In 2002, I said "this is it... you're gonna have my nightmare, before Christmas". I now had the drawings. I had the ("?") animated sequence ready. I was about to have a song... Stickers were everywhere in sight... Pfsss ! Only the BURGER KING's toys where missing... From work, I called ...ric (Lavoie) one day. Cause, out of luck, I was about to do the editing myself with two VCR'S and just needed some better tips. ...ric's a (great fucking) professional editor, you see... He knows what he's doing. So I called and let him know the situation. And when he said that he was willing to help me out with his (BIG) equipment, I almost shit my pants !! "KC 14 DC", that was my new time code (for "Killer CUP" on December the 14th), or the night I had set the world's premiere... weeks in advance. I like to have every single thing as perfect as possible, as I think of them, and all the details need to be fixed before you can't come back. WHAT A RUSH !! Here, I must say some VERY EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to my friend Richard (Pearson) and his loving wife, my cousin Véronique. Cause up to that point, I was calling Rick and sending him e-mails about 3-4 times a day just to make sure everything was gonna be ready and on time. Rick was already working on the two animated credits sequences with Monique's drawings, and taking care of all the other PROMO STUFF I had planned to unleash the same night.

On ...ric's side, I also had to be ready. By watching all the MASTER TAPES again, I made my shots selection for the first time ever and went with all the existing proof of such a ride to the editing table (felt strange actually, living home that day with all the stock footage at once in a case, and thinking that if ever something "bad" had "happened" to me, the Cups would have probably been gone for ever...). Days before that, the Bissonnette brothers, Rick and myself had recorded "squeaking" sounds/noises in order to give voices to the Cups by using rubber chicken legs (or cheap toys for dogs ??), so I had it all with me !! Finding a sound for THEM of expression was a fun part of the Cup concept (Hey, how's a KILLER "CUP" supposed to sound like in the first place... ??), and for sure, I did not want to write down the translation, cause I like it better if all have to figure out what they want and easily make it though the story anyway. So why should I say stuff like: "You are just MEAT for US"... and "Fellow white things, it's killing time !!" ??

The editing went surprisingly very well... till ...ric made me realize that "another" part was not clear. Looking at the footage, all together, a scene was still missing some INSERTS again. In my head, I had always thought that it was doing o.k., but all "the others" might have had problems to follow. So ...ric made me a list of what he thought was missing to help it out, and we kept on moving with the rest of the day. This was two weeks before the premiere's night. The room to play it had been rented. The t-shirts order had been placed. People had recieved their invitation cards... weekends off had been taken for some... the song was on it's way... and I still had to go back to square one !! Cause... In the story, a simple minded Cup is "burned" and return, late at night, with the help of two other drunk Cups who fix him back for revenge... HE, then becomes The "LEADER CUP", and calls a massive attack upon all the human race... By "fix him back", I mean they replace the big burned hole with a kind of metal plate (don't remember why here ??) that gives him more of a cyborg look (or was I more going for a "T2" style...). And just for the hell of a joke, friends had already started to ask if he had got "AN UPGRADE", like in "Jason X"... ?? ( Remember here, I had shot this in Winter of 1998.) I went back home that (editing) night, and started to think fast for a way to do what had to be done... fitting in shots, with footage that had been taken "four years before" ??? Damn.

Since I never throw out stuff (cause of my mom who collects all sorts of things... and sometime friends who call back to re-use old FX props I did...), I found the BOX OF PUPPETS back and took a look inside of it. One of the first puppets that I had taken out of the plaster mold had not been given enough layers of latex (at the time) and had come out completely all messed up... or simply did not just want to keep its shape. That puppet was later used in a shot where one of the Cups try to pass beneath a door to grab his lunch (actress Parize Chevalier) and has to "extend", when the guy (...ric Aupin) tries to get it out of there and pull severely on IT. That same puppet seemed to fit the perfect plan... I took out the (getting) old Leader CUP puppet as a matching reference and, using the "poor old deformed one", drew/cut and black painted the same face to it. "Ta-dam..., JeF.X's movie magic !!"

I brought my son, Nicolas, with us for the occasion. I already had showed him some footage of them in action, and shame on me from his own point of view when he asked and seeked for the mechanics..."?? There (back to college), I also took time to "extend" some scenes, in order to pretend that more people had died from "THE MASSIVE ATTACK". So me, Nicolas (my kid) and the Bissonnette brothers went back to college. All of that felt kind of weird, when you realize that your own son stood by yourself to pull some strings (in 2002), and that by the time you first started all of this (in 1998), he was about the size of a bean in his mom's belly. No wonder why, I placed his name second to his mom's in the final credits. And ever since, I think that Nicolas has been the most devoted true Cups fan I'll ever have... Strange. But at least, a proof was made... kids love the Cups. At least...

The editing was completed about a week before "KC 14 DC" finally arrived. And for all of that, I must not forget to SPECIAL THANKS again my editor, ...ric Lavoie. Cause without him, they would probably still be hidden in my closet, not finished, and the "Killer CUP" did pretty well ever since, I think.

Right after the Holidays of 2002, I started the year 2003 by sending copies everywhere, as much as I could afford witm MY money... just to "make as much people see IT as possible", and pursue the strange invasion of make believe. They quickly made their first reviews in such magazines has Rue-Morgue (Thanks, Jen !!), TOXIC (from France !!) and some local paper such as SANG FRAIS. Made it's way straight to a Cult Video Store, called SUKUBUS. Played at FANT-ASIA the fallowing summer and also at Cinema Wasteland's October Fest in 2003 (a great event partly made possible cause of a friend, Karl Knight, who happens to live in the same area of Cleveland, Ohio). There, I must say, I had the chance to meet the 3 Ladies of the EVIL DEAD (and imagine how that must have felt, to meet with those who had terrified my youth...!!!) With the Cups now in my bag, I also hooked with some great peoples such as the PUPHEDZ's director and the (crazy) guy behind the shirts of ROTTEN COTTON... Till MONSTERS at PLAY also got it, one day on the list, and made this article possible. Not bad for the first CUP's year. So here's to all, THANK YOU !!!

But, as you know, a lot more work was on it's way... as usual.

KILLER CUP - Episode 2:

I remember when I first wrote the script, I kind of felt like George Lucas trying to write some long awaited STAR WARS tale. All my friends had now heard of the idea. One day, tired of just having all thoses glips in my head, I sat down and started to write a Cups story again. The Cups "behaviour" had pretty much been established up to this point. So now, it was time to "push the enveloppe" a little bit more and bring them on new territories. That was called, "The SECOND CUP ATTACK"... (and for the hard learners, "Killer CUP 2")

In the woods they shall go!! Out from school (where the first one takes place), they go on a rampage and this was my direction... (before they'll end up in space or visit the hood.) Give it more of a forest/slashers movie feel, a funky homage to the Friday the 13th genre from the '80's. THEY needed to go OUT... !!!

Now that the first one had come out, it was easier than ever. Brigning the 15 or so page script to anybody, they knew that it was not a joke... or maybe one that I was damn serious about. In the writing process, I also kept in mind what was really gonna be possible, using the mistakes learned from the original one to not repeat myself. And so on, came the casting time again... I first brought abord Richard (Pearson) and my cousin Véronique (Grenier). Since Rick had spend so much time working on the first one with me, this time, he was more than willing to tackle a bigger part. The night of the (first) premiere, we talked about that possibility, since I also had already given him the task to "start working on a new animated sequence"... to open the sequel.... The script was simple. 4 caracters, a couple of smaller parts, some cameos (including mine again), guests appearances... all had to work out good in order to bring my "planned story" to life, from point A to Z. I know myself, I'd rather cast a friend than a total stranger. When so many things go around, the trust of a real "TROOPER" (a.k.a. A very good FRIEND) is a good thing to have. You can yell, lose control... and at the end of the day, you are still "blood brothers" (but better not push it too mutch still... I've learned.). Around that time, I recall, a lot of things where going round in my head. Casting to finish, locations to look for, story-dboard to draw, materials to buy and props to build... mostly. YEAH, right. New job to go with that. Working now in a FOAM facilities, I there found the time to pen down the new desings and the story-board, giving the script around 25 pages of commic book strip, with the exact same shots that I was about to shoot in weeks to come.

Remember here, it was five years since the first one happened. And with five years, people grow up and expect for more... I did not want to repeat myself and just deliver the same recipe. I'm not a fool !! The scenes were not "that" complicated... but for some, I had to find the right girls to fit the boobs, sorry I mean "boots". Like an example, in the story, a girl in a bikini had to be chased by dozens of Cups, in the woods, over and over again. And just cause of that, I knew that many of my (girl) friends would turn down the role, too shy in front of the camera or afraid of been stuck in the middle of a bunch of crew members in heat... I don't like to put to much water in my wine, so if I write something, I'll fight my best to have it done right. A friend of mine (André Dubois) then said he knew "someone" who was ready to go, if only I would take the time to meet with her first, a normal procedure. In fact, I had heard about her from a long time, other friend's of a friend (Daniel Walter) kind of stuff. Isabelle Stephen had already done some TROMA gigs, 1,000 of others roles... some CHILLER Fest appearances for various promotions... dress to kill. What a devoted girl !! Praise the Lord, I had just found a SCREAM QUEEN for the Cups...

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