Writer/director Jeff Roenning gave Fango the details and some behind-the-scenes pics (see ’em after the jump) from MOTHER’S DAY MASSACRE, a domestic shocker shot under the title HOT BABY. Produced by John A. Gallagher (director of STREET JUSTICE and THE DELI) and Gregory Segal, HOT BABY follows Jim Cavanaugh (Adam Scarimbolo), a shy New Jersey teen, who lives with Tex, his jerk of a father (TOOLBOX MURDERS’ Greg Travis).

Jim decides to flee the abuse and sets off to find his mother, who left when he was young, but his journey leads him to the New Jersey backwoods. There, he runs afoul of a group of deranged hillbillies—leading to much mayhem and a twisted family reunion. The movie hits DVD next Tuesday, May 4 from Midnight Releasing.

Roenning tells Fango that he drew from his own past—sort of—to create MOTHER’S DAY MASSACRE. “When I was young, this is what the adults in the world seemed like to me,” he says. “People in the ’70s were just out of their heads, and often wore bad cowboy gear. The world just seemed to run blindly along, doing all these ridiculous things without consequence. This is not to say I knew anyone whose father pissed on them, but it’s not far off.”

Casting the film, he says, “scared the hell out of me,” though not for the more obvious reasons. “There was a name actor that we almost had for Tex for like months. It was going to be this guy, then someone else totally wanted the role. In the end, we got Greg the day before we started shooting, and I honestly can’t imagine anyone doing a better job.” He read the script on the plane, showed up and kicked ass. Total pro. We scored Mel [CURDLED] Gorham from our posting in Backstage. She hadn’t been moved to answer an ad in there for 20 years, but when she saw the call for a ‘hammered out Mexican whore,’ she had to go for it. All of the kids came together over about six weeks, and John Gallagher brought a lot of great people to us through his long career as a director.” The ensemble also includes Emily Grace, Heidi (SCREAMING DEAD) Kristoffer and Noah (BRICK) Fleiss.

MOTHER’S DAY MASSACRE was lensed at the Delaware Water Gap, Watchung and Irvington, NJ and Staten Island, New York. As usual on independent shoots, this production had its snafus. “Day one had the lead actress three hours late, lost and locked out of a running van in Queens, the hero dog—my pug Stella—AWOL on the fields and highways of Jersey and a camera and playback deck stolen from a box truck in New York City. By day 12, we were shooting around the clock. Five crewmembers were sleeping in our bed, so my wife was crashed out on an air mattress in the basement with the videographer. We had a lot of fun, though, and ate really well thanks to my mom.”

He also captured a few extremely memorable gore highlights, saying that on a scale of 1-10, the gore factor is an 8, thanks to the creations by David Presto of Presto FX. “I'm sure seeing Mel get a chunk blown off her head will be a big crowd-pleaser. Bryan Wilson’s castration is a personal favorite—though while practicing it, an ‘accident’ sent him to the hospital for stitches.”

You can find out more about the movie at its official website.

 

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