ManlyMovie Talks To Director Jeremy Wooding

I do not remember the last time I watched a werewolf movie, but perhaps the coming weeks might be a good time to return to the genre if you are in the same boat, with the upcoming release of werewolf thriller Blood Moon.  Director Jeremy Wooding and ManlyMovie caught up with each other recently to discuss this movie, and others like it.  Blood Moon has a shelf date of September 1st.

Blood Moon covers a subgenre of horror – Werewolves, that doesn’t get as much coverage as others. For example the zombie craze, why is that?

I think the werewolf pack is back! Not just because of Twilight or Wolverine, but because more filmmakers are interested in the dark half of human nature which isn’t the Undead. Vampires and zombies are essentially walking corpses, whereas werewolves are alive and kicking. Vampires and zombies are against nature; werewolves are nature. Werewolves don’t want to tear anyone’s throat out; they just can’t help it. Lycanthropy, is an expression of “the thorough and primitive duality of man”, as the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson put it.

Well how did you intend to keep Blood Moon fresh and unique?

We major on our werewolf legend being based in First Nations myth. Our werewolf-shapeshifters, called Skinwalkers, are not just men transforming into beasts. The Skinwalkers have their own, perhaps evil, agenda. And our werewolf lore is a bit different – we depart from the European idea of being bitten and then transforming. I think you have to reinvent myths to keep them fresh but also you have to stay true to the essence of creature legends.

Were there any particular movies or works you took inspiration from for the movie?

The Thing and Stagecoach were the scriptwriter’s starting points. I was influenced by an American Werewolf in London, Dog Soldiers and Wild Bill.

Do you have any plans for a sequel?

It seems that we have actually made an ‘origins movie’ because audiences immediately want to see what happens next to our hero Calhoun. So, yes we are working on Blood Moon 2. Perhaps I’ll get to shoot in the desert next time!

What are the different challenges between directing for television, for example multiple episodes of one series and directing a feature movie?

In TV you are under far more pressure schedule-wise, and you have far less control over the creative side of things. There is a real challenge to shooting so much story in TV (often with multiple cameras) and keeping production values high, but that has its own rewards too – fast and creative. And TV is more instant – you have to wait a longer time for movies to come out.

What’s next on your agenda?

I’m putting the finance together at the moment for another gothic excursion. This time into haunted house/ghost story territory. I love making genre/horror-fantasy films as it deals with realms of the imagination and it’s pure cinema.