Interview: Frank Sabatella (The Shed)

Director/Writer/Producer, Frank Sabatella (Children of the Witch, The House That Cried Blood) took some time to talk to Horrornews.net about his new THE SHED and he has some news about his short-film that may or may not have scared the life out of you in 2012.

I also ramble and tell him my short shed story and he shares amazing, THE HOUSE THAT CRIED BLOOD news so check out the interview and watch THE SHED. It is an incredible movie. The vampire is awesome. It is a ravenous, animalistic Near Dark, Salem’s Lot creepy vampire.

“Written and directed by Frank Sabatella (Blood Night), the film stars Jay Jay Warren (“Bosch”), Cody Kostro (“City on a Hill”), Sofia Happonen (Woman of a Certain Age), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Men in Black) and Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show). RLJE Films will release THE SHED in theaters and on VOD and Digital HD on Nov. 15, 2019.”

Frank- Hi Janel, How are you?

Hi Frank, I am good. Thanks. How are you?

Frank- I am good.

So, The Shed was so good. A few years ago at our other house, we moved a lot. But, I would listen at the door of our shed before I would go in the shed.

(Laughter)

Frank- That’s awesome.

This movie was great!

Frank- Thank you.

How did you come up with the concept for The Shed?

Frank- The idea started with a friend of mine in film school. He wrote a short story about a vampire trapped inside of a tool shed. I loved the concept, I took the concept from him.. With his permission from him. I didn’t steal it. I told him I was going to write a feature based off of that initial concept, and I did.

The movies you do have always kind of been some of my favorites. Children of the Witch, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, Night of the Pumpkin, and The House that Cried Blood.

Frank- Thank you.

This movie was interesting. A vampire locked in a shed and the characters names. I know this is so weird and random (But it’s me.) I loved all the characters names. It was completely fitting for each person. Marble, Dommer, Roxy!

Frank- I tried to put a little thought behind the names. With Roxy for example, I was thinking of rocks themselves, I wanted her to kind of tough and hard. I just was like, oh she’s tough like rocks, and she’s Roxy. Marbles name for me comes from the idea, they say oh someone is crazy so they’ve lost they’re marbles. I always thought of it like, he’s almost crazy but he’s got one marble left so his friends call him Marble. That’s where the names came from.

That’s awesome though. I liked the characters. They had heart. What was it like for you directing this cast? Jay Jay was great and Chris did a great job playing Marble and Sofia was great as Roxy.

Frank- Yeah, he was awesome. It’s funny, Chris auditioned for Dommer and as soon as I saw him, I was like, no this is Marble. He needs to read for Marble. I hope I get so lucky with every film to have a cast like this. They were truly amazing. They were so professional, so talented and they were just young. They were so enthusiastic about the entire process and about the film, that it was just a pleasure, honestly working with them. If I can get this lucky with every film, I would be so happy.

Did you face any challenges while shooting?

Frank- Yeah, production itself is a challenge. Everything was a challenge while shooting. It was incredible hot, we were shooting in Syracuse, New York in August. It was hot every day and we were outside so much. We had a very short amount of time to shoot the whole film. But as you’ve seen there is a lot stacked into the film. There’s a lot of stunts, practical effects, and visual effects. Just getting that all done in just a short amount of time while maintaining the integrity and look of the film was probably the biggest challenge.

I kind of dug everything about this movie. I liked the aspect that they were out in the middle of nowhere and I was thinking, where are the neighbors? But, I’m a city/hood kid so I think about this stuff in my own life so I was thinking, where are the neighbors? Doesn’t anyone notice this shed? (I ramble when I get nervous, he knew what I was talking about.) It worked well.

Frank- Right.

The effects were great. Seeing the vampire and Cody as the vampire. How did your effects team get everything going?

Frank- We started with concepts, sketches and stuff like that. We determined what the look was going to be for each character and creature in every step of the way. Once we were in production and onset we just had a small team of make-up artists that were working their butts off to put the paint jobs on the guys and get the teeth in and the eyes. They were just making it cool.

The vampire was gritty, sort of Near Dark, Salem’s Lot with some Fright Night.

Frank- Yeah, thank you.

It wasn’t nice. It wasn’t a ravenous vampire.

Frank- I didn’t want the vampires to be slick and cool. I wanted them to be like subtle animals.

YES! Very animalistic and gritty.

Frank- Totally. That’s awesome.

What do you want to say to the audiences that will be watching THE SHED? What do you want them to take away or know from your perspective? I loved it.

Frank- I would like them to know that it was huge labor of love. I hope they love watching it as much as we loved making it. More than anything I want them to enjoy the movie and kind of feel like hey, horror movies can be fun, can be cool and they can be scary. If they take away any sort of message, that’s cool too. I just want them to enjoy the film.

I have to ask because of the ending. I won’t spoil anything but do you think there may be a sequel?

Frank- Right. It’s totally possible. We sort of left the door open to that. I think if people like the film enough and the audience is there for it, I don’t see why not. If the producers and myself determine like, hey I think we can get another great story out of this, I don’t think it’s off the table. I think the trick with sequels is, you do a sequel because you want to make more money and you think it would be cool. More importantly for me, I would only do a sequel if I felt there is more that we can tell with the story and there’s more that can come from the story. I think if you look at it from that perspective, it’s certainly possible. You also have to have the audience there for wanting more for the story.

It is awesome though. What are you working on next?

Frank- Yes, I am in the early stages of development. I am trying to map out of what I am trying to write next. One story, I am going back and forth between two stories and I’ll actually tell you this because you mentioned, The House That Cried Blood, I am trying to figure out if I can develop a feature off of The House That Cried Blood. I am trying to think of a way to create a feature from that without it being a generic standard haunted house movie. I want to figure out the unique angle of telling that story in a feature. That’s one thing I am considering. The other is a story about two girls who are messing with witchcraft and they summon an evil entity for revenge and the entity turns on them. I would love for The House That Cried Blood to be a feature film. I would love for it to have a great home so we could do an awesome job with it. When I make a movie, I want as many people to see it as possible and to enjoy it. The House That Cried Blood is probably one of my favorite short films that I’ve done.

It is a great film. It’s a fun film to watch anytime and at Halloween.

Frank- Thank you so much. Cool!

It was an honor to talk to you. Thank you so much Frank. I loved The Shed.

Frank- Oh man, thank you so much. It’s so good to hear that. Thank you.