Amigo Undead follows the travails of Kevin Ostrowski, “a straight laced financial adviser, who is invited to his ne’er do well older brother Norm’s 40th birthday party. Much to Kevin’s dismay, the ‘party’ turns out to be a small gathering of a few of Norm’s eccentric friends at a campsite. When one of the friends, the titular Jovan, chokes on a hot dog, circumstances conspire to make the group decide that an impromptu burial is the right course of action. Unbeknownst to them, they bury Jovan in cursed native American land, and he soon returns possessed by a demon hell bent on fulfilling an ancient vendetta.”
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr7QpRwWcV8″]
Director and writer Ryan Nagata provides the audience with plenty of action, outrageous comedy, and horror in his film Amigo Undead. This film is highly entertaining and you will include it in your “guy classics” film collection.
Danijel Sraka, one of the producers of Amigo Undead praised working with Nagata and George Edelman, who also produced and co-wrote Amigo Undead. Danijel said the film was a fun experience and with so many comedians on set it was a huge plus and that Amigo Undead is a perfect example of what a low budget horror is all about.
Five Quick Questions with Ryan Nagata
Amigo Undead is about a guys outing in the dessert that turns tragic when one of the guys dies, but you managed to spin that into an outrageous horror/comedy. Can you generalize what the audience will experience and how the concept came about?
RYAN: The concept came about because George and I have made a bunch of films out in the desert and we’ve often joked about what would happen if someone died accidentally. And being a horror fan, we spun it into something in that genre. I think we both have an unusual sense of humor, so I hope that comes through in the movie. It’s definitely not for everybody, but there is a segment of the population that I think will appreciate it. It’s kind of an irreverent, pop-culture savvy humor. We just wanted to do stuff that you wouldn’t see in a mainstream Hollywood movie. Like cast an Asian guy as essentially a white character. Or start the movie as an indie comedy, then veer it off into a horror film. Stuff like that just wouldn’t fly in a mainstream film, but since we had no one telling us what to do, we pretty much did what we wanted. When you make a movie like that, there’s a lot you sacrifice, but you end up with something unique. I’m proud of the fact that we got someone to distribute it, so Gravitas Ventures deserves a big shout-out.
You co-wrote and directed Amigo Undead. Did you know you would be directing the film as you wrote it and did that have any effect on writing the screenplay?
RYAN: We originally wrote the film to be a bigger budget thing, possibly with the intention of selling it to a studio. But having done a ton no-budget internet videos, we realized we could strip it down and do this ourselves. So at that point, I knew I would be directing it, so George and I very specifically wrote what we knew we could pull off in terms of special effects and set pieces, locations, etc. For instance, I have a background in art department and practical effects, so we wrote a lot more of that sort of thing into the film instead of scenes that would require a lot of CGI, which I’m not as familiar with. Besides, practical stuff is so much cooler.
Randall Park and Steve Agee are two well-known, comical actors. Tell us about the casting and getting the lead roles casted.
RYAN: We knew both Randall and Steve from Channel 101. You can look up what that is because it’s kind of complicated. We all made short internet videos before on shoestring budgets and we all had a mutual respect for each other’s work, so they just understood what we were trying to do and got on board.
With production complete, when will Amigo Dead be available and how?
RYAN: The film is available now on iTunes and pretty much every other VOD platform, including cable. So check it out.
Now that you directed and wrote your first feature film, what’s next for you?
RYAN: Hopefully making another movie. This one took a lot out of me, but hopefully somewhere down the line. George and I have a lot of unusual and I think intriguing concepts for films. Hopefully someday you’ll see one of them.
As Ryan mentioned, Amigo Undead is available on iTunes and VOD. For more information go to the Amigo Undead, Facebook page and website.
https://www.facebook.com/amigoundead.movie?fref=ts
www.amigoundead.com/
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