 Ha! I hate pretentiousness in all art. I'm all for speaking about your work seriously, but goddamn, certain folks are completely insufferable and totally detached from reality. Shiloh's character was based entirely on interviews with Jared Leto/30 Seconds to Mars. I would send Ryan (who plays Shiloh) the most insanely eye-rolly YouTube videos I could find (of which there are MANY). Today myself and Craig Draheim sit down with director Matthew John Lawrence to chat about his latest movie Uncle Peckerhead. Matthew John Lawrence is a 30-something filmmaker hailing from the great state of New Jersey. He writes, directs, produces, and edits micro-budget movies and is an Assistant Professor at The College of New Jersey where he teaches courses in media studies and production. Matthew received his MFA in Film Production from Boston University with a concentration in Screenwriting and Directing. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and a half-dozen plants he hasn’t figured out how to water properly. Uncle Peckerhead is a Faustian gorefest, a horror-comedy with heart, a madcap music & monster movie, a post-Trumpian punks v. hillbillies drama of epic proportions, you get the picture. Judy sings and plays bass in the punk-rock band, DUH, with her friends, Max and Mel. She's the leader of the pack and will stop at nothing to achieve her dream of becoming a full-time touring musician. But when DUH's van is repossessed hours before they're set to embark on their first tour, desperation sets in, and Judy strikes an uneasy alliance with a redneck old-timer by the name of Peckerhead, or "Peck". Peck lives in a 15-passenger van and offers to act as DUH's driver and roadie, providing the wheels so long as the band agrees to take care of meals and gas. Oh, and there's just one other small thing: Peck turns into a man-eating monster every night at midnight for 13 minutes. Judy discovers this the hard way, when she comes upon the lovable hillbilly devouring an asshole promoter at their first show. But Peck seems genuinely remorseful, and the promoter did screw them out of money. What's the alternative? Cancel the tour? Give up the dream? A bargain is reached: Peck will remain, self-sedate every night before midnight, and the tour will continue. But now, in addition to the ordinary struggles of the "gig life", Judy must navigate the trail of half-eaten bodies DUH leaves in their wake. Hey Matthew, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. To kick of the interview could you tell us a little but about yourself? Sure, my name's Matt and I live in Brooklyn, New York. I am trying to lose weight, I want a dog, and I make movies. Parts of the film were inspired by your own experiences on the road, which member of Duh is the closest to you? I am 100% Judy. I am her, she is me. I was the responsible one of the group; I had the lofty ambitions and oftentimes pushed too hard. I have sold my soul plenty of times. While the setup itself is comical, what inspired you to make it so outwardly funny? Saying "comedy comes easy" makes it sound like I think I am funny, but I guess comedy is familiar territory that brings me joy. I think I like levity a lot, even if I'm trafficking in the dramatic and/or horrific. I also crave laughs like a drug. Some of my most cherished film-going memories have been sitting with a packed audience, laughing my ass off. So that's the type of stuff I hope to make. Punk rock. A lovable southern oaf. A demon. It’s a story I never knew I wanted until I watched it. How did the elements merge together? In short, Uncle Peckerhead touches on the two major loves of my life: Horror Movies & Punk Rock. The longer answer: The original idea for Uncle Peckerhead was that of a short-form series, where a punk band lived in a dingy house with an old hillbilly tweaker. The show would be executed like an early 90’s family sitcom, whereby the group would get into misadventures each week, and Peckerhead would pass along words of wisdom which would help resolve the conflict at the end of each episode - a punk-rock Full House with a redneck Mr. Belvedere, if you will. As I was developing the series and writing episodes, I went to a certain unnamed genre festival with a short film I had produced. While I did see a few great movies, I was struck by how homogenized and self-serious a lot of the horror features were; they didn’t share the same chaotic and joyful nature a lot of my favorite movies embody. In short, they weren’t any fun, and I noticed that festival-goers too were hungry for an energy which was not present. After a few beers on the final night of the festival, it got me to thinking, “Maybe I should stop talking shit and put my money where my mouth is.” It was then I began in earnest to write and develop Uncle Peckerhead as a feature film. Because of its uniqueness, what was the process for getting Uncle Peckerhead made? The writing process itself was fairly quick; I began the first draft in late Summer 2017 and by November of that year, had fully committed to shoot in June 2018. The budget was micro with a lowercase "m" and came from self-funding and a handful of incredibly generous folks who really loved the idea and clearly didn't care about money. When working with such a small budget, how do balance the expenditure on special effects? Did you go into the film with a clear idea which effects you wanted as the money shots? Totally. I made a short film before this that relied a lot on practical fx and makeup so I had an idea of how much it would cost, how much time each sequence would take, etc. In reality, our film only has four big horror-fx sequences and that's all because of budget. With that said, Jared Balog (our FX guru) broke his back to work with our budget, did a masterful job, and was a wonderful collaborator. I loved that scene between Shiloh and Judy on the bench, just how much contempt do you have for the pretentiousness of the indie punk scene? Ha! I hate pretentiousness in all art. I'm all for speaking about your work seriously, but goddamn, certain folks are completely insufferable and totally detached from reality. Shiloh's character was based entirely on interviews with Jared Leto/30 Seconds to Mars. I would send Ryan (who plays Shiloh) the most insanely eye-rolly YouTube videos I could find (of which there are MANY). The cast feels close knit like they were friends prior to filming or in comedy troupe together. How did you build those relationships onscreen? I think it's about casting good people. After that, it's really how they click once they start spending 18 hours together. One of the most heartening things I witnessed during the production was the bond formed by the main cast. Chet, Ruby, Jeff, and David would travel to and from set via the tour van every day; the four were inseparable, eating all their meals together and sleeping at the same house. They began to morph into a tight-knit group much like a touring band would, as the dynamic between the actors continued even after the cameras stopped rolling. And what about the metalheads? HA! Some of my best friends are metalheads! I just love the idea of a couple asshole metalheads starting shit in an empty parking lot at night. I had had that idea swimming around in my head for years and decided this was the best opportunity to fully realize that vision. What is it about punk rock that lends itself so well to the horror genre? Great question. I think both approaches have been historically looked down on by mainstream (or highbrow) audiences, critics, and the like. It's insane because I feel horror and punk often push boundaries which are then imitated by more prestige genres. But, while discounted, they both yield some of the most thoughtful and loyal fans. I think, at their best, they also foster some of the most inclusive communities (though there are incredibly bad examples to undermine this point). The people who make these films/this music have a certain energy and need to connect with audiences; there are a lot of things which I'm not doing a very good job at articulating. So how punk is punk enough for you, who is your “least punk” band that you consider punk? Avril laviagne, Sum 41? Sum 41 and Avril are punk if they wanna be. If they're being dicks and telling me or you that we're not punk, then fuck them. Anyone can be punk! No joke, I think my grandma is punk because she's an old white lady who believes in an insanely progressive agenda - i.e. Black Lives Matter, defunding the police, rights for undocumented immigrants, etc. Telling people what music is or isn't kinda defeats the purpose of it all. If you like it and it brings you joy and you're not being a shit to other people, call it whatever you want. Mix tapes, the bane of every road trip ever, but who would be on your mix tape and which artist would you have feature twice on one side? What a GREAT QUESTION. Damn - that's tough. As I hope the movie demonstrates, music is omnipresent in my life - everything I do revolves around it. Favorite jams are always changing, as will artists. So let me answer with my current favs (though some of these groups have been pretty consistent throughout my life). Mixtape would have to include The Beastie Boys (this would be my "two songs, same side" band), The Marked Men, Warthog, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Schoolboy Q, Descendents, Cayetana, School Drugs, Nirvana, The Dirty Nil, Tierra Whack, Steely Dan. David H. Littleton came out of retirement for the film, how did you manage to get him to step in front of the screen? Blackmail, hypnosis, or threats of violence? David was a godsend. He had already planned to return to the world of acting and luckily he saw our casting call. And the casting process for Peckerhead was a slog. In addition to the countless video submissions we received, we spent three full days meeting with actors to play the part of Peckerhead. And not one of them came close to what we were looking for. Note: I know three days does not seem like an extensive casting call but we only held auditions for four days in total and, well, the production was dirt poor. Finally, Kristy Richman (producer) texted me one night with yet another video audition for Peckerhead: “Take a look at this guy. He’s doing a play in Florida currently but he’s Brooklyn-based sooo… maybe?” I watched David Littleton’s audition on my phone and BAM! That was it; we found Peckerhead. Within a couple weeks, we brought him up to audition with Chet, Ruby, and Jeff. The chemistry was magical; the four had me laughing out loud, and the film was READY TO GO. What part of being on the road did you hate the most? My least favorite part would be driving all day to play a dive bar with literally zero people to watch us. Sure, there might be a couple drunk old-timers passed out in the corner, but the room is basically empty. What a spirit-killer that is... In the media, touring is represented as a romantic adventure, but in reality, bands are playing empty venues and eating shoelaces in Walmart parking lots every night. It’s largely a soul-crushing experience, not unlike some (most?) days of independent filmmaking. Who wrote the songs that Duh perform in the movie and will they be available to purchase or stream anywhere? Jeff Riddle, who plays Max in the film, wrote all of the music. He's one of my best friends and we've been collaborating on projects for years. Jeff has a new band called Five Hundred Bucks and they actually recorded much better versions of a couple songs from the film. With that said, we have been talking about doing a proper DUH release (EP? 7-inch?) if the right label comes along. So, if y'all know any folks at Mondo or Waxwork Records, HOOK US UP.  Uncle Peckerhead is an interesting character his transition from being a lovable oaf cursed with transforming into a monster, to becoming a literal insidious monster is rather chilling, was this tonal shift in his character planned from the start? It was, actually. Not to get political, but one of the main inspirations for writing that character came the number of pieces being written on the “forgotten male" who had turned to Trump in 2016. I’m not sure if it was initially a conscious decision but I could see that the film’s “punks v. hillbilly” premise was mirroring a theme that was happening around the country. An older white guy (who, on the surface, might be polite and charming) was willing to embrace a completely nihilistic agenda with no concern for the livelihood of future generations, because he felt the world had left him behind. Note: I fully acknowledge that the film is a lowbrow horror-comedy with blood and shit aplenty, but it’s also about the political stuff. I digress… Was there ever an explanation what Uncle Peckerhead actually is and why he transforms every night? Prior to filming, for each of the main cast members, I wrote a 4-5 page character backstory. For David's (i.e. Peck), I had a couple pages dedicated to how he became the "thing". What was the significance for him only transforming for 13 minutes? Honestly, in earlier drafts, there were so many rules and a lot more backstory and lore behind the character. That may sound intriguing but it really began to slow the film down and muddy the narrative. My wife, Wicky, who also co-produced the film was really instrumental by telling me to refrain from overexplaining everything and cut down on the "rules". In reality, the number "13" doesn't hold any significance other than it made it easier for both story reasons as well as practical ones as we didn't have to rely on makeup fx as many times (which equals $$$). I loved the ending of the film that final scene was a perfect example of how a small budget film can knock it out of the park in terms of delivering a truly terrifying ending, but does this mean there is a chance of an Uncle Peckerhead 2? YES. Well, that's the hope. I have a treatment already written for a sequel to the film. I just need some of that sweet, sweet cash to get it written and produced. I also have another script already written and ready to be produced which comes from the Uncle Peckerhead Universe in that it centers around the band DUH. You can read more about the film, Larry Gone Demon, on our company's website: subtletrex.com Thanks so much for the kind words and great questions, Jim and Craig! So glad you watched and enjoyed the film! UNCLE PECKERHEAD will be screening in select theatres on Friday, August 7, 2020 and will be available on VOD/Digital on Tuesday, August 11, 2020. RT: 96min | Not Yet Rated Genre: Horror-Comedy | U.S. Facebook: facebook.com/UnclePeckerhead Twitter: twitter.com/UnclePeckerhead Instagram: instagram.com/UnclePeckerhead   the heart and soul of horror movie review websitesComments are closed.
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