Island Escape Writer/Director Bruce Wemple

Episode Transcript
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James Jay Edwards (00:25):
Welcome to Eye On Horror, the official
podcast of iHorror.com. This isepisode 110, otherwise known as
season six episode 11. I am yourhost James Jay Edwards and with
me as always is your other hostJacob Davison, how you doing
Jacob?

Jacob Davidson (00:39):
Doing well good to be back and ready to talk
about all the movies I've beenwatching.

Yeah, let's we'll get started. But not
before we introduce your otherother hosts, Jon Correia, how
you doing, Correia?

Jonathan Correia (00:51):
I'm doing good. But I had a concerning
event happen in the last week.
So you know, when you're like,when you're, when it's the
evening, right? And all yourwork is done. And you and you
look through your collection,you're like, What am I going to
watch tonight? And, you know, ifyou're if you're a collector
like me, or just or just evenwith all the streaming services,

(01:12):
there's a lot of choices. Andit's and it's overwhelming
sometimes. And I am j'accusingJacob of of telepathic abilities
and getting into my head andgoing watch The Guyver you have
to watch The Guyver because Idon't I can't explain any other
reason for me to just pull thatone off the shelf, and watch The
Guyver for the first time. SoJacob, that was terrifying that

(01:34):
you did that. But thank you.
Because The Guyver was so muchfucking fun. Like, it's Brian
Yuzna produced co directed byScreaming Mad George. And it's
got Mark Hamill in it. It's gotJeffrey Combs plays Dr. East in
it. Like there's a lot of GoodTimes references a lot more way

(01:54):
more than I ever thought werepossible to happen in a anime
and, you know, live actionadaptation done by the React
team behind Reanimator. Butyeah,

It was directed by Brian Yuzna. And basically,
you know, they were just tryingto cash in on the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles craze. But, yaknow, I think it's pretty fun.
Like I remember watching it onthe Sci Fi Channel. So it's a
movie I'm fond of.

No, It's a hell of a good time. And the
sequels were a lot of fun too.

Oh, yeah, Dark Hero

Mostly for that third act with the suit
fighting was incredible.

Yeah, in a UFO.

So much fun.
Like the first two quarters, ortwo thirds of it feels like a
90s sci fi original movie. But,man, it's worth it

It's just funny because it played on the Sci Fi
Channel.

Yeah.

Before we get started into the well, before we
continue, I should say becauseyou guys already have kind of
given a Guyver review. Before weget started into movies we've
seen um, let's talkBarbenheimer. Which isn't really
horror, but I think it's worthtalking about. Have you guys
have you guys done theBarbenheimer experience?

I saw them on separate days, but I did see
Barbie and I did seeOppenheimer.

Yeah, I did them on separate days. See, I'm
a victim of what the studios didto the press, which is in most
markets, they screen them on thesame night, and neither studio
would budge. And there'sspeculation that Warner Brothers
did this purposely toChristopher Nolan because
they're pissed at him. But Idon't know why. But I had to

(03:30):
choose. And I chose Oppenheimerfor the press screening because
they showed it to us in 70mm.
And as far as Oppenheimer goes,I think it's a little long, I'm
stoked that Chris Nolan finallyfound someone who knows how to
do sound, or he learned a littlebit about sound because the
sound is amazing. And the soundfor his movies is never amazing.

(03:51):
It's always actually really bad.
It's a little long in the tooth,it what it's about, it's about
Oppenheimer and the developmentof the atomic bomb. And once
they do the atomic bomb test,about two thirds of the way in,
it's a three hour movie. Soabout two hours in, they test
this bomb. And then from theretill the end of the movie, the

(04:12):
last hour is really good. It'sjust getting to that I think is
a little long.

Well, I was lucky I got to see Oppenheimer
in IMAX 70 millimeter at the SidGrauman's Chinese Theater. And I
wasn't really sure how I wasgoing to feel about it. But you
know, I've never felt threehours go by so fast. It was very
enthralling thanks in large partto its amazing ensemble cast.

(04:37):
You know, because it's a thingit is just more of a biopic. So
it does focus squarely onOppenheimer himself as a person
and also his works and also kindof presenting kind of the
philosophical repercussions ofwhat he, what he did. So it ya
know, I find it very interestingand also just wild to me because

(04:58):
you know, the exploit-- theTrinity test explosion was all
practical that was not CGI.
Yeah, that is an IMAX soundsystem definitely made it feel
that way.

That's what Nolan does he doesn't do CG I
mean like if he if he wants toflip a semi he flips a semi if
he wants to crash a plane hecrashed the plane. And if he
wants to blow, I don't think heused an atomic bomb, but if he
wants to simulate an atomic bomb

well, used *a* bomb

he blows some shit up. About the ensemble cast
you're totally right becauseit's like it's...how do you say
Cillian? Is it Cillian Murphy?

"Kill-ian" Murphy Its Killian Murphy as
Oppenheimer and then Emily Bluntas his wife and then Robert
Downey Jr. is one of hiscohorts. But then you're
watching the movie. You're like,oh, Florence Pugh's in this? Oh,
Casey Affleck is in this? Oh,Matt Damon is in this? You're
like, the whole time through.
People are coming through andyou're like, Oh my... Wait, he's
in this? She's in this?
Yes. But my favorite had to beGary Oldman as President Truman.

(06:01):
A total asshole.

Yeah, totally true. And yeah, it's, yeah...

It's so true, man

But did you see either of them Correia?

No, Lindsey was out of town. I did have a
little bit of the Barbieexperience because a buddy of
mine. We went to go see Dial ofDestiny finally. At like an 11pm
showing on Friday and thetheater was packed with Barbies.
Everyone dressed in pink likethe whole lot was filled. Our

(06:31):
screening had like five peoplein it, but it was just like, oh
shit, we are in a Barbie world,aren't we?

Yeah, I was gonna say like, I thought you
meant that the Indiana Jonesscreening was packed, which I
thought would be odd in thatscenario, but yeah, that makes
more sense. And yeah, like everytime I've been to the movies
lately, people are dressing upfor Barbie with like pink night
gowns and hats and cowboyoutfits. It's, it's an event.

Yeah, I went to, I saw Barbie. Because I
couldn't see the press screeningI tagged along with my wife and
her girlfriends to go see it. SoI guess I was the, not even the
Ken, I was the Alan. To theirBarbie excursion. But I really
really loved Barbie. I likedOppenheimer. I loved Barbie. And

(07:17):
here's all you need to knowabout why I love Barbie. It has
strong Josie and the Pussycatsvibes. It's that same type of
satire, except instead of takingdown consumerism, it's taking
down like the patriarchy. Andbut it's also you know, you're
talking about Oppenheimer hasthis existential crisis that
he's having. Barbie has someserious existential crisis too.

(07:40):
I mean, if you think about it,it's about these dolls. And, you
know, it's not spoiling too muchto say that like basically
Barbie and Ken go to the realworld, and, which is exactly
what I was hoping it would be.
But once they see the realworld, they start questioning
their reality of Barbie land.
And oh, it was amazing. Ifreaking loved it. What do you

(08:01):
think of Barbie, Jacob?

Oh, I loved it.
I thought it was great. And,again, amazing ensemble cast
from Margot Robbie to KateMcKinnon. And, ya know, just a
it was an interesting take onit. Because you know, like, it's
a movie about Barbie and itgoes, went surprisingly deeper
than that, like that wholeopening, a 2001 A Space Odyssey

(08:23):
parody blew me away.

Oh, it is in the movie?

It is in the movie.

And he was very beginning. It echoes 2001
at the beginning, echoes theopening scene it's so hilarious.

Fuck me, dude.
I, yeah I know, it seems likethe perfect level of camp and
someone on Twitter said thatthis is the closest thing we'll
get to someone doing it likeRichard (Robert) Altman's
Popeye. And as soon as they saidthat, I went. I know exactly
what that movie is. And I'mbeyond pumped for it. So I
fucking love that Popeye movie.

Yeah, no.
Yeah, you got to see it is. It'samazing. It's in like, like
Jacob was saying, the ensemblecast. Alexandra Shipp plays one
of the Barbies. So that was afun, you know, familiar face.
Michael Cera is Alan. And anamazing, Alan. But it's funny
because...

the only non Ken

you don't realize, you have to be of a
certain age, which I am, that alot of these products were
really products that theymarketed towards kids. And at
one point I had said to my wife,I'm like, Oh, I'm a where's
Earring Magic Ken? And then sureenough, frickin Earring Magic
Ken.

Here's how deep they go. Because I've been
seeing a lot of reaction videosand someone pointed out that
they had because there was aKen, where their outfit was
based on like 80s or 90s likeclub life, which is very...

that's Earring Magic Ken.

The one with the cock ring?

Yes, is the same one.

Yes, yes, a pink mesh shirt and a purple
leather vest. Okay, he doesn'thave a cock ring in the Barbie
movie.

No, it's the necklace

Yeah, he has a necklace that says that says
Barbie and here's the thing andmaybe if any of our listeners
know what I'm talking about,please let us know. I remember
Earring Magic Ken, it was putout in like the early 90s And I
could have sworn he had arainbow pride necklace. It was
like a chain with these littlerainbow loops that form a

(10:27):
rainbow. But whenever I look atpictures of it now, it's a
necklace that has, well for lackof a better word, a cock ring on
it.

Well, and that's, I admit I got it from
TikTok, a TikTok video but likeit's because like you would have
the ring you would wear the ringas a necklace as like you know a
sign of that's what you're intoand stuff and so but because
they didn't know that's what itwas I just thought it was a cool
necklace thing they fucking hada cock ring on the rest of the

(10:56):
night

I could have sworn and if anybody can tell me
what because I've been lookingever since I ever since I kind
of went down an Earring MagicKen... this sounds really weird
but I went down a Earring MagicKen rabbit hole because I could
have sworn he had a rainbowpride necklace. And it's funny
because they were like sayingthey didn't mean to make Earring
Magic Ken, the gay Ken but itwas embraced by the gay

(11:17):
community, I mean, his earringis in the, back then, the
correct ear to be straight. Imean, so he wasn't but I mean,
he's wearing a pink mesh top anda purple leather vest on, and he
had the cock ring necklace. ButI could have swore you on a
Pride necklace. So if anybodyknows what toy I'm thinking of
that was like probably a Barbiesize male doll, but I looked at

(11:39):
like the New Kids on the Block,the Nsync ones, the Vanilla Ice
the, you know, the Ricky Martindolls, and none of them had
this, but I swear one of themhad this Pride doll necklace. So
if anybody knows what that is,please let me know. Because it's
driving me mad. Okay, butanyway.

Oh, I saw Talk to Me yesterday.

Oh!

I was I was gonna say let's move on to
something more horror because wetalked enough about
Barbenheimer, let's talk Talk toMe. What did you think? Did you
love it? Or do you love it?

Yeah, I loved it.

I loved it.

I don't think it was quite as scary as a lot of
people make it out to be I mean,I thought it was scary. But you
know, I feel like it's getting abit of that kind of hype
backlash because I mean if I wasreally scary it was great. Just
yeah, it wasn't as intense as Ithought it was gonna be but
still it's an amazing movie andprobably, you know, just in

(12:34):
general I think it's an amazingmodern update to the classic
'kids are fucking around withOuija board' type of movie.

That's totally, that's what I was
saying. It's like a Blumhousescript but an A24 treatment.
It's yeah, like like you saidit's, because it's not an Ouija
board it's that porcelain hand

Yeah, exactly.
It's a medium, an embalmedmedium's hand but, I mean, it's
the same principle. You know,Ouija board kids are messing
with the dark arts for a laughand of course it backfires.

I want to see more about that hand, I want to
prequel about the hand. Did anyof you guys see The Haunted
Mansion?

I haven't yet.

Oh, yes. I saw it in 4DX.

Nice.

Which let me tell you, is like the ultimate
like gimmick and I was evensitting there because, Jay
you've talked about it before,like when they do the 4DX to
trailers. It's insane becausetrailers are mostly action shots
and that what happened with TheMeg 2. It was just thrashing us
around and misting us for theentire trailer it was insane.

(13:38):
Jacob you're coming up to NoHoand we're gonna go see The Meg 2
in 4DX in a week or so.

Okay

But anywho I did have a moment like in the
first five, because aftergetting thrashed around and
being like, oh fuck what did wejust get ourselves into, two
hours of this? And then I waslike, why Haunted Mansion? Why
are we seeing Haunted Mansion in4DX? Why did, we why are we
doing this to ourselves? So thenI remembered, oh, it's based on
a park ride. So it makes senseto do this and it was a lot of

(14:08):
fun. Especially since like withthe 4DX, yes, the chairs move
around. Yes, they mist you. Forsome reason, they have like a
punching mechanism in the backof the chair that just like
trying to hit every work injuryI've ever had in my back. But
the, my favorite bit, is theyhad a strobe lights and
whenever, like, on the upperleft corner of the theater, so
when lightning struck it wouldlike it felt like old timey like

(14:31):
fucking Corman theater anticsand

You mean William Castle?

Or William castle. There we go. Thank you
for correcting me

He's the one who put the skeleton in the House on
Haunted Hill.

Yep. But I mean, so yeah, 4DX I think it's
worth it with Haunted Mansion,but the film itself is so much
fun, like as a Haunted Mansionride fan who's obsessed with it
and its history like they nailedincluding all the mythology of
it all. The different parts ofthe right but then they also
some of the set pieces feltlike, Oh man, this would have

(15:05):
been a part of the ride if theycould have pulled it off when
they built the thing, or waslike an extension of it. It was.
I had so much fun with it.

It's the, the thing is the people who were
disappointed with the EddieMurphy Haunted Mansion because
it wasn't close enough to theride. This one pretty much has
everything that you could wantfrom the ride in it. Yeah, I
mean, and I knew that prettyearly on in the movie. They
looked down a hallway and thatthe candlestick is you know, the
ghostly candlestick is goingback and forth. I'm like, oh,

(15:33):
yeah, yeah, this is it. This isand it only got better from
there. They even have referencesto the Doom Buggies.

Yeah! Oh, the chair scene?

Yeah.

Oh Boy.

I mean, the plot is pretty is you're pretty
stereotypical, you know, hauntedhouse exorcism scene. I mean,
you pretty much know where it'sgoing. Yeah, but um, but just
the fact that it's in this houseand Ito it just embraces
everything about the ride is somuch fun.

The people will complain about like the
plot or the story of it beingtropey. It's like, that's fine.
That's okay to do thatsometimes. As it's what you do
using that as a jumping offpoint. And that's where I think
it's like okay, so yeah, it'syour typical haunted house
exorcism thing, but thecharacters, everyone seems to be
having a blast and on their Agame, I feel like Danny DeVito

(16:22):
was given like one scene ofdialogue...

He was awesome!

...Which was the hibachi scene where he
actually like has to explainsome like ghost shit, and then
the rest of the movie is justhim just being Danny DeVito
unhinged in the scenes becausethere's, there's like, one bit
where LaKeith Stanfield isgiving this really good
monologue about his dead wife.
And he's crying and it's like,really emotional. And he's
talking about like, she went outto go get tater tots, you know,

(16:48):
because she loved tater tots.
And she was picking up ice creamand you know, we would go on
runs and she'd eat a cheesecake.
And then all of the sudden DannyDeVito goes, what was the
cholesterol on her? It wasperfect. The humor was on point
when Jamie Lee Curtis first inthe flashback with her outfit. I
was living for that moment.

(17:11):
Like, uhh!

That's the thing. We got to talk about the
cast to this because DannyDeVito's in it and Jamie Lee
Curtis plays Madame Leota. Soshe is like in the crystal ball.

She's everything

Then Jared Leto plays the Hatbox Ghost,
she's kind of the big baddie.

That was that was the only one where I was
like, Was that necessary?

Yeah, well, the thing is, you can't tell
it's him. I guess maybe thevoice.

There's like one picture where it's like,
this is what he looked likebefore he died. And it was Jared
Leto but it's a super cartoon.
It's it's it goes to the hatbox.
It looks exactly like that, andthat they modified his voice
too, it was one of those thingswhere it's like, well, what was
the point of having Jared Letoin that

The name Jared Leto, the name Jared Leto.
But you also got LaKeithStanfield and Tiffany Haddish
and Rosario Dawson.

So good.

This cast, yeah, it's got an ensemble that
almost puts Oppenheimer toshame. No, not really. But it is
good.

I think so.

A lot of good ensemble cast movies are out
right now.

Oh, and then the Dan Levy cameo is like, two
seconds long, but he fuckingsteals it, him and Danny DeVito
in this movie, are have thesereally good bits where they'll
do a joke. And then like, thescene continues, and they're not
like in the scene, they're offscreen. And they just say you
hear them say something in thebackground. And it's the

(18:32):
funniest thing ever.

I can tell you my favorite scene, and I
don't want to spoil anything. SoI'm just gonna say the police
sketch artist. That is, when youwhen that scene is when you see
that scene come up, you're gonnadie because I did.

Yeah, no, I definitely am gonna try and
check it out in 4DX

put some skin on it. Yeah.

You know, get thrown around like a ride.

And also with cast. There's a lot of like
names in it, but the young actorChase W Dylan. Yeah. Wow, that
kid has a future and that fewdays that did give some of the
best face reactions to thingslike it right off the bat in the
beginning when the when RosarioDawson's like we're gonna light

(19:23):
this vanilla candle andeverything's gonna be okay. He's
like, but is iot? like, man,that kid is so good. I really
hope he blows up.

Did any of you guys get around to They
Cloned Tyrone?

Yes, I did see that at Alamo, a week or two
back.

It's on Netflix now. So, did you see it
Correia?

Not yet. It's on my list though.

Yeah, I think you need to see it because it
has real strong Sorry To BotherYou vibes.

Ooh

I pitched it to my friends as kind of Black
Dynamite needs John Carpenter'sThey Live.

Sold

It has serious Sorry To Bother You
vibes, because it's basically,the setup is this this drug
dealer gets...
Played by John Boyega...yeah by John Boyega and he
gets killed, but then he comesback and all of his friends are
like dude I saw you die I sawyou die. So him and a pimp and a
and a prostitute goinvestigating this I don't want

(20:24):
to spoil too much but there'sthere's a lot going on and you
could tell they cloned Tyrone,you know, he did come back from
the dead because you could tellbecause he's cloned. But there's
something there's it's funnybecause like, it's a serious
movie, but there's some parts ofit where I'm like, where you're
just like, come on, like at onepoint they're they're going into
this lab and you know, this isgetting into spoiler territory,

(20:46):
but um, they see a guy like in asuit and they want to go
undercover. So his name'sFontaine Boyega's character). He
goes, he says to this guy in thestudio "where can we get some of
those suits?". And the next shotyou see they're walking in these
suits. It's like, oh, yeah, likehe's gonna just hand those over.
But it's, it's a trip. It's atrip of a movie.

And it's a great cast because the pimp's played
by Jamie Foxx, the prostitutenamed Yo-Yo is played by Teyonah
Parris. Yeah. And, ya know, theyjust they make a really great
trio. And, yeah no, it's justfunny because like, it does hit
on a lot of social satire,blaxploitation tropes,

(21:28):
conspiracy theories. So it allcomes together and makes a very,
very unique movie.

Well, and if you do like Sorry To Bother You,
Boots Riley's show I'm a Virgois on Amazon Prime and it is
phenomenal, highly recommend it.
I know you guys, I feel a littlemore pressure to do the
Barbenheimer thing, but I'mbusy. I got these two amazing
Blu-rays in.

Oh boy.

What I've talked about before, it's the
blu ray from Oscilloscope forClaydream. It's a documentary
about the Vinton animationstudio, blu rays out now. And I
can't recommend it enoughbecause they actually have the
entire collection of animatedshorts, not not their commercial
work. So there's no CaliforniaRaisins on here. But it's all
their short films on there fromclosed Monday all the way

(22:18):
through like a Christmas Giftand the in The Little Prince.
Just that collection alone isworth it. But the documentary is
fucking fantastic. And the thingthat has been almost playing
nonstop in our house is TheCramps and The Mutants at the
Napa State tapes. And if you ifyou don't know about this, but
back back in the you know, Jaymight know a little bit more

(22:40):
back in the day, during the bigpunk scene, there were people
that were recording all of thisand like so now there's all
these live performances and whathave you. And now there's
there's Institute's that arerestoring and preserving all of
these tapes. So the performanceis it's The Cramps and The
Mutants performing at an actuallike State Hospital, psychiatric

(23:03):
ward, and they're just out inthe open. It's the smallest
stage. And it's broad daylightbecause it was in the middle of
the day. And they're justperforming for the staff, the
you know, the patients and a fewfriends who are apparently on
acid and it is great. It's earlyvideo. So the quality is here or
there the audio is eh. But itdoesn't matter because the

(23:25):
energy is there you havepatients hopping on the stage
and dancing and miming with, youknow, with The Cramps and it's
just, it's it's beautiful. Theyhave both performances, which
were previously only availablein like VHS separately, and
they're very rare. These arerestored, and it includes a
documentary. That's 30 minutes.
That's all about what went intothat happening because it was It

(23:50):
wasn't just like random, like,you know, they got together they
ate how it came together. Whythey did it going into like the
history of state hospitals,because this was pre Reagan,
because of course Reagan shut itall down because any problem
from the last 40 years stemsfrom fucking Reagan. But it they
have a lot of documentaries andspecial features about the

(24:10):
hospital itself. And it's it'sif you're if you're a punk
rocker or into anything rock,it's a must own. The Cramps and
The Mutants at Napa State Tapesis just

Alright. Keep that in mind. And speaking of
blu ray releases, Did either ofyou watch the Venture Bros on
Adult Swim?

I've seen a few episodes, but I never got
into it. I was always more of aMetalocalypse guy.

Well, funny enough that's going to tie
together in a minute butbasically

No to draw lines like you could be a fan of
both.

Oh, yeah. No, I mean, I'm a fan of both. But
yeah, so yeah, both mediaVenture Bros. The series got
canceled a few years back, butthey were allowed to do kind of
a A final conclusion movie, andit's called The Venture Bros.:
Radiant is the Blood of theBaboon Heart. And I've been a
fan of the movie for shit like20 years. And I'm really glad

(25:11):
that it was able to get thiskind of condensed but still
great series finale, althoughthey leave it kind of open ended
in case they come back in someform. But yeah, it's fun. It's
it takes place where kind of thelast season left off and goes
into kind of a lot of the deeperlore and kind of characters from

(25:32):
the series. And it's got ClancyBrown has a supervillain named
Red Death, who's like this.
Giants cyborg skull man, whichis really cool. And he's also
got a cyborg horse named Daisy.
So that's just and that's justlike one facet of the Venture
Brothers and this movie inparticular. So if you're a fan

(25:53):
of show, I'd recommend that andhe's been my other point.
Metalocalypse, which was alsocanceled years ago, is also
getting a proper conclusionmovie called The Doomstar
Requiem. Yeah. Which I don'tremember exactly when it's
coming out, but I think it'scoming out like next week or so.
So there you go. You get twoseries canceled before their

(26:15):
time getting proper conclusions.

Well, Doomstar Requiem. That was the previous
that was the opera they did. Oh,wait, you're right. The new one
is like Army of the Doomstar.

Army. Okay, there was my confusion. Yeah.

No, I had a moment of like, No, Doomstar
Requiem. And I have that entirehour long special memorized.
Like, that's not what it'scalled. But it's something
similar. Yeah. Um, so

My mistake.

No.
Metalocalypse we're not onlygetting a movie, but we're also
getting Dethalbum 4

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I'm so sad that I'm missing actually.

That's coming out August 22. So keep your
calendars marked August 22. forMetalocalypse

Oh, yeah. I'm sad. I'm missing a Dethklok and
Baby Metal performing an

Oh, yeah. One, I would want to see that.
I have good reasons. Apparently,friend's wedding. So they better
appreciate my presence that day.
No.

Now let's bring in our guest. Today, we've
got Bruce Wemple, who is thewriter and director of the
upcoming Island Escape. How'reyou doing, Bruce?

Bruce Wemple (27:25):
Good. Good. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here. The question I
always like to start off withpeople is how did you get
started on your on yourfilmmaking journey?

Oh, that's a good question. The I don't know if
there was like, one specificmoment or thing. I think it's
just a progression of differentprojects and learning experience
and everything. But yeah, I wentto film school ish sort of
program and then after that,started doing a lot like
training videos and everything.
And yeah, the training is wereawesome. Because you know, it's

(27:56):
a lot about making your day andjust, you know, you get a lot of
experience just actually makingthings and editing and doing and
everything and like, ah, like,anyone will tell you, if you do
a short film or whatever you'remaking, it's gonna probably be
bad. And then you get to, youknow, learn from those mistakes
and so on. And then it was, youknow, fast forward, maybe eight

(28:16):
to 10 years after that westarted, we kind of like, got
some people together and we madea, like an absolutely no budget
by no budget. I mean, like,maybe a couple grand, but we
made a Bigfoot movie calledMonstrous and like I was on my
rooftop painting like inBrooklyn on my rooftop painting
a Bigfoot costume people werewalking out confused why there's

(28:39):
like this big furry thing. Wewent to the middle of woods into
a cabin, shot this Bigfoot movieand you know, a horror
distributor dug it and they werelike, you want to make some more
with a little bit of cash get alot of money, but like
Absolutely 100% So we just afterthat we had a spell of about
three horror movies that we madewith the same distributor and

(29:02):
then after that, it was kind oflike alright, now this is what
we're doing we've kind of have amodel that we can keep making
these fun horror movies and youknow, there's a little bit of
money to be you know, to spendon it so we can actually like
it's just making movies and sothat's kind of how it started. I
guess.

When you say you went through like a film
school ish program. We've allbeen through film school and I
think the most valuable aspectof film school is getting your
hands on equipment and actuallydoing it when you say an ish
program. What What do you meanby that? Did did you actually
get to make movies or was itmore of a analysis kind of
thing?

No, it was 100% a production track

Okay, great.

I always talked about film school though. It's
weird. I think it's what yougive to film school. I think
what you get out of it. I thinkyou can coast by film school
without getting that much out ofit if you want to, you know if
you go there and but you do haveaccess to all the equipment. And
so if you meet the right people,and you just want to make things
and you just want to learn Fromthat, that's kind of what I was

(30:02):
saying. When I said ish, theprogramming, I was this
production track, but there wasalso pieces of it that were more
broadcast oriented and that kindof thing, but also a lot of film
and that kind of production. Soit was kind of a wide base net
of different video and filmproduction. So I That's say film
schoolish, wasn't strictly like,Film, film film, right?

Sounds a lot like my program, but it was a
lot of like, alright, so you gotto do that. But you also got to
do your base classes, yoursciences and all that.

Like, yeah, it sounds a lot like my film
school as well, where we would,if you wanted to work in the TV
aspect of it, that was there,there's a studio if you wanted
to work in the film, there's allthe equipment to check out. I
mostly concentrate on sounddesign. So I was the guy
checking out the boom mic andthe recorder. Like, you know,
you, you're right, you get outof it, what you put into it, and

(30:53):
it's a good way to figure outwhat you want to do, I think,
you know, because there was alot of guys in my film school
who were like, I hate being onset, I just want to write and
then there are the guys who arelike all Yeah, give me the
equipment, you know,

whatever sign and you get to, like, collaborate so
much without you know, the verylow risk, there's there's no
stakes, and they just haveaccess to all the gear and yet,
you know, actors there, becauseit was also an acting program
that you just have all thesepeople available that just want
to make things and you have timetoo to do it. So it's great.
Yeah.

And I was looking through your letterbox
profile. And I noticed that alot of your movies involve a
revolve around monsters,including your debut with
Bigfoot. So I was just wonderingif there's any root in that? Or
do you have a particularinterest in monsters or
something that inspires you?

It's fun. I mean, so I did a movie before that.
Two movies technically AlteredHours and Lake Artifact. And
again, those were like, kind ofexactly what I was talking about
earlier, a bunch of friends andme going to whether it's a cabin
or some sort of location likethat. And you know, my buddy
who's a composer, ran the audio,I was DPing and directing that

(32:06):
sort of thing. But and then theBigfoot debut that was I didn't
wanted to make I was always inlove with Bigfoot growing up and
my dad kind of was really intoBigfoot. I remember, he had from
when he was a kid, just liketons of newspaper articles that
he would collect about differentBigfoot sightings and
everything. So I was always hada curiosity to do it. But um, so

(32:29):
when the chance came, a friendof mine actually had written the
screenplay and had a monster andwe're like, Could this be
Bigfoot? We worked it out. Andit was super fun. And then from
there on, it's like, it's superfun. It's I think there's so
many stories to tell about withmonsters and around where
monsters in it. And the otherthing like just from I guess,
more business it's really hardto get these movies made.

(32:54):
Without obviously likecelebrities or movie stars or
anything like that. Having amonster. You know, I first of
all, I love doing it. But secondof all, like, that becomes kind
of your headline movie star, ifyou will. The monster in the
movie. And so you know, andthere's so many stories to tell
around monsters and there's justyou can go from any which angle

(33:15):
you know, we've done movies thatare like these very serious sort
of, you know, introspectivecharacter studies that also
have, you know, a monster that'spushing the narrative forward.
And then we have something likeIsland Escape, which is kind of
like a fun bloody shoot 'em upaction sort of thing. And, you
know, it just it's fun and ithelps these movies you know,

(33:37):
recoup a budget and so it'sgreat.

Bigfoot is the one trope if you will, but I
never get tired of I loveBigfoot movies. I will watch any
Bigfoot movie there is. So Iyeah, I love Bigfoot. Um, let's
talk a little about IslandEscape. Where did the genesis of
the idea come from? Because it'salmost like when I was watching
I was kind of thinking it wasalmost like, like a Predator

(34:03):
kind of a thing where you'resending all of these bad asses
into this thing, but at somepoint, it becomes more than that
because the island itself is ismysterious and I don't want to
spoil anything because I neverwatch trailers and I think
that's part of what made IslandEscape fun for me is not knowing
going in what's going to happenyou know, I I don't want to

(34:27):
spoil anything but basically,it's basically like Predator But
on a more mysterious scope.
There's you know, there'ssomething else going on. Where
did the genesis for this ideacome from?

So the, if you look back through like the movie
I did with it before, IslandEscape is what we call The
Tomorrow Job, which is a kind ofa time travel heist movie. And
that's always been a fascinationof mine along with monsters is
just like, not sort of timetravel is like a big idea but
more of like as a cinemacinematic thing, and just like I

(35:00):
love any movie that even has ahint of time travel, I'm game or
that kind of thing. Maybe it'snot time travel, maybe it's a
time loop maybe to little sortof like Star Trek wormhole, the
sort of whatever that sort ofmystery where, like, you know,
time and the perception ofevents and stuff is going to be
messed with. I'm game I'm game,whatever it is, you know, and

(35:20):
sometimes they're great.
Sometimes the movies aren'tgood, but it's still if it's
going to kind of go into thatterritory. I'm very excited. So
that was always, you know, aninterest. And you can see in
other movies, we've we've, youknow, kind of put our feet in
the water, but the, but we knewthat we wanted that. And then we
also kind of wanted to make it afun movie. We just made a couple

(35:41):
of more serious movies. And wejust like, we, as a crew, we
were talking about what kind ofmovie with all of us want to
watch if we had to concludecombined the monsters along with
and we just started talkingabout these old movies that we
use, you know, the movie, theJohn Carpenter, like the Escape
movies or the Predator,definitely. And talking about

(36:05):
you know, those badass is like,what what if we took that and
also gave it a little bit thissci fi cerebral twist to it. And
so that's kind of where itstarted. And then it just kind
of expanded from there into intoIsland Escape.

Have you seen The Endless by Benson and
Moorhead?

Yeah, I love it. I thought it was great.

It kind of has the, you know, again, not
spoiling anything, but it kindof has that same feel. You know,
now now we are getting intospoiler territory because it's a
similar like, you know, like yousaid, not really time travel,
but time looping. So, I wasjust, I was just wondering.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No, and,
you know, and yeah, no, I thinkEndless was another thing. Like
we were talking about thespoilers, like, I didn't know
anything going back going intoit. So once it does start
getting into that territory,it's very exciting. And if you
don't know what's coming, it'seven better. And then so yeah,
that I agree with you. Yeah.
Escape Island hopefully has alittle bit of that.

(37:08):
mysteriousness to it that if youdon't know the coming, if you
haven't watched any of thetrailers, you've never done
anything like that. Itdefinitely hopefully can
surprise you, when it does startgetting into that more. You
know, mind bendy territory,because it's, it's, it
definitely sells itself at leastin the beginning as just like,
this is a shoot 'em up actionmovie. And that was that was the

(37:28):
intent is to set it up, like youget the feeling across, like,
Oh, I've seen this movie before.
You know, I've seen this moviewith a bunch of badass
mercenaries going to an island,they're probably all gonna get
picked off one by one, that sortof feeling do it, you know,
like, get the audiencecomfortable with, with that

(37:49):
premise and the tropes andeverything. And then once
they're settled into that, thenstart introducing these other
mind bending sort of concepts.

Start getting into Star Trek territory, but
without adding super complicatedscientific words in front of
stuff. Right

Or red shirts.

You did a great job of avoiding the it's
like the quantum blah, blah,blah. Oh, you mean like a
slingshot? Yeah.

As someone who didn't watch the trailer and
just dove right in, I think youdid a great job of that. I mean,
because I because when itstarted, I was just like, Okay,
this is, you know, this isPredator, where's the monster,
you know? And then as itunfolds, what's happening? I'm
like, oh, wait a minute. Therewere there were a lot of Wait a
minute moments in this, youknow, you're like, wait, okay,

(38:34):
wait until you figured outwhat's going on. You're like,
Wait a minute.

Yeah, that's awesome that you got that
experience. Because like, Ithink, you know, hopefully, we
get other people that are just,you know, able to watch it
completely, you know, noknowledge of anything. It's hard
to do that. But that's reallyhard to do right now. You know,
how do you find a movie withoutthat, but if that can happen,
that's awesome. So

I always make a point of doing that, you know,
I don't watch trailers. Youknow, I love going in cold. So

I would say you know what the worst is I was I
just remember whenever that cameout last year, we went to saw
the Batman and my buddy hadavoided every single trailer
leading up every every we satdown, and they had this like,
five minute promo for the movie,right before the start of the
movie. And I'm like, why arethey doing this? You know, like,

I hate that.
Especially when I've beenavoiding trailers. And then I go
to the movies and it's like, no,wait the trailers but you know,
I can't avoid it. Yeah, EvilDead. I had to I had to limit
myself. I was like, alright, wecan only watch the trailer for
Evil Dead Rise once or twice.
And that's it. We can't watch itanymore. Like let's get let's
get a taste of it. Forget aboutit for months

For Hereditary I didn't want to know
a dang thing about that moviegoing in. And I learned what the
beginning of the trailer lookedlike because this was also the
fat years of movie pass. So Iwas going to the movies all the
time and When I would see thatA24 that I knew was Hereditary,
I would go to the restroom, andI would come back. I did not
want to see this trailer, thismovie's gonna be too good.

And I just actually came from seeing
Oppenheimer and they had thetrailer for the new Exorcist
movie, which, I mean, I wasinterested in seeing, but at the
same time, it's like, yeah, theyshowed probably a bit too much
in that. So it's a double realdouble edged sword.

But I do that same for Island Escape. It does
show a little bit more of like,the, the, you know, the after
Predator bits, but like, therewas still plenty to go, oh, oh,
shit. Okay, like I definitely,especially getting towards the
end of like, how is this gonnawork out? What? Wait, and then

(40:47):
like something else came up? AndI'm like, Oh, wait, shit. That's
right. Because this got me. Solike, if you've seen the
trailer, you haven't seeneverything for this movie. Just
Just know that.

Yes, I agree. I agree. There's a lot left. It's
it's tough. Yeah, I just, I wentand saw Mission Impossible last
week. And I remember, there werenot one but two making of
featurettes. Before the movie ofscenes in the movie, which,
again, I love the movie. But I'mlike, this is way more than I
wanted to see, before actuallyjust just sitting down and

(41:20):
watching the movie clean

before you watch this movie, for the first
time in theaters. Show you amaking of all the big action
sets that you're about to seecompletely? No, like after let's
do an after thing.

Yeah, no, I know.

And something else I wanted to ask. I noticed
that a lot of the cast have beenin previous movies you've done.
So I was wondering if, likethey're friends of yours, or
it's just you've kind ofassembled a kind of family cast?
Or like as that has become afamily to you. And that you've

(41:55):
been working with them severaltimes.

Yeah. So all of them, I met via some sort of
acting sort of like, either, youknow, they audition for
something from ours, orsomething like that. They're all
you know, and then since then,you know, we've become friends.
But I think, for me, it's, it's,you know, we're never working
with huge budgets at all, oreven even, you know, they
they're always really small. Soit's, I love the idea of when we

(42:19):
get on set, we're trying tooutdo whatever we did from the
previous movie, and it's easierto do that when, you know, you
have someone who's been in thetrenches with you before, of the
previous movie set, andespecially enough to go through
all their good actor and youknow, you know, you have the
shorthand is getting better andbetter. So yeah, any chance I
can to bring them into anothermovie, I'll take just because,

(42:41):
you know, we're just trying tooutdo ourselves, that's all you
can really do on these movies,it's just tried to do your best
work and try to outdo whatevermovie did whatever work you did
before that, and they're great.
And so, you know, it's, they geton set, and they, we all kind of
know what's expected of eachother, and how we're going to,
you know, approach to this andhow we're going to make it and

(43:02):
we all stick together. Andthat's what it's like, like you
said, it's a little bit like afamily, like a musical school
sports team to I would call itlike, the way you know, we're
all supporting each other, andwe're all there to just, you
know, make the best thing we canpossibly make. And, and no one's
there just for themselves. Sothat's really kind of the
mentality behind that.

Now having having kind of like a family or
a team, as you say, of peoplethat you work with repeatedly,
do you find yourself writing forspecific actors? Like when you
wrote Island Escape? Did youthink okay, this part would be
perfect for so and so in thisparts for so and so?

Yeah. So I mean, this project specifically, I
started putting the piecestogether. And I knew that knew
the tone I wanted. And as I was,I was like, okay, so and so
would be perfect for that that'dbe for and then I didn't know if
they were all going to beavailable, but I'm pretty sure
for that main group ofmercenaries. It was first choice
of like, the people I knew forevery single one, like and so

(44:01):
that was really fun. Becausethere was already kind of in
their voices. It was, you know,it was written for them. So
yeah, absolutely. And sometimesyou don't get that or sometimes
you're like, This is a part thatwe just don't have or you know,
we've maybe You've overdone thisthing with this person a little
bit or something like that.
That's happened sometimes. Butfor this one, I I also knew it
was going to be a hard shoot,there's a number of things in

(44:23):
there stunt esque sort ofthings. And also like there's a
you know, there's a fight on topof a mountain which I knew the
only way to get to that was, youknow, the cast and crew had to
hike up a mountain there wascertain things I'm like, I can't
have someone brand new that I'mnot sure is going to you know,
be game for these sort ofthings. Especially with the

(44:43):
budget we had and everything wedidn't have a lot of time so I
needed to make sure whoeveryou're bringing was was ready to
do that sort of stuff. So yeah,I totally write for those
people. When I'm when I'm doingit.

Definitely want to talk about the filming
location. Were you shot. Sothere is a like you said,
there's a fine mountain, you'rein the woods a lot. There's
ocean shots. What was? What wasthat experience? Like? And where
did you guys film it?

A lot of it was filmed around the upstate New
York. Kind of Adirondack ironicregion. I'm originally from
upstate New York. And so we butit was a number of different
places just because like yousaid, there's the kind of more
ocean Islandy stuff. And thenonce we're in the woods in the

(45:32):
mountains, we kind of had tosplit it up a little bit. The we
were getting into production. Weknew like it was all happening.
I don't want to spoil butthere's a set piece at the end
involving a boat. And it is Iguess, someone is going to
escape the island.

I was wondering about that stunt was
was that actually a practicalstunt?

Oh, yeah.
Everything, Yeah. I mean, not,not the sky, obviously. But
other than that, yeah. Yeah. Sothat was crazy. The, the thing
was, we knew we were shootingand it was about near early
September, we're like, okay,we're making the movie. We the
the, the money was in place, andthe people were placed
everything. So we're like, okay,pre production starting, well,

(46:19):
we'll shoot in late October,November, that time of year,
because I really also just lovedthe look of the leaves changing
everything. It's cool. But werealize we can't do that stuff
in November, that's insane. Thewater is going to be you know,
freezing and beat, you know, sowe're like, Okay, we have to do
that we have to get that in thecan first. So that was actually
the first thing we shot was thatset piece at the end. And we, it

(46:44):
was a blast. I mean, everyonewas game and everything was
safe. But it was wild when I'min one boat with the long lens
shooting into the other boat,and we're both kind of going
parallel to each other. Andthey're, you know, they're
having the fight on the on theon the boat. And third, it was

(47:04):
very chaotic. And it was superfun. The way that you know,
we're doing the boat drags and,you know, the combination of it
was it was pretty intense.
Especially for like, Okay, thisis how we're starting the shoot,
which is the first thing and thegood. It was honestly though
relief to get that in the canand then like really, when we

(47:26):
cut it together, like okay, thisworks. We have this this is like
probably the hardest thing we'regonna do. And so getting that
done was was was fun. But it wasit was definitely a weird way to
start the shoot. You know, firstday, two people sitting across
from a table to having a chat.
That's what you want on thefirst day. It's like, sort of do
over the shoulder as a wide shotbe done with it.

When you say to him, you're like, oh, it's
only gonna get easier from here.
Yeah,

right. You're still with me now? We're going
to be good for that. Yeah. Ifyou haven't left already, we're
good.

It's the Major Payne thought process. Right?
Oh, you think that that hurts?
Okay, cool. Now we can move on,because it's not gonna hurt as
much as this

I swear Jonathan, you will take any
opportunity to bring up themovie Major Payne.

Yes. Yes, that movie has had a profound effect
on me.

And back on monsters. I was wondering if you
could talk a bit about who didthe practical effects or how you
kind of went into the designs?

Yeah, we actually went through a couple of
different phases. We, thatactually that first shoot, we
had one makeup artist, and shedid a great job. But it just
once we kind of got into theedit. We're like this, this
isn't quite what we're going forit and it was just we knew at
that point, we had to shift thelook a little bit. And just, it

(48:49):
just, we kind of all realizedlike this has to be bloodier,
crazier. It has to have thatthat texture of just like that
feeling of just not only theprosthetics not only the eyes,
not only all of that, but it'sgot to look bigger, and just
kind of bloodsoaked the wholetime just just as we got to
that. So we ended up having wewent through a couple different

(49:11):
phases and different artiststhat kind of came in and out.
But Jesse Hydrolock actuallycame on the end and I hadn't I
worked with her, like 2015 on adifferent project. And we just
kind of she did her thing. Andthen we're looking for new
makeup artists. And she postedan Instagram literally like the

(49:33):
second we're like trying to likescan for like, different people.
And I was like, Oh, I forgotabout this course I gave her a
call because she was I knew shewas somewhat local to the area
we're shooting and she's like,Yeah, I'm available. So that was
actually that came together veryquickly. And then once we once
we kind of figured out okay,there was the prosthetics,
everything, the muscle suit allthat and then just kind of

(49:55):
making sure the blood soakingwas always there. There was
always some sort or have droppedsomething dripping off of them
at all times that chaos, which,in hindsight, I didn't realize
how complicated for theprosthetics was going to be
because those some of thoseprosthetics tend to soak up
water soak up blood a littlebit. So there was a little some
complicated it was verycomplicated, obviously, because,

(50:17):
again, this is spoilers, butthere's a several scenes where
you have a monster version and ahuman version of the character
that actually have to interactby whatever it is. So that, you
know, that created a number ofheadaches on set that we had to
kind of work around.

Do you use the same actors for that? Or
were there doubles? I mean, wasthere camera trickery that you
have to have somebody fightthemselves

Yeah, we tried to use every trick in the book just
to kind of not you know, makesure it doesn't always feel like
it's one same will do the sametrick so it's there's a couple
comp shots in there where youknow, you have the the two in
which took some planning andthen there are doubles that we
had pretty much for every Imean, some of the doubles
switched over to differentactors, but every actor had some

(51:03):
sort of double for certainshots. And yeah, and then some
of it is just you know, eyelinesand you just make you having to
keep track Okay, with that youwere staring there then once we
do switch the makeup that theyhave to be standing whatever
position to match up theeyelines and just making sure it
all comes together some of thescenes what was actually helpful
was we would actually do filmthe whole bite set piece

(51:27):
whatever it was, quickly get thedailies into you know, editing
and then cut together a versionof it really as fast as we could
just like a very rough assemblyof it. And so we could identify
exactly where the spots werethat we needed our monster
coverage and shoot a littlebased on that plus a little

(51:48):
extra but that was actually areally helpful tool was having
those edits done really quicklyand we could you know have the
text placeholders or whateverthere and then we could you
know, be shooting the monsterwith a little more intention you
know then because it gets toughwhen you're having to remember

(52:08):
okay at so and so was standingthere for that scene and
everything because also it'sit's a few hours in a makeup
chair so there's a lot ofplanning involved when when it
comes to that. Yeah,

the beauty of digital cinema you can watch the
dailies very quick.

Oh, yeah, no, we we are not sending this to a lab
or anything. You yeah, that's aninstant Yeah, it was Yeah,
absolutely. Yeah, I don't knowthat you know, 10-15 years ago,

but it looks great. And I'm sure the actors
had a lot of fun playing thosemultiple versions as well go do
being able to do flip sidesthere was a I again don't want
to spoil too much about theabout the doubles and whatnot.
But there was definitely like ananimalistic like, primordial
like energy to them. That wasvery, it was very fun.

(52:55):
Especially dripping everything.
Yeah.

And it's gotta be fun to be able to fight
yourself. You know it you know,when they look at the finished
product, they're like, oh, yeah,that's me kicking the crap out
of myself.

Again, very Star Trek.

I always think Brady Bunch when I see
that, that that double thing Iwas that, you know, you know
Peter with the Dracula.

See its Parent Trap for me.

Ya know, I was thinking of that one Star Trek
where Kirk got an eviltransporter clone of himself and
could tell he was evil becausehe like would do that shifty
eyes thing when this camerawould zoom on them.

I haven't gotten to that one yet. I did
just get the one where theyfound it was a second Riker.
That was a fun episode.

Oh, well, that was TNG. Yeah. There's a lot of
cloning in Star Trek.

Oh, you're talking about original series.
Sorry. Yeah. I

was talking about Kirk Shatner. I spaced

out a huge Next Gen kick we we said that we
weren't I wasn't allowed tobring up Trek anywhere on this.

I don't remember saying

that. Yeah, I didn't say that either.

We've been. We've been Next Gen binging lately. We
had a newborn like 12 weeks ago.
So thank you. Thank you. And somy wife and I pretty much TNG
was on the TV constantly. We'vebeen binging a lot.

You got to start them off early. You got to
get those you know, the StarTrek morals. They got to know
that the first duty of everyofficers that is to the truth
right, you know,

the Prime Directive. Yeah.

Thanks for joining us this this morning.
The movie Island Escape it. Thetheatrical is next weekend,
which is the weekend after thispost. But VOD is on the eighth
correct on August 8.

Yes, correct. Yes.

So the day after this post so if you're one
of the one of our subscribersand you listen on the first day,
Island Escape We'll be on VODthe next day on Tuesday the
eighth? Where can people keep upwith? Do you have you have the
social media that people want tokeep up with what you're doing
next?

Sure I have @BruceMWemple on Instagram, I
guess would be the best spot or@377films on Instagram too that
has more strictly just thewhatever projects we're working
on some kind of stuff. So eitherone of those, check it out.

Great. As for us, you can find us at Eye On
Horror on all of the socials.
Actually iHorror.com You canalso find us there and they need
some help with Twitter. I guessthe Twitter guidelines have
changed and they needsubscribers and they're doing
some cool contests. So anylisteners who want to win some
cool stuff? Head on over toiHorror on Twitter

Are we Eligible? Jacob isn't, he'll
win.

James Jay Edward (56:01):
Automatically.
He would he would win if he was.
Our theme song is by RestlessSpirits. So go give them a
listen. And our artwork is byChris Fisher. So go give him a
like and go and watch IslandEscape. So that the writer
director Bruce Wemple, thanksagain for joining us. And we

(56:21):
will see you all in a couple ofweeks. So for me James Jay
Edwards.

I'm Jacob Davison.

I'm Jonathan Correia

and I'm Bruce Wemble,

keep your eye On horror.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Island Escape Writer/Director Bruce Wemple

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