Storm Warning: Director Jamie Blanks
By: Mr. Disgusting

The film, which combines elements of "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs," follows a husband and wife on a fishing trip gone very wrong. When they're captured by deranged locals, the wife fights back in a gory battle that director Jamie Blanks ("Urban Legend") delivers with vivid prosthetic and digital effects.

BD: How did you become attached to STORM WARNING?

JB: Arclight Films sent me the screenplay in 2005. I had just come off a project I’d been developing for two years which ultimately fell over and I was keen to find something to do in Australia. I’ve been a long time fan of Everett De Roche’s work and was delighted to have the opportunity to work with him finally. I attached myself to the screenplay with a view to shooting it in Melbourne, my home town.

BD: What was it about the script that you found appealing?

JB: I enjoyed the nastiness of the script and I’m a long time fan of revenge themed movies. All of my movies have been based around the themes of revenge, but this time the revenge was justified by the need for survival, not merely the motive of a deranged psychotic killer intent on taking out young TV stars by means of some contrived slasher themed motif. I also enjoyed the way in which Everett had drawn the villains – in many ways, the two sons are victims themselves and then ultimately the tables are turned and the hunted becomes the hunter. I also like the uncompromising position the movie takes and its attitude to survival and vengeance. Would/could you commit murder in order to save your own life or that of a loved one?

BD: What other genre films inspired the film and how you directed it?

JB: I think Everett was inspired thematically by “Straw Dogs” and “Deliverance”. I’ve jokingly said many times that “Storm Warning” is the convergence of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” meets “I Spit On Your Grave”. I wasn’t influenced by any of these movies in terms of how I directed “Storm Warning”. I think the movie has an original style and tone. I was going for an “Australian Gothic” approach to the movie in terms of the visuals and the production design. The movie feels very much like my early short films that I made prior to “Urban Legend”. This is largely due to my cinematographer Karl Von Moller who shot all of these movies many years ago for me.

BD: The movie is developed in a way where you almost understand why the killers are angry, would you call this a “reverse” home invasion movie?

JB: No. I’d call “Storm Warning” a revenge/horror movie. The couple who stumble on the farmhouse have no intention of invading the killers’ home, they are merely seeking refuge from the storm. Pretty quickly they come to the realization that they have come to the wrong house and before they can escape the occupants return. Their attempts to reason with these degenerates fail at every turn and things go from bad to worse very rapidly.

BD: Do you think there are really families like this out in the real world in the middle of nowhere?

JB: I read things in the news sometimes that makes me believe that there is no atrocity or aberrant behavior that human beings are not capable of. Take any prison in the world and look at the reasons that these people have been cordoned off from the rest of society. Of course people like this exist in the real world – I wish they didn’t, but they do.

BD: How violent is the film? Will gore hounds be satisfied?

JB: The film is as violent as I could make it – the DVD version is almost entirely as I intended it. I hope gorehounds will be satisfied but I was going for a particular kind of intensity with the violence. Everett and I firmly believed that in a situation like the characters find themselves in, any normal person would most likely use more deadly force than was required. If you were a green beret or a marine you would know exactly how much deadly force to apply to neutralize your opponent. You and I who don’t have this expertise would probably want to ensure the other guy wasn’t going to get up again by really going to town on the fucker. We’ve all seen enough horror movies to know that the bad guy might get up for another round, so you’re going to do everything possible to ensure that this doesn’t happen. You’d probably end up using more deadly force than necessary – that was my rationale for allowing the violence to be so extreme.

BD: What do you do to create tension and suspense in a film?

JB: Place the audience in a situation where they identify with the characters, then constantly place the characters in jeopardy and dangle the possibility that they’re not going to make it out of there alive as often as possible.

BD: When do you begin shooting Long Weekend and where will you be shooting?

JB: I’m already shooting it. I’m filming the movie in Victoria, Australia. We’re predominantly based at Wilsons Promontory National Park. It’s one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth and we’re the first film crew to ever shoot a feature there.

BD: The synopsis is pretty vague, what does it mean by “nature’s revenge?” What type of horror film is it?

JB: A very different one. You’re going to have to wait and find out. I can promise you that it’s nothing like “The Birds” or any other “Mother Nature Goes Apeshit” movie that you’ve ever seen. There are elements from the original that I wouldn’t dream of changing and there are also many times in which we depart from the original film. I’ve long loved the first movie and am having the time of my life with the remake. It’s going to be an amazing movie and I’m already proud of what we’ve done with it.