Adam Barraclough">
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • Q Clearance

      Adam Barraclough
      March 4, 2021
      Fiction, PDI Press Writers
    Recent
    • Q Clearance

      Mike Burr
      March 4, 2021
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

      Adam Barraclough
      April 2, 2021
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 2, 2021
    • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown

      Paul Brian McCoy
      March 24, 2021
    • Psycho Goreman (2021)

      Nate Zoebl
      February 12, 2021
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Adam Barraclough
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      The Final Girl
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Adam Barraclough
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown
  • Psycho Goreman (2021)
  • Advance Review: Bad Girls (2021)
  • Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
  • Promising Young Woman (2020)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Interviews

Jason Trost Needs Your Help to Create A World Without Superheroes

Adam Barraclough
September 2, 2013
Interviews, Movies, News, Reviews

Many of you may be familiar with All Superheroes Must Die, the independently-produced no-budget feature film from Jason Trost (writer/director/actor of The FP and Wet and Reckless.  See our interview here). Despite its lack of Hollywood-level production values, the film was picked up for distribution and heavily promoted, perhaps riding high on the fumes of the superhero film boom.  This is ironic given that ASMD offers very dark commentary on the genre of superhero film, and doubly ironic when you consider that its creator never really thought it would be seen by the public at large.

“…it was never meant to come out.” Trost explained in a conversation via email.  “It was a $20,000 movie, less (budget) than most college short films. We made it for fun, as a test, then somebody bought it and distributed the shit out of it. Had I known it was going to go under the microscope like that and compared to the likes of The Avengers, sure I would’ve done some things a little differently….”

ASMD Line Up

The film was plagued with production issues – the original 20 day shooting schedule (already an impossibly tight window) was shortened to only 15 days at the last minute, crew members no-showed and one of the cast went full-blown diva and contributed a less-than-stellar performance.  It’s only through Trost’s tenacity that the film was ever finished, and unfortunately the stress and strain sometimes show.  It’s fair to say that ASMD is a flawed film, as has been noted by many critics and reviewers, and Trost doesn’t deny this; “I will be very honest, I find All Superheroes Must Die very flawed.  I can never explain how screwed over I was on that movie….”  That said, knowing that he was often forced, the day of filming, to rip pages and pages of script from production due to the cramped schedule and other constraints, the plot holes become understandable.  And honestly, what’s there is fairly remarkable.

This is a flick that strikes at the dark heart of the superhero film.  It challenges the celebrity inherent in costumed crimefighting, lays bare the consequences of power and illustrates responsibility and complicity for collateral damage.  Most importantly and effectively, it’s a discussion of ego and how ego informs and shapes heroic action.  While these themes have been discussed in other mediums, particularly comics and graphic novels, they are rarely given serious treatment in film.  When approached, it’s always with humor and tongue-in-cheek (Kick-Ass, Super, etc.)  Those films are great, but they also typically take place in some version of reality, where superpowers do not necessarily exist.  What All Superheroes Must Die accomplished was to engage these themes in the realm of the superpowered, to place the superhero in an impossibly desperate situation, where even “doing the right thing” means that innocent people must die, where even superpowers aren’t enough to save everyone.

ASMD Bad Guy

Though there is an exaggerated Silver Age comic-book presence to the proceedings and particularly to the fight scenes and villain encounters, the film’s primary tone is one of harsh consequence.  It’s the kind of cold treatment of death that you typically only encounter in war film or crime stories.  The main villain, Rickshaw (James Remar), is the kind of psychopath that would be equally at home playing the lead in a torture/horror film.  The heroes, Charge (Jason Trost), Cutthroat (Lucas Till), Shadow (Sophie Merkley) and The Wall (Lee Valmassy) are all deeply personally conflicted.  There are internal struggles and awkward personal dynamics amongst them, and their reactions to the events that proceed mirror the kind of shock that one might encounter in combat.

As the film comes to a head, it really focuses in on what it means to be a hero.  More than just presenting us with the idea that a hero should be a squeaky-clean paragon of moral virtue, or the opposite, offering up some cliché anti-hero bad-boy who doesn’t play by the rules, we get a complex character who draws from both the hero and anti-hero wells being faced with an impossible decision.  What plays out is brutal, but effective, despite the many obstacles faced by the production of the film.  What it’s missing is backstory and fill-in for those previously mentioned plot holes.


And that’s where the sequel and comic series come in.

Trost is currently working to get a comic based on All Superheroes Must Die off the ground to fill in and flesh out the story and character backgrounds.

ASMD Comic

With the upcoming sequel, A World Without Superheroes, Trost hopes to have the freedom to finally deliver the film he’s had in mind all along.  “A World Without Superheroes is a movie that comes from a positive place, a place of love. This is the movie I actually wanted to make. I’ve been thinking about this story in particular for almost the better part of a decade.”  To realize this, he’s turning to crowdfunding via Indiegogo to give fans and supporters a chance to help out and also an opportunity to pick up some sweet merch or even to be a part of the production itself.

WWSH Logo

The Indigogo campaign outlines some bold challenges to the genre:

“How do we make an ‘Original’ superhero movie?

– Number one: We stop making The Dark Knight over and over again. The Dark Knight was great, but it’s time to move on. Almost a decade of the same superhero movie is getting tiresome.

– No more themeless repetitive noise soundtracks. Remember when you could actually hum the theme song to a superhero movie? It’s time to bring that back. I want to achieve that by bringing in an indie singer songwriter who actually knows what music is.

– Make the hard choices. Show the consequences and impact that studios would never show. And I’m not talking about more blood or F words. I’m talking about themes like having PTSD and the environmental impact actually being a superhero would have. I want to see what would actually happen if one day you found out there was a superhero in your life.

– No more origin stories. We get it. Somebody got bit by a spider or something blah blah blah there went an hour of the movie. I think we get it by now. There’s no problem with expanding the mythology, which we will. But let’s keep pushing the story forward.

– We made a movie, love it or hate it, with the first film that hadn’t been seen yet in superhero films for $20,000. Imagine what we could do with three times that?”

Trost is undeniably passionate about this project, and wants to expand on those things that made All Superheroes Must Die an indelible film experience while addressing all of that film’s major concerns.  “This is the movie I wanted to make. I have to make this movie because ASMD wasn’t my best shot at superheroes. I want to prove to everyone and to myself what I can actually do.  I was cheated.  It’s like if you were just doodling a drawing at the dinner table that you didn’t really care about, then in the morning you find out your parents went and sent that drawing into an art contest. It’s like ‘No! That was just a doodle, Mom! Why the hell did you show that to everyone?’ This time I’m not making a doodle.”

ASMD Fans

You can view the Indiegogo campaign for A World Without Superheroes here:

(Visited 124 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

A World Without SuperheroesAdam BarracloughAll Superheroes Must DieJason Trost

Regular Show: Fright Pack DVD Review
Low Winter Sun 1.04 “Catacombs”

About The Author

monsterid
Adam Barraclough
Gentleman of Sin / Guiding Light

Adam Barraclough is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Hi-Fructose magazine as well as at crowndozen.com One of his earliest movie memories is going to the drive-in with his parents when he was seven and staying awake in the back seat for the second feature to see The Road Warrior. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he replied "Godzilla".  This still remains his life-goal. Obsessions include sci-fi, horror, toy culture and lowbrow art. He can be found tweeting acerbically @GentlemanSin

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Daily Top Ten

  • Advance Review: Bad Girls (2021)Advance Review: Bad Girls (2021) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Dracula 1.04 “From Darkness to Light”Dracula 1.04 “From Darkness to Light” by Timothy Ashley
  • Muppets Most Wanted (2014) Blu-ray ReviewMuppets Most Wanted (2014) Blu-ray Review by Josh Green
  • Building the Bat: Batman Begins (2005)Building the Bat: Batman Begins (2005) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Psycho Drive-In All-Stars: Doctor Strange (2016)Psycho Drive-In All-Stars: Doctor Strange (2016) by Psychodr
  • Bong of the Living Dead (2017)Bong of the Living Dead (2017) by Nate Zoebl
  • Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – Apocalypse MaleFaster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – Apocalypse Male by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Beyond the Gates (2016)Beyond the Gates (2016) by Fred L. Taulbee Jr.
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • ABCs of Horror Day 26: U is for Universal MonstersABCs of Horror Day 26: U is for Universal Monsters by Dave Hearn

PDI Press Bestsellers

Entertainment Earth

Weekly Top Ten

  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • All Superheroes Must Die 2: The Last Superhero (2016)All Superheroes Must Die 2: The Last Superhero (2016) by Fred L. Taulbee Jr.
  • Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) by Corin Totin
  • The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and RemorseThe Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about… by Thom V. Young
  • If It Ain't Funk He Don't Feel It: Howard the Duck (1986)If It Ain’t Funk He Don’t Feel It:… by Paul Brian McCoy
  • House of Wax (2005)House of Wax (2005) by The Final Girl
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Corin Totin
Entertainment Earth

Latest Reviews

  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    April 2, 2021
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown

    Paul Brian McCoy
    March 24, 2021
  • Psycho Goreman (2021)

    Nate Zoebl
    February 12, 2021

Latest Columns

  • Beautiful Creatures: Night of the Lepus (1972)

    Dan Lee
    April 9, 2021
  • EZMM 2021 Day 9: Blood Quantum (2019)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    April 6, 2021
  • EZMM 2021 Day 8.2: [Rec] 4: Apocalypse (2014)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    April 5, 2021

INSTAGRAM

psychodrivein

Today at http://psychodrivein.com Beautiful Creat Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Beautiful Creatures: Night of the Lepus (1972)

Night of the Lepus is genuinely a science-fiction/horror in name only.
---
Read more of Dan's article at the link in our profile!

#BeautifulCreatures #NightOfTheLepus #JanetLeigh #RoryCalhoun #DeForestKelley
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 9 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 9: Blood Quantum (2019)

Blood Quantum satisfies all my zombie film cravings and is one of the strongest genre entries in years.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #BloodQuantum #JeffBarnaby #BrandonOakes #ElleMaijaTailfeathers #ForrestGoodluck #GaryFarmer #KiowaGordon #MichaelGreyeyes #StonehorseLoneGoeman
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 8 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 8.2: [Rec] 4: Apocalypse (2014)

Anyway, [Rec] 4: Apocalypse is a perfectly fine zombie movie set on a boat.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec4Apocalypse #IsmaelFritschi #HectorColome #PacoManzanedo #ManuelaVelasco #JaumeBelaguero #ManuDiaz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 8 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 8.1: [Rec] 3: Genesis (2012)

Granted, [Rec] 3: Genesis doesn’t really break new ground, but it is solid at what it does.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec3Genesis #PacoPlaza  #DiegoMartin #LeticiaDolera
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 7 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 7.2: [Rec]2 (2009)

[Rec] 2 opens with the final shot of the previous film before shifting our focus to a new set of cameras.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec2 #ManuelaVelasco #JonathanDMellor #JaumeBalaguero #PacoPlaza #ManuDiaz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 7 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 7.1: [Rec] (2007)

[Rec] is a film that puts people in peril and then steps on the gas, refusing to let up until the shocking final moments.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec #JaumeBalaguero #PacoPlaza #ManuelaVelasco #PabloRosso
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 6 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 6: Dead Shack (2017)

Dead Shack is not heavy on scares and the zombies are practically an afterthought, but if you like juvenile humor there’s a dark streak to this film that delivers in the end.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #DeadShack #Zombies #PeterRicq #LaurenHolly #DonavonStinson #MatthewNelsonMahood #LizzieBoys #GabrielLaBelle #ValerieTian
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Godzilla vs. Ko Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

If there was ever a film that deserved to be seen on as big a screen as possible, it’s Godzilla vs. Kong.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#GodzillaVsKong #Godzilla #Kong #Kaiju #LegendaryPictures #MonsterVerse #AdamWingard #MechaGodzilla #AlexanderSkarsgard #DemianBichir #EizaGonzalez #EricPearson #JulianDennison #KayleeHottle #KyleChandler #MaxBorenstein #MichaelDougherty #MillieBobbyBrown #RebeccaHall #ShunOguri
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 5 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 5: Night of the Seagulls (1975)

While the ending of Night of the Seagulls isn’t a bombastic action-packed finale, I wasn’t as dissatisfied as many other reviewers.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #NightOfTheSeagulls #TheBlindDead #AmandoDeOssorio #JavierDeRivera #JoseAntonioCalvo #MariaKosty #SandraMozarowsky #VictorPetit #KnightsTemplar
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 376: Watership Down (2018 Netflix mini-series)

Watership Down, of course, is the story about a group of rabbits who search for a new home after their original warren is destroyed by men.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #WatershipDown #Netflix #NicholasHoult #JamesMcAvoy #JohnBoyega #OliviaColeman #GemmaArterton #RosamundPike #PeterKapaldi #BenKingsley
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 4 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 4: The Ghost Galleon (1974)

The Ghost Galleon is essentially another reboot/reimagining of the basic concept of undead, blood-drinking, flesh eating Templar knights with little to no relation to the previous two films.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Zombies101 #TheGhostGalleon #AmandoDeOssorio
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: S01E15 - Single Handedly Stimulating The Economy

Greg and Jaren discuss who would win in a fight between Snake Eyes and Batman, a wave of new Joe related merchandise, and all their recent purchases from the last two weeks (it was...quite a bit)!
---
Listen to Greg and Jaren's new @anythingjoespod at the link in our profile!

#AnythingJoes #SnakeEyes #Batman #Fortnite #GIJoe
Load More... Follow on Instagram

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Ray
Ray - 3/3/2021
The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and Remorse
Bad review. Ethan doesn’t reject the family or society at the end, he realizes there is no place...
Amari Wolfe
Amari Wolfe - 12/11/2020
Popcorn Cinema: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Don't know why, but the mention of Whammo Air Blasters made me laugh until it hurt. Very nicely...
mega leo
mega leo - 12/5/2020
Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
To torture someone takes a cold kind of sadism. One that exceeds rage or revenge. One that shows a...
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: