A movie which stands out in the FrightFest 2025 schedule is A Blind Bargain, a movie so surreal and unique it's going to be a midnight movie classic. We just had to chat to its director Paul Bunnell.
NYX: Did you know from a young age that you wanted to be a film maker?
PB: Yes. I really loved movies and began making them in 1974 at the age of eleven. I haven’t stopped since. Every film I make gets better and better.
NYX: How did this movie come about?
PB: A couple of friends wanted to make a movie and decided that a “lost Lon Chaney film” would be an interesting idea. It began as an amateur project with a less than stellar script. The original director bowed out. I agreed to come on board as long as I had full script and casting approval, and that it would be a professional production, and shot on actual film.
NYX: How hard was it to adapt a story from over a century ago for modern audiences?
PB: Somewhat tricky at first since the initial screenplays were not very good. I decided to bring my friend Bing Bailey in to update the story for modern audiences. It worked beautifully. John Falotico and I then adapted Bing’s story into a screenplay. There were six scripts in total before we all agreed on the final version.
NYX: What was your writing process alongside co-writer John Falotico, did one of you pace the room whilst the other typed?
PB: Haha, no! We actually worked together, sitting side by side during the entire process. John brought his “movie science” into the script along with some clever lines of dialogue, while I brought more of the bizarre and quirky elements into the script, along with some clever lines of dialogue. We had to mutually agree on everything before we would sign off on it.
NYX: The story is littered with lost souls searching for something that’s unreachable, did you base them on anyone you’ve met?
PB: I think we each pulled from our collective life experiences. For me, I was mostly interested in the romance between Dominic and Ellie. There’s an interesting dynamic between these two “lost souls” who find each other during bizarre circumstances. My favourite scene in the movie is with Dominic and Ellie at the beatnik bar. I wanted to take a lot of time with that scene and am very happy with the end result.
NYX: What was the hardest scene to get right?
PB: Mostly, all of them. The main challenge was trying to make a theatrical film on a very limited filming schedule. I had only 18 days to make the entire movie. It’s always difficult with such a lean schedule, but everything came together beautifully in the end. The shorter schedule helped to give it more of a 1970s TV movie feel, which is what I was going.
NYX: What lessons in directing did you learn whilst making the movie?
PB: I think my only take away was to make sure I have more filming days for future projects. 18 days is rather tight. But I did it!
NYX: What’s it like working with someone so enigmatic as Crispin Glover?
PB: For me it’s really all about respecting actors and giving them a safe place to do the work. Crispin really cares about creating a unique character and giving his very best performance. He is very focused, but also kind of shy, not at all like some of the weird characters he plays in movies. He was a joy to work with!
NYX: Would you ever want to be younger than you are now?
PB: Only if I could be younger in the past. I feel like I could have done more in film if I had gotten some breaks earlier in my filmmaking career. But with age comes wisdom. So it really doesn’t matter as long as you are healthy, happy, and have good friends. Thankfully, I have all those things, and a very supportive wife!
NYX: It’s beautifully surreal with a cool 70s grindhouse aesthetic to it, was that hard to achieve?
PB: For me, no. It’s really my thing. I kind of live in that world in real life. I’ve always been a dreamer. I always try to make my films look like a dream. An escape from the harsh realities of the world we live in.
NYX: The score is tremendous; will it get a physical release?
PB: That’s something Ego Plum and I are actually planning to do. We released the soundtrack to our previous film, The Ghastly Love of Johnny X, on CD. We hope to do a vinyl release and a CD release of A Blind Bargain at some point. The score is just too good not to put out there!
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
PB: I’m planning to get my retro-tastic feature, ROCKET GIRL, made. The script is ready to go. I also have a wonderful bio-pic about the life and times of eccentric 1960s pop icon TINY TIM. Stay tuned…!
NYX: Paul Bunnell, thank you very much.
PB: Thank YOU .. and remember, “Movies are your best entertainment!”.
