The Horror Returns - THR Bonus Ep. - A THR/Tubi Tuesdays Co-Production: Interview With Paul Ragsdale & Angelica De Alba Of OnlyFangs & Murdercise

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

This week Phillip and Bede interview directors Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba of the upcoming film OnlyFangs as well as the new cult classic Murdercise. As always, nothing gets weird! And we were honored to have them join us. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thehorrorreturns?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

Regings victims, for those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers. and the foulest of language, join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. Greetings, listeners, this is Philip,

and I'm joined by Bid Jermine from Tooby Tuesdays. You all know him and love him. We're delighted to bring you a special crossover interview with the Horror Returns and Tooby Tuesdays. Tonight, we are talking with Paul Ragsdale and Angelica de Alba of the upcoming Only Fangs and the new cult classic murder size. How's it going, guys? Doing great. Good.

Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you guys for coming on. It's always a blast to talk to directors and stuff. Well, we'll go ahead and start it out. First of all, let's talk about Only Things. That's the new one, right? Yeah, looking on that.

Tell us about it. We see a lot of postings on our social groups, and it seems like such a unique and timely idea. What's the origin story, and how can our listeners get involved in helping make this film happen? Is it already done? No, we're almost done. It's almost done. We're currently in post-production, and we're doing some pickup shots this month and next month just to get the final shots that we need to get. But overall, I mean, we started the campaign, I think it would be a year ago on the 15th of March for this vampire horror comedy that we're doing.

Only things, it's about a group of vampire girls as a startup their own app with the help of a wannabe monster hunter in order to lure victims and turn them customers into victims. Great idea, by the way. I love it. And so, you know, we've worked on it, yeah, for, you know, I think we started showing. shooting in July of last year. And then that was like our big principal photography production time. And then we started shooting some stuff in November and December. And now, you know, with winter, you know, everything kind of slows down with the holidays and everything. So now we're starting to pick back up with the pickup shots.

Now with murder size, or as I like to call it, the four-time Tooby-Tuesday Award winning film, Murder Sise. has Exactly. Our fans of the show really loved you guys' film. That's what cool.

And speaking of that, I mean, a gait of following very quickly, what did all of you do to promote the film and how did it become so popular as quickly as it did? I mean, it was a surprise how popular it became actually. We're still trying to figure that out, actually.

I think, It's a combination of our marketing strategy, which is not like that brilliant. But our concept tends to be to try to come up with a title that's really catchy. And sometimes punny. Yeah, we'll play on words. Murder size slash Lorette party, only fangs with our newest one. So we try to choose a fun title. And then we mix a blend.

Our stories are a mix of like slasher. with kind of dark comedy. So we try to have an element of like kind of silliness. And mostly our projects are more focused on being fun. So they're not supposed to be scary like in a typical or genre, but they're more supposed to be over the top and silly and fun, kind of like the 80s style movies. And I think our promotions have been,

the way we promote our films has been to do photo shoots that are giving you a little taste of what to expect in the film that we're trying to make. So we'll set up a photo shoot with the cast before we start shooting any film. And we take some concept photos and that we put our title on it and we're like, this is kind of what we're going for in our movie. So if anyone's interested in contributing to that, this is like a taste of what's to come. And that's pretty much been our model since the first campaign that we did.

And somehow it's just like, it's no way. wall into where we are today. Yeah, we did a promo video, about three promo videos. We had, you know, local actresses come over to our house slash studio, and then we shot some videos with each of them. And, yeah, people started telling me that they were, like, going viral or whatever. And that's, like, you know, new for us that they were even, be aware of something that we did.

So I think it was, like, you know, the aerobics, the colors, you know, the spandex, everything, all that put together with their music. Yeah. Funny idea and beautiful girls. I think it's always going to win. Yeah, the music was great. The whole retro feel of it and everything, the costume design loved it. It's for the cast.

One thing murder size does very well is represent and celebrate all porn star body types. So was this intentional? And how did you manage to round up such a diverse cast? Yeah, I think we are really. intentional with the people we work with. We really try to select people that are going to bring positive energy as much as we can. Sometimes we can't meet the actors in person until they literally arrive in California to film. But over the years, we've picked up this big catalog of actors that we like to work with and we have a lot of repeats. So if you've seen several of

our films, then you'll see a lot of people, sometimes from the beginning, you'll be like, I remember that guy. He's been in every movie that they've ever done. I tell all the grades work. We try to keep them coming back. So if they have a great attitude, they're fun to work with, they're talented, then we try to bring those people back and slowly add in new actors to collaborate with and just keep building our network in that way. And then as far as like the look, we definitely have a script already completed by the time we're casting. And a lot of times we write with people in mind that we know. And if they're available and they can be in the film, then that works out perfectly.

And if they can't, we try to find someone that fits the model of what we wrote it in mind. So. I mean, it was a challenge because, I mean, like a couple of people we never met before, like Kansas bowling and Jessup Flex. So we never met them before. And so we couldn't see them in person to do any kind of costume fitting. So we just had to kind of get things that we thought would complement their bodies, you know, in Kansas being very, very particular. T and Jesse being very curvy. So it was like, you know, two ends of the spectrum. So we picked out quite a few outfits for both of them, you know, just for example, and just see which one fits best, you know.

So we had some backups. And if, you know, this didn't work, you know, if that didn't work, you know, we could modify. I think even a few times we had to, like, pin back some of their, like, shirts and stuff, if there were too small or, I'm sorry, too big, you know, things like that. Those are just, like, alterations. and things we have to do just on set, like once we get, once we get with them. But for the most part, I mean, we did a pretty good job of estimating their sizes and stuff. Well, that's where spandex comes in handy.

Yeah. Exactly. So far, all your films find a good balance between horror, comedy, and satire. Now, I know that is a tricky thing to kind of mix the free together. So how did you guys approach? your that particular tone before with not just your prior films but also for motor size and also for only vangs. Yeah, I mean that's just the style that we like. Yeah, I think we just write in our own voices. So the tone is there's very much a representation of who we are as people. So we do have

very different backgrounds as far as like our preferences in film. So he's very much knowledgeable about the horror scene and obviously I don't know anything about that. I didn't watch horror films growing up. I don't know anything about them. I actually don't even really like them. I'm very much more of a typical girly girl, but I do bring a very strong, strong kind of not feminist. That's not really the right word, but there's a strong female energy that's coming through in my, in my contributions as far as like the writing and my viewpoint perspective. And, as far back is from like streets of vengeance. Yeah.

One of our earliest films, you could see there's like a very heavy, like, focus on strong female characters. And that's kind of been running throughout all of our projects. And I think where we blend well isn't our comedic, what we think is funny. Yeah, yeah. We have a really similar sense of humor. And we like sarcat, things that are sarcastic and silly. And on one hand, we tackle really serious subjects, but at the same time, we're making fun of ourselves and trying not to take it too seriously. So if you're looking for something that has a little bit of a political view, it's there if you want to look at it, if you want to look for it.

And if you don't care about that crap and you're like, I don't really want to get too heavy-handed into that kind of trail, then you can just focus on the fun and the blood and the guts and the girls and the boobs and all the fun stuff. But if you want a deeper story, then there's one there. Yeah, it's always there. For sure. If you want to. Well, we think what makes a lot of your films fun, and it kind of continues from the ensemble question is the casting. And your cast members do a great job in their roles on the films. What's it like to work with them on, like, collaborating their performances?

I know you said you, like, sometimes write stuff with them in mind. get to like ad libs and stuff and help out with the script yeah i mean not not every actor is comfortable with ad libing but those ones that are you know we definitely give them that freedom um i mean for example i mean the award winning scene uh between jessa and drew um that whole thing was you know written out but it was only like half a page and so we got with them to rehearse in their hotel room like the day before and just kind of went through it and just let them riff and it just kept building and building you know Drew kept saying more ridiculous things you know about being in the union and shut closed shut the door got my office you know things like that

and Jessa just kept laying into like look at my tits look at my melons and you know just like just extrapolating going on and on and we know we're just sitting there and the hotel room like yes this is good let's let's try to remember some of this stuff so when we get to set we can do it and so when we did that scene in particular you know it must have been like a full 10 minutes or something we just let them go, you know, just go, go, go. Like, all right, yeah, that's good, that's good. Or, you know, we'll cut and say, oh, hit that again. Or make sure you say party hats.

You know, I want you to say party hats when you're talking to Drew. So things like that, yeah, those are like really cool when we get to RIF. And, of course, you know, any physical or any kind of costume that the characters, let me sorry, the actors want to bring to their character to say, oh, can I wear this? Can I wear that? You know, we definitely, you know, look at it. it and see it and evaluate it. It's like, yeah, yeah, go ahead and add this or go ahead and add that. You know, like, I think Beebe's character, she added a lot of her own accessories and stuff.

Because we normally provide a lot of accessories for everyone else, but if they have something to the table, then we'll, you know, if it fits, then of course we'll take it and add it to their character. Right. We're definitely open to collaboration. So we provide everything as far as like there is a set script, so no one has to guess. No one has to improv. No one has to make anything up. And there is set costumes, they're set accessories, their set menus, everything's set. So the actors don't have to think about anything. But if there's somebody who really wants to invest in their character and say, can I add like these sentences or can I change the wording around or this wording trips me up a little bit? Like can we rearrange it?

Totally. We're completely open to that. Or if they want to pitch like wardrobe ideas, sometimes some of the actors. actors will bring their own costumes and they're like, can I wear this? We're totally open to trying. Sure. Why are you having that? Exactly.

Whatever's going to make us better. We'll take it. Ultimately, we'll just choose whatever's going to be best, the most funny or what's going to fit that character the best. So most of it is prepared by us, but we're definitely open to collaboration for sure. Well, I mean, motor size definitely looked like it was a lot of fun. to be a part of and very much obviously an ensemble effort. Were there any crazy on-set stories you'd like us to tell about working on that film, especially with that cast?

Hmm. None that I want to tell. I mean, as far as like crazy... Murder size? Yeah, I mean... Or even in any particular film in your film, as well or even on only fangs as well it was the dude with the beard wasn't it thank you may be honest yeah that guy I don't know about that guy I do know that when we did the like the chainsaw scene with the Kansas bowling we just sprayed her completely sprayed her with blood and blood just went everywhere and then we had to clean it all up I mean that took a while and then we did the chainsaw because then we shot the actual

head, you know, months later, once the head was constructed, and we shot that in our garage with the chainsaw, and it was just covered in, everyone, everyone was covered in blood. The whole camera was covered in blood. And on only things, too, I mean, as many times where Dan's behind the camera and blood just squirts at the lens, like, yeah, so like, that's, that's always fun, but, you know. Yeah, I think maybe part of all of our films, because, you know, indie, you try to save as much money as you can. So I think every inch of our house has been used in a film somewhere.

that we've made. And our house, every room has had fake blood splattered on the walls or on the floor. And I was telling him, because we've painted a couple times, I'm like, I'm not, no more. We can't keep blushing blood in our house. It's just everywhere all the time. You'll find, you'll find it like two months later, like this tiny little splatter that we missed. You're like, that was from when we chopped that guy's arm off or something. It's too high. But we're constantly using our house. And what murder says, that chainsaw scene where, well, at the end, I don't want to spoil it in case anyone hasn't seen it, but at the end where there's just all that blood just flying everywhere, that is shot partially

at location in Stockton. And the other part, the reverse, reverse part of it, is shot in our garage. So it's like, you can't really tell because of the way that we shot it. But our garage was just like drenched in fake blood, like everywhere. And I was like, you're cleaning that. You wanted to shoot this in our garage, so you get to. Oh, it was worth it. Did the cops ever get called or anything just on accident? Our neighbors probably think we're crazy.

Oh, actually, that's a funny thing from Slash Lorette Party. We shot at a cabin for several days. And when we got home, we just dragged home tons of equipment and all the leftover stuff of what we had filmed. Oh, yeah. We were so tired. We just unloaded all of it into our patio, and we were just like, whatever. We'll deal with that tomorrow.

The porch. Yeah, our porch. And so it was like fake body heads, fake arms. And they were all like already bloodied. And they were all wrapped up in this like tarp that we had used to like protect the ground inside the cabin. So it was like this bloody looking tarp that was like wrapped up with a bunch of body parts. And it was like a fake axe. We just dumped it all on the patio.

Our neighbors had just, they moved in like that weekend. Yeah. And they came over to introduce themselves to us. They had to walk next to like that big pile of body parts and tarps. They probably thought we were murderers. Yeah, they were bringing over like that to be neighborly. Introduce themselves and they're like, hey. It's like Halloween stuff or something.

Like, yeah, kind of. Yeah, sure. Jamesaws and helic cleaning products, you're definitely on FBI list somewhere. We've thrown stuff away as well, like those tarps that have like body parts. Like, if any garbage person ever, like, opens the lid or, like, something falls out while they're trying to dump it, we're going to look so crazy. Oh, you're 100% are just freelance. We're going to jail for sure until they figure to, like, find out a tape. You've both made some films of various subgenres of horror.

What's one that you haven't done yet or that you want to do? I mean, I'm currently writing a demon type of story. I'm a big fan of, you know, Night of the Demons and Nightmare Sisters. I just posted out on my socials today. And I've never done one of those before. So I definitely want to try that. And I think this one is going to be pretty unique, I would say. We haven't done anything with ghost yet.

Yeah, no spirits. No spirits. Devil, no demon. I know. I'm too scared to mess with the devil. Sexy ghosts. So that could be fun. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, I'm definitely thinking it's like a. cross between Nightmare Sisters and Dead Dudes in the House or House Party or something like that. There you go. Yeah. Well, we're sort of going back to Only Fangs. Where did the inspiration for the film come from? Because it's a concept that we haven't seen before in a horror film.

So I'm wondering where did the idea of doing a vampiric take, I guess, on the whole Only Fans phenomenon. come together. Yeah, I've always wanted to make a vampire movie. And I always had like kind of other stories or like little like notes written out for a vampire movie. And it just kind of never went anywhere. I just kind of put it off to the side. And then, you know, like most cases, I came up with a title first. I just came with Only Fangs.

I thought, oh, that's pretty funny. I mean, I even texting my brother and saying, what do you think about this is a title for a vampire movie? He's like, it's all right. And so I texted her too. like yeah only things and for a while it was just only things it was nothing else it's like only things only things like what could it be what could it be and so I was like well if you're going to use only fangs I could play on words then you're definitely going to have something like app related because it's going to it sounds yeah so god be an app so vampire apps like okay

we got that like why would vampires need to use an app so let me figure that out well they would have to lure their victims in somehow like through this app and it's like why what would they do and it's like well okay well we wanted to do like a girl version of law boys. So it's like, okay, let's get these girls and they're going to create this app and they'll lure in victims through it as pretending to be vampires. And it's like

leaning into this like fetish like, oh, who do you want, who wants to get bitten by a vampire? Vampire experience. So it's because the customers are thinking like, oh, it's just girls that dress as vampires not realizing they're real. vampires. They're actually getting bit. But they team up with

a monster hunter to create this app. and it kind of spirals there's a whole bunch more messaging in there as well as well see that part with the monster hunter that came after like i realized you know i'd have to create like human characters and i was trying to think well what what would the relation be at first thought it'd be antagonistic you know like they would be against each other and then i thought it'd be better if they were like a team and that part i took from fright night having you know a vampire move in next door so i thought that's where i'll start it's like some guy who's into monsters and then vampire is moving to his town and he finds out and you know he has like a confrontation so that's

what i took from fright night starting there like vampires coming to your town and you being are you finding them out like you find out they're real vampire and now they're after you you know something like that that's where i was looking for as far as the conflict and that's where it started for there but yeah we had the title first and then the kind of the premise and then from there we created like plus it was like the element of like villains humans coming up to up close with vampires. Kind of like a monster squad. Yeah, Monster Squad definitely was a big, big inspo as well.

Yeah. But still pretty girls doing sexy stuff and, you know, typical signature that were known for. Yeah, I thought, oh, this is, you know, surefire. Pretty easy to lure them in. Ended up being our biggest crowd funder ever. I know.

So crazy. Just the name alone is perfect. I love it. So, Murder Size certainly paid a lot of homage to the 80s classics as well as the aerobics craze of the time. And with only fangs, you guys are obviously

going for a much more modern thing. What are some other big differences between the two films? A huge difference is the scope. I mean, Murder Size is essentially a one location movie. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. studio. You know, it's all contained

in one night. And Only Fang's sprawling. Oh my gosh. So many locations. It's so huge. Like a couple days into filming. We were like, what the... What were you thinking? Why do we write this so crazy? There's so many locations.

There's so many wardrobe changes. Costume changes. So many costume changes. So many kills. It's a lot. It was quite a bit. The cast is a lot. It's bigger. It's way bigger. It's like way bigger. We flew in more people from out of state.

You know, we're in California. So, you know, just us from Indiana. And we flew in Ellie and Drew, Marvick. Meredith. Meredith as well. Yeah, a lot of people are just out of state. And they comprised of like the main, you know, troop, like the main characters. Yeah.

So that was a challenge for sure. We were shooting all over the place, like all around where we live in the cities that surround us. We've shot a lot in Oakland. and Stockton and Modesto and... We're going to be shooting in Los Angeles and Vegas. We'll be in L.A. and Vegas pretty soon to finish up. But we are so close.

We only have like maybe three more shoots. I say four. Maybe four, but they're not anything nearly as big as what we've already shot. We shot the biggest stuff first. Yeah. But yeah, that's the main difference. It's definitely the size, scope and locations, wardrobe, money. budget, it's totally different.

It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot more. With more money comes more things to manage. So, it's been a lot to keep an eye on. Yeah, I mean, for only things, I mean, this is the first time we really rented a lot of spaces for our locations. And

murder size was, you know, our friend, the guy who shot it, Carlos Rodriguez, that was his own studio. So the cinematographer said, hey, I have a studio, you can shoot. So we shot there. And so we didn't really have to do much. So, yeah. That's the main difference, I would say. Yeah.

Well, we ask this to everyone. We interview, well, at least the guys here at the horror returns to. Are there any special foundations, charities, or organizations that are dear and dear to you? And if so, how can the listeners get involved and help out? I mean, we've done a benefit show for Planned Parenthood before. We showed a screen of streets of vengeance. So that's always been one of the charities or organizations that we support. Yeah, we tend to support groups that are female-centered.

So they support women in some way, shape, or form. But specifically, ACLU and Planned Parenthood are the ones that we've teamed up with in the past to do contributions monetarily. So those, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. Those are the ones that we've worked with in the past. Yeah. That's a good question. I don't have to think about that. Okay.

Well, again, Paul and Angela, thank you so much for the interview. We really appreciate. We really appreciate it. And where can our listeners find these films? Only Things is not out yet, right? No. Only things will be out in the summer. but Street to Vengeance, Slash Rat Party, and MurderSize are all available to watch Tooby for free.

You can stream it free. If you want to get physical copies, we do have Blu-Rae copies that we are distributing ourselves, DIY. And you can find us on Etsy.com, A&P Films. Don't we have stuff on Amazon? Yeah, I think MurderSize and SidesRap Party are also on Amazon Prime. Yeah, it's been a minute. Checked, but yeah, Amazon Prime as well. but mainly to be

that's where it's probably the easiest to find the best place we should have brought some of our Kelly guys on Nez is right in your neck of the woods and he is a blue ray freak he's probably already got a copy awesome oh my gosh that's so cool

well I definitely would say to even do the listeners of the horror returns definitely check out your films and particular murder sites on TV and also listen to our show's episode on your film as well because that episode ended up being very popular and our fans really enjoyed listening to it and when we did our award show you guys won four of

the awards that you were nominated for so oh yeah no yeah we couldn't believe that and we were definitely grateful for the awards jessa got and what we got the awards that we got for the jessa and drew scene so that was pretty awesome we're glad we're glad Your fans enjoyed it too. It's always surprising to us that anybody anywhere has ever heard anything about us and took the time to check out something that we made. So thank you to everyone who's even taken the time to listen to anything we've said or check out any of the films that we've done. And we couldn't have come doing this for as many years as we have without that indie community. Yeah, without the community, we wouldn't be anything.

So we're very appreciative, very grateful. Oh yeah, we had a lot of buzz for this one coming around the Facebook group and stuff and finally watched it, had a lot of fun. Oh, man, it's great. Glad to hear that. It's so awesome. It still boggles my mind because we just work like full-time jobs, like normal people. So the fact that anyone knows anything about what we do creatively, we're like, what?

It's so crazy. It's very humbling. Yeah. Normal people with bodies on the porch. Okay, maybe we're not normal people. Well, any socials or anything you guys want to shout out? Oh, yeah, on Instagram A underscore P underscore films is where we're always posting our updates. I just posted an update today about Only Fang.

So you'll find all of our BTS videos and picks and anything that's coming up on our Instagram. Yeah, there's a trailer for Only Fang. So if anyone hasn't seen the trailer yet, you can check out the trailer on YouTube. It's pretty fun. you'll get definitely a nice taste of what's to come. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and that trailer blew up, too. We're really surprised about that.

It was like 130K views right now. And it wasn't just me watching it over and over again. 130,000 views. So, yeah, we're on YouTube, A&P productions on YouTube. Awesome. B, do you want to shout anything out? Well, yeah, well, if anyone wants to find me out there on social media, you can follow me on Twitter, Blue Sky, and Letterbox Stundabee, Javine.

You can follow my work and as well as the podcasts. And I co-host the Tooby Tuesdays podcast on all podcast streamers everywhere via the Super Network and as well as the podcast and as well as the website at supermassy.com. There it is. And www. Thehorrorreturns.com. Check out our Facebook group and our YouTube page. We've been posting a lot of stuff there lately.

If you'd like to join us, should be a lot of fun. but until the horror returns again, good night. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys. I went pretty smooth. Yeah. Great questions.

I was like, wait, I got to do what now? No, that was a lot of fun. Thanks for finally talking to you guys as well, because I know even on the To Be Tuesdays podcast, we've been back and forth since our episode on it. so it's nice to talk to you finally. Yeah, because you guys are going to do, you guys are still going to film a segment for Onlyfangs?

Oh, yes, sure. We are, we need that by, because I know we've sort of been a little bit busy on our end. So just let us know when you need it and we can organize it. We have ideas for our little segments. So, um, end of the month or, you know, sometime April. Yeah, I think we could. Yeah, sure.

I think we can do that. So that should be no worries. I love those. Cool. I love seeing what people turn in. It's like, yeah. That's so cool. It's probably part of the big montage in the movie.

I can't wait until that one comes out. That's like just based solely on the name because it's just perfect. Like that's the one I was waiting to watch. I watched Murder Size first so that I could watch Only Things and I was like, oh no, it's not out yet. Yeah, pick out the trailer. Let me know what you think. I hope you dig it.

Sounds fun. It's going to be really fun. All right, guys. I appreciate you. Yeah, no, it's well. I got to get going. as well, but thank you guys for coming on. If you're both interested at some point,

we'd love to have you on the Tooby-Tuesdays podcast, whether it's for one of your films as a commentary or pick a movie and we can do it with you guys. So, yeah, just let me know. Definitely. We'll reach out too. Yeah.