Indie auteur Mickey Reece took some time to talk with us about his new vampire film Climate of the Hunter. Here’s what he had to say.
Considering how accomplished and beloved your work is, most would be surprised to discover that you’ve only been making movies since 2008.
Doesn’t surprise me. 12 years is a long time to be making movies in complete obscurity.
How did it start? What was the motivation?
I was from a small town. It was doing drugs or making movies so I just did both.
And did you have to juggle filmmaking with a day job in those early days?
Indeed I did. Those were the best years of my life. I loved both the job and the movies.
Most of the films self-financed, too?
A lot of them were but I started getting some financial help in 2013 or so. Nothing extravagant but a few thousand bucks here and there. It helped me keep going. I was extremely lucky to have found a patron in this retired attorney named Beth Alonso. She will always be a valuable part of my life and my story.
You seem to gravitate towards not only character-driven pieces but unique stories we haven’t seen before. Is that fair to say?
I try to craft movies out of just getting the characters all together and seeing where they take the story rather than knowing what the story is going to be ahead of time. If while you’re watching the movie you feel like you don’t know where it’s going, that’s okay, I don’t know either. Sometimes this aimless approach is lazy and sometimes it becomes something special.
What makes “Climate of the Hunter” fresh, in your opinion?
Oh I don’t know that it’s fresh at all but I know I hadn’t seen anyone else try to remake Daughters of Darkness at the time Climate was conceived.
How would you classify it, because it’s a mesh of so many genres isn’t it?
It’s just an arthouse film to me. The horror elements are just there to trick people into watching a movie they normally wouldn’t. If this trick works I’ll probably do it again.
You co-wrote the script with John Selvidge. Where do you think John’s strengths lie as a writer? How do you compliment each other?
He’s a very disciplined screenwriter. Every line has a clear intention and he has a very eloquent voice. Meanwhile, i’m like Animal from Muppet Babies so I think it’s a nice contrast. It also helps that we find very serious things funny.
You still make shorts – most filmmakers, when they’ve established themselves as successful feature filmmakers like yourself, usually stick to doing only those. What’s the appeal for you of still making a short film?
Shorts are cute. They’re just little movies.
Are you worried about theaters – particularly independent arthouses? Or do you think they’ll bounce back post-pandemic?
Man, I fucking hope so. I love the theater more than anything and this is one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced. Climate of the Hunter being my first theatrical release during COVID is, to put it nicely, bittersweet.