CANNIBAL CAMPOUT
(1988)

WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE (1989)

FEEDERS
(1996)

TERROR
HOUSE
(1997)

FEEDERS 2: SLAY BELLS
(1998)

INSIDE FEEDERS

by Mark Polonia

Who would have ever thought it could happen? The creators of the sleaze classics "Cannibal Campout" and "Splatter Farm" teaming up to produce not one but two horror features. Well, it did happen. And here is the story behind it all.

In the beginning there was home video.  Then men and women were put upon the earth and told to be fruitful and make movies.  This may sound biblical but thanks to home video many aspiring film makers were able to carve a niche out for themselves. 

I try to keep in contact with as many independents as I can and, on occasion, collaborate on a film. 

I made a call to Jon McBride one afternoon from work.  He was very pleasant to talk with and we struck up a rapport very quickly, although he was a little suspicious of me.  To prove I wasn't someone from the CIA I sent him some Polonia brothers films to show him I was on the level.

After keeping in touch and sharing similar interests (we both had titles handled by the same distributor) we decided, what the hell!  Lets get together and make a movie.   We knew it would have to be done in a short amount of time and be visually interesting as well as have an interesting plot.  We decided to combine the Horror/Sci-fi genres and our project was to be titled "Feeders^".

I quickly fashioned a script about an alien invasion spearheaded by small, bug eyed creatures.  It took about two weeks to write and while Jon liked the script a lot, he was skeptical about how we would pull off some of the scenes required.  I assured him it would be no problem and that everything would work out despite our excruciatingly small budget.

During a pre-production meeting between Jon, my brother and myself, we knew that this was going to be fun.  Sometimes when you get together with other film makers there tends to be lots of egos to deal with but not in this case.  After about two hours we had a real rapport going and felt like we had known each other for years.

We set up a shooting schedule for a week during the summer of July and parted ways. There was much to do.

Two issues needed to be dealt with immediately; special effects and locations.   The script called for an abundance of both.  Phillip Ogden was called upon to create the visual effects needed, including a realistic UFO model, which was created on a computer.  The model was animated over the various backgrounds and given an eerie glow.  We were utilizing the same technology as seen on many shows and movies today, including "Babylon 5" and "Space Above And Beyond".  The effects shots turned out to be quite remarkable and ended up making the movie look much more expensive that it actually was. 

For the aliens themselves, Bill Morrison was contacted to design and construct.   He had done tons of effects for other low budget films and we knew he was dependable.  After phoning him, he sent some drawings of what we had discussed.   The drawings looked great and we gave him the green light.

Bill floored us when he announced that he was glad we liked the design because he already started to make them!  Needless to say, the aliens turned out to be quite realistic and scary.

The day they arrived my wife opened the box and was digging around when she pulled one of the creatures out.  It scared the hell out of her! Scared my kids too.  And our dog.  I was feeling better and better about this project.

Locations would prove to be of a problem then we originally thought.  We would use several state parks, a doctors office, gas station, several homes of friends for interiors, a set built to resemble an alien operating table, and the best location of all, our downtown streets at five in the morning with natural fog and, of course, desolation.

It seemed everything was working out until we heard the weather report.  Four straight days of heavy rain.

Now, a film maker can plan everything to the smallest detail but when it comes to weather there’s absolutely nothing you can do.  There were many day and night exterior scenes planned.  We pressed on and decided not to postpone our shoot. It was time to knuckle down and make things work.

 Day 1

Things got off to a rather slow start, as they often do.  After Jon McBride arrived we immediately drove to one of the state park locations where rain threatened to shut us down.  We set up the camera anyway and rehearsed the scene once or twice. Miraculously, the sky cleared and the sun came out.  The whole shoot was sunny and warm after that.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

After shooting several scenes in the park and driving endlessly around abandoned back roads, we headed over to the building which would be used as the exterior of a doctors office and quickly shot everything we needed.  Maybe a little too quickly as we couldn't risk being at any public location for too long and only had time for one or two takes.  In this case we had to get a shot of the car speeding up to the doctor's office and only had time for two takes, neither of which were perfect.  In the finished movie you can see McBride shut his butt in the car door.  I ended up having to use it in the final film.  It was the best take.

From there we went to the gas station and shot a quick scene at the pump.  And I do mean quick.  The owners weren't too hospitable (we even bought some gas!) and after a half hour they had had enough of us.  We beat it out of there while we were ahead and finished the scene at a nearby station that looked somewhat similar.  The day ended as we filmed exterior night scenes and interiors as our characters search the small house they stumbled across to make sure the aliens are not inside.

We knew it was time to stop for the night when I fell asleep on my feet and dropped a colored light.  We had shot a lot more than we anticipated and I began to feel what it must be like to have been Roger Corman shooting his exploitation movies for A.I.P.

 Day 2

The second day began early.  The crew immediately headed to another state park to shoot bridging scenes early in the script.  A dialogue scene in a moving car was also planned and we decided to shoot it as you would see it in a regular Hollywood movie. We mounted the camera on the hood for two shots and singles then moved inside to shoot straight on angles.  It ended up looking very professional.

At the park several chase scenes were shot and a crucial dialogue scene.  Later that afternoon we shot the actors first encounter with the aliens.  We had secured a camera dolly that would allow us nice, slow, smooth dollies very close to the ground.   A beautiful shot was taken of my brother and McBride moving through brush to take cover from the aliens and the result was stunning.

Operating the alien puppets took more time than we had prepared for but we shot what we had to before the sun went down.  That night we moved back inside to shoot the remainder of the search scenes and another deadly encounter.  This time the alien wasn't so lucky as it was chopped to pieces.

Lighting these scenes was exceedingly difficult.  To keep continuity and also give the impression that there was no power in the house we used several variety of lights and gels and strategically placed them to give us colored shadows on the walls and paint a better looking frame.

The shoot so far was going incredibly smooth.  Fatigue was starting to set in however. After a meal at two thirty in the morning we all managed to get a few hours sleep.

 Day 3

Starting the morning off with a reshoot isn't the best way to start the day.  This particular scene, early in the film, is a discussion between the two leads after they hear a strange radio announcement commenting on strange sightings in the sky.   It seemed to take forever to shoot due to traffic and bumpy roads.   Everyone’s patience became frayed.  A round of complaints erupted as I announced we needed more footage of actors running and after shooting less than I wanted I gave in to the grumbling. 

We tried to shoot the scenes in order and I would not allow the actors to wash or shave to help give their distressed grunginess a realistic look.  It wouldn't have mattered anyway because we never had time to wash. We were constantly on the run.

Insert shots and background plates were shot as some of the cast and crew took a short nap.  In the afternoon the remainder of the day exteriors were completed.  After nightfall a brutal murder was filmed.

After fighting with an alien clone our leads square off and one of them meets the wrong end of a scythe.  We had Hudson sprayers rigged with our own formula of blood and some chicken guts on hand in case we wanted to shoot a disembowelment.  The scene worked great.  The blood sprayed nicely from a throat wound however the chicken guts looked exactly like chicken guts no matter how we shot them so much of that footage was never even used.

 Day 4

At five in the morning everyone piled into the convertible that we had been using as the main vehicle in the film.  We were all so tired that none of us had the energy to get out of bed but we had to get these scenes done.

At the end of the picture the only survivor manages to run into town to find it completely desolated.  The morning fog was still heavy and the town had gas lights that run down the center of the main street.  We positioned our camera on the back of the car and had McBride run behind it all the way down the street screaming.  Some local residents weren't impressed but we didn’t care.  We were making a movie.   We figured if they called the cops we could grab footage of the squad car but we were done after only a half hour.

From there we drove to a field and filmed more running.  All of us could barely stand and focusing the camera in fog is not easy.  We returned home and collapsed for a few more hours.

The remainder of the day would consist of a driving accident that would take us to a doctors office and introduce more characters.  Staging a car collision with a half crazed fisherman was a challenge.  We shot it from is angles including some moving ones.  The doctors office scenes went without a hitch.  The only problem was that the actor playing the fisherman was playing it to the hilt.  He let his dead weight fall on the actors and moving him was a straining ordeal.  The fact that he was sweating like a stuck pig didn't help matters either.

Upon completion of these key scenes we moved on to the only set constructed for the movie.  The interior of the ship for a harrowing experiment sequence.  The set was plain but it worked.  Strange lighting and filters helped add to the nightmarish quality of the scene.

Jon McBride parted early as all his scenes were finished.  He later reported to me he was so exhausted he had to pull over on the side of the road and sleep to keep from causing an accident. 

The remainder of the shoot consisted of the remaining fisherman scenes, the doctors murder, an unlucky forest rangers discovery of the saucer, and his daughter and her friend (who met our leads earlier at the gas station) ending up as feeder meals.

An additional day was needed just to work with the puppets as there wasn't enough time to shoot them properly during the filming blitz.  Only shots of them with the actors were filmed and hours upon hours of alien footage was shot on the final day.  We wrapped six and one half days later, confident we had a mini-classic.

 I won't bore you with post-production details because it is usually a slow and tedious process.  I do prefer post over production though where it’s easier to have more control over circumstances.  This is definitely where it all comes together.  Careful post can turn a turkey into a really fine movie.  This is an area I would caution budding film makers not to rush or short change.  Believe me, you start to view your raw footage and your stomach sinks!  "What am I going to do?!" you think.  "This won't cut together!"

But it always does (well, almost always) and if you did your homework, shot plenty of cut always and different angles on the set, you'll be in fine shape.

"Feeders" turned out to be a really slick movie.  With all the effects added and the sound FX inserted we were pleasantly surprised and quite happy with the end result.