Cut-’em-up (continued) BY TONY GIAMPETRUZZI

Phoenix: Sounds like you gotta see it to understand it. But, it does seem to be an allegory for young gay life in the new millennium — getting caught up in stuff, going through the motions with blinders on, eventually wanting out. No?

Gonzalez: Yeah. Exactly!

Phoenix: How did you cast the film?

Gonzalez: For the most part, they are actors whom Alex has worked with or I have worked with. We had some closed auditions, we called in some specific people whom we saw and whose looks we liked. We had a lot of video submissions because we announced the casting on the Web site (www.deadguyscinema.com). We just got a great response from that and we were fortunate, extremely fortunate, to find our lead (Williams) through the videotape submissions. He’s phenomenal.

From what I saw on the set, Williams had the Zombie persona nailed. In filming and in most of the still photography, Williams exudes a glossily possessed, vacant persona. In other words, he seems perfect for the role of a zombie. Casting, says Dove, is key.

Phoenix: Alex, what’s the deal with gay horror films? I’ve been covering gay culture for years and I’ve seen some really scary stuff, most of it right out in the open. But this is really underground and genuinely creepy. You gotta love a genre within a genre, right?

Dove: When you think about what’s popular or what’s really marked horror films for years, well, it’s always been a genre that’s had a lot of beauty. They’ve always been populated by lots of pretty girls. There’s lots of really great horror moments in them, but what also attracts people to them is that everyone always looks really nice. But, for a lot of people, there is always something missing.

Gay men, for years, and some straight folks, too, have always tried to find the hot guy in the horror movie and they would fast forward to try to find the one or two that might be in there. So, we finally figured out that there were enough people out there who really want to see standard, good old-fashioned horror with just men populating the film. So, that’s what we set out to make as our product. They are specifically gay oriented, they have gay actors, gay storylines, everyone looks really good. And everything is here — there are horror moments, scares, shower scenes, guys being hunted in the woods, vampires, and all the men look amazing. You know, amazing-looking guys and amazing plot lines and characters and situations.

Overall, for years people enjoyed the scream queens, you know, beautiful girls in horror situations and we are trying to create scream kings and the market that we are going for are those people who want to see great-looking guys in the movies that you have always wanted to see since you were a kid. That’s what we’ve been crafting and putting together during the last three years and we’re just now trying to release some of these.

Phoenix: What’s your background? How did you get into this?

Dove: I’m from the Boston area. I have been involved in haunted houses and have been interested in horror films for years. My director of photography and my business partner, Todd Russell, from New Jersey, made some of the original " Men in Peril " films, and a film in the early ’90s called Psycho Sisters. We met at a horror convention and we knew that we could do things better than what was out there, and we decided that we needed stronger actors. So we’ve been collaborating over the last two years, working with his technical prowess and my background working with actors and scripts to make these films. Last year’s film was Das House and we cast Draven as the lead and we found out that Draven had some amazing writing skills. He submitted the script for Zombie and it’s just an amazing script.

Phoenix: How many films have you made?

Dove: This will be our third feature-length, and the first one shot entirely on digital, so it will be really high quality. We just released Das House, which is about a bunch of guys participating in a reality-based television show spending a weekend in a haunted house. Our first feature was made two years ago and it’s called Dead Guys, which was filmed in Boston and Los Angeles. It’s about a bunch of gay serial killers. If John Waters ever made a horror film, well, that’s what Dead Guys is like. Das House was more of a traditional story that anyone might rent at a video store. You know, they might walk in and say, " Oh, let’s get this. This looks like a really cool horror movie. " Whereas, if a gay guy is watching it he’d be thinking, " Oh my god, this is so homoerotic. "

Phoenix: Well, when guys comprise the entire cast, it’s probably a sure bet that people will catch on. What’s your take on Zombie?

Dove: Zombie is clearly all about taking good gay characters and great plot lines and turning it into a horror movie.

Phoenix: Those qualities sound great and might entice someone to pick this film off the shelf at your local video joint, but what about sex? I mean, these are films with a bunch of gay guys! These guys must be doing more than running around conjuring poxes and stabbing one another.

Dove: Any good horror film always has some implied sexual situations.

Phoenix: When I was a kid, I watched all the Friday the 13ths Nightmare on Elm Streets, and, of course, I had to sneak I Spit on Your Grave into my parents house because there were sure to be some gratuitous tit shots. Now, you’ve got some fairly well established porn stars here and some very cute guys running around the set — is there any nudity in these films?

Dove: Yes.

Phoenix: A selling point, I’m sure, considering your target audience. How do you get this stuff out to market?

Dove: Well, one place to go is our Web site. We are self-distributing the early films on the Web site to sort of build modes of distribution. Also, we’ve spent the last few years building a library, getting at least a couple of really fine films ready to go.

Phoenix: From my perspective and without going into detail, there are some portions of the gay community that are kind of dark, but this stuff may be viewed by some as really fringe. Do you think that greater gay community is gonna buy into it?

Dove: Well, I hope they do. I know that we really enjoy making the films and everyone tells us that they’ve been dying to see this. The key is we’re not pandering to an audience. The actors are broadly drawn and there’s none of that TV crap about gay characters. You know, sketches of what some straight person thinks a gay person is. These are ordinary people, normal gay people and we are trying to reflect the gay community in what we’re doing.

Phoenix: So, they’re not so out of the mainstream that there is a chance that they’ll hit the festival circuit?

Dove: Well, we’ve just started submitting these films to both the gay film-festival circuit and some horror-film festivals. What’s interesting is that we are seeing articles in magazines like Fangoria where people are starting to talk about their first gay horror movies, so people are starting to wake back up to all this now. You know, they all had to have a hit sooner or later.

Phoenix: What are your thoughts on filming in Portland?

Dove: We love it. People in Portland have been incredibly friendly and helpful to us. The locations here are wonderful, great seascapes.

Phoenix: What Portland landmarks can we expect to see when this film makes it big?

Dove: I know we’re shooting in Cape Elizabeth, at Coffee By Design, the old Zootz. Draven has really hooked us up with all the right places to go.

If you visit www.deadguyscinema.com, you’re greeted with a hair-raising and titillating mélange of pictures of shirtless guys in various states of mock death. The home page features a hunky guy hanging from a noose, and the intro to the site proclaims: " The world’s most unique site for horror, thriller, action, and suspense films designed to feature the hottest new actors and models in the industry. " It goes on to use such adjectives as clever, edgy, innovative . . . and twisted. That, for better or worse, is as good a modifier as any for these films.

You’ll also find that Dove Productions is merely one in a bunch of twisted upstarts. Various competitors are also touted. For instance, Dead Man Films makes films that " feature themes of graphic male-on-male violence and murder " while THR Productions is touted as the " leader in the shocking and controversial world of ‘male victim’ motion picture productions. "

A little bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a little bit Billy’s Hollywood Screen Test, and a little bit Powertool (for you mainstream folk, that’s the XXX gay porn of record), these cut-em-up boy films might just be worth a look and, maybe one day, a first-date option. If nothing else, Zombie, which will be available for purchase sometime next year, might eventually make the coveted list of films shot right here in good ol’ Maine, although I don’t think that Downeast Magazine will be scrambling to do a movie review.

Tony Giampetruzzi can be reached at amg207@earthlink.com