“All About Evil” is the brainchild of Joshua Grannell (aka Peaches Christ). A wickedly funny horror comedy about a movie theatre manager turned filmmaker, Deborah Tennis (Natasha Lyonne), who snuffs out bad manners by making snuff films starring the offenders. Unspooling as a midnight movie Friday, July 30 at the Ritz East, the film co-stars Mink Stole and Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson. In this Q&A, the filmmaker and his co-stars chatted about “All About Evil.”
PGN: Joshua, where did you get the inspiration for “All About Evil?” JG: It came from having worked in movie theaters. I was running the Bridge, a single-screen theater in San Francisco, where I did my Midnight Mass show. The city was going through a change where all these multiplexes were opening and I had a fear/paranoia about single-screen theaters closing.
PGN: You have two Midnight Movie stars in your film — Mink Stole and Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson. But you cast them in “normal” roles. Was that deliberate? JG: Yes, it was. It was one of those things where I got to be in a position where I knew them as friends, outside of their iconic roles. I’m a huge fan. In my drag persona, I worship Elvira and at the altar of Mink Stole. So doing tributes to them was a thrill, but I’ve gotten to know them as women, professionals and friends. When I wrote the screenplay, I didn’t write the parts for them, but created a world of characters. When I was done, and started thinking of casting, I saw Cassandra as this mother, outside of the drag. It wasn’t totally intentional, but it was a chance to see them in roles I believed that they could play.
PGN: You act in the film as Peaches Christ. Was it difficult to perform and direct? JG: That was another challenging thing. Harder than I imagined when I wrote the part. Peaches is a character that exists, and I thought she should have a cameo. But friends encouraged me — “More Peaches!” I wanted her to exist in the world of the movie. I didn’t want it to feel out of place. I have the hardest time watching the Peaches scenes because I feel she looks fat!
PGN: Natasha Lyonne is fabulous as Deborah Tennis. She seems to be paying homage to every great female vamp. What cues did you give her? JG: She was amazing. She’s truly a lover of old movies. She showed up with that under her belt. When I pitched the film to her, she not only knew Doris Wishman, but she met Doris and knew her before she died. [Doris] was the only female exploitation filmmaker: She was an eccentric who played in this man’s world. For Deborah, she was without a female role model, but she takes her persona from her knowledge of women from the big screen. We mapped out Deborah, with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, etc. But we also looked at Tim Curry as Frank N. Furter, too. Natasha was game, and we really put her through the ringer.
PGN: You come up with some very funny/clever film titles in the movie — “A Tale of Two Severed Titties” for example — and is that because you’re a sassy drag queen? JG: That’s a big part of it. The movie embraces my dark sense of humor and love of puns. Any drag queen should love a good pun. I loved all those horror movies and great taglines. I came up with the idea of her making films of the great works of literature.
MINK STOLE PGN: Mink, you were a midnight movie star with “Pink Flamingos.” How do you feel this genre of films has changed over the years? MS: Enormously! Shocking isn’t shocking any more. What we got away with — what we didn’t get away with — now shows up on television. I got fed on this film. Peaches fed me. John [Waters] didn’t feed me on “Pink Flamingos.”
PGN: You play a librarian here, who lives alone with her cat. She seemed so boring and normal. How did you relate to your character? MS: Those are the hardest characters to play. Insane people are easy — all you do is unfocus your eyes and yell. Trying to make a normal person interesting is hard; there’s no hook. I found her a challenge. I’m a book reader, so that felt comfortable to me. I related to her love of books.
PGN: What did you enjoy about making a horror film where you got to be a little violent? MS: I never see horror movies. They frighten me. Fake blood scares me. I know they are fake and everything is a special effect. I don’t like roller coasters, driving too fast. I’m not a thrill junkie. It doesn’t occur to me to jump out of the plane. This one, there was such a humor to this. It’s not a straight horror movie — it’s funny. The whole sequence of the “Maiming of the Shrew” was very amusing. [Ed: Stole’s character gets “maimed”]. I enjoyed that. I had a full face cast, and that was no fun — it took several times to make it. But it looks really real. I can watch that knowing that it wasn’t, and it doesn’t make me cringe, because I can appreciate the effect. I like being able to say I’ve done that. This film gave my life more interesting sentences.
CASSANDRA PETERSON PGN: You created one of the great midnight movie characters, but here you played a mother. Did you deliberately decide to do this role as Cassandra, not Elvira? CP: No, Joshua asked me if I’d play this part. I didn’t know if I could play a normal character. It took a lot of talking for him to get me to do it. He wanted me to play myself, but no one else does.
PGN: As someone who’s seen her share of horror, your character doesn’t really get too involved in the gore until late in the film. Did you want to mess around with the horror stuff or not? CP: I liked that I was on the other side, and that appealed to me when Peaches asked me to do it — that I was playing such a straight character. But I do get involved in the gore in the end, a tribute to Elvira in a way.
PGN: Do you find the violence by women against women offensive or just over the top? CP: I am extremely anti-violence against women, and I have turned down a zillion offers to host or be involved with movies that have that in it. The reason I did this [film] is because I liked that it went over the top, and taking the edge off was women against women, not some guy against women. I was upset about some of it in the beginning. I wasn’t sure I wanted to participate, but we talked about it and it was OK. In the end, it really didn’t bother me because of how it’s put together.