In Laymon's Terms

We spotted a few people. They were milling about a van and a couple of cars near the front of a warehouse. Alive. We approached them.

“Is this where the movie’s being shot?” I asked.

Indeed, it was. The man introduced himself as Jason Stephens. He was young, but not a kid. Cheerful and energetic, but not a flake. Trim and clean-cut. No pony tail. Dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans. Not in black. Not in leather. No pierced eyebrows or lips. Not what I’d expected.

Meet Jason Stephens. Blond hair, six foot one, 185 pounds. Writer, director and producer of the film, Decay and the film we’d arrived to cover, Vampire Night. Co-producer and director of Merchants of Death. Gaffer of Things 2, grip and assistant cameraman of Haunted, dolly grip on Cyber Wars, etc.

And that’s in his spare time.

Full time, he is a deputy in the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Jason Stephens, independent film maker, cop.

FILM-MAKER WITH A BADGE

I was fascinated to learn of Jason’s “real” job.

Here is a man who makes horror films, but who deals on a daily basis with real-life horrors. What sort of effect, I wondered, did his police work have on his films?

“I see a lot of strange people in my line of work,” Jason said, “and deal with a lot of troubling situations. Sometimes I write characters based a little on someone I’ve dealt with but generally I don’t. You get a lot of life experience being a cop, so I guess it probably does affect me in my film making on an unconscious level. Usually people write about what they know or have experienced.”

Being in law enforcement helps Jason in various areas of film making. “People trust me on their property. I get things donated to me more easily. The cops don’t show up on my locations and tell me to shut it down, because the cops are already there. (I usually have a bunch of cops on my set.) I also think it helps me direct better. In my job, I have to direct people a lot and it’s the type of direction people sometimes don’t want. Directing a film is different. I’m telling a bunch of actors who want to perform well and look good what I need for them to do to achieve their goal, which is also my goal. Much easier...most of the time!”

But what about violence in movies? Whenever real-life acts of violence take place in this country, the news media and politicians are quick to blame various forms of “violent” entertainment—from computer games to music videos to television shows and movies. Horror films are often catching the heat for contributing to juvenile violence. Being a law enforcement professional, Jason’s view on this subject should carry special weight. So I asked him about it.

“I’ve seen some really good kids that are horror movie fans and I see a whole lot of bad kids that aren’t. I really think the problem is in the home. If someone’s kid is being too heavily influenced by violence in the movies or on TV, then the parents need to take action. I’m sure the violence seen today may in some ways desensitize children, but it falls on the part of the parents and teachers to explain human suffering and tragic loss of human life. The news doesn’t always show the massive impact a loss of life in a family brings. The Christmases spent without a loved one, birthdays, waking up and eating breakfast together. On the news it’s just, ‘Two teenagers shot down in an apparent drive-by shooting...more at 11:00.’ If I was watching that news program with my child, I’d be damn sure he knew the impact of that situation. There’s a lot of things that need to be done differently.”

As for his own films, “I don’t glorify violence. I wouldn’t make a film about how great it would be to go into a restaurant and kill a bunch of innocent patrons. Anyone that would make that type of a film is sick. You could make the film with the same situation about the hero that tries to save the patrons. That is the difference.”

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

Why does Jason Stephens focus on making horror films?

Not because they’re the latest fad. He didn’t jump on the ol’ Scream bandwagon. Nope, he’s been a horror fan since he was a little kid.

He says, “I remember seeing horror movies with my dad since age 6 or 7. I guess they all had some type of effect on me. From the bad to the great, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes to The Exorcist. I used to love to get scared at the movies. That doesn’t happen any more really so now I look at the suspense to affect my emotions. Now I watch the horror films that seem possible. Those types are scary to me...If I had the finances to make a Big film, I wouldn’t make a campy horror movie. I’d like to make Jaws or Dead Calm or a suspense horror film like that...something people will remember and really think about.”