Hello horror fans! Slayer here and today I'm going to be talking with the director and the cast of the upcoming fantasy/horror film,
Fading of the Cries. The director Brian Metcalf and the actors Brad Dourif, Thomas Ian Nicolas, Elaine Hendrix, Jordan Matthews and Jessica Morris all join me in this exclusive interview.
Now Brian I want to start off with you, Fading of the Cries sounds like a very unique idea for a movie. How did you come up with the idea for it?
Brian: Well I was hit on the head as a little kid so that's pretty much it (laughs)
Thomas: That’s when he came up with the flux capacitor!
(laughter)
Brian: No I have always been fascinated with horror films and action movies so I thought a way to combine the two was a fascinating thing. I always liked the old zombie movies and movies with warlocks and all that stuff and super heroes so I thought it would be great to combine everything in one film. Roughly that's it in a nutshell.
And I also noticed that you take on a lot of different roles on the film. You're the writer, the director, a producer and visual effects supervisor. Why did you take on so many roles?
Brian: Well it wasn't by choice it was just umm having to do with budget constraints, no actually don’t write that (laughter) No but you know in order to have absolute control over the vision that I wanted, I really needed to show what I could do. You know they say you write a film three times, in writing stage, in the directing stage and in the editing stage, so in order for me to really get my vision across I felt I had to take on all those roles. In order to properly do it in my sense.
What was it like working with the cast you have sitting around you right now?
Brian: OH THEY WERE HORRIBLE!
Brad: And we hated each other
(Laughter)
Brian: No they were amazing, they are all fantastic people and because they are all sitting around me and can hit me over the head right now...but really they have all been amazing. I'm actually extremely honored to have such a talent group of actors who really know how to act and really know how to fit their roles and understand their characters really well.
I just want to go into the characters now so I guess I'll start off with you Brad. Can you tell us a little bit about your character Mathias?
Brad: yeah....he's mean. But really he is this guy who had a horrible thing happen to his family and he snapped. He is eternally furious and wants revenge, in a very bad way.
On a scale from 1-10 how badass do you think he is?
Brad: 10
A perfect 10?
Brad: I really don't think that there is any place where this guy feels any moral obligation to being anything at all other than mean, how’s that?
He sounds perfect actually, haha.
Brad: I mean if he could rule a country he would put everyone to death and cause the end of time and man. He would take it as far as he could take it, there really is nothing he wouldn't do.
I'll go back to Brian, can you explain a little bit or really anyone can explain, why is the movie getting a hard R rating?
Elaine: A lot of tits and a lot of dick get shown, Thomas you take that one.
(laughter)
Thomas: I think really the R rating comes from some of the moments that are a little graphic, which you really wouldn't see in a fantasy film so that's sort of how we are tingeing from fantasy and dipping our toes in the pond of horror.
And Thomas you are also a producer and you also tackle the role of Michael. What made you take on those dual roles?
Thomas: Brian made me do it. I mean again Brian and I have been working on getting this project made. I've been on board for about 6 years, Brian I'm not sure he probably started writing this when he was in the womb. You know it was one of those things when I came in initially I came in just to kind of help with getting the cast, being that I have been an actor for a long time. Then because of the smaller budget, you just have to pick up the slack where the slack is. It was definitely a worthwhile challenge to produce and act in this film.
And now I heard there is a lot of special effects in this film, did you guys do a lot of green screen work?
Thomas: Yeah we shot uh what was it 4 days? How many days did we shoot on green screen?
Jordan: I think it was 8. We also had a green screen on set and most of the time even though we were shooting on location there were often times when they would set up a green screen in the background.
Elaine: We heard probably at least 100 times a day or more "We'll fix it in post" "We'll create it in post" I mean whether there was a green screen there or not there are so many elements and just little details that are being done through special effects. For instance we had maybe 20 extras sprawled across the lawn, well when you see the film they'll be hundreds of people sprawled across the lawn and down the street.
Thomas: And set extensions. A lot of the things that we saw in person we wont even recognize when the film is done because of the work that Brian and his team will be doing to make everything look even more immense and expansive.
Jordan: Brian was even talking about how they have removed a lot of different things and put in all these beautiful paintings but there is also a couple scenes where they are not only adding like hundreds or even thousands of people to different scenes but they're changing up their look; their hair and their clothing and it looks just like this massive scene that takes place. Pretty much every single scene that their doing right Brian?
Brian: We're doing a lot. Definitely. We have over a thousand effects shots in this film which is normally a very high end visual effects based film.
Their looks to be a fair amount of sword play in the movie, did you guys have to do any special training?
Jordan: Brad and I actually did a lot of training. I did about 5 weeks of prior training, we had about 3-4 days a week for a couple hours a day and even once we got on the set it was a constant learning process. They were putting together different choreography for different scenes and all that stuff and it was a pretty intense process throughout the entire shooting.
Ok and Jordan, I read that prior to this movie you didn’t have any experience in a feature film -- what did Brian and the producers see in you that got you the role?
Jordan: Well it was interesting, because I had the opportunity to meet Brian shortly after I moved out here and we had stayed in touch a little bit. I had to go through a pretty intense testing process which was interesting, you go through interview processes and screen testing and then they bring you back in; Brian even had me come back in and read for all the roles. So a lot of time I had no idea what was really going on. You also have weeks in between where you're not really getting a call so you’re not really sure what’s going on.
I absolutely loved the character and sitting down with Brian, he'd written something that had this piece of him that is tremendously interesting to me and I feel incredibly honored to have the opportunity to hopefully to do justice to it in terms of bringing it to the screen, which is also due to working with some incredible actors who really show up and are really present and really give a tremendous amount for you to work with. All in all it was, it still is a very surreal process.
When can the general audience get to see the finished product? Can we expect a certain release date?
Brian: Well the general audience will be able to see this in 2010. That trailer you saw was a very early stage level. We have so many visual effects to work on this film, it's not even funny. We are only a quarter of the way through. So it takes time and we have all these digital sets. About a 4th of the movie is shot on green screen and so we have to build all those backgrounds for the actors to be in and create massive amounts of creatures, crows and bats and people turning into crows. It's going to be a while so I would say in 2010 it should be ready.
Jordan: Brian was also talking about the fact that a lot of big digital effects movies actually go through at least a year, if not even more, of post production. So this is a pretty big production they are putting together. So we're all really highly anticipating seeing this ourselves.
Now for the final question, you guys can just go around, tell me about your favorite experience while one the set.
Brian: My favorite experience was honestly wrapping up. (laughter) And the reason for that is because I could take a deep breath cause I was on adrenaline the entire time, not to mention that I have severe A.D.D. I could finally take a deep breath and finally relax and I think it was the first night that I got some sleep in months. It was just a great experience to say 'we finished it we got it done, it wasn't another disaster movie where we couldn't finish it for some reasons' I was just really happy everything worked out. My other fear was that maybe the film camera didn't capture all the film or something or who knows haha.
Brad: It was a whirlwind, it was very fast shooting and the problem was that a lot of it was action and where you have action, it’s very hard to do it quickly. Also, a lot of the scenes were more than 2 people which again is a traffic problem and it's very difficult to get the scenes to the point where they are working. My experience was that you would start the day and you would be conscious sometimes towards the end of the day and you would look back at it but it was such a whirlwind that it demanded so much concentration and attention that you didn't stop and smell the roses. There was no moment to relish, then you look back and see you got away with it and you say "how did we do that?" There was a couple of scenes with the swords where we were doing a scene and I was thinking "wow this is going by quick and its working" and I enjoyed that.
Thomas: well I was on the project for 4 weeks in pre-production, 4 weeks of principle, and then I escaped post...
Brian: not yet!
Thomas: oh damn..I spoke too soon.
Elaine: Well I played Maggie and I spent most of the time running and hiding and trying to figure out what’s going on and protecting and saving my daughters. I think one of the most standout moments was the scene where we were running from these zombie, evil, creatures and I got a real sense of what it would be like to be chased by these things. Where my adrenaline actually just shot through the roof and my body, and my heart was going 90 miles a minute. I thought 'if this was real life, all I would do is just shit my pants!' (laughter) Like I would be so scared if this was really happening because at that moment it just became so real to me and I thought that was pretty cool, haha.
Jessica: Oh yeah, I've been very quiet sorry I didn't have anything to say until now. So my favorite part of playing my character, Malyhne, was probably taking my make-up off (laughter) I mean it was really cool and it was such a transformation that I loved that I did it. It was like a 4 hour process and about an hour to take it off. But it was a little bit uncomfortable and when they scraped all the glue off my head that was my favorite part because I was myself again and no longer a demon.
Jordan: I guess there were a lot of really great parts, in general it was interesting because we were working at such a fast pace like Brad said and doing all these action scenes and learning them so quickly. I ended up with a lot of the make-up on me, which was blood and some of it my own. We did a lot of crazy cool fights and things where you look down at the end and your hands are messed up, which puts you in character. Also, I think like Elaine was saying there were a lot of moments where you're actually really feeling like you're there. I think the intensity of the movement and all the stuff that was going on really quickly gave you a great sense of that. There were moments that didn't feel like acting at all, just really felt like you were getting killed and beaten the crap out of. Which was definitely cool.
So it sounds like everyone had a great time working on this film
Elaine: Yeah we all had fun and you know independent films are really sink or swim and you’re in the trenches together and if you don't get along and if you’re not enjoying yourself you're just going to be miserable. So you kinda just do get along to get through the situation but we were lucky enough to have that natural chemistry.
Thomas: That was sort of my favorite moment, ultimately with all the hardships and challenges and work and this and that, my favorite part was just getting to make the movie. It's such a blessing when you can have a job. And we worked so long, and Brian especially. From writing it to us doing the concept trailer to Brian raising the financing, we worked so long so my favorite moment was when Brian called and said "WE GET TO MAKE THE MOVIE!"
Brian: And I just wanted to add that a lot of independent film sets that I've been on are really different. They normally focus on maybe 1 or 2 locations and smaller areas, we were all over the place. It was so visual effects intensive and it was just as complex as any major movie set I've been on. Also, since we were moving so fast I was very impressed at how the actors were extremely professional and just knew their lines, knew what they were doing, could repeat themselves and their mannerisms so well that in the editing process it just cut like butter.
So I just wanted to thank all of you for taking the time out of your day to talk to me and I also just wanted to say I can’t wait to see all of you in the finished product. We will definitely be keeping a lot of coverage on UHM and I hope to talk to you guys later.
UHM would like to thank Brian and the rest of the
Fading of the Cries crew for giving us this great interview.
The theatrical release dat of June 22nd is wrong. It's June 24th in LA and July 8th in NYC.
Yeah, it was a tentative date when it was added that got changed around recently, but it's updated now.
I will most certainly be seeing this in theaters. I hope it's somewhere near where I live.
Is this the only original movie on uhm?
I agree, aside from John Carpenter's return to action in "The Ward" this is really the only movie on this site that I'm really looking forward to seeing. I am highly anticipating Prometheus as well, but the wait will be a while.
I have been appalled by the state of the genre lately. In fact, I was watching the Platinum Dunes remake of "A Nightmare On Elm Street" several weeks ago and was so upset that that movie ended up having such a strong opening weekend. I was thinking, really? Aren't fans aware of how Michael Bay is just one step up from Stephanie Meyer?
It must just be just a bunch of mindless teens that are showing up to those movies. But they are very cheap, you're right. I have no faith in Stephanie Meyer's audience because she has virtually destroyed horror by turning it into one huge Dawson's Creek episode.
By the way, I just read the below quote about the new Crow movie (a classic that I don't think needs to be touched...it should not be remade).
"The original Crow was groundbreaking cinema; its Gothic visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself." - This quote was said from one of the new producers of The Crow (I loved the original comic book from James O'Barr).
In response to the above quote, I think that Fading Of The Cries is probably the best shot genre fans have at an original movie with gore, Brad Dourif, and a Crow like main character that would suffice way beyond a Crow remake.
"A young man armed with a deadly sword, saves a teenage girl named Sarah from a malevolent evil that has begun plaguing a small farmland town, while in search of an ancient necklace..."
what the fuck is this all about? seriously, how gay can you get? magic swords, necklaces, elves, virgins, no beer, unicorns... wait, no beer?
fuck off!! 
It says deadly sword, not "magic sword." I agree with you. A magic sword would be gay. But a deadly sword, zombies, Brad Dourif, and a Hard R rating for "bloody horror violence" is most definitely not gay. Sounds cool to me. I hope it doesn't suck.
THIS COMMENT IS FOR PPL WHO WANT TO SEE THIS MOVE: It sucks. I started watching this and had to stop cuz the acting suked, the special effects were used way too much to the point were it doesn't impress anyone , u can tell its all fake. Don't let tHE art fool you, people can do magic with photoshop these days. The idea of the movie its pretty good but the movie is cheap. The people who do the special effects and stuff are talented but they used it way too much, i mean they could hve used more make up and less computer work. I was hoping this movie would be good but i was dissapointed. dont waste ur time with this movie. honestly. stick to the oldies.
Don't be a tool. Magic swords and necklaces are the premise of any epic fantasy. See Lord OF The Rings. Yeah the teenage girl and farmland town sounds kind of iffy but the trailer looks epic, the pictures look gory, it has a HARD R rating, it's original, and the key art looks like The Crow (all time classic) took over the Lord Of The Rings, and slayed a thousand zombies. If you don't want to see this, especially in today's over saturated 1980's remake and sequel (yup they're probably going to make a Scream 5 WTF) film market, than your no true fan of horror. I hate all the remakes. I have been waiting to see this movie for so long, along with so many other horror, fantasy, and comic book fans. It brings hope to the genre.
is that so? well, seening how I enjoy sci fi / fantasy (talking about books, none of them tabletop games bullshit) I have heard of Lord of the Rings.
but from what I've heard, Lord of the Rings is a work of fucking art, whereas this Ken doll and his little pre teen sex toy feels more like one of them perverted anime... cartoons. 
frankly, I know next to nothing about this filck, but from what I've seen (trailers, couple of clips, reviews and whatnot), I'm not holding out much hope. feels like an Uwe Boll project, don't know why, really. then again, I could be wrong and this fucker could kick my ass. we'll see.
Ken dolls aren't gothic.
I agree with a lot of your points but here are the strong points I've seen from looking at the artwork, trailers, and overall synopsis.
Firstly, I'll see anything with Brad Dourif. It's frustrated me that he's only played small bit roles as The sherif in the Rob Zombie "Halloween" remakes. I wasn't too happy with "Chain Letter" either. Secondly, it has a hard R rating for "bloody horror violence" so that makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with the gore factor (especially since they have a real actor like Brad Dourif...it's not like we have that guy Cam Gigandet as the lead bad from the original Twilight movie). Also, it's not a remake (as is the case with Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, etc.) nor is it a sequel (as is the case with Final Destination 5 (I don't know why but I am somehow optimistic about this one), "Underworld: A New Dawn," Halloween 3D, etc.). Also, for a zombie movie, it doesn't look like it follows the typical formula (as in "a bunch of survivors run away from the undead"). Resident Evil may have a slightly similar premise with the hero/heroine, but I've never seen a film where the hero has a sword and slays the zombies (coupled with the Hard R rating gives me hope for some gory action sequences). Then again, I could be wrong as well. But, at the very least, I am hopeful.
The Onechanbara movies involve heroes/heroines slaying zombies with swords!! They both sucked and were simultaneously awesome
True, but those were strictly heroine based and almost only had a release in Japan along with a direct to dvd of the vortreX film in 2009. Thanks for bringing up that series, I had almost forgotten about it.
I've never seen that series. Any good?
Dude, it's rated "HARD R" for bloody horror violence, isn't a 3D transfer (like Priest 3d) and most likely how the next Underworld will be shown. I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Zombies *check,* Zombie slaying hero with bloody sword *check,* demons *check,* Brad Dourif *check.* Where did you come up with a list of "Elves, virgins, and unicorns." Especially look at what other b.s. is out there. Scream 4, Halloween remakes, The Roommate (BORING). >)
why is this only getting a limited release? WTF
Rated R for "bloody horror violence!"
If only they would do the same for Priest....
Priest sucked......nothing like the graphic novel.
Finally, some horror that lives up to expectations with a hard R rating. Studios need to start taking notice and know that the fans respect when film makers make movies the way they want to see them and don't sacrifice gore for a childish and lame PG-13 rating >)
Me & my little bro r gonna watch this tonight hope it's good and not low budget
The creature concepts look to be the best thing about this film. Too bad they were wasted on a movie with CGI trumped by video games.
Well, I just watched the whole trailer and well, I wish I didn't. This looks just terrible. I think movie will be fading from my memory.
Always save the girl from evil.. Whats wrong with save the boy from evil ? Something to do with against male ? RIDICULOUS!
blame society before you blame movies. why are you complaining about this? kind of nit picking, no?
....Im beginning to think you have something against females... I think your other psots usually revolve around "womens sexy perverts, perverts womens sexy no likes the sexy women perverts" you remind me of Borat...
Wow, i couldn't even finish the trailer, it looked so cheap. How its on the most wanted list i'll never understand. Brad Dourif sure lowered himself by being in this film. I will pass on this for sure.
Sorry, I disagree completely. Not to mention, where have we aver scene a zombie slaying hero? None come to mind. It's usually just a George Romero movie about survivors running from the undead
dude really? sum random guy with a swrod against ike 30 demon/zombie ppl? wtf is that? reallY! The acting was horrible!
Hmm I liked the trailer. There aren't enough visual effects horror movies and I'll see anything with Brad Dourif. He's a legend. I don't think he lowered himself if he's playing the lead bad. My guess is that this could put him back on the map. No more Sheriff roles in Halloween.
Where we watching the same trailer cause I thought it sucked!
This is stupid and unrealistic. Fucking Twilight shit for older teenage girls.
agree with you. the movie sucked.
Aren't movies supposed to be fantasy, or rather "unrealistic?" It's escapism. Ae you watching the right genre?
No, it has Brad Dourif. That changes everything.
The poster alone makes me want to see this movie.
What sounds good about it:
1) FX driven film
2) man with a deadly sword
3) hordes of demonic creatures >)
4) Brad Dourif
What sounds weird or bad:
1) Saves a young girl.....is it a Twilight Saga rip-off?

2) Small farmland town...sounds bad and cheap but the trailer shows something different so I'm lost
looks like a twilight gay with a sword movie .and your right about brad dourif .
Not to be an ass but isn't this just a teaser trailer?
Well, after having watched the trailer and reading all of the comments [Because I'm bored and it's 1:30 AM so there was nothing else to do] I think this might actually be a good movie. Though, I was tempted to go ahead and post a comment along the lines of
"This movie is shit blah blah blah...".
Why would I do that some may ask... Well, because I felt that most of the angry replies to the above comments along those lines were funny... I mean really, who needs to take to the time to pay attention to people who are only posting stuff like that to get a rise out of others. People with nothing better to do, that's who.
It's just a poor attempt at trying to get attention [Which is sad, since we're people they don't even know] and the ones actually replying to said comments are just acting as ENABLERS.
If you don't like a comment, there's a simple solution [Of which I'm sure was already mentioned].
IGNORE IT!
BTW: I'm not trying to get a rise out of anyone, but I'm sure someone will reply with some kind of snide remark or maybe even some insults because they don't agree with what I said. I'll be sure to ignore such things. [AS SHOULD EVERYONE ELSE].
Good day, night, whatever. Bye.
You make a valid point but in contrast I would say that this is a message board. The very reason why message boards exist are for users to express an opinion and to converse or discuss their various opinions. Therefore, everyone should be welcome to express their thoughts inclusive of yourself, myself, enablers, disgruntled haters, fans, and so on. Regardless of whether or not you choose to ignore my response, all critiques have validity to some degree.
I don't know if I'm going to like this or not but I'm at least hopeful since it's not a remake.
This film reminds me a bit of Silent Hill. Although i dont think it will do much better in terms of the fantasy side of the film, im looking forward to it.
I must say that this is more of a no brainer to me. There are a number of reasons that come to mind.
First, if you look at other films in the genre such as Resident Evil: Afterlife, they're clearly running out of genuine thoughts and just trying to cash in on the whole 3D pull. But Resident Evil is just another part of "survival horror" that has been getting old for quite some time. It's based quite highly on the game Alone In The Dark with regards to that particular and with all the Silent Hill and George A Romero zombie flicks I'm getting a bit tired. I even just saw Lionsgate's trailer for Buried with Ryan Reynolds. Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping they make the movie Deadpool which suits Reynolds perfectly, but this is all too familiar to the survival factor we see in movies like Saw. What other movie has the main character going against the forces of evil in what could be epic proportions?
Is Mike Mignola involved in this?
in the trailer everything looks amateur to me.the background song,the acting and the way the filming it.
I can't get it...why is the 3rd most wanted?
Is this comment actually coming from someone who wants to be taken seriously and yet writes in broken English? My ten year old brother could have put together a sentence more constructively. Oh, and change your name because instead of sounding deeply poetic, I just think melodramatic whiner
(
He just shared hes opinion with us,what's bad in that? even if he's english sucks...
between,this movie sucks too
WTF man, you sound like the typical boring horror fan who bitches about the redundancy in shit horror films and then limps away like a little coward when something new comes along and tweaks the genre. Not to mention that most horror flicks don't even have a budget for effects. Case in point, you think movies like The Descent have any effects budget? No way. I'll even put my money on it that the new Nightmare On Elm Street spent most of their effects budget on Freddy's mask which is all make-up effects. Resident Evil's big plug is 3D...wow big surprise. But hey, at least it could be visually ok.