Micro-Shock Spotlight On: Cullen Carr's Golden Age
Some of you might remember Cullen Carr's appearances in such films as Torture Me No More, Deadly Squids From Beyond Saturn or even the Tromadance short film selection In Defense of the Lemmings. If you did, and you liked his stuff you might be interested in knowing that he just finished making his first film: Golden Age. Which he is now distributing independantly online via the films Myspace website.
We gave Cullen a moment to tell us about his love of filmmaking, and about his new film, here's what he had to say:
Cullen Carr speaks about his inspiration for Golden Age:
One of my fondest childhood memories is going to the video store with my parents. I was five years old, and a foreign contraption called a VCR had finally made its way to the depths of Dixie where I was born and raised. This, of course, was long before the days of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, so the oases for our takeout cinema during this time were mom and pop video retailers with kitschy names like “Popcorn Preview”. Because the major studios were slow to take advantage of this latest trend, rental options were scant at best. Everyone had a player, but a product drought had swept the land before there was even a flood. This selection determined by availability yielded an era in which true independent filmmakers thrived and brought the grain, grit, gore and sex of a 42nd Street grindhouse theater into the living rooms of Middle America. And I loved it! Of course, I was not allowed to view this material at such a young age, but countless surveys of its promotional packaging soon sculpted me into an aspiring gorehound. Quite confident that I was out of harm's reach, my mother would allow me to freely roam the aisles of our local VHS Mecca. Somehow, she never took note of my tendency to study the macabre imagery on the box arts of such titles as I Spit On Your Grave and Class of Nuke 'Em High. Even these films' dust jackets delivered a delightful, gut-punch reaction. I couldn't wait to grow up and see the movies themselves. Repulsion mixed with exhilaration- what a combination! Even then, I couldn't help but wonder, "Who makes this stuff?"
Years went by, and mom and pop rental outlets slowly became a thing of the past. My affinity for low budget, T & A splatter flicks didn't subside, however, and I was determined to uncover the method behind this madness. After graduating with a BFA in theater, that same lingering question from my boyhood took precedent over Brecht and Aristotle- "Who the hell makes this stuff?"
I found my answer soon thereafter when I moved to New York City and volunteered my services as a Production Assistant on the set of a certain B-grade blood and boobs extravaganza. It was here in an abandoned crack house (the set) in Hell's Kitchen that I discovered the culprits. As it turns out, the filmmakers were much more disturbing than their films. After clearing broken crack vials from the floor of the set, I looked on as a beautiful blonde glistened under the blazing glare of two tungsten lights. Drenched in red, Cairo syrup, her countenance began to take on the look of shame and uncertainty as the director impatiently barked at her to be sexier in the "love scene" unfolding- a ménage a trois with a pre-op transsexual and a skeleton of a girl with oily hair and bad teeth. Our eyes met, and it was obvious that she didn't want to be there. Neither did I. Feeling nauseous, I politely excused myself and walked off the set.
On the way home, I was amazed that I was just realizing "to exploit" was the root of "exploitation." I set out to concoct my own film that could illustrate the conflict between my love for the horror genre and my distaste for the depravity its practitioners. “Golden Age” was the result. Is this film an homage to video nasties? Well, we did track down the last 400' of Kodak VNX Reversal known to man and staged the full body bludgeoning of a young innocent a la Deodato. Is the film a satirical look at/slap in the face to all the pseudo-pornographers who leave a stain on the genre with their abusive practices? You bet. Ultimately, I see this piece as a love letter to the golden age of video and hate mail to all those who tarnished its gild. I can only hope that we did our job in expressing the greatness of one and the grossness of the other.
Cullen Carr
