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Brett Pierce and Drew T. Pierce wrote and directed The Wretched. They took time to talk with Horrornews.net about The Wretched and will there be a sequel? You have to watch The Wretched and check out what Brett and Drew talked to Horrornews.net about.
HNN- I watched The Wretched and what a great movie. It reminds you of Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Supernatural. It has a twist though.
We are huge Invasion of the Body Snatcher fans actually. That’s one of our favorites.
HNN- I was trying to figure out a certain situation in the beginning and there is a such a good twist. How did this movie manifest for the two of you?
We always had a fascination with witch folklore but we also wanted to tell a witch story. With zombies, werewolves and vampires there’s a lot of rules that people have become familiar with over time because of movies, television and books. With witch stuff, it was kind of all over the place. So, we were kind of like, we wanted to grab one of these folklore stories and kind of tell the creature witch story and kind of create a set of rules to define our witch. We were so excited kind of making rules up for the witch that we started digging even further and we found this one witch called Black Annie which was based in the U.K., which was a creepy witch that lived in a tree and stole children at night. She kind of looked like our witch. Then there was this Appalachian witch who kind of removes her skin and puts on other skin. We really liked those two ideas and we said, lets combine it and then we were like, we got to make this because I love this creature.
Brett and I also total momma’s boys, we love our mom. Our worst fear would be if our mom (phone cut out)
I used to have this horrible nightmare when I was a kid that mom warped into one of Joe Dante’s Gremlin’s for some reason. It was like a reoccurring nightmare. (Laughter)
It was also the collision of, I was a new dad at the time when we were writing the script. My baby actually plays the baby.
HNN- Awwwww, Congratulations.
You wake up in the middle of the night and there is this terrifying feeling of what’s going on in that other room. You only have the baby monitor to rely on and this sort of paranoia. I think we sort of pushed a lot of that tension and fear onto the movie.
HNN- You do feel that tension and that baby monitor scene. Oh my gosh! I was like, WHAT WAS THAT!
That baby monitor from the movie is being used by Drew and his wife to watch his new baby.
We have all the props stuffed in my garage and I dig through it and I was like, I know we have another baby monitor in here.
HNN- I love the special effects. I have to ask you both about the effects. The tree is incredible, the creature witches. It is awesome. How did you get everyone ready?
We hired a really talented production design team and special effects make-up team. A guy named Eric Porn and we are kind of fanatical planners. We did dozens of designs for the witch. We brought the designs to him and said, could you do this? It was just this constant collaboration. The key to making an effect work is sort of figuring out how your going to shoot it.
We also had a really good production designer. She was really into because she knew she was going to get to design the tree. She did a fantastic job, Drew worked with her a little bit and kind of helped with the initial drawings but then it was all her. She was really excited about doing the wretches cave. It was a big challenge because it had water in it and all these vines and these creepy walls. It was a big undertaking for an independent film.
HNN- Was there an actual tree or did you guys make that? Was it on a set? How did the tree happen because it felt like the tree was a character in the movie and such a cool tree.
That’s what we wanted actually; it was an actual location that the production design team brought the tree to and then buried it hallway into the dirt. We wanted it to look like it had been there for a hundred years. Funny thing was, the location was deep in the woods in a very difficult place to get to. Drew and I loved the location, we forced everybody and to the not so happy producers to go shoot out in this miserable area where everybody was being eaten alive by mosquitos but it was a mix of, we built the tree in our little car garage that we had set up for the movie, it was kind of like our little back lot to make props and shoot things. Then they brought it out there and set it up for us. We loved it. I think it was one of my favorite shoots even though everyone else was miserable from mosquitos, there’s something I just love about being in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night shooting a scary movie.
HNN-Yeah, that is awesome. The cast did such a great job. The small scenes and the little things that you guys added were meaningful. What was it like directing and working with the cast?
It was great working with our cast. For Drew and I, we don’t like horror movies unless we are involved with the characters and we care about them. When we wrote the script, we wanted to write something that you know even if you took the horror elements out the drama in the story could still work, even if there wasn’t a wretch. We sat through the whole casting process. It was a wonderful experience.
HNN- Are you working on anything else and will there be a sequel to The Wretched?
(Laughter) We would love to do a sequel to The Wretched. We have a ton of ideas.
HNN- What do want to say to the people watching The Wretched? What do you want them to know from your perspective?
From my perspective, it’s a weird thing but its an independent film and we’re independent filmmakers. It’s our passion, it’s the thing we love doing the most. I get to make movies with my brother, he’s my best friend. We made it to share with everybody else. We want people to have a good time, wild ride. If you watch it and you like it or you don’t watch it. Just, thank you for watching it because supporting independent film. Its something we need more of.
The movie is made by a small army of horror fans.
HNN-I thank you both so much and The Wretched was so much fun and such a great movie. Thank you so much.
Thanks Janel
Hopefully it will be a fun distraction for everybody.
Thank you, Janel.
MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE WRETCHED.
