Interviewed by Michael Juvinall
Indie filmmaker Jason Hull made a big splash a couple of years ago with his hit film, Krampus: The Christmas Devil (2013). Now, writer/director Hull is back and planning a sequel entitled Krampus: The Devil Returns and he will be amping it up quite a bit this time around. Hull is pulling out all the stops for this film. He’s added a bigger cast with some huge names from the horror scene, such as Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder. If you liked the first film, it sounds like you’re really going to love this sequel. Hull promises to have more of everything that fans have been asking for.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Jason Hull as we talked about the sequel, Krampus: The Devil Returns and why this film is going to be huge compared to the first movie.
Horror Society: Your last film, Krampus: The Christmas Devil actually turned out to be a pretty big hit for you. It garnered a lot of acclaim from film festivals and reviewers. At what point did you know you wanted to do a sequel?
Jason Hull: We had actually talked about possibly doing a sequel when we were kind of in the middle of making the first one. It was more so after we showed the movie at the Action on Film Film Festival out in Burbank, which would have been in August of 2013. After then we knew we had a little bit of buzz. It was a combination of us maybe putting out a better product with people having fun with it and starting to see that Krampus was becoming more of a yuletide icon at this point. There was such a good reception to the first film and at the time when we actually decided to do a part 2 was about the same time [Michael] Daugherty said he was going to do his Krampus movie.
Horror Society: Since you mentioned it, since you made your first film, Krampus: The Christmas Devil, it seems like everyone is jumping on the Krampus bandwagon and I wanted to know your thoughts on that.
Jason Hull: [Laughing] I guess it depends on what day you catch me to be honest. It’s just going to happen either way. On my phone I have a notes section for ideas for future films, we were in the middle of The Four, which would have been around 2010 or 2011 and I had this idea then and put in my notes then. I really like Dougherty’s stuff so I’m excited to see his. I was not happy about Kevin Smith. I’ll be one of the first in line to see Dougherty’s in the theater and I’ll try to keep an open mind when I do go see it so it doesn’t impact anything that we do. We’ll be right in the middle of starting to film about the time that comes out in the fall. There was a lot of stuff that came out after we popped ours out and I know it was just coincidental; I think Krampus is just becoming more of a Christmas icon now.
Horror Society: Right, it just seems like now were seeing Krampus everywhere. I’ve been seeing books comes out, the films you mentioned, it’s just all over the place now.
Jason Hull: He’s one of my favorite characters, he’s so cool and so unique, it’s kind of fun to be a part of it.
Horror Society: There’s nothing better, he’s right up there with the Grinch in my book.
Jason Hull: Yeah, exactly.
Horror Society: You’re still early in pre-production on the sequel which is called Krampus: The Devil Returns. You have some pretty big names attached to the sequel, people such as Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder. How did those two names come about?
Jason Hull: I’ve always wanted to work with Moseley. I’ve been a fan of his since Texas Chainsaw 2. I have always kind of thrown that name around. I approached him and he gave me the name of his manager and I got a hold of her and we have been talking on and off. She liked me and she liked the story and there you go. It’s the same with Kane, she represents both of them and we were talking and I told her I’d love to have Kane Hodder, That’s how we ended up with those two. Moseley is a big one for me; I’ve always been a fan of his. I’m really looking forward to having him around.
Horror Society: Yeah, with those two, it should be interesting.
Jason Hull: We’re going to have Melantha Blackthorne, who’s going to be sort of like his girlfriend, I guess. We’re going to bring in a lot of actors this time around. It’s not going to be your typical indie film; we’re actually bringing people in. With budget restraints, we’re trying to do it realistically in that we’re bringing in people that are nearby, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Michigan, and Montreal. We’re using people that are within driving distance so we don’t have to fly them in. Obviously, we have to fly in Bill and Kane, but if we keep it to those few, we’ll be okay.
Horror Society: So will Krampus: The Devil Returns have a bigger budget than the first film did?
Jason Hull: Yes, it has to. Unfortunately, I think we’re at the point, at least us as a company, that’s our and every indie film’s biggest restraint, is the budget. The only way we’re going to progress and make a better film is to have a bigger budget. Sadly, that’s the way it is. For the last two or three films, it has come out of my pocket or several of ours pockets to fund the film and that’s a big restraint on how well or how good we do. Sadly, but that’s what it boils down to. I hate that it comes down to money, I really do. A lot of us work for free, myself included. I don’t get paid, a lot of our actors work for free and our crew work for free and our makeup people work for free and stuff like that. What do we need to raise to make a better film? It really boils down to bringing in better actors and a better crew and that’s where we’re at this time. That’s why we had to go with the crowdfunding thing, at least for now, to kind of get some kind of a base in what we can do. I’ve been against crowdfunding forever but I really like these guys that we’re dealing with so we’ll see how it goes.
Horror Society: That’s the changing face of indie filmmaking. Everyone is going to the crowdfunding now and really, it doesn’t give smaller budgeted films any choice to go that route.
Jason Hull: I don’t really like seeing some of these bigger filmmakers that are using crowdfunding as their crutch too. You’re taking away from what we need, they can raise a $2 million dollar budget if they need to, and we can’t. They don’t know how to stretch a dollar. A hundred thousand dollars for us is a million dollars to them. I can stretch a hundred grand. God bless the people we’ve signed on. We’ve signed on some really cool makeup people, our DP is awesome, and we have a cool crew this time around. These guys are all taking pay cuts.
Horror Society: I completely agree with you on the crowdfunding stuff. There are some people doing crowdfunding, some of the bigger names that have really no business doing crowdfunding. They can get money on their own and it does take away from the lower budgeted films. I feel like a lot of those are taking advantage of the process.
Jason Hull: It is what it is and that’s fine. I think it’s lost its purpose. It really was just for us, the small guys and it just doesn’t seem like all that anymore.
Horror Society: It seems like the whole film industry is changing and I don’t think it’s going in a good direction.
Jason Hull: I guess there are some positives for the film industry now. Thirty years ago, someone like me couldn’t make a movie on 35mm. I wouldn’t be able to afford to make a movie, it just wasn’t doable. I think creativity wise you’re getting better stuff now because people are able to do stuff. You can make a movie on your iPhone now.
Horror Society: I know you can’t give away anything but what are we going to be seeing in Krampus: The Devil Returns? Are we going to see more blood? Are we going to see More Krampus, More bodies, what’s ahead for the film?
Jason Hull: Some of our fan reviews from people that watched the first film didn’t like the fact there wasn’t enough blood, not enough Krampus and not enough Santa Claus, so we’re going to have all of that…more. It’s going to be a continuation of the first one but not a direct continuation in that; you don’t have to see the first one to understand what’s going on with this one. The story will stand on its own. I’m trying to be meticulous when I’m writing this to not have the first story in my head. In other words, I know what happened in the first one but I want to make sure that if you’re watching it, you don’t have to know what happened in the first one.
There will be more blood, more guts, more Krampus, less Jeremy-less of that kind of a story, less kind of a chase thing. Jeremy after the last one went into hiding after his family died. Krampus is now back and he’s running crazy and nobody knows why. He’s taking all the kids; he’s grabbing way too many kids. They go out and they search and find Jeremy and the ending is probably one of the most twisted endings that I’ve read in a long time and I didn’t write it, so I can’t give myself credit for it. A.J. Leslie came up with the ending for it. The ending is great, it’s really just messed up. Yeah, we’ll have everything that everybody wants. It’s going to be darker, colder; I want it to have that feel. It will be a little bit more of a Christmas film in that it will be a darker, colder kind of shot.
Horror Society: Will you be filming again in Pennsylvania?
Jason Hull: Yeah, we’ll be out here. This area is receptive to indie filmmakers. Everyone is great out here as far as giving you locations. We’ve got land, there’s plenty of land, there’s plenty of snow. It’s hilly, it’s mountainous, and there are lakes, whatever you want we got it here.
We’ll start filming in November, there are a couple of scenes we need to film before Christmas hits and then most of our filming will probably be in January of 2016.
Horror Society: What kind of release date are you shooting for?
Jason Hull: We will probably release it to the public in November of 2016. The actual premiere will be in Eerie, Pa. in November of 2016.
Horror Society: Just one more question for you. If you could change anything about the first film, Krampus: The Christmas Devil, what would you change?
Jason Hull: I think you’ve touched on it already. I think the biggest thing I would change would be it needs more Krampus. I think stepping back; I think I realize the story is about Krampus, it’s not about Jeremy. I think we made it too much of a cop film as opposed to a Christmas horror film. So that’s really the biggest thing I would change, make it more of the monster, more of Krampus, that’s what everybody wants. There are some production things I would change, but that’s all in retrospect and that’s just growing as a company. Much of that at the time were budget restraints, you know. I really am non-negotiable this time, we’re having a DP, we’re having a makeup effects team, not just one or two people. It’s just things like that we really need to change and we’re just learning as we go. We’ve surrounded ourselves with good people, everyone gets along with us.
Horror Society: Exactly, it’s all about the fun first.
Jason Hull: Our makeup effects guy is really awesome. We’re really going to have a monster that people are going to think is cool, that’s how he should look.
Horror Society: I guess you just prompted me to ask you one more question. Is the Krampus going to be totally redesigned or will it be similar to the look of the Krampus from the first film?
Jason Hull: I think we have to keep it similar but it’s going to be totally redesigned. It’s going to be similar so it can jive with each other but it’s going to be totally different, he’s going to be able to move his mouth. It’s not going to be a slip on mask; he’s going to have some makeup work done to him. I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the fact we’re changing him a little bit.
Horror Society: Everything sound awesome, the first film was great. Congratulations on all your success for that one.
Jason Hull: Thank you for all your support. You’ve been a big supporter of us and we do appreciate it.
Horror Society: It’s my pleasure.
Jason Hull: It’s been a different year for us; I mean Krampus kind of put us on the map. We’re working on all our flaws and when we’re done with this one we’ll see more flaws and we’ll work on those again.
Horror Society: I’ll be looking forward to how this film turns out; I’ll be keeping a close eye on it. Thanks for talking with me, I really appreciate it.
