Q: First of all, what's your favorite scary movie?
A: The Bride of Frankenstein.  Hands down, the most emotionally resonant and empathy inducing film that exists today.

Q: Is this your first time directing?  If not, any other projects us slasher fans should know about?
A: Definitely not.  Like every other Joe, I've been making films since I was 13 years old - as a way to meet girls - dressing my friends up as killers and attacking all the pretty ones we had crushes on.  Everyone wants to be an actress!
Most recently I completed a comedy called Lament to Roswell about a woman who claims she was abducted and impregnated by aliens - and now seeks camaraderie in a protest for stricter outer space policing laws, so it never happens again.  We're currently shopping it around.

Q: Any other experience in the film industry?
A: A few years back I did Art Department work on a couple productions here in New Mexico, but nothing I would brag about - except for No Country for Old Men - which I feel deserved everything it got.

Q: Did you always want to direct?  If so, are you making the films you've always wanted to make, horror films, or does your heart lie in a different genre?
A: It seems more and more these days I'm directing to advance my screenwriting.  It may be low budget and juvenile, but I don't trust anyone else to make my movie the way I see it - so that's turned me into a director, producer, special effects artist, and sometimes editor.  Half of the end credit scroll is fake, and should be replaced with my name.
Screenwriting is where it's at for me right now - and the horror genre is absolutely the genre I call home.  It's never let me down.

Q: Are there any directors in particular who have really inspired you?
A: Always.  Pretty much anyone who can succeed in making a feature film hit a big screen somewhere is a hero to me.  I'm going to go with Edgar G. Ulmer - for his invincibility under monetary and time pressures, F.W. Murnau - for his ridiculously brilliant visuals, and James Whale - for his sense of humor in light of his universal understanding of society's pitch black underbelly.

Q: Okay, enough about you...let's talk about your movie.  How long did it take you to shoot This Side of Nightmare?
A: $500 and ten hours.

Q: Did it play any festivals?  If so, did it win anything?
A: No!  We were very disappointed.  However, we have nabbed distribution deals from Indieflix.com, Bigstar.tv, American Horrors, and most recently AAAAAH!! Indie Horror Hits - so that kind of makes up for it.

Q: Now, the short itself delves into a variety of topics.  One of the more important topics, in my opinion, was homosexuality.  Not just homosexuality, but also homophobia.  Were these topics that you just chose to cover or do they hold some kind of personal semblance?
A: When I was growing up the only image that never ceased to scare the living shit out of me was a KKK hood.  I think intolerance is something that hits much deeper than a masked terror slaughtering college kids at Camp Blood.  Imagine if Jason had a deep seated hatred of African Americans...it would turn those movies upside down and bring the horror home.
Homophobes are a scary lot - because all logical thinking has decayed into one large, unwavering violent mass.  The best scary flicks, in my opinion, are the ones that put the protagonists up against their neighbors - who turn out to be incredibly evil for whatever reason, religious intolerance or otherwise.  Not only because the supposed normalcy of the event is shocking, but it also rings true to society at all times and places.  Murderers are people too, and yes, they actually do live next door.

Q: Another topic that runs through this short's veins is that of religion.  Would you say you're a religious man?
A: I was raised as one, and I've always admired those who can dedicate themselves to one thing so wholeheartedly, but no - I don't practice.

Q: Alright, we covered some of the topics, let's talk about the look.  One of the first things that attracted me to This Side of Nightmare was the fact that about half way through it switches from color to black and white.  If I may, I'd like to know your reasoning behind it?
A: Honestly, it was 100% an afterthought, dreamt up in the shower about two months ago.  In the end, I just thought it looked cool and I'd never seen it done that way before.  Hopefully people can draw some easy symbolism from it and take away something they wouldn't have otherwise.

Q: Do you think This Side of Nightmare will become a full length feature anytime in the future?
A: I don't think, I know!  We're shooting this summer with a new title: Never Knows Best, and it's going to be very different and very extreme.  Look for it, hopefully, sometime next year.