INTERVIEW: New horror movie stars Mike Dwyer, Keith David
Union Furnace, the new horror movie from writers Mike Dwyer and Nicholas Bushman, follows a down-and-out car thief who accepts an offer to play a violent game with a group of masked strangers. The thief, played by Dwyer himself, doesn’t know what he gets himself into as the challenges for him and the other players become more intense, grueling and gruesome.
The ringleader of the villains is a mysterious man named the Lion, played by Seth Hammond. Starring alongside Dwyer and Hammond is Keith David, the actor best known for John Carpenter’s The Thing and Platoon. Union Furnace, which is directed by Bushman and now available on Blu-ray and DVD, is a thriller in the same vein as the Saw franchise and Would You Rather, meaning it’s not for everyone. Viewers should be ready for a grim 90 minutes.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Dwyer about the film. Here’s what he had to say:
On the creation of the project …
The character I play in the movie, Cody Roy, was a character that Nick had had in his notebook for a couple years before. We always liked the idea of a car thief in destitute southern Ohio, and we spent two weeks in a room, basically locked in a room, 14-15 hours a day. And we just thought, well, where’s the worst place we can take this guy. We’re like, let’s have him literally bet his life, and that kind of borne the idea of the picture where he just had to go into this underground betting game based on his own choice, which was always fun. He had to choose to be there. He wasn’t bamboozled into being there, which was very exciting for us to have a character agree to go through hell.
On the difficulty of the production …
Well, we shot in like 20-21 days. We shot it in Ohio, southern Ohio and central Ohio. It was a particularly grueling winter. I don’t think any day we shot was above 15 or 20 degrees, so it was very quick. It was very cold. A lot of the exterior scenes that are not in the games room or in the green room were anywhere between 5 degrees and … 20 below. … The warehouse where we shot the scenes, there was no heat, so everyone was literally hugging each other with blankets and little space heaters to keep it as warm as they could before they had to shoot their next moment. I wish we had more time, but that’s what we had. I guess maybe going so quickly made the whole process feel slightly warmer.
On the influence of The Thing …
I watched a lot of movies at the time where I could relate to the characters in the movies quite a bit — Kurt Russell in The Thing. The Thing was a huge influence on the movie. That cold bleakness … and what they’re going through was pretty important.
On his early appreciation for horror films …
I really came to horror through Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. My uncle was a huge fan of the old Hammer films, so I’d see the old Draculas. … In the classics, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, that sort of stuff.
On getting Keith David attached to the project …
We had no connection with him whatsoever, being huge fans of his work, certainly with They Live, and The Thing and his work with Carpenter, which was a huge influence. Nick found the right avenue to get in contact with him, sent him over the script, and two weeks later he was in Ohio for about eight days shooting the picture.
On making an indie film with a question mark about distribution …
I think everyone wants that opportunity where someone is going to swoop in, write you a massive check for your movie, and then it’s out in 2,000 theaters. I think if you don’t think that, I think you’re a little nutty. No, with this, we entertained multiple offers for the picture, but we ultimately felt that putting it out with our own company was the best. … No one could do it better than us in that sense. … It’s a lot more exciting to be in control of your own material as opposed to having someone else take it and maybe mess with it — maybe in the right way but sometimes in the wrong way. So why take the chance. The beauty of today is you can put it on VOD; you can put it on DVD. Tens of thousands of people can have access to your movie immediately, which is really, really a great thing about the time we live in. Hopefully your movie is good enough that your people will want to see it.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Union Furnace is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
