A message from the editor
The Indie Digital Buzz is a new feature from Monsters at Play and Horrorview that allows our readers to get the inside scoop straight from the source in the world of indie horror. I felt that indie horror was an untapped medium and not given the proper respect it surely deserves. Yes, there are those indie horror flicks out there that are slapped together in a heartbeat and passed off as quality cinema, while they remain complete and utter garbage. Then there are those who really enjoy the craft of filmmaking and pour their heart, sweat and tears into each production. Most of these people work normal 9-5 jobs and make movies on the weekend as a hobby. They spend little money on these flicks and they make little money from them, but the films speak for themselves. I felt our readers could benefit from some inside knowledge including anecdotes from the indie movie set and info on upcoming titles that may be of interest. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I have. Expect to see 3 or 4 of these a month, enjoy!

...and don't forget, Beware the Monsters!!!
Lawrence P. Raffel, Editor-in-Chief, Monsters at Play

Hey all!! Busterface here with another edition of the DIGITAL BUZZ! In this edition we touch on what it is like to do nudity in a low budget movie. Since yours truly DOES NOT get naked on set, I had to employ the memory of Jason Christ. Mr. Christ just recently showed all of his bad self on screen for the first time. The story below is his recollection of that experience. It is very informational! Check it out!

A Story from the Set: The Naked Confessions of a Sexual Deviant
By The Intruder (a.k.a. "Jason Christ")

When BIZARRE LUST OF A SEXUAL DEVIANT hit home video back in 2001, I was kind of indifferent about it. I never really thought it was a bad movie (a feeling not shared by other people on the production). There just wasn't much to it. Directed by Zert Sineca and featuring a cast of lovely ladies (Emily Hack, Lisa A. Morrison, and Angela Zimmerly), this first release under the Sub Rosa Extreme banner was originally conceived to be nothing more than a high-gloss, artsy fetish video.

There wasn't a script, but the story followed the misadventures of a sexual pervert (that would be me) that runs amok, attacking innocent women in attempts to recreate a sexual fetish that he had once indulged himself in with his ex-wife. The fetish laid the groundwork for the production, which involved the use of chloroform in the attack scenes, where I would then grope and photograph my unconscious victims (whom were naked, of course).

It was to be shot on the quick (four to five days), with an even faster post-production schedule (three days) to get the movie out on the home video market to make a few bucks. Surprisingly enough, it did make some money. It actually climbed to #1 on the best sellers list on the website for Sub Rosa Studios, the company that released the movie. Even though we seemed to accomplish our financial goal in creating a profitable movie on the cheap, I think ultimately the project was unfulfilling from a creative standpoint for a lot of people that worked on it. During the course of the production, the desire to create a movie with both a solid story and a strong visual sense began to overshadow our initial goal. However, with such a fast and furious shooting schedule, we didn't have a lot of time to make a personal epic (the "Gone With The Wind" of chloroform flicks). Eventually the movie slipped into oblivion, and has become kind of a "black sheep" amongst the flock of Sub Rosa Extreme's more popular titles (I SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE, I PISS ON YOUR GRAVE, INSANIAC, THE CHRISTMAS SEASON MASSARE, etc.).

Earlier this year, I was approached by Eric Stanze, the executive producer for the project, with the idea of going back and shooting some new scenes for the BIZARRE LUST DVD release. The idea was to flesh out the story with some more horror elements in attempts to stretch the movie beyond its fetish origins. We both thought that a good way to do this would be to add a little more back-story to the character of The Intruder.

When you play any kind of role, it's always a good idea to give your character some kind of a back-story. This helps you in making effective acting choices that will fully flesh out the goals of your character within the story (what does the character wants in a scene, why does the character want it, etc.), which in turn, helps your character become more of a three-dimensional being, instead of a cardboard cutout. When we originally shot the movie, there wasn't any time for all that. So, for these re-shoots, I really wanted to get inside this character to see what drove him to do the things he does in the story. That's when the underlining theme of the movie occurred to me (at least in my mind): how a fetish can control every aspect of your life and how it can lead it to a destructive end. Perfect. The horror elements of the story would be shown through the gradual degradation of this man, and how powerless he has become at the hands of his own fetish.

I actually got kind of a charge out of the idea of going through the emotional ringer as this guy slowly goes nuts when he realizes that no matter how hard he tries, he can't live a "normal" life without playing his little "game". I wanted to go crazy with this. I wanted to go all the way, to show the character fall from his false sense of "normality" to his most vulnerable state of being. How was I going to achieve this? My first impulse on how to show the character at his most vulnerable was to have him be NAKED. I immediately struck the idea down, thinking that there was no fucking way I was going to show my tubby-ass in front of a camera for all to see! I eventually realized that it was a knee-jerk reaction from a bad self-image that I've been struggling with my whole life. I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't let my low self-esteem stand in the way in any choices that I might consider for the character. As the saying goes, you only live once, so with a lot of fucking trepidation, I decided to take the risk, not totally sure of what would happen (or if I could even go through with it).

The weekend of the shoot quickly arrived. I met with Zert and the crew over at Todd Tevlin's apartment to shoot the new scenes. The first day went very smoothly. We shot the introduction of The Intruder as a "normal" guy living his mundane life, and his slow descent into madness. We ended the day with a fairly dramatic scene where I make a tearful phone call to my ex-wife (played by Lisa A. Morrison). I actually managed to cry during the scene, which was pretty cool. At that point, everything was going pretty damn good. I left the set that day in high spirits, but my stomach soon began to churn with the idea that I'd be coming back the next day to get all butt-ass naked. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to do it, and yet, somehow I found the courage to come back to set the next day.

I arrived the next day with a steadily growing sense of nausea. While Zert was placing the camera and the lights for the first setup, I remember pacing back and forth in the nearby bedroom, wearing only a bathrobe, trying to hold on to my last bit of courage. "What the hell am I doing?" I kept asking myself. "This is fucking crazy." It was becoming more and more difficult to keep focused on what I had to do for the scene. My head was filling with thoughts of ridicule from my friends at the sight of me naked, another knee-jerk reaction I guess. After a while, I stopped listening to that voice inside of my head that kept trying to talk me out of what I was about to do. There wasn't really any point in my trying to place some kind of blame on someone else for getting me into this mess…I was the only one to blame. I got myself into this, and I wasn't going to walk away. Well, that was the plan.

The first scene that was to be shot that day was of me in the shower after I had made my tearful phone call to my ex-wife. Feeling that I have fucked up any chances of getting myself back in her life (she divorced me because of my insatiable appetite for my fetish games), I begin to verbally lash out at myself, which eventually begins to turn more physical. It was just Zert and myself in the bathroom during the shooting of that scene, so I was able to relax a little bit and concentrate on the scene. However, in the next scene, my character's ranting is cut off when he hears the phone ringing. He quickly runs from the shower, naked and wet (hmmm…what an image) to the answering machine, where he nervously screens the call to see if it's his ex-wife calling him. Oh shit! I knew there was no place to hide this time! As I nervously stood in the bathroom, waiting for Zert to call action, I quickly tried to abandon my fears. I knew that if I let myself get consumed by them, I wouldn't be able to do the scene. As Zert called action, I left the seclusion and safety of the bathroom to the main hallway where the scene was to take place. Even though there weren't many people on the set, I immediately began to feel a sense of embarrassment wash over me as I stepped naked out of the bathroom. I tried my best to remain focused on the scene, but I couldn't help but see people looking at me out of the corner of my eye, my mind racing with anxiety and self-deprecation. I continued with the scene, trying my best to use the anxiety to my advantage, but when Zert finally yelled cut, I quickly began to feel a little disappointed that I had let myself become distracted by my own silly self-consciousness.

As I prepared myself to do another take, I glanced over my shoulder, and to my horror, noticed that I have left a big, wet ass print on the wall that I had been leaning against during the scene. I prayed to God that nobody would notice, but everyone quickly saw it and started laughing. I had to admit that it was pretty damn funny, and I had a good laugh with it myself. I immediately became more relaxed, knowing that everyone was laughing with me, not at me. From that point on, the rest of the shoot went without a hitch, and I didn't give my previous anxieties a second thought.

So, was it worth putting myself through all that? At this writing, I haven't seen any of the footage yet. I'm almost afraid to look at it. I'm even more afraid of what people will think once the new version of the movie comes out, but I take comfort in knowing that I did something outrageous; that I did something I never thought I'd have the courage to do. I never would have guessed that this project, which initially seemed so simple-minded, could've ended up being such a rewarding experience. And while I don't have any immediate plans on flaunting my goodies for the cameras again anytime soon, I have to admit that it felt pretty good to have found the courage to take that risk, and that I had my friends standing behind me every step of the way.

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