Shock Horror! Actual Director on ENDING!
Full article: http://www.gorezone.net/dvdcrypt/reviewstxt/jkl/kolobos.html
I LOVE this film, really I do. It is the single most enjoyable horror film I have seen to date, I can forgive the small problems it has scattered here and there throughout its run time and that funnily enough is why I’m posting this thread. A while back I came across and review that included part of an interview with Todd Ocvirk that actually went some way to explaining the extremely creepy and out there ending. Initially upon seeing the film for the first time I thought I had the ending sussed and this interview with one of the directors confirmed that I was correct. However, it seems that if it had not been due to a monumental accident (that I can only assume has probably resulted in neither of them directing further films ) in the filming stage we would not have been gifted with this excellent ending.
Here’s the interview and the explanation straight from the horses mouth so to speak:
“Now what about that *beep* up ending... here's what director Todd Ocvirk had to say about it in an interview i conducted with him:"yes, most people hate the ending. Well, the truth is, we *beep* up when we originally made KOLOBOS. The original script only dealt with the kids in the house. We see their audition tapes, then we see all the stuff in the house. We filmed all this in Omaha, Nebraska (because our investor lived there), and we finished shooting the film and were all excited, had our wrap party and all that. Then, the day we were leaving to come back to LA, our editor slapped us with a rough assembly and some very bad news. The film was only 64 minutes long!!!!! I can't tell you how much that screwed us up to find that out just as we were leaving. Needless to say, our investor wasn't too pleased, but he agreed to drop us the cash to finish the film"
"So, we cranked out another 30 pages in a week and tried to blend it in with the footage we already had. It was a total rush job, but I think it meshed together pretty well, all things considering. All the bookending material, the stuff in the alley, all the hospital scenes, and the house scene at the very end were added in after the fact. The main goal in writing those scenes was to add time to the film. For instance, the last scene in the house drags on longer than necessary (I wrote that part), but the reason it's like that is because we needed to pad the film. It was also hard to write all that stuff because the three of us were constantly arguing about which direction it should go. Finally, it was a 2-1 vote and we went with the idea that it was all in Kyra's head and she was about to do what we just saw. I wouldn't say we were all happy with it, but we were rushed, we needed to get it done, and it was "good enough." To be honest, I felt a whacked out ending like that would add to the surreal/psychological angle already established. When I wrote that ending, I went for more of a Roman Polanski's REPULSION feel. Some people like it, most people hate it. I won't make any excuses for it, but the reason it's like that is because we needed an extra 30 minutes!"
"Oh, and one other thing. The original ending that was shot in Omaha was screwed up because the 1st AC left a filter in the camera during an earlier exterior shoot. As a result, all that footage came out dark and crappy looking. That original ending, by the way, took place in an art gallery as Kyra looks over a *beep* looking) painting of Faceless. Dorothy (Linnea's character) comes by with some dude who's interested in buying the painting. They talk for a while, Kyra gives her explanation of what Kolobos means, then she excuses herself to go to the bathroom where she proceeds to slice up her face with a straight razor. I doubt audiences would've appreciated that ending either."
What's subjective is your preference, it's not a statement of quality.