Andrew Jordan Interview

I first heard about Andrew Jordan’s films THINGS while discussing the worst movies ever made with Ed Brisson (director of GRAVEYARD). Don’t get me wrong though, we were using it as a term of endearment in regards to those types of movies that we consider “So Bad It’s Good”. TROLL 2, CRAZY FAT ETHEL and ROCK N’ ROLL NIGHTMARE fall into the SBIG category and according to Brisson, THINGS should be at the very top of that list. Through the years I have tried to get my hands on a copy of the movie but to this day have still yet to see it.

A few weeks ago I received an email from Barry J. Gillis, the writer of THINGS, and I realized my search would soon be over. Gillis and Jordan are working on an independent DVD of THINGS set to be released in the upcoming months. I wanted to ask Jordan some questions but I wanted to watch the film first. After a brief back and forth through email, we decided a before and after interview would be an interesting approach. So before I watched THINGS I sent Jordan some general questions. Check back in the next little while to see the post-watching-THINGS section of the interview.

Bavota San: What was happening around 1989 that made you feel you needed to
make something like THINGS?

Andrew Jordan: I had actually started making super 8 movies in grade 5 or 6. I had watched an interview with Willis O’Brien, animator of the original King Kong, on TV Ontario’s Saturday Night At The Movies. He explained the concept of stop motion animation in such a way that even a child could understand. I decided that I’d like to try doing it for a school project (which I did). It was just a series of stop motion clips some of which were horror inspired. Over the years I had been involved with a couple of other films that were never finished including one called Brutal Violence which was made in partnership with Barry J. Gillis. We just wanted to make it as violent as possible but we didn’t finish it partially due to the fact that we ran out of victims we could use for it. A couple of years later I got the film bug again. This time I made sure that we would have what I thought would be enough money to complete it and slowly put together a plan on how to successfully do it so that it would not be beyond our means.

BS: How did you raise the budget (if there even was one)?

AJ: I initially convinced my parents to put up $15,000 dollars, which I thought would be enough at the time. This was primarily to cover equipment, film stock and processing. As we actually started filming we needed more and more money. We don’t actually know the final budget but we estimate that it was around $40,000. The rest of the money came from my parents, Barry J. Gillis and myself.

BS: What was it like making the film? Any horror stories?

AJ: Generally everything that could go wrong did go wrong. There were so many instances but here are a couple that come to mind.

During one of the kitchen scene days I almost electrocuted myself. My chair leg had cut into a power cord and the metal legs were electrified. If I touched them I would have had a nasty shock. The power eventually traveled through the legs and through a cable to our shotgun microphone, blowing it up. We couldn’t shoot for the rest of the day because we had no other mikes.

We used so much fake blood that the floor tiles and rug would stick to people’s feet and the tiles would come unglued off the floor. Also, it started to smell horribly as some of the creatures had organic matter inside their bodies that started to rot.

BS: What was the initial re-action when the film first came out? What was your original re-action?

AJ: Prior to finishing editing the film we were showing people a trailer that made the film look like a very serious horror film. So when they saw the film they were shocked in both good ways and bad. Some people hated the film but we found that many people found the film incredibly funny (both for the right and wrong reasons). I think Barry and myself both disliked the film at the time primarily because we were so close to it and we also knew all the scenes we could have done better.

BS: What is it like when you watch the film now?

AJ: I can now watch the film with the objective of an outsider, as so much time has passed since we made it. I laugh at all the inept things that we did and sometimes I can remember something interesting that happened during a particular days shoot.

BS: I haven’t seen the film yet so I don’t really know what to expect.
What do you usually say to someone who hasn’t seen it and is about to
watch it?

AJ: You should get one of those William Castle insurance plans in case watching this film causes death.

BS: Why was it the only film you ever made?

AJ: It was so difficult to make and time consuming that thinking of making another film was a scary proposition. Barry J. Gillis made WICKED WORLD and at one point some of the people behind THINGS (including myself) started working on a film called EVIL ISLAND. It was never completed as one of our production partners (Glenn Orr) decided he wanted to quit the project.

BS: What made you want to revisit the film and finally get it out on DVD?

AJ: We’ve had many people asking us to release a DVD version over the years. Barry J. Gillis and his enthusiasm for the project was probably the deciding factor. He put up our website www.things1989.com and has come into contact with people from all over the world who share his enthusiasm. It’s always nice to find another “THINGS-ite” a newly coined term describing people who love and/or are obsessed with the movie.