TWS Week of Horror Day 5: Dom Frank [Interview]

When scrolling through Dom Frank’s credits on IMDB, you may not see too many listed. But, if you really take a closer look, you will discover that you have stumbled upon someone who may be a real god damned genius. Especially when it comes to the world of horror. I swear to you, this man will someday be the Woody Allen of horror filmmaking. His two largest offerings of note to date, The Church and Apnea, are both amazing films that are truly unique. More unique than most of the films you probably already consider unique. There has been a sort of stagnation in the horror world where there is no real yearning to come up with an ENTIRELY original story, but would rather just try to move in on an idea that has been done, and the filmmaker will make it their own. Which is fine. But, originality is not something to be ignored. And Dom Frank has done it. Twice. After you spend some time reading this great interview below, it would definitely behoove you to check out his amazing films, and I guarantee you are going to be left yearning for whatever he will do next.

So, folks, here is Dom Frank!

What made you want to be a filmmaker? And more specifically, what made you want to get into the world of horror?

Since I was a kid I have always enjoyed the art of storytelling. Also being able to let your imagination run wild and actually visualize it is one of the things that attracted me to horror.

Can you tell us a bit about Apnea? It seems like a very clever piece of art. Where did this idea come from?

Actually one of my producers is a pulmonologist and he deals a lot with sleep disorders and sleep medicine. It came from some of the crazy events that people, who are battling sleep medicine, have to deal with. We are all fans of horror so I decided to flip it into a story. At this time we are actually in the process of beginning casting so that we can reshoot the entire film, this time with a few names attached.

I am also fascinated with The Church, which also seems like a very interesting film. How was it taking on the religious aspect in the world of horror?

Very challenging. We filmed in an actual church so there were certain things we couldn’t do but , we were able to make up for it with creative additions to the script . So the filmed morphed more into a religious thriller with horror-esque elemtents and my team is very happy how it turned out. The idea came from issues that a lot of older churches face – old buildings and developers looking to gobble them up. Then sprinkle in the element of sinful humans and you have tons of issues to create a thought provoking yet uneasy environment that even the most hard-nosed religious person can grasp and enjoy. I will be announcing distribution details in the near future!

So, what is next for you? Any other future projects in the works?

Besides reshooting Apnea, I have a TV pilot that I wrote and directed that I am beginning to shop around. I have a few other films in the pipeline as well so keep your eyes out for them!
So, do you have any big plans for this coming Halloween? Any traditions?

No traditions for Halloween. I usually just people watch to catch the coolest costumes that people can come up with. And of course, hand out candy to the kids. Believe it or not, I am very easily spooked, which is why I like doing the spooking. LOL.
What is your favorite scary movie?

Jeepers Creepers. So much that I even got the same editor to edit my film. Ed Marx. I have learned so much about horror and directing just by editing this film that Apnea will be a game changer for me as far as horror presentations.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

I just smiled this morning when I watched the dialog fixes for The Church because I was happy that they were able to use the production lines instead of ADR lines for a scene that we filmed in a noisy bar.

Some more stills from The Church, you have to watch this fucking movie: