Nicole Hancock

Movie Human Nature

www.imdb.com/title/tt0426034/

Ten years ago, Robert Rodriguez caused a sizable stir in the movie world when he managed to bring in his first film, El Mariachi, for a purported cost of US$7,000. That was an unheard-of sum for a feature, but Vancouver filmmaker Vince D’Amato, president of Creepy Six Films, is going one better. The 28-year-old director is making a full-length horror flick called Human Nature for only $3,000—Canadian! Of course, it helps that he’s shooting on digital video, a tool that can turn even the most cash-strapped cinema buff into an auteur.

And it doesn’t hurt that the film’s main location is the garage in his mom’s Burnaby duplex.

It’s from the rafters of that cluttered enclosure that D’Amato’s fiancée, Creepy Six vice-president Nicole Hancock, hangs half-naked, one eye mutilated, blood running down her face to a mangled breast. She’s playing a victim of a psycho serial killer, and thanks to the makeup effects of Ryan Nicholson—who stands at the ready, blood-red applicator in hand—she’s looking quite the corpse.

“I’m supposed to have a gag in my mouth, according to the script,” she points out, but D’Amato nixes that idea and, from his vantage point behind the camera, instructs the cramped crew on the particulars of the next scene. While he does, executive producer Damien Foisy and president of production Rob Carpenter drag in a stained old mattress, which Hancock is expected to land on when her bindings are cut by the film’s sadistic villain. Before D’Amato calls for action, the trussed-up Hancock asks Nicholson to adjust her slipping dress, and a member of the crew quips, “Yeah, could be embarrassing.” That garners chuckles all around, but Hancock’s not overly amused.

“Don’t make me laugh,” she warns. “I’ll crack my face.”