An award-winning writer, director and novelist, most in the community might be familiar with Gregory Lamberson from his beloved cult-classic Slime City and it's follow-up Slime City Massacre. However, in recent years he's developed a sort of comeback working on various new projects in between his time working at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, and I sit down with him to discuss his start in filmmaking, his overall career and his upcoming film Widow's Point, coming soon from Uncork'd Entertainment.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get the urge to go into directing?
Gregory Lamberson: I was a child of TV, and grew up loving monsters in cartoons, and then the Aurora monster model kits, and then the films that inspired them. For as long as I can remember I wanted to somehow tell stories visually: first I wanted to draw comic books, then I wanted to be a stop motion animator. When the first Star Wars was released, I realized that directing films was the ultimate way to tell stories with pictures.
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
GL: Sure, I watched Roger Corman sci-fi movies, Godzilla films, whatever the local stations carried. Monsters were my bag. Then I graduated to Hammer films, which were shown late at night. There was no physical media for films yet, so I was at the mercy of the programmers. I have an uncle who’s in distribution, and I would visit him summers, and he took me to see Night of the Living Dead, Martin and Dawn of the Dead in theaters.
Me: Having worked on various aspects of film production, do you have any particular preference for working on any?
GL: I’m a writer-director – a creator. When I work on other films, it’s just a job to pay the bills. I don’t particularly enjoy it, and I think I’m finished working on other people’s flicks. I prefer the atmosphere on my own films to what I’ve experienced on others’.
Me: With the cult success of "Slime City," was that a hindrance to your career trying to live up to it or cause a creative outpouring into your follow-up projects?
GL: Never. To me, it’s a home movie. I’m glad others like it, it’s cool to have fans, but I’ve done better films. I’m an independent filmmaker, which means I raise the money to produce them myself, and raising money is always the hardest part. Slime City has neither helped not hurt me on that score. Ii have a lot of great memories of working on that and on Slime City Massacre, and I’m friends with the cast members to this day.
Me: As an author, when writing a new project, what's the one fall-back tactic that you're always able to draw inspiration from?
GL: I’ve never suffered from writer’s block. I think of stories – movies, TV series that will never be made – at all hours of the day, from when I wake up to when I got to bed. Whenever I write a novel or screenplay I develop the characters and basic situations, and when I become anxious to see how they will turn out, that’s when I start writing. I’ve never needed to look for inspiration beyond my own imagination. I always have multiple projects going, and I write most days. I’ve got three screenplays in rotation right now, and all I do is polish them, getting them just right. When I figure out how to finance any of them, I’ll make one. Right now I’d like to raise enough for two, so I can shoot them close together. The one drawback to my routine is that it takes anywhere from two to three years to write a script, find the money, shoot the movie, do post production, go on the festival circuit, and see a project through to release. People don’t realize how much time and work is involved, whether it’s a small film or a big one. By making two close together, I could be more productive.
Me: You're known for being an advocate for film production in Western New York, including founding the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival. What attracts you to working in that particular area?
GL: I grew up in Fredonia, an hour south of Buffalo. After living in NYC for 21 years, my wife and I moved here to start a family … so, affordable housing. Now I’ve helped build a film industry here, and I’ve been running film festivals for 11 years, and I’ve owned a house for 17. I don’t see any reason to leave: I’ve been able to stretch budgets here the way I never could in NYC or LA. You can make movies wherever you want, as long…as you find… the money.
Me: What was the creative launching point for producing and creating more films recently with films like "Slime City Massacre," "Killer Rack," "Dry Bones" and "Johnny Gruesome?"
GL: When I moved back here, it was with the intention of turning some of my unproduced screenplays into novels, and pursuing a career as a novelist. That worked out okay, I wrote a dozen novels that were well received, and half of them are under option as a possible TV series. While I was writing them, digital movie equipment came out and revolutionized how films are made. I couldn’t see sitting that revolution out, so I was writing books and making movies concurrently. A few years ago my publisher went under, and I really haven’t felt like looking for another one, and I’m concentrating on films right now. Of course, with this pandemic, I would be better off going back to novels. Every film has a different genesis. I wanted to make Slime City Massacre to show I could make a better film than the three films I had made up to that point, and I love the finished product. I wrote Johnny Gruesome as a college student, turned it into a novel 14 years later, and then made the movie 16 years after that. My buddy Paul McGinnis wrote Killer Rack, and I loved it and wanted to direct it. Michael O’Hear, an actor friend who recently passed away, hired me to write Dry Bones for him to direct and star in, and then he was too sick to direct it so I had to step in. All different scenarios.
Me: So, that brings us to your latest project, "Widow's Point." What can you tell us about the project?
GL: I adapted the script from a novella by Richard Chizmar and his son Billy. It’s the story of an author who locks himself in a supposedly haunted lighthouse as a publicity gimmick for his next novel. Of course, things go horribly wrong for him. The film features several flashbacks from other time periods, and Craig Sheffer is the star. It’s a ghost story that moves into Lovecraft territory. It’s definitely my most mature and sophisticated film.
Me: Where did the inspiration for the film come from?
GL: In writing the screenplay, I drew from Dark Shadows, Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, and even Salem’s Lot. But my script is pretty faithful to the novella, it’s just with my spin on it.
Me: Being the writer, director and producer of the film, does it still challenge you to be involved in various capacities at once on a project like this? How do you balance those priorities during a shoot?
GL: I produce with my wife now, so that takes a lot of the burden off my shoulders. When I direct, the script is already finished, so really my different roles are compartmentalized and spaced out. There are problems to be solved every day, but that’s the exciting part. I would give up producing altogether, but I don’t know anyone else who can raise money, so I have no choice but to do it myself.
Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how'd you settle on the cast getting involved in the film?
GL: Reading the novella the first time, I recognized which actors were right for different parts. “Oh, the old lighthouse keeper has to be Michael Thurber from Killer Rack.” “Oh, the big brute who kills the family in 1933 has to be John Renna.” “Oh, my daughter would be perfect for the little girl.” I enjoy working with the same actors as long as they’re right for the roles. I knew I needed a real strong lead, a name, and I’m good friends with Craig Sheffer – we worked on a TV movie together eight years ago, and he optioned a novella of mine which we spent a few years working on – so I asked him to do the lead, and he accepted.
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
GL: It was a nice summer two years ago, with my wife and daughter, Craig and his daughter Willow, and a couple of other people involved had family members on set, so it was a family affair. I spend a lot of energy on pre-production, so I’m well prepared and we don’t waste time. In fact, I scheduled a 16 day shoot and we finished in 15. I can’t really generalize about the crew – some were into it, and for some it was just a job – but everyone was professional, and it shows.
Me: Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
GL: Unfortunately, no – we planned everything out well, and it was a lot of hard work, but good planning reduced the number of amusing anecdotes. The lighthouse we shot at is supposedly haunted, just like the one in our story, and there were all sorts of electrical issues with our equipment because of weather equipment on the tower, but some of the crew reported some unsettling experiences. No ghosts messed with me, though.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
GL: I’m working full time promoting Widow’s Point, and I’m working full time on Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, and I still manage to find time to work on the three scripts I mentioned: a horror film, an action film, and an action-horror film. I was hoping to shoot the horror film this winter, but the pandemic killed those plans, so now I’m looking at shooting the action film next summer.
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