Horror Producer STEVEN BARTON Brings The Fire In “ALL HALLOWS' EVE: INFERNO” (INTERVIEW)
Recently we here at Macabre Daily got a chance to review “All Hallows Eve: Inferno” alongside a chance to sit down with producer Steve Barton to talk about his experience with being a part of “All Hallows Eve: Inferno”. The interview touches on how to decide on which stories to go with, the access to audiences that streaming provides, and Barton’s upcoming autobiography, “A Comedy of Tragedies” from Encyclopacolypse Publications (order here)!
Disclaimer: This interview has been edited for clarity, and some grammatical errors may persist
Macabre Daily: Let’s talk a bit about “All Hallows Eve: Inferno”. Do you have a particular favorite out of these out of all the stories?
Steve Barton: You know it's like asking me to pick from my kids which one is my favorite. I liked all of them man, but I liked them all for different reasons. Some tell a good psychological tale; some tell a good ghost story, and some tell a good monster story. It was important to me I think to have a good horror anthology. A good anthology should sort of be kind of like a potpourri of different things you know. That way you run that spectrum, and you run that gambit, and it was important. When I was looking for shorts for “All Hallows Eve: Inferno” I was looking to find diverse ones. I mean it's important to recognize what this project is and what makes it unique. This isn't like an anthology where all the segments in it were put together specifically for this anthology.
A lot of companies will put out an anthology like that and try to pretend it was all for this but to me that's disingenuous and I don't do disingenuous. The reason why I got excited about doing it is because I came up with the idea of reaching out to filmmakers who have these pre-existing shorts. Now, unfortunately, a lot of the time you know a short film has a very finite lifespan.
You do your festival run you end up getting featured on a website here or there and at the end of the day unfortunately your project goes to live and die on Vimeo or YouTube. You have to hope that people can run across it. These shorts that were just sitting there to be able to give them a chance a second life if you will, at reaching a wider audience. An audience that has never seen them or an audience that does the festival circuit. So, what I wanted to do with it was create what for all intents and purposes is a short film block similar to what you'd see at a festival but in your own house.
MD: With “All Hallows Eve: Inferno” do you think Tubi/Fandango will be a way to reach a wider audience as opposed to a theatrical release?
SB: Well yeah! What's really cool about Tubi in my estimation right now is growing up, I spent a lot of time in video stores you know. When I head over to Tubi to me it's like going to a “Mom & Pop” video store. You see all these titles you may not have heard of before or of course there are the ones you have heard of. It's like that excitement of really not knowing what you're going to get when you hit play on a movie, and I really dig that. So, Tubi was a natural fit for it.
MD: There is a great uniqueness to these stories. What was your process in selecting the flow?
SB: I didn't want the wrap-around to overshadow the films themselves because the films are the stars. The wrap-around had to be as least intrusive as possible. Yeah, it's there it serves as a quick bridge, but it doesn't take away from the stories. I hope people realize that the star of this whole thing is actually the short films and the short filmmakers.
I really was picky about the quality cuz can't take a film that looks like it would have a million-dollar budget and put it next to something that had a very indie budget I mean even though both films could be as good as each other it's kind of jarring for the viewer and it delivers an uneven thing so it was advantageous for me to watch these things so I knew where they fit you know
MD: What is the next project that you have coming up? Is there anything we should look out for?
SB: The next thing is the release of my book “A Comedy of Tragedies”. It’s my autobiography, which is getting insane reviews which blows my mind. It’s crazy because all I had to do to be successful is to let everyone know how much my life sucked. I also have a project with a major studio right now that I wrote with someone else and I have a lot more to do man there's a lot more coming from me uh I think I got at least another 10-15 years in the old Caboose so I'm gonna do that you know I'm gonna create and help as much as I can because that's what really excites me.
MD: My last question is something I always like to end with. Are there any go-to horror movies that you like to watch for the Halloween season?
SB: It has got to be “Trick r Treat”. I love revisiting the classics and I love anthologies on Halloween because it's like getting that big bowl of candy. “Creepshow” of course is another good one I enjoy. I love stuff like that with horror anthologies and when you know you love something, why not celebrate it? Plus, you have to sprinkle in some new stuff that you may not have been turned on to yet that you'll grow to love.
The team here at Macabre Daily would like to thank Steve Barton for his time chatting with us about “All Hallows Eve: Inferno” and the projects he has coming up. Be sure to follow Steve Baron on Instagram @unclecreepysb and pre-order his book here. “All Hallows Eve: Inferno” is now available on Tubi and Fandango. Be sure to add this and its previous installments to your Halloween viewing experience next week. Stay tuned to Macabre Daily for more insights into horror movies and the spooky world that surrounds them.
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