Today we present an exclusive interview with Paul Ragsdale, writer and director, alongside his wife, of movies as Murdercise, Slashlorette Party and the upcoming Only Fangs.
Do you mind introducing yourself to our readers and users?
I’m Paul Ragsdale, I’m a writer/director and one half of the filmmaking team, A & P Films. My film partner is also my wife, Angie De Alba. We make 80s styled thriller and horror movies. We currently have 4 films on Tubi – a Mexican holiday horror film, Cinco De Mayo, a female revenge movie called Streets of Vengeance, a cabin in the woods slasher movie Slashlorette Party and an 80s aerobics slasher movie, Murdercise!
Your latest project, Only Fangs, is born after a funding campaign on the internet. What were the main difficulties in making this movie?
For Onlyfangs we wanted to go bigger than last time; bigger scope, bigger sets, bigger cast, bigger effects. We wanted to bring in stalwarts of the indie horror scene together, some for the first time, such as Ellie Church, Meredith Mohler, Kansas Bowling, Jessa Flux and Drew Marvick, all in one movie. Some people have commented that Onlyfangs is like the Expendables of the indie horror scene! So it’s been a challenge to bring so many people from outside of California and get all of their schedules to line up and shoot for a week. The day everyone was landing in California was also the day of the big internet outage which caused severe delays at airports all over the country! It was a rough start but we made it through that first tough week!
What are your main sources of inspiration in terms of cinema?
We definitely pull from our childhood experiences of renting tapes and watching movies on tv. Angie was never allowed to watch any bad stuff, she wasn’t even allowed to watch The Simpsons! I would watch everything! Particularly, I would watch USA Up All Night, Monster Vision and Cinemax and try to record movies onto VHS.
Who are the main actors you work with? Any favorite actors or actresses (In Only Fangs there is also Little Puck, an adult performer)? Is it easier for you to have actresses in the cast who also come from the hardcore world?
We love to work with the same actors from previous projects! We have a few actors like Nina Lanee Kent, Anthony Toomata. Krystal Shay and the iconic Ginger Lynn Allen, who have been in 3 or more projects with us! We also have many others such as Kansas Bowling, Jessa Flux, Drew Marvick, Adriana Uchishiba, August Kyss who we pulled from Murdercise and brought back to this new film.
What has been your favorite project and why?
I would say it’s a tie between Streets of Vengeance and Murdercise! They remind me the most of watching late night tv and how much fun those nights were! Right now Onlyfangs is shaping up to be a contender for the number one spot – but it’s not quite done yet!
Can you tell us some funny “behind the scenes” anedoctes about your last project?
We shot a crazy scene between Jessa Flux and Little Puck that completely shocked my cinematographer, Dan Zampa. He was so disturbed that he pulled me aside a day later and expressed his concerns. I’ve never seen him so shook up- and we’ve shot some intense stuff in our previous films.
Next projects?
We have a script that’s done and ready to go called Wrestle Babes in the Heavy Metal Massacre, that we are excited about! We have been talking about that script for a few years now. We actually wrote it before Murdercise and Onlyfangs.
Besides the horror genre, have you worked on other genres? Have you ever thought about making a softcore comedy and relaunching the genre?
We’ve made thrillers, romantic comedies of sorts, and even a French new wave inspired movie! I do have a script for a Skinemax type of sex comedy, using the Bikini Carwash/Drive-In/Bistro model! I’m a huge fan of the genre that I need to pay homage to it with a film of my own. The work of Fred Olen Ray has been a big inlfuence on me. II’m also working on an erotic thriller script to pair with the sex comedy for an late nite tv anthology!
A final greeting to our readers?
We hope you enjoy our brand of 80’s slasher, thriller and horror movies! Follow us on Instragram @a_p_films to stay up to date with our projects!
Twitter/X: @ap_films
Instagram: a_p_films