Fred Vogel is something of an infamous figure in the independent film world, best known for horrifying and disgusting with his faux-snuff series AUGUST UNDERGROUND. I have purposely avoided watching some of Vogel's movies because they sounded like they would be too gross and disturbing for me, the same reason I have avoided watching A SERBIAN FILM. Some movies go further than I'm willing to follow.
AUGUST UNDERGROUND isn't representative of all of Vogel's work, though. He has also made some more straightforward narrative features, and his new film THE FINAL INTERVIEW looks very interesting to me. This is a Vogel movie I will be watching for sure.
Diane Franklin, best known for her appearances in '80s films like THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, AMITYVILLE II, BETTER OFF DEAD, TERRORVISION, and BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, stars alongside Grainger Hines and Damien Marusack in THE FINAL INTERVIEW, which
tells the story of veteran newscaster, Oliver Ross (Grainger Hines), who visits Western Penitentiary for a live interview with death row inmate, and infamous Pittsburgh murderer, Darius Tidman (Damien Marusack) mere hours before his scheduled execution. Oliver, the show's director, Rhonda Cox (Diane Franklin), and the rest of "The Ross Perspective" crew set up at the jail and begin the live broadcast. By the end of the interview Oliver and his crew discover there is a lot more to this murderer than meets the eye.
The teaser trailer for THE FINAL INTERVIEW can be seen below. Driven forward by an awesome piece of music, the teaser just provides the set-up, but it's enough to get me hooked. I'm really looking forward to this one, and am hoping that we'll be hearing some information on its release soon.