Friday, May 4, 2012



Down The Road to Punishment



(Speech before local screening in New Jersey)
Well it's been some time now since we filmed Down The Road. It's been one hell of a ride. A journey. A great time. This movie has made me travel to LA. Where the wonderful Heather Wixson invited us out for a first video interview for one of the biggest horror websites out there, Dread Central. I got to do an interview at the Kodak Theater where the Oscars were being held the next day. It's been wild. This was all during the films post production.

We screened the movie on October 20th, 2011. A home town screening. Got 350 out of the 400 seat theater filled. It was a great time and it was amazing to see everyones reactions. It was amazing. Next was the film festival route. Down The Road has been a part of numerous amount of festivals. The flick, I don't feel, is really a festival type film though. I just thought it'd be a great way to get the word out on the movie. First stop...Ohio. HorrorHound Magazine/Convention invited us out for the East Coast premier of the movie. Coming to a town where we don't know a soul. We managed to pack the 3-400 seat theater. It was great. Minus the fact that I got ragged on on some forums cause I was a little drunk doing a QnA - oh well. The movie played successful and we left smiling.
(Doing an interview on the red carpet at ShockFest)
(Composer Gene Micofsky, Clint Howard, Deven Lobascio, me)
Next was our second time out to LA. All for the ShockFest Film Festival. Now this was an amazing trip. Minus me being sick the whole time. There wasn't a lot of people at our screening. Actually come to think of it, there wasn't a lot of people at any of the screenings until the movie that played before Cabin Fever. Plus Eli Roth was present. It was great meeting: Derek Mears, Tyler Mane, and Eli Roth. It was pretty cool. Now right before we went out to the screening of our movie, we were at In n' Out burger chomping down on a double double animal style! We got word that I won Best Director at HorrorQuest Film Festival in Atlanta. Then found out that actor, Brian Gallagher, won Best Actor at the same festival. It was pretty cool feeling. Out in LA, winning awards for my flick. Good times. Off to the Cabin Fever screening. Clint Howard accepts an award and we head out to the award ceremony/party. This was fun. Hanging with James Gunn and Danielle Harris. Chatting, drinking. Good times. As the night comes to a close and Best Feature is announced. We fucking won! That was also awesome! Amazing...3 awards under our small belts. Mine being a big belt. (Fat kid problems).

(Derek Mears (Jason Voorhees), Eli Roth (director or Bear Jew), Tyler Mane (Michael Myers)
We come home and finish off the movie and send the movie out to more festivals and more critics. The movie never really got a really bad review. I mean, c'mon, it's an homage flick. If you like Friday The 13th, Halloween, The Prowler, Sleepaway Camp...why not like this movie? I send the movie out to World Horror Convention and that was the last award to receive on the film festival route...another Best Feature award. Amazing.

(James Gunn and I showing off our awards)
(Danielle Harris and us at the award ceremony/after party)
We then recently hand the movie over to a sales representation company. Imagination Worldwide. They're a pretty decent company for the level we're at. Now this brings us to all these announcements. No the movie has not sold, yet. The company has advised us to change the title of the movie. Now the movie has been titled Down The Road to me since I was 17 years old writing the script. Now being 24 years old...I guess give up the name. Lets broaden our audience a little bit. We at first had the right to have the movie foreign be - Punishment...and US be Down The Road. Now that just confuses me. We're not a huge movie that is going to have all this crazy promotion. I don't want to have two titles. It just confuses myself and I'm sure everyone else. So here to announce the official change to PUNISHMENT. Jeeze. It took me forever to actually crack and just go with it but whatever. I talked to Victor Miller (writer of original Friday The 13th) and he gave great advice and told me a pretty cool story I never knew about F13 as well. Talked to a few critics...got opinions...so here we are! We do have awards under the Down The Road title, the shirts, the posters...well keep em. Maybe they'll be worth something some day? New shirts will be printed up...we have a great team behind the new poster that is being made. The same company that made: The Da Vinci Code, Kick Ass, Drive Angry, posters are working on ours! PUNISHMENT! I'm pretty excited about this. That will be posted in a few weeks when we get them. Punishment will be marketed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival next month. Pretty excited about that. This is another chapter in this ridiculous journey. Thankful for everything so far!
(Myself and the sweet Tiffany Caprice at ShockFest)
(2011 Best Feature ShockFest)













Well there it is, PUNISHMENT. It's no longer known as Down The Road...what's down the road? Womp. So spread the word! The Facebook page and Twitter page are all being changed by the end of today. Now everyone...please view the official trailer for - PUNISHMENT.