Scavenger Killers' Dylan Bank is the latest subject in our Q&A series, with the director telling us all about the making of his latest movie:

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Dylan. Can you tell us how you got involved with "Scavenger Killers"?

No problem, I can talk about movies forever, just tell the guy standing right offstage with the big cane to yank me when my time is up. My first film, "Nightmare" played at Ken Del Vecchio's Hoboken International Film Festival a few years back, and won some awards. Those were sweet awards to win, because they came with cash, and as someone who'd been around the block with festivals across the world, Ken's festival was one of the best. I mean, he had a comedian hosting it, people getting roasted, clips from the movie, a whole red-carpet ceremony - it was impressive. A few years later, when he thought of the idea for "Scavenger Killers", the only other movie he could think of anywhere near as crazy was "Nightmare", so he contacted me about it. With "Nightmare", I set out to make the craziest, sexiest, most outrageous horror movie of all time, and now Ken was basically asking me to see if I could top it. Who could ask for anything more?

Did you have a hand in shaping the overall story and/or script? Did much change from what you had on the final script to what became the final cut of the movie?

There were certainly some changed and additions, the details of the gore I changed a lot, specifically the infamous "girl-band-massacre", but overall, the screenplay by Ken and co-star of the movie Rachael Robbins was already so crazy, there was nothing much to add, it was more about bringing it to life. We already had an FBI agent with tourettes, fondling an overweight woman's breasts to get psychic visions of crimes - what was I going to ad, kleptomania?

You were able to assemble a pretty eclectic cast for this movie. Can you talk about the casting process and how you were able to get everyone on board for this movie?

It's quite a cast for a movie this shocking - I mean we cut out Robert Loggia's brain, when else do you get to see that? They shot it in "Big", but they wussed out, and now it's just in the deleted scenes. But with us, he had fun with all the gore make-up; I think many movie actors are also fans, and consider it an honor to die in a really graphic and elaborate way. Think about it, are you doing something better tomorrow than having your brain removed on camera? What sane person would turn that down? And then there's Dustin Diamond, A.K.A. "Screech". He's someone I was a bit nervous about working with, we've all seen enough "Saved By The Bell" tabloid stories to know he has a bit of a rep, but on set he was amazing. I mean he blew us away, and we gave him some of the strangest things in the world to do and say, and he just blasted them out. Another great catch for us was Eric Roberts, he's the kind of guy who's equally entertaining off camera too, we just hit record when he was saying our lines.

This movie does not hold back on the gore. Can you tell our readers about the special makeup effects used during this movie? Is there a particular scene / gore gag that really stands out?

There's tons of really gory scenes in "Scavenger Killers", but the standout jaw-dropper is the "Girl Band Massacre". Basically, the two main characters - a psychotic judge and lawyer team - have given a really bad review to a female rock band by tying them up with nooses, naked (of course), and chainsawing them to death. This is one of those scenes they imply or show the aftermath of in other movies, but it's kind of like our centerpiece. We used an elaborate combo of practical and digital effects, for me there's no different between them, and it's all about the illusion - it doesn't matter what method you use, as long as it looks and feels real. As a horror fan, I think we have a nostalgia for practical effects, so when we can see through the effects, and they're practical ones, we say, "Cool, look how hard they're trying!". But if any digital effects don't look perfect, our response is often, "you fuckers! You took the easy way out!", as if digital effects aren't just as artful and difficult. So really, I feel like the bar is actually higher for digital effects, you need to not be able to tell at all. But there's just no way to get a working chainsaw through a real woman's neck with practical effects, and I wanted "Scavenger Killers" to take the gore as far as the current technology could, and we did things that can only be done in the current effects age. By that, I mean previous to digital effects, to have a headless naked woman flop to the ground, you'd have to build a fake torso. For "Scavenger Killers", we shot a real person, then blended a practical neck wound with a digital erasure and a blood spurt. I think when you see the movie, it'll feel painfully real, and you won't care how we did it.

Do you have a favorite on-set moment that you can share with our readers? What was your favorite part of working on this movie and with this cast?

My favorite day was also probably my most stressful day, when we had the big machine-gun massacre of the cult members. I was several hours late to set, always a great way to start the day, and it was an outside shoot, so when the sun went down, the shoot was done, no bargaining or paying anyone off. And then it was raining half the day, so I could barely even get time to film it before the light would change. Then after all the dialogue, we had to kill everyone in a machine gun massacre (they deserved it, trust me), and that's slow as hell to film - I just remember every agonizing moment, watching the sun getting lower and lower as the squib guy wires another actor - my head was about to explode all day. But it's like giving birth, now I have this wonderful scene where all my cute little cult members get machine-gunned down, so I'm ready to do it all over again. I guess it's why I'm a director. Why I direct scenes like that is a much more complicated question, but this isn't a psychology magazine, thank god.

With so many indie horror movies out there, it can be tough for a movie to stand out, but Scavenger Killers is now on DVD, thanks to Midnight Releasing. Can you share a bit of your experience with fans of the film, festival screenings, and securing a distributor?

I'm a huge a horror fan, and I watch new horror movies all the time. Horror fans are hungry for something new, but also really hard to impress. We tried to make a movie that was so bonkers original and shocking, that it would really stick in everyone's mind. So far, we've had a great response, watching this movie on the big screen with a crowd of horror fans is a trip. Midnight Releasing really believes in the movie, so obviously they're very smart, and we got an amazing distribution deal, we're out, or unleashed, on the general public this July. When people see Dustin Diamond giving this balls-to-the-wall performance, I think it'll be something they'll never forget, and hopefully will really get out there for the movie-going public to see.

Now that Scavenger Killers is available for all to watch, have you set your sights on your next project? What can you tell us about it?

Kenneth Del Vecchio and I wrote a movie called "Joker's Wild", using the modern issue of school and public shootings as the springboard, specifically the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting. I feel like that's the horror of our current time, whether we like it or not, and why and how it's spontaneously continuing to gain strength across America is one of our most important issues. We feel uncomfortable talking about it because it's terrifying what it says about America. There's plenty of violence in other countries, terrorist massacres, drug-war massacres, but the current phenomena in America of people with no specific political or financial agenda, often underage, going to schools or a public place and using legally purchased guns to massacre as many people as possible, this is a whole mania that's overtaken us as a culture, and seems to be picking up. I find that fascinating, and the horror that comes from this repeating event is the focus of "Joker's Wild".

Based on your experiences, what tip would you offer those looking to direct their own indie horror feature?

Making a drama, you need all the lights and shots to match, the acting to be convincing, the music to catch your emotions, the dialogue to be clear, the characters to be compelling and the plot to be gripping. In a horror movie, you can have all of that, but the moment the stob looks fake, it's all trash. The technical end of horror is massively important, you really gotta seal the illusion that horrible things can happen to your actors, otherwise there's just nothing to watch. This can be done inexpensively with creepy lighting and editing, but at some point you need to show what everyone's so afraid of, and it has to look convincing. It's usually through expensive and elaborate effects that an illusion like that is created, you're simply killing a living person, that's trick that's hard to visually covey. Otherwise, make a drama about how boring it was growing up in your shitty town, and how having lame parents taught you lessons about the world, Sundance is waiting for your call. Make those parents cannibals, now we're talking, just be sure to get that flesh ripping to look right.