In Joshua Grannell’s All About Evil the shy and retiring Deborah (Natasha Lyonne) inherits her father’s movie house. The drawback to her inheritance is that The Victoria Theatre is in financial jeopardy. The situation serves as the catalyst for Deborah’s more mercurial and murderous talents to come to the surface and her snuff movies become massively successful on the San Francisco B-movie circuit, garnering thousands of gore-crazed fans. The Sarah Connor Chronicles and forthcoming remake of A Nightmare On Elm star, Thomas Dekker, plays Steven with Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson as mom and the excellent Mink Stole (Dottie Hingle in Serial Mom) as the ill-fated Evelyn. Ticket sales to the theatre this year are going to be bloody murder. Joshua chatted with me about Midnight Mass, his alter-ego Peaches Christ, Elvira, All About Evil‘s production and B-movies… All About Evil did start as a short film called Grindhouse that I made in 2003. I didn’t actually start working on the feature screenplay until the beginning of 2005 so, I guess it took about five years for me to write, and re-write the screenplay, put the cast together, find financing, etc. I love the premise of your movie – a dowdy librarian inherits an old theatre and soon catapults herself into the limelight by making actual snuff movies. You’re something of an alt.cult aficionado. What particular films inspired you, if any, when making All About Evil? Some of the movie inspirations for All About Evil were Demons, Theatre Of Blood, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Carrie, Female Trouble, The Bad Seed, Psycho, etc. As far as some of the people that inspired some of the characters, I’d have to say I found great inspiration in William Castle, Doris Wishman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and Vincent Price. Cassandra Peterson (best known as The Mistress of the Dark, Elvira), Mink Stole (Connie Marble in Pink Flamingos), Natasha Lyonne (Slums Of Beverly Hills, But I’m A Cheerleader), and Thomas Dekker all star in All About Evil. You even make an appearance as your alter-ego Peaches Christ, host of the infamous Midnight Mass in San Francisco. You had already worked with Cassandra Peterson, when did the rest come onboard? I had worked with both Mink Stole and Cassandra Peterson doing Midnight Mass shows together and was able to ask them to consider doing the movie personally. I was so flattered that they both agreed. I met Thomas Dekker through producer Darren Stein and was really impressed with his acting talent, as well as his great knowledge in cult films. He truly is a fan. When casting the role of Deborah did you have a good idea of the type of actress you wanted to cast? I did. I knew it had to be a really special actress, someone who could walk the line between drama and comedy and bring a believable level of pathos to the role so that it wasn’t all just schtick or camp. Natasha is great and really got what we were going for. Macabre. What about your role in the film. Is it strictly a cameo or is yours a meatier part? What are your future plans for Midnight Mass? I’d love to keep doing Midnight Mass in various forms throughout the year, but won’t be coming back this summer to do an entire season of back-to-back shows like we’ve done for the past twelve years. I will, however, be returning to the Bridge to do two nights of Midnight Mass on the first weekend in July with Purple Rain. People love our Purple Rain weekend so it seemed fitting to come back and do one big summer weekend. I don’t think it really wants a sequel, but some members of the cast are already pitching ideas to me about how we could do it. I do think I’d like to make another film in the same vein, to continue exploring some of these ideas, and the tone that we’ve set. Will you continue making horror/blacker than black comedies or can you see yourself doing straight drama? And if your answer is yes to the former part of my question, what is it going to be about? As far as what my next movie is about, I can’t really say at this time but ideas are churning and I’ve begun some preliminary work on starting a new screenplay. I know this is a question that a lot of writers/directors get asked, especially when working within the horror genre, but is there anything which annoys you about horror, in general? Joshua Grannell, thank you very much!
