5 Questions with Don Thacker, The Guy who Cast Jeffrey Combs as Bathroom Mold

We recently sat down with Don Thacker, director of the indie film Motivational Growth, to see where the inspiration from the twisted film came from. 

 

In Motivational Growth, Ian Foliver (Adrian DiGiovanni), a depressed and reclusive man in his 30s, finds himself taking advice from a growth in his bathroom after a failed suicide attempt. The Mold (‘ReAnimator’ star Jeffrey Combs), a smooth talking fungus born of the filth in a neglected bathroom, works to help Ian clean himself up and remodel his lifestyle. The Mold has big plans for Ian, but they may not be as innocent as they seem. A labyrinthine-narrative follows, full of colorfully-drawn characters and gruesome body horror. “The Mold knows, Jack. The Mold knows.”

"Motivational Growth" has a pretty odd premise. Where did you get the inspiration?

It’s a collection of odd premises that make up MG’s odd­angled story. They are like Voltron all combined with Ian forming the head. This is, in part, because I wanted to tell a fairly basic, and fairly relatable story in an interesting way, and in part because the source material was effectively a bunch of odd premises I had all re­engineered to build a giant space robot made of cyber­lions.

For all of it’s craziness and bluster, it’s just Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” writ in grime. No one calls that story an odd premise, and that story had a guy talking to his own hands and smelling the color green. I think any story’s merit is in the telling. Jaws is basically “a shark tries to eat some guys on a boat” and it would have been terrible if it weren’t for the angle taken in the presentation of that premise. There’s a fishing joke in there somewhere. I can feel it.

For MG, I wanted a classic story told in a non­classical way. A way that required multiple viewings and discussion over pie in a late night diner in Detroit. I wanted to make a movie I’d have liked to debate with my friends at Denny’s over a MyHammy and our fifteenth game of Magic: The Gathering when I was a teen. I wanted to make something that spanned spectra and gave you something to think about, even if all you thought about was how gross it was when Ian was licking the wall nipple.

I also love how the name relates to the material. How did you come up with it?

Oh man. This is the dreaded question. I knew there would be a time, in writing, that I had to answer this question and in doing so I would have to tell the truth. Let me start with the fake version. I’d like to start with that. I was hiking a frosted peak in Nepal (viva Nepal!) with a beautiful guide who was also a ninja and I came across Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum who were doing some sort of chanty thing with a crystal and I was told by an ancient scroll that I was the chosen one and had to pass three trials. The first trial was the trial of inner reflection and had me trekking all the way to the Southern Oracle to look at myself. I did it, but not before losing a horse to the swamps of sadness. The second trial was called the Path of Procyon, in which I was made to capture the heart of a dying star with thirteen bristle­thistles obtained by first­­ Aw hell, a guy I worked with blurted it out one day. He was all like, “Why not call it Motivational Growth?” and I was all like, “That’s effing dumb, no one would get it!” and then I moved out of the state and named my movie Motivational Growth.I wish it was a story about how brilliant and witty I am, but this guy I worked with was a clever dude and way totally better at naming this particular picture than me.

Funny story, a distributer I was in talks with once asked me to change the name to “A Motivational Growth” so it would show up on VOD at the front of the list instead of the back of the list. I explained to him that it would be alphabetized as “Motivational Growth, A” so as to avoid that sort of thing, five hundred movies starting with “A whatever” at the front of every VOD list. He then told me it had to be “#Motivational Growth”, even after I insisted that the octothorpe wasn’t used that way until more than a decade after MG takes place AND it would still not alphabetize at the top of the list. He insisted that I come up with a name that started with the letter “A”. That’s how dumb distributors think you are. They think you can’t get past the letter “A.”

Did you always have Jeffrey Combs in mind for the voice of the "growth"?

*The Mold. And yes. Totally. He was my first choice. It was insane to think I’d get him, this being my first real film of any sort of budget, but he read the script and told me he loved it and wanted in, so there he is, being amazing in my movie. I’ve been asked a number of times why we didn’t pick someone “more gross” or why we didn’t modify his voice to sound like it was some kind of fish­man or something. Firstly, if we wanted gross, Jeff could have done the grossest thing ever. He is a genius. He gave me exactly what I wanted. Second, I wanted a smooth talker with a sort of abusive fatherly tone. Jeff delivered.

If you had one sentence to sell the film to someone, what would you say?

It depends wholly on audience. If it is for a horror audience, “Jeffrey Combs is a talking fungus!” normally locks the interest like a pitbull’s jaw. If it’s someone’s mom it’s normally better to describe it as a Dark Comedy/Fantasy about a guy dealing with depression who experiences the otherworldly effects of an unsuccessful chemical suicide attempt. With Jeffrey Combs as a talking fungus. You always leave the Jeffrey Combs is a talking fungus part in. I have even gone so far as to quote some reviews. “Ain’t it Cool calls it a film unlike you’ve ever seen before!”, but normally only when joking or being particularly gauche. I can do that. It’s ok. I’m a people just like everyone else.

Finally, Halloween is coming up, do you have any rituals?

Best question ever. Seriously.

First, I watch at least one horror film a day. My list is top secret and changes every year. If you’re lucky, I invite you to watch them with me. If you’re normal, you probably have something better to do than sit around with Don Thacker watching horror movies which I think makes you extra lucky.

I have at least one large scale pumpkin carving event. Most of the time it is populated by people think are the cat’s knees. If I like you, I’ll beg you and bribe you with booze then take FOREVER making the same jack­o­lanterns I make every year while you get blasted and watch Hellraiser: Bloodlines, with me all the while telling you that it so totally fits the canon and, yeah, it’s in space, but the fourth one is always in space so it’s ok. I dress up on Halloween even if I’m alone. It’s not sad, it’s CONSISTENT. At midnight on Halloween evening I listen to the original radio broadcast of War of the Worlds and recite the bits where he meets the crazy guy word for word with a pan on my head. It’s a thing and it makes me cool. So cool. Also, this is not a joke. It’s how I do.

Finally I make the hell out of pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. I use pumpkins, not cans, and I use chestnut honey to sweeten it. If no one shows up to my carvings or my party or whatever, that’s 100% pie for me. I’m a winner. I win all the time. Happy Halloween!

 

Motivational Growth will hit VOD worldwide on September 30th (via Devolver Films and Indiecan Entertainment in Canada), Blu-Ray & DVD in Canada on the same date, and DVD in the US the following week (via Parade Deck Films), on October 7th.

 

Eric N

Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Podcast Host

Eric is the mad scientist behind the BGH podcast. He enjoys retro games, tiny dogs, eating fiber and anything whimsical.

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