The Night Watchmen

Mitch Altieri Talks Clownpires!

- Jessy Williams

As one half of The Butcher Brothers, MITCH Altieri has been working in the film industry for over fifteen years. With his partner in crime, Phil Flores, the pair directed the genre-bending vampire story The Hamiltons and its sequel The Thompsons, a couple of violent pieces of cinema that put them on the map as horror directors to watch. MITCH then stepped out on his own for 2013’s Holy Ghost People; a surreal and horrific exploration of power and religion.

Now, MITCH returns with his latest endeavour, The Night Watchmen. A completely different turn for the director, the film follows a group of night watchmen as they try to survive the night against an ever-increasing hoard of vampires and clowns; clownpires! It’s an extremely funny and gory feature that should please those that enjoy their horror with lashings of laughs and buckets of blood. In the interview MITCH speaks to SCREAM’S Jessy Williams about his ’80’s film inspirations, the importance of having a strong female character and how the shoot turned into a couple of days from hell…

SCREAM: How did you begin your career in filmmaking?

MITCH: It was something that I felt called to me. I watched a lot of movies growing up, but I was not one of these kids that knew somebody in the industry. I grew up with immigrant parents in a Thai-Brazilian household and we were very far removed from the cinematic arts. I just remember loving movies and I would ask teachers, but nobody really understood the mechanics of it. I took it upon myself to start making movies with my friends and I felt like I had a knack for it. There was a Film Arts Foundation out here in San Francisco and I would go there to ask questions. I was able to get some money together to make my first film called Lurking in Suburbia which was a comedy.

SCREAM: How did you then steer into the horror genre?