I’m talking about the vampire vs. zombie web series Suck & Moan, geez what were you thinking? It’s time again for a return to The IndieNet and Beyond. More news and web series episodes, plus an interview with Joel Bryant, actor & producer of Suck & Moan.
“Suck & Moan is a satire, a very tongue and cheek take on the vampire/zombie genre. Kind of mashes them both together, hence the sucking of the vampires and the moaning of the zombies,” said Joel. “It’s kind of taking the piss out of both genres and how much they have both blown up, but also very much staying within the genre and honoring it.”
Joel plays the vampire Mac who is “more of a scavenger character. After he kills a human he likes to raid what they have in their house. He enjoys the finer things in life as long as they’re not his own,” Joel described.
“Mac starts out as a minor character, then gets a little more involved as the series goes on. He’s part of a group of eight vampires who are kind of the hub of the series. They’re the ones we kind of focus on with the zombie threat of taking over the world,” explained Joel. “The vampires are kind of irked that the zombies are eating all the humans and depleting their food source. They spend a lot of time, like a lot of humans do in zombie movies, sitting around talking about the problem as opposed to rather than doing something about it. They’re neurotic and everything else because they are still kind of human.”
Joel is an experienced actor with credits like The Heartbreak Kid, Valkyrie, and Music Within. Although he has been in traditional movies and guest starred on TV shows like Monk and Criminal Minds, he is no stranger to web series. He was nominated for Best Actor in the 1st Annual Streamy Awards for his role in After Judgment. He also helped produce Trespassing on the Lot and Betty Bowers: America’s Best Christian. So what led to him becoming a neurotic vampire fighting zombies?
“It developed from Brendon Fong, who is the writer, creator, and director of it. Him and I were writing a completely different web series at the time,” said Joel “Then we both kind of got stuck on different projects, so that web series was put on hold. And then I called him up and said hey do you want to keep writing this web series we were writing. He said actually I’ve got another web series.”
Fong explained the concept to him and Joel thought it sounded interesting. Then Fong asked Joel if he would help him cast. After reading some of the script, Joel thought: “This is a pretty good series. It is well written. It’s cool. A totally different take on the genre. So I asked him what he was going to do with it. And he said, ‘Put it up on the web maybe.’ I said okay, then after your mom and dad see it, what are you going to do with?’ I said, ‘Well I’ll help you produce it. Lets try to make this thing bigger than you had in mind.’ That’s kind of how it came about. It was his brain child and I kind of jumped on board to hopefully get a little bigger distribution.”
No one can disagree that the series title is very attention grabbing. “I love the title. I think it perfectly encapsulates the entire series. It perfectly summaries the tongue and cheek idea of it. In fact I think [Brendon] came up with the name first before the concept of the show. We also have MoanandSuck.com, we are hopefully are going to one day spin-off into a zombie based series about how mad they are at the vampires. The name is great advertising wise because it kind of pops out and makes people ask questions. Mostly they want to know what the hell it means.” chuckled Joel.
In the series the vampires have their fangs out the entire time, which makes you wonder how tricky that made it for the actors to say their lines.
“As you watch the series you can tell how much more the actors got used to the series as it went on. It’s definitely a skill working with them. But they’re brilliant fangs, Brendon went and taught himself how to make fangs. Consulted dentists and everything. So we make them all in house. Each vampire in the series has their own three sets of fangs that sit perfectly on their teeth,” said Joel.
With so much new media experience, what advice would Joel give to those wanting to be web series creators?
“The advice I would give… just go out there and do it. The thing I love about new media and the new media community is everyone is very proactive. It goes back to Felicia Day’s acceptance speech at the 1st Streamy’s, where she had a bunch of doors slammed in her face and people wouldn’t give her this or give her that. So she just went out and created what she wanted to create,” said Joel. “I think that is the beautiful thing about new media. I think it is truly the new independent production. People make indie films now, but it’s like – ‘Our new film starring Sean Penn and Paul Newman, directed by Clint Eastwood.’ That’s not an independent film! It’s the new Do-It-Yourself entertainment. The technology is there and the outlets are there. It’s giving all sorts of people a voice. It’s an exciting community to be a part of.”
Eight episodes are currently online. Episodes nine and ten are in very late pre-production. Then that will wrap up the first season. Why is it taking so long? Because they had to search for a castle and… they have a special guest star.
Ooh, special guest star. Who is it? Stephan Smith Collins, the actor that is playing the new Pinhead in the upcoming Hellraiser movie.
“We were trying to find some kind of horror guest star for a while,” then Joel realized his friend Collins will be in the upcoming Hellraiser. “So we’ve got Pinhead playing our head vampire. He’s totally gung ho to do it and he’s very excited.”
I hadn’t realized how many other guest stars there are in the series. With Scott Brown, director of Asylum/Blue Movies, and Tanya Ihnen, star/producer of Vampire Zombie Werewolf, appearing as zombies.
Joel said they hope to make a second season and would like to do the zombie spin-off. They’re going to play it on different distributors and then, “See if there are any bites. No pun attended,” chuckled Joel.
You can find Suck & Moan at: http://www.suckandmoan.com/
You can find out what else Joel is up to at: www.JoelBryant.net
Below are the first two episodes.
Elsewhere On The Web…
Syfy Snatches Up ‘Mercury Men’
As you may have already read on ScifiPulse, the science fiction web series The Mercury Men has been picked up by SyFy. Sanctuary, Riese, and now The Mercury Men. What web series will be next? I’ll put on my psychic tinfoil hat and say I wouldn’t be surprised if Naught for Hire (starring Ben Browder) doesn’t get snatched up in the near future.
What I’m Watching… Are You?
Lazy Teenage Superheroes (Short Film)
This teen superhero short film recently popped up on the web. It’s a good example of what you can do with fairly cheap visual effects software and some talent.
Mind’s Eye – Episode 9 “Behind The Scenes”
Even heroes need to take a break from danger. Illia and the Dreamweavers enjoy a movie and romance is in the air.
Throwing Stones – Episode 2 “Can You Hear Me Now” and Episode 3 “Broken Window Theory”
Have you watched the new teen horror web series Throwing Stones? If you like horror, then you should check it out.
That’s A Wrap
Got a web series, web comic, web… whatever, then I want to know about it. Contact me at: marxpyle@scifipulse.net
That’s a wrap for now. Take care friends. Until next time… marX out.
You can find me on twitter @MrMarx
Follow ScifiPulse on Twitter @SciFiPulse
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Marx H. Pyle is a writer, martial artist and American independent filmmaker. A graduate of Vancouver Film School, he has worked on a number of projects including the short film he wrote and directed, Silence of the Belle. He is currently in pre-production of his scifi web series.
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