Fans know Tim Sullivan as the sick and twisted guy who brought you laughs and bloody entrails in 2001 Maniacs and Hood of Horror, but recently Sullivan has been dedicating his love for cinema to some darker toned genre offerings like the recent DVD release of Driftwood. Sullivan talked to us about his upcoming projects including the release of the Maniacs comic series, the new film Clowns (set to be produced by Tobe Hooper) and 2001 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillys.

Where did the concept for Driftwood come from exactly?

?I became aware of these attitude adjustment camps for troubled youth as they are called because I was teaching a youth group a couple years back. There was a kid in the class who was really, really cool and just sort of seemed different. He was a little rock and roller playing drums. One day he just wasn?t there in class and it was sort of weird so I started asking about him and everyone was sort of acting strange about it. The next thing I knew I found out that he had been sent to one of these camps. I had never heard of them so I was wondering what he did if he got in trouble with the law or something and found out that he didn?t do anything and there was no legal trouble it was just that his parents thought that he wasn?t ?up to par?. What does that mean? He was 16 years old what kind of par did they want him to be up to? It turns out that his parents had him later on in life and really didn?t know what to do with this little rock and roller and watched some special on the Columbine massacre that blamed Marilyn Manson and wearing black and The Crow. Then they probably went into his room and saw a poster for The Crow and heard him listening to Marilyn Manson and he had just gotten his ear pierced and so they decided that their son was headed for trouble. I started doing research and went online and I couldn?t believe it but there were about 50 of these places in America. They weren?t government run, their privately owned, privately funded, cost about $50,000 to send a kid there and have these ridiculous names like Sunshine Road, or Sunshine Haven. They actually had commercials very similar to the one in the movie with Diamond Dallas Page saying ?you don?t want your kid to be the next Columbine killer, send them to me and I?ll straighten them out!?

When the kid finally got out two years later he was a shell of his former self. The spark in his eyes was gone and he was like a robot. I remember I went out with him one day and he wouldn?t even reach for his water at lunch because he was so used to having to wait to be given permission for everything. Eventually he started telling me about the horrors of what he experienced and I said man, I have to tell this story one day and make a movie about this. This is just wrong. Anytime you deny someone their self expression (as long as that self expression isn?t hurting anybody) I just think that is the greatest horror. After Maniacs I decided that my next film was going to be a more personal horror and I was going to take a break from the more broad horror of Maniacs and do something a little more subtle. It just felt like the right time to tell that story.?

Was it your first intention to make a film that brought awareness about these camps?

?Absolutely. I don?t really say this much but when I was young; there was a part of me that wanted to be a priest. There?s always been a part of me that wanted to be a priest, teacher or mentor. I remember that my friend Father Mark who was a really good teacher of mine said to me one day, ?you know you might be able to reach more people from a movie screen than a pulpit.? That stuck with me. A lot of times when you just want to make a statement, a lot of people don?t want to be preached to but if you disguise a message in a horror movie the way Rob Serling used to do with the Twilight Zone episodes, in addition to entertaining people and scaring them, if you can make them think a little bit well that?s just the icing on the cake. I wanted to draw attention to these camps but at the same time I never wanted to do it at the expense of entertainment so I tried to find a balance between entertainment and educating people of the horrors of these camps.?

How much did you draw from the experience of the person that you knew for Driftwood?

?So much. We had a scene that we filmed (but then we didn?t think it was necessary to put in the final cut) where they actually take the kid to a place like Driftwood. Usually it?s done in a way where the kid thinks daddy is going to drive him to school and suddenly he goes down a street that?s not familiar and there?s a van waiting for them or in the middle of the night the door opens. That?s how Ricky Ullman gets there, he?s woken up in the middle of the night and the first thing they do is strip you and hose you down and remove the black nail polish or piercings to make to blend in. The other things are true too where instead of the adults beating you, they would get the kids to beat you or if you did something they didn?t like instead of punishing you they would give you a cheeseburger while the other kids around you are eating oatmeal so the kids start beating you up. Also, the character that Talan plays, there?s a lot of kids there that once they turn 18, realize they have no where to go so they become what?s called buddies and they stay on as the junior guards. Because they are still youth they can get away with beating the kids.

Another horrifying thing, that we sort of condensed in the character of the captain?s daughter is that they have camps for girls and camps for boys and often the girls are used as sex objects. A lot of times some of the boys that are in these camps would prefer the boy next door rather than the girl next door and are maybe sent to the camps because their parents are afraid that their kid is gay. They actually have these girls from the other camps that they give to the boys to actually try to make them straight. They also have things called gauntlets where they have to go through this obstacle course and the other kids beat them. Just a month ago in Florida a kid was put through one of these things and was murdered.

They do have solitary confinement. The kid who was sent to this camp that I knew had been talking about feeling like he wanted to die. A lot of us feel like that some times but we don?t act on it, we might talk about it in a therapy session or something but that?s about it. Well they put him in a box over night because that was their idea of showing him what it was like to die. They put him in the box over night thinking that that was a good way of getting him over his despair.?

What was it like to go from something like 2001 Maniacs or Hood of Horror, more comedic horror, into something as serious as Driftwood?

?It was a very intense experience. The sets of Maniacs and Hood of Horrors were very different. There was a lot of kidding around and everyone was in a joking mood. First of all, Driftwood was shot in an abandoned juvenile prison here in California and just being there everyone was sick to their stomach. The thought that kids were put in this place was sickening. The cells were no bigger than a small bathroom. I would sit there sometimes in between takes to look at my story boards. I remember sometimes they would need me on set and I would get up and walk out and I realized that at anytime I could get up and walk out. But imagine if this is where you lived. The one day I was sitting there staring at the wall and these kids weren?t allowed to have pens or pencils or any sharp objects and in the wall someone had carved ?Set Me Free? and it hit me that the only thing they could have done this with was their fingernails. That actually gave me the idea to have a song ?Set Me Free? that was written by Tad Jacobs and Bobby Alt for the end credits. It was a very intense experience. We only had 15 days to shoot this so even if it was a comedy there really wasn?t any room for fooling around. When you shoot a scene in Maniacs when someone gets pulled apart by a horse it?s so ridiculous and so silly but when you?re on a set where you have kids beating other kids it?s tough.

I don?t think you have to go to a place like Driftwood to know what it?s like to be in prison. Anyone who is a little different has felt those feelings of being alone and being in their own personal prison. It was weird to be there and to sort of recreate moments of my childhood with lights and cameras. That scene where the mother and father come to visit Ricky and the father can?t even tell his son what color his eyes are, that?s something that really happened to me when I was a kid. Maniacs is my rock and roll anthem and Driftwood is my power ballad.?

Now that fan?s have seen you do both comedic horror and serious horror, what do you personally like to do?

?It?s so funny because I just came back from Spain showing Driftwood where the fans loved Maniacs. I was scared if they would think I went soft with Driftwood but they loved it. It was cool to see that they liked both sides of me. I look at filmmakers like Guillermo del Torro who do things like Pan?s Labyrinth and Hellboy and Devil?s Backbone. I kind of like that and think that I might want to switch back and forth. I?d like to do a serious film and then something funny. My next film will be the sequel to Maniacs and the comic series of Maniacs. So if you like the twisted side of me there?s a lot of that coming out.?

Would you have any interest in branching off of horror and into another genre?

?Yeah definitely. Maniacs is a horror film but it?s also a comedy. Driftwood is a horror film but it?s also a teen drama-Stand By Me with a ghost, someone has said. I like the human experience. The first films I fell in love with were horror films and then I sort of branched off and loved all films. I?d love to do some of that.

This week I just saw Stuart Gordon?s movie called Stuck. Stuck has horrific things in it but it?s a drama. Then you have David Cronenberg doing Eastern Promises and Peter Jackson doing Lord of The Rings. So yeah I would definitely love to do that. Will I be given the opportunity? No. I?ll probably have to take it because people think that horror filmmakers are still on the bottom of the ladder. They don?t take horror filmmakers seriously but the irony of it is that horror filmmakers use all the different aspects of the film media. You have to really bring sound into play and cinematography to make a horror moment as opposed to making a drama moment which is people talking. I do want to do stuff like that. After the sequel to Maniacs I have a film I?m going to do called Brothers of the Blood. Yes it?s a vampire film but it?s another film like Driftwood that?s a drama with a love triangle between two vampires and a human. The vampire aspect of it is used more like a metaphor for how we control the people we love. I think that I might have better luck if I deal with dramatic subjects but keep that genre supernatural aspect to it.?

Is there anything else that you can tell us about Brothers of the Blood or the other future projects that you?re working on?

?Thomas Dekker who is on Heroes and is the new John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles has agreed to be in Brothers of the Blood. He?s also agreed to be in the film I?m doing with Diamond Dallas Page called Clowns that was originally written because Tobe Hooper hired me to write a script based on an idea he had. It was hard for me to give it to him after I wrote it. I think he always realized that so he said to me recently that I should just direct it and he?ll produce it. Diamond Dallas Page was determined to be the lead villian so I have the next three things lined up with Maniacs, Clowns, and Brothers of the Blood.?

Is there anyone else besides Dallas Page and Thomas Dekker set to star in Clowns?

?Well a few weeks ago Thomas Dekker had me and Dallas Page come down to the set of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Lena Hedy from 300 is playing Sarah. As it turns out she?s a huge Tobe Hooper fan. We were thinking hmm this would be interesting if we had mom and son from Sarah Connor Chronicles suddenly playing brother and sister. She?s reading the script as we speak. So who knows!?

Anything you can tell us about 2001 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillys?

?Let?s just say all the boobs, all the blood, and all the laughs. We?re going to top the first one. If the first one didn?t secure me a place in hell the second one will definitely ensure it. It?s going to be one of the most politically incorrect just plain wrong movies you?ll ever see. I recently ran into an old friend of mine back from my MTV days, Paul Rubens. I ran into him at Comic-Con and it turns out he?s a huge fan of Maniacs and is asking to be in the sequel so we?re going to work something out to get Pee-Wee Herman in the Maniac film.

The script is completely finished, it?s cast. Right now we are getting ready to shoot it so we?re ready to go. It will probably be shot in January or February.?

What is your biggest fear?

?My biggest fear is to not be able to create another story or make another film. If I couldn?t I wouldn?t feel like I was fulfilling my purpose.?