Director Lance Weiler can’t stay out of the woods.

You remember Lance Weiler don’t you? In 1998 he co-wrote and co-directed The Last Broadcast. That was the historic indie film that was simultaneously screened in numerous theaters around the country via then-groundbreaking satellite technology. It seemed to be the techno wave of movie exhibition’s future, and though occasionally someone in the movie business predicts that satellite broadcasts will soon supersede celluloid, it hasn’t yet come to pass, partially because DVDs and digital home download have edged it out.

The Last Broadcast was also famous for turning out to be a potential inspiration for The Blair Witch Project, sort of the way that City on Fire popped up surprisingly as a precursor to Reservoir Dogs. They tell similar tales. In The Last Broadcast, some filmmakers and a “psychic” take to the Pine Barrens in search of the Jersey Devil. The film features some beautiful footage of the woods by day and night The Last Broadcast proved to be a true indie film (made for $900 dollars), that proved to be a well-made and cleverly twisted tale of hubris and insanity.

His latest film, the excellent Head Trauma, also shows traces of the lure of the forest (as does his next film, but more about that in a minute), and Weiler, helming and writing alone this time (his cinematic partner, Stefan Avalos, has his own shot-on-and-sent-direct-to video film, The Ghosts of Edendale, from 2003. Those familiar with Last Broadcast will see similar themes: mysterious figures in the forest, interpersonal incompetence, hubris, and a narrative twist that takes the center of the film and points it back at itself (if that makes any sense).

Head Trauma tells the story of one George Walker (Vince Mola, a sort of Francis Ford Coppola clone). After living on the road or in the streets for some 20 years, he returns to the home of his late grandmother, now a condemned structure in a lower middle class neighborhood. With the help of Julian (Jamil A.C. Mangan) the African American youth next door, who is also a gifted cartoonist, George attempts to clean up the house and rescind the condemnation, in the face of obstacles from an old high school rival who stands to profit from its destruction. Also impeding George’s labors are the bad dreams he has, in which mysterious images rattle around in his head, among them a small feminine figure whose features are obscured by a large hood (like the running girl in Don’t Look Now), and some disturbing activity in a wooded field, a hanging and a large sleeping bag being hauled away.

 

Head Trauma </i> is a psychological thriller of precision and insight. George is a not particularly sympathetic character, it soon turns out, and he tends to destroy potential relationships before they even happen, especially with an old flame from the neighborhood, Mary (Mary Monahan). He doesn’t need his old rival to sabotage his house, as George is fully capable of sabotaging himself.

Although at first it seems like Head Trauma is going to be an “old dark house” horror film, it is in reality loosely part of the tradition of thrillers that include An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart, speaking broadly, but with some of the suspense created by the unseen and by psychological tensions found in the films of Polanski and Roeg. Weiler has a knack for making empty rooms in daylight and the woods in the afternoon feel ominous.

Weiler’s script is a lean, mean machine, with no fat on it and with little or anything that can qualify as a subplot. The film is creepy, with additional help from the excellent music and sound production, and — in a phase that I hope will soon disappear from the reviewer’s syntax — for a film shot on HD video looks fantastic, very controlled and precise. There are even superb arial shots.

Head Trauma was released theatrically in several markets in mid-August, before its September 26 release on DVD on the Heretic label. Despite Weiler’s hectic schedule I managed to extract a brief interview with him about his cinematic past, present, and future. Weiler proved to be an ageless lad who could easily have a career in front of the camera as behind it, and is an articulate, passionate lover of movies of all kinds.

It seems to me that the movie industry is a little short sighted in not taking up the technological breakthroughs established in your first film. Having made the history-making The Last Broadcast, did you still find it hard to capitalize on its success to advance to the “next step” of your career, so to speak?

In some respects yes and others no. In a lot of ways we were ahead of the curve in terms of the way we made and distributed TLB. So we found ourselves at a strange place. On one hand people respected what we’d done on the other they had no clue. Sometimes people get hung up on aspects of the work. For instance they’d say TLB – that’s a nice documentary but can you do narrative? They miss the point. Sometimes the tech aspects got in the way of the story but I think it’s always some type of a struggle to get the work made and to get it seen.

What was the genesis of Head Trauma?
HEAD TRAUMA comes out of two life experiences that took me very dark places The first was a head on collision with a garbage truck that almost killed me. Twelve years ago I was laying in a hospital bed with a severe head injury and my jaw wired shut. I could have died that day, stupidly I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt – my jaw snapped the steering wheel and my head busted the windshield and thankfully I lost consciousness. After the accident I was plagued by vivid nightmares of the crash until one day they just stopped.

Flash forward to 2000 and I’m pitching a TV show to some major networks. After a year of pitching we land at a network and after a roller coaster ride that takes another two years of the show being on again / off again we received money to shoot a pilot. Working on the show ranks as one of the worst professional experiences I’ve had. At times it really felt like I was a tenant farmer not a co-creator executive of a major network show. In the end we shot a great pilot but it died a slow painful death and I felt like I went through the five stages of grief.So in the winter of 2003 when I was feeling like shit and unsure of what to do a couple simple words change my path. I owe a huge thanks to my wife Jennifer for simply saying “Do what you love just make another movie.” It’s so simple and obvious but at the time I was out of my head. And that’s the series of events that created HEAD TRAUMA.

 

Why make a “horror” film? Why that genre,rather than another, or just a straightforward drama? What does horror offer you or inspire in you that, at least in this case, creatively you can’t get elsewhere?
I love the horror genre. There is something interesting to me about exercising those demons, those dark things that rest in one’s mind – it’s a way to get them out of your own head and do something productive with them. I’ve had some dark times in my life. When I was younger I drown and at the age of 14 my house burnt down, and then a number of years ago I was in a horrible car accident. I always like to have some autobiographical element within my films. Water and fire play an important role within HEAD TRAUMA as does the concept of a blow to the head.

Given that it is a lot easier to make movies these days, what remains the most difficult aspect of filmmaking?
By far the most difficult aspect of filmmaking these days isn’t a production issue it’s a promotion / distribution issue. With over 20,000 feature films being made due to the boom in digital production the chances of a film being seen past a film festival are rare. On top of that releasing a truly independent film into today’s market with out millions for P&A can be very difficult. But thanks to the web there are ways to build an audience and get the word out in very effective ways. For instance the web comic for HEAD TRAUMA is not a normal film site http://headtraumamovie.com – it is an interactive comic with some twisted stuff hidden under the surface. It becomes an extension of the story. Now more than ever it is important to create extra value for the fans. With HEAD TRAUMA I’m working hard to give a good presentation from start to finish. I’ve been on the other end and I know what type of things hook me in – that is really the issue knowing your audience and then the trick is finding a way to get the work to them.

Can you give us a hint about what you might be working on next?
Yeah it’s a really dark and twisted flick set in the remote wilderness. It’s based on an actual experience of my life that occurred while I hiked a part of the Application Trail called the “Wilderness.” The AT is a wild place and being alone for 10 to 12 days with no civilization in sight can be a very creepy.

Here’s a preview of the supplements on the Head Trauma disc. Not only is there a detailed audio commentary track with Weiler, but there are several relatively short but informative makings ofs, one about how the crew blew up a car, another on the man who help shot the ariel shots, an interview with comic book artist S. R. Bissette and his son on the comics they created for the film, some cast interviews, and a piece on the film’s music. Bissette will be very familiar to readers of QuickStopEntertainment as one of the artists on Swamp Thing and numerous other comics, including some independent work in recent years.

As with the extras on The Last Broadcast, the supplements are uninhibited, and Weiler and his collaborators are articulate raconteurs. Finally, there are trailers for both Head Trauma and The Last Broadcast.

Comments: None