Dance of the Dead: Director Gregg Bishop, Writer Joe Ballarini, Casting Director/Actor: Jonathan Spencer, Actor Justin Welborn and Actress Greyson Chadwick.

Zombies Films are about as cliché as Teen Comedies when it comes to an over saturated marketplace. But, what would happen if you put the pair in a blender and hit puree. DANCE OF THE DEAD is the ultimate answer to that question—a film that is equal parts AMERICAN PIE and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD with some CEMETARY MAN and BACK TO THE FUTURE thrown in for good measure. It succeeds where most Horror Comedies fail—as sanguine slapstick. Bloody-Disgusting sat down with the cast and crew after a sold out screening at the legendary Alamo Drafthouse.

BD: Gregg, you last film (The Other Side) was an action adventure film with a major fantastical element. Now it’s Zombie/Comedy. Where do you come up with this stuff…

Gregg Bishop (Director): Read the script while I was a film student at USC. Joe Ballarini wrote it and I read it in class and thought it was smart and funny. It reminded me of my own high school experiences, minus the zombies. I just loved the characters and their relationships. I could've literally pull out my yearbook and point to all the characters. I think its kind of fascinating to see a group of kids who've never said a word to each other have to band together and fight for their lives. You watch those social barriers that you put up in real life break down.

BD: I think that’s kind of emblematic of the production as a whole. You guys have managed to cross two genres together, and while that’s hardly unheard of, you do them both justice. You've managed to make a teen comedy and horror movie that are equal parts of each and succeed at both. I think what people are going to look at is how you managed to stand equally with both feet in each genre. It’s a daunting task.

GB: I think its about keeping the zombies a threat and scary all the time and not making fun of the situation. It’s more about the reactions, which is so absurd. I always loved movies like The Goonies. They're reaction is what’s funny. Everything is real threat though, the booby traps.

Joe Ballarini (Writer) : If you watch Monster Squad, those monsters are scary. When I was a kid, Dracula was frightening. They kept those scares as real as possible.

BD: A lot of directors lean more towards the comedy over the gore, when shooting the so-called Zomedy. You guys certainly didn't shy away from the gore.

GB: Well, when you make a zombie movie, it’s never bloody enough. Everyday when we left the set, we were covered in blood. But, you're not making a zombie movie if you're not covered in goo and blood by the days end.

As soon as we got the green light, we contacted Toby Sells (One Missed Call, Blood Car), the special effects guy, and told him what we wanted to do. We went through the script and everything and it was kind of a rush to cast the actors. We had to make matching body parts for everyone.

BD: How long was principal photography and how long was pre-production?

GB: Principal was 35 days and pre-production was 3 months.

Jonathan Spencer (Casting Director & Frank Hammond): At least. We started in Christmas and went until April. We cast over Christmas.

BD: That's not bad though. At least you got 35 days.

GB: That's the tricky thing about shooting nights. 75% of the movie is exterior night so we're up all night. And when the sun comes up, the shoot is over.

JS: There's a lot of excitement too because we're bouncing back between LA and Atlanta. We were casting in both cities and we all live in both cities. Half of the crew is from Atlanta and lived in LA for 15 years and vice versa. So, we had people's heads being shipping from LA to Atlanta and molds being made and general craziness.

BD: You guys shot the film in Rome, Georgia, I know that you, Gregg, are from the Atlanta area. It seems to be like the area is blowing up with this film and Justin’s [Welborn] film The Signal. Was that a factor in shooting in the ATL—knowing that there is so much good stuff coming out of there or was this just a homecoming for you?

GB: Well, I couldn't shoot this in LA without a Hollywood budget. You have to have several million dollars. In Georgia, you get more bang for your buck. There's so much talent up there and great locations.

Justin Welborn (Kyle): The intelligence and amount of work done there is great, and there’s so much less ego. Everyone's working for one another and making the movie you want to make rather than the one someone expects. You are given enough latitude to succeed or fail because of the amount of people that are going to see it. And that’s changing, which is fantastic, because all of that talent is moving and it’s about to pop.

BD: Justin, your character is sort of the rally point in the film and, I mean, you're clearly too old to be in high school. To me, that's the Charlie Sheen moment in Ferris Bueller, because he's like 35 years old sitting in the Principal’s office. But the character is great; did you fight to get this part?

JW: It's one of those things where they had been looking for a while and had tried to cast a number of people. I tried out for the role and they said, “Awesome but you're probably too old.” But, it was great; I was doing my own stunts. I had a convenient Mohawk so that was good. You just have to turn it to your advantage. The character has to by unfunny, crass, tough and all of these things. Every time one of the kids was like, “Glad you're here”, I was thinking about how old he was.

BD: Grayson, you're from the area as well, how did you land the part?

Greyson Chadwick (Lindsey): Basically, Jonathon [Spencer] called my agent and we auditioned a few times. We went to a training audition, which is awesome and I did the Tae-Bo videos so I was really prepped. Other than the fact that I had a giant cyst. I couldn't move my left arm.

JW: That's a lovely story. It popped on screen actually!

GC: I had surgery. It was such a whirlwind and I was so attached to the part. I worked at Starbucks and was sitting in the drive-thru, thinking that the part was cast and I didn't have it. And I was sitting there, saying, “Have a nice day” and I felt so depressed.

BD: With Dance of the Dead on your plate and a few Tyler Perry flicks on DVD, have you left the Starbucks gig?

GC: Oh no, I'm still working three jobs. I'm in LA now though.

BD: Speaking of the band, when you intro the band, you homage the Back to the Future. How much of the “in-jokes” were scripted and how much of it was like, we're here to shoot and it would be cool to do the shot?

JB: We'd be like humming theme songs to different movies. When we did the sewer scene, we were humming the Aliens theme song. When the bleachers are going, we'd be humming the Temple of Doom theme. It helped to do that. We didn't go through like Gus Van Sant's Psycho but we knew what we were doing. We love those movies. We wanted to keep it as fresh as possible. But, I think that’s what helps it work with an audience who loves movies so much. We wanted to make it the movie that does everything you've ever wanted it to do and more.

BD: The zombie exploding-run sequence is about the craziest thing in the world. How did you come up with that?

JB: I wrote zombies launch out of the grave, with a cannon built deep within the ground and thats what got Gregg Bishop to want to make this. He was like, “Dude, I've never seen zombies do that. We need t-shirts.” I wanted a zombie movie to do something different. I was watching old Romero flicks, with them slugging about and I wanted something more fast paced. When we got to that part, we thought it would take 50 people to do this and take forever but that’s one of the reasons we wanted to make the film. But, God bless everyone who figured out how to do it.

BD: Yes, your zombies can drive and talk. They can do anything. You guys have taken the natural progression of zombies from slow to fast to shot out of a cannon!

JB: But there’s noting cooler than breaking the rules and re-inventing. With all of what these zombies are being able to do—they're obviously thinking a little bit more than we're used to.

BD: With the success you had last night, what was your gut reaction coming off of the premiere of the film?

JS: Justin and I were sitting next to each other, I screamed like I was at a concert when the band played. I was just rocked out. When the kids started clobbering the zombies, I cheered.

GB: I mean, Joe and I love the same kind of movies. We love walking out of the theatre and saying “What?”. It's more of an experience than a film. It's like a fun ride, like a roller coaster.