FEARnet recently caught up with emerging writer/director Ben Sztanjnkrycer, creator of an 18 minute short, Hideous, about a John Doe who is admitted to the hospital after being brutally attacked. In the middle of his emergency surgery, doctors discover what they think is a tumor but wind up discovering a parasite growing in his stomach and unleashes a murderous nightmare upon the hospital staff.

How did you come up with the concept for Hideous?

?I was actually working at a studio at the time in a clerical position with a friend of mine named Matt McPeck who became the co-producer of the movie and he and I both loved horror movies and he told me that he had seen this YouTube video about this really hideous medical condition called fetus in fetu about an unborn twin who dies and grows inside the hosts stomach as a parasite. We both just thought what an amazing idea it would be for a horror movie. I basically just ran with it and it just really reminded me of some of the things that someone like David Cronenberg would do. I?m a huge fan of his work, and like him I?m from Canada and I just love horror films that challenge you and ask you about identity and what it means to be a human. I thought that this would probably be a really amazing story to tell about someone who loses the only family they had ever known and then wants to get them back. I thought there would be a lot of potential for great conflict in that story.?

Is there a possibility of seeing Hideous as a feature length film?

?I haven?t started work on it yet but I would love to turn it into a feature. I know that there?s a lot of themes that we explored in the short that could be expanded to feature length. I think the characters are very rich in the 18 minute version. I would love the opportunity to turn it into a feature and I have actually been speaking with my agent about doing just that. He really supports the idea so hopefully I can start working on that pretty soon.?

How long did the entire filmmaking process take?

?Part of the process that took the longest was post-production. We were in post for about 6 months. From beginning to end, concept to burning the final DVD was about a year long. I would say the writing took about six weeks and I went through about 17 drafts of it. The great thing about writing a short movie as opposed to writing a feature is if you do something wrong in the story you?re only really in 10-12 pages so you can just start over again. I always had a sense of what characters I thought should populate the world. I always knew there should be a character that was experiencing a death in their own family specifically the nurse who?s losing her father to cancer. That?s something I personally went through so to me the story would be really well informed by a sense of loss.?

How long did filming the short actually take?

?It was a 5 day production schedule. We shot for five days in a hospital in the LA area then 2 more days in an abandoned insane asylum. They were great locations to use I?m so happy that we got them. We did have one day of follow up photography to handle some close up special effects so we shot that at UCLA three or four months after everything was done. We shot this for a little over $10,000 in hi-def and I can?t thank my cast and crew enough for the hard work. It was such a complex and sophisticated shoot that things could have gone really, really wrong very easily. But I managed to find an amazing cinematographer through the UCLA program. I managed to find amazing producers and assistant directors also form the program and then looking outside of the program a little I managed to find a really good editor. I can?t say enough about our make-up artist Gage Munster, this guy is just amazing. I think he?s going to be the next Rick Baker, he added so much to the production value of this movie.?

What were some of the specifics involved with creating the physical and special effects?

?The one thing we definitely encountered was there was never enough time to get what we wanted to do. We wanted to do some more complicated effects but we just ran out of time. Gage basically set up a little make-up studio on set everyday. He had done a lot of preproduction work and I worked with him very closely on creating the parasite. He came to me with a lot of great sketches and ultimately we settled on a design. The first time I saw it, the co-producer and I, Matt McPeck were just blown away. It?s got a lot of personality that little sculpture. I think if you watch the movie on repeat viewings your eye tends to focus on the parasite and he looks just great and seems to have expression even though it?s just a lifeless lump of latex. Everyday there was a challenge. One of things that was actually an unexpected challenge was the mucus substance that we had to slather on him every day, I forget what the product is that they used, but it was freezing cold and most of the facilities that we shot in everyday were really cold. We were shooting in mid December and even here in LA it gets pretty cold at that time. Poor Ralph Lister (John Doe) would have to hold this thing for hours at a time and he would just be freezing. He said after a while his arm would go numb because it?s just covered with this incredibly cold mucus. The first time I picked it up I just couldn?t believe how heavy and cold it was. He really took one for the team by being willing to do that. It was a lot of fun just shooting those special effects sequences because there?s a lot of blood spraying everywhere and I had never worked on a movie where you got the syringes full of blood and you just squirt them in every direction. We spent a lot of time cleaning up rooms when we were done.?

Was it difficult for you to deal with the blood?

?No actually I didn?t and I was surprised. I think there were some people on the set who got a little squeamish at first but you get very used to things very quickly. You look at the prosthetic abdomen for the surgery scene and the first time everyone looked at it they were like ew that?s disgusting but after a while it just becomes a really mesmerizing thing to look at and I remember literally the entire cast and crew was crowded around the monitor during the surgery scene which we euphemistically call the birth scene because it?s when the parasite is pulled out of John Doe?s stomach and literally everyone burst into applause when it happened.?

Obviously you are a horror fan. What were some of your inspirations for this and your other works?

?I am a huge fan of the genre and unfortunately there are too many people out there who are not fans of the genre and look at it as a way of cashing in on a quick buck and unfortunately that?s why we had so many bad horror movies recently. As I mentioned earlier I?m a fan of David Cronenberg and his work really informed what I thought this movie could be. I?m proud when I look at the movie I can see a lot of the same intelligent imagery and intelligent narrative that?s usually involved in his work.?

After being so involved in writing, directing, and being behind the scenes of horror films, do you have your own biggest fear?

"We live in a really frightening time. Threats of war and terrorism are all too real. They are far scarier than any movie could ever be. Hopefully, filmmakers will be inspired to create projects that address the conflicts and hatred in the world today. The best films, horror or any other genre, have all been made in times of turmoil. That's really the purpose of art - to help people cope with the uncertainties of life, to help put issues in perspective."

Hideous will be featured in the Screamfest LA Film Festival next week. For more information check out HideousTheMovie.com or ScreamfestLA.com.