Plumbing new depths
You would be hard-pressed to have more fun in the cinema this year than watching Vivieno Caldinelli’s latest goofball gorefest Scared Shitless. It literally shits over most horror and comedies — a movie that refuses to take itself, the genre, and even the film industry seriously.
This boasts a capital ‘T’ for toilet humour, mixing equal doses of Shaun of the Dead with a little Lovecraft and modern urban fears thrown in for good measure as plumber Don is forced to spend time with his germophobic offspring, Sonny, after the death of his mother. To help his son overcome the grief (and overwhelming fear), Don drags him on a routine house call, where they encounter a plumber’s worst nightmare — a bloodthirsty creature that’s swimming through the pipes, killing the building’s tenants — in an increasingly grisly fashion — whilst shitting out its own offspring. With the help of the night manager, Patricia, the team vows to stop the monster from escaping into the city’s water system.
This is a wild creature feature that touches on the universal fear of being attacked when most vulnerable... on the toilet! So, it felt fitting that Vivieno and I sat down together (in adjacent cubicles) to answer some questions…
I didn’t think I’d be able to stomach this one… but it was a shitload of fun. How did Brandon Cohen’s script come to you? Clean, I hope!
Yep… sparkling white porcelain clean! They were looking for a director — my friend, Mike Fly had directed the short and had some scheduling conflicts. They reached out to my agent after watching “Portal to Hell!!!”, and he passed along the script to me. From there, it wasn’t a difficult decision. Basically, I read it once and immediately wanted to jump on board!
Please tell me he didn’t just come up with the initial idea on the John.
[Laughs] I actually think he did! But, hey, that’s where the best ideas can come from sometimes. Brandon can speak on it further, but he had a real phobia sitting in Porta-Potties. From that, he came up with Scared Shitless.
How did you flush out the concept further, in terms of how the film was to be shit -- sorry, I mean shot?
Generally, I do a ‘director’s pass’ with all the films I direct. It’s more about making sure the film is something I can shoot with the time and budget we have. For example, the big standoff scene with Don and the creature in the bathroom. It was a budget/time/creative decision. Having it be a huge set-piece just wouldn’t be possible– So the idea was to have it all done behind closed doors and have it be just as impactful, but only playing off reactions and sound design (trying not to spoil anything). So, coming up with creative solutions to maximize time/budget is always a large part of the process. The better the script/concept is, the easier that process is — and with this script, it was clearly in a great place to begin with!
There seems to be a natural journey in amongst your TV work from your 2015 short “Portal to Hell!!!” to your last feature Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through the Gateway Chosen by the Holy Storsh that includes apartments and Lovecraftian nightmares.
100 percent. And it’s absolutely not intentional. Setting-wise, I think it comes more from a place of budget. All those films were very low/micro budgets and they’re written to be in a contained place. Tone-wise — whether it’s a dark comedy, or horror-comedy — my style and sensibility with the films I make are humanising and normalising surreal/absurd worlds and situations. That’s my thing and it’s so fun to do.
Pride in his work. Steven Ogg as Don
In terms of a fun throwback, the film has a great sense of humour and playful use of homage. In light of this, it makes complete sense for Steven Kostanski to be part of the production, with him even designing the creature. At what stage did Steven come on board?
Steven came on board before I did. That obviously gave me the confidence we could pull all the creature effects off… and take things even further!
I’m interested to hear about your influences as a filmmaker, especially (as mentioned) with all the wonderful ’80s/’90s homages scattered throughout — Slither, The Thing, The Stuff, The Blob ’88, Tremors, Alien 3… to name a few!
My influences are quite eclectic. I think that’s why my work tends to be an amalgamation of genres. Most of my early career was strictly comedy — but horror was my other love. I grew up watching both comedy and horror obsessively. Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein had a profound influence on me as a child. Also, John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London. Also, movies by Joe Dante and other filmmakers such as Romero and Fulci.
Face time. 'Things' get personal with the inhabitants
“That’s no rat.” Already a classic line. I love how the main character, Don (Steven Ogg) is completely unphased and is the contrast to his germophobe son, Sonny (Daniel Doheny). For you, how are ordinary heroes key to cracking a horror comedy?
Again, it’s about grounding the extraordinary. When you have these “normal” people taking on this insane situation — all with their own human problems — it allows the audience to believe, invest, and relate to the characters and their journey and growth. I want the audience to be able to relate to the characters on a human level. Then watching them fight and triumph in extraordinary circumstances gives the audience the gift of experiencing the thrills, satisfaction, and “escape” of cinema because they see a part of themselves on the screen… no matter how insane the story is.
Much like military advisors, I’m curious whether you had, like, the Dale Dye of plumbers on the job… because I felt like all the details were there; hot pipes, an endoscope… “finding the right hole” ‘n’ shit…
Oh God, no — myself? [laughs] — I did ZERO research on plumbing. But I recall Brandon definitely did some. For me, it all came down to common sense and having some small trade experience. I think any real plumber would find nothing but issues with our logic [laughs].
What is the best plumbing tip you can share before people go into this movie?
Always flush before you sit.
SCARED SHITLESS has its International Premiere at FrightFest London on Monday 26th, 6pm. Buy your tickets here. Follow Vivieno on Instagram.
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