Slasher.com Starring Ben Kaplan Jewel Shepard
Mucho Mucho Mucho Productions

We talked with actor and filmmaker Ben Kaplan about why and how he got involved in the industry, his new film Slasher.com which premiered at Son of Monsterpalooza, and his upcoming projects. You can check out our review of Slasher.com and interview with co-star Jewel Shepard!

Horror Geek Life: How did you get involved in the film industry?

Ben Kaplan: I’ve wanted to be a performer of some type ever since I was really young. I’ve also always had an interest in movies. I remember in first grade, I drew something in class for what we wanted to do when we grew up, and I wanted to do special effects, so I drew an explosion or something. I always played instruments as a kid, and I threw on puppet shows for my parent’s friends, and they were always nice and sat through it. But I’ve always had an interest, I guess it all just led to this – I don’t know if there was ever a point in time that I wasn’t this.

What led me on this path specifically is when I was in college. I auditioned for this rock opera horror film, and one of the producers there was Chip (Gubera), who I had never met before, and I asked him, “What do you do, because I wanna do that,” or “What do you teach because I want to take your class.” Up to this point, I had been making shorts, sketches, and filming little things on the weekends with friends, none of which had any production value. So he told me that he taught post-production classes through the Engineering Department at the university. And I was like, I’m an Engineering student now, that’s what I’m gonna do.

I didn’t stick with that, but I did take all of the post-production film classes, and that has led me to the path of what I’m doing now, which I guess is an actor, and it’s my chief interest. But I also want to be a filmmaker and producer, and I’m always thinking about what will lead to the next project for me.

Horror Geek Life: How did you get involved in Slasher.com?

Ben Kaplan: Well, Slasher actually started as a joke between me and Chip. We were producing something else, this drama, this really great script, also written by Chip and Chelsea (Andes), an idea that Chip had been kicking around for a while. I actually introduced Chip and Chelsea because I went to high school with Chelsea. Chelsea had been talking about wanting to write for film and television, but she wanted to finish her novel first. She sent me this online horror competition, and she’s like, “We should make something for this.” I was like, “Yeah, you write it. We’ll do it!” This is actually when Chelsea and Chip first met.

It was the same online contest that Lights Out, the short that became a full feature, won. We had a short in it called Bagged. We played around with it, trying to figure out how to do a slasher-type film less involved with the male case and how we could turn it on its head. So we made this weird short, not bad, but strange. We entered it, but we didn’t win. Lights Out won, and it came out not too far before us, and that’s kind of interesting.

We then moved on to another idea that Chip had been kicking around. He and Chelsea flushed out this really great drama that involves sci-fi, an allegory set, and the use of space travel, but we were never going to get the funds for it. We needed a lot of money to build sets, and we were not going to get it in time to shoot it when we wanted it to. Not that we aren’t ever gonna shoot this film, but we knew we weren’t doing it in the near future. I was on the phone with Chip, and we were talking about how bummed we were to not be filming a feature in the summer of 2014, and I believe it was me that joked about making Bagged into a full-feature film. We just kept joking about what it would look like; joking about the twists and turns, and how all of a sudden this character isn’t the way you thought they were, and so on. Chip was like, “Hey, this is actually a good idea, I’m going to outline this thing!”

The next day, Chip emailed me an outline for it, and he sat down with Chelsea, and she flushed it out into a screenplay. It was a very quick thing from we’re not making the other film, and this is a bummer to we’re a couple of weeks away from going into production for Slasher.com, which at the time was spelled differently. This movie has had a ton of names. Before it’s out on DVD, who knows, it could change again! I was pushing for a long time for it to be called Killer Date, then our distributor changed it to Slasher.com.

But yeah, it was a really quick thing, but not unlike most things that I make with Chip. It started as a joke between the two of us, very rarely do we come at something initially with “I got an idea.” Yeah, there’s usually an idea, but we make fun of the idea. That’s how we go about it.

Horror Geek Life: How did you prepare for your role?

Ben Kaplan: I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give anything away, but I did look at history a bit, and I did watch a TV show about a certain criminal investigator who led an interesting life… if you know what I’m getting at. That was kind of helpful. But what really helped, since this was Morgan (Carter)’s first acting role outside of commercial work, was when I flew back to Missouri about two weeks before we went into production.

She, Chip, and I would sit down for a couple of hours every single day and look at the script and talk about the characters. After Chip said to reference a certain fictional character, the whole end of the film just clicked for me. We had our guy, our Jack, a complicated man.

Horror Geek Life: Have you had any weird experiences like your character did with online dating? I mean, hopefully not that weird, but anything out of the ordinary?

Ben Kaplan: Oh yeah, definitely nothing like this. I’ve only heard friends talking about going out with someone who seemed like a very nice person only to find out that they’re nuts, but nothing like this. Nobody died or came close to death that I know of. But who knows, maybe a friend will read this and be like, “What the hell I told you this story!”

Horror Geek Life: What was it like seeing Slasher.com premiere on the screen for the first time at Son of Monsterpalooza?

Ben Kaplan: Well, it was really cool. We did have a private screening of an early cut of the film just for the cast, crew, and a few friends, but this was the first time for a public screening. It was cool to have unbiased opinions. Everyone in the room didn’t know us going into it, except for the people who knew Jewel (Shepard) for her work in Return of the Living Dead. It was great to talk to horror fans about it and what they loved about it, and it was really the twist and turns that did it for them.

We had been looking at this film for a long time, Chip especially. He had a hand in it as a writer, he directed it, he edited, he scored it, so he definitely watched it a lot- and I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen the film, so I’m a little desensitized to it. It’s hard for me to gauge the effectiveness of certain aspects of the film. I read the script, I read the outline going into it, and I knew everything, so it was neat to hear that people enjoyed the twist and turns and that the fresh ideas and a new take on certain tropes were effective.

Horror Geek Life: That’s fantastic! Do you want to do more horror films in the future? 

Ben Kaplan: Absolutely. We definitely set up Slasher.com for a sequel with the ending. I would love to be Jack again, especially knowing everything we know about him that I’m not going to get into. (Laughs) At least too much, because I don’t want to ruin it. I want to be that guy again because that ending was the most fun. We actually filmed the final shot with Me and R.A. (Mihailoff) on the first day.

Horror Geek Life: I loved seeing R.A. Mihailoff in this, he did such a great job.

Ben Kaplan: R.A. is a dream to work with, and he’s such a fantastic actor. He had questions for Chip about his character and had ideas for who the character was, and Chip likes for the actors to explore the roles and was 100% on board with the changes that R.A. wanted to make. He is the best to be on set with. I very much hope to work with him again. I was actually working on a script, hoping that it would be good enough to move into production just as an excuse to work with him again.

Horror Geek Life: Well, I would love to see that and the sequel.

Ben Kaplan: Yeah, and we haven’t figured out what the sequel is yet for Slasher.com, but I’m currently working on a different script, also horror. Not that I’m trying to get away from horror, but eventually, I hope I’m able to branch out. Besides this, I have produced one horror film called The Sluagh, shot in Florida this past January. It’s a very different type of film, found footage, and completely different than what we did with Slasher. But I’m working on a horror comedy right now, and I want the tone to be similar to Ash vs Evil Dead.  I love that show, and I think that’s the way to do horror comedies. The comedy doesn’t take away from horror, and the horror doesn’t take away from the comedy. It is very much a horror show, and it is very much a comedy show, ya know?

Horror Geek Life: Is there any specific type of genre or film that you would like to be involved in other than horror?

Ben Kaplan: If I had to specifically pinpoint something that’s on my bucket list as an actor, I would have to say it is to be the in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I really want that in any capacity. Of course, I’d rather play a superhero or villain, but even if it was just a fun supporting role, I’d die a little happier having done that.

Horror Geek Life: Who is your favorite superhero?

Ben Kaplan: Okay, so, it’s not who I would want to play anymore because it’s not that I’m old, I just feel like I’m too old now to play him, plus they’ve recast him perfectly, but I’ve always related to Spider-Man. I love the story of Spider-Man. I love the whole idea that he does what he does because he knows it right even though he’s on the front of the Daily Bugle all the time and he’s always painted as the villain, he still goes out and does the right thing.

Even though it destroys his social life, he can’t keep a relationship, he can’t keep a job, and everyone thinks he’s a big mess of a person when really he is doing the ultimate juggling act. And that’s fascinating to me. With the recast, I think Tom Holland is doing a great job with it. I would love to play, especially with everything I’m doing with horror right now, I would love to play either Carnage or Venom. And ya know, Tom Holland is around 5’6, I would look like a monster next to him!

Horror Geek Life: If you could work with any actor, who would it be?

Ben Kaplan: As far as horror, Bruce Campbell. I have a lot of respect for him and Sam Raimi and the relationship between the two of them. Their relationship is similar to Chip and my relationship, plus we are both big Evil Dead fans. Number one is a tough one… I would love to work with someone like Robert Downey Jr., someone who always brings it. I don’t think that guy would ever take a role for just a paycheck, ya know?

He cleaned up his act and made a whole new career. I think he’s incredible for that, and I don’t think there’s a single movie on his resume that you’re like, “Eh, I think he was just taking a paycheck on that one.” He seems like someone who always does his homework and always comes in with something. And really, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has recently had so many actors that I respect and have been a fan of theirs for one reason or another, and if I could get in there, that’d be a win-win for me.

Horror Geek Life: You’ve already touched on this a bit, but do you have any future projects that you want to talk about?

Ben Kaplan: Well, I really, really, really want to get this horror comedy sketch off the ground. Right now, we’re calling it Dr. Party Monster. The name will probably change, we were originally calling it Party Monster, but there’s already a film called that. As far as the pseudoscience goes, I’m looking at Re-Animator. It’s a comedic take on what could go wrong when you try to play God. I look at Re-Animator as far as the pseudoscience of having this thing that you can inject things with to bring dead things back to life. But I think it’s probably more like if Encino Man was a horror film. Just trying to get it going.

If we come across a good script we like, even if it’s not one that I write or Chip writes, Chip and I are looking to go back into production next summer with something. Hopefully, for this one, we are able to find an investor, and hopefully, someone will see Slasher and see what were able to do with a small budget we were able to use because most people were surprised and guess much higher. Hopefully, someone will see that and know that we are planning on making something and say, “I would like to produce that!”

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