Interview with Nobody Gets Out Alive Director Jason Christopher

Nobody Gets Out Alive is a new horror film hitting shelves/DVD February 26. According to writer/director Jason Christopher, it serves as a tribute to the horror films of yesteryear, focusing on a group of college students who run into trouble when on a camping trip. This acts as Jason’s directorial debut and, based on his answers to my questions, the man is refreshingly self aware of his work. The film does follow the typical pattern of a horror flick, but does boast plenty of gore to feast upon. Find out more about the special effects and the film below from director, Jason Christopher.

AFC: The title seems pretty telling, but does anyone make it out alive?

Jason: That’s an answer I only know, haha, and will only reveal in the sequel, which hopefully this one does decent enough to make a small sequel. The sequel will explain so much and is such a background story on the killer, Hunter Isth.

AFC: I saw that the film has won several awards already at horror festivals. In a genre that’s as over saturated as horror, how do you keep a horror film feeling fresh?

Jason: Ya know, I didn’t make a groundbreaking movie. I wanted to just make a movie that I’d love watching. Horror movies are nothing but remakes nowadays. This is a movie that you could have seen in the 70’s and 80’s and really dug it. Some people are complaining that it’s the same story already told…of course it is. But we kind of feel certain way for the killer with this one. The back drop of the story is very cliche though, I’m not going to lie. The festivals just connected with what I was trying to do.

AFC: The film was very gory and looked like practical effects. What are some of the challenges of
working with practical effects?

Jason: There was a lot of time that was dedicated for Special FX artist Lauren Palmer. She was great, she knew what I wanted and what I was going for…that old school look. There’s only 2 very very small blood splats that were CG and I hate those out of all of the other ones. That also went with the whole 70’s/80’s feel of doing the fx in a modern day movie.

AFC: You said this was a film you could see in the ’70s and ’80s. Were there any particular films that inspired the creation of the film?

Jason: Friday The 13th Part 3, Halloween 2 (81), The Prowler, Black Christmas (74), Maniac, The Intruder.

AFC: You also mentioned a sequel. Do you have that script written yet, or is it just in your head right now?

Jason: I’ve been writing a sequel…kind of just going back and forth with it because I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to actually make another one. I made a ballsy move by making this one because I really want to tell the second one. The second one would be more of like a horror/drama movie because there’s so much explaining to do with Hunter Isth and his family.

AFC: What kind of films would you like to do in the future? Stay in the horror genre?

Jason: Horror movies are without a doubt my favorite genre. I wanted to make NGOA because I wanted to say thank you to the 70’s and 80’s horror flicks that I unfortunately didn’t get to witness first hand. I was born in ’87 so I got the 90’s horror flicks, blah. But I have a Christmas movie in me that I’d love to do for my Mum haha, a family movie for my nieces and nephews, an action movie, the next one I’m getting off the ground with is a sci-fi/horror/thriller movie, it’s everywhere. I’m real excited about that.

AFC: What’s the plan for Nobody Gets Out Alive? Will it hit theaters, more festivals, or DVD?
NGOA will be out on DVD/VOD/RedBox/Netflix on 2/26/13. In other countries it’s under the title Punishment. It came out in Greece and Sweden the past couple weeks…so it’s exciting but I’m nervous. No more festivals…this flick took technically 8 years of my life. I wrote the script when I was 17 and it’s coming out now when I’m 25…so I won’t be looking back at this movie after I’m done with the promotion and stuff…time to move on and hopefully do a sequel in a couple years 😉

Thanks Jason!

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!