INT: Andreas Prochaska

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

The
Austrian slasher DEAD IN 3 DAYS (aka In 3 Tagen bist du tot) took 3 years
to get to America, but it’s now finally out on DVD for all to see via DIMENSION
EXTREME

(GET THE DVD HERE).
Director Andreas Prochaska recently parachuted down to the AITH headquarters to
talk 3 DAYS shop, its already in the can and released in Austria sequel and
beyond! Get all the juice below!

ANDREAS
PROCHASKA INTERVIEW

Why do you
think it took so long for Austria to have its first horror film?

Honestly I
don’t know. I always wanted to make a Horror Movie, because for a film director
it’s the most cinematic genre. Most Austrian movies are art house films or
comedies. Maybe nobody dared to make a genre movie, because you are always in
competition with US Movies, and in terms of money and know how we are more third
world than first world.

How was
the film received in your country? Well enough to have more horror films come
out of Austria?

It was
really a tough job for the marketing guys to convince the Austrian audience that
the prejudice, that Austrian movies are not entertaining, is wrong. Word of
mouth finally made the film very successful. I shot the sequel last year, and it
was almost as successful as the first film. But I don’t know if there is going
to be another Austrian Horror film. I hope I encouraged other film directors to
do genre movies.

In your
opinion, what are the key ingredients in making a solid slasher?

For me
“Dead in 3 Days” always was a kind of Austrian cover version of an US slasher. I
put classical elements like a group of friends, a graduate, etc. into a small
Austrian town by a lake. And I focused on the authenticity of the characters.
They speak an Austrian dialect, so that even a German audience might have
troubles understanding everything. Usually in this kind of movies you watch
actors that are a bit too old and too attractive for the parts they are playing
and I wanted to give the Austrian audience the possibility to identify with the
characters. The Kids on the screen are like the boys and girls next door.

Now you
had a hand in the screenplay of the picture; when writing it, did you look at a
lot of American slashers for inspiration or did you avoid them?

I watched
films like Halloween, IKWYDLS, Texas Chainsaw etc. And I must admit that the
screenplay is the weakest part of “Dead in 3 Days”, but as I said before the
ambition was not to give the genre a new impulse, it was more of an experiment
if a story like this would also work in a specific Austrian surrounding.

Did the
script change much throughout production?

We had a
period of rehearsals where the actors got to know each other and during this
process we modified the script, but during the shoot we pretty much shot the
things written in the script.

It’s said
that the film was co-directed by Stewart St. John. What was the nature of this
collaboration? Did it work for you?

This
information is wrong, I don’t know any Stewart, and I directed the movie alone.
ARROW NOTE: Somebody get that clown’s name OFF the IMDB
listing for the film…bugh...

What would
you say was your most arduous obstacle during the shoot? How did you overcome
it?

Time. We
just had 29 days for the film, and a lot of locations over water, under water,
difficult lighting set ups, and I did not want to make any compromise. So we
shot 14-18 hours almost every day. Fortunately I had a very enthusiastic team.

The movie
was fairly violent; did you have any trouble with the Austria censor board? Do
you wish that more gore had made it on the screen?

No, not at
all. There was not more gore in the script, and I believe that it is not
necessary to show everything.

Many have
compared the film to I Know What You Did Last Summer, do you think the
comparisons are warranted?

I can live
with that, but I stole from many films. And honestly, I didn’t really like
IKWYDLS.

DEAD IN 3
DAYS PART 2 was already released in Austria at the end of last year; does the
film continue the storyline of Part 1 with the same characters?

There are
not many surviving characters 😉 In the Sequel we start one and a half year
after the incidents of the first film. Nina – the main character of the 1^st
film – is now in Vienna and she gets a disturbing phone call from her friend,
crying for help. She tries to find her, and its a quest that leads her to a
remote farm in the snowy mountains. Its not one of those sequels that’s just a
variation of the original, it’s a totally different story, a mix of road movie,
mystery thriller, snow western and pure survival horror.

Is the
sequel more violent and smuttier than the original?

Definitely. But the violence is always emerging out of the situation and not
self purpose. I hate all those films where violence is used in a pornographic
way.

It took
DEAD IN 3 DAYS three years to make it to the USA, will the sequel reach our
shores earlier? Any word on its US release?

Hopefully
you have the possibility to see the sequel sooner. But I have no information.

DEAD IN 3
DAYS PART 3? A possibility for you?

Not yet.
But you never know.

What’s
next for you as a writer/director? What project can we look forward to?

I’m
working on a comedy, its work in progress so I don’t want to reveal too much.

What was
the first drink you consumed at the DEAD IN 3 DAYS wrap party?

It was a
long party, so I don’t remember all the details, but I think it was a beer.

GET THE DEAD IN 3 DAYS DVD HERE