Marcel Walz was born on May 18, 1986 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for La Petite Mort 2: Nasty Tapes (2014), La petite mort (2009) and James St James Presents Avantgarde (2010). We caught up with him and managed to get a few questions in…

FTN: Growing up as a child and teenager, what sort of films captured your imagination and was there any in particular that inspired you to become both a writer and director?

MW: When I was a child, at the age of 10, I had the idea to become a writer / director. Shortly after I began to write my first screenplay – yes, it was two pages long – but we all started of in a small way, didn’t we?

Movies that inspired me growing up were Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and and at the end Scream, of course.

FTN: It’s easy to see from your film biography that you have really embraced the horror genre with such films as Avantgarde, Candy House and Plastic to name but a few. Can we ask where you get your inspiration to both write the scripts and then film them using your own unique style of visuals?

MW: The ideas for my movies come to my mind, in the unusual places / times of my life, even during vacation. The idea of Seed’s Revenge came to my mind when we were driving on the road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Even my friends ask me where I get my inspiration from or how I get ideas like cutting of heads and arms.

FTN: Blood Valley: Seed’s Revenge is the follow up the successful independent film Seed. How did you come up with the idea for a sequel and did you have to overcome any difficulties regarding the original film’s creator and director?

MW: As mentioned before, the idea itself came to my mind during a vacation in the Las Vegas area. Uwe Boll and I have known each other for a couple of years, so I gave him a phone call, discussed my ideas with him, and yeah, Uwe said, “Let’s make it”. All in all it was perfect working together.

FTN:  Can you give us a little idea of the plot and (in all its blood-thirsty goriness) motive for Seed’s seeking his revenge?

Of course! The movie starts with a “hangover”, after four girls have celebrated one’s bachelor party in Las Vegas. Thereafter, their road trip continues and everything changes…

I do not want to tell too much here, just have a look at the movie, you’ll not be disappointed. For all the gore fans out there, I can tell you, you get what you expect from the very beginning of the movie.

Thanks at this point to Ryan and Megan Nicholson who really did a great job.

“Uwe Boll and I have known each other for a couple of years, so I gave him a phone call, discussed my ideas with him, and yeah, Uwe said, “Let’s make it!”

FTN: Blood Valley: Seed’s Revenge is a low budget horror movie; did you have any problems with the studio interfering with the making of this picture or were you given a free hand so to speak to indulge your own ideas?

MW: Uwe and I discussed the screenplay and developed it together in parts before we started shooting. But during the filming itself, I was able to express what I wanted to and to make my ideas a reality.

FTN: You have gathered together a great cast of actors with similar experience in the horror genre including Christa Campbell (The Wicker Man, Drive Angry) and Nick Principe (The Summer of Massacre and Army of the Damned). Did you have any difficulties in casting for this movie?

MW: Oh no , not at all. Having the background I have, which means working together with Uwe Boll and making a sequel for his movies, it was quite easy to gain actors’ attention.

When we started casting, the first actress we had in mind was Christa Campbell for the roll of Olivia. Nick Principe was our number one for playing Max Seed; I met him on a convention in Germany and told him about my ideas and he was excited.

Lastly, Caroline Williams, I have met her a couple of years before, and I knew she would be more than happy if a director would offer her such a kind of different character to play.

It was great working with all these actors.

FTN: Having worked mostly in European cinema, do you think European audiences enjoy and appreciate the more “sledgehammer with guts and gore” types of horror movies as opposed to the more American style of the cheap scare by way of the “quick jump cut” in editing approach?

MW: I think the European audience, as opposed to the American audience, can not only sit back, relax and watch a movie, they often analyse a movie, if it could happen for real. But both audiences are quite the same and do like the same styles of movies.

FTN: We at Following the Nerd love horror films (see, we aren’t just about Star Wars, Star Trek and comic book heroes, you know). If you were stuck in an isolated cabin in the woods with a crazed killer out for revenge, which of the following would use to defend yourself? A) A Rambo style hunting knife, B) A Shotgun with only one cartridge (we all know the killer never dies from a single shot), C) A petrol can and flare gun, D) A phased Plasma rifle in the 40watt range.

MW: Mmhh….normally I would say A) a Rambo style hunting knife, we know that killers like Jason Vorheese and Michael Myers that use a knife both never die. But D) a phased Plasms rifle would be best I think, that’s what a killer in the woods would never expect.

FTN:  With the release of Blood Valley: Seed’s Revenge recently on DVD, can you tell us about any other projects that you are currently working on?

MW: Oh I just finished the movie La Petite Mort 2: Nasty Tapes, which is the sequel to a movie I have made in 2008, gore and horror fans should definitely take a look at it.

Presently I am working on two other projects that are in pre-production, but unfortunately I‘m presently not allowed to talk about them. All I can say is that they‘re going to be a great story and you will expect a lot of known actors in it from several horror movies of the past.