The Horror Revolution: First off, what’s your favorite horror movie? What movie scared you the most?
Mike Cuenca: Texas Chainsaw. Easily. Seen it a kazillion times and can watch it any place, any time. I really thought that was a true story when I was kid. My family drove through Texas at one point, during the night, I could not close my eyes. I was mortified. Of course, the night after watching it I viewed it a couple more times before I had to take it back to the video store. Freaked my school friends out, telling them this shit really happened and showed them the movie. They lost it.
THR: Watch Them Come Blood was phenomenal, an indie arthouse piece with a punk rock flare. What inspired the film?
MC: Man! Thanks for digging it so.
The inspiration? A bottle of tequila (co-writer/producer) Joaquin and I shared, wandering around Long Beach before the Midsummer Scream horror con. lol
No, I made I’ll Be Around a while back. And that’s a very positive, hopeful movie. So now I wanted to do something unruly because that’s how I was feeling at the time. I had just gotten my heart ripped out and, being dramatic here, had it stabbed repeatedly and then incinerated and pissed on! Doesn’t happen often but it had, so I was like fuck everyone, fuck everything, I’m gonna make this movie. Of course, it still has a lot of dark humor because I can’t ever be fully serious. I also wanted the shooting to have that frenetic, anything goes feel that my older flick By the Wayside had. You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!
I’ll say this, though - the hardest part, for me, at least, about making a movie is just getting the ball rolling. I don’t have a big team, I do shit without a budget, so the pre-pro process is just me mentally preparing for it. And that can take for-fucking-ever. There were some projects I wanted to work on; I just couldn’t get out of that mental rut. Best way to do it? Let’s write this script within a week, cast, shoot the majority of the thing in a month, let’s tuck and roll. Doing that got me to make three other simultaneous movies. We wrapped principle photography on Blood? I was like, why stop now? That’s the true inspiration.
THR: You’re known in indie circles for maintaining that post-punk aesthetic to your films. Does that describe you as a person, and what drew you into creating that kind of art?
MC: 100%. Totally describes me as a person. I think I might be a difficult person to peg down. Unless you’ve known me personally for a handful of years.
I’m a crazy mood swinger. And I love lowbrow humor as much as I love high-brow stuff. I love hilarious gore and I also love long-take, paint drying on a wall arthouse fare. Obnoxiously loud noises, and then totally serenity. So I’m not sure I was drawn to create a specific type of art more than it’s just what pours out of me.
Therapy has diagnosed me with ADHD. I think my storytelling reflects that? But it’s also about keeping things interesting and not just doing this whole expected A-B-to-C bullshit. I’m like here’s D-E, hold up. Let’s go to M and N and now back to C and now F. Notes aren’t being abandoned, they’re just being re-arranged in a way that may not make much sense the first time, but when you return to it you’ll be familiar with the lay of the land. Frustrating for some, but that’s more their problem than mine. I consider it a fun challenge. You want more structure? Go watch Scooby-fuckin’-Doo where the same formula is used every episode.
For me, one of the worst things is being told a long-winded story by someone that has no flair in their voice.
THR: I really dug the tone of the film and thought the central concept was unique and unlike anything I had ever seen before. What were the challenges in conveying what was in your head onto the screen?
MC: Jessica Gallant is a godsend. She’s shot 5 of my features, not including my cartoonish punk rock web series Oblivion. And she has a deathrock background. Since we’ve been working together for approximately sixteen years on-and-off, she knows how I edit flicks, she knows that I don’t shoot shit I’m not going to need, she also suggests shots that could help patch things up in case I find myself in a pickle. I don’t necessarily have to convey a lot. I also work with a lot of the same actors, so we’re all comfortable with each other.
Now, visually, a bigger budget would allow me to really pluck these demons roaming inside my head as far as full blown aesthetics go.
THR: What inspired you to want to be a filmmaker? Were there any films that made you know this is what you wanted to do?
MC: I’m a product of the ‘90s, aka my adolescence, you know? So when they were marketing all these filmmakers as rock stars back then since their casts were unknown— Kevin Smith made a movie on his credit card, set at the convenience store he works at; Allison Anders did this, Robert Rodriguez did that— I went like, man, those cats are awesome. I wanna do that shit, too!
I had watched Mallrats when I was however old I was. And I identified with Brodie. I hung around the mall all weekend with my friends and refillable soda cup and spent lunch money I never used on comics. I’d starve at school just so I could buy the latest X-Men comic. I’d also plan my whole movieplex itinerary- when movies started and ended; paid for one, snuck into the rest and marathoned. And I’d watch everything. Not any specific genre. If it was out, I’d watch it! But Mallrats was the first time I went, holy shit, I relate. So I wanted to make movies like that, that others like me could relate to. And then I was placed in dual enrollment on a college campus when I was a sophomore in high school. I took a film history course. The first image our professor showed us was Cesare opening his eyes in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I was shocked. My jaw dropped. Glued! Movies can look like this?! Do this sort of stuff?! Changed my life. I proceeded to learn about the history of cinema and wound up gravitating towards older films.
THR: When I think of something being described as “punk,” my mind immediately goes to the music genre, but I also recognize that it’s attitude as much as its anything else. What do you think enables you to get that attitude out when making your films? How are you able to translate it with narrative, aesthetics, etc?
MC: Punk means a plethora of things to a plethora of different people, yeah? To me it’s a “just do it” encouragement. And I’m not referring to that old Nike slogan. Fuck that. Don’t know how to play? Start a band. Learn as you go. Same with movies. You don’t need some insane budget to get going, as proved by those indie filmmakers I mentioned.
And then I got worried because I didn’t have the resources. Or maybe I wasn’t smart enough. No one believed in me. Everyone older than me would give me shit and tell me I would never pull any of this off. Well, fuck you, I’m gonna do it and I’m gonna do it my way, and mess up a lot, and hopefully learn from my mistakes. And just do what came from inside because it’s this instinctual calling you can’t control. It’s how I write music, too. I don’t plan it. I just grab a guitar or my bass and just, for lack of a better term, shit out how I’m feeling at the moment via these mumbled melodies and chord progressions and then worry about lyrics and what it’ll mean later— if it even means anything!
But back to punk- I’m talking about breaking rules. Rules are guidelines. Guidelines meant to be broken. Wire put out Pink Flag. That album fucking rules! It’s a goddamned masterpiece. 21 songs in 35 minutes. Some songs go verse/chorus/done.
Bearing that in mind, I don’t believe in the three-act structure. Life doesn’t come in a three-act structure. I let the characters write their own yarn. I let the actors embody those characters and allow them to create a new visual draft.
So you have to understand the rhetoric, in order to tear it apart. Is anyone else gonna dig that? Fuck it. If I worried about other people liking my flicks or music, I wouldn’t be making anything. I’m more like- this is what I’m doing, check it out, if you dig, awesome, maybe we can be friends- if not, well, whatever. I, myself, am an acquired taste, so are my movies! My movies are therapy sessions. I mean, it’s how I view the work of auteurs. There’s always complaints that so-and-so filmmaker keeps making the same film. No shit. It’s the same troubles… puzzle we’re trying to solve, but in different packages.
How do I translate it? I thank the French New Wave. And those comic books I mentioned! Comics are a huge influence on my stuff. Can I do that in movie form?
THR: I loved the violence in the film, but I also appreciated that you toned down the gore somewhat in the wild finale. Was this a budget consideration, or did you think it was important to show a little restraint?
MC: Going back to what I said- I love when gore is hilarious. When it’s serious, not so much my thing. Dead Alive? Looney Tunes madness that always gets me cracking up, no matter how many times I go back to that movie. And there’s stuff like Angst where you’re just shocked and there is blood and it feels like you’re watching a snuff film. I don’t return to movies like that as much. Unless I’m showing it somebody just to catch their reaction. The roots lie in Texas Chainsaw, of course. That movie is a lot less violent than most people imagine or recall. 95% of it is implied. And that’s more powerful. Also, it’s about subverting expectations.
THR: If you could work with anyone in the industry, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
MC: Jesus. You want a laundry list? Lol
Gordon Willis is my favorite cinematographer. So there’s that.
‘70s Jack Nicholson because, come on, now. Timothy Carey. Winona Ryder- just so I can geek out about music with her. Um, I don’t know. My often co-writer Dan Rojay and I wrote a fun giallo-inspired slasher titled Holwenstall (named after one of the fictional cities in my movies - a take on the setting of Caligari, actually) and we wrote the lead role with Bill Hader in mind. He would fucking slay in that part. This is a loaded question. The list would be huge. Put a list of angels and demons to shame. Natasha Lyonne for this other flick we wrote titled Lady Hurricane. Chloe Sevigny because she’s the face of ‘90s indie flicks, as far as I’m concerned. Giuseppe Andrews, he’s a DIY hero.
THR: What’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects you’re excited to talk about?
MC: We have Blood exploitation tribute spin-offs!
Well, Joaquin and I have written a follow-up up to Blood showcasing the further exploits of two characters that I will not name. A title card at the end of the flick tells you what’s up. That’s like Five Easy Pieces but with serial killers. And, boy, is it something else.
And then we’ve written a standalone prequel of sorts starring the heist characters. It’s a hyper violent, post-heist, nerve-wrecking dark as hell comedy. Think Out of Towners meets After Hours with What’s Up, Doc? thrown in. Super intense. Wages of Fear intensity. Uncut Gems type of stress.
There’s also another spin-off that’s like a Dazed and Confused in junior high. But it’s disturbing horror. Brutal.
But I also made six other features during Blood’s production. Four of those are part of a series titled Boys About Town, following two best friends in their early twenties and their romantic hangups and misadventures and whatnot, all shot in real time over the span of six years. Love letter to the French New Wave, comic books, and alt-rock. Boys About Town 1 is playing the festivals and getting good reception.
But, for now, no longer making no-budget movies. I’m done. I’m exhausted. I’ve said I’m retiring but as a buddy recently told me, “You’re not retiring, you just need to graduate.” Maybe someone will believe in one of these stories I wanna tell and help me raise an actual budget. But I’m a loner, Dotty. A rebel.
THR: Finally, what is your prediction for the exact date of the end of the world? I promise I won’t hold it against you if you’re wrong.
MC: You know society’s rebooted a few times?
