Ade Rowe Interviews Ron DeCaro

Ron DeCaro is an Independent film maker, better known for starring in and directing gore flick The Gateway Meat. Part of The Brightside Trilogy of films which include The White Lie & Eating Razors - A Love Story, The Gateway Meat is a tour de force of brutality and unpleasantness. I had a quick chat with Ron about stuff:

Ade Rowe: Hi Ron and welcome!
Ron DeCaro: Thanks for having me.

AR: How did you first get involved with making films? Was it at first just a bit
of fun to do with friends?
RD: I always had some idea that I’d like to work on films. To me they are
a true form of expression and art. You can take people anywhere and
show them anything. You can make them think and feel. At first when I
started out I was really just messing around. I didn’t start to take
it seriously until The White Lie which I really wanted to be brutal
and unrelenting. After that I knew most of my work would likely be
more on the darker side of horror. I do want to shock my viewers but
at the same time I want to show them something new. It’s really
important to me that my work be as original as possible.

AR: What are the main influences behind your film-making?
RD: I grew up on 70’s and 80’s horror but the 3 films that inspired me
most are probably the Thing, Braindead (Dead Alive), and Hellraiser 2.
I also have to give one hell of a nod to my friends over at ToeTag
Pictures for keeping a fire lit under my ass. Fred Vogel and crew are
the ones who showed me that there is no line in film making and the
horror can be pure and intense on a micro-budget.

AR: Influential Directors?
RD: John Carpenter, Peter Jackson, Sam Rami,Stanly Kubrick, Fred Vogel,
Brian Paulin.

AR: To anyone that doesn't know, explain The Brightside Trilogy...
RD: The Brightside trilogy is a series of films shot primarily at a condo
on Brightside Ave. in the town I used to live in. I thought the name
would be an ironic play on words. The three films are Eating Razors (a
love story), The White Lie & The Gateway Meat. These films were
created in attempts to show that no budget films can be emotionally
impactful and brutal.

AR: The Gateway Meat has become the most popular of the trilogy,and a big hit amongst the extreme film community, does this surprise you?
RD: The Gateway Meat was a real exorcism for me. It was a selfish film
that I made for my cathartic needs at the time. The fact that it is
well received is really all just gravy. I knew when I was making it
that I would be swinging for the fences but I never really knew how it
would become as popular as it has.

AR: The editing on The Gateway Meat is cool, and how, in the making of,
your daughter doesn't actually witness any of the sick goings on...
RD: I wanted to create an intense amount of anxiety in the film and I
thought that a good angle would be to have this beautiful little girl
juxtaposed against this horrible world filled with, violence, murder,
and other nasties. She again never witnessed any of it. She is my
world and I would never subject her to any of that type of material in
real life. In the film I play a monster but it does not reflect the
person that I actually am. People forget that sometimes.

AR: How do you come up with the ideas for your films?
RD: Generally I like to day dream and take notes. Ideas come to me like
inspiration, sometime in fragments then sometimes in floods. I try to
ride the wave whenever one presents it’s self.

AR: Eating Razors, any plans to re-release it?
RD: I plan to re-release all three films on an all new DVD called “The
Brightside Trilogy” coming in 2011.

AR: Yeh, I know that the trilogy box is supposed to be coming out, but
it seems like forever!
RD: I know. I know. Soon.

AR: You've been quiet lately, busy on a new project?
RD: I’ve been working a ton and haven’t had a lot of time to work on too
much. I’ve got a new short coming out soon called Emancipation. It’s
95% complete and will have a very limited release of 100 units also
coming in 2011. I’ve also been working on some other things that are in
the infancy stages. The juices are still flowing and FTBOMP (For The Better Of Mankind Productions) is not dead.

AR: Finally, Any advice for young wannabe film-makers out there?
RD: Just do it. Don’t talk about it. Just get up and get out and start doing it.

AR: Thanks very much for your time Ron :)
RD: Thanks very much for having me.

(Ade Rowe December 2010)