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March 22, 2007

Back in Blood

Getting gory with a star of The Hills Have Eyes 2

Story by: Rebeka Baltazar and Joan Khalaf

The Shorthorn staff

— Courtesy art

Crank (Jacob Vargas) fires at mutants on the attack in the new film The Hills Have Eyes 2, out in theaters Friday.

The Hills Have Eyes 2, scheduled for release Friday, picks up where the Carter family left off after being stalked, attacked and terrorized by mutants that were victims of government nuclear experiments in the mid 1900s. In the sequel, the mutants come back to torment National Guard trainees as they are separated and unable to determine what is annihilating their teammates.

Jacob Vargas, who plays Pfc. “Crank” in the film, conducted an interview with local area press in which The Shorthorn participated.

Q: How is filming a horror film different from filming drama or action?

A: If you approach it as a real film, I think it really comes across, because you know our characters are in a real situation. So my motivation was, “Look. Here I’m this young soldier that’s totally unprepared, and I get myself in this situation.”

Q: Looking back on your career, you did Flight of the Phoenix, you did Jarhead, and now you’ve done The Hills Have Eyes 2. Do you like shooting in the desert?

A: I’ve got a real connection with the desert now. I have friends that are actors, and they’ll always tell me, “Man, I just got back from, like, Australia,” “I got back from Amsterdam,” “I’m in Japan,” and I’m like, “I got back from the desert.” I mean, Morocco was a rough shoot. It was definitely a culture shock, but it was beautiful. Each desert is really beautiful in its own way. But Morocco was the one where everybody got sick.

We shot in the middle of Ramadan – it’s the Muslim holy month. No fast food, no Starbucks, no Internet café. I mean, it was just bare bones. It made you appreciate what you had. When we did go eat, you’d always get sick. We had what we called the zots, and basically, you lose your bodily functions, you have no control, and you’re running to the bathroom every five minutes.

Q: Obviously, the movie’s kind of serious and scary, but did anything really funny happen on the set?

A: People s---ing everywhere. There’s a scene that involves s--- in the movie. It’s a great scene. When you see it, you’ll understand. But there’s a great s--- scene. You know you can never go wrong with s---. Even the girls got in on it. The girls were the worst.

What happens when you get the zots is you start farting uncontrollably, and it’s hard to be proper. It would be so toxic and so foul. So we started having contests to see who smelled the worst.