Charles Pinion American Mummy Interview

Charles Pinion American Mummy Interview

Cast: Suziey Block, Aidan Bristow, Aaron Burt
Director: Charles Pinion
Genre: Horror
Running Time: 82 minutes

A group of university students in the New Mexico desert unearth an ancient mummy, on which one of the students performs a secret, primeval blood ritual. This awakens the death-hungry spirit of the Aztec Lord Tezcalipoca, intent on finishing his centuries-old reign of terror. Soon, the mummy's curse possesses the students' souls, turning them against each other in a bid to spread his evil to the entire world.

Interview with Charles Pinion

Question: Congratulations on Pinion Armageddon; what can attendee's expect from the event?

Charles Pinion: Lots of lovable gore splat, cool music and some retro-transgressive thrills!

Question: How have you gone about creating the 3D screening?

Charles Pinion: I was lucky enough to join the Alamo Drafthouse's week-long '3-Delerium" event for a rare 3D screening of my movie American Mummy. I'm proud to be rubbing shoulders with classics like 1962's The Mask and Scorcese's Hugo. What we have in common is that we made our movies in 3D!

Question: Have you seen American Mummy in 3D on the big screen before?

Charles Pinion: Yes! American Mummy's World Premiere was at the state-of-the-art Luna Cinema in Perth, Australia as part of Revelation Film Festival. It looked staggering! American Mummy also had some well-received screenings in Mexico City, ancestral home of our mummified protagonist Tezcatlipoca.


Question: American Mummy premiered in Australia – will we see you return anytime soon?

Charles Pinion: I would love to return, but no plans currently are in the works. My niece lives there so there's always a good reason to go!


Question:  Will those who don't attend Pinion Armageddon get the chance to view the completely uncensored cut of Red Spirit Lake?

Charles Pinion: That is very unlikely. That version was distributed in VHS in small, hand-made lots in the early -90s and no more are being made. The movie works without those few seconds of screen time, so only an obsessive Pinion completist would need to see it. It's the fruit of those crazy Cinema of Transgression years, so it's appropriate that it's showing in New York.


Question: Can you tell us about Saint Frankenstein?

Charles Pinion: I only know it by the reputation of the filmmaker, Scooter McCrae, who made the zombie classic Shatter Dead around the same time I made Red Spirit Lake. The trailer looks great and I can't wait to see it!


Question: What do you love about The Magician?
Charles Pinion: I haven't seen The Magician, but as it's by Tommy Turner, I expect it to be confrontational, lyrical and a reflection of its time. His Where Evil Dwells remains a classic.


Question: Can you tell us about Try Again?

Charles Pinion: Try Again is a short I made in 2015 dealing with the subject of suicidal ideation. I was moving out of a beautiful apartment and its empty spaces created certain tableaus in my imagination. The seed image is of a man sitting at his kitchen table, blue and dead, revolver in his hand, a spray of blood on the wall behind him. The camera slowly moves in, so the viewer can see every detail of his sad demise. That's how it started, with that image. I then approached my friend Adam Moore, who is an actor and writer. He tackled the story as an echo of the Dorothy Parker poem Resume, in which she imagines the results of different approaches to suicide. The poem culminates in 'I might as well live." Try Again is gory and horrifying, but hopeful.


Question: What's next for you?

Charles Pinion: That's a great question. The next film I'm excited about isn't even mine, but is the solo-directorial debut of horror legend John Skipp, Hope In Hell, which I will be editing. Meanwhile, I've been writing Dark Canyon, a horror movie about an itinerant serial killer.

I love making films but they are by nature a long, methodical process from seed to bloom. As an alternative, I like the solitary process of drawing and painting. I've always been a painter and printmaker and lately have been enjoying making digital art in the service of my production company Inferential Pictures.


Interview by Brooke Hunter