The Film Palace Interview:
Jonas Quastel
By Edward Larsen Terkelsen

Select Jonas Quastel Filmography

Crackerjack (1994) (co-writer)
Listen (1996) (co-writer)
The Untold (a.k.a. Sasquatch) (2002) (co-writer, director)
Ripper 2: Letter from Within (2004) (co-writer, co-director)
Premonition (a.k.a. The Psychic) (2004) (director)
Sub Zero (2005) (writer)
Scourge (2008) (writer, co-producer, director)

A slimy thingamajig sizes up a new host in Jonas Quastel’s The Scourge (2008).

April 2, 2009. An inquisitive cinephile and a moviemaker with a penchant for sci-fi and horror discuss parapsychology, computer-generated imagery, and Bigfoot.

Edward Larsen Terkelsen: The Untold, the first feature that you directed, was re-titled Sasquatch for the home video market. Am I correct in assuming that you had no say in that? 

Jonas Quastel: I guess you’ve listened to the commentary! The decision to re-title the movie Sasquatch was made by the domestic distributor. They probably thought The Untold was too “soft” a title for what they were trying to sell. Many, if not all, of the decisions made towards the end of the postproduction of the film were not mine. Unfortunately, I think that the film that was released, despite it being commercially successful, was misrepresented to the end-users as a slasher-type movie. Our intention from the beginning was to make a throwback homage to the serial adventure films of the ‘30s and ‘40s, and I still believe that had we stayed the course, the film would’ve had a better chance at a broader audience. We were on the right track, but the movie got out of my hands and the rest is history... 

ELT: I noticed in your bio on IMDb that you played a lab tech in Jennifer Eight, a film noir that co-starred the great Lance Henriksen. Did his appearance in The Untold stem from that early collaboration? 

JQ: Actually that was pure coincidence. I didn’t even make the connection until we were halfway through shooting The Untold. Jennifer Eight had been several years in the past, but I do remember being a fan of Lance’s at that time from his roles in Aliens and other films. 

ELT: Where was The Untold shot? 

JQ: The Untold, the main unit footage, was shot in 12 days in Langley, British Columbia at a paintball park. A little known fact is that our set decorators had to paint the trees brown because they were covered in pink paint ball paint for the first 8 feet off the ground. 

ELT: Much of the action in The Untold is presented non-sequentially. Did you set out to make the picture this way or was its structure arrived at in the cutting room? 

JQ: Again, I was not involved in the editing of the film or the decision to present it non-sequentially. I believe that was the wrong way to go, but again it was out of my hands. The original script had a traditional linear structure. The creature was seen very seldom as I do believe in “less is more.” If you watch the movie today, you’ll find that the last 10 minutes or so are very different from the film up to that point. I recall that when that stuff shows up we all sort of went silent during the commentary. I could not believe some of the things I was seeing, especially the look of the Sasquatch at the end of the film. It was so horrific looking, in a bad way, that I did not know where to bury myself. They undertook the re-shoots with an assistant director and it shows. Oops. Unfortunately this stuff happens all the time in the movie business, even with studio films. These days I’m always reluctant to immediately blame the director... 

ELT: Describe Mr. Henriksen’s style of acting. Is he a practitioner of “the Method”?

JQ: He may be. I have not witnessed it. That is probably a question for Lance himself. All I know is that he brings an unbelievable amount of professionalism and experience to the set. He is a great actor and a great friend. I hope it won’t be long until we work together again. 

ELT: The Untold seems to have kicked off a plethora of Bigfoot-related titles: The Unknown (a.k.a. Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch), Sasquatch Hunters (which I rather liked), and the excellent Abominable, to name just a few. Have you seen any of those pictures, and, if so, what are some of your impressions? 

JQ: I saw Sasquatch Hunters just because of the marketing. It was hilarious that the sales company used an image that made it look like it was a sequel to our film. I thought it was really entertaining. Yes, indeed we did kick off the Sasquatch “movement” and are very proud of it. I never caught Abominable, but it does sound pretty interesting and I’m going to be sure to get it. I have written a really exciting sequel to The Untold, but as of yet it’s sitting on the shelf. There may have been a glut of these pictures. 

ELT: The Untold, Sasquatch Mountain, and Abominable all star Lance Henriksen. Has he become the go-to guy for movies about Bigfoot? 

JQ: I don’t know what happened there! All I know is that when his name came up to us, I immediately knew he’d be perfect to play Harlan Knowles. If there’s any human out there who you’d like to encounter Sasquatch and handle himself, it would be Lance! 

ELT: Do you believe in Bigfoot? 

JQ: I don’t disbelieve. 

ELT: Your second directorial effort, The Psychic (a.k.a. Premonition), starred Casper Van Dien as a copper who, after being rescued from the Grim Reaper’s clutches, starts receiving visions of future calamities. Did you research parapsychology for the picture, and, if so, what do you make of the phenomenon? 

JQ: Despite not writing that film, I did do research. Again, this is one of those intangible phenomena. It’s a bit hard for me not to be a skeptic because I come from a family of scientists. I was always taught to believe only what is provable. But I never became a scientist myself and I love the idea that there may be something incredible out there. So, I don’t disbelieve and some of this stuff makes great writing material! 

ELT: What was it like working with Casper Van Dien? 

JQ: Casper and his wife Catherine were a total pleasure. He is very physical and yet an extremely competent actor. I was a big fan of Casper’s from Starship Troopers, a favorite film of mine. He has got something incredibly unique, even a bit superhuman about him, but it doesn’t get in the way of him playing a regular guy. I’ll never forget, there was a scene in the hospital where he realized that his partner had been killed. The scene required him to cry, and before we rolled cameras, Casper asked me which eye I would I prefer the tear came from. I thought he was joking, but, sure enough, when I said I would prefer it was the left one for lighting purposes, that’s what he gave me. 

ELT: The acting values in The Psychic are very strong. I particularly liked Lorena Gale as Dien’s captain. Can you tell me a little bit about her? 

JQ: Lorena Gale is a well-established actor in Canada. She is highly intelligent and a good friend. She has performed in everything from movies of the week to blockbuster films. If you look hard you’ll catch her in many, many movies. 

ELT: Scourge, your most recent picture (and, in my opinion, your very best), touts effects on par with some of the most highly budgeted monster flicks out there. Would you have even attempted to make a film like Scourge without the assistance of CGI? 

JQ: Thanks. I always knew that the creature in Scourge would have to be CG. I have grown very familiar with the process of working in that world over the last few years. We have access to some of the best people in the business in Vancouver, and I knew that despite our small CG budget, companies here rarely get to build a creature from scratch. In most cases, the creature has been pre-designed and all of the “above the line” work has already been done. So, I felt pretty secure that we would be able to tap the talent here despite our modest budget because of the creativity required and the sheer “fun factor” of the job. 

ELT: It’s often impossible to discern what’s real and what’s CG in Scourge, which is probably the highest compliment anyone can pay to a film’s SPFX team. How did these effects wizards come to be chosen for the project? 

JQ: Believe it or not, I actually came to work with Artifex for the first time on The Untold/Sasquatch. They had been doing a lot of “playback” type work, designing interfaces on devices and screens, in other movies. At the time, Adam Stern, whose company it is, had a staff of, I believe, one, and he pretty much single-handedly did all the “creature vision” shots on Sasquatch, as well as all video playback, etc. Since then, Artifex has grown into a substantial company and has done some pretty amazing work. So, when we were crewing up for Scourge, I gave him a call and asked Adam if there was any way he and his company could work within our budgetary constraints. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our mutual “geek factor” kicked in and he was quickly on board. They ended up doing incredible work on the film and have won an award for it.

ELT: If there’s one shot everybody remembers from Scourge, it’s the one where the hero literally knocks the jaw off of one of the creature’s human hosts. And the blood spatter on the camera lens was a magnificent touch! How is a shot like that put together? 

JQ: That shot came very clearly to me while I was writing the script. I knew how to do it and how great it would look. It involves a prosthetic chin and a CG tongue. The blood on the lens was something that came up while we were working on the visual effect. One of the artists had put a few specks of blood on the “lens” and I said, “Go with it! More! More!”

ELT: After it made its way through a long string of nobodies, the parasitic alien in Jack Sholder’s The Hidden happened into the body of a politician with his eyes on the ultimate prize: the Oval Office. If Scourge’s featured beastie had been able to continue its reign of terror, where do you think it would’ve wound up? 

JQ: In my mind, the Scourge was a phenomenon last seen in the Dark Ages when it would thrive on lack of sanitation, no modern medicine, and the proximity of people to each other. I kept thinking, “What if this creature existed at that time?” It would obviously be attributed to the Devil and people would’ve turned the church to deal with it. In my research, I found that there actually were monks whose job it was to dispose of demons. So, I have always thought of this scourge as a mindless and terrible pestilence that somehow people learned how to deal with in the past and is now basically eradicated. 

ELT: The artwork for the DVD box of Scourge is both creepy and weirdly titillating. Who was the artist responsible for that? 

JQ: The artwork on the DVD box was done by some unsung hero in the Lions Gate team and I really love it. It’s great to have a movie that is not misrepresented by the artwork. I was never told who the artist was, but I am a fan! 

ELT: What are some of your favorite creature features? 

JQ: Alien, Aliens, Species, Se7en, The Thing, Predator, Jaws, Tremors, to name a few... 

ELT: Which filmmakers do you most admire and why? 

JQ: James Cameron and Ridley Scott are my favorites by far. Both these directors don’t limit themselves to a genre and think script first. They also make fantastic casting choices. Cameron is a very strong writer and Scott is a great script editor. These guys have done it all. They make spectacle films and take you to other worlds, but retain the humanity of their characters so that the basis of their films are inherently relatable. My dream and goal is to attain as close an experience to theirs pertaining to what they have brought their audiences. 

ELT: Can you give me at least a taste of what your next project might be? 

JQ: It looks like my next film will be a Hitchcock-style project that I wrote called Dark Light. It is something like a cross between What Lies Beneath and Blood Simple. 

ELT: Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I look forward to your next film, and wish you continued success. God bless.  

JQ: Thanks, and keep up the great work!

© Copyright 2009 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.