FEARnet is gearing up for next week?s Screamfest LA, a horror Film Festival in Hollywood where hopeful filmmakers will debut their shorts. Earlier this week we caught up with writer/director Padraig Reynolds and producer John Norris of the short film The Election, about a politician Ray Wise (Reaper, Bones) and his wife Lin Shaye (2001 Maniacs, Detroit Rock City) who attempt to cover up a brutal secret by dumping it in an abandoned junkyard.

What was your inspiration for The Election?

REYNOLDS: ?I had been working on a script called the Utah Murders which was five stories that collided into one in this hotel that?s in the middle of the desert and this was just one of the stories that takes place in the script. I just thought it would be a good idea to go out and film something and I just thought it would be a good idea to go out and film this segment of the script.?

What?s happening with the full length script?

REYNOLDS: ?It?s actually going to be turned into a film. I started working on it with Sean Cunningham director of Friday the 13th. Right now were just in script revision mode and were looking to nail down the aspects of what the script is going to be and when were going to shoot it and all the variables that go into making a movie.?

So is that also how you made the connection with Harry Manfredini for the soundtrack?

REYNOLDS: ?Yes. I actually met Harry at a convention and we hit it off right away. I gave him one of my early scripts and he loved it and we just sort of kept in touch and wanted to work with each other so when that moment came about I just jumped on it.?

Has there been any interest from anyone in the feature length?

NORRIS: ?Not yet, we?re still in the revision mode but we?re getting really great responses from The Election which bodes well for the bigger script. It?s a pretty wild ride. That?s only one segment that you guys have seen and I think people are going to be surprised by the bigger version of it. Hopefully they will. Padraig has another feature called The Drowned. It?s a World War II ghost story. Patraig sent that to Sean Cunningham and he really liked it. It wasn?t a movie that he wanted to make but he liked the writing so much that he wanted to do something with Padraig. The Drowned is financed through UK hedge funds now. He also has another film called Rites of Spring. That film is set up over at Mavrick Red for their slate next year. Through Sean Cunningham with the Utah Murders, Wes Craven saw The Election and fell in love with it. He?s looking to do something with Patraig as well.?

How long did The Election take to shoot?

REYNOLDS: ?It took us a day and a half. We had 45 set ups in one day. We shot four hours out of LA in this little abandoned car graveyard that sits next to the mountain, it?s pretty spectacular. And you know we just shot it and the next day we did some interior car stuff and came back and started editing it. It went very smoothly it?s just really great to work with Lin and Ray it was pretty amazing to have someone of that caliber in the film.?

How did you guys get involved with Lin Shaye and Ray Wise and actually bringing them onto production?

REYNOLDS: ?We sent them a script. John sent them the script and I met Lin before and was a big fan of both of their work in Dead End and it just sort of cultivated. They really responded strongly to it and wanted to come aboard. It was crazy. It was like two weeks before we were shooting and I couldn?t believe that these two actually wanted to do it. It was cool we just drove them out to the desert and just shot it.?

NORRIS: ?It was kind of a nightmare at first for us thinking here we are bringing Ray Wise and Lin Shaye into the middle of the desert do they really know what they are getting into? Of course we rented a car and there were trailers out there but it was so low budget in the middle of the Mohave desert and they just looked around like oh my goodness. Ray saw the location that Padraig had found and he just loved it and was like we should shoot a whole movie out here. They were game for it. It was such a small crew. Lin really loved the short because it was a role she had never played before so she?s been talking Padraig up around town. She?s the one who actually gave it to Wes Craven.?

We notice the dynamic between Ray and Lin and it sort of reminded us of a Bill and Hillary Clinton relationship. Was that intentional?

REYNOLDS: ?It wasn?t intentional. I didn?t really say if they were Republican, Democrat or anybody. I wanted to keep it sort of ambiguous but keep that strong stature with that much on the line is probably going to do something irrational. I wanted to keep it true to life but I don?t know if I would go that far, although people have gone farther than that.?

Can we expect more of the political nature of The Election from the Utah Murders or is there a completely different approach?

REYNOLDS: It is and it isn?t. Bad things really happen to them after they bury the little girl and it sort of goes from bad to worse and it?s a cultivation of a bunch of different stories that collide into this beautiful setting. The election part does play a part of it but it doesn?t play the whole entire story. It?s just one of the pieces of the puzzle looming over the whole project.?

NORRIS: ?The Utah Murders is five separate stories. Padraig had a kernel of an idea and Sean Cunningham really fueled it by saying he wanted to create a multiple scenario like Babel or Crash but do it in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror style which has never been done before. And he brought this great idea which was five separate people and five separate stories and something happens in each one of the stories where the characters have to make this decision and they make the wrong one and it gets worse and worse. With Ray and Lin?s part that?s why they are out there and they all wind up coming together have to pay the price for their decision.?

(Exclusive Rites of Spring poster)

Aside from the feature length what else can we expect from you guys?

NORRIS: Well we have The Drowned a World War II ghost story. It?s at Dimension right now but we haven?t gotten the green light yet. Were just waiting for a North American distributor to finalize. We have the Rites of Spring which Pat is going to be directing early next year at that?s set up at Mavrick red.

So will the John Norris Padraig Reynolds directing and producing team continue?

NORRIS: Oh yeah! I hope so right Padraig?

REYNOLDS: ?Oh yea were all on the same team.?

You guys spend a lot of time making horror films and creating fear but what is your biggest personal fear?

PADRAIG: ?Not making movies. Not being able to do what you actually want to do.?

NORRIS: ?I have a much simpler answer, mine is spiders. I came home from the set last night and went for a late night snack and hanging there above our stove with all the pots and pans on it was a spider literarily two inches in diameter. I took a picture of it.?

The Election is playing in LA Saturday October 13th, more at ScreamfestLA.com