including
rewatching The Shark NADOs with my threemonth old son, Harrison aka Horrison.
(02:27):
I've learned he's not that great withjump scares, so I've had to pause
it at times. Have you seenNicks? That was a movie I did
a couple of years ago. Thelast year came out and it's my little
indie horror film. Really proud ofit. It's really dark and different and
not what people expect. It's kindof a movie about trauma and addiction.
Nix Okay, I'm always looking fora new one. So I didn't.
I was not aware of that.I apologize not no, no, no,
(02:51):
It's fine if you see it,text me or twitter me, because
I you know, I love horrorfans actually seeing it because it's it's not
a traditional horror movie. We hadindependent and we go, well, you
know what it's going to sell basedoff of the monster on the poster,
but let's do something for ourselves andlet's make something that has a little bit
more depth to it. See peoplerespond, This is what I love about
you because people might think the directorof Sharknado, and they might think one
(03:15):
thing, but you have such ahistory and love and passion for the genre.
So before we get into the tenthanniversary, kind of where did it
all start for you? When wereyou bitten by that werewolf, that horror
bug that really got you into thisgenre and passion for your life. Well
the funny that you say werewolf,because that's what I was many halloweens,
because I loved you know, theywould rear all the Wolfman and were Wolf
(03:38):
of London on you know black thoseold black and white movies on TV.
So I love I love those.I think I got the love of horror
from my mom, and so Iwatched a lot, a lot of things
I probably shouldn't have seen as akid. And then I also had access
to the movie theater in my hometown, and they, you know, I
was reviewing movies for my class paperand they just give me a pass and
I'd go see everything. But whenI was in sixth grade, I was
(04:00):
sitting you know this, instead ofit recess, having recess with my fellow
students, I would be sitting therelooking at the newspaper about the movies I
wanted to go see that weekend.And and then all of a sudden it
sparked me where I'm like, Iwant to make movies. And it was
just one of those things that cameout of the ether. And I came
came from a small town in northernCalifornia where it didn't have access to equipment
(04:21):
or anything. So I started writingreviews for my class paper and and so
I used that as my entree intotrying to learn everything I could about film.
And you know, horror movies affectedme. You know, it was
like, you know, I justI love them. It took you to
a different place, and you know, so getting a chance to actually make
(04:42):
films and pay it forward. It'sjust been you know, it's it's just
been an amazing experience for me.And you know a lot of a lot
of stuff. I've seen so manydifferent movies and not just horror films.
So you know, when you knowyou set out to do something, I
know pretty much everything that's been done. So how do you do it and
divert the tension? And then inthe case of the Shark Nato movies,
you know, paying homage to thingsthat you know, you know, if
(05:04):
people are paying attention, it's like, oh wow, they've just made a
network a reference with Howard Beale,you know. So I think I think
that's the part of the love offilm, you know, just kind of
going in there and hoping that maybeI'm affecting that one person that's sitting on
there, uh you know, theplayground at Recess going you know, maybe
(05:24):
one day I want to make moviesbecause because because you know, this is
the this is like I say ita lot, it's a one in a
million chance where you actually get togo and make a movie. But they
actually have a movie that is stillin the pop culture, pop cultural zeitgeist
ten years later is unfathomable, andwe're going theatrical after a TV run.
(05:45):
Yeah, so it's it's crazy,it really is. And I'm sure you
get this question a lot. Canyou take me back to when the idea
came about, because there have beenthose kind of movies before, you know,
Ice Spiders, mechadno sansquito. Yeah, you know, you go back
to the seventies. There's always aweird thing. But they don't always click,
(06:08):
they don't always hit. And you'retalking to somebody whose favorite movie of
all time is Killed Clouds from outof Space that hit, yep, that
hit, but not many of thosehits. So what made oh shark Nado
the light bulb go off? Anduh, well, I was. I
was a horror guy at sci Fi. I was right. I had done
a couple of movies for them,I had, I was, I was
(06:28):
writing a lot of scripts for themthat were horror based. And so you
know, you come up with abunch of different pitches, and a buddy
of mine who have written some scriptswith Jacob hair I was going, Okay,
you know what, in addition tothese horror pitches, let's come up
with two of the most ridiculous ideaswe can think of, and I think
Jake said shark Nado, and thenwe talked about lava birds and when we
when when we said shark Nado,was like, this is the best title
(06:50):
ever, and we fell in lovewith it. We pitched it to the
network twice it was rejected. Imade a reference to it and I scripted
I was writing for them called RedClover aka Lebric's Revenge, and then they
saw the title. They're going,we must make this movie. And then
then the Asylum started developing this thingcalled Shark Storm to go, you're using
this title Sharknado, and then youknow, I got sucked up into the
(07:12):
Sharknado universe to do it. Youknow, I lobbied to do it,
and Sci Fi didn't want me todirect it because they go, he's the
horror guy. He doesn't know howto do this, and so I had
to prove them wrong and make surethey never made another movie without it being
compared to Sharknado again. But weknew, we knew how crazy this wing
was. And again, every timewe said the word Sharknado to someone,
we it just made people smile.And so you know, there was something
(07:35):
about that title. I mean,yeah, they had Shark to Puss,
Nasquito, all this stuff, butwhat was it about Sharknado. I don't
know, but I think part ofit was, you know, the title,
also the cast, and then alsowe delivered on the premise with our
little tiny budget, and I thinkthat's, you know, was the promise
of the premise. And you'll seeyou see the trailer for a lot of
(07:56):
these movies and you go, oh, they can't sustain that for ninety minutes.
But then you see our Sharknado trailerand watch the movie, going,
this isn't stopping. How the heckare they doing this? This is like
a studio movie on you know,on a on a steroid budget of dollars.
You're absolutely right. It really isone of those movie. There's no
slow burn, It's it's kind ofright into it. Do you have a
(08:20):
well, we'll just think about theopening of the movie was originally the script
says Shark Nado attacks ship and Igo, well, we're gonna be on
a ship. Let's turn it intosomething. And then Jake and I were
going, let's let's do a drugdeal. But was shark fins on a
boat and it's like, I don'teven know how we got away with that
in this movie because it wasn't evenin the original scripts. So we're doing
(08:41):
you know, you know this bizarroaction film at the beginning of the movie,
is there, whether it's the firstone or not another one the second,
on any of the sequels that there'sa moment like that where you're like,
I can't believe we got away withthis. There's a lot of those
I can't believe we got away withit. I mean, I think just
him chainsawing his way out of theshark in the movie. But I go
(09:05):
back to terror Reid's robotic head.Like in the fifth film where it's the
end of the world, Finn isthe last man on earth and he thinks
his wife is his wife, butshe's actually a robot and and he has
her severed head cradling it and he'sscreen. And I always make fun of
when people say no in movies likeno, because no one ever says that
someone's good about rat to die.They're going, oh my god. And
(09:26):
so we do the whole thing wherehe's going no, and we out that.
So I think the thing that Ican't believe we did six movies.
I think more so than anything.How is it that we were able to
do six movies tell a complete story, the director and the two leads from
beginning to end, and we gotto finish it. We didn't get to
we didn't end up finishing it withsuddenly Eric Estrade's playing Finn. We finished
(09:48):
it the way it should be finished. And in the fourth movie, I
had the idea for what I wantedto do with the ending, and I
got to do the ending. Andwhat filmmaker can say that they started a
franchise and killed it. That's verytrue. Oh I love it brilliant And
I know you have a lot ofinterviews to do today, but I got
to ask about another film you workedon. That's kind of a niche that
(10:09):
and so you never know. Itcould have bombed, but that's the dentist.
Oh yeah, the dentist. Doyou have a favorite memory of working
on set there? Well? Well, well that I was. I was
the special makeup effects supervisor on itand second unit director, and I'd known
Brian Usna through Fangorian. He gaveme the opportunity to be involved in that
movie, and I learned so muchfrom him and Corbin Burnson was so amazing
(10:31):
in that movie. Jam Logan cameinto to do a lot of the makeup
effects on that film, and thatwas my first big movie when I moved
to Los Angeles, and I justI just remember us being in the makeup
effects you know room, trying todo this stuff, and you know,
we didn't know any better. Wejust kept you know, we were doing
twenty four hour days and we builtthis oversized mouth and you know, my
(10:54):
hand is the one jabbing the teethand I know that now. That's why
the dentists hate me, and that'sbecause they know idea this film. But
you know, we should mention thatSharknado theatrical experience. It's Shark Nado tenth
dot com. If you go tothe website, you can figure out where
the theaters are playing it. Butit's a completely different experience than the original.
(11:18):
The TV version we've remastered in fourK, added new shots, went
back to the original cut of themovie, and I was able to build
things in that we didn't have timeor money to do remixed it. So
it's kind of it's it's a remixof what you saw, so it's it's
designed for the theatrical experience, Soeven if you think you've seen the movie,
you haven't seen it this way,and it just looks incredible. So
(11:39):
for me to kind of revisit thatoriginal movie ten years later and in some
ways finish it, I think thatit's it's not only to get the original
fans, but it's going to getpeople that know the movie, but they
know it by name only, andso we have a whole new generation that
it could go there and understand whythis thing was the thing it was.
That it's just this crazy backcrap,crazy, the ridiculous shark movie that doesn't
(12:01):
stop amazing. I can't wait tosee it out in theaters. Anthony saying
thank you so much for your time. I hope we get to do this
again. No, thank you,brand I really appreciate and check out Nick's
my little horror film from last year. It's very dark, dark horror film
that I think. I think we'llsurprise a lot of people. It's not
what everybody expects from me. Ilike dark, I like sharks. All
good, All right, thank youso much, thanks Anthony. Anthony was
(12:24):
really cool. As you could tell, we could have kept going it I
love doing interviews where it makes youa bigger fan of that person's work.
I think that's the point, right, Like, yeah, you're going to
interview people that you admire and youlike that work already. But I think
there are those that you might notknow that you're first learning about the kind
(12:46):
of interview, and those are alwaysinteresting because you're learning along with the audience
and we're learning along together. Butwith the Shark Nado films, I don't
know if I've seen a seven.I've seen the majority of them, but
I decided to watch a few ofthem to prepare for this interview, and
(13:09):
I didn't really like them at first. At first, I have to preface
it with that I thought they whatthey were, which was corny, and
I like a lot of corny stuff. Hey, I'm a guy that killed
clowns from Out of Space is myfavorite movie, so I'm not gonna go
too up and end. But itwas just like it didn't grab me.
The Sharknado. I enjoyed it,but it wasn't like, oh, my,
(13:31):
one of my favorite films. However, doing the researcher and Anthony knowing
that this this guy's a student ofhorror, and then watching these films maybe
enjoyed them more. And then aftertalking with him, I just I'm now
a full fledged fan of these films. It just gives me a new perspective
on what they are and what itis. Yeah, it's a sci fi
(13:56):
B horror movie, a tornado filledwith sharks. I mean, how deep
can you go? But when youget to know the director, the mastermind
behind it, and think about hischoices, why did maybe he picked this
actor or why did this joke oris this a reference to something? And
I don't know, it makes youappreciate it more like if he happened to
(14:18):
a bit of jerk. I'm like, oh good, I've never to watch
shark Nado again. But now wheneverit's on Sci Fi or if I see
it at streaming, I'm more inclinednow to watch it because I've gotten to
speak. I spent some time talkingwith Anthony, and I really enjoyed it.
So this interview, as I mentionedat the beginning, was recorded a
few weeks ago from when I'm postingthis, and I would have had to
(14:39):
have gotten it out the very nextday for it to have been on time
with the tenth anniversary events. SoI apologize to Anthony, but I don't
think me getting out the interview wasgoing to make or break the events.
That's I'm nothing special. Hopefully inthe future of this podcast will build up
the based appetite for distortion has butthat's another story. So that just wasn't
(15:03):
going to happen. And then justtime jobs Appetite for Distortion and then just
watch I work from home with thisDIY studio, and when I'm watching him,
you can't get anything done. Forthose of you who are parents,
I'm saying, you're nodding your head. You're saying, of course you should
have known this. I can't getanything done. So at the time I'm
(15:26):
recording this, my wife has takenhorrorson out to her dance studio is having
some sort of involved in a sortsort of parade kind of thing. So
I have a moment to myself tofinally record this. But all of that
being said, that has not stoppedme from watching Horror. And if you
happen to fall upon this podcast orwhenever you do, because I've done the
(15:52):
Appetite for Distortion the Guns of Rosespodcast for seven years and to this day,
I still get people that said,they still find me. I just
found you, and we'll go backin my catalog. That's so cool.
So who knows when you're going tohear this. If you hear this today,
I post it. If you hearit years later or whatever. I'm
always going to be a fan ofhorror. So that's continued. And what
(16:15):
I usually do, and maybe youcan relate, is that I spend maybe
more time scrolling through the street,like the screaming services to be Amazon,
the ones I have or share Hulu, Peacock, just all of it,
trying to find that perfect horror movie, just to one I'm really feeling,
(16:37):
and I kind of just go oneand done. For the most part,
there are certain films that I willwatch again. Of course, my favorite
films of all time I will watchmore than once. But for horror,
I kind of just I'm on amission to see as much as I can,
to find the weirdest, to findthe most obscene, most offensive.
(17:00):
The corney is. So I'm like, I'm everywhere, but that takes a
lot of time, and sometimes there'snothing and you waste all this time and
you end up on something you reallydidn't like that much. It's like okay,
but that's I guess part of thesearch of horror and part of the
(17:22):
allure of the artwork that horror,especially, I think more than any other
genre, is known for, especiallythe beam movie horror where the cover looks
amazing, but it's some you know, some friends shooting on their camcorder,
which sometimes is great, sometimes it'snot. But that's again, that's the
beauty of horror. So and Iwill say before I everget sometimes there is
(17:47):
a big payoff where you find afilm that completely passed you by. No
matter what year, there are justa variety of films that seemed to pass
me by. I don't know how, no matter how much I search.
Uh. This was from twenty twentyone ankle Biters. Ankle Biters. It's
not what you think unless you seethe you know, the poster and these
(18:10):
four little blonde girls and their momand their mom's boyfriend. And wow,
these four little blonde actresses like legitkids. I don't know if any of
them were having hit ten. Areso funny, really act their age,
but it's shot so well, andit's so vicious at times and funny.
(18:36):
So I absolutely loved, loved,loved ankle Biters, And there was another
movie that I can't believe passed meby because you know, I just turned
forty and you know I, sothat means there's a lot of nine the
early nineties because born in eighty three, So the early nineties was like my
(18:59):
wheelhouse of like references when I knewabout things, and I don't know how
nineteen ninety four's brainscan completely passed meby. Never knew about it, you
know, with Edward Furlong, andit's totally nineties and totally awesome, totally,
So I really enjoyed finding these gemsafter searching and being like, what's
(19:23):
this. Maybe you've seen these,maybe you haven't. But I have done
a couple of rewatches ones that Iknew that, you know, while I'm
doing a lot of work, whileI am babysitting my son, I can
maybe have on the background low volumein this time, because he does He's
at that age where he's well awaresound and he will get scared. So
(19:45):
I have to pull back the reinsa little bit on getting him involved with
horror movies like that. But Irewatched The Devil's Candy with Ethan Embry so
good, so good. All hisreal tattoos. By the way, the
lead from Can Harley Wait just turnsinto this with a wig because he's like,
(20:10):
Mike me, like a lot ofmen have gone, I lost their
hair, so they gave him likea metal uh you know, look with
the long hair, and but allthose tattoos were his. And I just
thought it was so well done.The girl in it was awesome, and
the one that played his daughter justabsolutely awesome. And we are still here.
Is such a fun film. Anotherone I have watched repeatedly, and
(20:36):
it's just from twenty fifteen. Justso good. It's so fun. It's
just like a fun watch and justone of my more favorite current horror movies
that I just I gotta put onand I will. I just like it
every time. So I'm trying toget into these where because I may like,
(20:57):
no I've seen I've seen this film. Like I'll give you an example
right now, I'm currently rewatching Cometo Daddy. Sometimes if it isn't if
you just say that without any context, you're like, what the hell are
you watching? It's a comedy horrorwith Elijah Wood from twenty nineteen, and
I know I've seen it, butI really don't remember a lot about it,
(21:21):
Like I just want to go seeit, and I don't know.
I was legally smoking weed at thetime, and I don't remember a lot,
to be completely honest. So I'mrewatching it again and just enjoying it
more so I'm like, oh,yeah, this happened than that happened kind
of thing. But we are stillhere in the Devil's Candy. Those are
one one they could watch or repeat, and this one, for some reason,
(21:45):
there are people who love to hateit. But the Baba Duke,
I mean, of course extremely popular, but there's now that that class of
horror fan that's just like this isn'tI don't like the Baba Duke. The
Babba Duke is great, just theyeah, you want to strangle that little
kid, but once he realized he'sreally trying to save his mom, he's
just like annoying, like any littlekid is gonna be with the high pitched
(22:08):
squeals. But yeah, just anotherrecent modern era horror film that I just
think is well done and I reallyenjoy And somebody who usually I'd like to
go back to the eighties and ninetiesfor the top tier horror just the way,
because because the way practical effects weredone, Like some of them are
(22:32):
like yeah, like, oh,I know this is practical effects, but
and it may not look real,but I guess will always prefer it ten
out of ten times to special effects. I hate it, even when the
special effects are just with blood,go the trauma route, just go go
blood everywhere where you know it's cornsyrup or ketchup or whatever. But just
(22:56):
to see the computer generated image immediatelytakes me out. It just does.
So I obviously have a lot ofopinion to want to talk about horror more
than I have been able to.As my wife just says, the horror
Sin's coming back. See. Butnow I gotta I gotta wrap up.
This is how it is. Sohere's the deal with appetite for horror.
(23:18):
It's always going to be an outletfor me, for us to be able
to speak with and converse about ourfavorite horror movies, our favorite horror actors,
actresses, scenarios, topics. Ijust don't know how often it's going
to be. So, as Imentioned, you could find me whenever wherever
you listen to your podcasts. I'mheavily every day with the appetite for distortion.
(23:44):
Podcast, and I've been covered bymany an online rock magazine over the
years, and again there are peoplestill finding me to this day, so
no reason to give up. IfI have this microphone here in my home.
I think it's gonna be a lotof fun when Harrison aka Harrison is
going to be old enough to watchsome of our favorite horror movies for the
(24:07):
first time and get his reactions.But of course I'm speaking into the future,
and I think as far as thisyear, when we get close to
Halloween, I will probably have moreinterviews for you too, so look for
more in October, because there,of course they're with Halloween coming, there's
a lot of people promoting books andmovies, a lot of more promotions,
(24:27):
just like how Anthony was, butI will hopefully get those out on time.
So anyway, that does it forthis episode of Appetite for Horror.
It's funny if you listen to thepast. Though, in the past few
episodes, or even all these episodes, I've had a hard time coming up
with an ending because I'm an oldschool radio guy. I like to end,
(24:48):
start bookend my show with a certainsaying, and I couldn't figure it
out at first. At first,I was like, boils and ghouls.
I don't want to do that.Shout out to my friends at Dad's.
Dad's from the crypt. That's that'stheir thing, boys, boils and ghouls,
because I was at a big Talesin the Crypt kick for a while.
Anyway. Then I had that bigWalking Dead conversation with my radio buddy
(25:14):
David Brodie, and he just said, don't die. And I just thought
that was so funny. It's soovertly simple and just to the point I
thought, for a horror podcast,just don't die. However, I do
a lot of these recordings with mywife around and listening, and she heard
that and she's like, don't die. Yeah, And she never says that
(25:37):
she likes what I do. She'sthe kind of person, as I just
showed you, they will tell meif something sucks. She's like, don't
don't do don't die. That's notclever. I don't like that. I'm
all right. So she helped mecome up with well, until next time,
keep your appetite for horror safetiated.
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