Interview: Declan O’Brien

20^th Century Fox is gearing up to release the third film in the Wrong Turn series, with Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead soon on October 20^th. Killer Film had the chance to catch up with the director Declan O’Brien, as we chat about the film, the series, Roger Corman, and the cannibal film genre.

Jon: The Wrong Turn series has a pretty solid fan base, how did you get involved to direct part 3, and was there any trepidation on your part, due to the popularity of the series?

O’Brien: Yeah, I mean Wrong Turn has a rapid fan base and I was well aware of the first two films. When I got involved for the third one, Fox had seen some of my movies before, so they called me up. I wanted to take the franchise into a direction the franchise had gone before. The first two films were like beautiful people lost in the woods, being tracked down by cannibal hillbillies, so I didn’t want to do that again. Where’s the fun in that?

So we decided to have some really nasty guys like murders and rapists, and set them up against the cannibal hillbillies and see who survives. Like Battle Royal, sort of a fun bad guys versus even worst bad guys, and who do you root for? That’s interesting to me.

Jon: After helming a few SyFy projects in Eastern Europe, you shot Wrong Turn 3 in Bulgaria. Why the change from the previous films? Was it for budget reasons, stylistic choices, or did you just enjoy the crew over there?

O’Brien: I do enjoy the crew over there, and it is fun shooting there, but the main attraction to shoot over there is cost. It’s just cheaper to do that. My previous films were shot over there on very small budgets. I think that was what Fox was interested in. They say me as someone who can bring in a film on a low budget but make it look bigger than it cost. That’s what we got for Wrong Turn 3, and it looks really big. I think we out did ourselves.

Jon: Without spoiling too much, we do know the film takes place a while after part 2, so Three Finger is older now. Fans get annoyed with changes to their favorite characters, can you explain the process of your take on the character and what you wanted for him in this film?

O’Brien: Wrong Turn 2 finished with Three Finger surviving and having Baby Spoolage. I wanted a logical extension from the second film, and you can’t do that with him fighting with a baby. Family Guy might do that in animation, which is cool, but you can’t do that in live action. Or at least not with these budgets anyway! (laughs)

We decided to age them, and do it years later [from the second film]. The Three Finger character is the most interesting, funniest, and creepiest actually. So we follow him later on in life, trying to feed his family.

Jon: From your previous films, this one has less CG violence, and more practical FX. Can you explain the duality of what working with practical FX does for the film over CG, and vise versa?

O’Brien: Well, here’s the deal with CG and practical FX. Believe it or not, practical is more expensive than CG. If you’re shooting with practical FX you know what you are getting, since you can see it in-camera, and you don’t have to wait for the finished FX from CG artists. I had a little more time and money to do practical, so I did. When you blend practical and CG it always makes CG looks better. The eye is very sophisticated and it will always let you know that the CG isn’t real.

On this film, I planned the gags out very methodically so when we had CG there was always a practical element involved. So there’s no 100% CG shots in the film.

Jon: I’ve read that the film has a nice nod to the infamous Cannibal Holocaust impalement scene. Was that film some sort of inspiration, or does ever cannibal film owe a bit to Ruggero Deodato’s classic sickie?

O’Brien: Ever cannibal film since owns it to that classic, I think! I absolutely thought it was an amazing film for the time, and I found the story behind the film interesting. My take on a that particular kill, was a wink and a nod. It’s a pretty um, how do I want to say it? Like “Oh my God, I didn’t want to see that!” (laughs) It’s a perverted nod to it.

Jon: Are you a fan of the Italian Cannibal film cycle?

O’Brien: I like Cannibal Holocaust. What Deodato did back then with the budget he had, for that time, was really amazing. I heard he told the actors disappear for a year and he then sold it as a documentary, like it was real! Then he got arrested! (laughs)

So I found all of that entertaining, if it’s true. He’s a real showman there!

Jon: It is, and he had to go to court to prove the actors were still alive.

O’Brien: Yeah, how awesome is that? You could ask for better publicity.

Jon: I heard about some on-set disasters that occurred, and since the film’s DVD and Blu-ray disc doesn’t feature a commentary track, would you care to talk about them?

O’Brien: Yeah, what did you hear? (laughs)

Jon: I just heard some things went wrong and I thought I’d ask the man about it.

O’Brien: I got this bus, right? Finding an American prison isn’t easy but I wanted one so we can roll it. The first day we started work on shooting was a hellish day at this prison. I only had one day to film there and a huge amount of pages to get, and we had to get in and out. These prisoners were heckling us all day. I mean how intense is that? (laughs) Great for realism.

Anyway, the bus shows up and the damn thing would go into the gates, and this fucking thing just gives out. We only had a few hours and the bus wasn’t working. We have this picture on the Facebook of us pushing this bus (see below)! I don’t know if they got it for the behind-the-scenes for the DVD, but there’s this video of me saying, “Hey, first day, every thing’s going great!” (laughs) But that damn bus was the bane of my existence on the film. We wanted this bus and this truck to crash into each other, and the bus stalls 30 minutes from where we are suppose to be. I’m shooting at night, and you know there are only so many hours to film at night, so this bus is broken down, camera car starts on fire, it was a disaster! Then they wouldn’t shut down the highway.

At any rate, we get the bus there, start shooting, and there’s this shitter in our way. Radios weren’t working, so I jumped out of the car, and pushed this shitter off the highway as cars are going by! I felt like Bowfinger. They were all like stunt drivers! So yeah, we had some mechanical disasters with vehicles, but other that, it was your typical shoot.

Jon: Cannibalism is perhaps the most vile ruination to a victim in crime history, but cannibal films have had longevity in film throughout different times and countries. Do you have an opinion as to why?

O’Brien: It’s the most sickest thing you can do to a human being. To kill and eat another human being is animalistic, it sends you back to the prehistoric caveman stuff. It’s a taboo, and will always be a taboo. Not only that, for this film, I wanted to show what’s worse. What’s worse than getting eaten? Sometimes, you have to think “okay, I would rather kill than get eaten”, so that’s where I took this film. So what if you stayed alive? As they say, it’s like a fate worse than death.

Jon: Finally, can you talk a bit about your version of the Little Shop of Horrors?

O’Brien: I can’t really talk about that now, because it is in early development stages, but it is something I really want to do, and I hope we can work the logistics for it. Roger [Corman] is a very good friend and mentor to me. I definitely want to give a shout out to him for winning the Academy Award this year. He has done more for directors in this town than any other producers. He has started more careers than any one else. He has a great eye for talent and totally knows his stuff. He was so happy with me when I did Cyclops for him, he said it was the best thing to come through our doors in years.

He’s given a shot to 6 Oscar winning directors, so I wanted to work with Roger and it was an honor to do so. It was amazing experience. When I sat down with him before I left for production on Cyclops, I sat down and got the How to Direct a Film Speech from him, the same one he gave to Martin Scorsese earlier. We talked about the field, focus, and framing. Seriously, Jon, it was a joy! It was amazing spending a day with him and going through all of that, like film class in a day. That was worth the price of admission itself. Making the film for him, and having him pleased with it was icing on the cake. It was fucking cool!

Jon: Thanks a lot for talk with us and the fans. I look forward to it.

O’Brien: Oh, cool, thanks. Hope you all enjoy it.

Have anything to add? Feel free to leave a comment below or email me at jon@killerfilm.com . Be sure to keep it here for our review of the film, only on Killer Film!