Director loves filming horror movies

Sanford director and writer Christine Parker loves filming the living dead

'Cujo, get down!"

Christine Parker barks this message to her black Labrador retriever as the dog crowds a guest in her Sanford home, its juicy tongue salivating all over the guest's hands.

It's a crowded house this Saturday afternoon as Parker and her company of cast and crew members, who have worked on all her films, convene to discuss plans for a movie project.

While most of the homes in Parker's neighborhood are finely manicured estates, Parker's home looks like the sort that would appear in her movies: ragtag, rustic, leaves covering every inch of the front lawn and back yard. In fact, she, her cast and crew have shot scenes in and around her property. On this day, Parker and the gang reminisce about the times the cast, covered in fake blood, has wandered around the place late at night, spooking the heck out of neighbors and passers-by.

While Parker, a fetching, auburn-haired, 45-year-old mother of two, makes her living as a videographer, she's beginning to be known in the North Carolina film community as a mistress of the macabre. Her newest movie, "Fistful of Brains," makes its Triangle debut this weekend at the Colony in Raleigh. Considering that she's working in a movie genre that has been mostly populated by male filmmakers, this is something of an achievement.

"Actually, if anything, being a woman directing horror movies has gotten me more attention," Parker says, lounging on her patio. "In fact, there was even a couple of festivals that actually wanted me in their festival, just because I was a woman horror director. You know, because they just think that's so unique."

This is the third horror-related offering Parker has given audiences, which is amazing considering she barely had any aspirations to be a filmmaker several years ago. Back then, she was recently fired from her job as a graphic designer for a Sanford advertising agency and was studying television production at Central Carolina Community College. That was until an instructor came up with a challenge for his pupils.

Remembers Parker, "I had a teacher who said that if somebody would write a zombie script that he would make a zombie movie."

Parker went to the computer and punched out "The Second Death," a 15-minute zombie short in which people find themselves stuck in an abandoned house fending off hungry zombies. "We all got together and shot it, and I was pretty much hooked after that."

She was hooked to the point that she decided to take the reins herself on her next film -- a full-length prequel to "The Second Death" -- called "The Forever Dead," which explains how the zombies came to be. (It involves a virus-carrying, runaway lab rabbit.) Just like "The Second Death," it was shot in Sanford, using actors and crew members from all parts of the state.

The movie was filmed on a $10,000 budget using mini-DV cameras and gory special effects provided by co-star and high-school science teacher Bill Mulligan, who also starred in and did FX work on "The Second Death."

"A lot of it is simple stuff you can find around the house," says Sanford resident/horror-movie fan Mulligan, 47, who combed back issues of Fangoria looking for tips on creating blood and guts. The blood and guts would mostly consist of foam gelatin, Karo syrup and even microwaved Metamucil.

"We use a lot of food for special effects. They're safe, easy to come by. They're cheap, so they're really low-budget. So we can't afford to do what they do on 'CSI.' But frankly, I don't think you really have to spend a lot to get some good effects."