*Interview* ‘Never Hike Alone’ Creator Vincente Disante Drops By

AR: Thanks for chatting with me Vincente, can you tell me a little about yourself?

VD: I am a Massachusetts native who moved to LA about 12 years ago to pursue a career in film. Started in commercials before moving into feature animation where I worked on the films: Free Birds, Rock Dog, and Duck, Duck, Goose. In 2017 I left feature animation to pursue a career in live action. Never Hike Alone played a big role on that as I quit my job to finish the film. Since Never Hike Alone’s release I have been working in live action full time for shows like The Rookie and Why Women Kill, among others.

AR: Your fan film Never Hike Alone was truly amazing, I have watched it a few times now. What made you decide this was the right time to make this?

VD: Around 2016 I was growing weary of feature animation. I very much enjoyed my time there and learned a lot, but felt I was drifting further away from why I moved to LA in the first place. Never Hike Alone started as a getaway from the office, something my friends and I could work on that fulfilled that live action itch. After filming in the late half of 2016, it became clear to me that NHA was going to play an important role in helping me make my transition. After that, I went all in and never looked back.

AR: It was crowd funded right?

VD: Yes, we ran two campaigns for the film the first of which failed to reach its goal. Luckily we were able to raise some private and personal funding to get the ball rolling. We ran a second campaign after launching a new trailer in early 2017 and successfully raised $19,000 which allowed us to complete the film.

AR: Its ashame, with the current lawsuit going on we may never see Jason Voorhees on the big screen for a while. But guys like you are giving fans the next best experience, so I would like to personally say Thank You!

VD: Your welcome! Our crew worked really hard to make something that would be an unexpected. surprise for fans and we are all extremely grateful the fans have welcomed it with such open arms.

AR: I have heard Never Hike Alone is the first movie out of a planned series, was it always a plan to make more than one movie?

VD: Never Hike Alone was always a concept for a bigger idea. Basically, one off stories about characters between the films that went missing and were never found. In fact, it wasn’t until the very last script revision that Kyle actually survived.

AR: Never Hike Alone was very intense and suspenseful, will the rest of the movies follow suite? Or will you let Jason loose on a blood filled rampage?

VD: The long arc of the Never Hike Alone series definitely falls into the slow burn category. We are focusing on character driven stories that will expand upon the universe of Friday the 13th and hopefully reground the series in a way to show its much more than just a formula. However, like with any slow burn, our payoffs build up and pay off with a lot of blood soaked fun. Our focus is quality over quantity, but the idea is to up the body count in the later installments.

AR: Can you tell me all about the planned sequels?? Well all that you can tell! Will Thom Mathews be returning?

VD: All I can say about the future is that we are going to attempt to wrap the series up with a bow the way the studios never could or dared to do.

Thom Mathews and Vinny Guastaferro both play a key role in that since they are reprising characters from the past films. We want to dive a little bit into the history of Crystal Lake and make use of a lot of great story elements the series never fully developed.

AR: How hard was it to get Thom back in the saddle for the role of Tommy Jarvis?

VD: It was actually fairly easy. Thom and become good friends with our EP Barry Jay during the early stages of the project. After showing Thom some of our footage, Barry, Thom, and I met a few days later and I asked Thom to come on board. He was excited from the get go and has played a big part in helping up shape this new version of Tommy.

AR: Obviously from the movie we can see your a Die hard Friday The 13th fan, what would be your top 3 movies of the franchise?

VD: Jason Lives, Final Chapter, Part 2

AR: After you have finished your ‘Hike Alone’ movies, what is next for you? Maybe some Halloween inspired movies? ‘Laughs’

VD: I actually have already been a part of 2 Halloween projects.

The first was with director Rene Rivas for “The Spirit of Haddonfield” in 2017. Rene and I had met during Never Hike Alone and he asked me to play Michael Myers for his short.

I then played Michael again for a project called “The Face of Michael Myers” which was produced by Hawthorne House Films and directed by Stephen Wolfe. Both were a blast to be a part of an can be found streaming for free on youtube.

AR: Thank you for taking time to chat with me and I wish you all the best for your future projects.

VD: Thank you Jeff