Live Evil – Vampires In Danger of Extinction

liveevilIn a world where humans continuously pollute both the earth and their bodies, how do vampires survive? The answer is, they don’t. Set in the near future, Live Evil is a fun flick with a moral. You might have to dig through buckets of gore and sticky chunks of brain matter to find it, but the moral of the story is there. In this world, the few vampires that are left come in all kinds of varieties; daywalkers, the classic ‘burst-into-flames-in-sunlight’ variety, and even vampires with fangs in their hands! The problem for one group of vampires isn’t just survival with a growing lack of edible human blood, but now there’s a vendetta crazed priest on their tale! And he’s bringing his sassy ass-kicking sidekick along with him for the ride.

So you take a world bringing itself closer and closer to extinction, throw in some malnourished vampires, a cranky priest, and a mean black chick into the mix, and what do you come up with? Plenty of gore, and a little bit of a warning: if vampires puke when they eat us, maybe it’s time we started living healthier lives, huh? Live Evil will be in theaters September 18th, and you can check it out on DVD on November 3rd! Check out LiveEvilTheMovie.com for more info, trailers, and lots of other cool stuff about the film. If you’re coming to the Darkness convention, Gathering 2009, I’ll have a bunch of Live Evil swag for giveaways.

The Live Evil Official Trailer!

Exclusive Interview with Live Evil Producer Mark Terry!

Q. What was it like working with the legendary horror actor, Ken Foree?

A:  Ken was great to work with obviously.  Not sure who makes a horror movie and isn’t a huge fan of Dawn of the Dead.  I am such a big fan of that movie I have even been to the Monroeville Mall.

Ken was very easy to work with on set even when there were minor problems.  One example of that is we had real bad catering one day.  Typically we just bought or made our own food on set.  For Ken we tried to hire a caterer and the food didn’t turn out very good.  Ken was totally cool and never complained.

Back_04Q. What inspired the film; were any books or films particularly influential?

A: There were actually 5 or 6 people who had some type of input on the script.  The director, Jay Woelfel and myself brought the majority of the stuff you see on screen.  The majority of the writing credit should go to Jay Woelfel.

I always loved the basis of bad blood in the story.  It’s kind of a nice moral.  However, as a producer and a person with a stunt background, action films were something that was a big influence especially the ones that had a horror edge.  Cobra, Near Dark, Silent Rage and even the newest Rambo are an influence.  There is something to be said for mixing the two genres.

Q. Do you have any funny stories from behind the scenes, while making the movie?

A: I have told this story before, but we almost had a serious accident on set.  Believe it or not it had nothing to do with any of the complex stunts in the movies.

During the bar scene The Priest (Tim Thomerson) and Desert Bartender (Chuck Williams) had an exchange.  During one take Thomerson slung his bag of weapons on the bar top.  It looked cool so Jay asked him to do it again.  During take two Thomerson gave it a little more force and the samurai sword flew over Chuck Williams’ head.  It was a close call and everyone got a good laugh after we realized no one had any deep gashes

Q. So, when you saw the final cut of the movie, who were you rooting for? Vampires, humans, or the priest?

A:  With out question The Priest is the guy I rooted for through out the movie.  It’s really a major reason I started this project from scratch when no one wanted anything to do with it.  This film is intended to be a Tim Thomerson fan’s wet dream.

Live_Evil poster2Q. Who do you think viewers are going to identify with most, because of the film’s basic premise that humans have polluted the world to the point where human blood is actually unfit for vampires?

A:  That’s a tough question cause there are no clear-cut “good guys” in this movie.  Tim Thomerson as the The Priest has the most back-story in this cut of the movie.  He is likely the most familiar actor in a major role in the film as well.

It’s really up to the viewer though.  Some people will root for The Priest while others will root for the vampires.

Q. I love the classic vampire revenge scenario with the environmentalist spin on things; was the world’s current environmental situation part of the inspiration?

A:   Not really.  There is nothing more that I hate than when young, unknown filmmakers try to put in some political message into a movie.  This movie in a light and unobtrusive way is quietly suggesting you should be careful with your body.

Back_01Q. The vampires eating babies scene was pretty rough, how did the actors feel about performing something usually considered too taboo for even horror films?

A:  I never heard a peep from any actor about problems or issues with the baby scene.  Thomerson loved it by the way.  Jay Woelfel has told me the baby scene is the reason he wanted to do the movie.

It seemed like all the cast and crew enjoyed doing the scene.

I had a chance to sit in with a few audiences during our film festival run.  There were the occasional couple that would get offended but the reaction with a crowd in person is worth the price of a ticket.

Q. Who was your favorite character in the film?

A:  It would be real easy for me to say The Priest or the character I played in the movie, David.  I played the dirty grunge guy that Yeal kills in her first scene.  Wait, how did the producer get a role like that?

The answer to my favorite character is Baxter.  Baxter is the one that I had the most dealing with in building his back-story.  The original script showed Baxter as some manila foreigner with an accent.

When Jay Woelfel was rewriting the script I suggested that Baxter be a former actor from the silent era of movies.  The idea came from one of my favorite movies, “Highlander.”  If someone could live forever what if they were famous once or at a real important event in history?

Baxter was a silent film actor who went vampire to stay young forever.  When sound came in his thick accent ruined his career.  He began to live on the outskirts of Los Angeles but was always bitter about not being able to be in the industry he loved.

Jay took the character and ran with it.  Baxter wears a bad wig and hides his features as he thinks people may recognize him.  No one does as we find out in the party scene.

I feel that Greg Kenzo Kenyon did a great job pulling off this character.

Back_02Q. The vampires with teeth in their hands were pretty trippy, where did that wild card come from?

A:  This once again was totally a Jay Woelfel creation.  The original script that I optioned with co-producer, Beau Unger, had many of these scenes in basic form.  However, the problem was there was no pay off in any of them.  Vampires go steal babies, vampires kill cops, and lastly, characters that had no true development.

Jay Woelfel worked really hard to makes these scenes have a pay off and a point.

Q. What was your favorite scene?

A:  This question is two fold.  As a fan I love the baby vampire scene.  The worst thing any performer can have happen to them is getting no reaction from the audience.  Even a bad reaction is better than nothing.  There is no question this baby vampire scene turns heads.

As a producer my favorite scene is the first car chase.  It was by far the most difficult two days of shooting in our 42 day schedule.  I would go as far as saying the most difficult thing I have ever put together.  There are so many stories just from this shoot from using a rental car with full insurance to a 68-year-old man doing a pipe ramp to us using the Russian Arm Camera Car Crane.  We did not have the budget or manpower to be able to pull something off like this but we did with flying colors.

Q. Will there be a sequel to Live Evil?

A:  I doubt it, but I would never count it out.  Thomerson has already asked me 3 times about doing another one.  We even joked about The Priest relocating to a dry town in Utah where vampires are feeding on unpolluted humans.  There was some talk of a Young Priest as well.

The simple fact is if there were a person out there that had funding it wouldn’t be hard to put the band back together.  As the person who found 100% of the funding on this one and built the project from nothing, I know a sequel isn’t something I am ready to invest 2 years of my life in right now.

Q. Finally, can you tell us about some of your other projects that are currently underway?

A: I have a film that I am in the process of rewriting called “Accidental Collision.”  The movie is about a Las Vegas casino owner who is trying to save his dying jungle themed establishment.  He gets information that the gold from the mythical city El Dorado exists in the Amazon.  A group of people is sent down there to take it for an exhibit at the casino.  It’s an attempt to attract attention to his casino and make it a destination point again.  The problem is the gold is guarded by a savage group of Indians that have never had out side human contact.  Think Cannibal Holocaust mixed with Lone Wolf McQuade and you will have an idea of what we are going after next.

In May I visited the Amazon and met with some local Brazilian producers.  I even got the chance to scout some real life Indian villages.  If I could pull this off we may have something very unique.

By annimi

Ashley writes for Vampires.com, Werewolves.com, and other sites in the Darksites Network. She's involved in several seedy and disreputable activities, smokes too much, and spends her late nights procrastinating for work on her first novel.

7 comments

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  3. This interview is funny because anybody who know Mark Terry knows he is a famed liar in the film business. Might I point out some of these lies in this interview…..

    Q. What inspired the film; were any books or films particularly influential?

    MT Answer: There were actually 5 or 6 people who had some type of input on the script. The director, Jay Woelfel and myself brought the majority of the stuff you see on screen.

    The TRUTH: the screenplay was written by 3 writers and then it was adapted by Woelfer who added a coule of scenes and . A large part of the original script made it into the movie and the original writers arn't getting the credit due to Producer Mark Terry holding a grudge.

  4. Q. The vampires eating babies scene was pretty rough, how did the actors feel about performing?

    MT Answer: I never heard a peep from any actor about problems or issues with the baby scene. Jay Woelfel has told me the baby scene is the reason he wanted to do the movie.

    THE TRUTH Because he didn't write the original script or come up the characters or story.

    MARK TERRY: As the person who found 100% of the funding on this one and built the project from nothing

    THE TRUTH; The entire opening of the movie in the desert at the diner were filmed by the original writers.

    FACT is Mark Terry is liar and a bad producer.

    Mike S.

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  6. You need yo deal with the real issue’s at hand. Such as, the reality that we are real. We are not dieing out. Merely being more cautious about revealing ourselves. You may think you know what you are doing,but do you?

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