Writer and director Jordan Downey sat down with FEARnet today to talk about his film Craw Lake about a man who attempts to save his daughter from the dark woods which hold a nightmarish creature. See what Downey has to say about making the film before it hits the film festival circuit next week at Screamfest LA.

Though they are definitely two separate films, it seems like there are some similarities between Craw Lake and Hatchet with the whole backwoods setting and a throwback to 80?s horror. Was that intentional?

?I have seen Hatchet. I never thought about that until right now but I was talking to a friend a couple days ago about how Adam Green who made Hatchet is older than I am but I think we both kind of grew up loving those 80?s horror films and I know that Hatchet has a lot of 80?s style to it with a masked killer taking out people in the woods and swamp land and I guess Craw Lake has similarities as well without the masked villian but sort of with an 80?s monster and a hero that has the weapon like Ash from Evil Dead fighting back above all odds.?

How did you come up with the concept for Craw Lake?

Kevin Stewart, my co-writer and I were talking about different horror movies and he had read this Stephen King book that had something to do with a creature or something out in the dark so it really just spawned all of these ideas and we really thought it would be cool to have a typical lake creature. We wanted to have the shack over the lake with the father who is losing his daughter. The idea we had was for a feature film where basically the whole film shows a guy losing his daughter over the course of one night. WE decided to do a short film of it which just represented some of the themes to promote the feature. I have the full length script and we are currently seeking financing for it.

Throughout Craw Lake there is this centralized idea of being able to protect your children or loved ones against exterior factors. How important was it to keep the centralized theme going while trying to expose the action and horror as well?

?It was very important because that?s the one thing that I feel like I want to see more of in horror films. What really inspires me to do horror films is not necessarily a horror film with good characters but to think of it as a character piece or a drama where you have a lot of emotion but set in horror setting. So think of a drama film and then throw a monster in there that?s kind of the whole thing that I like to do. That was very important and we knew it was a short film and had to have emotion and interaction but at the same time have action and monsters. Because at the end of the day that?s why I want to see a horror movie, to see blood and guts. The action revolved around this guy?s reaction to it.?

How long did the film?s production actually take?

?It took about three days to film. We just did it over a weekend. It took just about a year from beginning to end. It was just about a year ago that we thought of the idea, then when shot in January 2007 and just now Screamfest is its first festival.?

With a small budget and short amount of time, what was involved in the special and physical effects of the film?

?I have done some special effects stuff myself so that saved us some money. The creature itself was just a tall lanky guy in a mask and we painted his whole body with blood. There was a special effects artist on set who applied everything and made it look good. We couldn?t fully show the creature so we used shaky camera effects to hide it but it actually wound up working out because it makes it sort of mysterious.?

Aside from the full length feature of Craw Lake are you involved in any other projects?

?Kevin and I went to Ohio over the summer and shot a feature called Thanks Killing about a demonic evil turkey. We are currently editing that and seeking distribution. My older brother and I are working on a script about a monster who likes the taste of old flesh and feeds on the elderly. Thanks Killing we are trying to get distributed and the other we?ll be pitching to the American film market and trying to make some deals.?

What is your biggest fear?

?I guess you could say failure. It seems like an obvious thing but I guess that would be. (pauses) You know I?m not really afraid of that. The Blair Witch Project scared the shit out of me. Being alone in the middle of the woods.?

That?s funny since it?s very similar to Craw Lake and the whole idea of being alone in the woods.

?Maybe that?s where it came from! It might have rubbed off on me!?