Marius Penczner

Marius Penczner is the director of the recently-revived cult flick I Was A Zombie For The FBI. After several letters of... shall we say, persuasion, Marius promised us an interview in exchange for the return of his left kidney, missing since Monday afternoon.

MRFH: Can you give us a bit of background behind I Was A Zombie — where did the story come from? How did it get to film?

Penczner: Sure. In 1981, I won an Emmy for best dramatic student short film along with a $4,000 prize, so my girlfriend (now my wife), Nancy and I, being both energetic and naive, decided to pool all the money we had, around $12,000, and try a full length film for home video.

The original idea was to do a Blazing Saddles style take-off, complete with fart jokes and sight gags, of I was a Communist for the FBI. Aliens invade a small southern town by altering its favorite soft drink - Super Cola. The villains were the Bozo Brothers, the G-Men - Agents Armstrong and Orange along with the body-snatching aliens Arnold Krim and Chet Nall known as Krim & Nall.

Our title? I was a Zombie for the FBI.

MRFH: Was it difficult to get the actors to play their roles that straight-faced and, at times, almost lampooning stereotypes from the 50's?

Penczner: It wasn't until casting that we began to realize how difficult it would be to make our original slapstick/sci-fi idea work. Without great comedic actors, you get the kinds of over-the-top, camera-winking performances that quickly become video Velveeta. Like the actors in 50s B-movies, the people who auditioned were much funnier, at least to us, when they weren't trying to be funny. And, once we changed the script and they understood the tone we were going for, getting the actors to play it straight was pretty easy.

Most of our zombies seemed to take to it naturally as well. Maybe because, like us, they were from the South.

MRFH: What were some of the influences for this film? Do I sense a hint of Dragnet present (the quick dialogue and cuts and straight-faced actors)?

Penczner: You're right. Along with Robert Stack in The Untouchables and one of my personal favorites, an obscure 50s series call I Led 3 Lives.

Like I mentioned earlier, a couple of weeks prior to shooting, we decided to completely change the direction and tone of the film and, with John Gillick, we drafted a much straighter, drier, Saturday matinee (if anyone remembers those) version along the lines of Dragnet meets Plan 9.

There's always a temptation on low-budget sci-fi or horror movies to over-reach in the areas of acting and FX which risks leaving audiences and directors disappointed since they tend to measure your film against bigger-budget Hollywood movies.

Since we were faced with the same budget challenges as the B-movie makers in the 50s, I decided to try to turn our budget liability into an asset. By doing so, our dry performances and low budget FX would be measured against serials or films like Them and Invaders from Mars instead of Star Wars.

MRFH: What was the initial reaction to your movie, and how long did it take to build up a cult following?

Penczner: Because there are so few satire/serial films like I was a Zombie for the FBI and since is delivered so straight and tongue-in-cheek, people either get it or they don't. It sometimes takes a couple of viewings.

In 1985, USA Network's Night Flight, a great outlet for cult films, called and said they loved the movie. So, for about 4 years, they aired the film as a double bill with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes on Halloween or other times by itself.

Since then, the show has continued to be watched and collected by VHS buffs. In fact, over the last 20 years, we've received thousands of letters and emails from 50s G-men fans around the world - US, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, even the Philippines. Thanks to my friend and co-producer Len Epand of Flashframe Films as well as Jay Douglas and the great folks at Rykodisc, that continues today.

America's preferred Halloween Zombie Party film mix is Night of the Living Dead, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and yes, I was a Zombie for the FBI!

MRFH: "The Amazing G-Men" sounds like either a porno cast or a continuing series of adventures of a cast of FBI agents. Were you planning on more G-Men movies, and if so, what happened?

Penczner: Funny you should mention the first reference since a few people refer to the original big box VHS from Continental as the porno pack version.

As to what happened?

There was a great needlepoint in an old National Lampoon from Michael O'Donohue that read Life. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were dead. Yes, we were planning to follow up the movie but got sidetracked into music videos, commercials, politics, family and life.

Good news is Zombies never die and now I believe it's time for our country to move away from Harry Potter and back to some real American heroes. In development, for release next year, is the first in a series of 50s G-Men graphic novels and later, possibly a feature film version.

MRFH: What is one element of your film that audiences seem to remark upon the most?

Penczner: ZBeast and Zomball. They love the creature and the flying ball.

People have asked me if the ball is a nod to a flying sphere in Phantasm. The truth is that I wasn't familiar with that film when we were doing the movie. Zomball is actually a nod to a classic magic trick The Zombie Ball that dates back to the 40s. It's a silver globe and flies around the magician and along a handkerchief. Given the Zombie connection, I thought it appropriate to include it but giving it the power to operate things and Zombify people.

ZBeast was inspired by a Latin teacher in high school.

MRFH: Give us an interesting or funny story about the making of your movie.

Penczner: A lot of those are in the commentary track but one stands out.

There's a scene in the movie were some kids are gutted by ZBeast and the G-Men later discover their remains. We thought we'd be filmmaking geniuses and, instead of spending money on foam rubber dismembered parts, we'd just buy a cooler full of pig's intestines and guts from a local meat packing plant. After we spread the guts on floor, the stench was absolutely incredible. When I walked in to set up the shot, I immediately puked. So did most of the crew.

It took about an hour of coaxing and a case of Lysol to get the camera close enough to shoot. You'd think those masks that doctors wear would help. They didn't. Somehow though, DP Rick Dupree and Robert Bruce, our mechanical effects guy, held their breath long enough to finally get a shot. But they didn't really get close enough to the intestines, so it never worked and is part of the deleted scenes.

Morale of the story. When it comes to gore - fake it.

MRFH: The soundtrack score of I Was A Zombie is noticeable (in a good way) — it's omnipresent, plays over pretty much all of the scenes, and at times seems to force a different emotional feel from a scene than the action on the screen would suggest. Can you give us some background on the making of the score and the decision to use it in the movie?

Penczner: The most talked about thing we did in the special edition was change the music from the original version. In the first version, we used campy old mono music from the 30s and 40s that we found on stock music LPs. As we got ready for the DVD release, I just didn't feel the original music held up. It was too flat, old and predictable for contemporary audiences, particularly those who may not have seen the original and are expecting 5.1 sound. I tried some orchestrated soundtrack cuts but the problem again was that it also felt predictable and like we were trying to imitate the feel of a Hollywood film.

On a whim, I laid in some tracks from a more edgy, modern music library called Extreme Music. While it wasn't true to the period, I took a chance on it for a couple of reasons. First, no one to my knowledge has ever scored a 50s, serial type movie with contemporary music. Second, if nothing else, you could still have a Zombie Party and something to move to. The ultimate undead dance mix.

MRFH: Who would win in a fight: ZomBall or ZBeast?

Penczner: While we all love ZBeast and it's a bit risky to upset him, I'd have to give the edge to Zomball for size, speed and overall "zombility".

MRFH: What are some of your other favorite cult flicks?

Penczner: I'm not sure they'd all classify as cult, but any film with Bruce Campbell, particularly Army of Darkness and a film he did with Walter Koenig called MoonTrap (which needs a DVD release), along with Young Frankenstein, The Man with Two Brains and my all time favorite - The Three Amigos.

MRFH: Finally, what's it like to still be promoting a cult flick over 20 years after it was made?

Penczner: A lot like sex. It keeps getting better and better.

MRFH: Thanks for your time!

Penczner: No, thank you. And when your readers get a chance to watch I was a Zombie for the FBI we hope they'll do so with a bowl of popcorn and a delicious, refreshing bottle of HealthCola.

Don't forget. It's good for you!