Late Night Classics – Death Spa

Over the last couple years I have been on a quest to seek out horror films from the 80′s and 90′s that I missed in my stomping days at my local Ma and Pa video stores. As a film junkie, sometimes you think you have seen them all and there’s nothing cool left that you need to find. That’s the furthest from the truth because there are hundreds of films that haven’t seen the screening arena known as your living room since Ronald Reagan was in office.

In some ways it has become an obsession for me. It’s as though I have turned into Udo Kier and I am on an unholy search for my La Fin Absolute Du Monde. When I find a hidden treasure to add to my collection I won’t get so excited that a loop my intestinal tract through a projector reel, but I do get giddy as a teenybopper to witness some retro badassery from a time when horror was original, crass, and didn’t have an drop of corporate bluster.

I bring the 1988 classic Death Spa to the masses who think the world begins and ends with pristine Blu-rays and CG crapfests that have become the norm. I’m excited to have been able to get an interview with Michael Fischa [Delta Heat], the director of Death Spa, as we look back at his slice of sleaze.

Jason Bene: I really love this film and feel you did an outstanding job for a first-time director. How long was your shooting schedule and what was your budget?

Michael Fischa: My budget was 1.5 million dollars, which was a lot for that time. The shooting schedule was four weeks and it was fun to do.

Jason Bene: The film also goes by the title of Witch Bitch, but was released on video as Death Spa. Was Witch Bitch just a working title?

Michael Fischa: No. Witch Bitch was the European title because when it was released in Europe we called it Witch Bitch – I don’t know why – don’t ask me. As a director once your movie is distributed and released you have no say. They thought some ad agency had a better idea and there was nothing I could do about it.

Jason Bene: Your camera slowly glides toward the Star Body Heath Spa as an electrical storm ignites in the background, then lightning strikes the building, burning out most of the letters to reveal the name of the film. That was something I had never seen before, who came up with that bit of genius?

Michael Fischa: That was really cool, huh? We shot it in L.A. at this spa and so we had it arranged. I thought that would be a nice thing to have in the background. There was a steadicam operator [Elizabeth Ziegler] who looked like a bloody amazon. I remember it was in the 80′s and it was a man’s world – she was one of the few women steadicam operators. She had this crane and it was really a complicated thing – it took all day to do it. She was fabulous. It was a very eleborate.

Jason Bene: The prowling camerawork was something that was akin to early Argento, an almost European flair. Who are some of the filmmakers who guided you to the director’s chair?

Michael Fischa: I don’t have any, that’s my problem. I did theater and I came to L.A. and did a play called End of the World. It’s was a very, very, very dark and wonderful play and it got picked up by Universal and was turned into a soap opera. I was new there and they didn’t want anything to do with me. They said you should go to Hawaii and enjoy yourself and we’ll pay you. They said don’t get involved, but I wanted to be involved because what you are doing is turning a wonderful, dark theater piece and making the TV series turn into Gilligans’ Island. That’s Hollywood, you know how it goes. They paid me well for five years and they took it away, and I didn’t want to go away. That’s Hollywood for you and that’s why I am in Austria right now because I’m done with that stuff. I’m developing a movie here, a big historical thing and it’s fabulous.

Jason Bene: There are bold colors throughout and pink gets alot of playtime, what were you looking for as far as color scheme?

Michael Fischa: I wanted it to be colorful. You have a horror movie but you have a lot of color and when something horrible happens the blood looks better.

Jason Bene: This is a very violent film as we get a woman burning to death in a wheelchair, a hand mangled in a blender, a javelin plunged through a neck, face meltings, flying shower tiles, death by frozen fish, a mirror exploding and blowing away a woman’s face, and a hand telepathically blown to smithereens. Where there any problems maintaining an R rating?

Michael Fischa: No, not at all. There are so many different versions that go out there and I don’t know what they did.

Jason Bene: [Laughs] There is ample nudity throughout the movie, especially the shower scene that was very arousing. Was it really tough to be surrounded by so many gorgeous, naked women?

Michael Fischa: No! If you check out all the women they were all very sexy. There was Karyn Parsons, for example, who later on was in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. All the girls in the shower scene all had good careers later.

Jason Bene: Ken Foree was in other genre films like Dawn of the Dead and From Beyond, how was he to work with and was he happy about wearing that rainbow colored uniform for his job as the Gym’s caretaker?

Michael Fischa: He was cool with it. He was a very nice dude actually. I didn’t know what he did before or after.

Jason Bene: The funniest line in the film is the classic “I’m Beta, You’re VHS” and has become so popular there is a clip of it on You Tube. I guess if there is ever a remake it will be I’m DVD, You’re Blu-ray.

Michael Fischa: Maybe we should do that? That’s not a bad idea. In South Carolina we had to do re-shoots on Deadtime Stories, and I went up to Canada and talked to George [Romero] and he said the same thing. He is George Romero, right? He did classic horror movies and it’s hard for him to get a movie made. It’s absurd. It’s horrible. Now it’s all about torture and I’m not into that stuff.

Jason Bene: The 80′s were litterred with pretentious, pompous people who spent their lives watching Jane Fonda’s Workout and Richard Simmons’ Sweating to the Oldies. Was it in any way catarthic to kill them in creative ways?

Michael Fischa: Yeah, of course, that was the whole point. At that time everyone was going to spas, but I wish I could of designed it better because the design was so lame. The colors and all this were good, but it should of been more modern.

Jason Bene: There was a movie that came out in 1986 called Killer Workout that had a gym where people were being killed off after a woman had burned herself years prior in a tanning salon. Had you or your writers heard of it before you made Death Spa?

Michael Fischa: Absolutely not – I didn’t even know about it. They steal everything from you. Fifteen years ago I wrote a film called Cowboys and Aliens and nobody wanted to see it, and now it’s going to be this huge movie. They stole the movie from me, but I can’t prove it because I can’t bother and you can read about it. They lifted pages out of my script that I did in 1995. It’s going to be a huge movie with Robert Downey Jr. It’s my bloody movie that they stole and there is nothing I can do about it. It’s the same plotline that deals with a little town in the old west and aliens land and indians are enslaved in mines. In their film the indians are enslaved in a cold mine. Do you get the drift? It doesn’t matter now, I am in beautiful Austria. Sony Pictures stole it twenty years ago. There are sixteen writers on the script that was based on a comic strip which came out five years after I wrote my script, so the comic strip is based on my script. How do you prove that? You can’t. I’m at the point right now where I say fuck Hollywood and I am doing other things and I don’t want to bother with the shit. My next movie is a big period piece and I am shooting in South Africa, Belgium, France, and Vienna.

Jason Bene: The bootleggers of the world are making a killing off of Death Spa, what’s the hold up on a DVD release?

Michael Fischa: I have no bloody idea. You are telling me things that I don’t know about. I’m happy people think it’s a cool little thing, but I don’t want to investigate who is selling what and who is getting royalties because I don’t give a shit. Let it be a pain in someon else’s butt, not mine.

Killer Film would like to thank Michael Fischa for taking time away from his hectic shooting schedule on Deadtime Stories Volume 2 to do this interview. Keep your eyes peeled for this ongoing anthology series that is being produced by George A. Romero.