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by Rich Caron
August 29th marked the day when indie director Brian Paulin saw his 2004 film Bone Sickness make its way to full-scale distribution courtesy of Unearthed Films.
While available on Paulin's website (morbidvisionfilms.com) for some time now, the Unearthed release has been packed with ample quantities of extra gore shot especially for this Special Edition DVD.
I had a chance to speak with the man who has not only created one of the nastiest zombie epics since Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, but one of the goriest movies ever filmed.
GASPetc: How did you get the idea for Bone Sickness?
Brian Paulin: For years people kept saying to us that they would like to see what we would do with a zombie movie. Back in the beginning of 2002 there had not been any new zombie films out in quite a long time, so I figured maybe it was the right time to go for it. I actually had the title Bone Sickness before there was a movie and once I thought to fit it with a zombie film, I tried to think of a story around the title. That worked out well because I wanted to create a new reason for the zombies to rise. I also wanted to have more going on in the story than just the zombies. I thought it would be interesting to incorporate the mythology of goblins inhabiting graveyards, and the story grew from there.
GASPetc: Who were your influences in your style of the zombies?
BP: Lucio Fulci and the European zombies. And probably any drawing or painting I had ever seen of skeletal, rotted zombies. I love the image of a decayed skeletal creature pulling itself out of it's own grave. Fulci's slow, dusty zombies are my favorite. And of course George Romero's films also inspired me.
GASPetc: What was the film's budget?
BP: There was no budget. My co-producer Rich George and myself have full time jobs and paid for eveything out of out own pockets. But we have been doing this since 1990 so I already owned all the video equipment and already had all the special make-up supplies in stock since I do effects. During the year and a half it took the film Bone Sickness we may have spent about $2000 on cars to wreck, actresses, zombies clothes, and what ever props we needed as we went along.
GASPetc: The film is basically wall-to-wall gore with extremely well crafted FX. Did you at any point think that you were pushing the envelope too far?
BP: Never. We knew we wanted to go as far as we could with the gore and the Unearthed Films version allowed us the chance to go back and add even more. I don't think anything went too far. Some people might think the baby being torn from the pregnant women might have been a bit much, but there are other movies with scenes like that. I can still sit here and think of so much more I could have done. Just wait until you see the things we have planned for the sequel if it happens. The gore will be alot more vicious!
GASPetc: How did the actors deal with the gore?
BP: Everyone loved it. Making movies at this level usually means the people you are using have never been around special make-up effects before so they find it fascinating. Sometimes they don't realize how soaked they are going to get with the blood.
GASPetc: Actor Rich George went full throttle with this film with car stunts, set on fire, and ingesting worms. Was he really up to the task or did you have to persuade him a little?
BP: Rich was part of a stunt group in Connecticut a few years back so he had been trained how to roll cars and how to take falls. The group disbanded so he drove his first car roll and performed his body burn in our films. He loves doing the stunts and the finale chaos scene provided an open opportunity to do what ever he wanted. When I came up wit the idea of the worm vomiting scene I really didn't have to coax him into it. I said, "I've got this idea". He laughed and said no problem.
GASPetc: With that said, were you aware that you were making a film that was beyond what any other shot-on-video film had?
BP: I had an idea of what was needed to go beyond what people expect from an indie movie. The full make-up zombies were a requirement and I knew Rich's stunt work would be unlike anything you usually see in an shot-on-video movie. I watched alot of other shot on video stuff and saw what made some movies impressive and we decided what we needed to do to top what others had done. I realize the acting and the technical side of Bone Sickness isn't up to what some may call professional standards, so we made sure that our stunt, action and gore resources would match, and possibly even surpass, what you would expect from a film shot for a million dollars. We pulled together everything we could with no budget.
GASPetc: Ruby Larocca is best known for her campy softcore adult/horror films. How did you manage to have her in your film?
BP: E.I. Cinema distributes my movie At Dawn They Sleep, so they hired me to direct Misty Mundae: Mummy Raider because they wanted a shoot out like what we did in At Dawn.... I thought Ruby was great and we talked alot on the set and I asked her if she would be interested in being in one of our horror movies. She said yes and she stayed at my house for the weekend and we shot all her scenes in two days. She was a complete professional and made the busy weekend shoot flow smoothly.
GASPetc: How would you compare Bone Sickness to your earlier films At Dawn They Sleep and Dead Girl On Film?
BP: Bone Sickness is by far the biggest movie we have ever done. It is similar in style as At Dawn They Sleep with the faster paced action scenes mixed with horror and gore. Something finally clicked during Bone Sickness and I now know what kind of movies I like to make. Dead Girl On Film is completely different. It is a small gritty movie that concentrates more on the characters. It was an idea I had in my head and we shot it much quicker. But something didn't quite work in the movie. It's my least favorite out of the three. Once I'm done with Fetus I am going to go back and try to fix it. I tried for a different style and it didn't work, so I want to make it feel more like what I like to do now. The good thing is that hardly anyone has seen it because we signed with a shit distributor and nobody bought their crap DVD release. But for now, Dead Girl... is dead and buried.
GASPetc: You mentioned Fetus. I am assuming that is your next project. What is that about?
BP: It's about a guy who looses his wife while giving birth to their first born child, which dies as well. He can not cope with his loss and becomes obssesed with making contact with her by any means possible. Once he begins exploring the world of necromancy, his best intensions quickly spill out into grotesque results. Fetus is by far the sickest movie I have made yet. It's brutally violent, extremely gory and goes much further than Bone Sickness did.
GASPetc: Nearly every zombie film feels it needs to wander in the 'social commentary' discussion. Did you have aspirations of doing that as well or just create a gore film?
BP: Well you see, the sick husband represented the hungry people of the world and the zombies represented mass consumerism devouring all the natural resourses...screw that shit! I'm in it for the gore! I could care less about making a statement and I don't pretend to have anything important to say. There are enough "artists" out there that think they are of higher intelligence just because they hold a camera in their hands. I just wanted to see rotted zombies tearing people to shreds. Simple as that. I'm in it for my love of the horror genre.
GASPetc: What are we expecting with the extra 10 minutes of footage you shot for Unearthed Films?
BP: A lot more gore! There are about fifteen new gore and creature effects in the movie. Some of them are effects that I wanted to do originally, but I let pass because it took so long to shoot the original version. This was a great oppurtunity to go back and create those effects I wanted to do. Plus we also filmed new scenes that help tell the story a bit better. And of course we had to expand on the worm vomiting scenes and make them worse!
GASPetc: How does it feel having Bone Sickness picked up for major distribution?
BP: Very rewarding. I spent about three years working on this movie filming the original version and the extended version. So to have a company with a reputation like Unearthed Films have interest and want to carry Bone Sickness along side films like Aftermath and the Guinea Pig series is amazing. I will admit though that I'm having regrets about the major rental store deals now. Bone Sickness is a no budget gore movie made for a target audience. But now anyone can blindly go and rent it as their Saturday night movie. Many of these people are not going to be aware of indie movies and when they see this small digital movie playing on their player, there's a very good chance they will not enjoy it.
GASPetc: Last question - will there be a Bone Sickness 2?
BP: An offer was made about a year and a half ago. But I'm still waiting and the deals keep changing, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. I didn't feel like sitting around waiting, so I decided to go and make Fetus on my own. I am now writing another script and if nothing happens soon with the sequel, I'll make this other movie I really want to do. What ever happens I do have some very extreme ideas for the zombies to continue spreading the gore in the future.
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