Shared Darkness

If certain genre-heavy filmmakers exude a cool, self-serious air of entitlement and others chiefly a geek-made-good enthusiasm, John Gulager is the even more striking exception to these poles — a guy who’s at once shy and awkward and yet also gregarious and giving in private, talented but frumpy, and kind of shocked that he’s getting to live out his dream. After winning the directorial competition for the third season of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Project Greenlight, Gulager (the son of actor Clu Gulager) lent his talents to the low-budget Feast horror films. Now, after a bit of a break, he’s getting even crazier, in the form of Piranha 3DD, a schlocky sequel to 2010’s surprise August hit, in which David Hasselhoff pops up as a celebrity lifeguard and many folks, including scantily clad women, pay the price for the profit-happy motivations of a sleazy water park owner (David Koechner). I recently had a chance to catch up with the amiable Gulager one-on-one, chatting about practical versus CGI special effects, working in 3-D, spray tans, and his hopes for his next film. The conversation, held over coffee and one of the rubbery, giant, blood-covered piranhas used in his movie, is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.

In broad-strokes genre pieces, most of the best movie concepts can be delineated in concise fashion, and bring a head-slapping (“Of course, why didn’t I think of that!”), instant sense of identification and intrigue. Such is certainly the case in director John Stalberg’s High School, in which soon-to-be valedictorian Henry (Matt Bush) takes a healthy hit of weed from his estranged stoner friend, Breaux (Sean Marquette), the day before his deranged principal (Michael Chiklis) institutes a sweeping anti-drug policy that jeopardizes the academic goodwill and standing for which Henry has labored so long. Faced with being unable to pass the next day’s mandatory drug test for students, Henry and Breaux steal some particularly potent ganja from an epically eccentric dealer, Psycho Ed (Adrien Brody), in an aim to spike the offerings of their school’s bake sale, get everyone blazed and thus invalidate the tests. I had a chance to speak to Stalberg one-on-one recently, about his movie, Stalberg’s own, ahem, altered experiences, and what cornrows and a single eyebrow signify to him. The amusing conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the full read.