Exclusive Rene Perez Interview

Welcome to The Action Reloaded Rene, it’s so awesome to have you free up your hectic schedule to come chat with me.
For everyone who hasn’t seen any of your movies, can you give us a little background on yourself?

My name is Rene Perez and I am 43 years old and I make B-Genre movies for the home video market and I am currently filming my 21st commercial release movie. I am also the music composer known as The Darkest Machines.

I had realised on your movies that you do everything from writing, directing, editing and doing the music, how stressful is that for you?

It’s very stressful, leads to lots of grey hair popping out prematurely.
I am not really an executive producer. I get hired to make these. I am told what genre to make and after that it’s up to me to turn in a finished movie in that genre, four months after I was given the assignment.

Most of your filmography would mainly be looked upon as horror. But your first feature film was an action movie titled War Machine. Can you tell me about it?

It was just a silly martial arts movie. It was shot in a time when cameras were really big to hold and complicated pieces of machinery and they filmed less quality than iPhones from five years ago. That’s long passed for me. It feels like a student film if I was ever a student that happened to sell and be a commercial release.
I actually done two of those, but the second one doesn’t appear on IMDB. The second one is called Ninja Warpath. It was the same kinda thing as War Machine.
As a matter of fact the movie I am currently filming now is kind of like those but with many years later of experience and much higher production quality due to the advancements in technology.

Ooh that new movie sounds awesome, I see your stepping away from horror!

Yeah I did Playing With Dolls: Havoc, it was my last horror movie it was three movies ago. Well two, I ghost directed a movie, but I will not talk about that one as I’m not putting my name on it. After this martial arts movie I am doing called Bring The Pain I will be doing another horror movie its called The Vampire And The Vigilante.

I can’t wait to get to that and ask more about it. I just want to quickly backtrack to 2015 and ask about a movie i first seen of yours titled The Burning Dead and it starred Danny Trejo. How did you manage to land Danny in a lead role?

I had met him a couple of times before and I just gave his contact number over to the producer Jeff Miller. He called him, made payments and Danny Trejo showed up.
That movie was a little tough for me as it was the only movie I filmed that I didn’t write. It was written in a very good but campy style by a really good writer. It was intentionally campy but I try to write things as serious as possible.

Also in 2015 we saw the release of the first Playing With Dolls movie. What made you come up with idea/scenario? The killer is very reminiscent of Jason Voorhees, was it intentional?

Well I was told to make a horror/slasher movie and that was usually how vague the orders I get are. They know I rules show plenty of blood and guts and plenty of nudity. But those were the only instructions I was given so I thought if I was going to do a slasher movie I would have to make interesting to my particular excentricities. So I made the killer do what he does for more than fun, really because he just can’t help himself from doing it. I just wanted to make an 80s style slasher movie.

When the opportunity for making the second Playing With Dolls presented itself to you were you watching a reality show or how did you come up with the concept?

I have never actually seen a reality show to you the truth, I saw some of the Ozzy Osborne things when they first started but in my whole years I have never seen a whole episode of a reality TV show but they are so basic. You can figure out how they’re made just by watching a commercial. So that’s what I did.

I was very fortunate to see the screener of the third and latest Playing With Dolls movie titled Havoc. I loved it! Are there any plans for fourth?

Well I would love to make a fourth part, I already have the idea of what it would be. But it all depends. Right now we have about 90% of the audience pirating these movies. So it makes it very hard to have any profit with it. But if it was up to me I would definetly make another Playing With Dolls movie.

I have to say the movies are gruesome and have some great gore content. One that comes to mind is the shin scene. It was hard to watch.

Yeah I noticed we had a lot of people squirming in there chairs when they’re watching that part.

Have there ever been plans to make a prequel to Playing With Dolls?

Yeah a prequel would be great. If I were ever to be approached by a producer with a real budget. Its always just me and my actors and if I’m lucky I will get someone to carry my stuff around for me for a week or so throughout the entire two months of filming. A prequel would be very fun and interesting to explore with the right budget.

If you don’t mind me asking what was the budget?

For the most recent entry Havoc it was $25,000.

For a movie of that budget you made a very good movie, you definetly deserve a bigger budget, some movies churned out are awful add have a big budget.

I can tell you why that is. The people that get those things are not chosen because of their artistic ability. They’re are chosen for their political maneuvering. I am a person who falls in the artsy fartsy category of artistic person. I play musical instruments, I draw, I write, I do cinematography and photography and I put all my efforts into being good in the arts. Hollywood is made up of now, people who are politically savvy only move forward and people who have artistic talent can seep through. These people get these movies by bragging about who they know and who owes them favors. I live in Northern California I stay away from L. A. like the plague. I’m on no ones radar. I am not a very good politician I call people out for what they are and what they do and hold people responsible for their actions whether they are good or bad. I praise them for their good and call them out when they do some bad and that’s not acceptable in Hollywood in anyway.

On a plus atleast your in work and are making good movies.

Ah yeah I am constantly overworked is my problem. Over worked and under paid is my problem, but atleast its a job I love.
The only thing that does bother me is the censoring of the movies. I hope it doesn’t happen with Death Kiss, here is some graphic stuff in there. That will be the next one I have got my fingers crossed for.

Before Havoc was released you done a movie called From Hell To The Wild West starring Charles Bronson look alike Robert ‘Bronzi’ Kovacs. How did you guys meet?

I was filming a TV episode in Spain and I saw this large image of Charles Bronson standing next to the owner of this big cowboy town I was filming at. Its actually the town where they filmed The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and some scenes from Once Upon A Time In The West. Scenes from these classic Westerns so I was so happy to be filming there. But I kept seeing this picture above the saloon of this owner and I kept thinking why are you in a picture with a seventies era Charles Bronson when you are the way you look now.
So I asked the owner why he photoshopped this picture and he said the picture is not photoshopped. Its not really Charles Bronson that’s one of the stunt workers we have here. I couldn’t believe it.
When I came back to the states my goal was to make a film with him. But no one really cared. I was keeping up with Bronzi via Skype. Producers didn’t care, but I was able to sneak him into a western I was making. I just had to re-write a few things to fit him in. Once the movie got large spread distribution I did get some interest off some people saying they wanted to bef involved in something with Bronzi.
One of these people was Jeff Miller, I had worked with him before on The Burning Dead. He suggested doing a vigilante style movie starring Bronzi and I was like oh crap! If I had a bucket list that would be on it.
It was one of the luckiest assignments I have been given. Right up until now with my new movie Bring The Pain.

Speaking of this vigilante movie.. Death Kiss, it is probably one of the most anticipated movie of yours to be coming out for action fans, can you speak about it?

It’s a homage to Canon films from the 80’s starring Charles Bronson. Thats what I wanted to make, with the same kinda music and storyline. Basically as if it was a sequel to Death Wish.

I was fortunate enough to see some exclusive clips from the movie, and I see you have some iconic Charles Bronson looks, you have him in his long coat, with the beanie hat and in the black muscle shirt. The resemblance is uncanny. You have to look twice.

Yeah it happens in real life, I would be setting up the camera and I’m answering questions from actors and I look over by the donuts and theres Charles Bronson getting a donut. It really does take you by surprise and I can never get over it. Being a big fan. I hope to make several more movies with him.

A project you mentioned earlier was he Vampire And The Vigilante, can you tell me more details?

It’s a comic book I wrote and a comic book company wanted to callaborate with some directors and they asked if I had any stories I wanted to make that I couldn’t make into movies at the minute. So they set this all up and I was happy with the artwork and was happy to go through with the comic book series and I got approached by a really good producer called Kasey Dollar. I got a three picture deal with and his studio Top Dollar Studios. I am making a movie for him right now and after this we go into a three part series of The Vampire And The Vigilante. So I had to cancel the comic book and paid the artist they hired out my own pocket.

I look forward to seeing this movie and keeping up with the development. You had also mentioned Bring The Pain?

I doubt they will keep that title but yeah we are using the Guinness World record holding champion for the fastest punch. He is master John Ozuna and he is playing the ninja and he is the main martial artist we are using. He is not a familiar face in movies but he is the best man for the job. The only recognisable name we have in Bring The Pain is John Schneider from The Dukes Of Hazzard. He was a great guy to film with and so good. The level of acting he done was really A-list. He plays a Colonel who sends the Ninja on these operations. There’s ninjas and gun fights throughout. It’s a fun action movie.

I wish you all the best for the future Rene and thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me

Thank you so much. I really appreciate anyone who sheds a light on my small budget movies, I always take it seriously and hopefully I have given you some insight to what I do.