Blood Junkie

“Junkies man… Junkies.”  —Blood Junkie

Rarely does breaking into a building turn into a film distribution deal, but that, in a nutshell, is the story of Drew Rosas’ film Blood Junkie (formerly Rocky Trails). Drew is a Milwaukeean turned Los Angelean whose first feature, a low-budget, 1980s-inspired horror film shot in Wisconsin, plays Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Oriental as part of the film fest. I saw the film several months ago when Drew premiered it (it has since been picked up by Troma films), so I asked him and actress Sarah Gail Luther some questions about the film, its creation process and the highs and lows of making a no-budget feature.

Let’s start at the beginning, when Drew broke into the Peter Cooper Glue Factory six years ago. Drew said, “I had wondered off to take photos, and some of my friends were several rooms away smashing glass. The sound was reverberating through the cavernous room creating a spine tingling soundtrack for my photography, and I vowed to someday return and shoot a horror film there.” Thus, Blood Junkie is born.

Drew began writing a 50-page script, which he said was more for narrative structure than precise dialog. Location scouting and pre-production took place over about a month or so, and during that time, Drew was able to recruit a cast and crew entirely for free. “I paid them in sandwiches and beer,” Drew explained. “This meant people kept their day jobs and class schedules so I really had to spend a lot of time orchestrating the shoot around everyone’s availability. This is why it took three months – we were shooting here and there, mostly on weekends.” 

Sarah Gail Luther, who plays Laura in the film, was one of those dedicated people who devoted her time and energy to helping Drew realize his dream. Sarah had just moved back to Milwaukee, and she said she was “totally willing to get involved in just about anything! Drew called and asked if I wanted to act in a movie, and I knew it would be quite the experience. So I said yes!”

Sarah explained that getting to know all the people who would show up to work was one of the great things about the process, but that does not mean it was all sunshine and roses—especially when shooting outdoors in Wisconsin in October and November. Sarah noted that the film takes place during the summer, “so Emily (Treolo) the other actress and I were dressed in shorts and T-shirts for part of it, so we were chilly right from the start!” During one shoot, everyone went camping in Door County during an especially cold October weekend. “There was a lot of drinking those couple nights, and after the first day of shooting, we all went to a little towny bar to escape the elements! There was even a scene where I was returning from swimming, so I got to wander around for a few takes in my bathing suit in the 40 degree weather!” There also was no heat or bathroom in the factory location. She took it like a champ, though, from the sounds of it: “Since we were camping, there was always a fire going, and extra clothes to throw on after your scenes were done, and great food and drinks! So even though the conditions were a bit extreme, we had a bunch of fun!”

Drew admitted that shooting in the Midwest during autumn was always part of the plan, though he didn’t initially realize the logistics of what that meant. “I really love the changing of the season when all the colors come. However, I learned the hard way that the leaves don’t really change until November,” which meant the scenery was greener than he originally wanted, and it was “cold as hell when we were shooting.”

Although people like cinematographer Michael Kubaszak, assistant director and actor Nick Sommer (who grew a real mullet for the three-month shoot) and filmmaker Andrew Swant were key to the project’s success, beer, it seems, was the unsung hero of the shoot. “My crew loves to drink. And they would drink a lot, sometimes on set, for sure when we wrapped.” For example, in the scene where Craig Wilson hits on the girls outside of the Mini-Mart, Drew noted that Nick, the actor, was still drunk from the night before. “He likes to play the drinking game called ‘Wizard Staffs’ that involves taping a new beer on top of a finished beer can” until they become a giant staff. “When I left the party the night before, he had already managed to drink 18 beers and was still going strong.”

Overall, Drew explained that the shoot was “really fun and sometimes terrifying. We had a nine-year-old kid shooting a blank gun in an abandoned building and swinging a machete around like a maniac. Once he actually stabbed his prop glasses with a knife when trying to scratch his face. Somehow, in the face of constant near disaster, nobody got hurt.”

People did, however, get naked. Although Drew saved the “boob doubles” shots for LA, he seemed appreciative that women were willing to get naked on camera and play along when asked, for example, to attach “a giant fake bush to her body with double-sided tape.” He added, “Sarah and Emily both endured many hardships through freezing cold shoot days and incredibly awkward situations.”

Sarah seems to have escaped unscathed. “Overall it was such a weird and fun experience!” she said. “We did things that you would never, ever dream of yourself doing on an ordinary day.” Afterward, she noted that everyone went back to normal, “but now you all have this really bizarre thing in common! There is nothing better than being able to help someone accomplish something that they are pouring everything into!”

I got the impression Drew is still a bit in awe of the whole thing. He risked economic ruin to self-fund the film, got picked up by Troma relatively painlessly, and now is enjoying the film’s success. Still, he said, “this film was entirely a ‘holy shit what the fuck am I doing? This is the funnest, most ridiculous thing I’ve ever attempted’” experience. Having seen the film, I can attest to the fact that it’s easy for an audience member to share in the fun and ridiculousness of the Blood Junkie experience, and I am excited that Milwaukee’s Troma fans will get another chance to enjoy it on the big screen.

Blood Junkie screens Saturday night, Oc. 2, at the Oriental Theater, followed by a “Killer” Blood and Junkies dance party at the Y-Not III.