By Jeff Hayes and John Klyza
Jeff: The budget for both films together was about $1 million, right?
Michael: Yes, approximately, and that included insurance, completion bond and overhead for Double Helix.
Jeff: For such a low budget, the Sleepaway sequels turned out phenomenal... especially part 2!
Michael: Thanks.
Jeff: In comparing the two films, you can see that part 3 has a lot less gore. Is that because of the budget or MPAA?
Michael: The MPAA. We ran into a problem with the Moral Police American A**wipes on SC3. They got a fly up their nose about the Cindy death scene and also the way Lilly, one of the camp counselors, died.
Jeff: Daryl "Riff" Wilcher and Fangoria magazine both have described Cindy's Flag pole death in part 3 as being much more gruesome! What happened?
Michael: As filmed, Cindy's death was really gory. When Cindy got dropped from the flagpole and her head smashed on the concrete, her brains splattered everywhere. We used pig's brains and, believe me, it looked very real. The MPAA gave us an "X" rating because of that scene so it had to be cut. Those folks have no sense of humor or adventure.
Even
Michael's civilized attempts
couldn't
change the minds of the MPAA
Jeff: I heard some of Lilly's death was cut also.
Michael: Yes. That was another scene that contributed to the "X" rating. We had this great shot of the lawn mover actually running over Lilly's head. It had to be taken out. I was told it made one of the little old ladies at the MPAA feel sick.
Jeff: Remember Angela's body-filled cabin in part 2? All the bodies were shown in their rigor-mortis laden glory! How come at the end of part 3, we can hardly see most of the dead bodies in the cabins?
Michael: That scene was one of the last scenes we shot. It was at night. We were rushed trying to stay on budget and on schedule. So it did not turn out as well as we had hoped. Anyway, I think sometimes it's scarier to have deep shadows with only glimpses of the gore anyway. I mean, the reality was we already had so much gore we were getting an "X" rating. The shadows just helped to tone it down a bit.
Michael
hangs out with the lovely Tracy Griffith on-set
Jeff: How did you gather the mix of seasoned veterans (the late Walter Gotell, Michael J. Pollard etc.) and fresh up-and-comers (Renée Estevez, Tracy Griffith etc.)?
Michael:
We did casting in New York and Los Angeles for the leads. The other actors
were local to Atlanta. Shay Griffin did the Atlanta market casting. She
's absolutely one of the top casting directors around. She'd handled casting
on Impure Thoughts and Funland, and I knew she could find
the right young actors for the roles. I knew I wanted Renée for
Molly the first day I met her. I had lunch with her and her manager at
a restaurant in Westwood, close to the UCLA campus in LA. There's a sweet
quality about Renée that I thought would work for the character
of Molly.
Jeff: What are some of your favorite scenes in the two films and why?
Michael: One of my favorite scenes was in SC2. The abandoned cabin scene where Molly finds Angela and they talk. I thought it was a bizarre little oasis of intimacy in the midst of all the carnage. I felt you actually learned something about Angela's character in that scene. In terms of gore, I like the Brooke and Jodi barbecue scene in SC2. I thought that was tasty. The power drill death for Mare was a nice one also. For SC3, Peter's firecracker up the nose was pretty funny I thought. A great visual was Maria being hit by the garbage truck. That was my favorite scene to film. I've also always had a very warm spot in my heart for the drain cleaner down the throat of the news reporter in SC3. It just seemed fitting somehow considering all the things that had come out of and been put in her mouth.
Jeff: What ever happened to the originally proposed Sleepaway 4 from back in the early 90's? It was announced in Fangoria magazine...but never happened! Also, your name did not seem to be attached to the project. What do you know about this?
Michael: That's SC4: The Survivor? I wasn't involved with it so I don't know what happened.
Jeff: Tell us about an interesting or funny experience that you had on the set.
Michael:
In
SC2, remember when the happy campers are swimming in the pool?
There's a great shot of Valerie Hartman's very nubile character getting
out from the pool. As planned, you clearly see her nipples through her
wet tee. In the script there was a line which went something like, "Hey
Emilio, check out those nips." But the Georgia Department of Labor guys
who were on the set decided in their infinite wisdom that we couldn't have
a kid under the age of eighteen say the word "nips" so we changed it to
"Hey Emilio, party hats at two o'clock," or something like that. The DOL boys didn't have a problem with that. For me it was like, pardon my dust here folks, I'm just trying to get a movie made on a budget. "Nips" to "party hats" ... these two DOL guys were on the set for the entire shoot and that was their only concern ... it's always great to see your tax dollars at work.
Jeff: Can you recall any other trivia that the SC fans would be interested in?
Michael:The last day of production of SC3 was actually on Halloween that year. It was a spooky, great why to end production of two horror movies. We had a great wrap party.
Jeff: For our technical purists out there, were the films shot in 1.85:1 widescreen or 1.33:1 full frame?
Michael: If memory serves me, they were shot 1.85:1. Bill Mills, the director of photography for the sequels, would probably remember for sure.
Jeff: Tell us about what you do now and some of your recent projects.
Michael:
My wife, Judy Cairo, and I have a development and production company based in Los Angeles. We produce movies and television series. Jude's a well-regarded and very talented television producer and executive producer. Beauty, brains and talent... it's a hard package to resist. She's done a number of movies for network and cable television. I enjoy writing scripts the most these days.
Jeff: How would you feel about being involved in future Sleepaways?
Michael: I haven't given it much thought. Teen horror has changed so much in the last 20 years. All the great horror franchises have either adapted or wilted.
Jeff: If you were going to do another one, what kind of story would you write?
Michael: Good question. For me I think the most important thing would be to do something off beat, something that isn't derivative. More than anything, some fresh talent and blood would help the franchise get in touch with today's audience I think.
In terms of story, "coloring outside the box" as they say in LA would be a great way to go.
Jeff: I receive e-mails from fans all over the world! How does it feel to know that you have touched so many people with these movies?
Michael: It's all a little strange isn't it? These movies have taken on a life of their own. I just hope the fans have as much fun watching them as we did making them.