On October 31st, Hyperreal Film Club screened Carl Fry and Nic Bonesteel’s Something’s Wrong With Peter at Hotel Vegas. A week before the screening, Hyperreal’s own Justin Norris sat down with the filmmaking duo to talk inspirations, working with a creative partner, and the surprising appeal of Segways.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

Hyperreal: When was Something’s Wrong with Peter made?

Carl Fry: Was it 2017, Nic?

Nic Bonesteel: [Laughing] Not 2017, it was 2019! We filmed in 2019 and I don’t think we finished [post-production] until 2020, right? Like, early 2020? Like early January or February. It was about six months in post.

HR: You mention 2019, obviously that was when the COVID-19 pandemic came around. Did you both face any COVID-19 related challenges at all?

NB: No, we were very lucky that we dodged the pandemic completely. I can’t imagine making this movie during that time! We were supposed to have a couple of screenings for [Something’s Wrong with Peter] that did get cancelled by the pandemic, which was unfortunate. But in terms of production, yeah, we were very lucky! We were pre-pandemic babies [chuckles]!

CF: Yeah, I guess it was the festivals that was the biggest blow from the [COVID-19 pandemic]. Aside from our cast and crew screening…that’s why we’re excited about Monday [Hyperreal’s Scream screening].

HR: So, this will be one of the first official screenings for the film?

NB and CF: Yes!

HR: Well, that’s exciting! I can’t even imagine the tension of waiting that long to screen this since it has been a couple of years since you’ve both made this. I’m sure y’all are excited to finally put this in front of people!

NB: Yeah! [chuckles] It keeps me up at night!

HR: I enjoyed the film! It felt like everybody was having a good time. It reminded me of the films I made with my best friends in high school! Everyone was on the same page. Everyone was clicking. Everyone was having fun! And for a short film or any film to give off that vibe, I think that’s one of the hardest things a movie can pull off! And I think [Something’s Wrong With Peter] pulls it off!

CF: I’m glad to hear that that came off because it was six overnights which traditionally would be considered pretty brutal. Aside from our gaffer, Brooks, he was the only adult on set [CF and NB chuckle]…the rest of us were all college students so it was very much a singular and special experience for that reason! We still had fun despite the logistical issues that are related with having that many overnights in a row.

NB: To get ready for this interview, I was going through a lot of the behind-the-scenes pics and videos I took on set and I’m like, “Look at these kids! So much joy in their eyes!” [Laughs]. Every time we’d look back from the monitor we’d look back and the actors were dancing while they waited for us to start rolling. It was essentially a movie comprised of all of our favorite people in the world both onscreen and behind the camera! So, it was a very special six days! We were talking about this earlier; we were wondering if we’d ever be able to have that same group of people that we all just love so much together on set.

CF: Yeah, it probably was just a singular thing. Once in a lifetime, but it was the most adorable crew in the world!

HR: How did the idea for Something’s Wrong with Peter come about? Did anything set it off?

CF: Conceptually it just started with us wanting to subvert the trope of demonic possession. Starting with that root concept: what happens if there’s this group of friends, one of them gets possessed by a demon, and the demon doesn’t want to go back to Hell? So, as they work on this solution to get their friend back, we have this demon who we’re sympathetic to who’s struggling to integrate into human society. From there, it just went off the rails [Laughs]. Bonesteel brought up that it started off as Superbad, except someone’s possessed by a demon, but also let’s get some of The Raid: Redemption in there, and Chappie, and the influences started to snowball into whatever it ended up becoming!

NB: Yeah, the list of references for the movie does not at all reflect what people assume [Something’s Wrong with Peter] is. I think a lot of that is subconsciously, we’re influenced by John Carpenter and all those greats, and we knew that in the back of our minds, but we never talked about them. We talked about The Raid: Redemption, we talked about Chappie, Hereditary, and The Blair Witch Project, but it wasn’t until we were crafting the visuals of it, that’s when we went back to those old school horror movies of like Sam Raimi to help craft the visual language.

HR: I took this film as a horror-comedy and horror-comedy seems like a popular genre. Why do you think that horror-comedies are so popular? What leads to these two genres intermingling so much?

NB: I think structurally comedy and horror movies are very similar. You have a build-up and a punchline for both but instead of a joke in a comedy film it’s a scare in a horror film. For us, we like to do a lot of visual gags and embracing our dark humor/horror leads to those gags. We’re like, “We don’t know how to make this funny!” and then we’re like, “I know!” And then we break someone’s neck 90 degrees, and we’re like, “That’s funny!”

HR: I was a big fan of the long take with the guy with his neck broken as he moved to the tree really slowly. I dug that!

CF: Thank you! [Chuckles]

HR: No problem! I saw in your bios that Carl, you like dark, offbeat humor. Nic, your films have been described like a “home cooked meal”, you specialize in absurd comedy. So subconscious or conscious, were there any inspirations when coming up with the humor for this movie?

CF: Yeah! A lot of the comedy was rooted in the juxtaposition of having something that looks commercialized and polished but then having the dumbest joke possible thrown in there. It’s like some of the early 2000’s comedy, like Rob Schneider’s films, inspirations where it’s these people who tried really hard on these movies. With a lot of our jokes, we’d have a line like, in the script’s first draft, “Last time I checked you were the one who left me to die in Cuba!” and it’s like, stop, that’s it! There are no revisions to this line because if we really commit to that and build around that joke with as much seriousness and drama as possible, then it’s the only way that joke is going to land. But it could work!

NB: I agree! A lot of these lines just came from us talking and if we said a line that had us burst out laughing, we would be like that has to go in! Really, it was trying to build off tropes, like yeah, we can have school bullies but we can also have school bullies that are riding segways and that’s better! There’s a funny story one time when we were on set. It was lawnmower day with the bullies and we’re an hour behind and we’re all rushing and I’m looking at the monitor and Carl comes up to me and he just starts laughing so hard! And I’m like why are you laughing, I’m taking this very seriously and he’s like, “Look at this! This is ridiculous! We’re making all these people make this shot! Like this is stupid!” [Laughs]. And at the time I didn’t really get it, I was like, “No, this is not stupid!” but now I’m like, no, that’s the point! [Laughs]. I didn’t get it until I watched it when we were editing and I was like “Okay, that is pretty funny!” [Chuckles].

CF: Even just between the two of us, the fact that we could get so stressed and anxious dealing with plain logistics and technical stuff while meanwhile, rack focus from us to the actual scene we’re about to film, and it’s like, we can take a deep breath and take a step back. Like, this is completely ridiculous [Laughs].

HR: It’s a funny juxtaposition, that serious filmmaking going on while filming absurd scenarios. Going off that mix of serious and absurd, was it more challenging to craft the horror scenes or the comedic ones?

NB: That’s a great question! Carl, do you have any immediate thoughts?

CF: Definitely the comedy is the most intimidating part. The horror part we could probably drop the ball in but still be able to lean on the comedy, but if there’s any joke you commit to, there’s a good chance that it won’t land and that can be pretty scary! And the only thing you can really do is go back to the horror and try and make that work enough that the joke itself will land. I don’t know, I guess I land in the middle since they work hand-in-hand.

NB: I would agree with that. There’s something about comedy that is scary in that way where you’ll say, “Oh, I think this is funny!” and then you try and do it and then you’re like “Oh.” And then if the ball is dropped somewhere with the joke, the whole scene could be ruined. You know? Like we actually have to lose some plot points if we cut a joke out. Meanwhile for horror, we’re like Tiger [Hill, director of photography], make it look scary [Chuckles]. We go to the department heads and go like “Ellar [Coltrane, production designer], make a spooky house” and then it’s up to them, right? Like Ellar was very proactive. We would be like, “We want a scary haunted house,” and he’s like, “Okay.” And that was it! I remember the first time we walked through the set and it was at night, they were pre-lighting it, and we’re like, “Oh my God, this is terrifying!” and we didn’t talk about half of these things they added [Laughs]. Seeing these symbols on the walls written in blood, the scary dolls, it’s like you give these very talented people some toys and a playground to play in and they make it their own world, which is another very special part.

HR: It’s funny you mention that because while I was watching the film, initially when watching the characters get chased through the house, you focus on them but on a rewatch you notice how much care was put into the horror aspect of the setting. It’s a mainly comic-leaning film but there’s still this love put into the horror that pops up in the background. And I think that’s what makes the humor pop out even more as these two spaces collide with each other.

NB: Thank you, that means a lot! [laughs]

HR: Yeah, props to your design and production team!

CF: Yeah, talking about that moment that Bonesteel refers to, when we first saw the set, that was the highlight of the shoot for me! That was our first day of shooting at that house. But walking through it and just seeing that, especially in the middle of the night, that was a moment where we were like, “We should actually make a horror movie someday!” because it was awesome. More of that please!

NB: Yeah, absolutely. It was great. Shoutout to Ellar and Monie [Monica Silverio, art director] for pulling that off [laughs].

HR: Keeping in touch with the visual aspect of the film, one thing I noticed was there was a sort of “timeless” setting to this film, which I think is an interesting aspect that pops up in a lot of horror films. I think of It Follows, which doesn’t really establish a time period. Did either of you have an era of time in mind or were you both shooting for a sort of timeless mood, visually speaking?

NB: Yeah, I think we were going for that kind of timeless aesthetic. We didn’t really want to focus on when these events were taking place. I don’t know, Carl, you were really pushing for like a full ‘90s period piece at one point and I think we landed somewhere in the middle, right?

CF: Yeah, like finding a more ambiguous [time period], or something presented as ambiguous because an actual period piece was more expensive and we realized we couldn’t afford to do that.

HR: It’s interesting to hear about the ‘90s pitch though, was there a reason behind that?

CF: We were thinking about when we go to the editing, we were going to be pulling more from 90’s television editing style aesthetics. We tried a few more overt TV tropes in the edit that didn’t work, but there are few we left in like the flashbacks that hopefully feels ‘90s TV-esque.

NB: Like the establishing shot with the high school with guitar riff and stuff like that [Laughs].

HR: This is a question I’ve always wanted to ask. You both co-wrote, co-directed, co-edited this film. I’ve always wondered how that process has looked. How did this process look for you two and what are some of the keys to making a partnership like that work when making a singular piece?

NB: Oh, that’s a great question [Laughs]. Well, we were together for quite awhile before Peter. Every project we made two years before Peter we made together. We made a web series together in 2017, I helped [Carl] with another web series he was directing. I don’t think any two people can end up co-directing a project together. It has to be symbiotic, or just the right two people finding each other and they just meld really well. Because you have to be on the same page about everything and kind of naturally get there, otherwise it’s just a battle to get your ideas across and if the other person isn’t a fan of your ideas and you’re not a fan of theirs inherently, it’s probably not going to work out that well [Laughs].

CF: As [Roger] Deakins says, it’s all about sensibilities. Miraculously, me and Bonesteel share the same sensibilities and there’s a lot of overlap. Like he said, we kind of had some time to exercise that in the years leading up to Something’s Wrong with Peter and you used the word “meld” too, it is kind of like a mind meld. There’s something metaphysical that happened that allowed us to be on the same page. And I think when you’re on set, as far as the practicality of it goes, especially with the overnights, when you’re doing a shot, usually someone just happens to care about that shot a little bit more [Chuckles]. Like whoever had that conceptual “This needs to be a certain way,” someone usually takes the lead, and sometimes one of us is going to be sleepier than the other. So it’s like, “Wow, this is so convenient, there’s two of us!” And now I don’t even know if it’d be possible to do it any other way. Just with the amount of labor that goes into pre-production and making decisions, it’s hard to imagine doing it any other way. Like even if we do have disagreements, we’re pretty good about not compromising the vision anywhere. If there’s something we do disagree on, more likely, one of us is right here and we can have a conversation that’s productive and make a decision that we can move forward with. I don’t know, it has worked pretty well! And I know going into it there was a little bit of a “Let’s just see what happens” and then we were like, “Okay, this works!”

NB: Yeah, we were trying to establish some kind of boundaries before because we were under the impression that it wasn’t possible to successfully co-direct a movie, you know? But then we were like “Can we?”…so then one of us was like, “Does one of us want to focus on the actors? The other focuses on the technical stuff?” But at the end of the day, we were doing both together and we could be more efficient in some ways doing that where we would talk to each other about what we want the other departments to know and then just split up. So it could be very effective, especially when keeping everybody on the same page! I remember, day one, we had a very extensive VFX shot that needed to be supervised and you know, Carl is a VFX master, so while he was off supervising that, I was able to prep for day two with like, storyboarding or whatever, trusting each other to do the best we can.

CF: Bonesteel has a significantly more advanced technical language than I do with film so especially with talking to the DP with regards to lighting, like he’s able to just totally take the lead on that conversation and we can have that mutual trust there!

HR: I’m getting a sense from our conversation that there’s a very “peanut butter and chocolate” relationship between the two of you! I imagine it makes the set easier when there’s two people of the same mind working together. Going off that, were there any lessons you learned from the set of Peter that sticks out for y’all?

NB: We learned so many! I really liked that this was our all-out, balls-to-the-wall, let’s just make a movie just purely based on making ourselves laugh. We want to make others laugh and just do whatever crazy stuff we want and we can find the throughline. I think we were talking after Peter of trying to infuse a little more heart into our movies moving forward. Like, still keep the insanity but maybe ground it through the characters more. So that was something I learned. Carl, I don’t know, do you have any lessons? Like if it’s a comedy, make it under ten minutes [Laughs].

CF: I’m glad you went first because those are all helping me remember those big lessons! There are a lot of things you can’t learn until it’s completely done and you can watch it and you’re like “Oh…” and get a better idea of what’s working and what’s not working. I think it even took the whole process of editing the film before that became clear as far as characters go. We’ve joked that the gym coach is the only one with an arc [Laughs]. I think that especially when directing actors and working on characters, like that’s all stuff we’ve grown a lot on since Something’s Wrong With Peter.

HR: You talk about Coach Powell, who has this whole arc his character goes through. Would the two of you ever consider doing a prequel for Coach Powell’s little backstory?

NB: Justin, what the frick? Have you been spying on us, dude? [Laughs]

HR: What the film teases, there’s something there! Maybe y’all can hop on the Cinematic Universe trend! [Laughs] But no, there’s a story there for sure so I was wondering if that idea ever crossed y’alls mind?

NB: 100,000%!

CF: I’m pretty sure the first scene, in our feature outline, it opens with “Flashback, tilt down, Cuba. Coach Powell flies in with a wingsuit and goggles.” It’s like, what if it was Hereditary meets Just Cause 2 [Laughs].

NB: Yeah, I think we were joking around that obviously we should do spinoffs for each character. We make Something’s Wrong with Peter of course for like $40 million. Then we do the Coach Powell prequel for $150 million [Laughs].

HR: It goes all the way to top with the Coach Powell prequel. That’s what America wants right there!

NB and CF: [Laughs]

HR: So, Something’s Wrong with Peter is supernatural based, deals with demons and all that. Have either of you experienced anything supernatural or known anybody who’s experienced something supernatural?

CF: In our house we had a warlock that lived here for a few months. I never encountered it, never experienced any kind of issues with the house at that time. But my more religiously-inclined roommates were very concerned about its presence here. So that was a little period, but they cast it out successfully after three months of its presence. So it was pretty chill; definitely didn’t cause any issues or anything like that [Laughs]

NB: Well, they also emptied your living room and drew a giant pentagram that one time. [Laughs]

CF: Yeah. [Laughs] So there’s been a bit of history here.

HR: You probably should’ve brought the warlock on as a supernatural consultant for Something’s Wrong with Peter.

CF: We thought about it! It’s like if we have a Ouija board and can communicate with this guy, he could save us a ton of money on VFX gags, he could lift people, and do crazy stuff. Massively elevate the production value if we could get him behind the film but I don’t think we’re able to establish a line of communication, unfortunately [Laughs].

HR: Naturally tough to contact, I think I’ve heard, is the word with warlocks [Laughs]. Going off that, what’s the coolest supernatural being?

NB: I’ve been on a bit of a skeleton kick, lately! I was never really a big fan of skeletons for a long time but just recently I was like these guys are underrated! Skeletons are pretty sick!

HR: Are we talking the normal pristine white skeleton or, like, there’s still a bit of earth on them and worms coming out of their eye sockets and all that?

NB: They can be a little dirty, maybe not as much of that gore. I was watching Army of Darkness and I’m like “The skeletons are the best part of this movie!” They’re so funny!

HR: Minions before The Minions, some could say!

NB: Like literally! They’re like minions.

CF: That’s an awesome answer. Yeah, I was at H-E-B today in the Halloween section and they had this $40, pretty large life-size skeleton and I was like, “I want that!” I will say though, I’m from Fresno, California originally and there’s a local cryptid called The Fresno Nightcrawler. He’s so cool, so awesome, he walks around on these big legs but doesn’t have a body or anything, totally harmless! I think it’s attributed to Native American history, but I haven’t done any research to see what the precedent is for that folklore but he’s awesome and I love him [Chuckles].

HR: It sounds like you had a run in with him and y’all were like friends, like an Iron Giant type of thing going on. Maybe there’s something there for y’all two down the future!

CF: Oh yeah, no one’s tapped into that yet [Laughs].

NB: Yeah, Fresno folklore is untapped! [Laughs]

CF: For Blumhouse. It looks like a plastic bag, I don’t know, it just walks around that’s all it does!

HR: Just do the Jaws method, just show bits of it and I don’t know, I think y’all could make it truly scary!

NB: Aww, thank you Justin.

CF: Great idea, don’t sue us! [Laughs]

HR: I have to ask too, we have two characters in SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH PETER who ride on segways. Is that inspired by either of y’alls true feelings towards the segway? Underrated or overrated?

CF: Ambivalent, yeah.

NB: Yeah, I think they’re overrated. Like what kind of person drives a segway? I can’t trust them. They don’t trust their own legs, so I don’t trust them as people.

CF: Those segways were awesome though, they were off-roading segways!

HR: I didn’t even know that was a thing!

CF: Yeah, they went so fast! We had to shut it down, for safety reasons, because everyone was having too much fun with them, like throwing basketballs around in the gym. It’s like, “Alright guys, we should probably stop playing with the off-roading segways!”

NB: No, segways are actually super rad! They were totally tearing it up in there. [Laughs] I hope the location doesn’t hear that.

HR: Stocks are going to shoot up for segway’s after Monday’s screening!

NB: Oh yeah, dude, we’re arriving on segways! Luxury segways and tuxedos! [Laughs]

HR: Carl, and Nic you’re able to hop in here, but Carl, I know you’re the VFX specialist with the movie. I really appreciated the scene where Peter blows off the guy’s jaw. I was like, “Wow, this is good!” Going off that, I think gore can get a bit of a hard rap, so when you are concocting these images, is there any inspiration when it comes to creating gory images?

CF: That’s a good question! The most gratifying element of gore is the audience reaction. That’s kind of what you’re really building towards is like what is that going to get from people. It might be a gasp, it might be laughter, a lot of it is kind of cartoonish in this movie. I remember a couple of times on set too, there were a few moments like, “Alright, we’ll get a clean plate and then William is gonna be on the floor and then crawl away…” and everyone’s like, “Mmm-hmm, is this actually gonna work?” and you’re like “Yeah, totally!” but there’s actually this single bead of sweat going down your face [Laughs]. Like you really hope this stuff works and luckily in Something’s Wrong With Peter it all did pretty much work out when we got to post. Because there was a pretty heavy VFX load including a lot of cosmetic stuff like taking out shadows or cleaning up environmental pieces.

NB: A total master of his craft!

HR: Did you guys ever impose a limit on y’alls imagination when coming up with these visuals? Did y’all ever say “This might be too much” or were y’all wanting to see, no matter how gross it could be, if y’all could bring it to life?

NB: Yeah, no, Carl is the one who makes more work for himself honestly. Because he’s the one that says, “We’ll fix it in post” and I’m like, “Are you sure?” and he’s like, “No, yeah, it’s going to be great!” [Chuckles]. He wants to go as hard as possible in these shots and he’s always pushing to make it bigger himself even though he ultimately has to be the one to do it. [Laughs]

CF: I will say Justin, if we are peanut butter and chocolate as you said, then Bonesteel’s the chocolate because he’s so sweet [Laughs]. Yeah, we wanted to start conceptually as ambitious as possible, kind of across the board. There were some scenes where people, as we approached production, they were like, “Is this really going to happen?” Like what’s going to happen on set when we do this sequence here? But for us, it’s more like, it’s easy to have a backup plan. There were a couple of places where we sacrificed on gore. Originally the guy whose jaw unhinged, he was going to burst into flames and then they would try and use the holy water to put out the flames, but it wouldn’t work. So it was just a whole sequence but since we were so tight on time we were just like “Okay, let’s not do that”. And there was another person who was supposed to be ripped in half and disemboweled; we cut that. I remember going into our lunch break and we were like he can just die like everyone else [Laughs].

NB: Yeah, that was the worst thing to cut, like on the day. You know cause you talk about it for so long and stuff and then it comes down to where we can do this gag but if we do this gag we can’t shoot the scene. So it’s always a bummer that those are the first things cut. Especially when you start planning for it because it’s already been prepped ahead of time but it’s just like, yeah, those hard decisions. And it’s changed the way I watched movies, especially the good ones, because I’m like, “How many babies died that were like awesome ideas.” Like the movie is incredible but I know something awesome was probably cut.

HR: Is there one particular scene or moment that didn’t make the final version of SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH PETER that keeps you both up at night?

NB: What Carl mentioned, the man getting ripped in half in the climactic scene in the trap home! He was going to be raised off the ground, levitating, and then ripped in half and then his guts were going to spill out everywhere and we had intestines and a bucket ready, and it was just going to be this really elaborate VFX shot mixed with practical elements. It was going to be super cool.

CF: Like imagining that with an audience, building up the whole movie to that gag would’ve been amazing. We’ll have to do that another time, especially in like a wide static shot too.

HR: I think y’all got a lot of good moments like that though in the film. There’s a lot I think that audiences are going to gravitate towards. Maybe y’all can do a redux or a director’s cut?

NB: Yeah, we can do pickups [Laughs].

HR: So drifting away a bit from the film to focus on you two, what’s the best film either of you have seen this year?

NB: Oh man, there’s been a lot of good movies that have come out! I’m casually looking at my Letterboxd to see [Laughs]. I’m not going to look, that’s copping out. I think the one that immediately comes to mind is RRR. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it, Carl. Like you need to watch this movie, it’s insane!

CF: Well, that was actually my answer as well! Especially with Something’s Wrong With Peter and kind of revisiting that approach it was kind of validating to see RRR and be like, “Yes, exactly! See!” [Laughs].

NB: See! It works, I promise [Laughs]! Yeah, it’s just like this crazy, epic three hours where it’s just one of those movies that is just a spectacle and they keep building and raising the stakes consistently and like, it has an actual climax that is better than the rest of the movie, you know? The characters are super lovable and adorable and don’t even get me started on the soundtrack and score, oh my god! Every other scene is just an epic buildup to something. It’s just so much fun to watch!

CF: And not even just creatively, but spiritually, I felt genuinely inspired by [RRR]! Like wow, I have role models now. Not even the filmmaker but the characters, I was like “Wow, now I know what it means to be a man!”

HR: Maybe you and Nic can get those dance routines down?

NB: Dude, yeah, let’s have all of the credits for our movies have us going hard on the dance floor!

HR: Carl, I know you’re working on a feature film right now called Rats!. And Nic I don’t know if you’re helping with that or you yourself are working on a feature, but going off that as you guys have made web-series, shorts, working y’alls way to a feature, is there a certain power to be found in short films that can’t be found in a feature?

NB: I think shorts are great as a way to test out an idea, whether something will work or not, and really play around with different themes and tones and then try and just mix and match them. Making a short is really hard on its own. You really get to see the proof in the pudding when you get to make a little short with your buds and see people’s reactions to your ideas. And working on your movie, Carl, knowing your history and seeing all your works going back to when you were in middle school and literally seeing V2s of ideas in your feature from when you made them when you were 10 years old was incredible! Like he tested it out, and then he learned what didn’t work when he was like 10, and then he made it way better! I think something like that is proof of what’s something really special about shorts! For me, it’s a great training exercise and a way to share your voice with other people and kind of come together on something.

CF: Yeah, that is a great answer. I think it’s true. Coming off Rats!, which we only wrapped in early September, I think, but just the scale with it, like with Something’s Wrong with Peter we were shooting less pages per day than we were on Rats!. When you’re doing a short there’s just so much more room to be prepared and obviously that’s a priority for any project of any scale but still even just script analysis and preparing with actors is just so much more intimidating, I guess, on a feature. Now coming off of [Rats!], a short seems extremely appealing. With anything you could make whatever time you need in post to polish and have something that feels professional but as far as being able to plan something out, it’s more realistic on a short film and then with a feature, unless you have a lot of money and you’re doing something with a bigger budget and have time, without time you’re just massively limited in a way that you aren’t in a short film.

HR: Alright, time for some easier questions! First one, as we know Hyperreal is screening Scream on Monday, so I wanted to see which Scream was your favorite in the franchise?

NB: In the Scream franchise? Oh man, I’m sorry, I’ve only seen the first two! [Laughs]. I’m a monster but I really loved them both! I thought Scream 2, it’s hard making a successful sequel and I thought it really did a good job of building off what the first one accomplished in subverting some tropes and stuff. I think it’s special because it is kind of a biting satire but it’s still very meta in a way. It has great characters, and it has genuinely scary moments. You can’t get more iconic than the Scream kill during the screening of Scream, you know? It’s just kind of one of those things that speaks for itself and way before that kind of humor was super prevalent. I love that franchise, or I guess I shouldn’t say I love the franchise; I love the first two movies and I assume I’m going to love the rest of the franchise [Laughs].

CF: Yeah, I guess for me, unfortunately I do not have an answer. Like my dad was really good about educating my brother and I on horror movies and just making sure we’d seen all the essentials as children. But there’s a couple like Child’s Play and Scream that I never revisited but I’m very excited to do that on Monday!

HR: Final question. What are you two going to be going as, or would like to go as, for Halloween this year?

NB: That’s the hardest question of the night!

CF: If you have any ideas, we will take them [Laughs]!

HR: I think Chris Pratt as Mario is going to be a big one next year.

NB: Oh dude, Mario and Luigi, Carl! [Laughs]

CF: Yes! That’s a good idea, yeah!

NB: For a long time, I was like, I’m going to be a mailman this year! Then I, you know what, I don’t have it, I don’t have that costume, I waited too long to buy it! I wanted to actually buy it from the post office store, like the mailman shirts and shorts and stuff [Laughs]. Maybe next year!

CF: We drop the ball every year! And we just keep saying we can be Coach Powell, we have all those costumes [Laughs]!

NB: I keep asking my girlfriend, “Which character are you going to be from Something’s Wrong With Peter for the screening?” and she’s like “I guess half of those things were my clothes!” and I was like, yeah we did raid your closet a little bit. [Laughs]

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Carl Fry (Co-Director | Co-Writer | Co-Editor)

Carl Fry is a director based out of Austin, TX, currently in post-production on his feature debut, “RATS!”. His background in Visual Effects, which along with his dark humor and offbeat filmmaking style, separates his work as unique and unpredictable.

Nic Bonesteel (Co-Director | Co-Writer | Co-Editor)

Nic Bonesteel is a director/editor from Austin, TX, who specializes in absurd comedy. He was once told that his films are like a “home cooked meal” and he doesn’t really know how to feel about that.

Getting Hyperreal with Carl Fry and Nic Bonesteel