Exclusive interview with Jeff Brookshire,
writer/director of Awaken the Dead
Best-Horror-Movies.com
gets the lowdown from the Minister's son, Writer/Director of Awaken
the Dead. Now in post-production and nearing a distribution
contract, this future horror movie represents the result when you
combine a serious movie-script writer, a Horror Freak and the son of a
Presbyterian Minister.
Written by BHM Editor
Don Sumner April, 2006
Horror
Film:Awaken the Dead Release: Sometime in 2006 Written/directed by: Jeff Brookshire
Starring:
Gary Douglas Kohn as Christopher Lindsey Morris as Mary Nate Witty as Stanley Michael Robert Nyman as Jeremiah Paul Dion Monte as Nick
The Movie:
Here is an excerpt from
Brookshire's first communication with Best-Horror-Movies.com:
AWAKEN
THE DEAD, a new kind of horror movie, is in post production with an
expected completion date of late June/early July. What goes around,
comes around and that has never been more true than in this darkly
humorous story. The main character, a disenfranchised priest named
Christopher, lives a lifeless existence wracked with guilt over those
he killed in his former life as a government assassin. He has embraced
the church and forsworn violence. Ironically, he is thrust into
situation where violence may be his only hope. Mary, a snappish recluse
who wants nothing more than to hide from the world away from people, is
forced not only to endure intrusion after intrusion but to realize that
embracing the outside world may be her only hope. And so on.
Sounds
pretty good to me. After looking at
the pictures and talking with Brookshire, there definitely seems to be
some promise to the film. According to Brookshire Awaken the
Dead is about conflict - not just the obvious conflict
between rotting undead freaky zombies and the
heroes trying to defeat them, but inner conflict as well. "A zombie
film with a story" as the writer puts it...
I can't wait until the Zombie
Master Lee R. gets his grubby mitts on this one. He
will be the first to tell us if the proportion of "zombie film" to
"story" is acceptable and well done. Brookshire claims that the dark
humor and story-line will appeal to those who enjoyed Shaun
of the Dead
and we LOVE that movie here. Yes, we shall see...
Best-Horror-Movies.com will be
there at the first screening of Awaken the Dead in
Los Angeles, and everyone will know how it goes the NEXT DAY!
The
Director:
Best-Horror-Movies.com
caught up with Jeff Brookshire on April 24 2006. We talked about some
of the usual things at first: How old are you (42), how many horror
films have you directed (0), how long did it take to film Awaken
the Dead (2 weeks) and what was the budget (wouldn't say).
Then We Got Down to
Business.
I wanted to know what inspires a
guy to create a zombie movie about a priest. He answered that the
intention was not to "create a zombie movie", but to create a good
movie that had zombies in it. According to Brookshire there are three
creative steps involved in any movie project: The writer (creates), the
director (interprets) and the editor (revises). Brookshire, who has
written movies for others in the past (Looking for Prince
Charming was mentioned) realized that if his vision was to
transfer to the silver screen, he was going to have to fill all of
these roles himself.
"The Story
comes first", said Brookshire, "and gross-out factors are secondary.
There are GREAT gross-out factors mind you, including a bodybuilder
being ripped apart by Asian schoolgirls and a gruesome blender scene.
But it's about the story".
"Shaun of the Dead
was the inspiration. Here's a movie about zombies, but it's really a
romantic comedy about Shaun coming out of the funk of his life and
accomplishing something. Awaken the Dead is
primarily an Action/Espionage film that puts humor into every element.
There is the serious conflicted character as well as the comedic foil.
A dark comedy/horror/action film". And, there are zombies.
I was very interested in some of the specifics that go into
making a movie generally, and a horror movie specifically. Brookshire
shared lots of interesting photos, and my favorite was a shot of a
drawing used to conceive of a scene, and then a screen-shot from the
movie showing the scene in practice.
There was one thing
that I couldn't let go - why a
priest? Brookshire "claims" that the characters were dreamed up as part
of the story (blah blah blah), but then I asked about how he grew up.
"Well", said Brookshire, "My father was a Presbyterian Minister..." BINGO!
The nature of Awaken the Dead just SCREAMS
rebellion! Ok, that may be a bit over the top, but I felt like I had
gotten some pertinent information here!
Turns out everybody already
knew. So much for my future as a
sensationalist reporter.
The final question for Jeff
Brookshire, writer/director/editor of Awaken the Dead
was "Why did you choose to approach Best-Horror-Movies.com
about your project?" He answered that "Best-Horror-Movies.com is not
your typical fan site about horror movies, but a site
celebrating the best in the genre. The site appeals
to a discerning horror audience." That settled it. Jeff Brookshire is a
GENIOUS!
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The
Director:
"The Story
comes first", said Brookshire, "and gross-out factors are secondary.
There are GREAT gross-out factors mind you, including a bodybuilder
being ripped apart by Asian schoolgirls and a gruesome blender scene.
But it's about the story".
