Horror-on-Sea Interview with ‘One Must Fall’ writer-director Antonio Pantoja

One Must Fall (2018)

Director: Antonio Pantoja

Writer: Antonio Pantoja

Starring: Vincent Lee Alston, Daniel de Weldon, Rebekah Lynn Dow, Heidi Harian, Lloyd Kaufman

A horror-comedy slasher set in the 80’s about a woman wrongfully fired from her office job and forced to take on a temporary job on a crime scene cleanup crew. With a maniacal serial killer on the loose leaving them lots of work, did he ever leave the scene of the crime?

In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask One Must Fall writer-director Antonio Pantoja a few questions about what we can expect from the film.

Q. Your horror-comedy One Must Full has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?

The film is a love letter to the 80’s slasher but also quite a bit different than the traditional slasher film. The beginning of the film has a big dose of comedy in it. So, the first act is completely different than the rest of the movie. I love building characters through humour and it’s such a stark contrast to what you see in the two final acts which in my opinion, makes the horror more impactful.

I tried really hard to write characters that you care about and want to spend time with. Even as awful as the killer in the film is, I think you’d want to spend time on screen with him and learn more about him. Of course you wouldn’t want to hang out with this guy but, I think as horror fans, we just like to watch truly despicable people on screen.

I also really tried to be as original as possible with the kills, leverage a high body count, and use as many practical effects as we could.

Q. Why did you decide to write it as a horror comedy rather than a more straightforward horror?

I personally love horror comedy! Films like Evil Dead 2 (1987), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Zombieland (2009), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2009), etc are some of my favourites. But, I think when you are dealing with a super small budget, you have to be creative on making an impact. Since we had a very small budget to work with, I felt it would be better if I lead with comedy so that when I flipped the switch and transitioned the film into a full-on horror film, it would be much more scary since you’ve been watching a comedy film for 20 minutes. I hope it worked! I just hope people give it a chance to unfold.

Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script?

I hadn’t really seen many films done in this particular format. I felt it was pretty non-traditional and a little risky. I almost didn’t do it. I knew it’d be a little more polarizing. And also, my film’s trailer doesn’t have any comedy in it, so I was concerned that I was misleading the audience with the trailer. But, I love 80’s slashers and French gore films. Films like Maniac (1980), Evil Dead 2, High Tension (2003), Inside (2007), I Saw The Devil (2010), and Frontier(s) (2008) were all huge inspirations.

Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?

I wanted to stay true to the nostalgic feel of 80’s cinema, so I opted for a set of Contax Zeiss lenses from the 80’s. I used a 1/4 Black Pro Mist filter throughout the movie for smooth highlight roll off and softness. And then I tried to use haze in most scenes like in the old Spielberg flicks like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) I love that look! But mostly, I hoped that the beginning of the film, I could accomplish a sense of mundane normalcy in her “real world” and when she enters the killer’s world it’s more dark, but colourful. I wanted there to be parallels between the killer and the douche bag boss and I felt that I could accomplish this through colour patterns and palettes. Although it was an 80’s themed film, I still wanted to maintain the modern film integrity and shoot on digital, so I opted for the RED Epic and we shot at 5K. But overall, the story informed the look more than anything.

Q. Where there any elements of the original script which you adapted during filming?

Yes! It’s pretty much all straight from the script. We didn’t do a lot of improvisation but I always highly encourage that. We had to cut a few scenes from length-sake that I really loved but didn’t drive the story forward enough. So, it was super tough to kill those darlings. I wrote the script based on the location also. I walked through it before writing and there was an old, scary looking bed there. I wrote it into the script and it was gone when we got there but we had to improvise and my amazing team (Michael Book and Katie Stewart) built a set of stairs to make the scene work. They’re amazing!

Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?

Outside of it being super cold, we were very lucky. We filmed in sub zero temperatures in the coldest winter we’ve ever had in Louisville. At one point there was a snow storm that delayed filming slightly. But, we filmed for 10 days straight. I was there about 18 hours a day and even slept in the warehouse but I would never do that to my cast and crew so their arrival times were staggered.

Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst filming?

I have soooo many. When you do a film, you become a big family. And when you commit to a project like a film, you get a chance to bring out the best in someone. So, getting to see so many people I love and adore at their very best was one of the pinnacles of my entire life and I was lucky to be there for it. I can’t believe it’s my reality that I got to be the director on the project because I would have been ecstatic to be a part of it in any way that I fit in at all, even as just a runner or a dude who cleaned the trash after everyone left. It was a life changing experience.

But, I’ll share something super funny that happened on set also. IT WAS COLD! Our amazing effects guy, Vincent Guastini was trying to shoot blood from a tube in one specific scene where someone dies a pretty tragic and horrific death. It was so cold that the blood clogged the tube and Vincent just kept pumping it. Eventually it all burst out of the tube and sprayed on every single person in a 10 foot radius (from the actor’s chest). It went in their eyes, mouths, all over their faces, everything. It was frigging hilarious and epic! We got video of it in the BTS.

Q. What makes One Must Full stand out as something different in the horror genre?

It’s a little non-traditional for a slasher and I felt I was taking a bit of a risk by writing it this way, so I hope people dig it! It’s just a really fun, entertaining film that even a non-horror fan would dig it!

Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?  

When making a film, you have a really great opportunity to make a political statement or break a stereotype and I almost felt it was my duty to subliminally feed these messages. Example; movies that I watched growing up always had great themes and undertones. You accepting a message and learning something and you didn’t realize that you were. Like in Labyrinth (1986), of course it’s a beautiful masterpiece with amazing Henson puppets. But really, you are watching a film about taking things for granted and why materialistic items are trivial.

So, in One Must Fall, I wanted to ensure that people understand the parallels between the predatory boss and the killer. One is considered humorous and one is considered vial. But, I hoped to bridge that gap.

Also, Hispanics are misrepresented in American film in general. We are always cast as an angry wife, a gangster, or a maid. This isn’t reality. Same with the LGBT community in horror. They are wrongly stereotyped. The gay man in our film is strong, brave, and loyal. This is the true stereotype. I did this with everyone. This is reality.

Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?

YES! I’m working on two projects currently!! One is a home invasion flick about a single mother who works as a mortician at night. An escape convict finds himself inside a bodybag and transported to her funeral home where he collides with the woman. The other is called Elena’s Guardian. It’s about a girl who lost her parents in a car accident and it left her severely disabled. She’s bullied and ridiculed at school and wishes for a monster to come and exact revenge on her enemies. And it does, horrifically. I’m working with Sonny Geras who did Where The Wild Things Are (2009) on it. He’s actually in the movie too! I grew up on those books and I loved the movie and I told him I wouldn’t do this without him and he agreed to do it! So we are bringing the monster to life practically. It’ll be a giant puppet just like Labyrinth or Where The Wild Things Are . I’m super pumped for that one!

Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?

I think you should just write something that excites you or something that you are passionate about! I didn’t know anything about crime scene cleanup crews but I was super interested in it! The research part was some of the most fun I had writing the script! I’d also say to try your best to maintain your artistic integrity and don’t sacrifice it to please people. I found myself doing this a lot where I’d think “I know that people would laugh at THIS moment” and I really wish I didn’t do that sometimes. I wish I just stayed true to myself and I will always do that going forward. No matter what.

One Must Fall will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Saturday 18th January at 10:00 hrs

You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here:

You can find out more about Antonio Pantoja on the website here and watch a demo reel below

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