Horror Film School is a feature in which talent in front of and behind the camera share the ins and outs of creating the biggest onscreen scares.
Eddie Alcazar’s feature film debut “Divinity” is a lot of things scene-to-scene: a love story; an examination of how a father’s legacy can impact his son; a creature feature; a black and white sci-fi throwback; a stop motion masterpiece. Utilizing his low budget as a way to spark creativity, writer and director Eddie Alcazar successfully develops his dystopian vision of the future in which society is obsessed with the titular drug, which promises everlasting youth. Yet the director pauses when asked if he’d consider his dynamic midnight movie to be “weird.”
“I never really think about that too much,” he says. “‘Is this a commercial film or not?’ That’s a big thing I sometimes think about. It depends on so many things that make me a bit dizzy. I just go and flow off of instinct and what I feel like would be cool to see and that I haven’t seen already. Ultimately, it is an exploration to see if some of these things would work right if we execute them. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t — that’s where the weirdness comes from.”
Audiences are sure to get their minds expanded by “Divinity,” which hits theaters today and boasts a fascinating cast, including Stephen Dorff, Bella Thorne, Scott Bakula, Karrueche Tran, Moises Arias and Jason Genao. Alcazar chatted with PvNew about how he was able to get his unique script to the big screen and express his vision to collaborators along the way.
DON’T offer actors the same old parts they always play
Alcazar wanted to give his cast new challenges, and they were eager to take the ride with him. For example, Dorff plays the increasingly monstrous Jaxxon Pierce, the corrupt owner of Divinity, which was developed by his brilliant father (Bakula).
“Dorff and I knew each other before, and when I talk to people, I always create a role for them in a way that I feel could help them creatively express what they want to,” Alcazar says. “For his role, I was trying to think of, ‘How can I make the most evil character ever?’ He plays it so well: Kind of quirky and nerdy and weird at the beginning, but then you see what he’s doing. At the same time, he’s seeing his father dying in front of him, and that’s what motivated a lot of his choices.”
DO consider players who are unconventional choices
When showing people who were buff from using Divinity, Alcazar wanted “the biggest muscly guys and girls out there” to pop onscreen.
“You just go to Venice Beach and there are so many,” he says. “There’s a scene with [four-time Mr. Universe and actor] Michael O’Hearn and inside his house is this bodybuilder. He was like a crazy find because Mike is huge, right? And then you see next to him this 6’10” Russian. I’ve never seen a guy in person that huge before, and fully ripped too. It didn’t even seem like real, and that’s what attracts me to make something like this is: To just be inspired by, ‘These guys are real, and that makes me motivated.'”
DO examine the big ideas that you’re obsessing over
Alcazar says he drew inspiration for “Divinity” from what he sees as happening in the world right now.
“The whole concept of immortality, or just longevity, how people are trying to live forever: This is happening right now with all these tech moguls,” he says. “They’re trying to solve that and figure out how to live forever. So I was going down that rabbit hole. It brings up a lot of interesting philosophical questions of why people want to live forever.”
DON’T let a lack of funds compromise your vision.
One of Alcazar’s favorite parts of “Divinity” is the climactic final fight, which was filmed in stop motion animation because of fiscal restrictions.
“I couldn’t figure out a way to do the final battle in a live-action way without using green screen,” he says. “Coming from a visual effects background, it was going to be dizzying. I thought, ‘How can we do this fresh? What tool sets do I have that could bring this alive?’ I’ve been so intrigued with stop motion, and with “The Vandal,” the short film I did before this, I explored it a lot. But this was the first time I’d ever done fighting, so I was immersed in trying to figure out what makes a fight scene work. I tried it in so many variations.”
DON’T quit, no matter how hard things get
Alcazar’s key advice is simple yet profound: Filmmaking is hard, and the best way to get your vision onscreen is to just keep pushing.
“It’s in everybody’s hands to do unique stuff and experiment,” he says. “Just don’t let anything stand in your way from making the first step forward, because that’s always the most daunting thing: Taking that first step and committing yourself. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re getting into, but the biggest thing is not to quit. You have to kind of eliminate that from your head when you’re trying to make a film. You work any way possible, however long this is going to take, just finish it in some way.”
