Talking Horror With Filmmaker Cindy Sanabria

0:00 This is a Patchy Ramos. You've seen me in The Warriors and you're listening to Honorary Orifice at the Film by podcast forty five years me do it like this? Rain on them, Warriors, Baby, Rain on them. We've been discussing some amazing women in filmmaking all month long. Today we're talking about a film by four female directors, the twenty seventeen horror anthology XX, and filmmaker Cindy Sceinabria is with us. Hi, guys, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to have you, Cindy, Cindy, it is our pleasure to have you. You know, I don't know if you caught that opening. Uh. That was that was our good friend, our mutual good friend, Apache Ramos. Uh. And I love the fact that we talked to him a lot. Dave actually talked to him a lot on his episode for The Warriors, and he just could not stop talking about this lovely filmmaker. Cindy Synabria, the Latina Queen of Gore, is how he referenced to you. Can you tell us quickly? Yeah? Can you tell us

1:30 quickly? Like? How did how did you guys meet a pat? I met Apachie Ramos a few years ago on a on a zombie horror movie set where I was commissioned to shoot the film, and uh, we got along really good, and afterwards we study in touch for years and I was like, Apache, I'm you know, I'm going to get back into filmmaking because I was like on a little at that time. I was just doing like horror tour guide stuff. I was a hard a whole host on the Horror to Her Guide. So yeah, I was like, as soon as I get back into it, and He's like, yeah, anytime. And then lo and behold. You know, the opportunity arose and we've been making magic ever since. Movie magic, horror movie magic. Well, Apachi just could not stop talking about you. So clearly we're like we gotta get it.

2:21 We gotta get Cyndy in here and get her in the studio and talk to her during a podcast because he sounds fantastic. That's my brother from another mother. He was wonderful to talk to you, that's for sure. He was great. Yeah, So cydny A, the question for you is what excites you about filmmaking? Wow, my question to you is what doesn't That's a good one. Yeah, I mean I love Primarily I'm a I consider myself a horror filmmaker. That's my genre. I mean I have worked on other films outside of that genre, but I primarily always tend to gravitate back to to it. I love the I mean it's just so cathartic, you know, it's very it could be very emotional for me, so I'm very engaged in it. It's just to see something that you created out of your mind and manifesting into something real, you know, bringing it to life, breathing character, i mean life into characters, and it's just it's just an exciting process. Then working with people that you're blessed to work with where you can, you know, see them thrive and see how their career, you know, continues after whatever production is that they're part of just the whole writing process.

3:44 I mean, there's there's a love for every little bit, every little aspect of the film in my in my opinion, I just love it. Yeah, there's there's you hit a key there. I direct a little bit too, And when you write something and you get to see it come to life on screen, you cannot describe that to somebody who can who doesn't understand right what that feels like, you can't, you know, so I completely understand what you're talking about there for sure. Any directors or producers, writers maybe that who inspired you. Well, Being a Latina, we have very limited people that represent us in the horror community or just the industry in general. But I would have to say that in general, like Robert Rodriguez was one of my ones that I love GMO because he's like me. He kind of started as should effects makeup artists, yep, and and I just I just love how he's like how he's so well versed, like he's like his whole process of filmmaking it's it's to me, is just a deeper process.

4:47 It's you know, it's like he makes the film before he makes the film, because I have like his journals and stuff like that, Like I study Guillemo and you know, I mean, I love Francis Ford Coppola, Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of my favorite films. Beautiful film. Yes, Lisa, I love that score of that one. Oh yes, yes, So I would have to say that those would probably be my top film directors. Horror obviously is a huge element in your your filmmaking. Clearly, when we're looking at you, we see what's behind you. Uh, with your love of horror. It started for me for as a little kid too. I just fell in love with a horror genre. And you know, is that what it did for you too? Have you always enjoyed horror? To be quite honest, I didn't always enjoy horror. I was actually traumatized by my dad. He enjoyed horror, made soul rest in peace. But he's the one that initiated, I guess, the presence of horror in my life.

5:51 He introduced it to me in a very traumatizing way, I might add. So you know like Poulter guys, uh, the Exorcist, you know, those were like all my hardcore you know, my first impression, my first introductions to horror. So being like maybe you know, five six years old, you don't really want to watch that, Okay? So yeah, and then I have a really I was born and raised in Harlem, so I have a very interesting first movie theater experience. The very first time I watched the American Werewolf, the American uh were Wlf in London, there was a shootout in a movie theater and nobody left. My father just shoved my head in between my legs like an Ostrich told everybody to duck down. We heard some commotion in the bag. No one left the theater and everybody is gone.

6:44 Did they stop, Yeah, they took them out already, come back to watch the movie. Nobody left. It was very odd experience. Oh, then the Life of Harlem in Harlem, I'm sorry, there's something that I wanted to add When you asked me who was my favorite directors? Sure? Sure, aside from American directors, I am a huge foreign movie horror fan, and I have to give my props to Takashi McKay. He is absolutely one of the best directors out there in my opinion. A lot of American filmmakers have remade some of his stuff like Old Boy, m hm yep, okay yeah. And I'm I'm a super huge fan so Japanese horror, Korean horror, Chanwick Park. I have to get these guys shout outs because they are my stros in their craft. Absolutely they are. And I tell you, when we bring it over here in americanize it, it just loses something. It does. Yes, I saw a lot of the foreign films and I love them. So much, and then when I see get removed over her, I'm like, I know where this is going to go, and I'm right every single time. Yeah, Yes, I agree, I agree. Yeah, all respect to to Spike Lee because we covered we covered Old Boy a couple seasons ago, and I love his remake, but it's not the original and it's not as good as the original. And I've told I've always told people like, yeah, check out Josh Brolin, and you know he's awesome, but you need to see the original if you really want to see the movie. And you know, you know everyone you just mentioned,

8:16 we've we've talked about him. We love we love those filmmakers, Dave. We got to talk about x X because you and I we were excited to cover this one. You know, this is this is we love anthology horror. This is four female directors and this movie definitely has a lot to say. But I gotta I gotta say, I gotta think, like some people probably they might not be familiar with this one. Can you give us can you give us a little a little synopsis for for those that haven't seen it yet. Yeah, absolutely would love to XX is a collection of four short films directed by the talented female director Yovanka Volkovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, and Karen Kusama. In this anthology, we watch a family solely fall apart from starvation when they're youngest see something in a box that truly disturbs him. We see a birthday party like no other when somebody suddenly dies and the home owner does her best to keep it a secret. We then see a group before out camping where they shouldn't be, causing an ancient creature to come out of hiding and seek vengeance on those trotting around. And lastly, we see a mother doing everything she can to protect her son from whom he actually is and allowing his famous father and others to take him away. Dave, thank you very much for that. You and I have been big fans of horror anthologies, Tails from the Dark Side, Creep Show, the Black Mirror series. I'm just wondering, and I think we know the answer, Dave, just seeing just seeing the setup behind behind Cindy Sindy. When we talk about horror anthologies, do you do you have a go to anthology?

9:50 Do you have one that's your favorite? I wonder what gave it away? So would be one creep show. Yeah. I actually I'm a huge Karen Black fan of guys. That's a great one. There's a Believe it or not, the Roman Polanski. Uh, you know, the Rosemary's Baby, the Tenant that's part of a trilogy too. It's an apartment trip yep, which is kind of sort of like an anthology but not really. Okay, let's let's get out of that bracket. But yeah, creep show. Definitely Karen Black Trilogy of Terra some of my favorite anthologies, and I like all of like the creep shows and all of the tales from the Dark Sides and all of the Twilight Zones and my future coming from me as well. It's at least seven. Oh nice, because that's actually a question was gonna have for you if you were to work on anthology. Any directors that you would love to work with? Wow? Yes, some some that I've mentioned.

10:58 I would actually like to work with some female directors because now they're popping up so uh the uh Nia Nia da Costa is one person that I would like to work with. For those that don't know, she was the director of the recent Candyman HM. Gloria Gifford, Oh, well, Gloria Gifford is actually more of an actress producer. But but like, uh, Lemons, I don't want to say. Casey Lemons is her name. She was the writer of the original Candy Man and she was also the I believe she wrote Eaves by You as well, which is like a kind of like a Southern kind of voodoo type horror. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it, Okay, So yeah, I would. Those are some women that I feel like they've they've really earned their place and this and this industry, and I feel like they're a little like underrated or they could use the accolades.

12:07 Yeah. Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. Well, we got a lot to talk about. We're gonna take a quick break and when we return, we'll have more with Cindy Synabria and the Horror Anthology XX. And we are back. We're talking with Cindy Synabria. Dave, there is surprisingly little to dig up on this film. What can you tell us? Yeah, there is surprisingly there is. I mean, I didn't know much about this film until I started digging into it, and how much I love this anyway, But the title of the film XX is actually in reference to the chromosomes that determine the genetic makeup for a woman, which is basically in reference to the female dominant crew that did these short films. This is also the directorial debut of Yovanka Valkovic and musician and songwriter Saint Vincent who goes by the birth name any Clark for this film, and according to an interview for these directors, they basically utilize this film to basically give female directors an opportunity, especially in the horror genre. So I just think all that is just fantastic, especially when you're trying to give somebody an opportunity to make something like this.

13:16 I think that was a great idea you saying that, Dave, I got to ask, actually, I have to ask, Cindy. I think this would be a great time to talk a little bit about women of color and horror. Cindy, what can you tell us about that? Well? Women of color, Women of color and horror actually was in general a grassroots a thing that I started up for to represent women of color within the horror genre and subgenres, so everything from sci fi, true crime, anything that falls within the horror genre, even fantasy. So I did that because there's lack of representation or lack of awareness. There's a lot of females of in the industry that's worked on a lot of films, but they don't they go un hurt, you know, they don't receive the proper accolades. There's also women that are trying to make it or looking for opportunities on how exclusively for you know, for women of color, and some of them don't have the proper resources. So Women of Color and Horror is kind of like it's kind of like an oil encompassing like, uh, you know, I try to promote you know, up and coming, you know people. I also promote people that have already have tenure in the industry but just are like not really known or popular enough. Celebrate them. Whenever I get any kind of opportunities that I come across exclusively for women of color or even just in general, so

14:50 they could take advantage of it as well, I'll post that in the groups as well, and hopefully I would hope to one day make it some kind of a nonprofit organization where we can move forward in the future and and start getting women you know employed, you know, and and have them you know, be in a position where I can produce original works from you know, creative women of color from all over. It's just trying to push those stories and promote those stories because I feel like no one can tell your story better than you, right, And and I feel like there's a lot that the genre and just the industry in general, bands all all over the place are missing out because these stories are untold, and I mean there's just so many.

15:43 I feel like once they open up those floodgates, I feel like it's going to transform horror in a beautiful way. Yep, I couldn't that. I love that the you know we're talking about, you know, the beauty of horror and what you're saying, that's that's it's fantastic. And I, Cindy, I think that's an it's an amazing thing that you're doing. Yeah, I really, you know, we can't think enough. There's there's a lot of voices out there who need to be heard and to have somebody like you to give them that avenue to do it, that is incredible. Cindy, well done, Thank you so much. And and well, I hope to be in a position that I could do so much more. I feel like where I'm at I'm still not where I want to be, but I'm working on getting there, and along the way, I'm trying to help as many people as possible. And when I tell you all the hidden talent that's out there, well, when we get into it, I'll definitely like because Merciless Christmas is about a ninety diverse film. Nice. Okay, yeah, yeah, we're we are definitely going to talk about Merciless Christmas. But before we do, Dave, let's let's talk about these these segments for this anthology.

16:49 Uh, let's start off with the box. The family was on the subway, the mother, her daughter, and her son, and they were sitting there and the guy next to them had like a present with him, and the son basically wanted to see what was in the box. So the guy shows it to him. We don't see what's in there obviously, which I just don't know what's in there, but it turns him too into starving. He doesn't want to eat anymore. And then he goes and tells his sister sister something about it, so she starts starving. And then they tell the father what was in the box, apparently, which we still don't know, so the three of them end up starving, leaving the mother by herself. All of these were really really good in my opinion. But there are so many cool elements of this episode with the directing that I loved. One of them was how you always got the looking straight down at the table and you get the different shots of the food that was sitting there, and you would get like the title card that would say like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and all the food would change. I just love that. But clearly Yovanka, who directed this episode is a fan of Night of the Living Dead because she had it showing up on you know, yeah, they're coming to get you. Barbara loved it. I love when directors through that kind of stuff. They'll they'll put stuff in there that they love that they want to show off. I love that. And then I don't know if you caught this too, but Jenny the daughter was reading Hell Boy when Danny was in the doctor's office. Yeah, that's when they that that scene where it's Christmas

18:22 morning and they're opening Presence and Romero's down or Night of Living Dead is as long as I said, that is that Christmas morning at Cindy Synabria's house because you know, it's like what the family that wakes up on Christmas morning, like, hey, put on what on Night of Living Dead? Let's have some fun. I was like, these are my kind of people, right, Yeah, this one's creepy. Uh, just the fact that the kids won't eat, but they also won't talk about what's in the box. Yeah. And it's interesting to see the mother go from like really unconcerned yea, like unconcerned. Yeah, she is very about the whole situation and until like all three of them starved to death, and then she's like all right now and now she's spending the rest of her life just right in the subway hoping to find this guy, Yeah, to just find out what's in the box.

19:11 Yeah. And I want to call out whoever did the special effects of this, because the little boy when they show him malnourished, he looked incredible. He looked creepy on how his skin was, like you could see like his skeletons through his skin. They did a fantastic job with that city Like in your in your experience, is this a you know this is an independent film? Is this something where you can rely on CGI to get you through? Because this kid looked emaciated. Yeah, it's just almost ghoulish. Or does old school makeup? Does it still? Does it still do the trick for us? Personally, I'm a I'm a fan more of practical effects than CGI. Amen, But I am also a fan of when the when the two technologies are combined, When the two processes are combined, it just I feel like it takes it to a different level. So I'm a fan of the combination and solely of practical effects, not so CGI because just I mean, this has nothing to do with with with this anthology. But for example, I am legend it didn't you know, the CGI was so fake that it didn't you know, It's just to me, it's like I could see it's fake. And then there was the other one on World War Z that I felt like could have been a little bit better. But the the over compensation of special effects for the zombies when they're coming, it just looks so

20:42 fake, you know. But then you have something like Trained to Busan where they incorporated kind of both and you see the difference, like it just it just draws something differently. It's like when you still have that little bit of realism you could put it out with CGI. It's it's you hit the nail on the head there, it's you CGI just a little bit, you know, use that practical effect. And if you need to gloss in it up a little bit with CGI, okay, that's fine. But CGI can really pull you out of the film. And you hit that right there, you know what I am legend it really pulls you out of the film when you recognize immediately at CGI. I love the practical effects. I mean, it's my age too. I grew up with filmmakers who worked hard on their films with practical you know, with practical effects, and it works more for me.

21:30 But but then again, I mean I'm not putting anyone down today who use the CGI at all, but I just love that practical effect. Well, I'm a I'm a practical effects person. I do CG. I mean, I mean, I do special effects makeup from scratch, like I work with prosthetics and Sila Quoni. I can tell you as a person firsthand. I mean, I'm know Tom Savigni, but just someone working with these materials first hand. You have to respect the craft and you have to respect the I mean the creations that these people you know, and the world the time that goes into it. It's really a work of art. It's like art within art. That's my take on it. Dave. Let's move on. Let's talk about the second segment, which it's more black comedy than horror.

22:15 Honestly, the birthday party. I think Annie Clark Hunty did that one on purpose because she's not a huge fan of horror. So she kind of turned this into a black comedy, is what she did. Melanie Leninsky, which I find from Two and a Half Men Famed. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people will know her from that, and if I remember Cook, I think she was just in the Last of Us on HBO. She was Yes, love her work, love her work, So it was nice and pleasant surprise to see her pop up in this very unique film. I guess that was her husband, Yeah, who I guess made it suicide by the looks of it. He drank something and it was in the drink. Yeah, what I've taken out of it. And then she has to hide that because their daughter is having her birthday party. Yeah, so, Cindy, we this one. This one might be my favorite, actually, Dave, I know, I know, I'm jumping ahead by saying that, but we got this idea where it's this little girl's seventh birthday party. Her mom is clearly overwhelmed, a little stressed, wondering where's my husband, And then we come to find that he's he's either overdosed on something, he drank something that he shouldn't have, whatever the case may be, We've got a corpse.

23:33 And rather than at a birthday party, yeah, the birthday party is about to start, and rather than ruin her little girl's birthday party, we get this crazy cat and mouse game where she is she continues to move the body from room to room so it's not discovered and hiding it. And you know, like the the well to do neighbors are all like, oh, well, where's your husband, and she's like, oh, he'll be here soon. And like the goofiest thing happens, like uh, one of these singing telegram guys shows up in like a giant panda suit and she's like, I'll give you like a thousand bucks for that suit. Just get get, get the hell out of here, give me the suit. And the guy's like all right, cool, you know, and she puts she she dresses up her dead husband in this this uh panda suit and just puts him in the chair. At the birthday party, it's all the kids around here. Yeah, everything's, everything seems fine until he slumps over to the cake and then they have to you know, I think the housekeeper kind of pushes him back and then the head falls off, and then you see he is clearly dead, and then every kid starts freaking out. Like, Cindy, what you know, you're you're you're a talented filmmaker, Like what kind of kind of process is involved when you when you take something that's it's clearly it's it's horror driven, but you want to have a good time. You want to make it funny, Like, you know, where is it difficult to to marriage you know, to see the marriage between comedy and horror. Do you think I feel like any effective, any effective horror or any horror movie should have

25:07 a few elements of different emotions and comedy is one that that is so I mean, not the whole film, but there should be little elements sprinkled along the way. Unless you're you know, targeting a dark comedy specifically, you know, and you're making like this outrageous comedy or these like insane moments. But I feel like the marriage of comedy some elements sprinkled throughout the film. I think that that's that that serves as a key, you know, because you you can connect with your audience through laughter. So I feel like if you incorporate just like maybe a funny moment or just like an awkward character, you know, or even just something silly that he says, you know, that a character may say out them out out his mouth, then you know, creating some kind of like you know, realism. But comed always gets people. There's a connection with comedy. And yeah, this film got me laughing at the end. Jeff with the title cards, the title cards, Yeah, it basically was the birthday party or the memory Lucy suppressed from her seventh birthday that wasn't really her mom's fault, even though her therapist says it's probably why she fears intimacy. And I think the comedy in the title cards is that you get, you know, because every one of these segments ends with the title. You know, they do a title card, and I love that you get the birthday party and then it fades and then you get what really happened, and then you know, they just keep fading in and

26:38 out with like over explaining what really is going on in this one. So I love this one. Dave, we gotta talk about the third one, this one, this one nothing nothing to laugh at in the one called Don't Fall. So I'm going to go ahead and let this one out of the box. This one is my favorite. I am a sucker for creature feature, especially one done so well like this one. You know, I love that opening shot where you get the dialogue but you see like the shadows of them like on the rocks as they're talking, and then that very cool back shot to reveal the title. Man. This one was directed so well by Roxanne Benjamin. I love this one just with so much of my being.

27:26 The score in this one was fantastic, especially when they were in the RV and the creature was, you know, jumping on the RV or trying to get in, and you had that score going on where they're like freaking out inside trying to figure out a way to get out or what they were going to do. Oh my gosh, I loved it so much, and so many good shots of the creature by being silhouetted or like when the last person who was alive. She falls down, thus don't fall, and the creature is like over top of her, and you get that silhouetted shot of it coming down towards her. Man, I love that shot. This is I gotta I gotta call it the writing on this one, because right at the get go, you see, Okay, we've got four you know, we got four people. You know, two guys, two girls. They're clearly not where they're supposed to be, you know, and they they're doing those cliched moves like they're they're drinking, they're smoking some stuff, they're having a good time. So we know that we know they're gonna get slaughtered. The thing here, though, is that we spend some time with them and we get to we get to care about them. You don't want you don't want to see him, you know. I mean, if this is Friday thirteenth, we are we are behind our guy, Jason Boorhees, and we can't wait to see him slaughter everybody. But this is a situation where you you care about these people. You know, I was, I was rooting for him. I knew they weren't gonna survive, But you know, that's that's what I'm thinking, uh, Cindy, when we talk creature features, h, what do you got to go to creature feature as far as like uh?

28:55 And we could we you know, you're a special effects expert too, so like we could talk like even like a suit or like a specific monster. Do you like what comes to mind for you? I was thinking, well, I'm actually thinking about the combination of the question beforehand, which was the comedy aspect and the creature feature. I would say human The one that sticks out of my head is Humanoids from the Deep. Oh yes, I can't believe you've seen that. I Okay, some of our listeners are going to get a kick out of this because we they they kind of connected with us, and I kind of I put that one out there. I said, you guys want to see something awesome, watch Humanoids from the Deep. It's it's streaming on Prime. I got one person coming back and going okay, I kind of did this, and then the others were like, what did you just make me watch? Like put what's going on here? So good? Though? Yeah, it's got that magic for me, you know that kind of stuff. Love Humanoids from the Deep. Thank you. I feel vindicated, Sidny, Thank you very much when you were mentioning like that, you know, the creatures and you're and mentioning them by the water.

30:00 So the first thing that popped in my head was Humanoids from the Deep, and I was that was actually a pretty funny one, you know, by the water, you know, and I like stuff that, like the incredible Melting Man. I know, he wasn't like you know, I liked I liked the makeup on that. I like that gelatine that he had, like that NonStop you know, like acid run of blood. It was just it was really cool. See I like stuff like that. And one of my favorite movies is put Cemetery. Oh yeah, good choice. Yeah, you're you're talking about gelatin and the Melting Man. I'm pretorious his makeup and from beyond when he starts getting into that house, Poor poor Barbara Crampton. You know, what are you gonna do? And he's like, I'm gonna kiss you and you're like, please, don't don't do this, don't do it.

30:49 We'll do this. Oh. I felt like that in Reanimator with the oh I know, uh, I know. We just recently got a chance to meet Barbara Crampton. She was at a horror hound that woman. Just let's let's give her one chance to really shine in a movie where she's not she's not just preyed upon right the way she we've seen it. You know, I know she has more. I know she has more to offer us than that. So yeah, and Jeff, just as we talked about with the makeup from the box, the creature effect, Yes, special effects they did for this creature and Don't Fall, Man, was it incredible. She was scary. Wow. I'll say one other thing too, And I don't want to spoil it for for anyone that hasn't seen it, but we we get a good horr film. Was always gonna have those those jump scares, you know, like and some of their their cliche to the point that we expect them, Like someone's in the bathroom mirror they opened the medicine cabinet, you know someone's gonna be there behind them when they close the cabinet back.

31:52 I thought, I thought Don't Fall had a couple of good jump scares that weren't even if it be scary. But you know, the one character, she's clearly she's got some issues being out there and she's kind of the Freddy Cat of the group, and I really liked how they did the jump scares. Unintentionally, I'll say, you know, yeah, and I know which one you're talking about. One where he goes off and then comes back. Yeah. That I jumped out of my chair on that one. You got me. Let's uh, let's move on to the last one, Dave, because uh, because I don't know about you. When I am just dying to talk about Cindy's movies. Me too. We got this last one called Her Only Living Son. I feel like, we gotta tell, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta mention the inspiration behind this one because I watched the first time I saw this, I watched it, I was like, okay, this one, this one was good, not great. But then when I found out what the inspiration was and I did a rewatch, I was like, holy cow, this this one's awesome. So you wanna you want to run down her only Living Son? Yeah? So it's funny, Cindy that you mentioned this movie earlier in the podcast. This is actually a It takes place after Rosemary's Baby. Oh is what this is about? So Andy and his mom Cora are basically, you know, living together, and Cora the mother is protecting her son from who he is and who his father is. Clearly we know who his father is if you know anything about Rosemary's

33:22 Baby, and this is basically like a reimagining of those events that takes place after that. So really cool story when you realize what they did, Like Jeff said, when you first watched, it's like this is an okay story, But then when you learn the history behind it of what they did, and they're like, oh, never mind, this is a really cool story. Yeah. I think anyone that's a fan of Rosemary's Baby will definitely appreciate this one. And very smart, very very clever writing, very smart direction because the breadcrumbs are there if you you know, I think someone that's that's in a stute Horf fan probably would have picked up on it and said, whoa this is. This is like Rosemary's Baby eighteen years later. That's what I'm watching. Uh, you know. She mentions the husband, she mentions being on the run, and even like the school, like the how protected they are of this kid right of him? Yeah, definitely a creepy one.

34:20 And I wish, you know, I have some questions about how it ended, and I don't want to spoil it for those that haven't seen it, But the ending left me kind of scratching my head, and not in the same way that the Box does, you know, where you're wondering like what is you know, you can kind of you can kind of give your own opinions on what is in the box or why the box does what it does. But at the ending of this one, hurling Living Sun kind I was kind of like, what's what's what exactly happened here? Like why why are we coming to an end here? So yep, I agree, I don't know. We'll have to well the looking at that a little bit more. But uh, listeners, stay tuned because we're going to find out about the Latina Queen of Gore and what she has in store for us. We'll be right back, all right, listeners, welcome back as we continue our discussion with Cindy. Cindy, I know you've got a couple of films that I believe are being released this year. The one I basically want to know is what is Sam's Web about. Sam's Web is actually in post production and should be done. Actually it should be it should be well within the film festivals by next month. We're really at like the tail end of that film, Sam Sam's Web is oh right, This one's a tough one, a very challenging film to make. Sam's Web is a true crime my first true crime film, and it's about the most prolific serial killer in the United States,

35:52 which just so happens to be a black serial killer. Up to this point, this will be the first black serial killer iapic ever made. There has never been a movie on a black serial killer. And this guy has killed more than Ted Bundy, the Zodiac Killer and John Wayne Gacy combined. He killed over ninety three women and there's still some women that haven't been found. There's over I would say about a good thirty women still out there whose bodies haven't been found. They just found actually here in Florida, they just found someone about six months ago, so they're still finding bodies he was killing. And he's also one of the oldest serial killers too. He killed for about a good forty years. Wow. Yeah, from like the seventies.

36:37 The late seventies was his first kill and he killed all the way to two thousand and five was his last one. So this film, this film's then, it's it's heavily based off of a real guy. This is accurately based off of his conversations through which is kind of weird for me because I'm a creator, so I like to imagine things, and you know, and certain things that make me feel uncomfortable, I'll try to veer away from that. This is kind of like a film that I was forced to having, you know, to recreate these things, and it made me feel very uncomfortable. But the reason why I did it was because you know, it hit a soft spot with me. You know, his victims, I mean, the reason why he didn't get caught for so long was one because he was a black man, and two because his victims were on the fringes of society.

37:25 There were homeless prostitutes, drug addicts, mostly women color, but they were also white women as well. But they were like, you know, women that were just discarded that they that he thought that they didn't have family, you know, people that weren't really loved at home, so you know, and it's very sad because somewhere, like there was a disabled girl. That's what strugg a chord with me. And if I know that this is about like my future stuff, but I just last year I finished a documentary quote horror Able, and it was about creative disabilities in the horror industry. And I have I grew up in a disabled family, so I was the only able body person in my mom, my dad, and my sister all have different disabilities, so what I saw was normal. And you know, looking from the outside and over the years, just seeing how my sister has been, you know, abused or taken advantage of it. You know, it's really disturbing to see that somebody can be that heinous to target girls with mental disabilities, you know, girls with IQs lower than forty. I mean, it's really sad and get away with it. That was so I just felt like I had to kind of step in. And also because there's still people that are you know, that still haven't been found and if anything can help reopen some of these cases that have been cold, so these some of these families can still have closure. I mean, he killed someone in two thousand and five, I mean, you know, so that's really my main motivation

39:00 for it. And it's a it's a two part film, so this is the first part of the two part film. So this is more of a kind of concept thing. I didn't raise money for it. I kind of used my own money and my own resources to make the film, so it is a low budget film. But the feature I have, I've been talking with a lot of people, a big special effects makeup artist, I won't mention his name, but there's a lot of a lot of people that are currently interested in the feature. The second part of this film, which is going to be called Less than Dead Sam's Web, is the perspective of the killer, where the other one is going to be the perspective of the actual victims, kind of like what they did with the recent damer series where it was more reflective on the victims versus the killer, and that would be the second part of this film. So it's something that I personally don't really want to do. I feel like I just have to do it. But it's taken me a long time to come up to write these scripts because it's nauseating, is disturbing. I love horror, but the horrors of reality is I'm not gonna lie. It got into my head so bad that I was sometimes I started, like, you know, thinking the same. I mean, I'm currently living in Florida and I live in the home of the of the serial killers and where Sam Samuel Little started his kills and this was the second state that he killed the most women, and there's still six bodies that haven't been found here, so you know, kind of like, yeah, creepy,

40:32 this sounds like you sell like Ethan Hawk and sinister, like you know you're you are you are way too close to the source material like that. I'm worried for you, right, it gets it gets bad, but I'm a bigger I was born and raised in the project. That's right, that's right. What I like about that fact is that you put yourself into doing a project that takes you out of your comfort zone. You know, sometimes that's not easy to do, and clearly you can you can hear your voice that it was not easy to do for you. But sometimes that's when of the best things can happen. You know, some of the experience that you had of you know, being around people with disabilities and stuff like that, you get to see that firsthand. So that makes you be able to write better characters because you're able You've experienced that part of your life, so you know what that's like and you're able to put that into your scripts. And I think that is what is really really important about creating those characters, and when you have those experiences, it makes it that much better are able as a documentary though. So actually that was a learning experience for me because I learned of disabilities I never knew existed. And it also put me in a different perspective as a filmmaker because I'm here advocating for women of color and you know what I'm like, but people with disabilities are like, they're even even lower in the totem poll. And then what if you're a woman of color that happens to be disabled, You know, now you haven't even bigger challenge.

41:55 So it's opened my mind to wanting to work more with people with disabilities, so I try to create. Now I'm like being conscious of that, and now I'm also because of this and my perspective, my perspective has changed when it when it's come to disability. Due to this documentary project, which is also a two part series and a short that's there's a third. We have a twenty minute short on bloodstained films and YouTube that you can watch right now. That's the horror Able Women. That's the shortened version. We had a couple of videos that weren't really that good in quality, so we kind of like made a quick short with that. But the Horror horror Able feature has William Crane, director of Blackula's in it, Michael Berryman is it from the Hillside Eyes and this was the last interview of Albert Pion which made Cyborg and a captive and stuff like that said that was really so this this that definitely won't make you cry, That won't make you and you said this one, this one is available right, like we can go to Bloodstainfilms dot com and we can we can get access to that one now, right yep, just go to watch now and you that will be the first thing you'll see is our It's kind of take you to a page with some of our trailers to update you on like the upcoming films. But then we have horror Able Women that we just released this month for International Women's Stay and are horror Women in Horror Month because this is Women in Horror Month. Awesome, Well,

43:30 Dave, I can't wait more. I we got to talk about what uh, what's on the horizon here. We've seen, We've we've talked to Apache Ramos about his his role, We've seen the trailer for the movie that that's uh, that's coming out there, Cindy, let's talk about Merciless Christmas. Yes, please, Merciless Christmas. I just think she's wearing the shirt. Yeah, I can't pull it off, but you know we'll have to say that for our paid some scription. Yeah, that'll be the video for Patriots. Yeah, the horror version. That's right. I gotta tell you.

44:16 Just hearing Apache talk about the movie and just he got so animated, he got so excited, and he's like, I can't tell you everything, but I'm gonna tell you this. I can't tell you that. You know we I told Dave was like, I don't care where it's we got to find this movie, like we got to see it immediately. And then you know, you you release the trailer. It looks fantastic. Tell us about Merciless Christmas. I'm really excited about Merciless Christmas for many reasons. So Merciless Christmas is a holiday horror. My reasoning behind, you know, prompting me to do this was at the time when I originally decided on making this. It was called Black Santa at first, and this was years ago. I had announced it on a podcast, I'm like, there's a black sand and he's a serial killer and everything like that. But so I was writing the story, it didn't really get fleshed out like completely. It was, you know, getting fleshed out throughout the years. But my reasoning behind that was because there wasn't any good Christmas horror at the time or not that many. Violent Knight actually came out later that year when I did that podcast, Yeah, yeah, and I actually liked that one, and there's still a few that I have to admit that that have been released since then that I that I enjoyed. So so, I mean I had already started it and I'm like, well, I'm doing this. But what makes this one different from any holiday horror that has come out is that this is a black lead. This

45:47 is one of the rare black slashers. I think he's one of the first that's not supernatural because Candy Man is even though there is without spoilerst there is a supernatural element to the film, that he's not a supernatural killer. So it's a very exciting film because it represents a neighborhood that's hardly even shown in centima period, and that's Harlem so this is also an urban horror. How Apache calls it, Uh, this is hard what he said. Uh, Holly HollyHood is a HollyHood HollyHood production. But we have Macho Camacho, he's a professional boxer, is in it, Apache Ramos as you know, Eileen Deets from The Exorcists in it. Yeah, all right. Isn't it kind of crazy that I was like so scared of her when I was little and here I am working and now you're working with her. And there's I mean there's tons of people from like law and order. You know, you'll see a lot of familiar faces in it if you watch these shows like Blue Bloods, Blacklists. We have a lot of like a lot of like musicians in it as well. So there's people from all kind of like you know, all walks of life coming together and all kinds of nationalities coming together, which really excites me because it's like Latin America, South America, like every almost

47:22 I have like almost every Latino on the project and part of that, so it's like you got you know, you got Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Colombias. I mean, like it goes and I mean they're all so very talented, and then you know you have it's it's basically what represents Harlem. It's black and Hispanic community, and you know, like I said, it's ninety five diverse, and that was intentional because I wanted to have a film that was all inclusive, dealing with a strong theme and just showing a different perspective on you know, this holiday horror slasher thing. So you know where you're usually like, oh my goodness, the killer is coming. You actually want this man to do what he's doing, so you're gonna be rooting for the This is the film. I'm gonna tell you. This is a film that did have me laughing, that did have me crying at certain times.

48:23 There's there's there's key moments in this film that's super emotional and super like poign in and and it also shows that it shows the perspective of Harlem through a person that lived in Harlem, that lived in the projects. That so it's it's a story that I know people in the hood can definitely relate to, you know, but it also but just if you're a man in general, you know that has a family, you know, this is kind of a revenge. You know, it's also a revenge slasher film, you know, and and there's elements of Christmas. It's not like your typical Christmas film, so like you know, Christmas is always these snowy holidays and everything like that. But this Christmas there won't be any because this Christmas when I was filming, there wasn't any. Well, there's realism to the max, but I tie it into a why so that's gonna be like the Morbid Christmas.

49:22 And yeah, it's really exciting. We have a lot of realism. We have over fifty actors working on this project. We have great people. That's a part of this film. Unfortunately, I lost. I won't mention, but I had lost. So we've lost something in the process of trying to raise money. And that's the problem with independent creators like me, you know, not to people support women of color, you know, Aura, And that's a big problem for me because I have what it takes to compete with a lot of these creators. I'm that confident and so merciless. Christmas, we kind of hit this like weird thing which has never been done in my life before, where I didn't raise all the money so I could only shoot.

50:14 We shot. We raised half the fund. So I only shot half the film and so now we need your help to finish the other half. You're giving horror fans the opportunity to get involved, right, Can we talk about the Indiegogo Yes, we just we just released some new opportunities for Indiegogo where you can actually come on board as an associate producer. We only they're very limited these numbers. There's like only like two or three slots left. So if you if you have an opportunity, you want to be a part of it, by all means, grab it. Because this is not a film that I intend to get from script to screen. I mean to a television screen or streaming. We actually want to put this in the movie theaters.

50:55 So this is OK, this is something that I'm pushing for really really hard, you know, to make happen. So you know, we have opportunities for you to act in a scene in the film as well, and there's a whole bunch of other different perks that you could take advantage of. But I would say, if you can act in a film, or if you could grab one of those associate producer perks, definitely do. This is not a film that's just going you know, straight to streaming, like like you know, most of our films do. I'm I'm really pushing hard to like have it compete and you know with the commercial films, and really try to put it in the theaters even if it's a limited run. But that's the goal, listeners, We're gonna We're gonna have a link in the show notes to the indiegog so you can you can check out how you can get involved with Merciallest Christmas. There are some awesome stuff, some opportunities that Cindy has provided. I know because I took one of them. And now I'm already thinking, you know, I could get a see if I get some screen time with Apache Ramos, I might I might be double dipping here.

51:57 But actually that acting, that acting role is with a scene with Apatrie Rammels. I probably should have noted that. Yeah, that one is the very so that we had a campaign before where we had a kill scene. You get killed in a movie. But but even though you see the actors, you're not gonna the actors, I mean, the main actors weren't there during that scene. But this scene in particular, he will be We also have Jabari Gray that was like in Spider Man two, I think he was like a pilot. He's he's like all over. He's been on so many things like the Blue Blood's black List. Like like I said, he's a really cute player in the industry as well. So, yeah, you have an opportunity to make to meet some great people. Come on board, let's go.

52:45 That sounds fantastic, man. Yeah, Dave, I'm gonna give you the opportunity because I know you've got You've got several questions. I do that, Eve been withnas Cindy, So I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it over to you. Awesome. So, Sinny, I recognize at a very young age I love the world of filmmaking in the process behind it all. But I didn't have the technology and equipment that everyone has at their fingertips today. I wish I had because I would probably have a lot of projects done. When I was a kid, when did you recognize your love storytelling behind the camera. Oh, I'm gonna take you way back. So I started writing poetry at six years old, and I started I wrote my first horror film when I was in seventh grade. It was and actually it's I could send it to you. It's so bad, guys. But it was about bloody.

53:29 It was bloody Mary. It was bloody Mary. And I again, I was in seventh grade. We made like, you know, these prosthetics, like the body parts out of like paper mache so it looks like real nice And it was a school project. But we won. I mean, the teacher went and won a lot of awards with this video that we made. It was a video program that we were a part of. And that's when my love started nice. And then I just continued from there and blossomed. I went to the New School School of Visual Arts and took a clas and special effects makeup with a great Carl Passolini. He made a celebrity death match. I do remember that. Yeah, I was taught by him how to make like prosthetics and stuff like that. And and yeah, it's just it's just kind of been, you know, I've been in this industry for a really long time. Just people just don't know me. We need to get that changed, We need to get that changed. Yes, absolutely. When you when you get an idea and you want to put in motion, what steps so do your process takes? It usually starts with writing I am a very like uh I'm I'm a very tangible person. I mean, I like that whole organic process. I'm not the type to just run to a computer and start typing. I write, So I do a lot of bullet points and I'll write paragraphs, sometimes a little dialogue, and then I put it all together in a script and that's kind of how it starts from there.

54:59 Nice. I know, sometimes you can get an idea and it just goes crazy with you and you just can't stop working on it. You know. Jeff is a witness to me. I had an idea last October and I mentioned it to him on the way back from a convention and I had it written in like three days, and I said it Joe, that hey, here it is. And we're trying to get to go into production this year. But you know, a few things fill apart. Just as you mentioned, it's a whole financing thing, and you know, sometimes you have to push off a little bit to get those things made. But I understand what you're talking about. You know, you get that crazy idea and you just roll with it, right. Yeah. So, being a creator myself, I love to hear other creators and how they do their things. So when you are working on a film, do you storyboard, do you do a shot list? Or you just come up with stuff when you're on the set.

55:46 Okay, so you're gonna laugh at this. I only I don't really storyboard because I can't draw off a shit. I'm sorry either no, no, you're fine, You're good, You're good. I mean I've had people laugh like I can't even draw a stick? Is that? But so I'm not someone that tends to do storyboards unless I like super half do it. And the last time I remember doing that was in college. I don't like story reboarding, but I do shot list shooting schedules because I have to, you know, if I could get around that, like sometimes with shorts, I won't do that. But for feature is they're necessary just to keep things organized. And that's well, and that's pretty much my my process in terms of you know, I, like I said, I can drive for crap, the shot list and the shooting schedules. It becomes very tedious when you have to do all that. So sometimes it's just like mercy me, like, yeah, it's it's usually the last thing I do. It's I'm a little less minute when it comes to that, but I always get it done when it's such a pain. It's such a pain it can be. I completely understand what you're talking about. It's just like I don't want keep putting it off, keep putting off with like, come on, you gotta do it. You have to do it right. And I can't row right because I used to I used to actually film my own stuff, so before I didn't really like I used to do basic like shot lists, like just because I knew what I was looking for, you know, And I kind of

57:17 like like pre train myself to do like like safe shots is what I call. So it's like, no matter what, you're always getting these shots, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, no exactly. I know there are some directors out there who just don't do storyboards or shot list They just do it on the set. I'm like, I couldn't do that. That would be too much anxiety and stress on me. I couldn't handle that way. Cindy, I'm telling you right now, speaking with David, you were talking to the king of the shot list. He'll send something, Yeah, he'll send me something. I'll be like, we're shooting like this is like ten minutes, right. Yeah, well there's like one hundred and seventy five shots. Like he is meticulous. I will say that about his shot list and how it is. You'll come up with a bunch of stuff and sometimes you'll throw it out when you're on set, you know, because you'll see something that catches your eye and you're like, well, I don't want that shot now because I got something better. You know how that works?

58:12 Right, And like with my I have an awesome cinemamatographer right now. Mer So let's Christmas shout out to Barra me. I mean, he's also my drone operator. He is phenomenal. He comes with a from a background, a very extensive background of music videos, so his i is very different in terms of lighting and what he catches. And so with shot lists, even though I, oh, you have a shot list, Yeah, I don't really think he's following it that much because a lot of times when we're on set, we just kind of do it, you know, like he already knows like the basics, but I'm just like, yeah, but I want this and I want that, and then we just start inventing on set. And that's kind of how it's been. It's been very fun. But you and David are You and David are kindred spirits, Like you're We're shooting last year on a project and I was like, all right, I've I think I got the perfect shot for this. He's like out here and then like, well wait, you just crossed that like six of them you just wrote hand wrote in like three mores. Yeah, this is we're going now.

59:07 So it's like because sometimes you know, as a filmmaker, right, you just get inspired on set. Maybe you just like, oh, you know, it would be great to get this like worms eye shot, you know, and it's just like random, you know, and sometimes you have two or three shots that can turn into just one because the one is so incredible you go with it, right, that's the take. Yeah, that's the take. Let's move on. We can skip up those three. Yeah, and you're like, wait a minute, we have no we don't go move I know I know how that works, but the whole process is very daunting. And how do you handle the stress and anxiety on set on set? Yeah? Sometimes I get frustrated, Well, on Merciless Christmas. I shouldn't be saying this because it's probably a little unprofessional, but I was very festive.

59:55 They're not, so I make for my like my crew. I made sure like nobody was drinking on set. But like after said, we were like taking shots of you know, and and I've never really done this on on set. This was actually the first time I did it. But it was because I've never shot like on Christmas. I mean literally we were like just like maybe two days from Christmas. So it was like and everybody's going home with like, look, I'm even paying some people and alcohol. Nothing wrong with that if it works. I have a scene with two crackheads, real crack the cigarettes. I paid them great, but the think called for it and Andy, so you look, I shouldn't have said that, take that, no, but I but I got there were in consents after when they were sober, like you know, days later. But it was a very impromptu kind of thing. It was an impromptu call. They just happened to be around the area that we were shooting a drug dealing scene, and I'm like, I need it. That's very that's very George millerish of you.

1:01:14 I think on Mad Max he paid a couple of bikers with cigarettes and beer. So there you go. You know, you're following them the legends here. No budget films for you know, that's true, Yes, how independent film made it work. Sometimes you gotta make it work. And if it's giving cigarettes, it's giving food whatever. You know, it was the first time, this is Merciless Christmas is definitely a third time for a lot of things. So but it's been so fun. We've had we need a blooper real. Oh my god, of what we shot so far, so many funny moments, so many like odd moments. One I can tell you that I thought was kind of funny. So one of my actors was on set and one of our we had a sponsor, and this actually helped save us our shoots, by the way, because we had two location sponsors that sponsored us, you know, really good locations that were like thousands of dollars for free. So we were able to set up shop in this location where we did the precing scene with a Patrie Ramos. And in this scene, everybody was moving everything around. You know, there was like real folders there because there was like it was a real office of you know, a management office, had all these files or whatever. We're taking pictures and moving them around or whatever, and I'm like, oh my god, I don't I don't know what goes where. Like I start freaking out because I'm like, I wasn't keeping track because I'm thinking I'm doing the work. But then I turn around and I see like my camera guys putting up picture, and then

1:02:45 I see somebody else putting taking something in movies, and so my actor goes, Cindy, don't worry about it. I know where everything goes. And I'm like, okay, great, So when we're shooting and whatever, but see that actor also had to leave set a theater a theater run right because he was also actor in a theatrical show later on that out and I'm like, where's on and he's gone, and I'm like, he's the woman. But we tried our best. It was so it was so funny, but it was just like, of course, the guy. It was always like one of those course of course moments like we're shooting here, no one's coming.

1:03:29 Right when we set up camera, we were ready to shoot, there's like, I mean floods of people, traffic. Then oddly enough like a police car then and like something transpired while we were shooting, and then we went this way. No one was coming from that direction. Now all of a sudden, all the traffic is coming from that way. It was just Murphy's Law was just following us to the max, and it was just a little bit frustrating at science but whimsical at others. It never fails, especially if you're doing like the Gorilla filmmaking. We did a project a couple of years ago, film in the street in a neighborhood, and we had to keep stopping car car no matter what you did. No matter what you did or tried, something was interrupting the shot and you had to keep waiting.

1:04:10 I remember what the gas station from Hell, Yes from Hell last year. Yes it was aggravating, but you gotta do what you gotta do with right how it works as long as you get the shot, that's right. So sending. When you take into account the filmmaking process as a whole, what is your favorite part the end? And when I mean the end is actually seeing it in the can, like actually having a finished product. I think that that is the best part of the film, is just actually being able to see while all this like sweat and tears and some cases blood, you know, just seeing that because you know in the beginning as filmmakers or as creators, you get so stressed out, you know, wanting it to be a certain way, or worried that it may not, or you know, or Murphy's law, like we was just thinking about. You know, there's so many factors that could come in and kind of ruin it. To have made it to the end, because sometimes a lot of people they get it started, but they can't finish it for whatever reason. Sometimes it's out of your hands. So I would say that's the best part. That's that's the creme de la creme. I would definitely have to agree with you on that one. There's that first day when you're shooting the film. There's so much to do, and you realize, oh my gosh, we've just started this film, all these shots. We've got to do what you love. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic, you love it, but you realize just how much you have ahead of you. But when you get to that end, you get to that final shot and you realize it's the final shot and it's in the can. It's and what relief. I couldn't agree more with

1:05:42 you on that one. So satisfy. It is so satisfying, so satisfying. So my last question basically is what advice would you give someone who wants to make a film or wants to get into the filmmaking world. If you want to get into the filmmaking world, just do it. Just get in to it. Write your story, Write your story for yourself in the beginning. Don't worry about writing something that somebody's gonna like or trying to keep up with the masses or I see, even though I'm not gonna knock them one hundred percent, I'm just not a big fan of like fan films because of that, Because you're it's kind of limiting you to your own creativity, you know. And even though there's different reasons why someone may go that direction, you know, they want to pay homage to something where they feel they could, you know, make a different story. And that's all good, But then you're you're you're putting it in and you're putting your creativity in someone else's you know, corner that has already be made. That So go ahead and you can be the next you know, terrifier or the next I mean, independent films can make it. Look at Jason Vorhees, I mean Michael Myers.

1:06:56 We all started from somewhere, you know, and they're not you know, there's horror films out there that really aren't all that good. But over time, you have seen the progression of filmmakers, you know, as their careers blossom, as they're able to get more money, as they're able to have more creative control, You'll see these films grow and the same thing will happen for you. So don't stop. Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. Just do it, Just do it. Great advice. So let's let's look into the near future. Let's say you know, we're past the successful runs of Sam's Web and Merciless Christmas. Any ideas anything that you're you're you're looking at next once these projects are finished. Absolutely so. Bloodstained Films already has worre slated for the next five years. I have script I am a filmmaker, honey, a lot of screen please, some that are in different stages I want. I'm not like they're all finished films just yet, but so we have a couple of projects that are slated throughout throughout the next five years for Bloodstained Films. We have a lot of surprises in the future.

1:08:05 But two projects that I can mention because they are going to be done this year. One of them is called New Year Nightmare. So this one is actually continuing on the holiday horror theme, but a holiday that has not have now that one doesn't have a lot of films, and that one's about human trafficking and it's a sci fi thriller. So hm hmm interesting, Okay, okay, yeah, Hey, if you guys want to get down on it, I'm not shooting it till the summer, till after me. Like Merciless Christmas has to be done obviously, but yeah, we're planning on working on that late summer. Already cast it, already have my camera girl.

1:08:50 So there's just like minor things we still have to get, you know, doing props and stuff like that, because there's a lot going into it. But that's all I say for right now. We do have a poster out on it so far on Bloodstained Films, and it's actually gonna I'm going to be in the film. Oh no, I like to add but I don't like the way I look on camera. So you know, I'm a filmmaker. We like to be behind the scenes. We don't amen preach it. But but that's the reason, that's one of my coming out the box. So I realized, maybe all this time I'm not noticing because I don't really put myself out there in my face. So I decided, let me try to take a different direction. And so I've cameoed. I'm starting to cameo on my films, not really like super large roles. I would think New Year and Nimara is one of the bigger roles out of everything. You have got a lot in store. It seems like for all of us, you know, we're We've been talking with Cindy Sceinabria. You know, we've been talking about XX, which is an incredible film. I think I think it's safe to say all three of us recommend this one. Oh I personally, I love the fact that it's on Hulu, So I have to access a horror film through Disney Plus, which XX. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, listeners search for XX on Disney Plus. That's that's that's how I got to it. But we want to know what you think of XX. You can

1:10:24 let us know on social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you can check out www dot a film by podcast dot com. Our entire library is streaming. They're free. We're writing articles now. You can write to us at a film by podcast at gmail dot com with your questions, comments and concerns, and we may just read your response on the show and send you some of our a film by swag. I know that's happened a couple times recently here Dave Cindy. It has been such a pleasure for you. We talked about so as far as like our listeners wanted to to hear more from you, to see more from you. We talked about the www dot bloodstainedfilms dot com. What about the social media? Are you? Are you out there so can can listeners connect with you? There? We are.

1:11:14 I'm on Horror Toory Guide. That's our main group, Horror Toory Guide. We're on. You could go to our website horrortory guide dot com. We share news there, we have updates there. I used to do a lot of horror hosting there, but since I you know, I'm concentrating on the filmmaking and we're just more like that's going to transform into something different. News to follow, But Horror Toory Guide We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, you name it, We're there. Come visit us some bloodstained films. Right now, we just have our website. We do have our social medias, but we're like setting them in place, so we haven't, like, really we haven't like launched that officially yet on you on social media. You could come to our Merciless Christmas group on Facebook and get updates. I post a lot of behind the scenes photos, updates on actors, everything related to Merciless Christmas. So come join us. I can't wait to see that.

1:12:12 I really can't. I'm excited. I'm I'm looking forward to talking more about Mercialless Christmas. Cindy. We would we would love to have you come back, and not just for mercialist Christmas. You know, we'll you know, any any film you want to talk about. We'd love to have you back to chat with us. But I think I speak for Dave when I say we would love the opportunity to get you and Apache on the same episode and talk about Merciless Christmas and maybe maybe someone else. Yeah, oh, he it would just be too much. I love a patch. Oh well, actually a pache Ramos is a little like romantic, so when he gets on set, like any he is, I mean they are nothing in his hands.

1:12:55 Oh you're so beautiful and blah blah blah blah, and I'm like a patche you're working. Hello. Well you made him. He made him look so good in the in this trailer. I mean we're used to like, you know, the orphan Apache, you know, and this guy, he's right, he's got that that fifty dollars haircut, he's got this really great suit. You got him looking, you got him looking suaves. So yeah, we even need like little IDs like we really made like like police ideas, real badge walking around with a real police anywhere. No, but we have a police officer that uh shout out to Patrick Haggarty. He's in the film as well, but he's also one of our consultants on set. So he's a real police officer and he was able to come on set and and you know, give us the right way how police like the police jargon and all, you know. But Apache is very he's very funny, and I just can't give away certain things, but stay soon because we're definitely gonna have a blueber reel. Oh boy, hilarious. He's he's so fun to work with, but sometimes he's a little too fun to work with and we're like, come on, Apache, let's go. Oh yeah, I'm aware of that one with a podcast. Yes, he's you know, he's popular on set, so sometimes it has gotten distracting. But because he was like he's like but but at the end of the day, like we've you know,

1:14:26 he's doing a great job. And I mean I'm proud of like my whole casting crew, like so far, so good, and what's to come as like whoa, it's like we did about ten kills on this on this run, but we have so much more to go, Like it's gonna be a fun or a bloody goodness. Can't wait, cannot wait? Well, thanks listeners, we have been talking to Cindy Sinnabria. I hope you have enjoyed what we've she has to talk about. Go visit her website at bloodstainedfilms dot com see what you can do to help her out so that she can continue to make her films. Thanks the one