Nick Carter’s making a horror movie. Yes, that Nick Carter. The boy band member Nick Carter. And to be quite honest, why not? As of today, he’s raised $99,001 — more than the original $85,000 fund-raising goal he set on Indiegogo. And he’s used everything in his arsenal — Backstreet Boy fans included — to make it happen. (Five fans who gave over $1,000 got a signed BSB CD and two free tickets to a BSB show.) The movie, Evil Blessings, will be co-produced by Rob Carliner (Crazy Heart) and tell the story of “three friends who go up to the the mountains to hunt, but soon discover they are the one’s being hunted by an ancient family of evil.†We talked to Carter about the project and, naturally, requested a list of his favorite scary movies.
I understand you’re hoping to make a horror movie. What’s it about?
I had all these ideas in my head and I needed to put them down on paper. A lot of the stuff that I think of — I think sick, twisted, just insane things. A lot of my stuff leans more to the psychological and spiritual; I’m into all of that. I felt it could be psychologically horrific. Basically, it’s a story of young college kids who go on a hunting trip into the woods and they stumble upon a cursed family from the 1800s. A family that is still alive, still preserved in time. But in order for [the family] to continue to live, they have to continue to kill and sacrifice. The great thing about it, for me, I was able to take my dysfunctional family in my life and what I had gone through, my experiences, and I was able to create this hillbilly, sort of redneck, inbred …
So like House of Carters meets Hills Have Eyes?
[Laughs.] Yes, basically. That’s actually really good. The things that I can offer are a musical experience and being inspired by horror movies from Chainsaw to Jason.
What are your favorite horror movies?
I can’t even tell you how many movies [I’ve watched] in my life. One of my favorite movies is Aliens, not Alien, but Aliens 2. I loved it for the action and I thought it was a horror movie because it really was scary. One of the people I really love, no lie, is Rob Zombie because, like, Rob actually had an easier time getting into the horror industry because of where he came from [in the music industry].
His music certainly lends to it.
Yeah, I still believe that I have a musical sense, because music, in my opinion, is like 50 percent of the movie. It’s just as important as the filming itself and the concept. But, honestly, one of my favorites, I can’t remember which episode it was, is from The X-Files. I can’t remember what it was frickin’ called … “Home� It was about this inbred family who lived in this house and they kept having babies, with their sister or their mother. And they were just messed up and they would kill [people] and Scully and Mulder actually had to solve the mystery. I felt like, visually, that was so similar in so many ways of how I would want to shoot my movie.
Ah, yes, that episode is called “Homeâ€! What’s great about X-Files is they really get to the point. Like mini-horror-movies, but they don’t really need to go as deep as movies often do, because films are on a much grander scale. Which is interesting because you are making this movie on a bit of a budget, and you’re looking to fans to raise money. Why are you choosing to do that?
Everyone is like, “Oh, he’s got all this money, why not just fund it himself?†No. 1: I will say, I would be a stupid businessman to not try and get other investors involved. That’s the way Hollywood works, that’s the way people do it out here and at the same time, I’m going to invest my own money into it. There are thousands of people in Hollywood trying to sell scripts, trying to get their movies made, and they don’t really ever get a chance to get past the door. What this does is it builds interest. So, yes, it starts with a little bit of my fan base, but it gauges interest. So now there is talk. It could be the worst [talk] in the world, someone saying, “Oh, he’s going to wreck horror movies.†But, okay, keep talking because that’s what I need. I’m going to go get legitimate actors, and do it the right way. I’m very excited.
Hey, you’re not alone! Zach Braff is doing something with Kickstarter. Spike Lee just started doing something with Kickstarter.
I can see where people are coming from: “What the hell does Nick Carter know about horror movies?†Well, after you see the movie, you’ll know what I have to do with it.
Well, you’re a fan. That’s a big part.
I love watching the horror movies, but making [them] it is a whole other process. You know, one of the movies that I saw recently …
The Conjuring?
Well, The Conjuring was fantastic, but I honestly thought The Chernobyl Diaries was a scary-as-hell movie, the setting, the cast, and the story.
There was a good lore in that, a good myth.
It took you to another place. Funny enough, Jesse McCartney is actually opening up for Backstreet Boys on tour. I might talk to him about being in the movie.
Horror movies don’t always have A-list casts. I think that’s something that’s really great about them.
Yeah, in this genre you have to prove yourself, I’m up for that.
I have to ask: Will you be drawing any inspiration from the Backstreet Boys music video “Everybody� Will there be any kind of monsters like that in your movie?
Ha, uh, the video was kind of scary.
I know it’s more silly scary, but the makeup was pretty good!
Yeah, a lot of those people actually went on to have careers in [film] makeup departments, the set designing departments, all these different things. I’m trying to think of a movie, I’m really going to go back, just to kind of prove my love for movies. It’s called The Keep. Have you ever seen The Keep? When you look at The Keep, the music really sets the mood. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to set the mood with the music in my movie.