StrangeStuff: Did growing up in Ohio help you with your career?

Bookwalter: I don't know about that, but I think it makes me a more practical and resourceful person. There's something unique about growing up in the Midwest that people out here just don't understand. And let's face it...I would never have gotten the nice helping hand I did on THE DEAD NEXT DOOR if I had been born and raised on the west coast. Detroit, Michigan is only a 4-hour drive from Akron, and we Midwesterners have to stick together. (laughs)

StrangeStuff: Do you have any desire to work for a major studio?

Bookwalter: I think I did at one time, but that's long since faded. Every once in awhile I'll change that opinion, such as this past weekend when I saw BATMAN BEGINS (which kicks ass, by the way). Here's an indie director who took his big-studio chance and came out with both guns blazing! But for the most part I think working at the studio level is creatively stifling in many ways. It's all so corporate and "bottom line"...the studios — especially these days — care more about asses in seats than they do about creating entertainment. But hey, it would be nice to get a big fat paycheck and spend a year or more on one project for a change, I suppose. (laughs)

StrangeStuff: What part of the filmmaking process do you enjoy the most?

Bookwalter: That's an easy one...post-production! I hate shooting movies...being on set is too much like being in combat with an invisible enemy. You spend every day waiting to see if you'll get out of the jungle alive, the toilet facilities generally suck and the food is crappy for the most part. By contrast, in post-production I get to sit on my fat ass in a cozy chair in an air-conditioned room and look at a monitor all day. Or better yet, during a sound mix I can sit my aforementioned fat ass on a couch and let somebody else deal with it. (laughs) Plus, for me the movie truly comes alive during post...it's far more of a high for me than shooting it, for sure.

StrangeStuff: What part of the process do you find the most challenging?

Bookwalter: I suppose production, for many of the reasons that I just outlined. Especially when there's very little prep or rehearsal time in advance, because you have to think on your feet and be ready for anything. I think I'm pretty good at that part of it — I'd probably make a better documentary filmmaker, honestly! But really I think the prep work is pretty challenging, when you have time for it. It's more stressful to me because the decisions you make on casting, locations, crew and everything else affect the way everything else goes down. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch!

StrangeStuff: What is the definitive Bookwalter film?

Bookwalter: Well of course I'm going to say, "The one that hasn't been made yet." (laughs) I don't think I've made a "definitive" film yet, but if I was forced to pick one, I'd say OZONE...mainly because it's the closest to what I thought it would be, and my fingerprints are all over it in so many ways (including all of the lighting and cinematography). But really, none of my movies have turned out exactly the way I hoped they would, despite my best efforts.

StrangeStuff: How valuable is film school to a filmmaker's career?

Bookwalter: It depends on what you want to do. I think for technical positions like the cinematographer, it's essential. Maybe for assistant directors, script supervisors and even producers to a lesser extent. The problem with film school is that it doesn't teach you the real-world experience of making a movie. For instance, on this little $2,500 video movie I made in 1991 called KINGDOM OF THE VAMPIRE, I was setting up a shot in extremely cramped quarters. I happened to turn the wrong way and my knee popped out of whack...I passed out! This was on the first day of the shoot! I had to direct the rest of that movie from a wheelchair, which wasn't easy since we were shooting a big chunk of it in an old three-story house. Film school can't prepare you for what to do in those kind of events.

StrangeStuff: How do you typically get your scripts? Do you still write?

Bookwalter: The only produced screenplays I wrote 100% are my first two films, THE DEAD NEXT DOOR and ROBOT NINJA. I think ROBOT NINJA was such a gut-wrenchingly bad experience that I lost confidence in my writing and sort of gave it up. However, I've done rewrites on everything that I've directed, to varying degrees. Usually if you see my name billed with another writer, it's because I did some extensive rewrites on it before I got on the set.

I'm really bad about reading scripts...I don't have the patience for it, especially if I can't visualize myself making it. So I have a general policy of discouraging people from sending me their scripts. I've actually had people get pissed off at me because they send me their script and I never read it! Most of the for-hire stuff that I've done has been written by guys like Matthew Jason Walsh, because he's one of the few people I know who can write under the deadline pressures and still crank out something worthwhile.

These days I'm trying to motivate myself to get back to writing my own stuff. It's funny because years ago when I was writing everyone kept cutting me down for the bad dialogue or whatever, which is another reason why I just said "Fuck it" and gave up. Now, all these years later, people keep coming back going on and on about how cool THE DEAD NEXT DOOR or whatever is, and I just have to laugh. Where were you all those years ago when I threw in the towel? (laughs)

StrangeStuff: How often are you on the convention circuit?

Bookwalter: A few years ago it was quite frequently...maybe 4-6 per year! So far this year I haven't been to any of them, but I have three in a row coming up. They're not quite as cool as they were 10 years ago, and with the advent of the Internet and a million other ways to buy DVDs, they're not very financially lucrative, either. Most of the con organizers will only comp you a table, maybe the hotel, but rarely all the travel expenses. So with the poor attendance and the fact that we often don't make enough to cover the cost of the airfare, hotel and food, it's become not worth it to go to most of them.

StrangeStuff: What are your favorite conventions to attend?

Bookwalter: I'd have to say Flashback Weekend in Chicago and Twisted Nightmare Weekend in Cleveland. The folks who run those shows are very nice and gracious people and they encourage us to have screenings and other things that they know will help promote their shows to our fans.

StrangeStuff: Where do you stand on the digital vs. film issue?

Bookwalter: That one should be obvious from looking at my filmography...I was shooting on video back in 1991 when most people wanted to slap a straitjacket on me! (laughs) It wasn't until I made POLYMORPH in 1996 on the then-brand-new Sony VX-1000 Mini-DV camera that the technology finally started to catch up with me. Believe me, I was a big film snob when I started out, but the simple fact is that shooting on video (or digital) allows you to get closer to what I consider the ideal — I wish filmmaking was as intimate as a painter with his canvas. I hate having to deal with a lot of people and their individual egos, so for me digital is the way to eliminate a few more people from the set. A few months ago I bought one of the new Sony FX-1 HDV cameras that records HD on Mini-DV. The picture quality is amazing...I wish I had that camera 10 years ago! Film is dead, long live film. (laughs)

StrangeStuff: Did you ever think about selling Tempe Video "Stay Sick" t-shirts on your site? Will you send us a free one for the idea? Just kidding, we'll buy one and write it off as a business expense!

Bookwalter: (Laughs) Well, seeing as how I blatantly stole "Stay sick!" from the old Cleveland horror host Ghoulardi, I don't think it would really be appropriate. But we are long overdue for a new Tempe T-shirt, so you never know. ;-)

StrangeStuff: The Swedish Horror Society did an interview with you on Wicked Splatter that started out "Aloha Mr. Bookwalter." How surreal is that? Does the reach of your films surprise you?

I recently joined MySpace.com on a lark, and one night I did a random search to see who had THE DEAD NEXT DOOR listed as one of their favorite movies. I was shocked to find almost 200 people had it listed! That may not seem like that many, but it makes me wonder how many more people on there dig the movie but not quite enough to list it. One gal from the U.K. even made her profile a shrine to that movie...she used a picture of the Mercer zombie as her background, her "About Me" section was just a synopsis of the movie and her headline was a line from the movie! And she had the flick listed just after HALLOWEEN and the STAR WARS trilogy, so that was very surreal and quite flattering. (laughs)