EXCLUSIVE: David Flores Talks Lake Placid 2

The director of the horror sequel talks about his new film and how to survive an crocodile attack

Lake Placid 2 is out on DVD starting today, January 29. Recently, I had a phone interview with the horror sequel's director, David Flores, and here's what he had to say about his new film.

This is the latest in the in-name-only horror sequels. What does this movie bring to the table that the first one didn't?

David Flores: Well, the obvious, which is the same with all creature-related sequels, is more creatures.

So, how did you first get involved with this project?

David Flores: I got involved probably from doing Boa vs. Python, which is another lighter, somewhat silly creature movie that was released a year or two ago.

So they just asked you to sign up for this one as well?

David Flores: Well, no. I was working with the production company that did the Boa vs. Python movie, and they told me that they were doing Lake Placid 2 and if I'd be interested in it, and I said, 'Definitely.' I know that the producers and the studio had to go through a list of a lot of other directors they probably wanted to deal with, but somewhere along the lines, they ended up settling with me. I'm not really actually clear why they settled with me in the end.

This aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in April. Was this always set for a TV or a DVD release, or was it ever considered for a theatrical release?

David Flores: It was never considered for a theatrical, as far as I could tell.

You said there were more creatures in this film. Is there also more humor or more gore or both?

David Flores: I would say that there's definitely more gore, definitely more creatures. What was the other thing you said? Humor?

Yeah

David Flores: I would say there's more sillyness. I wouldn't go so far to say that there's more laugh-out-loud sort of humor stuff.

What was it like working with John Schnieder. It seems like he's making quite a comeback these days.

David Flores: He's fucking awesome, dude (Laughs). He's such a cool guy, man. The Dukes of Hazzard.

Oh yeah. That's a blast from my past for sure.

David Flores: I was a huge fan as a kid. I had a The Dukes of Hazzard birthday for like my fourth birthday. I never thought I'd actually work with him. I went out to do the movie before he was attached, and I just happened to have a The Dukes of Hazzard t-shirt with me, and I put it on for him, just to show him it was legit.

Nice. What about Cloris Leachman? How was she to work with?

David Flores: She's totally nuts, but she's fucking rad too, dude. She's the kind of person that really likes to be creative, and explore the scene, find what's funny about it. It's kind of cool to see her training. I've never worked with anybody that's that seriously trained to work with comedic material. She would just look around, study the words, figure out what was funny and what was interesting about stuff that was just a normal miniscule detail.

I just interviewed Sam McMurray not too long ago. Are there any interesting tidbits from the set with him?

David Flores: He's one of those guys that always has jokes. He has a book of like 1,001 jokes stored in his head and he just keeps shooting them off on the set. At one point, I was just wondering, because we were at the set and there were jokes going off, and we were on the way home and there were jokes going off. We all went off and showered and had dinner and there's still jokes going off and I was like, 'Fuck, do these jokes ever stop with this guy? How does he remember all of these jokes?'

Can you talk a little about the "Gnawed Up" version on the DVD? It's a pretty innovative feature on the DVD, where it fast-forwards to all the gory parts.

David Flores: Oh, OK. Is that's what that was? I was reading something that there was some Gnawed Up version. I didn't know what they were doing. Is that what the Gnawed Up version is? That's funny.

Yeah, from what I saw it basically fast-forwards through all the exposition and gets you into all the really gory parts.

David Flores: (Laughs) That's kinda rad. No, I didn't know that. I didn't know what it was, because I haven't seen it yet.

Is there anything you can tell us about Captain Drake, or anything else you have lined up for the future?

David Flores: I can tell you lots about Captain Drake. It's basically a fantasy adventure movie that revolves around Sir Frances Drake, and it stars Adrian Paul. I don't know. It's really good so far. I'm really happy with it. We're still in the cutting phase right now.

When is that set to be released?

David Flores: It'll be a TV/video release only. It'll be the Sci-Fi network. Typically it takes a about a year to air, so maybe sometime next November.

Finally, do you have any newfound respect or fear for crocodiles after doing this movie?

David Flores: No, but I know if you get attacked by them, where you should attack them back at. When you're researching movies, they just tell you a lot of really uninteresting information, esepcially when you're research crocodiles, like how they breathe and what kind of water they like, and I thought that none of this would be helpful for our movie. Then I remember reading that if a crocodile were to attack you, you should punch it in the nose. (Laughs) That's the spot you go for.

That's the pressure point right there? The nose?

David Flores: Yeah, I guess so.

Well, I'll keep that in mind if I'm in the bayou.

David Flores: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, that's about all I have for you. Thanks for your time, David.

David Flores: Yeah, thank you.

Lake Placid 2 is on the DVD shelves starting today, January 29.