David Blyth [Interview]

Hello All!  And welcome to Day 2 of Trainwreck’d Society’s 2nd Annual Week of Horror.  We have a special treat, and some special involvement on this interview.  We are very excited to showcase a brilliant horror/thriller filmmaker known as David Blyth.  Our dear friends at the wonderful PR company October Coast  have been constantly updating us with the latest in hottest in horror, suspense, and so much more.  And we couldn’t be any more excited about them turning us on to both the brilliant new film Ghost Bride, but also the films amazing creator David Blyth.

Mr. Blyth has been working as a filmmaker for over 40 years, and has stacked up some very nice credentials on the world of art house style horror that pushes the limits just about as far as they can go.  With films like Wounded, Exposure, and Death Warmed Over.  Not to mention an almost unrelated, but super cool, run of episodes of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

And from what I can gather, the New Zealand based Mr. Blyth may have created his finest film to date with Ghost Bride, which is “a dark modern fairy tale intertwining modern cross cultural relationships and ancient Chinese superstition.”  And we are being told that “though no less disturbing, Ghost Bride is more of a supernatural thriller than a horror movie like David Blyth’s previous effort Wounded.”  And hey, we are not opposed to breaking the mold every once in a while.  So we are already big fans of this project.  And with being said, please help us give a warm welcome to our next interviewee, Mr. David Blyth!  Enjoy!

Ghost Bride hits DVD in November. Has this been a long time coming for you?

I started working on the script for Ghost Bride in 2011 and we shot the film in 2013.
This was my tenth feature film.

still from Ghost Bride

Do you find it easy to watch your own work – or are you too critical?

When I watch my films I am aware of my own compromises and mistakes but try to see them as moments in time full of conscious and unconscious story telling.

What makes a good horror film?

Good characters that you can follow in a tight convincing story line with lots of unexpected shocks.

Do you remember the first one you saw and what impression it made on you?

Halloween by John Carpenter was the first major horror film that completely opened my mind to a world of possibilities in horror.

still from Ghost Bride

Where did the idea come from for the film?

I found a website on the internet dealing with Asian Paranormal investigations and it featured a transcript of a Ghost Bride ceremony, where a young recently deceased male was joined in marriage with another dead female and then placed in a double coffin in the ground. The theory behind this practice is that if the young man’s spirit is married for eternity he won’t come back and annoy the living bringing them bad luck.

Have you discovered you’re a loyal fan base for the film?

Ghost Bride is more a supernatural romance than a hard core splatter film like my last horror film Wound. So Ghost Bride has a much wider audience appeal than Wound.

The film is premiering on DVD in the states; do you think there’ll be a time where we’ll even need – or have – a cinema?

Most films seem to be bypassing the multiplex these days.  There will always be cinemas like we have museums today for watching spectacular storytelling, but for the bulk of people in the digital age the new platforms for viewing cinema are now on personal devices.

still from Ghost Bride

The film has been getting some good publicity over the past month or so, is that a testament to how popular the horror genre is?

Ghost Bride has a unique story line that deals with the different concepts around marriage in the West and the East. Where in the West you can only be married when you are alive and in the East where you can be married after death for eternity.

Learn more about Mr. Blyth, his work, and the upcoming Ghost Bride at the following sites:

http://www.ghostbridemovie.com
http://www.woundmovie.com
http://www.davidblyth.com