Marcel Walz Is Building a Queer Horror Empire

Marcel Walz beats me to the Zoom, which never happens. The filmmaker is already seated, his smile beaming through the screen from his home in Los Angeles, when I arrive a few minutes early to our long-distance chat. “I think that’s the German in me,” he jokes.

More than just prompt, the German-born Walz is impressively prolific. Over a relatively brisk period, he’s directed and produced nearly two dozen indie films, and hours and hours of series TV, almost all in the genres of horror and sci-fi, from his 2016 remake of splatter classic Blood Feast, to a growing stream of so-called “mockbusters” like The Anacondas and Jurassic Reborn.

Some might call him a king of schlock, but Walz laughs off such criticism. A self-proclaimed lifelong horror fan, the man seems to know exactly what he’s doing, and has a robust sense of humor about his work. Brandishing unique style and a distinctly queer touch, he’s also established himself as a passionate interpreter of his favorite sub-genre, slasher films.

His latest, Brute 1976, just hit digital platforms with its ’70s-style, grindhouse horror about a photo crew who pick the wrong Nevada desert ghost town for their shoot. Produced by his company Neon Noir, and inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, the movie exemplifies Walz’s sense of horror — and humor.

He and his crew have already shot the sequel, Brute 1986, an ’80s-style slasher set in the deep, dark woods. In many ways, Walz — who tells me he was eleven years old when he became fixated on one particular slasher film — is living a dream that started for him at 17, at film school in Spain.

He had hoped to attend school in Austria. “There was one particular film school, I really wanted to go there,” he says. “Then, my psychic in Germany told me, ‘No, no, no, Marcel,’ he said it weirdly. But he said, ‘No, you will go over the water to a different country for film school.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, L.A.!'”

Rather, he landed at a German film school on the Spanish island of Mallorca, where his mother lived with her new husband, and where there’s a large German community. Yet, Walz still never felt he fit in at school there.

“The first question the teacher had for the whole class on day one was, ‘What do you want to do in film?'” he recalls. “Everyone was answering, ‘Comedy’ or ‘Drama,’ and I was the only one who said, ‘Horror. So, here I am.'” Walz’s aspirations did not go over well with his professor, a traditionalist of old school German cinema, “which is terrible,” Walz adds.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Oh, don’t do horror. That’s one step closer to porn.’ Then, my answer was, ‘Oh, that means I can make money.'” Seeing a path to do what he wanted to do, and also make a living, Walz quit film school.

“I learned all the basics, and then I left and did pretty much everything by myself,” he says. Eventually, Walz returned to Germany, but not before having met and married his husband, who’s also German.

Back home, “I tried to find money, invested in my own films first, and then started super, super, super low-budget, like $500 movies or $1,000,” he recalls. “Then, I found someone who gave me money, and then it turned into more budget and more budget.” On a roll in Germany, Walz was approached to direct the Blood Feast remake.

But following that film, which starred ’80s heartthrob Robert Rusler (Nightmare on Elm Street 2), Walz felt he’d hit a horror plateau in Germany’s modest genre market. “I reached a point in Germany, where it’s like, ‘Okay, this is it,’ I think. And my husband, he got a job in China” — for a Chinese airline — “and, let’s say, he made good money. Then we were able to move over to L.A.”

At last in Los Angeles, Walz directed his first American feature, Rootwood, in 2018, and started to build his horror hive. “I had to start from fresh,” he says.

“Nobody really cared. I mean, how could they? Because everything I shot in Germany, except Blood Feast, was German, so nobody cared what I did there, which is actually fine. I’m totally fine with that. That’s actually better. I started here new, and found a good circle of friends and partners.” Now he feels accepted by the town’s horror-making community, “and I’m very happy to be a part of that.”

METRO WEEKLY: We’re primarily here to talk Brute 1976. But we’ll talk a lot of other stuff. You’ve made a lot of movies.

WALZ: Oh, yeah, yeah. But only 20 percent are good. [Laughs.]

MW: You said that, I didn’t. Do you have any idea how many feature films you’ve made?

WALZ: Oh, my God. I’m sure it’s by now probably 17, 18, yeah.

MW: I counted a few more, actually.

WALZ: To be honest, and that sounds weird, but I lost track because I just made three movies this year for a company and it may be 20 now. I don’t know.

MW: Yeah, I think it’s definitely over 20 by my count. Perusing your credits and reading your bio, I know that you have a stable crew of collaborators you work with. Joe Knetter, screenwriter-producer, and Sarah French, actress-producer. So, talk to me about the value of being part of a good team, because that’s got to be a big part of all this productivity.

WALZ: Here’s the thing: I do love using some of the same actors, same director of photography, as much as I can, because if it worked once, it will work a second time, a third time. And then, if you have a nice circle going on with, “Okay, this group of people works, so why should I change it?” I mean, sometimes you have to change to grow, I would say that. But also, if something works, and works for that particular film or sub-genre, why should I change it? And it’s also nice to see or to give other friends work.

So, I worked with, let’s say, [actors] Ben Kaplan, Adam Huss. I worked with those people so many times over the years now, because they’re good, also friends of mine, and they’re super talented. So, why shouldn’t I have them on set? It’s also like they have a good energy, work energy, whatever — it’s very important on a set. You don’t need drama. And you need people who are talented and love to be on a set.

MW: I imagine you must love to be on a set. It just looks like you must spend a lot of time in production.

WALZ: Actually, it’s a fifty-fifty thing, because after a shoot, it’s not over for that movie. So, then post-production starts. And before the movie, pre-production is going on. Let’s say, especially for Brute ’86 and ’76, Joe Knetter, he wrote the scripts, but he also very much took care of pre-production. So, he was handling a lot. He showed me the locations. He might say, “What do you think about this? What do you think about this?” But also, for all the productions we did together, he was handling every single thing for pre-production. I took care of post — music, editing, and sound design. So, we had a nice little cooperation going on where he took care of this and I took care of that.

MW: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? Because clearly, something imprinted on your brain.

WALZ: So, the first I saw was probably — I remember my dad had so many VHS from the ’80s and early ’90s — so, I don’t know how it’s called in the U.S., Zombi 2 from Lucio Fulci, that’s the voodoo zombie one on the island. It’s called Voodoo Zombie Island in Germany, but it’s a different title everywhere else. But that was the one, the first horror movie.

After that, I was sneaking in and then grabbed all the VHS tapes. Fulci’s City of the Living Dead, all the Italian horror movies. But I think the one movie — not I think, I know — that the one movie that was like, “Okay, this is what I want to do. This is it,” was Scream. That was the movie that changed my life. And then, after that, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legends, Cherry Falls — all those ’90s movies were my absolute favorites. And then, all the Friday the 13ths, Nightmare. So, I got into it really fast, really quick.

MW: For Scream, is it partly about the fact that that movie speaks directly to horror fans? It’s a conversation with horror movie lovers?

WALZ: Well, I don’t know if that’s what it was for me back in the days, because at that point I didn’t know a lot of horror. I was a huge creature feature fan, like Piranha and all those kinds of movies — Anaconda, Frogs, all those weird creature features with animals. I was a huge fan of that. But there was something about Scream. It was so different to the things I’d seen. The opening was so mind-blowing to me because it was so intense.

The movie came out in Germany in theaters and I saw it everywhere, and I was like, “What is this?” And there was no internet back in the days. And I only saw in newspapers and magazines, and the posters at the theater, and there was something about it. It was like, “What is this?” Then, on TV, I saw the little teasers on the commercial breaks. There was something I was so attracted to. I was too young to go to the theater because in Germany, the rating is really, really strict. You are not allowed to see anything even if you’re a month away from that age, you’re not allowed to see it. That’s the German, “No, no, no, no, no, that’s not allowed.”

And we drove to every single theater nearby to buy, or sometimes they give it to us for free, to get the posters or all that kind of stuff. So, my room was covered in Scream posters, and I hadn’t even seen the movie at that point. I remember the day when it got released on VHS, my mom went to Blockbuster and rented it. She watched it the night before just to see if it’s not too crazy. And she was like, “That’s fine.” In the morning we watched it together, and then that was the moment I was like, I think I watched it four or five times that day before she had to bring it back to the video store. Then, I remember the one day when it was for sale and she bought it, came home, and I was watching it, and I’m not kidding, I was watching it every single day after school.

And that’s how I learned English, because my English was fucking terrible in school. It was horrendous. I had an “F” or whatever, because I didn’t care, which is stupid, so nobody should do that. So I knew every single line, even the minute of when they said it, whatever, I knew every single music cue. At one point, when the DVD came out, we were able to hear the English version because I was only able to watch the German-dubbed version. Then, there was the English version of it, and I was watching it also so many times, I remembered what they said in German, and that’s how I learned English. So, it was not on my teacher. That was me and Scream.

MW: You’ve directed a couple of your own creature features. How much harder, or not harder, is that to do than a slasher movie?

WALZ: I mean, it is different, but it’s also not. All my creature features I did — The Anacondas or the shark movie I just shot — was for Asylum [the production company behind the Sharknado franchise]. So, it is very different to work with almost all CGI when it comes to the creature stuff. There is a big difference to a slasher or whatever.

Slasher is still my favorite. There’s nothing that could beat that. A slasher, I would always put a slasher on top. If they would give me five movies and there’s a slasher, I would choose definitely the slasher one, even if it would be less budget. It’s just my favorite sub-genre.

But for the creature stuff, my first one was Anacondas, and that was so much fun because, again, I’m a huge fan of Anaconda from the ’90s with JLo. It’s stupid, it looks great. And I don’t know, it’s like practical effects mixed with CGI. But most of it is, I would say, practical, and I just love that movie so much.

Then, doing a “mockbuster” of the new one was so much fun actually. I tried my best to make it work, even if the story is totally crazy. And sometimes, they use words I’ve never heard in my life. So, I was on set Googling “What the fuck does that mean?” But it was a lot of fun. And I put a lot of work into it, even if some people are like, “Oh, it’s just Asylum,” but it’s still a movie. And the productions they do, they are huge. I was actually surprised like, “Oh, my God, this is actually pretty big.” And they got so much better with CGI and VFX and all that. So, yeah, I do like Anacondas actually, and I do like a lot the movie I just did, the shark movie [Shark Shiver], which comes out I think in two or three weeks in the U.S. That was a lot of fun to do.

MW: People love shark movies.

WALZ: Oh, yeah. I love shark movies. When they started hiring me for their movies, I was like, “So, by now, if you guys are not giving me a shark movie, I’m out. I want to do a shark movie, so give me one.” And they gave me a pretty good one. It’s pretty good, so I’m pretty happy with it and it is very entertaining. Is it over-the-top? Yes, it is.

MW: I think shark movies have to be over-the-top. Only one gets to be subtle and that’s Jaws.

WALZ: I agree. Everything else, you can go totally stupid, over-the-top. If you’re not doing it, people might be, “This is too serious. What’s going on?” It’s a shark movie. A town gets flooded with sharks, and sharks are everywhere.

MW: It happens, I guess.

WALZ: Oh, absolutely, every time, every day, yeah.

MW: So, on Brute 1976, which is a slasher movie and is clearly an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and Last House on the Left, those ’70s scary movies, what is it about that feeling of film that inspires you?

WALZ: The day I saw Texas Chainsaw as a kid, maybe 13, 14, on an old VHS, it got burned into my head so deep because it felt like a documentary. Watched it on this pretty much destroyed VHS. The feeling watching it for the first time was, I don’t know, it was actually pretty phenomenal. I’m also a huge fan of the remakes, Texas Chainsaw from 2003. And then, the sequel, The Beginning — the prequel, actually — I like that even more, or The Hills Have Eyes remake. That movie is probably one of the best remakes. There was something so raw, so gritty, everything. It was like you felt dirty watching it, especially the one scene that was one of my favorite scenes because it’s so tough to watch, actually. And it was mainstream.

I get it, Hostel and Saw made it more mainstream, but I think The Hills Have Eyes remake really showed a lot of gore and they were full-in going, “Let’s do this. Let’s go crazy.” And they did. And that worked so well. Those movies were a big inspiration for me. For Joe, who wrote the [Brute] script, he was more on the originals. I’m a huge fan of ’70s and ’80s, actually, and ’90s, basically everything. So, that’s why we did a whole ’80s thing with Brute ’86. But ’76, yeah, it’s dirty, it’s sexy, and it’s bloody. I think that’s all you need. And it’s cheesy, it’s also cheesy. I have to say that, because the ’70s and ’80s, the dialogues are cheesy. We’re like, “Oh, you need the same feeling.” So, we also do that.

MW: You talked about the gore in The Hills Have Eyes remake. Something I think Brute 1976 shares in common with the original Texas Chainsaw — and my editor, Randy, and I were talking about this — is that even though you see gore and blood, you don’t actually see a lot of the violence happening onscreen. Just the sound of a chainsaw and somebody screaming is enough, and you don’t actually see it going into flesh and tearing people to pieces. Talk about your approach to showing enough but not too much.

WALZ: Yeah, I mean, we knew we needed one kill which we go full-in, over-the-top and go crazy with it, which is the glory hole scene.

MW: Let’s repeat that. The glory hole scene.

WALZ: The gory hole. Yeah. And that is the scene where we focus on for the gore. And everything else, we still show gore, but it’s not a Terrifier. We knew that from the beginning, this is not a Terrifier movie and we don’t want to be a Terrifier movie. But we also discussed having one big kill in it where people might talk about it and it worked out well so far. They do talk about it. Some people think it’s stupid, and it’s like maybe it is, but who the fuck cares? It’s a movie about a fucked-up family in the desert. So, yes, yes, yes, we are allowed to be stupid at some point. We knew we don’t want to show the crazy stuff because the plan was, we hoped to get a sequel, too, but we also planned on going bigger in the sequel. So, we don’t want to do the whole fireworks right away.

MW: I’m curious about your interaction with the people who see your movies. Do you hear from fans? Do you go to conventions or anything?

WALZ: Yeah, we do conventions. I’m going to be at the convention in Germany the last weekend of September. I do go to a lot of conventions, but also people text me on Instagram, especially for Brute. That is the one I got the most reactions. It’s, I would say, eighty percent texting me like, “Oh, I love this movie, blah, blah.” But there’s also people texting me, “Oh my God, you fucking idiot. This movie is terrible.” And I said, “That’s great. That’s fine. That’s me with Star Wars. I hate Star Wars. Is it a brilliant movie? Probably, but it’s just not my thing and I hate it.” Or even horror movies. There are so many newer horror movies I hate. I hate. It’s just not my thing.

Please, I don’t even care if they send me like, “Oh, I hate this movie,” or whatever. Taste is different and that’s totally fine. I really don’t care. I appreciate every single message, even if it’s a hate or a love message, that’s fine. But yeah, the most stuff I got out of Brute is from people saying they love how close we were to all the ’70s and the look, and they love the music, they love the settings, the kills, and everything. So, I think we did pretty good for a low-budget movie with Brute ’76. I think if people liked ’76, I think they will just love ’86, which is so far my favorite movie I’ve directed. It is so much fun. I think if they will watch both back-to-back, they will love it.

MW: I’m looking forward to it. ’76 has a twist that I didn’t see coming, so that’s good. Do you hear from fans who want more gore, or less?

WALZ: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yes.

MW: What’s the prevailing opinion, more or less?

WALZ: Actually, for Brute ’76, it’s also fifty-fifty, I think. A lot of people are like, “Oh, it’s not as boring, but there is that one scene.” So, everyone is saying that. So, they would have loved to see a little bit more. But also, then they got that one scene, they’re like, “Oh, we’re fine.” They will get more in the next one, way more. But also, they’re fine because the fans from the original ’70 movies understand why we did that.

But again, we also knew we have to show something. We can’t go full Texas Chainsaw and don’t show anything, because the audience changed so much. And I love gore. I would love to show everything. But then, also on the other hand, it is a low-budget movie and we didn’t have the money like a big studio or a Terrifier. Damien [Leone, the filmmaker behind the Terrifier franchise], he’s very talented and he is also a special effects guy, but I’m not a special effects guy. So, we had to hire someone, Robert Kern, and he’s very talented. But also, our budget for special effects was not as much. So, that’s why we said, let’s focus on one scene and everything else we do a Texas Chainsaw throwback, not showing everything. But we still showed a lot enough.

MW: There will be plenty of guys who will be cringing during the glory hole scene.

WALZ: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

MW: I’m interested in the queer content in your movies. Horror, especially mainstream horror, doesn’t include a lot of queer characters or queer sensibility.

WALZ: Yeah, absolutely. It got better, I would say, way better. Sometimes, actually, too good. No, not too good. That’s not the right word. It’s too much, and then, you can tell they did that for box office, for checking boxes. And it’s so on the nose, I was like, “This also doesn’t feel right.” The bigger studios, it’s rare that they find a nice middle ground. And most of the time, they don’t. So, it’s so over-the-top, in-your-face. And then, I understand when other people say, “Oh, another one,” or they roll their eyes when they hear gay here, trans there, whatever. I understand why they roll their eyes because it’s so in your face.

The only thing I think which works best, in my opinion, is include it and just use it as a normal thing. Use the gay content or the queer content as something you would also do with the straight people in your movies. That’s all I think we need, and that’s all I think we want.

Here’s a perfect example, how they should do it. The movie Evil Dead Rise had a trans character in it, or a person who was trans. He [trans actor Morgan Davies] played the little brother in the family, the little kid in the family, and they never even mentioned it in the movie he’s trans, or barely for press or anything. And it’s like, “Okay, that is perfect. That is perfection.” He’s playing the brother, a boy, and that’s what he wants. That’s what he is now, and don’t even mention it and just do it. And that’s all. I think that’s, for me, a perfect example. I do like when people, like we did with Brute, we had a lesbian character in it, and we had a drag character in it, and then a gay character. But the [lesbian] couple in the beginning, they kiss, they have sex, same thing we have a straight couple doing in the movie. So, it should blend in and not go over-the-top, yes.

MW: I watched another one of your movies, That’s a Wrap, which in a similar fashion, has gay characters who blend in. There’s even, I would call it, a hot gay sex scene that the killer observes. In both of those movies, That’s a Wrap and Brute, you have a cross-dressing killer, which people could read a lot of commentary into. Have they? When you talk about hearing from people, has anybody had any negative opinion or reaction to Daisy [played by Jed Rowen] in Brute 1976?

WALZ: Oh, yeah. I got actually 30 or 40 messages for Brute ’76 where they attack me in reviews where they’re like, “Oh, typical gay director having this, this, this, and this. It’s so vogue, blah, blah, blah.” And I don’t think it is. So, the reason why we have this character, the Daisy character in it, it’s also an homage to the original Texas Chainsaw. I think that’s the first reason. It’s not even like, “Oh, I’m gay. I need a trans character or a drag queen or whatever, whatever they want to call it.” Sometimes, also people read too much into it. It can be just a nice little homage to the original Texas Chainsaw because Leatherface was wearing makeup and there was lipstick involved and a wig. So, he was a cross-dresser. That was actually our motive for that character.

MW: I got a strong Dressed to Kill vibe from That’s a Wrap, from the styling of the killer. And I love Dressed to Kill, but it’s similarly controversial with people’s reactions to that killer.

WALZ: We never got really anything bad because of that. The only scene, when our gay couple is making out — I don’t know why, we don’t show a lot — but I got messages also for that, “I turned this movie off after this.” Well, that’s great. And he watched it on Tubi, so he didn’t even pay for it. So, that’s fine. But that was after 50 minutes, so we made enough money for that. What should I say? It’s like, you don’t want to see a gay couple kissing on screen? Well, you will have a hard time these days, then, because you will see it more than you want to see it, I guess. And like I said, we don’t even show a lot. It’s just like they make out and that’s it. [Pauses.] Oh, wait a second. No.

MW: There’s more than making out.

WALZ: [Laughs.] Never mind. I know.

MW: There’s more than making out, but there’s no nudity. You’re forgetting what happens.

WALZ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is more after that. Oh, now I understand. Well, yeah, never mind.

MW: From my point of view, it was a pretty tame version of that kind of scene. Because you also have in the movie a fully nude woman pleasure herself in a shower, in a sort of Psycho homage.

WALZ: Yes.

MW: I mean, there’s sex and nudity in the two movies I’ve seen. Sex and nudity seem fundamental to horror movies ever since Psycho, and before. Do you feel like the audience needs to see some naked boobs?

WALZ: I mean, That’s a Wrap, just as an example, we go super over-the-top with stuff. It’s not just her showing her titties for a second. No, it’s like we show everything for at least too long. And also, it doesn’t make sense for her to even shower there in that scene. Why the fuck is she taking a shower now? And it’s like, there is no reason. It’s pointless, but it’s funny. So people should even sit there and it’s like, “What the fuck is she doing?” Because That’s a Wrap, it’s not a Scary Movie kind of type, but it’s like we make fun of other horror movies. It is a little like the Giallo side of it, it’s very, very meta and we make fun of everything.

Sometimes I sit watching a movie and it’s like, “Why is she naked for so long? Or why is she sitting?” And then, actually, I had a movie where I was like, “Why is she taking a shower now? This is stupid.” It was one of the Friday the 13ths, I think it was 8, and then I was like, “Why is she naked? Why is she taking a shower now?” And those kind of movies inspired us to go so over-the-top. And we show her for a long, long, long, long time showering. I remember we had a couple of screenings and people, at one point, they were like, “Huh?” And then, they started laughing because it went on for so long. And then, I was like, “Okay, now it worked.” And Joe was always very included. Sometimes, I didn’t even mention it, that we need a gay character or something, but he was always including it. I know he did it for me. But also, we did it for the audience because, like I said, it’s important. And we had our ways to put it in there.

MW: And clarifying, he’s straight, Joe?

WALZ: Oh, yes, Joe is so straight, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s super straight. He’s big and then the beard and everything. So, every time when people see us together, it’s funny. It looks very funny, let’s say that. But he’s really good with writing those characters.

MW: Yeah. I bought the gay character in That’s a Wrap, totally.

WALZ: Yeah, yeah.

MW: Well, sticking with that subject, I think there are a lot of cool queer directors making genre movies right now. I’m a big fan of Skinamarink, Kyle Edward Ball’s movie, and there’s Jane Schoenbrun [I Saw the TV Glow] and Robbie Banfitch [The Outwaters], all making different kinds of movies. Is there such a thing as a common queer sensibility? Do you see anything like that in your movies? I mean, especially if you’re collaborating with the very straight Joe, what is the queer sensibility that gets into your movies?

WALZ: That is a good question. I mean, maybe it’s also sometimes just because in the last couple of movies I did for companies or whatever when I got hired, there is not really a gay character. But there’s always something about it when you’re like, maybe how I direct people, or I don’t know. Maybe it’s just also my style, I don’t know. There’s always something gay-ish, you know what I mean? There is a little sprinkle. There is something happening. The Anaconda movie I did, someone wrote me, “Oh, I can clearly see it’s a Marcel Walz movie. You get the feeling. There’s no gay character in it, but I felt it.” I was like, I mean, I guess? I don’t know. There’s just something maybe about it I can’t change because I’m not aware of it. And even if, I don’t want to change it, why should I? I’m turning 40 now, so why should I change that? I try to get better every time. But it’s like, if that’s my style, I can’t change it. That’s just how it is. It’s just like, it’s in there, I guess.

MW: So, just as a general genre question, because these are very stressful times — people are stressed out — and because also you’ve had time to be able to see this, do you sense a stronger appetite for horror movies in times like these, or is it always constant?

WALZ: I mean, here’s the thing…I don’t know. That’s a very good question. I think the world is crazy right now. We all know that, and we don’t have to talk about it because everyone knows. But I think horror got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger over the years. You can see that at the box office. You can see it in merchandise. You can see it in the mainstream audience knowing about low-budget movies, knowing about Skinamarink, knowing about Terrifier. Terrifier is everywhere.

And I think Terrifier is a perfect example of a low-budget movie that opened the door for all the indie movies. So, studios are not as afraid anymore to actually release an independent movie or a low-budget movie in the theater. IFC Midnight, Shudder, all those companies, they take the chance and release movies in the theater, and they’re like, “Hey, even if you make $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, it’s a win.” And some movies, people catch it and they see it and it’s like, “Oh, it’s the new thing, Terrifier.” I’m very thankful for a movie like Terrifier because since then, all the indie people and the indie world are able to show their movies to a studio or something, and they actually watch it and not just like, “No, it’s not for us. Da, da, da, da, da. Bye.” That was a thing before Terrifier. And now, they’re like, “Hey, maybe we should take a look at it. Maybe this is our next Terrifier.”

Even, you see it with the mainstream, I mean, Scream has a huge fan base, so it’s maybe not the best example, but [Scream 7] made $207 million at the box office in total, and that’s huge for a horror movie. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy — I think he’s my favorite director right now — is doing well. And I think every single horror movie right now is doing pretty good. Sometimes even better than mainstream dramas, comedies, or anything. So, they do so much better. I think that just shows that the world is ready — or they still need that kind of movie — to get away, because everyone knows it’s not that serious like the world is right now.

Brute 1976 is available digitally and on VOD on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play/YouTube, Tubi, Pluto, and other platforms. Visit cinephobiareleasing.com.