Last Podcast On The Left - Psycho Goreman: An Interview with Steven Kostanski

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

We're taking a holiday break this week, so we've unlocked one of our Patreon interviews...On this episode, Henry sits down with Steven Kostanski — director of Psycho Goreman — to talk horror movies, full-body alien costumes, and PG's love of hunky boys.

hey hello there patreon listeners you lucky bastards what a day this will be hello I'm Henry Zabrowski I'm alone I have no Ben Kessel here so I got to know it it got nobody to weigh down this interview it's just my thoughts against this other man's thoughts and I'm excited for our thoughts to collide slide into each other and eventually make little children thoughts but I also you how many times have I said this abortion should be mandatory so we might want have to get rid of some of these child thoughts simply so that they don't I don't know man I've already worried here already I've already said abortion

were 30 seconds in but the welcome to the interview this is the director of one of my favorite films of 2020 it was a light spot in a dark year and we're excited to have you Steve and Kostansky the director of Psycho Gorman hi thanks for having me let's let's make some babies like why let's let's let's have our let's have our I thought children I started as a fan of bio cop but I'll tell you what which is really funny because I think it might happen quite a bit to horror directors where I first learned of bio cop from a shirt from atomic cotton oh yeah it's a great shirt one of my favorite shirts that's why

my life it's such a great idea to do glow in the glow in the dark shirt of bio cop it's perfect it's so good I just want to ask first of all if you're listening to this stop the interview and go watch bio cop it's like five and a half minutes long I also I should also point out I don't even know where it's available online like it's on YouTube you get it's unfortunately it's now like they've fired it it's gone it's all right well that's fine as long as there's a place for people to watch it because I mean typically it's attached to my feature film Manborg as like an extra on the DVD that's right Manborg also is

rule that also rules oh thank you but yeah bio cop I guess it's on YouTube I thought I think there was like a German dub just search it I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere can I ask the dumb shit question up top of like so where did bio cop come from because I know you started in makeup and special effects right yeah well started and I'm still doing that's literally what I was doing this afternoon before this interview I'm over at master's effects Toronto right now working on jumping back and forth between the boys season 3 and umbrella Academy season 3 doing effects and stuff you see our buddy friend of the show

Jack Wade say hello oh yeah oh yeah I don't want to say anything but I worked I got to work with him on some stuff on this season so when we were interviewing him earlier this year talking about being covered in blood and how it's a trial and it's like I did a show where I was fully body painted and had prosthetics all over me 24 hours a day for months at a time it does become harrowing but as an actor it's very free yeah I mean it's definitely takes a certain kind of person to do the full prosthetics thing it's you got to have the right personality for it and I do admire actors who can do kind of

anything in that sphere like I love anybody that can get covered in blood get like gore gags attached to them who could just be in that world and enjoy it because there's a lot of actors who really don't and it makes my job very difficult they just don't understand is that it's so much fun it's the actual for me in that type of scenario like the idea of like having a full facial prosthetic so when I look in the mirror I don't see me anymore I think it goes back to the sort of the real elemental version of play that acting can be it is like the only kind of acting that I enjoyed doing too like I don't like

being on camera but if I've got like a full creature suit on or like robot suit or whatever like I play a bunch of characters in Psycho Gorman and Manborg and I'm in the void briefly briefly is like one of the cultists like I love getting in there if I know my face is covered and there's a certain kind of like freeness to that that you don't get when you're like you know exposed to the world cuz you know what everybody you know like yeah I like a mumblecore movie every once in a while like I understand like people need films that are about like a brother and a sister quietly talking like that kind

of shit but for me the magic of movies is you get to be an alien every once in a while oh totally well it's a variety if you had to be an alien every day for like 20 years you'd probably get sick of it but if you get to be an alien one day and then like some kind of slasher killer the next day and then like you know blown up in a war scene the other day like that to me is like the best life you can ask for is just being in every kind of story it's so cool cuz yeah I imagine the guy played for rengi must have wanted to commit suicide at some point like you have that hat on cuz it's just a hat that wraps around your

whole head you have like you just see eyeballs and nose and mouth and that is all that is free oh yeah having to wear all that headloaf for Star Trek I imagine gets tiring and then but that speaks more to just the process of TV I think whereas probably being a for rengi in a Star Trek movie is fun cuz you do it for a few days and you know it you know it ends eventually but if it's a show where it's like oh we're going seven seasons I think you'd get sick of it pretty quick that's pretty sweet though but yeah so I want to talk about bio cop first cuz bio cop is fucking hilarious and if the concept of a cop brought back

to life and we got caught in a scientific experiment who's now desperate to die and camped he's like forced to be a superhero is fantastic it's such an absurd idea and I have to give credit to my effects artist friend who's kind of come up through the industry with me over the past decade Michael Walsh I was me and him were working late one night on this sci-fi show called Defiance I don't know if you remember that show it had like it had a tie-in video game it was it lasted three season four season out a few season anyways Michael and I were working at Paul Jones effects and we're making this character called I

believe it's called Bioman anyways we're working making molds and just doing like crappy lab effects work and we're just riffing on on let me just blurt it out bio cop just out of nowhere and just started riffing on this idea of like well what would bio cop even be and I think that same day we've been talking about that part in the fly to where the guy gets sprayed in the face with the like fly acid and he's like pulling his face off and we're joking about like well what if there was a character where like that was just their whole life was that like one second of agony was every minute of their day and so then

we just started throwing this character into like cop scenarios like very Monday in scenarios like pulling someone over for a traffic ticket but they're just in the worst agony please let me die and I love when he absorbs his partner like he's just constantly bleeding and screaming at people throwing up acid it's so much fun and also it's like such a centered SFX idea yes it's very incredible melting man like it's just your whole concept is centered around a thing that's just a constant effect which is my favorite kind of thing because being somebody that's you know visually creative and wants to make monsters and

robots all day long like the idea of having something set around a character like that that's also constantly evolving like that it's with bio cop it's fun to mess with his mythology and come up with all the weird stuff that he can do randomly like yeah like absorbing his partner there's there's always like a Lovecraftian level of like mythology to this character and I love that people just in the world of the bio cop movies and even in Psycho Gorman it's like people are just oblivious to it and they don't care which to me is like the worst pain is which is worse than yeah not being able to die is the fact that

nobody gives a shit and it's like we should give that man a badge and get him out there he's just the pawn of the system yeah he's just sort of used by everyone which I think is really funny and then people attach emotions to him and like you know like and he's they act as if they're having whole conversations but then his whole thing has just been like why am I still alive which is my favorite statement but at the same time he has brief flashes of like positivity which is my favorite yeah like it's like when he gets the sunglasses on and like gives the thumbs up it's like he's just a total enigma of a character and

that's what I love about him he's just a tornado of nonsense that like you can't track you can't predict what he's gonna do and that to me is like the most fun kind of character to have in a movie did bio cop lead to man Borg like how did you go from doing the short to the movies was it one of those things where you learned up from making the short like were you always wanting to be a director or do yeah no like I special effects I started out doing stop motion animation like in my dad's workshop he loaned me a super eight camera when I was 12 and so every summer I would just do these little like stop motion frame

by frame animations with clay figures and that's when I got obsessed with with the power of storytelling in film and I wanted to continue that and like it eventually advanced to doing live action stuff with my friends but in like working with clay and in stop motion it was like anything I wanted so it was always like monsters and fantastical things and so that carried into live action it's like I didn't want to just have like two characters on a park bench talking I wanted I wanted action I wanted spectacle I wanted creatures and like fantasy stuff and so that's when I started learning prosthetic effects so I

started making short films and things and submitting them to film festivals and so like a few years after that I've met the the rest of the guys from Astrone 6 Matt and Connor and Adam and Jeremy and we all started working together we formed Astrone 6 is like a little collective of filmmakers and it's like a sketch group essentially but it's like just filmmakers like you guys just making like a color what I honestly think really helps because I think the age of the alter is dying because to be an alter I think a lot of times you have to be sort of like a visionary or like a dictator yeah yeah that's not how movies

were yeah filmmaking is very collaborative and for me it was tough becoming collaborative coming from stop motion all animators are used to total control when I shift doing a live action show for adult swim and like all of my bosses whom I loved and became mentors they are animators first so they look at you as a human thinking that you can do the things a cartoon can do oh you're like no though but I'm still a man with a body and a mind yeah well I have that same problem to this day where I will go up to actors and like puppeteer them as though they're a stop motion armature and like I'll take their head and like

turn it slightly and be like and that's the shot I want there we go so that's what Wes Anderson does I'm yeah and I mean I've kind of just embraced that that's my weird that's my technique I guess with asteron six the best thing about those guys is that like we're such a fun group of friends that were all so different and like definitely clashed on stuff but also I know there's just like a real genuine camaraderie and friendship there that brought me out of my shell a lot too and it showed me like oh working with other people can be super fun like making something like laser goes to is like the most fun I've ever

had in my life because I come up with all the weird sci-fi fantasy stuff that I like but then I throw those guys into it and I'm like okay now you guys make it like super funny and charming like yes here's here's a like here's some shitty laser guns and some ghostbusters jumpsuits like now just just go and riff and let's see what happens and so that taught me that that there is a real benefit to collaboration and it just enhances what you're making like it it just improves everything you're doing I think there are people that when it starts because like it works great with biopic copy because by cops five minutes

long so you can do it it can be a little bit more sketchy and but I think you really could see the the progression in your films how you really do get better at telling story and then because set me I'm one of those I'm with you man like I like movies for the most part if they are just entertaining to look at quite a bit like have funny set pieces like I in fun and good interesting dynamic set pieces like I am like you know we were talking about this today I was talking about with my wife about them the movie things was just played by last driving I was like I like that movie better than I liked Phantom Threat yeah

I mean I forced my girlfriend to watch things over the weekend and I think I guess I just have like in it's an intuitive enjoyment of movies where it's like more emotional and to me that is more just about the tone that a movie creates like music and spectacle like like I just love the way certain movies wash over me and it's not so much an intellectual thing where I'm like let's dissect like what this scene means it's more just about how it makes me feel in the moment and that's like it definitely is tough to approach movies in that fashion and then also want to make them yes wanting to just like whatever popped

into my head that's what I would go shoot and you can do if you're sitting in your corner animating like that's one thing but if you're working with a team you have to have a plan because making movies is like legitimate work and working with a team you have to communicate so that was a big learning curve for me and I'm still learning and it's I don't think that ever stops I think that it's a constant thing because you have to figure out how to the director it seems to be one job is to dictate the vision and taught and translate it to everybody else because you can really see it like you know

classically troll too right where the actual physical lack of communication the fact that the crew was all Italian and they could not speak English well enough to understand shows why the movie while it is entertaining is also kind of a schizophrenic mess yeah well and like it's it's tough because I also genuinely love movies like that me too I'm such a huge fan of weird misfires like one of my favorites is Highlander 2 which is a movie that is a like garbage off awful movie like it's a total mess but it's such beautiful imagery and like the idea is so bonkers that I just love like just being in it like in that kind of

that kind of bombastic spectacle where it's like so passionately wrong it's audacious it takes the chance of survival like it literally like this movie somehow like lives yeah yeah I love it when they take that big swing and even if it's a miss like I just love that they went for it because that to me is way better than somebody being like I'm gonna make a real subtle sedate thing and like play it safe like I don't like people playing it safe and just slotting their movie into whatever is hot in the moment and just making like making that thing that was successful again but slightly different like that

bugs me whereas I want stuff that's like weird and off the wall and makes me go like oh geez like that was like a slap in the face almost it was so like counter to what I'm used to a movie being so yeah that's what I think Psycho Gorman honestly dude does so well as it to me it's such a great touch points of the stories genuinely funny and interesting like it is the kids are I believe the kids the parents are hilarious in their own world I also believe the logic of PJ like I believe his world like it is weirdly grounded but it's also fucking great and violent yeah I mean it's juggling a lot of stuff that

movie but it's like it's a pretty good distillation of all of my sensibilities is crazy ball Calvin ball is basically Calvin ball yeah yeah I was like the first thing it's so funny I was like that's Calvin ball because we talk about it Joe Bob Briggs just brought this up recently about how modern filmmakers are way more about the idea of like you could see way more people showing their they're like nods to what inspired them yeah well I feel like it's almost like writing an essay where you kind of need to like cite your sources before you can move a thing forward because I find it's way worse to like pretend like you

exist in a vacuum and other things don't exist and yes and I mean it's not to say that doesn't work and like filmmakers haven't pulled that off but to me it's like I want to like give some acknowledgement and respect to the stuff that got me this passionate about movies in the first place but then I also want to take everything a step further like like I treat all that stuff as like that's like the spark and then the actual fire is like what I build around it you know absolutely you like Scorsese talks about the battleship Potemkin but you talk about troll too you know I mean it's but the same it's still there

right like it's the same lineage where it's like people do the only thing you know I think the only person that truly lives in a universe of his own as David lunch yes oh I hundred percent agree with that but if he's the edges of it we don't but it's I think regardless where there's like yeah Lynch or Scorsese it's like it's just everybody like just has their own language of what they're like what their film speak is like what how their movie speaks to the audience and you build that language on movies on what you were brought up on and what what kind of like has turned you into a filmmaker in the first place and

everybody kind of comes from a different place and has different influences and different things that just subconsciously are always there like I feel like I'm making references to stuff without even knowing like there's stuff I can't remember offhand exactly what but there's stuff in PG that people brought up were like oh is that like kind of like that one movie and I'm like I guess it I guess it got in there right like honestly it somehow it's slipped in and it's went into my hands and eyeballs and way I saw it again on this movie and I get it going back to like intuitive film enjoyment and it's also intuitive

filmmaking it's like trusting my gut is I think often informed by what my instincts just know is right and my instincts are informed by you know decades of watching schlocky full moon and empire pictures movies I talked about for myself right if I what I view as me doing a good job as a comedian is me getting out of my own way and getting in the quote-unquote zone and trying to trust myself that I know what is funny I know what's that's gonna come out of my mouth is gonna be useful or or how to move on that type of thing do you feel like that it was the transgression it was the progression of doing these

movies that like you really begin to feel that assurity like knowing that like oh this is like I like that idea that intuitiveness I think it definitely comes from my past films like PG is definitely a product of everything I've made up to this point because each experience was so different than the other like Man Borg was such a like just no-budget garage movie like like an ambitious thing that I did not have the resources to do and it was as close to just making a movie on my own as possible so like that movie I think if PG is closest to any of my other filmography it's probably Man Borg where it's very

similar DNA wise you could see it but then I kind of want to ask being like but the void is like kind of a stripped down even though you do up there is elements in it but I mean it's obviously nowhere near Man Borg or PG in terms of spectacle like did you feel like was that like a movie that you pitched because you thought it would be easier to make like you thought that that would be easier to pitch or it was a collaboration between me and Jeremy Gillespie and his tastes and sensibilities while we definitely have a lot of crossover I think overall are very different from mine where he's way more subtle and

understated and well-composed I'm way more like slap-dash cowboy yeah like kind of like fly by the seat of your pants filmmaking yeah and so those two things mashed together are what made the void what it is and it was a honestly it was a frustrating experience I think for both of us just trying to get that movie made for a multitude of reasons but making that movie did show me that like maybe that type of movie isn't something I want to always be making I need yeah it's very traditional kind of like a grindhouse-y cult horror movie yeah it's a very like straightforward horror film

compared to the rest of my filmography or even astronaut six's filmography like it's a very like point a to be story even though it does get totally bonkers it's great though I love the void and it got a lot of play oh yeah well that's what's done so happy about what the movie is that it seems like it gained its life after its release like when we first put it out we were both a little disappointed with the response it seemed like people were expecting a man boarder a father's day and instead they got like a legitimate horror movie because the goal like Jerry and I agreed from the top that we wanted to make a

movie that was actually scary like make a creature feature that was scary scary it's hard man like we even been talking about it ourselves like because in terms of doing last podcast and left we have nothing but like scary things to draw upon but making something truly tense truly terrifying is something that to that's a whole other thought process I think it's like making music or making like the people that can think in music thinking in horror is very specific well and also you break out of that for one second and the whole illusion crumbles yeah which is a very scary thing making that film because then suddenly making

effects for it as well it became like well this has to be convincing and so yeah your brain the way you think about the project changes completely because you know that like if any if the illusion is broken in any way in any department then the whole thing doesn't work and so yeah it was a really tough project and it was hard to like get it anywhere near what we envisioned it being for like a multitude of factors but at the same time I'm very proud of what we accomplished with it Jerby's like design work on the movie like the triangle imagery it was gorgeous so bold and like I feel like it's even now

like people still talk about it and they talk about the cultists and like I gotta give all the credit to Jer on that like yeah figuring out that kind of that the like visual style of the movie is so much of like what the personality and the identity of the movie is and so I yeah I think despite all the horrible shit we went through to get it made like I'm very proud of it and of the work we did on it I'll say though in terms of reaction the idea of like not breaking the universe and because then you ruin the movie I'm one of those people and I've been stared at in movie theaters before but when things are really scary or like

a big kill comes they make me laugh and it's not really out of uncomfortability I think some people say it's us because you're uncomfortable you don't want to set in silence it's like it's the opposite it's like I'm genuinely delighted when I see something that's very scary well I always think back to when I saw the remake of the ring in theaters yes and there's and there's that big scare early on yeah lots of door opens so nobody in the theater saw that coming I remember that feeling dude the audience like jump they jump but what's great is everybody screamed and jumped and then started laughing and kind of like talking

amongst themselves like oh my god I can't believe like and also just this like kind of communal kind of like celebration of like oh my god that got everybody in the theater is just like it's such an electric feeling it's so good I just missed the I just saw the conjuring three in theaters it's like which is it's good it's fine you know I mean like they're the view of the Satanist is hilarious because there's nighttime and daytime Satanists I don't know if you know I was not aware of that I'm differentiated oh no there is a nighttime at Satanist are far more active if the problem with Chris conjuring

three it's become like a Christian superhero franchise a lot of reviews pointing that out which is why I'm not really chasing it down it seems like the thing is but my thing I just missed that experience in a theater so much like I know can't wait to get back to seeing really scary movies in the theater because the dark and the wicked this year the dark and the wicked and the Lodge and host were all three of like the like I probably put them towards the scariest films I saw last year and I was like man I miss being in a theater just like cackling as like I was thinking hereditary when she does that when she's

fucking cut her throat I was just screaming with laughter I miss it I was gonna bring up hereditary because both that and Midsummer I enjoyed those experience not just as like watching a horror movie and just loving it and being taken on this crazy ride but also just watching people in the theater like kind of get upset with that being the experience they wanted it to be like they you could tell that they wanted a conjuring movie and what they got was like something way darker and like harder to digest so I just I love that uncomfortableness in a theater where you tell people like aren't into it

or when you see someone's like nights ruined by the thing that you're watching you love it like I'm sitting there and you're watching and people were fucked up but it's like with my wife is always responds much harder to the emotional content that's also what hereditary and Midsummer fucking nails because like yeah Tony Collette having the breakdown at dinner is technically the scariest scene the most like upsetting scene in the whole movie oh there's a there's a few scenes I would I would list as being the most upsetting I feel like the sun going like driving home and going to bed and laying in bed and listening to his

mom like freaking out is like the most horrifying thing but then but that's also but what I appreciate is that Psycho Gorman because I do believe a perfect film has moments of some levity like I love a dirge of a horror movie but my favorite horror movies have at least acknowledgments of humanity and character within them that kind of like you you have this like momentary break like the audience like is it has that like relieved titter and then you go back because the humor makes you like the person you like the person care about what's gonna happen to them if you care and you don't want them to die

it just makes the horror stuff more intense so much more powerful because you give a shit like because you're watching real people that's just one of those things where I was like looking at the difference between Prometheus and alien right or and the idea that like the beginning of alien is this incredible ensemble that they again you fall in love with these characters at the very top of alien and in Prometheus it felt sort of like a an echo like kind of an emptier version of what he tried to what he was like trying to do what he did with alien yeah you could feel the effort there but it I don't know the

best stuff feels effortless to me alien the character work in alien feels effortless because it just feels like you're watching real people deal with real problems like talking about the bonus situation like shooting the shit over dinner like all that stuff is just normal people stuff and I don't think Prometheus really had any of that it's just stiff it was just stiff and all like plot driven like yeah like I almost wish all the plot was pushed into the background and you're just hanging out with people on this ship and just enjoying like their lives and their relationships and like drama between them

and let the horror grow like slowly in the background like alien I wonder if it's notes like I wonder if it comes down to story notes you have producers and all these people especially because they want these movies to do really well in international markets which means the also had the the exposition has to be nailed and all of the information has to be nailed all the time so that people kind of so the idea is that they can follow the plot where it's like I'm with you I'm like fuck the plot well but they don't give the audience enough credit that like you can figure out the plot the whole point of like enjoying a story

is that you're unraveling something yes if you're unraveling it you're engaged but if you're being handed it you're just sitting there like alright when's the next piece coming you know and I don't think Prometheus lets you unravel anything it's just you're confused by decisions and then also confused by just generally what's happening what is by like the guy the white painted man is very cool-looking yeah he was cool-looking and then I saw him at Comic-Con I remember that guy doing that at Comic-Con and I was like that's the best part of Prometheus right there I like I like that guy oh yeah very

striking imagery but also what I think is interesting about a movie like what you did with Psycho Gorman is that then there's the opposite where what I like is the thing I was responding to is the idea that the premises right there at the top it's like you kind of get the premise out of the way it's like boom boom done we're in the movie yeah oh totally and that to me is like just a symptom of me as a storytelling also is like a movie watcher and content enjoyer you know I hate using the term content but like with video games and books and things like I get bored super quick and I like when a plot like takes a left turn every like

half hour or so yeah even less it's very much like kind of a Rick Rick and Morty logic mm-hmm I feel like those episodes the structure of their episodes it's like the first like seven minutes is like an entire Futurama episode and then the rest is pushing you beyond what you thought the plot could even like sending you to places you didn't even think that plot could go and so that's what I wanted to do with PG was like all right the first like 15 20 minutes is like basically the thing that you expect to get out of that trailer and then I wanted to like think beyond that and like well where is this where else could

this go like what other kind of nonsense could happen with this scenario and like really just get the most out of the premise it's really growing as a cult movie and I think it's because of that I think it's because no matter what how many times you sell the movie people are gonna think oh it's just this thing it's it's just gonna be this thing but it's genuinely surprising like in the center of it I'm sad that I haven't watched a theater with an audience that has not seen the movie because there's a specific moment in the movie where PG is looking at a magazine and admiring some hunky boys yes that moment is such a

like crazy turning point it's like if you're not if if that moment doesn't land for you you're not gonna like this movie exactly but I love that people it's like yeah just I imagine people watching it and that happening and that like realization in their mind going oh that's what this movie is like we're going to those kinds of places with this okay like it's like telling you straight up like now the movie gets nuts so settle in I kind of felt the same way Mandy did that awesome the same thing that that the hinge on cheddar goblin where all of a sudden you're like what the fuck are we doing here you know like

hold like that's what's like cinema is still like that's why I love my horror movies man is I think still have the opportunity to surprise the shit out of people yeah well and also just having the freedom to do that is important like if this is a studio movie like PG would have just been the first 20 minutes you know sure they would have been like no stick to that premise and keep it real basic but I was lucky in that like my producer team like Stuart Jesse Shannon Pete like there's just all these wonderful people surrounding me who were just like just make the crazy thing you want to make and we'll deal with the rest

how did you get and perceive notes on this movie because I do think as a dark sketch comedian the character the character of the dad right the idea of making him dark like dark and kind of fucked up and he kind of deals with these kind of this ineffectual dad which is like a studio normally is gonna tell you that that's gotta go like they don't like it they don't want the family to be too unique you know what I mean they don't want to be weird and yeah they don't want him to have issues it but it's funny especially with the dad because it's like I make him such a pathetic schlub but then there's also

so much reverence for him yes kind of just love his shitty life and the like how delusional he is so yeah I mean I think being able to embrace characters like that is something you would not get with a studio whereas like the team making this film it was like we're all kind of on nine kind of like we were all definitely on the same page about like the style of humor of this thing and an embracing moments that make no sense but are funny in the moment like even the bit with like the chicken in the microwave was like that's totally grew just out of being on set and doing it and just me being like well what if the

chicken was like totally melted like like I took a little like I took like a little hand torch and went in and like really cooked it like melted the plastic and everything because I was like when we open this I want it to look crazy yeah but then doing the slow zoom in on Adam when he's saying you're welcome and him like starting to tear up was like just a thing that in the moment we're like that's super weird let's keep doing that so it's it's just being able to find a moment when it's happening and just like grab on to it and be like let's get all we can out of this even if it's like kind of derailing what the scene is

actually about because I don't know I feel like that just makes stuff more memorable and interesting like I always go for weird if you can accomplish weird and have your audience coming up being like that movie was weird like I think you've done a good job absolutely will you also I think it also takes single mindedness of vision behind the production team for it to work like you guys all found it funny and we're in on the joke and so was the cast I think that when half the people aren't in on the joke well who are making the film that's when it starts to look messy because then you because you I've seen you see

movies that are weird for weird sake and some of them are just not even successful even in that realm because it's like it's there's missing well you got to be sincere with it too like I I hate like winking at the camera type stuff like like acting like your movies like in on the joke like I approach PG like very seriously and like with all the actors was clear that like you're not hamming it up on this like this isn't like scary movie like yeah this humor only works if you believe the characters in the situation and so hammering that home was important and making sure everybody embraced that and and embrace

the fact that like it's a dead serious scenario where absurd things are happening it's the truth it's why it's weirdly grounded it somehow works out especially with the big huge characters how was this how was it being on set with that much special effects and that many people in that much makeup and costumes I mean there are definitely some rough days where I like would have a moment where I'm like this was maybe a little too ambitious which is funny because when I wrote it I was like this is like a pretty small movie but I realized that I realized that I've said that on every movie like on the void me

and Jeremy were like oh this is like a pretty contained horror movie and it ended up being this huge thing oh yes man borges the same thing like everything I don't know I guess my idea of like what small actually is and like what's achievable with not a lot of money is totally unreasonable but yeah there were some days where it was like there would be like I don't know like eight creature suits playing at once watch and it's just like so much shit being thrown at the camera and I gotta give a shout out to my creature effects team like I had really talented and generous people come and help out and

really just kind of like pull everything together with very little time very little money and just basically for just the passion of making something this crazy it's so it really hangs together so what's next are you gonna do is this your drawing room like comedy is the next thing to do like are you gonna do something along the lines you know something subtle is the time for your phantom threat oh remember I saw it in Brooklyn it was just like if people's going laughing like they're 1980s rich people and I don't know what's happening yeah now I don't think I'll ever make a movie like that like I want

to make movies that please my sensibilities I'm trying to make my goal is to essentially make like a video store shelf of movies that I can then send back in time to kid Steve yes I mean I will definitely dabble in like more serious stuff at some point sure word I want to take a gore man too is off the set off the the radar there you can't do that oh well I'm trying to do some things there's gonna be more stuff that's all I can say right we just want more I know how do you feel about that if a bunch of people being like I want the character that we loved and I want it again but I now I want it the way I want

it sir I know it's scary I'm getting into that awful George Lucas territory of now I've created this thing that everybody loves but they also have have ownership their own their own kind of ideas of what that character is and yes ownership so I mean PG will return in some form and my goal is to just make it come back in a way that's so crazy nobody expected it to go this way yes that's the goal yeah yeah yeah play it's just him just full on he is the effect a suit designer in 1945 I don't know like I don't even know what that move I don't even know when that movie took place I like the idea of me

remaking Phantom Thread as a psycho gore man sequel having never seen Phantom Thread no no clue what it is and just kind of going off of a trailer and assumptions of what it would be I think that's a great that's a great approach for a sequel just need him to rip apart a woman I just want to see one Paul Thomas Anderson movie where it's just like he goes full gore yeah full gore I guess he's never I mean I haven't seen all of his movies but to my knowledge he's never really had gore it's a lot of implied off-screen violence there's yes yes there's some light violence but never like that he's never done a full horror

because I don't think that interests him he's like a Robert Alton and kind of guy yeah understandable and in the same way that like his types of movies I would never attempt to make because I live in Sam Remy Don Coscarelli land where everything needs to be crazy so I teach his own we love it and the people like me because I watch all of it man I watch every single horror movie that comes out well the fact that we we just talked about things is pretty telling to me that you are aware of that movie at all I love a lot I am I get excited by horror it's really cool to talk with because also the one thing too I think that

people respond this like a gore man is I think it's what you it's a bunch of people that like the movie who share the same like movie language and what they like and they're just like yes somebody gets it there's just a very specific stream of movie that doesn't seem to exist anymore that's kind of in those genres like kind of bending genre rules and I just want to keep making movies in that vein because I think we need them yeah we do stuff like that we do we have to help stabilize this nation yeah that's the only thing that'll do it is more psycho gore man that's it that's it that's the pressure that you know face

you gotta bring you gotta bring them back it's a lot and I'm letting you know I'm increasing it we well it's a heavy burden but I carry it gladly he's crying you can't see that actually tears are actually and he's I'm talking about him saving America and he's Canada in your seat you're stuck over there but you gotta come that we need you here I know it's pretty generous of me to offer this to save your entire country but you know what I'm gonna do it that's what I need to hear finally a guarantee I'm sick of all of these fucking whatever man everybody's weak man you're sick of empty promises so I'm just gonna promise

I'm gonna save your entire country right yes that's what I'm talking about man it's a very full promise but I want to say thank you so much for talking to me dude you have been Steven Kostansky do you want this whole time do you have anything you want to plug do you want to talk about how Jeffrey Tubin's back who the guy who doesn't matter dude it doesn't matter some piece of shit a guy jerked off on the zoom call he's back cuz he said I'm sorry oh so you're we're in an age now where you can actually say you're sorry and come back no no he's not he's not gonna he's not gonna last I think I think he's gonna he's gonna come

on zoom again there's no way he's not going to because now he knows he can get away with it well he's coming back because he knows he can do better I'm assuming he's gonna put on a better show and that's what we're waiting for it's just gonna be fully I think I think that Jeffrey Tubin is gonna do one of those things where he takes a pool stick and he just slowly inserts it up his butt on a call and he's being like I can take more I can take more you don't think I can I work for CNN just watch you watch it's gonna come out my mouth this has been great dude yeah so yeah you guys they could find you on social media if

you want that yeah my Instagram at kill underscore Kostansky is that's like my work account the very post photos from all my movies and stuff that's the best place to see what are you and ask him where is your psycho gore man did tell him your ideas he honestly you're open to pitches right yeah yeah send me all your pictures scream at him if he doesn't get back to you cuz I'm not busy at all guys I am just sitting and waiting you can't see him he is in a bubble bath right now he has a hair net on he is just he's just kicking up his heels as he told me before we got on the call he says I've been spa on it all day I'm

just refreshing my email and I'm not seeing any scripts yet so like I guess I'll go to sleep and the last somebody sends me a script that's what he does that's all he does he sleeps and then he makes it bleed as soon as they give him that fat stack of cash because I also know you're just in it for the big old money man I'm just in it for the Benjamin's man that's all I know bro thank you so much for listening to this page here on interview thank you so much for giving us your money and now give this man your money so that he can make more films all right so hail sweet Satan and thank you Steve