In your horror projects, from Jim’s Room to Snow Blinded, there is often a disturbing and psychological atmosphere. What fascinates you most about darker and more introspective horror?

I love horror as a tool to explore fear and inner darkness, and bringing it to the light of awareness, through experiencing it as story. And part of that is because fear comes from excitement. For example, Jim is struggling to find the will to continue in his trod-upon existence: until he is face with the horrors of his host, and in his fear, in his pain, we see the re-awakening of the human spirit's will to live against impossible circumstances. In Snow Blinded, Shawn's nightmare is linked to a childhood memory that demands his attention until he is dragged into a form of repeating this. Horror has always been a tool to explore the psyche, and I love leaning into that with characters forced to confront the internal darkness through the darkness that attacks from the outside.

You have worked both as an actor and producer on several independent productions. How difficult is it to maintain a strong artistic horror vision in today’s indie film scene?

Once at a film event, a producer with a larger Canadian production company was telling me about how horror fans have certain genre expectations - number of kills and when, so forth - that he needs to check off to sell a movie, and then he lamented to me that because everything has been done, if something could find a new original scare that actually inspires shock and fear, that it would be groundbreaking. Indie films are trying to create a cinematic experience with so much less resources: but this forces independent artists to focus on story, on the concept of the scare and the flavour of the fear, the characters undergoing the horror and making them compelling so that the audience feels their struggles more deeply. So, obviously we all want to have better budgets to work with as we continue to grow, but I am grateful for the indie scene for teaching me to focus on story over effects, and on getting into the audience's head. Werner Herzog said "filmmaking is the art of compromise" and a lot of creating that vision is working around what you have with movie magic to keep the sense of immersion even on a shoestring budget. But Hitchcock proved that you can work around that by getting into the viewer's head where horror becomes even scarier.

In films like The Hyperborean and other underground projects, there is a strong surreal and experimental element. How important is it for you to create visuals and emotions that feel unconventional within the horror genre?

It is such an honour to get to work with so many different Directors and teams, each with their own unique visions and style - and what I love about the independent scene is the creative freedom to play with the fabric of the genre itself, colour outside the lines and swing for the fences, to serve the cinematic experience that we are gifting to the audience. All the rules of Hollywood about story structure or different kinds of shots, or genres, or tropes, are all created either to serve the cinematic experience, or sell it to potential experiencers: when we understand the rules and how they change the viewing experience, than we can start to break them to give audiences new flavours. With The Hyperborean, being a rip-roaring horror comedy with elements of the supernatural, experimental elements and points of surrealism were blended in to get the audience laughing, thinking, or rising and falling on the crazy roller coaster, and I love that the creative team saw the potential to play around with surrealism to make something that really pops and stands out. As opposed to, in Snow Blinded, the flavour and tone were so different - so jarring shots, or painfully long scenes of running lost in the woods in a blind rage, were used to create the sense of isolation, frustration and confusion - once again using the fabric of storytelling to create the emotional landscape for the viewer.

Many of your works seem to explore paranoia, isolation, and the darker side of human nature. Do you think horror is the best genre to tell stories about modern fears and anxieties?

To me, the purpose of all cinema is to explore the darker side of humanity, especially modern fears and anxieties as we create new films for modern audiences - and they can be treated with comedy, or with gravitas for a drama, or some combination, or even with the metaphors behind the punches in an action movie - but horror has so much freedom to create literal monsters to embody our nightmares, or explore our nightmares directly - like my dream last night that I might turn into a horror movie - and that just gives horror more direct scope for delving into the darkness. Plus, with scares, to get the adrenaline flowing and the heart pumping.

You have been involved in very different kinds of productions, from psychological thrillers to grotesque and visionary horror. Which horror subgenre feels closest to your artistic personality?

I love the grotesque as a tool for exploring what scares us, and I love a good horror comedy for the cinematic roller coaster - but for me, perception is everything, because everything we experience is filtered through our perception. So while I love to make people laugh between scares, the emotionally heavy-hitting psychological thriller dealing with characters trapped in their own minds, memories, or monsters of their own making, are the most compelling. I spend a lot of time meditating and trying to get to know my inner demons and monsters, and getting them to come dance and create with me in my writing or in my acting, so psychological thrillers also most closely mirror my own mental meanderings.

Independent horror cinema often survives thanks to the passion of the cast and crew. What has been the biggest challenge you faced while making one of your horror films?

Where do I begin (haha) honestly it is such an honour to get to do what I do, and to get to work with the people I work with, and I agree that so many films make it to post production on sheer passion alone. With "Snow Blinded," it was the cold: the first year of production, we filmed interiors in November, but by December our original actor for the role of "Manny" decided it was way too cold to be out in the woods, and we had to recast. Then a polar vortex came suddenly down and made it too cold to film for the week that we had planned everything. The second year, we weren't sure if we were going to continue filming, and by the time we decided to try to finish the movie, we had a couple weeks and then the snow melted. Fortunately the third year of production, we had lots of snow, and went in swinging, and managed to get it done. On "Regicide" we had a nice, tight, well-organised production schedule - and then a bee stung my eyebrow and my face swelled up. Production switched around as much as they could, enough to give me one day off, and I spent that day in bed with ice on my face swigging benadril like it was herbal tea. Fortunately the swelling went down enough to keep shooting. With "Jim's Room" the Director's family were actively trying to turn the house we were filming in - so time was tight, and sometimes we would have to take a break and help do some actual renovations as part of the deal. So, every project has its' challenges - but it really is the creative passion of the people involved that solves those problems and gets us through production, and I have immense love and gratitude for every single professional I have ever worked with.

Who were your biggest inspirations in horror cinema? Are there any directors, actors, or films that deeply influenced your artistic style and creative vision? And what are some of your all-time favorite horror movies?

Some of my favourite horror movies were "Identity" with John Cusack - so creepy, understatedly lethal, but so existential in the final twist; and Willard, with Crispin Glover as the horrifying but strangely relatable rat man. Movies like this which use fear and murder and death to open the understanding of the human condition and the twists within our psyche, the extremes that can be found in a human mind, were always my favourite. (I also really like those two actors). As a child, I also really loved vampires and vampire movies. The idea of violent depraved darkness being seductive, both to the victims and the vampires themselves, of evil coming with lust and thirst but coupled with nostalgia, class and charm, fascinated me. Even the original Nosferatu - despite being portrayed as hideous, Count Orlaf still has the hypnotic power of pulling others into his darkness. For sheer scariness, films like The Grudge were the ones that gave me the most nightmares. For sheer entertainment, I love Supernatural and Buffy. But what pulled me into horror as a filmmaker was the realization that it was a tool to explore the darkness in each of us.

Looking toward the future, can you tell us anything about your upcoming projects? Are there any new horror films, collaborations, or ambitious ideas currently in development?

Currently I am in the midst of production on "The Woods Aren't Safe: Phil and Terry Find Bigfoot." This is a collaboration with Zach King and our team who already made the found footage style film "Jim's Room," only this time we are back in the saddle for a horror-(stoner)-comedy. The script has received a lot of excitement and we are having a blast moving forwards! Meanwhile, brilliant Brazilian filmmaker João Augusto De Nardo has invited me to join him on the found-footage horror feature "Cast" as part of his writing room, and as the actor to play the charismatic villain Rocco, for which I am incredibly excited. And I've just signed onto a supporting role in Bas Majzoub's new upcoming feature film "Let Me In," filming over the next six months, for which I am super stoked!