FilmShaft Exclusive! Director Shaun R. Smith Discusses The 4th Reich

Published on March 16, 2010 by Martyn Conterio   ·   View Comments

Once in a while a movie comes along that makes you sit up and take notice. The 4th Reich has developed, much like a marauding disease, into something of a passion for Filmshaft. It’s good to give coverage and support to films that aren’t the usual run-of-the-mill productions or big blockbusters with ant-sized brains.

The 4th Reich promises zombies, the legendary Tom Savini, WW2-set adventure, Josef Mengele a.k.a The Angel of Death, Nazis, Nazi zombies and an excellent band of movie brothers-in-arms such as Jason Flemyng, Sean Pertwee, Martin Compston and Doug Bradley. Frankly, genre cinema doesn’t get any damn cooler.

We really must credit our ace team member, Alex Wagner, for raving about the film since he first got whiff of it like a zombie smells fresh meat. His enthusiasm was…dare I say it…infectious. Okay, I said it!

Very recently, I managed to get The 4th Reich’s director Shaun R. Smith to spill his guts (not literally!) on the movie, what it’s all about and what we can expect. One thing we can say is The 4th Reich won’t be taking the less-is-more approach. It’ll be a case of “gore is more”.

How did The 4th Reich project start for you?

Well, I can take you right back to the beginning if you want me to? (Laughs)

Sure…

I did a student film in 1998 which was a thirty-five minute story set in Vietnam and it was about disease experiments. I was watching a lot of (films) Hamburger Hill, Apocalypse Now and lots of zombie films and wanted to match the two together. The story evolved over 12 years and because I knew more about the Second World War, I decided to set the story then.

What kind of mood is the 4th Reich going to have? Will it be a hardcore zombie horror or will there be humour involved?

I’ve kind of gone on record and said it’s going to be the mother of all zombie films. Which it is! I want to make the world’s first truly terrifying zombie film. Zombies are usually used with humour attached, but I want to make the world’s first truly, truly, truly zombie film. On one hand it’s a haunted house film with lots of scares and on the other hand, it’s an all-out gory zombie film and on the third hand, it’s a war film.
Primarily, it’s a war film with horror!

So you’re setting out to rival George A. Romero?

I think it’s more taking on the genre to another level.

Horror-style war films have been done before. Do you think yours will be different?

Well there was Dead Snow which was a black comedy and Outpost was more Nazi ghosts. I think we’re going to be taking the sub genre a little bit further. What we put on the screen will be very different.

How did Tom Savini get involved?

Well there’s bit of a back story to that. During my time at college, I went to a Tom Savini lecture and I had my AWOL To Horror script – the student film I was doing – and he had a flick through it and said it was great and he said if I ever came to make it give me a call – he was probably joking. 12 years later, I gave him a call. He’s always been an idol of mine and he loved the script.

Is Savini going to be handling the make-up and effects?

No, he won’t be. He doesn’t really want to do that any more. I am told he’s doing the effects for the next Friday 13th, but he’s not doing it on this one. We’ve got a guy called Kristyan Mallet whose done work on Harry Potter, Stardust – he’s done some great films. We did some recent make-up tests which were superb.

How did the other actors get involved? Jason Flemyng for example.

We have a superb casting director on board – Jeremy Zimmerman – and he’s done some really huge pictures and has got the contacts. And of course, it’s the strength of the script. If they thought the script was rubbish they wouldn’t do the film. Jason Flemyng and Sean Pertwee all read the script and absolutely loved it. It’s not got the biggest budget in the world, but these guys like coming back to their roots and doing lower budget things. They’re not after their next couple of million to do a film. They want to do a film if it’s good. I had Sean Pertwee in mind while writing the script and said to Jeremy can we get somebody like him and next day he was in the film.

Are there any particular influences on The 4th Reich?

Of course, I think subconsciously while you’re writing you’re thinking of other films anyway. I don’t think there’s a way around that. Certainly the old 70s and 80s splatter films, Lucio Fulci, Martin Scorsese has even had a big influence on me. It’s his camera work and lighting style. There’s tonnes; absolutely tonnes of influences. Savimg Private Ryan is another one for the war sequence.

What kind of style are you attempting?

On the one hand we’ve got a war film, so they’ll be a lot of handheld stuff because you can’t really get away from that. It’d look too clean if you had locked-off camera shots. But we have a haunted house thing with lots of set pieces and lots of dark corridors and things jumping from behind doors, so you’ve got so many different styles in there, but I think the look I’m aiming for is classical horror film. A grainy, de-saturated look for the war scenes, but when you get into the research facility it’ll be more like Robert Wise’s The Haunting. So yeah, we’re going for a classic horror look.

When do you start shooting?

We start filming at the end of April. Our effects guys have been working around the clock, they need quite a few weeks to prepare for it.

I’m really looking forward to it…

Yeah, it’s getting some really good anticipation so far. It’s certainly going to be one of the bigger horror films out this year – if we can get our release date towards the end of this year.

Okay, to finish. How would you best sum up The 4th Reich? Really sell it to me and readers.

Well, my short film The Soldier was once described as a dark, bloody punch to the face and The 4th Reich will be a big gory wallop in the nuts! (laughs)

I like that!

That’s a line that I like to use. We’re going all out on this one. It’ll be no holds barred gore. I’m going to cross the line because I can always cut stuff out at a later date – only to be added back again on the DVD with the Director’s Cut. It’s going to be dark…a very dark horror film.

You always hear films claiming how they’ll be very gory and when you watch them they really disappoint. So I’m hoping to see some really sick stuff!

There’s some great stuff! I don’t believe in slow starts or character building and it’s, frankly, bollocks. You get to know the characters anyway and there should never be a point in the film where you have a scene that’s like “get to know the characters”. The 4th Reich will give the audience the thrill ride they pay for. From the word go, it’s going to be a thrill ride!

Stay tuned for more 4th Reich related items, reports and interviews over the coming months.

Tags: Sean Pertwee, Shaun R. Smith interview, The 4th Reich, Tom Savini

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