Almost Human director Joe Begos returned to the Toronto International Film Festival last September with The Mind’s Eye (review #1, #2), an insanely gory and violent telekinetic revenge thriller set in snowy 1990 New England.

The Mind’s Eye follows a drifter (Graham Skipper) with telekinetic abilities who targets a doctor who is creating a synthetic telekinetic power serum.

Bloody Disgusting readers are going to fall in love with Begos after they finally get to see his latest entry into the horror world, not only because the movie is awesome, but because he’s truly “one of us”.

Begos is a hardcore genre fan, who makes the kinds of films he would love, and does it all by himself. If you live and die by the saying, “support indie horror,” Begos is a rising star that not only delivers quality genre fare, but also has a lot to teach aspiring filmmakers.

THE FREEDOM IN MAKING A TRULY INDEPENDENT FILM

“Both movies were made 100 percent through my production company, which is essentially produced by just me and my friends that I made short films with,” Begos tells Bloody Disgusting, explaining that they truly went the indie route by maxing out credit cards. “We made ALMOST HUMAN on credit cards, essentially, and then sold the film off. So, when making MIND’S EYE, we had the experience of developing, shooting, finishing, and selling a movie all ourselves. We were able to extend that same production model to the next film, even though it had a bigger budget.

“The perks with this are that I get final cut,” he added, sharing the various pros in making a movie by yourself, “I can shoot wherever I want, and go at my own pace, so long as the movie comes in on budget. This allows us to do whatever the hell we want, and really decide where the money goes and how we want to pull things off. I was trying to attach an experienced producer for a long time after the movie was fully financed, and everyone told me it was impossible to do what I wanted and still pull the movie off. So we said “fuck it,” and did it all ourselves, again, and pulled off EVERY SINGLE THING that was in the script.”

But there’s no scenario where you get your cake and can eat it too. Begos also reveals just how difficult it was to pull of production, which included battling a snow storm.

“The shoot was insane. Getting two feet of snow is horrible, as it is logistics wise, especially when you are literally out in the middle of nowhere…We were straddling such a tight line, and all of the gags/sequences were so expensive that there was very little room for error. On top of that, if you go over budget, there is no company [that’s going to] suddenly give you the money to cover the overages.”

MAKING THE KINDS OF FILMS HE WOULD LOVE AS A HORROR FAN

Begos is a huge horror fan and in making his films he’s always aiming to make something a younger version of himself would love.

“Almost everything that excited me about horror movies that I watched when I was younger,” Begos explained when asked what happened in his life that led him to be inspired to make The Mind’s Eye. “I know that the genre has usually meant a fairly low budget, but I’m so sick of movies that take place in a house with nothing going on, and zero tension. That’s what 90 percent of horror is these days. I wanted to do something ridiculous, over-the-top, with real explosions, practical effects, and unique concepts that we haven’t seen in a long time. That’s what excites me.”

“I wanted to do something that was reminiscent of a fast-paced, hazy fever-dream with psychokinesis running rampant,” he adds. “Of course trying to do all of this, and shooting in the middle of nowhere at night – during a blizzard nonetheless – doesn’t exactly lend itself to a tiny budget, but we managed. The things we were able to pull off with a little trickery is pretty awesome.”

HEADS EXPLODE! HARDCORE PERFORMANCES

Talking about screaming, making intense faces, and heads exploding, how did the actors, especially Graham Skipper, make it through the shoot without their heads literally exploding?

Begos explains: “There were definitely a few times we though people were going to have an aneurism; we had legit veins bulging out of their heads [laughs]. I wanted the telekinesis to come with an immense pain with its use, I think the actors did a great job of pulling that off.

“For the effects, I reached out to Brian Spears and Pete Gerner, who were responsible for a lot of the Glass Eye Pix films. The one that stuck out to me in particular was Stake Land, which was under a million bucks and was loaded with effects- all of them great. I instantly reached out and they were into it, though they warned me in advance that I’d have to cut some effects…

“DIDN’T HAPPEN!

“We even ended up adding some,” Begos boasts. “Once they came on board and we got together we were able to work together to make it work. Those guys are awesome at what they do and I’ve had experience shooting effects, so I knew some tricks that could help us sell stuff a bit better and those guys brought it to a whole new level. We approached most of the big effects the same way that the best movies did. ‘Oh they blew apart that head with a shotgun? I guess that’s what we are going to do!’ Shotguns, explosives, puppets. We used it all.

He continued: “Knowing how much work it was going to take to choreograph most of these effects, we scheduled for a long shoot. We somehow managed to get 37 days out of the shoot, around half of which were for effects and prep.”

DIY PHOTOGRAPHY

Begos wears many hats as he’s also responsible for The Mind’s Eye‘s stunning color palette. Here Begos talks about how he learned this process.

“I essentially had to learn it out of necessity when I was first learning how to make movies, because there was nobody else to do it. I was fortunate enough to be learning all of this stuff at a time when camera were becoming available to the public with features like interchangeable lenses and frame rates, and all that. It really allowed me to learn how to shoot with cinema style capabilities and once I had moved out here and hired a DP to shoot something, I was still choosing lenses and shots and all that. It didn’t go over well. So I just started shooting myself again for both ease and budget. I’d love to use a DP, but when you are trying to shoot a movie on the other side of the country – for very little money and in just 37 days – lodging and salary for a DP and camera op really start to skyrocket. I’d rather do both and be able to blow up more shit. I’ll start working with a DP once the budget allows [laughs].

RLJ Entertainment will release The Mind’s Eye, which stars Graham Skipper, Lauren Ashley Carter (Darling, Pod), John Speredakos, Noah Segan (Looper), Matt Mercer, Larry Fessenden, and Jeremy Gardner, in theaters and on VOD and iTunes this Friday, August 5.

Zak Zeman (V/H/S, Under the Bed, Aggression Scale, Late Phases) produces with Josh Ethier and Graham Skipper.

Mike Pereira called the film “a highly entertaining ode to the telekinetic subgenre,” while also boasting a “third act [that] erupts in a full-on display of hilariously gargantuan acting and buckets of bloody fireworks that satisfies in spades.”

“Zack Connors and Rachel Meadows were born with incredible psychokinetic capabilities. When word of their supernatural talents gets out, they find themselves the prisoners of Michael Slovak, a deranged doctor intent on harvesting their powers. After a daring escape, they are free from his sinister institution, but the corrupt doctor will stop at nothing to track them down so that he may continue to siphon their gifts for his own use.”