Interview: Carl Lindbergh (Bunnyman)

Interview w/ Carl Lindbergh
Film : Bunnyman

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B74BWKksBLI[/youtube] 

Could you tell our Horrornews.net audience a little about Bunnyman?

Bunnyman is a independent slasher film inspired by the horror films of the 80’s. It’s played serious, even though the title character happens to wear a giant bunny costume. It’s about a family of cannibals, lead by a disfigured man who has mommy issues. Those mommy issues lead the character to wear a bunny costume.

Where did the whole concept of Bunnyman come from?

I wanted to make a straight up horror film, but I also wanted to do something unique within the genre. I also liked the contradictory idea of having something innocent like a child’s costume ripping people in half. The idea that something innocent is doing something very, very wrong, and your mind has to process why, was intriguing to me.

Who is the actor that plays Bunnyman?

We actually had multiple people play the character. This was a very low budget film, so anyone within a certain hight wound up playing the character at one point or another, even myself. I made sure however that when we had close ups of Bunnyman, I had a professional actor in the role.

Would this film best be categorized in the horror’s torture sub-genre?

Bunnyman is more in the slasher genre, and in vein of the 80’s horror films. It doesn’t fit into the torture p*rn sub-genre, although the scene with Bunnyman torturing a woman (with a chainsaw) is obviously inspired by the latter.

Where did you shoot it and How long did it take to shoot it?

We shot the film in Riverside, Ca. We were scheduled to shoot 12 days, but the equipment we rented was faulty (which the equipment house knew about, but that’s a different story), and the camera broke down on the weekend. After some scrambeling, we got back into production, but lost 2 days filming. So we shot the entire film in 10 days.

What was your most difficult obstacle getting this film made?

The equipment breaking down, and having to re-write the script, since I had to throw the shooting schedule out the window.

Could you tell me what horror directors and horror movies inspire your creativity?

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is obviously a huge influence. I’m inspired by the old horror movies from the 80’s. Partially because of the nostalgia of growing up in that era, it reminds me of being young, and watching Friday the 13th late at night when my parents went to sleep. I think the modern day era remakes, the sleekly produced horror films of today, are missing something that the old classics had.

It might not be as obvious but Phantasm had a influence on Bunnyman as well, since I wanted to create characters and a world where not everything is explained. Where you have this sense of wonder about who these characters are, but they’re never really explained.

Do you have a favorite scene or a favorite part in Bunnyman?

The dinner table scene where the Bunnyman and his family are eating people. It’s been done a thousand times before, but I like how I injected some dark humor in it, and just how absurd the scene is.

We have this scene where on a superficial level, we have cannibals eating people. Then if you look at it a little deeper, there’s this psychological undertone where Bunnyman doesn’t want to take his mask off, because he’s ashamed of how he looks. So you have two contexts going on in this scene, in addition you have the absurdity of a mutated man, in a bunny costume, eating people.

I also like the fact that with all things considered, it comes of creepy which I think is credit to the actors, and the way the scene was lit. I was always concerned that having a man in a bunny costume would come off cheesy, and I always wanted to present the costume in a creepy way. I think this scene comes the closest to nailing that idea.

Are there any interesting behind the scenes stories that you can share?

I don’t even know where to begin…. we had the production shutting down as I mentioned above, we had a bat living in the cabin, so at 2 am I would wake up as a bat kept dive bombing my head…. so my solution was just to sleep under the covers, I was too exhausted to fight the bat.

Then there was the opening scene, where I have a half naked girl doused in fake blood. I had the bright idea to shoot in the woods, that just happened to be right next door to a bee farm. Well, apparently bee’s like the sugar, and we were attacked by a swarm of bees. I, and the actor had to run to the car, and take off…. my car is still stained with fake blood to this day.

Where, When, and How… can we see Bunnyman?

On June 21st 2011. Osiris entartainment is the distributor. You can buy it on Amazon, and various other online retailers. You can also rent it from netflix etc.