Burtonite Filmmaker Interviews, part I: J. L. Carrozza (Max Cady)

This is the first of a series of interviews with filmmakers on the Tim Burton Collective. We hope you enjoy these little insights into these talented artists, and look forward to more in the near future!

An Interview with J. L. Carrozza
Edited by Kevin Schreck
October 1st, 2007

J. L. Carrozza (a.k.a, Max Cady, on the Tim Burton Collective) has been making films for years. His film from last year, Little Red Riding Hood, was a big success during last year’s Tim Burton Collective Film Festival, a.k.a, the Golden Borton Awards. Carrozza’s latest film is entitled, Dream House, and will be entered into this year’s Golden Borton Awards, as well. In this interview, the filmmaker talks about the sources of his inspiration, the political allegories in his films, and a few upcoming projects…


Kevin Schreck: First, a rather typical question: What made you interested in filmmaking?

J. L. Carrozza: Well, I was five or six years old and I saw the original Godzilla on VHS, on a six inch TV. I was absolutely captivated by what I saw. I was obsessed with dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist but shortly after I realized I wanted to be a filmmaker and make movies like Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya.

KS: What were some of your earliest efforts in filmmaking?

JLC: When I was around nine or ten I grabbed a video camera my family had and started making stop motion movies with Bandai kaiju action figures. I was a big fan of Ray Harryhausen too, you see and yeah, at first I wanted to make movies like his too. My first more serious movie was when I was 14. I got big into violent horror films (much to my parents chagrin) and tried to make a slasher film called Plastic Man about a man possessed by a demonic mask who goes around killing people. However, while I was shooting it I ran down a street chasing a pickup truck. My parents saw it and took my camera away for a year.

KS: So was that project was ever finished?

JLC: Nope. I'd love to find the footage and put it online though.

KS: Horror movies and their influences seem to be a prevalent theme in many of your films. Your latest film, Dream House, involves a haunted house, a prophecy of a rape, and a scene of torture. Why do you think you gravitate to themes like this?

JLC: I'm just a huge horror buff really. I love horror movies that are both beautiful and horrible at the same time, like Matango, Human Lanterns or Mario Bava's movies, to name but a few. That said, I also feel that I make these movies as something of a political statement as well. We live in really violent times and mankind, as whole, has always had a natural inclination toward violent acts.

KS: I'll get back to Dream House in a bit. Your previous film, Little Red Riding Hood, also had a lot of horror themes in it. What made you want to make an adaptation of that story?

JLC: It's always been my favorite Grimm's Fairy Tale and since after I made the awful The Boy Who Cried Wolf I've wanted to make Little Red Riding Hood. My original vision of it was really different, though. Red was going to a Japanese girl and the Wolf was going to actually put her, naked, into a giant pot full of soup, kind of like in Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, and cut carrots into the pot. Then I realized I couldn't make that film, but I still decided on making a really fucked up version full of pedophilia and cannibalism. If could have made my dream version of Little Red Riding Hood, though, I'd have made it a metaphor for Japan/China relations and have Red be a cute little Chinese girl, the Wolf be a Japanese rapist and the Lumberjack be a burly American.

KS: What kind of political allegory, if any, do you find in Dream House?

JLC: There isn't much of a political allegory, but I suppose the young couple could represent America and the rape and rapist could represent 9/11, but that's probably really stretching.

KS: How did you come up with the idea of Dream House? What was the origin of that concept?

JLC: There are two main sources. The idea of a husband and wife moving into a house and weird shit going down is an idea I gleaned from both Fulci's House By the Cemetery and the Shaw Brothers horror film Haunted Tales. The idea of an apparition saving a girl from something horrific is from some urban legend I heard of a girl being saved from a rapist on the street by her guardian angel.

KS: You mentioned Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Mario Bava, and Peter Jackson and other filmmakers already. Who would you call inspiration from while making Dream House?

JLC: Bava and especially Dario Argento and maybe to some degree Lucio Fulci. I really love Italian horror and exploitation and think the Italians have a wonderful sensibility when it comes to making films, especially horror movies. Bava and Argento really make all the horror “beautiful.” Brian DePalma and his films were also a huge inspiration on Dream House and as was Scorsese's version of Cape Fear. The Nicky character was also heavily inspired by many Japanese ghosts, particularly Sadako from Ringu, the Snow Woman from Kwaidan and Oiwa from Nobuo Nakagawa's Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. The bar scene was also kind of inspired by the scene where Dustin Hoffman meets the townspeople in Straw Dogs.

KS: Do you think it's important to be able to incorporate tributes to and inspiration from your idols? Does it happen on a conscious level?

JLC: Yeah, I love paying homage to movies and filmmakers I like. Sometimes it's conscious, like when I had my friend Dave paint his car like Stuntman Mike's in Death Proof, sometimes it's unconscious, like making Nicky look like a Japanese ghost, which I didn't realize until after I shot the footage.

KS: You worked with Dave Luce before on Little Red Riding Hood. How did he get involved in your films?

JLC: I met Dave at an open mike, the same open mike I met Charli, Jonathan and Tom. He begged me to be in my movie and play the Wolf and I realized he'd be fucking perfect so I let him be in it. I really think he made the movie. He's a musician. His band is called Felonious Drunk. Look him up on MySpace!

KS: Do you have any current projects in the works, or anything in mind for the future?

JLC: Oh yes. I'm shooting a parody commercial for an abortion clinic in two days with some of my new friends from college. I'm also doing live action reenactments of scenes from Neon Genesis Evangelion soon. And about a year from now, I'm doing a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland.

KS: Will anyone from the cast or crew from Little Red or Dream House be involved in those projects?

JLC: Yeah, many members of the cast from both films are returning for Alice. Kate Noyes will be playing the White Rabbit, who will be a girl in a playboy bunny costume on roller skates. Jonathan Daire will be playing the Mad Hatter. Dave will be playing the March Hare. Ryan Murphy, my best friend, will be providing the voice of the Cheshire Cat who will be like a feline version of his Jack White persona. Charli Henley will hopefully be playing the Queen of Hearts, who is a sadistic Japanese noblewoman. Neil Cicierega will also be providing his first score in years. That and I'll be in the film as the Caterpillar and Lewis Carrol himself.

KS: The voice of the Chesire Cat? How will you bring that character to life; as a puppet, animation?

JLC: The Caterpillar will be stop motion animated by Ryan Murphy; the Chesire Cat will be a puppet.

KS: Sounds like an ambitious project. I look forward to seeing it. Having made so many films already, would you give any suggestions to people aspiring to be independent filmmakers?

JLC: My only real advice is just to believe in yourself and keep shooting your films. Even if it sucks at first, keep working on it and learning from it for the next film. Keep watching classic movies and learn cinematic techniques from the masters.

KS: Thank you so much, Jules.

JLC: You're quite welcome Kevin. Thank you for your time.