Original subtitles

On October 22nd, 2014, the movie “Cub” premiered in Deurne, Belgium.

The press states that this feature debut of Jonas Govaerts is...

...the very first Flemish horror film.

Articles stating that "WELP/CUB" (2014) is the very first Flemish horror film.

Is that the first Flemish horror movie? Yeah, right.

Every Journalist who knows a little about his work would never dare to state this.

Everybody rewrites a bit his own history.

There is no real horror culture in Belgium.

If you are a fan, you have to find it.

Horror is, just like western and musical, a genre that we Belgians normally don't make.

I beg to differ, Jan.

Try telling this to Harry Kümel. -"Malpertuis" is made before "Cub",

"Daughters of Darkness",

"The Pencil Murders".

The films of Johan Vandewoestijne...

This is our legacy.

Harry Kümel is unique.

It's the biggest director we have. He

doesn't direct that much, but he is our Orson Welles.

He has such an ambition and vision. We don't have anyone like that anymore.

I don't know if it's typical for Flanders or Belgium,

but... we don't have a lot of respect for our pioneers.

Nobody of my generation doesn't know him and that is bizarre.

My generation and the following can make these films, because of guys like De Hert,

Hendrickx and Harry Kümel.

And it's a travesty that they have been swept under the rug.

Especially because a few of these films, still stand firmly as a brick house.

And that somebody as Harry Kümel, is seen In many countries as an important director.

"Daughters of Darkness" and "Malpertuis” are two movies released in

the UK and France.

Especially "Daughters of Darkness" is a big hit in the USA and cherished

among cult-fetishists.

"Daughters of Darkness" is the only Belgian movie that has been a mainstream

success in other countries.

Producers approached me to make a commercial stylish film, but I had

no idea what to make.

Then I saw at a newspaper stand a "Historia" magazine about "The Blood

Countess" Bathory and I bought that.

I came back to the producers and told them: "Fantastic, she killed 600

virgins to stay young".

The producers told me I was crazy.

600 costumes, that would be an expensive film...

It was our ambition to create a genre-film,

which you could describe as a real horror,

but... also could exist outside the horror genre.

People still try to tell me that it's not about vampires.

But of course it is a vampire movie.

We tried to play with every convention in the genre, but also expand it.

We tried to approach it differently.

Sure, it was a low-budget film. 750,000 Belgian Francs, even in those days this was

not a lot of money for a feature.

But made with international financing.

We were very happy,

that we made a tax-shelter deal with America,

for $50,000.

Try to imagine, $50,000 was a lot of money in 1970.

That was...

a miracle.

Years later I produced "Toto Les Heros" for Jaco Van Dormael,

and I needed to go to New York, to negotiate about the remake rights.

I enter a huge office building full with lawyers with experience in these

kinds of meetings...

"You produced Daughters of Darkness", a lawyer says.

"Our Tax-shelter was fantastic, right?"

Yes of course.

"Fantastic, that you put our $900,000 to such good use."

I decided to keep my mouth shut.

That means that $850,000...

in the meantime vanished without a trace.

The Flemish film started with amateur-films

and most of these you can describe as genre-films.

Sadly this has been completely killed.

This has to do with the press and psychological movements.

They want to make you believe

that other kind of films are more important than genre-films.

But you can see where those end: in the trash bin of film history.

The graphic-novel aspect in Daughters of Darkness is of course very important,

and that is also the reason why Delphine(Seyrig) had agreed.

And in that context Harry Kümel was the most aesthetic of all our directors.

For the story it needed to be a vacation resort, with the atmosphere of

the Belgian coast.

The architecture of the Ostends Thermea Palace Hotel

was of course perfect.

The unique look of that building, the strong atmosphere.

This was something real, that we needed.

But then came the problem that I couldn't shoot inside.

Because it was a ruin inside. Today it

still wouldn't be beautiful enough to shoot inside.

I wanted to shoot the interior scenes in the Metropole Hotel in Brussels.

But they wouldn't let me. Oh boy, they regretted that afterwards.

Yes, it is true that you find every television show on DVD,

but that it's impossible to find "Daughters of Darkness" on DVD.

That is a real pity, but no idea why or who made that mistake...

Because we had so many producers, we had some copyright-problems with

a French producer.

He signed a contract, with Francois de Roubaix, without knowledge of the other

producers, for 40 years.

This was of course a huge catastrophe for the film.

The German producer had disappeared.

And one night they play "Daughters of Darkness" on Arte,

and boom, they come out of the woodwork.

That is the reason why the film did sell so well in the USA.

Because it's sold outside the system.

I also have an awesome distributor over there.

I also have a great seller in France. But "Blue Underground" is the best.

My teacher, Marc Didden, said: "Harry was born in the wrong country.

In the USA, he would have been Hitchcock".

And I believe that.

And it's thanks to the international success of "Daughters of Darkness" that

I got a lot of financial support to make "Malpertuis".

"Elodia, Elodia. Can you bring some food before I almost die of hunger here."

The problem with "Malpertuis" IS very simple:

It was cut completely wrong In the beginning.

Apart from some problems with the scenario.

The first edit was the main cause for the big failure of the movie.

But during the years, it became a phenomenal success.

Which was huge for such a small film.

I know that the whole crew was happy to be working on "Malpertuis".

The original producer Pierre Levie,

the Director of Photography... They were really glad to be working on this film.

They finally had something to go wild on.

That was the problem of this movie:

That I had a very good and talented crew, except the editor.

Then you start to compete with each other.

Especially with the DOP, who asks "Can you do this?", "Or he asks me that".

So with this, you are more thinking about the technical stuff.

"He is coming."

"Quick." "Run."

But I was still very young. 32,

I still remember that I saw "Malpertuis” when I was 10 or 11 years old,

for the first time on TV.

And what scared me incredibly was

the scene with the flames that came out of the mouth of that guy,

and the ghostly atmosphere that was apparent in the whole film.

Also they don't play the movies on TV anymore, which is a real pity.

They like it at the Cannes Film Festival, when there are a lot of stars in the movie.

It's one of their motivations In selecting a film.

And it has nothing to do with the quality of the movies.

But still it was very brave for selecting "Malpertuis".

Because some journalists - who know nothing about everything -

asked me at the press-conference if I thought this genre fit Cannes.

I was astounded, that they asked that question.

But that is so typical for journalists,

who always think only in categories. In certain boxes.

“The Pencil Murders” is absolutely a movie which belongs to the Flemish cult-

and genre pantheon.

A nice try.

But at that time “The Pencil Murders” was absolutely a remarkable attempt,

to break with the traditional Flemish films, because we were still in our

'Heimat' period at that time.

A film about a serial killer... even in America they didn't have a lot of that

kind of film at that time.

Also very down-to-earth and with humor.

Two things the author, quickly and definitely left behind.

Especially being down to earth.

"“Is it you?"

"The Pencil Murders" was my first movie, I was 29 back then,

and I wanted to make something bold

against the funded movies.

It had to be half horror, half police.

Also known as 'polard'.

Is it real horror?

There is a scene in which

a black guy is killed with a pencil in his nose in the bathtub.

Dominique Deruddere (director of Oscar-nominee "Everybody Famous'") was

my assistant director.

Oops.

A very famous editor was also on the set when shooting this film.

Because we shot in 35mm, which was very expensive.

So we had to shoot in small pieces...

20 years later, I found out that the genre I did was called 'Giallo'.

A genre that Dario Argento did, who I knew of course.

"The Pencil Murders" was linked to this subgenre,

by a professor in Edinburgh.

It stayed in theaters for 9 months.

If you now are able to stay in theaters for 9 days, you can be happy.

My film was sold worldwide, I still remember.

It played in cinemas in France, Spain and such.

I just had the funny idea of putting a pencil in someone's nose.

I can only applaud this.

Someone who wants to transform

his darkest fantasies into pictures.

It's more fun to talk about "The Antwerp Killer" than to watch the 'thing'.

Even if it only lasts for, if I am not mistaken, 65 minutes.

These are the longest 65 minutes of your life, except for the films

from Doris Wishman.

"The Antwerp Killer" is in essence a prank.

The brainchild of an 18 years old, little weird kid from Antwerp called Luc Veldeman.

"We had the idea to make something,

that could be announced as a giant thriller,

which became an experiment in film..."

Luc wanted to make a film and succeeded to persuade lots of people that he was

actually making a real movie.

When finished', "The Antwerp Killer" was more comparable to an 8mm film,

instead of a mainstream film.

One day, a young man, rang at my door and he claimed to be a huge fan

of my electronic music.

And he asked if I wanted to make music for his upcoming movie.

He asked me if I already had finished recordings that he could use.

I replied that I indeed had a tape.

He persuaded me to give him this tape, because he claimed the sponsors needed

to check out the music.

A few hours later he returns and gives me a check, if he could use the

music for his film.

One day, suddenly the 'director' calls me,

and tells me that he needed me to play a small part in the film.

But I told him, I was not an actor.

He said: “Just say something when the camera is on you!”.

And I did.

I tried to guess on set what the story was about. Nobody had a clue.

"Hi Jules, listen to me... on my desk sits a little girl coming from the 4th floor."

"They found her on the street, wandering in the neighborhood of the iron bridge."

In one of the scenes you can see a small Korean girl.

Every viewer would think: "What the hell is she doing in the story?". "Nothing".

But because he called me only an hour before shooting and I didn't

have a babysitter,

I had to bring my new adopted Korean daughter to the set and put her on the

desk during the scene.

"What is your mother's name?"

"Where does she live?"

"You don't know?"

"In a house?"

During the premiere of "The Antwerp Killer", I discovered that I was

one of the lead actors,

and I discovered that my music, which had received good reviews in the newspapers,

was barely used...

And without any credit, they had used the music of Halloween, by the glorious

composer John Carpenter.

And guess what, they altered everything a little.

Everything is a bit out of tune.

Veldeman did all these things in my name... And even put my name on the

credits for the music.

That's a big surprise.

I need to admit that I'm also guilty for giving "The Antwerp Killer" its

questionable reputation.

In '82 or '83, director Marc Punt and I, - our first act in the film industry -

were running the Knokke Film Festival,

And we were always searching for local films.

We read in the paper about a young guy in Antwerp who was making a movie

called "The Antwerp Killer".

So we got in touch with him. He was editing

in a flat somewhere in Sint-Niklaas, in the Parklaan.

He showed us one scene, which was only 50 seconds or so.

We didn't get to see the film, until the evening of the screening.

30 minutes before the screening, Luc Veldeman came storming inside the cultural

center with two 16mm prints.

And from this we could conclude that this was a very short film.

My very first reaction was to close the cash register.

It was a sold-out screening, and that didn't happen every night.

And the first 5 minutes there was a kind of silence... Which could go either way.

Luckily then somebody started to laugh really loud, and the rest of

the room followed.

So we were lucky it became some kind of a circus-night.

The former minister of culture Karel Poma was also at the screening, he was

invited by Veldeman.

And after the screening he became surrounded with film journalists.

The debate 'that the world of culture needed to be self-funded or not'

was already going on.

So everybody asked: "This is an independent production..."

“... Is this the kind of culture we are going to get?"

To which Karel Poma - may he rest In peace - replied:

"But everybody did enjoy themselves."

Which - of course - was very true.

"No, no reason to be so angry."

"Wait." "No."

"No need to run away, you're not going to get outside."

The film has disappeared in the mists of cinema.

They never made more than one 16mm copy of it.

I used the only copy afterwards to screen at 'The Night of Bad Taste' at the

Cartoons Cinema in Antwerp.

And afterwards the dad of Luc Veldeman appeared, who couldn't see the

fun of it anymore.

He asked for the one and only copy of "The Antwerp Killer", to which we complied.

And he disappeared with this in the darkness of the Antwerp night...

It's a fact that Luc - who was a good entrepreneur - made quite a few VHS tapes

of "The Antwerp Killer".

Which he had been selling door to door at all the video stores.

A few months later followed by daddy Veldeman who again bought

back all these tapes.

If you have a tape of "The Antwerp Killer" in your collection, you can speak of

a rare collectors item.

I don't laugh anymore, when I watch the film.

This has as reason of course.

The cast and the crew have been betrayed.

The equipment has been thrown in the Antwerp river.

But in the sense of 'how to fuck it up', I think "The Antwerp Killer"

is a historic film.

But still a disaster.

Luc Veldeman became after the film a publisher, for the magazine 'Movie'.

After a couple of years that venture of Veldeman also imploded,

and the last thing I heard, is that Luc - of course I can't verify it,

but in the case of Veldeman it's not totally impossible...

Is that he became a pimp at a Dutch escort bureau.

I told you guys, Veldeman is an entrepreneur.

One of the better movies I worked on was "The Afterman”, from Rob Van Eyck.

Also a rebel and an outsider.

He made all his movies, except "De Aardwolf", without financial support.

Through a combination of product placement and begging at local firms, he always

managed to make his movies.

We didn't have a screenplay. We shot during one year.

We only knew it had to be a movie about a man who lived in a bunker

after a nuclear bomb.

So we had no real idea what all his adventures were going to be.

Every week I found a new location and a new idea came up.

Maybe he can do this, or let's try that.

That's why there is winter,

autumn, summer... every season is in the movie. That's what makes it so special.

We shot this with a technical crew of 4 people.

I did camera myself.

And I'm still surprised | shot this kind of beautiful footage.

So you see, it's actually very easy to be a cameraman.

I'm still surprised how we managed to shoot,

without any continuity errors, over the period of one year.

Not one.

Because one time "The Afterman' (actor Jacques Verbist) was drunk and

cut off his hair...

So I solved this by showing the scene in the monastery where a monk is

cutting his hair.

That's how we fixed our mistakes.

I met Jacques in 1973. He was a regular customer in my disco.

Every time he came in, Jacques was like 'ugh this... and... that'.

And then he was in "Mirliton".

His best performance.

I needed a schizophrenic person.

Jacques always gave me the impression of being schizo.

If he spoke, it sounded like...

So I knew he was perfect.

Maybe I'm a little schizo, who knows.

And he didn't have any lines, so that was good.

"Mirliton" is told through inner voice.

And Jacques gave a fantastic performance. You really believe he's schizophrenic.

Rob always needed naked women.

I had a girlfriend, and though it was time she made some kind of career.

She was called Franka Ravet.

She played the main role in a scene in a barn.

And she gets fucked by the mail man.

But she was always so stoned, it didn't always work.

I told her through which door she had to enter...

5 minutes later she already had forgotten what instructions I had given her...

But hey, that's all part of the game.

I would really like to find her again.

She was the best shag of my life.

It all happened, because of my Playboy shoot, and the pictures that

Roger Dijkmans shot.

Suddenly there was a call for two women.

They wanted to shoot a pool scene.

When they gave me more info, I discovered it was a lesbian scene.

The shooting day was somewhere in an abandoned villa.

Early in the morning and freezing cold, close to a race track.

We had to do our own make-up.

I was told that I had to swim a couple of lengths with her,

and then you start kissing and caressing her.

Then Rob told me Michele had to satisfy me.

I was like: "Okay, do I have to sit on the corner of the pool?"

“No, under water.”

Michele was very anxious, because she couldn't dive.

It was all so technical and we were freezing to death.

So we shot it very quick.

Rob has so many progressive ideas, but he never got the budget to realize them.

It really blew up in my face, because "The Afterman" starts with necrophilia.

Unseen at that time (1985).

Everybody was offended and thought it was too violent.

Too much sex.

But how can you change something? Change people?

By shocking them. There must be something controversial in a movie.

Looking at it now, you might think:

"What was all the fuss about?"

But I remember that the original "The Afterman", distributed by Alta Films, was

released in all the big cities,

and didn't even do so bad.

Of course it was a scandal success.

And because it was so different from the regular Flemish movies.

This in a period that people still could be teased

by seeing naked tits on the big screen.

People did talk about a milestone.

I acted very good.

Not to blow my own horn, but yeah.

The Americans placed it on the film market.

It was Johan (James Desert) who made the deal with these Americans.

And I told him he would get 25%.

One day I got a phone call from them,

with the promise that I would receive $100,000 dollars by the end of the year.

It became January, February... I said: "Damn".

I called Johan,

and asked him, if he had more news.

He told me they went bankrupt.

So it was fucked.

Then Jacques, 'The Afterman', asked me

if they didn't transfer the money to Johan?

What happened, nobody knows?

The only thing I know is that Johan started a movie shortly after.

Rob always has and always will be a controversial filmmaker.

And he has also benefited from that numerously.

Vandewoestijne's oeuvre...

... Is very brave.

Someone who can change 'Johan Vandewoestijne' into 'James Desert' for the

international market, deserves great respect.

John Desert, fantastic.

We started shooting "Lucker" the week that Chernobyl exploded.

It was my answer to the fact that I didn't get any funding from the

ministry of culture.

I said to myself: “I'm going to shoot a film

which will make everyone shit their pants...

A serial killer, who liked necrophilia, that was never seen before.

We needed a rotten corpse,

but what does that look like, right?

So we contacted the police to ask if we could see some pictures.

Police gave us insight into the archives.

So we saw the most juicy things.

We had a distributor called VDS,

owned and run by André Coppens.

He payed us 800,000 Belgian Francs, for some territories.

That was a lot of money.

As soon as the film was ready, Coppens refused to distribute because of the

film's violent content.

And the 'video nasties' made everybody scared of violence.

But it was Nico Bruidsma from the "Cult Video-store" in Amsterdam

who discovered this.

He ordered six hundred copies,

and I had to sign them.

So basically it was thanks to the "Cult Video- store" that "Lucker" was

discovered around the world.

The 'international success' - if you really can call it like that - sure

Is gratifying...

and it's also a well-deserved 'fuck you' to the naysayers.

Another fun fact: DOP Serge Ghesquiere was a couple of years ago in the store of the

Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels.

And there, they also sold DVD's of Lucker.

What used to be criticized is now considered art.

Funny how things can turn out.

"One chooses between success and failure,

but most people don't know that."

That is a real cult movie.

With Kurt Van Eeghem ?

I want to see that.

Jesus dude, and we didn't see that.

"I am fantastic."

Learning Success People, LSP.

Every big businessman followed that course.

The story was written by a lawyer,

Bossers, Chris Bossers.

And I said to him: "I know people that were humiliated during that course."

And being called names.

They picked the weakest link of the group

and in front of everybody they destroyed these people.

And actually there were people who committed suicide,

but no one knew.

It was almost worse than the Nazis.

So we were going to put them straight, those organizers from the course.

We put up huge banners with “SSP” on it, instead of the real “LSP” letters.

And our guys had to give the Hitler salute.

“Fantastic. Fantastic.”

So that was another indictment.

The organizers of the courses wanted to cut out the Hitler salute.

And I refused. So the film never came out theatrically.

Talk about freedom of speech.

It's ridiculous.

I am an anarchist, so I'm against power and order.

You can discover that in all of my films.

"De Aardwolf" was for me the least interesting film to shoot.

Because I had to shoot with a complete crew...

... of around 25 people.

I'd rather do it my own way.

Johan has always been an outsider

and he was never part of the establishment.

As far as we have a film establishment. But he was never part of this.

He always stubbornly did his own thing.

"Rabid Grannies" is absolutely his claim to fame.

Emmanuel Kervyn (director "Rabid Grannies"),

was someone who was into martial arts.

We were busy with a film called "Thalion", which was supposed to be financed by

André Coppens from VDS.

It was 4 weeks prior to shooting and I said:

"Coppens, you have to order the celluloid."

His response was vague...

So I knew that there was something rotten in the state of Denmark.

Turned out, he never had so called millions in cash.

So we had an entire prepared project.

Were we supposed to just cancel the whole thing or what?

I wasn't planning on shooting "Thalion" due to his big budget.

So I said: “Why not make a horror movie?”.

The rise of Johan...

happened during the heyday of the VHS.

This is one of the reasons that "Rabid Grannies" was in English.

Although, English...

Most of the actors were French with thick accents,

whom received the English dialogues from someone out of frame and

needed to repeat this.

And afterwards they dubbed this again.

But even with the dubbing

this still sounds very weird.

But once the film starts, the film has pace.

It has some good jokes,

with as a bonus, primitive,

but very successful special effects.

So in comparison with other genre titles

"Rabid Grannies" is really, really fun.

You maybe need to struggle through the first 20 minutes,

but from then on "Rabid Grannies" Is a jolly good ride.

Special FX guys are always a little crazy.

But the guys that did "Rabid Grannies" would most definitely take the cake.

In the end, they made good stuff.

Most of the time they seemed half-baked because of the ammonia they were

using for all the latex.

They also drank liters of gin every day.

But hey, they made good stuff...

I completely understand that "Rabid Grannies" was picked up for distribution

by Troma Entertainment.

Who in the eighties were almost the market leaders in these kind of cult movies.

They had thrown themselves on this title.

One day I got a call from acquisitions director Jeffrey Sas,

saying that they were interested in the film.

Troma was crazy about the title.

They were going to send me information about Troma.

After a couple of weeks I received a package with flyers

explaining about Troma and such.

I never heard of Troma before

and had no idea who Michael Herz was nor Lloyd Kaufman.

After a couple of months we reached an agreement.

When the film was in post,

Jan Verheyen got in touch with me.

Jan formed the company Independent Films and they wanted to

distribute "Rabid Grannies".

Cool, but there was also Marc Punt

and Dirk Impens.

I still have the impression that Impens was a bit scared,

seeing us making a film for 4 million Belgian Francs,

while they had budgets of around 25 million.

If someone at the government could realize this...

and stop the funding of films.

However, there was an agreement that Independent Films would take care

of post-production.

From then on Impens boycotted us.

So we moved our post-production to Lille,

while everyone else thought the movie would never be finished.

And then the 35mm print was ready,

to every ones surprise of course...

But Independent didn't want to distribute any longer.

So we went to Atlas Films, a smaller distributor.

In 1988 we were in Cannes, and Troma had listed "Rabid Grannies" in their catalog.

I ran into Dirk Impens on the Croissette, he was chomping at a big cigar.

And he asked about 'our little film'.

Impens was there with "Blueberry Hill",

and he just sold all the rights to Japan for 15 or was it 25,000.

I said: "very good",

and continued: “we too... ... rights only for 45,000

He gasped on his big cigar and walked away.

And that was a good feeling.

He got almost 800,000 Belgian Francs for it.

Which is pretty good, right?

I wanted to do something with the films of "Ilsa" and "Greta".

"Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS"

I just rented the VHS of “Not of This Earth”, directed by Jim Wynorski.

It stars Traci Lords, who plays a sexy nurse.

So I decided the film had to feature sexy nurses.

I wanted to make a movie

for the American film market.

A while before I went to Troma in New York

and told them I had the opportunity to make a film in Hungary.

I had a friend over there

who owned a studio.

Troma asked me what it would be.

It's for Troma. So I said: "Something with naked women and whips".

That was all I said.

And they agreed.

By then I had a budget and all the possibilities...

... however scratch that.

A lot of it came down to Troma.

I had part of the budget from a wealthy friend here in Belgium.

He was ready to invest in the film,

but he wanted it to be serious and with a distributor.

I didn't even have a script.

So I flew to Hungary,

on some kind of...

... Study trip.

I did find some sets and a couple of actresses over there.

He did a lot of castings with naked women.

Six women were selected.

They shot in the morning, and in the afternoon...

... who knows?

I produced that film,

but Johan Vandewoestijne

was something of a co-producer.

"Maniac Nurses" is a film written, directed and produced by Leon-Paul de Bruyn,

once and for all.

I did an effort to edit the film.

Because I was stuck with a broken foot.

So I said to Leon “If you have a film, I will edit”.

But that's it.

He distances himself from that movie. I think it was too erotic for him.

It was made for VHS in America.

And my idea was also that maybe one day it could play on 42nd Street.

When I visited Troma the first time,

I discovered 42nd Street in New York.

A very sublime and wild street,

with dozens of cinemas, mostly sex cinemas.

They screened lots of B-movies.

And thanks to Troma it did play

on a side-street of 42nd Street, not on the main street sadly.

The film did very good and was sold worldwide.

Japan was the first to buy "Maniac Nurses".

But even Thailand, Korea, Russia, Italy.

In Italy it even played on television.

I was very happy that it was released in all those countries.

It wasn't released in Belgium,

but I didn't have a distributor here and I didn't look for one to be honest.

The problem was that I was more interested

In the images of certain scenes

and thus losing sight of the story

in all the adventure... Or during the adventure.

"State of Mind" was a 'tripartite' production.

Jan Doense from the Netherlands,

me of course from Belgium and Jean-Bruno Castelain from Lille, France.

I got to know Castelain by doing the post-production of "Rabid Grannies".

The shoot went well,

but the relationship between Jan Doense and me was not good on set...

...but... now it's all good.

But then it was not easy.

Dutch people do things different. They like to keep everything structured,

where Flemish people sometimes arrange things with a firm handshake.

That caused some clashes.

We had a distributor (Hills Entertainment), with a guy called Rick Van den Heuvel,

but that guy was only working in film

to fuck a lot of women.

But he had a friend Sidney Ling.

Also a dude with a lot of attitude.

But he did set us up

with Fred Williamson and Paul Naschy.

Paul Naschy, or Jacinto Molina which was his real name,

was still recovering from a triple bypass.

A very nice guy,

but the problem was that he only spoke Spanish or German,

or a little French, but English was difficult.

One time he had a scene on a bed

and there was someone whispering the English lines to him from under the bed.

He was still sick at that time.

Fred Williamson was very nice, he brought along his wife.

And he liked being here for five days, while traveling through Europe.

Plus it was an easy ten thousand dollars.

I liked the film,

but it didn't turn out to be a success.

A while ago I had a project,

a movie which was again in the vein of "Lisa". Something I keep going back to.

"Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS".

This project was called "SS Torture Hell".

And the title says it all.

It features a lot of torture scenes.

Maybe you can describe it as what they call now 'torture porn'.

It's a mix of

the Frankenstein story and

"Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS".

I play a Nazi, who saved the brain of "Ilsa",

and becomes transplanted in prostitutes,

who where kidnapped

during the night

in the Brussels nightlife.

That's what I seem to remember.

I started shooting this film

but we ran into a couple of problems,

especially the fact that the budget was too small.

Also, one of the actresses went missing

who played one of the leads

in the film.

And we already shot around 40 minutes.

And re-shooting was not an option.

Plus the fact, that one of our financiers

got caught up in a divorce

and preferred not to be associated

with this kind of exploitation movie.

That could be rather delicate in his case.

So the film never got finished.

I still have the screenplay

and I still like it.

Maybe one day it will happen.

I never gave up hope.

But in retrospect, I am a little older

and the urge to finish it

IS gone.

Especially in the porn genre

I can do what I want

and it gives me pleasure.

"Alias" has a very complex history.

It was - believe it or not - meant to be a movie

for the production company D&D, from the Flemish soap "Wittekerke".

But quickly it became clear that

the group of actors disagreed about one fact,

and that is quite typical.

They had been counting the scenes,

and been comparing the dialogues.

And because it's not an exact science or something you can measure on a scale.

It became a huge mess and total chaos.

So I made my conclusion that it would be a no-go.

"So here is nothing to grab?"

"Come on man, think about it."

But the story that Paul Koeck came up with

had some very good elements.

So we started working on that.

We brought in another writer, Christophe Dirickx.

Together we did “Everything Must Go”.

That was a pleasant collaboration.

It went step-by-step

from a pretty straight forward thriller

to a thriller, with a second act

that can be described as horror.

"Go ahead boy."

There are some references to Argento, I think?

An actress that I know falls naked out of a window,

which is a very 'giallo'-beginning.

As all the violent Italian thrillers

from the seventies started, that is correct.

And the ending, when an actor from the Flemish soap "Thuis"

Is digging a grave in the garden, in the rain...

Very gothic shots,

but I don't see that as a big horror film.

But definitely the closest that Jan Verheyen has come to the horror genre.

"I don't share with anyone Albert."

"I know Jan."

"I know."

"And now you want Eva as well."

"You really are crazy."

"Without a doubt.”

I really liked it.

And every time I watch it again,

I still stand by it.

The technical side is very good.

Especially the camerawork by Philippe Van Volsem, one of his first films,

and he really went all the way.

The only problem was that the cinema audience in Flanders

didn't know how to react to this kind of hybrid picture.

We did a test screening and halfway through the film,

when everything starts to shift to horror,

and they arrive at the mental institution

and the gothic castle...

...you could actually feel during the test screening

that we were losing the audience.

"Do you like salmon?"

A large part of the audience didn't accept

or believe the change in tone.

"Alias" clocked-out with 150,000 visitors,

what was very disappointing.

Which proves that I am an arrogant prick.

Around the same time a film directed by Robert Zemeckis was released.

"What Lies Beneath".

A movie also with horror elements,

which did very well at our box office.

So that made me thinking:

if we made “What Lies Beneath” in Flemish,

with our own actors, with the same technical means...

After 30 minutes people would leave

the cinema laughing out loud.

They wouldn't believe it.

But because it's in English

and an American picture

with all the glossiness,

they get away with it.

So that's when I learned that I had to restrain myself

and stay away from horror.

If I see some things that they made in the Netherlands and here in Belgium,

I can state that my conclusion Is the right one.

It's a pity he didn't go all the way.

Maybe he should have gone further, who knows what happens?

I think that in his mind it would be a step back.

Jan has the capabilities

and the right mentality to make such a film.

But something holds him back.

Harry Klimel is right about me, I didn't dare.

But the entire Flemish film industry has this problem.

Afraid to break barriers.

'Horror' in the broadest sense of the word,

and I also mean cult, fantasy, trash...

That isn't really Flemish.

Cinema... you give so much if you are making a film.

It's about guts.

I would like to see Jan making a real horror film.

Especially with the knowledge that Jan has.

After "Rabid Grannies", Lloyd and Michael from Troma asked me if we again could

do something together.

And they liked the screenplay of "Parts of The Family".

I still wasn't planning to direct.

And Leon told me that he wouldn't mind directing.

It was the same as my job at VIM (Flemish TV Station). Somebody asks me to

direct and I accept.

As Robert Mitchell once said:

"I am a prostitute”.

When you say open your legs, then I open them.

"Parts of The Family" was because of the working relationship between

me and Troma became...

not bad,

but we got more and more separated from each other.

Because they edited the film completely wrong,

with stupid things in between.

This without my approval.

Johan Vandewoestijne and the screenwriter...

wanted to make a very serious film.

The problem was that the budget was so low

that the special FX man was so bad

that he didn't even knew what the word "gore" meant.

And the actors weren't always excellent, to say the least.

My idea was to make the film a bit more in the typical Troma-style.

Andreas Schnaas came to visit me one day. I was working on a project with him.

He is famous for the "Violent Shit"-trilogy,

and a couple of other zombie movies.

And "Parts of The Family" is also a zombie movie.

He played a small part in "Parts of The Family"

and those scenes became pretty campy.

These scenes became a problem for the producer (Johan Vandewoestijne),

and actress (Cecilia Bergqvist) was still confident that she would become a

celebrity with this movie.

So afterwards these scenes with Schnaas where cut by the producer, who

also was the editor.

Lloyd Kaufman and Troma became very angry of this...

Troma decided to re-cut the film and added these scenes again.

Sadly these were already destroyed or went 'missing'.

Or something like that.

So Troma got the idea to shoot these scenes again,

or at least comparable to what we had before.

That is the reason why you have two versions of "Parts of The Family".

Both are failures...

But I think the version of Troma is the one that leans the most to my original vision.

Afterwards I decided that this was the last time that I worked with Troma.

And that's how I started working with Quantum Entertainment in LA,.

For "Engine Trouble".

With Mark Ickx as director.

He made the music for "Parts of The Family".

We wanted to make something more mainstream assuming that it also

would be more successful.

But sadly that was not the case.

We did a casting to find the perfect Osama Bin Laden.

This on the day of the first anniversary of the 9/11 -attacks.

In America everybody was sad.

I was making fun here with Osama Bin Laden.

On the day of the audition I arrived at the venue in the morning and I discovered

press, camera- teams, TV-vehicles...

From Reuters, to the German ZDF and the Swiss press, from all over the world.

And then some guy arrives dressed as an Arabic.

He says: "I am Bin Laden."

I was thinking: "Okay", but he didn't say more.

Jacques (Verbist) was a little afraid. He arrived at the venue with dark glasses.

Jacques... is always afraid.

If I was him, I wouldn't have used Bin Laden.

But hey... he does things like that. He likes the attention.

And suddenly a French police vehicle arrives.

They rush into the hall shouting that a terrorist is at the scene.

These cops grab the 'Bin Laden'-guy and cuff him.

They shout: "Who organized this casting". "That was me".

So they also wanted to cuff me.

The word spreads around in all the surrounding cafes and bars.

And everybody had been drinking from morning on.

So all these young guys full of alcohol got the word that "Rob" would be arrested.

So they arrived at the venue with the idea to kick some French ass.

I calmed them down, with "it was only for the movie".

Rob called me, telling me about "Afterman 2" and I would play in a hot swimming

pool flashback scene.

I was thinking: "Here we go again”.

"Okay Rob, are we going to shoot In a swimming pool?"

He replied: "Yes, a nice swimming pool and you'll get two lesbian girlfriends".

Wow, I was convinced that Rob thought I really was a lesbian or something.

I think that everybody liked working on Rob's sets. At least that is my impression.

I remember a couple of stories with Rob on "Afterman 2".

When I worked as assistant director (and also played a Nazi-officer).

Rob made it seem that the private financiers would be able to step on the

famous stairs at the Cannes Film Festival

at the premiere of Afterman 2.

Well, there was a premiere, but in a small room outside of the festival.

No stairs and no tuxedos.

So of course they were very disappointed.

Van Dijck, my seller, told me he would take care of the sales of the 'Bin Laden'-film.

And Cannes would be plastered with giant posters of Afterman 2.

Well, he kept his word. There was a giant

poster at the Hilton Hotel, as the American companies do.

I said: "Holy fuck".

And Bin Laden is pointing his finger...

We had just arrived and we were looking at the freshly attached poster from the corner

of "le bar du festival".

And suddenly he gets a phone call from the director.

Van Dijck was summoned to the main office.

We got kicked out of the hotel and the poster needed to get removed immediately.

I said to Fred: "And now?". Very dry, he told me he was leaving to the

Formula-1 in Monaco.

He said: "Figure it out".

I still got a lot of unknown phone calls afterwards...

where a voice asked if I made fun of Muslims and Bin Laden with this film.

I always said: "No, it's a comedy".

R. Kan Albay an Antwerp Turk or a Turk living in Antwerp, it is

still not clear to me.

Has made, completely financed by private investments, a couple of low-budget films.

Among them one notable genre film, called "The Flemish Vampire".

With a couple of well-known Flemish actors like Sven De Ridder.

Through someone who worked with us at the theater,

who was befriended by, or the lover of, the person who made the score for the movie.

He told me they were filming a vampire movie.

I told him jokingly that if they still were searching for actors, they could call me.

And a few weeks later, I receive a phone call

from a guy called R. Kan Albay.

He was very enthusiastic on the phone.

And very sweet.

I was a bit swept off my feet.

"Are you sure, father?"

"They are masters in seduction."

When I was on the set,

everything was very American.

They were shouting stuff like, "Okay, Camera, Rolling".

"Everybody ready." "Actors ready."

Okay, this is the first time this happens on a Flemish set.

"3,2,1.."

"Action."

R. Kan was very good at shouting "action".

And of course "cut, cut".

"Wonderful, people, wonderful."

I was thinking: what did I get into?

Is this "Candid Camera" or something?

But no, it was all very serious.

But in "Americano style".

Which I like.

I shot for almost two days.

First I shot only one day,

but a couple of months later I got a phone call

telling me that I needed to come back to re-shoot everything.

For me...

this film never really worked,

because it hadn't the financial means.

It's the better amateur film, sometimes flirting with professional cinema.

But finally more: "close but no cigar".

Absolutely. I totally agree with Jan.

I was sitting in the theater during the premier...

announced with lots of rumor.

But I was thinking...

Oh my... One day they will ask me about this film in a documentary.

And here I am.

"Left Bank" was made as a 'Faits D'Hiver'.

It was a TV movie for the VIM channel,

to give young new talent a chance to make a feature with a low budget.

Jan Verheyen was important in this story,

as he was the godfather of the project.

Very well directed and it looks great. Great atmosphere.

The Flemish folklore is used almost the same way as in “The Wicker Man”.

Dimitri, the brother of DOP Nicolas Karakatsanis, wanted to make

his first feature.

He had an idea about

a black hole in an apartment.

Dimitri is a good friend, so I did my best to develop this story with him.

Some time went by. And Dimitri told me that it would be more a project for me.

Simultaneously I was developing "Dirty Mind", which of course is a comedy.

And I noticed that I was working on two stories about

difficult relationships, that become dark.

For me it was interesting to try to tell this kind of story as a

psychological horror movie.

Something as the Japanese ♪-horror...

as "Dark Water".

I personally wouldn't call “Left Bank” a horror film, but it has elements:

Like a knee that splits open and some nasty stuff comes out.

During the promotional interviews of "Left Bank",

we couldn't call it a horror movie.

We could say that it was a film with 'some horror elements'.

I make movies, and mostly I discover what kind of genre it is at the end.

I don't start with the idea to make a horror film.

I made a film about a girl living in

Leftbank, which is a horrible place.

Probably one of the most scary places in Belgium.

"I don't know anybody that lives in Leftbank."

"My grandmother is the landlady, so I could rent cheap."

It was great to work with Eline.

Eline is very talented.

I think Pieter is one of the few directors, that works the best for me.

He dares to say to me: "Eline, this is not okay".

"Or do it again, but better."

The difficulty with "Left Bank" for Eline was, that she hadn't a lot of

camera experience.

And she needed to act with somebody as Matthias Schoenaerts.

Who wasn't the 'Matthias Schoenaerts' he IS now.

My producers discouraged me to work with Matthias. They told me he was unreliable.

He is not going to show up. We're making a low budget film and cannot afford that.

I told them he was good, he has such an energy.

They told me there were other good actors.

So I fought tooth and nail to work with Matthias.

But on the set you could see - and of course everybody knows what

he became today...

You have this raw power that he oozes.

And to keep yourself standing as a debutante actress is not easy.

So she did great.

I remember one time, I wanted to make her feel comfortable.

So we made a black pit, even without knowing how to make this...

In a studio we made a huge hole

and filled it with water and black glucose syrup.

It was a deep pit full of liquid sugar,

which looked very creepy.

Eline said: "Do I have to go in there?".

So I told her that I would go in, during lunch, and that she could see it was okay.

And that was so scary.

Because once you go in, almost instantly the black sugar

enters directly in your nose and ears,

SO you can't breathe anymore.

I started freaking out and screaming like a girl.

And after that, Eline still needed to go in...

I needed to go in completely and stay under as long as possible,

so that they could take a long shot of the still 'water...

No idea if it was because of the cold that I couldn't breathe,

but my body went into shock.

Sorry for all this, Eline.

What I will always remember is that Matthias let himself never feel rushed.

You are doing a shoot, you need to shoot 12 scenes a day.

You are running after everything, action and cut... Which scene is next ? No idea...

Okay.

But things go wrong, the next set is not ready,

so you decide to choose another side, and it's too dark,

so you decide to go back to the other side...

That kind of shoot.

And in these situations Matthias would go to the bathroom for 20 minutes...

And good for him, because he was on top of his game.

While Eline was running with us,

so you could sense she was exhausted,

but she did her very best.

Funny fact: one or two years before "Left Bank" the movie "Meisje" got released.

A film also with Matthias Schoenaerts.

And I had difficulties at school.

I almost flunked, was always having problems with teachers...

I remember I said to myself: "That's why I need to succeed."

"One day I want to have a love- scene with Matthias Schoenaerts."

To this day people keep mailing me about "Left Bank".

Every year I get various Facebook messages from all over the world

from people whom discovered the film.

"Left Bank" did have a career in the USA.

IFC bought the film.

Because it was labeled as a horror movie.

The film sold around 30,000 tickets

and has a hardcore fan base of maybe 50 people in Japan,

who sometimes send out fan mail...

This should have been more in my humble opinion, because the film

deserves a lot more.

“Left Bank" is a very powerful film.

But of course when you screw up the ending of your film, you have a problem.

Because the ending dictates the feeling of the audience when they leave the cinema.

I think it's important that you know from the start what to fear in a horror film.

And with "Left Bank" I had the feeling

that I only knew at the end where the danger was hidden.

That is a very strong film.

Except the last ten minutes...

The rebirth?

What?

Marilou Mermans with a crossbow?

What?

If I am the only one that likes the ending, maybe there is indeed a problem.

I can admit that.

But except from everything:

I remain convinced of the concept that we created at the end.

But it was so low budget.

And I think that we failed in the execution of the ending,

to make it really convincing.

You have a nice buildup of tension

and then it goes...

And the audience is probably thinking: "What just happened?".

The ending maybe needed to be longer or something.

We had some extra shots of the building that started cracking

and dirt that gets inside, through cracks and such.

What could have been put in the movie to accentuate the buildup more.

The editor persuaded me that we didn't need it.

That it would work better

with a more abrupt twist.

But now I think that the film

needed the extra shots to better announce the ending.

We wanted to make something like, you know, M. Night Shyamalan...

Aargh, what is that movie called again?

"I see dead peoples"...

"The Sixth Sense"? Right.

This was the first movie that we didn't shoot on 'film'.

I am sure that a lot of movies, because of the costs of film materials, couldn't be

financed ten years ago,

but are now possible because these costs can be cut out of the budget.

It was a pity that we had to shoot during weekends.

So finally we have been shooting for more than three and a half months.

And that is terrible...

So I promised myself to shoot again as in the old days, only during the week and

the weekend is sacred.

I made a short that shows what happens at the end of "The Afterman":

Global warming, people are living like rats with gas masks.

The after man walks around with a mask.

And mutations everywhere, people changing into beasts.

I wanted to make it strong enough for "Afterman I".

But you need a beginning of course.

And I didn't have the means to go out and shoot it.

So I added footage from "Blue Belgium" and footage from my other films.

So I made a whole new edit and it ends with "Anno 2033".

That is "Afterman Ill", sadly.

A totally fucked up horror movie with a living placenta.

That idea was so funny

that we had fun with it for 6 months.

The moment...

that we decided to make the film,

it already existed because of all the jokes.

So it was written really fast.

It was our graduation film.

The screenplay was a good casting filter.

So you could instantly decide if somebody was interested.

We received replies like 'I don't like beating up placentas'.

But also things like 'Wow'.

Karel (Vingerhoets) was persuaded because,

they always call him to play the good father or granddad.

He never gets something crazy.

Now he got the chance to play something completely different.

I think you notice that, with his acting in the film

that he is having great fun.

It was also great to work with Celine (Verbeeck).

No idea if she liked working with us...

I think she liked us, but not... one of her co-stars.

But Celine is a very warm person to have on a set.

Very professional.

In the beginning we had a big crew,

but because we didn't have a budget to pay people

we couldn't ask people anymore to help us for the rest of the shoot.

At the end of the shoot we used our house as a location

and with the placenta on one hand I was doing sound and camera...

While I was also doing other stuff.

I wouldn't have it any other way to make the placenta ourselves.

And to do everything, like all the special effects.

It was with a lot of pleasure.

I do think that I lost 5 years of my life

because I slept in the room

where we made the placenta

In polyester and other nasty chemicals we used.

I see the film as a success.

When we were writing the film...

it was always the idea to make something

that could find its way in the commercial circuit.

So we made sure to choose a specific topic,

so we could put stuff in it, that would sell the film.

The only thing that Lloyd Kaufman from Troma asked us,

was the use of the word "placenta” in the title.

The rest didn't matter for him.

So the release with the American title was our idea.

It was a commercial choice to change the title for the US market.

We both wouldn't mind.

When I shot "Lucker" I was 23 years old. I was very young and inexperienced.

I wasn't mature enough to direct.

That is why I didn't direct for so many years. Until around 2011,

when people started telling me, if I had made the movie, the result would

have been different.

And directly after, I directed a couple of movies for the city.

And that was a lot more fun than years ago.

"This is very good merchandise."

"It is the same that Andras Pandy used."

"Until his daughter betrayed him of course."

I wanted to have fun. So when I couldn't

catch sleep again, I decided to start on a screenplay.

One thing led to another and everything fell into place quite fast.

“Todeloo" is a strange movie, which balances between regional amateur cinema

and something with more ambition.

But for me it is more a regional...

a very regional thing.

Yes, in fact it is, it is.

I'm not an author, just let me try to make a horror film.

You will never be ready for your first feature.

There was extra pressure because this was an original story and not an adaptation

of a novel or a comic.

I'm very pleased with it, because it's also autobiographic.

It was a bit of a leap of faith.

During pre-production we asked ourselves whether or not Belgium wanted

another horror movie.

I was very pleased with the support of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF).

Surprising, because there is some violence in the movie.

Some people would call it 'exploitation'. I don't think it is.

In the contract of the VAF is written

that it cannot be exploitation if you want to receive funding,

and there has to be an educational purpose.

So I still don't understand how we got the money.

Maybe "Cub" is educating in a way that I didn't anticipate myself.

It is a perception or the idea

that filmmakers have

to automatically say: "This will never get accepted by the VAF".

Or "they will never go for this"

and that is so wrong.

We want quality films.

In every genre.

This means 'yes to art-house',

but also mainstream.

As long as these are good.

We did our best to hype "Cub" through Facebook, because we didn't have

money to do it differently.

We were happy with what was happening on-line.

But when the film was released, the Belgian film commission decided

"Cub" was rated for all ages.

"Cub" stars twelve year old kids so they thought twelve year old kids

could also see the film.

I was offended. Apparently I didn't make the horror hardcore enough

because kids could watch the film and that is not okay.

It's not because kids are the leads that it's suitable for kids.

But later it caused some controversy and they changed the commission,

so we unwillingly reformed the film commission,

which I am happy about.

It was a few select people that did it on their free time. Or so it seemed...

After "Cub" they left the commission and asked others to take over.

So at least we contributed to that.

In Belgium some described "Cub" as a rather tame horror film,

so I somewhat failed.

But as the film opened abroad I could see the different issues arising.

In the US the 'violence against animals' and the fact that most of the actors are 12

years old were a problem.

And the main reasons there hasn't been a remake.

When a film starts to travel around the world, it's especially good for your ego.

Belgian newspapers make it look like you are some kind of "wunderkind",

but in reality you don't have the best distribution deals,

you have the most ugly DVD covers, for example in Turkey or the USA.

The film played for one day in the British Prince Charles cinema,

which is a very cool venue, but only 'one day'?...

Just to honor the contract.

So it's a reality check.

But it's fun to discover the world through all the festivals

and doing drunk Q&A's after the screening is always fun.

It amazed me that "Cub" has been released

in Italy, in the USA and the UK, which I wanted.

But the film wasn't released in Belgium with French subtitles.

I am a very big fan of Fabrice Du Welz.

But try to see Alléluia in a Flemish cinema,

on this side of the country, that is very difficult.

And that's crazy, because the man is a genius.

Horror will always be an underdog genre.

I bet that all the people you talked to, have encountered the same opposition.

So, I don't care

and I am happy to be in this inner circle of the people that tried.

I was very happy with "Cub”. Very glad that Jonas dared to try it.

But sorry...

Around 80,000 tickets sold, some video sales here and there,

and a couple of midnight screenings at some film festivals.

For me these aren't the kind of numbers

and go out to make one myself.

I pitched it to director Jan Verheyen long before shooting

and he told me that the Flemish language makes it less scary.

I hope I convinced people otherwise.

I am not sure that 85,000 admissions is the ceiling.

That's what we got.

But I don't think so.

The ceiling is only the ceiling until the moment

a new genre film breaks it and crosses over into the mainstream.

That will be the new ceiling.

"Cub" has been sold as horror, horror, horror...

and even more on the fact that it is a slasher, in the marketing.

And by doing this you know that you will address a specific audience.

For a niche kind of film it is amazing what "Cub" did.

And I think it has more to do with how Jonas Govaerts made the genre acceptable.

How he talked about it.

And also probably because he Is such a cool boy.

All the kids where thinking: "What a cool cat".

"We need to see that film."

The screenplay is partly based on the life of Jeffrey Dahmer,

the notorious American serial killer. And also a little on Andras Pandy.

So you can be sure that this is a very romantic film...

Through Ruth Vanhuyse I got in touch with a bunch of models.

And then we started with the castings.

They needed to be... pretty,

not afraid to show a boob

and talk some decent English.

And during these castings we came across Sharon (Slosse, the main actress).

They still make a lot of horror, because worldwide there is a very loyal

crowd for these films.

I admire these fans by the way.

As you discovered here: you need to swim through a lot of crap

to find a diamond, so you can say: "yes, yes, I made a discovery".

But every year you have a few movies that jump out to the masses.

So theoretically, it must be possible

to make something in Flemish which can become one of these exceptions.

If they keep on opposing exploitation films, if it's horror or even action...

If the establishment keeps looking down,

then things will never change.

If you ask the government for funding with something controversial,

they will put their hands in the air to protest.

I don't want to hurt people...

but it needs to have some quality.

I think you can't compare the work of Harry Kümel with the one of Johan

Vandewoestijne...

Johan Vandewoestijne is a very proud exploitation director,

while Harry Kümel is an author who worked in various genres,

and couldn't realize all of his projects, because of his international ambitions.

The revival of the Flemish film started with "The Alzheimer Case".

Which is a genre film.

It's of course not horror, but a genre film.

Something I would like to see

are good screenplays, in any genre.

It's that simple.

Our audiovisual industry grows more and more

and we make more films,

so the chance is statisticaly bigger that somebody has the balls

to go out and make a Flemish zombie film.

Lars had an idea for a zombie film.

And after a while I got a screenplay in the mail

which was ready to shoot.

To sell the idea of the feature, we had the idea to make a teaser.

That was so cool.

I shot one day on this.

I played a very eccentric nurse.

It was 'all bets are off', and everything was possible.

We shot in a hospital, with lots of blood and guts.

Incredibly fun to do.

It's a teaser in the sense of 'we are going to have fun'.

It needs to be fun.

The story is: A guy dies during an operation and comes back as zombie.

"Patient Zero" has been shot in POV,

and this will not be the case in the upcoming feature.

"Braindead", "The Evil Dead" and "Bad Taste" are references for "Yummie".

The more gore, the merrier.

I already sent out my resume for that one.

How cool would that be?

But of course I also saw the horror short "The Pond",

but I am curious how you would make a feature out of this?

"The Pond" is about an 8 year little girl,

and she needs to unravel a dark secret

about the dark pond behind the castle where she lives.

For us it is very important that we expand the world that we created

in this short and to go deeper.

Very good that you think that it's so Flemish.

This is probably something that comes from ourselves.

We used Flemish cliches in a genre... that we don't practice a lot in Flanders.

But it will feature a ghost.

A Flemish ghost.

Of course there will be gore in the feature version of "The Pond".

I bet this will be in the final cut.

Already for years people keep asking me to do a sequel to "Rabid Grannies".

And it has been years that I decline.

But because of the 5-picture deal with SGL Ent., being "Laundry Man" the

first of this deal.

I felt something like:

Why not?

It will be called "Rabid Family" (aka Ravenshore) and it will be about

the kids or the grand kids

whom need to go back for an inheritance.

My follow-up to "Cub" is called "Heads Will Roll".

I was part of a hard rock band and the dynamic between band members is so

interesting and funny.

Let me do something with it.

Of course I hope that somebody surprises me

and especially proves me wrong.

What I - in that case - will gladly admit.