I should first clarify that this interview isn’t with ALL of the V/H/S: Viral filmmakers, as “Team Bonestorm” conducted their own separate interview. Walking into the creepy haunted-house-looking karaoke room in Alamo South Lamar’s adjoining bar (The Highball), I was greeted by Gregg Bishop (“Dante The Great”), his lead actor Justin Welborn, Marcel Sarmiento (tasked with creating the wrap story), and Nacho Vigalondo (“Parallel Monsters”). Please note that Nacho is sleepy in this picture because he devoured an order of Nacho’s Nachos in a bout of Nacho-ception. Yup, only at Fantastic Fest do you get quality bits like that!
Following in the footsteps of their V/H/S brethren, these fearless filmmakers all approached the found footage genre with their own unique spins for what I believe is the best V/H/S compilation yet. As I stated in my Fantastic Fest review, the overall quality of the segments flows on a continual high, with the film’s lows still remaining fairly entertaining. Between a murderous magician, monstrous genitalia, a renegade ice cream truck and what I dubbed “Skate Punk Call Of Duty,” Halloween has another great anthology horror movie prime for seasonal viewing.
Just so you understand the tone of the following interview, I walked into a room with empty shot glasses, a table full of Hot Toddies, and happy filmmakers sining karaoke without the machine even being on. I really wish all interviews could be this fun.
Check it out below, and enjoy!
WGTC: When you participate in an anthology film such as V/H/S: Viral, is there a competitive nature where you’re trying to out-do the other filmmakers? Is it almost like keeping score?
Gregg Bishop: It’s a friendly competition. It’s like “Oh, Nacho is involved? I’ve got to up my game, Wait, Marcel is involved? I’ve got to up my game.” You’ve got to bring it!
Marcel Sarmiento: Competition is the wrong word, though. I got inspired being part of this group.
Nacho Vigalondo: I hate the word competition, but the real competition isn’t between us filmmakers, it’s V/H/S: Viral against the previous V/H/S movies, because you want to make something surprising. Not necessarily better, but different from the previous ones. You’re competing against everything that’s been done before. By the time I’m making my segment, I don’t know what these guys are doing. I’m not really competing against them, because I don’t know what their resulting projects are…
Gregg Bishop: The thing with the first two films is every single segment is different. We don’t want to do anything that’s been done before. That was our goal, to really make sure everything we were doing was different and unique.