Interview with Jeremy Garner and The Vocabulariast: creators of All Hell Breaks Loose!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview Jeremy Garner and the mysterious man known only as The Vocabulariast, the writer and director respectively of upcoming horror/comedy/exploitation film “All Hell Breaks Loose”. They were kind enough to allow us to screen their film (review can be found HERE) and I followed up with an interview to find out about some of what went into the film.

John Lepper: I want to thanks you guys for this opportunity to interview you concerning your film and also once again thank you for the opportunity you gave me to screen it. It was a great movie! Do you mind sharing how you came up with the concept?

Jeremy Garner: I can’t exactly remember how the idea came about. One of our good friends and actor/producer in the film, Joseph Sullivan, rides a bike and is in a motorcycle club so it just kinda happened through my love of old exploitation movies and the relative ease of being able to get bikes. The story was all Vocab’s brainchild.

The Vocabulariast: It was a couple of years ago as I remember. Joseph (the guy that plays God) told Jeremy he wanted to make a biker movie. Jeremy and I had been working on a couple of short films titled A Whore Named Bitch and Into the Woods. I said I could do it. Give me a couple weeks and I’ll work something up. I like to write without influence and do my own thing. All Jeremy asked of me was that I had a seance in it, which kind of pushed me in the direction that I went. I wanted it to be different from Sons of Anarchy and Dear God No!, which were both kicking around at that time.

Jeremy Garner: That’s right haha. I wanted the satanic ritual scenes ( which you see in a lot of 70s trash movies).

JL: Awesome. So you had a genre you liked and the resources at hand to make the film you wanted. Now, Jeremy, you said you like old school exploitation films. Did either of you draw on any specific film for inspiration for All Hell Breaks Loose?

V: I tend to write with movies on in the background. One of the movies that was heavily in the rotation while I was writing was Neon Maniacs, which was definitely influential on me. The opening was essentially a tribute to that film, and though we had to shorten the scene for time and money and simplicity, I thin it was for the better. As far as my own writing style goes, the films of Alex Cox, mostly Straight to Hell and Repo Man had a heavy hand in influencing the tone I wrote the story in. The absurdity and humor come from my love for those movies and cult movies in general. I don’t think a lot of people set out to create a cult movie, but that’s what I always had in mind from the beginning.

JG: I like a wide array of genre film. From exploitation to horror, etc. I find it hard not to put tons of nods to other films in my work. Most of the time unintentional. It just kinda happens. It’s like scene from different films will stick in my brain for whatever reason and then later I’ll discover that I chopped this guy’s head off almost exactly shot for shot like they did in re animator haha. It’s all subconscious and hardly ever intentional.

That’s very true of the neon maniacs for the first scene and I like how that turned out because it feels like a really cheesy 80’s slasher for the first 8 mins and then 1 80’s into a biker film. I like fucking with people like that.

V: I was worried that we were pushing the audience too far with that switch, but it seems to play out well with the audience, so I’m happy with it.

JL: Great! I actually do similar, but with music. When I am writing a screenplay, I listen to playlists of songs with lyrics to inspire the subject matter. So, I know how you mean, Vocabulariast. And I think that subconscious imitation of minor elements is natural, Jeremy. So, you guys had a great crew of actors. Where did you find them all? Some showed real talent!

JG: A lot of them are friends that we have been working with on short films and what not. Like Joseph sullivan that plays the cowboy, hunter O’Guinn that plays El vez, April mai who plays tina, josh Frazier whom is sundown. Both dave Levick who is knucklehead and William Ross the sheriff where friends of Joseph that just had the right look and personality. The rest of the cast was picked up through casting calls.

V: Most of them were people that Jeremy or I just knew. We had to cast for a couple of roles, including Statch and Bobby Sue. Todd’s audtition was pretty funny. We were outside somme studio, and him and Danger Ehren just strolled up. I think they had come from a wedding, and they were pretty buzzed. We couldn’t get into the studio because it wasn’t ours, so Todd just did his audition on the street and nailed it. So we gave him the role of Statch and that’s how we hooked up with Danger Ehren as well. I actually wrote the role of Clarence after the main portion of the script was done. We’re very happy that he came along, as he added some great stuff to the film, and was great in the role.

JG: Yeah that was a fun day. I’m running late because of a timbers game and trying to drive through downtown that was full of soccer hooligans and I finally get out to the audition. I’m walking up the sidewalk and out of nowhere some guy tries to punch me in the junk. It was danger. I’m a jackass fan so it kind.of blew me away that he was at our audition. But it turns out he rides and comes from bike culture.

JL: I love when things just fall together like that. It’s like it’s meant to be. Now, the other big thing I loved was the practical FX you guys had for the gore. It was really top notch! Any story behind that?

V: That’s all Jeremy on that one. The only thing I had to do with it was that I wrote some pretty messed up violent things, and somehow Jeremy actually managed to make the happen. His effects have always been outstanding.

JG: I’ve been playing around with fx on other people’s films for a long time. I’m really not happy with what I did on ahbl. I mean I am but, had I enough time things would have been way more epic. I fell in the trap of wearing too many hats on set and a lot suffered because of it. I’m glad you liked what we got though.

JL: Yeah, it was great! I do sfx myself, so that is one of the things I always look at in a movie. How did you learn to do that type of stuff, Jeremy?

JG: Watching movies and bts stuff.lot of youtube and experimenting.

JL: Cool. Ok, one final question before I let you guys go. What’s next? Do you have any plans for the future, for this project or others?

V: Oh yeah… huge plans.

JG: Yes. We are sitting on a pile of great scripts. It’s just all about the money at this point. Next big project would be Desecration. It’s like Bava’s Demons mixed with some From Dusk till Dawn with a sprinkle of Evil Dead. I’m way excited for it.

V: We’re trying to see what kind of deal we can get for All Hell Breaks Loose, and then we’re moving on to our next film, Desecration, which is in the same vein as AHBL, but definitely a little darker. It’s still got the humor and weirdness of AHBL, but it’s definitely more brutal. I’ve got tons of scripts that I wrote, so we always have ideas. We were talking about it last night, and we probably have 4 movies ready to go into pre-production, but Desecration is the one we want to do next. Jeremy could probably hook you up with the promo trailer if you’re interested.

JG: Just take into consideration this was done for zero budget haha

Desecration Proof of Concept Teaser:

JL: That’s sounds amazing! Be sure to keep me posted! Well, thanks for taking the time for this interview, guys. I loved the movie. I see it being pretty popular. Good luck in your future films and keep in touch!

V: Thanks John. If you have any follow up questions or need clarification on something, just shoot it our way. Later.

JG: Yeah thank you, John. This has been fun.

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