TLD: Welcome Scott, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us, to get things started how about a little about yourself? What is your background in horror? And what got you interested in the industry?
Scott: I direct TV news in the Seattle market, but I've always wanted to do something in the entertainment realm. So that's why we decided to do something fun. I have to be honest, the Horror genre was not my first love. I'm more of an Action/Comedy type of guy. So me and some co-workers were kicking around some ideas of what project we should do, and somehow we whittled it down to Mormon Zombies. It seemed like an attention grabber. Nobody thought I was serious until I wrote a 7 page short story and dropped it in their laps. I got their attention, and after several re-writes, I handed it off to Erik Van Sant who had some screen writing experience, and he turned it into a feature film.
TLD: "The Book of Zombie" is your first film correct? Do you plan on making your home in the horror genre? Or is it just a starting point of sorts for yourself?
Scott: TBOZ is our first project and it made me a bigger fan of Horror films. As long as I get to be creative, I don't really care what the next project is. TBOZ is definitely a starting point for me, I hope it leads to more projects.
TLD: I have to admit man, Mormon zombies has to be one of the most unique takes on the genre I have ever witnessed, and the fact you came up with a special method needed in order to kill them, instead of taking the easy way out and just using the same old zombie formula but having the film set in a Mormon community speaks volume about your creative side. How did this idea come to be? Have you had any fallout from the Mormon community?
Scott: The idea of Mormon Zombies was basically something that I thought would grab the Youtube generation's attention. In fact, when I wrote the short story, it was originally titled "MORMON ZOMBIES", because we wanted people to be intrigued just from the title. Some of the ideas were based on one of my trips to Southern Utah where I got to witness some interesting stuff, but we haven't had any bad fallout from the Mormon community. We've actually had nothing but positive feedback from Mormons. Erik Van Sant (writer/co-director) and I, actually did an interview for a Mormon reporter and we had a blast answering his questions, and I think the reporter liked us even more after the interview.
TLD: The gore in "The Book of Zombie" was nothing shy of gorgeous, and from what I saw all practical latex and buckets of blood, do you prefer this method over CG? And while we are on the subject what is your take on many studios now going that route even for things that can easily be done practically?
TLD: So Scott, do you have any future projects you're able to talk about? Anything coming up for those craving to see what your capable of after such a flawless debut?
Scott: I have a couple projects on the horizon but we are still putting a huge amount of time into TBOZ. We are working the festival circuit trying to drum up a possible distribution deal. If nothing hits soon, then we'll just sell our DVD off the website. But we're in no hurry right now, we want TBOZ to get to as many people through festivals as possible. TBOZ was just in Scotland at the DEAD BY DAWN festival and we got a great reaction over there as well. It's been great to see all the positive comments we've received.
TLD: If you could remake any IP with no restriction to budget, what would you choose and who would you like to be involved with the project as far as casts go?
Scott: If I could redo one thing about this film, it would be to take our time. We were under a strict deadline by the City of Auburn to shoot our movie in 4 months and then they were going to knock the buildings down for re-development. So we definitely made some rookie mistakes in the shooting that I think we could have avoided if we weren't under such a crazy deadline. But all in all, I'm very proud of the final product.
TLD: While on the subject of budgets, what did you spend on "The Book of Zombie" if you don't mind talking about it? Did you pick up any tricks of the trade working on a indie budget that you would like to share with some future film makers out there working on a shoe string budget?
Scott: We only spent around 15 thousand dollars for this film. And it was mostly out of our own pockets with a few donations. We were extremely lucky with TBOZ, we were able to get everyone to donate their time to this project. Actors, Crew, equipment, we just kept on calling in favors and everyone did it for free, it was great to see that kind of response.
TLD: Quick Save one, Kill one, Eat one! Betty White, Vanilla Ice, and The cast of "Little House on The Prairie" Go!
Scott: Save Betty White, Kill Vanilla Ice, and eat one of the Little Prairie kids.
TLD: Which statement do you most agree with? Real zombies are reanimated corpses that were once deceased and have a slow pace of movement or zombies can be created by various means and run like cheetahs?
Scott: I know its controversial to say fast zombies, but I'll be honest, slow moving zombies just aren't that scary to me. When I first saw 28 days later, it scared the crap out of me. I know some other films have tried to do the fast zombie thing (with less success) but damn , fast zombies are just more creepy. (Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake is one of my favorite zombie films, and he was able to successfully blend slow and fast zombies)
TLD: Who do you consider to be the king of zombies? Romero? Fulci? someone else?
Scott: The King of Zombies will always be Romero. I know he hasn't hit on all cylinders lately, but he's the man. Fulci did some great things and some of them even better than Romero, but Romero is King.
TLD: If you had to choose one film from 2010 so far that just rocked your socks horror wise, what would it be?
Scott: I can't speak for any Horror films in 2010 just yet, but let me just say that THE GRUDGE messed me up. And I'm talking the American version. I didn't know that Ju-On (the Korean version) was first, so I saw the American version without any expectations, and it blew me away. I was looking at shadows differently for a week.
TLD: Alright Scott your trapped inside a two story barn with only the following items, a container of gasoline, A Pistol with 3 bullets, A pitchfork, A rope, and the keys to a truck that is exactly 30 yards from the entrance. The Barn has become totally surrounded by the undead and your time is running out, what do you do?
Scott: From the second floor, I throw the container of gas at the closest zombies, shoot one round at the container and blow it up to clear a path. Tie the rope to the pitchfork, bury the pitchfork in the rafter, swing myself down to the ground and run like hell for the truck. If things go bad, I still have one bullet for another zombie and one for myself.
TLD: Before we take off, is there anything else you'd like to say to our readers Scott? Anything you want to pimp or plug to all the sick fucks out there that call The Liberal Dead home? Words of wisdom? Warning of the end is near?
Scott: Last note, I just want to say that TBOZ was done by a bunch of dudes who just wanted to be creative. This movie was a real team effort. There are too many names to list here that I want to thank, but we would have never finished this film if we had lost anyone that is on our crew list.
When we finally do print the DVD, it will have a one hour behind the scenes section that details how a bunch of regulars like ourselves pulled this movie off. So stay tuned.
(note: Scott is one of the 3 writers/directors on this project along side Paul Cranefield and Erik Van Sant)
TLD: There you have it everyone the writer and director of the sure to be cult classic "The Book of Zombie", Scott Kragelund. Be sure to check out "The Book of Zombie" and be prepared to fall in love with the genre all over again.
- Ted "Ritualistic" Brown
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