Writer/Producer Paul Travers tells me he had a nightmare one night and decided it would make a great horror film, hence the movie “Old 37″ was born. The highly anticipated film stars Kane Hodder (Friday the 13^th VII, Hatchet) and Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Texas Chainsaw 3D) as brothers who tend to the injured with gruesome bed-side manners.

The movie’s main star, “Old 37″, is an ambulance driven by two brothers who drive the old hospital wagon through the back roads of the country searching for injured people. Brothers Jon Roy (Hodder) and Darryl (Moseley) seem to be doing a good deed until they strap you into their gurney and begin treatment.

911…What’s your emergency?

Writer and Producer Travers took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about his life, the inspiration for the movie and when fans can expect to see it.

Originally from Brockton Massachusetts, Travers moved to the historic Middleboro as a boy and found his love of horror movies in Friday the 13^th Part 2. “I used to spend the weekends with my Grandmother a lot,” he says, “and she had cable so we watched a lot of horror movies and Fantasy Island, of course. D’ Plane! Think I was maybe 7 or 8. I was hooked from then on. My Mother would let me rent a movie every weekend from Hometown Video in Middleboro Center. I mostly chose titles from cool looking covers. Jaws, X-tro, Mother’s Day (not suitable for children btw) the rest of the F-13 sequels and A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Health and safety first! (Photo courtesy Richard MacDonald)

Perhaps this love of the genre created a subconscious need to create horror movies of his own. Travers says that one night during a bout with night terrors the idea for “Old 37″ came to him, “I woke up at 5am sweating and scrambling for paper and a pen because I had just had the most bodacious nightmare that shook me to the core and I thought it would make a cool ass movie. I wasn’t even a writer or anywhere close to working in film. I was painting houses at the time, but I thought I should write it down anyway. It was so intense that it drove me to get the film made starting from square one.”

Travers says the nightmare involved him and a car accident and an ambulance with an EMT who had a weird way of treating patients with a metal kitchen machine, “The nightmare was me waking up from an accident in a passenger seat. The driver was gone. I climb out the window and see the back of a white box truck ambulance. Now a man is pulling me to the back like he’s a paramedic, but when I get there I see it’s not a real ambulance at all and this beast of a man is grinding my friend up in a giant meat grinder in the back of the makeshift ambulance. That’s when they grab me and try to shove me in the back and close the doors on me. Luckily I escaped and ran into a field. That’s when I woke up like a lunatic and started writing. Got about 5 pages. It felt like a really cool idea and I hadn’t seen it in a movie before. I wanted to see how far I could take it. The vulnerability aspect of it was interesting to me as well. You just never know whose ambulance you’re getting into.  I just wish I wasn’t asleep when I thought of it!”

This will definitely cover my deductible (photo courtesy Richard MacDonald)

Travers tells me that even without having talent, direction or money, he was driven to put this idea to film. But first he needed an ambulance, so he went where anyone else would go looking to buy creepy items for a horror movie, “Craigslist!” he says, “It was a work truck for an HVAC company. It actually had a giant DUCK painted on the side. It was awesome and somehow still scary.”

With the wheeled star of the film cast, and Hodder and Moseley on board, principle shooting could start, but not before Mother Nature decided she wanted a role in the movie as well. Travers explains the occupational hazards of working on location for this film:

“On day 1 of pre-production, we got hit with Hurricane Sandy. It ruined everything. Totally lost electricity in half the city. Bridges were closed. Gas was gone. We had our 1st AD, Yori riding his bike all the way from Brooklyn to 55th and 8th.I drove out to Long Island where we shot for a location scout and ran out of gas so I had to leave my truck there and train back to the city. The gas stations were literally out of gas. Then of course Long Island got hammered so all the hotels for the actors and crew were booked with insurance adjusters and displaced coastal families, all the rental cars and vans were booked. It was a lot to deal with for a first film that’s for sure. But our team pulled it off and we couldn’t have done it without them. One other story I should mention… we shot at a marina because they had a few old barn structures that were once slaughter houses for chickens, right down to the blood trenches in the floors. Pretty cool. But anyway, the poor place survived hurricane Sandy but not “Old 37″. We had a PA total 3 parked winterized boats and an RV. Drove right into them on day one of shooting at that location. Said his foot slipped. Luckily we were insured and the show went on but it was probably the most stressful thing that happened. Wait, were those interesting or… I’m sure it’s fine.”

Hodder and his new mask. (photo courtesy Richard MacDonald)

Old 37 is planning to make its rounds through the movie festival circuit in the near future. Travers says as soon as the distribution deals are finalized, the film will roll its way to crowded horror festivals near you, “There is a trailer in the works,” he says, “should be done soon. I know our foreign sales reps will be taking it to Berlin to make some deals for foreign. We’re just about to sign two deals for North American distribution so we should have a release date pretty soon. Will keep you posted!”

Hard core horror fans can expect to see a lot of blood in the film. Special make up effects pro Brian Spears (Late Phases, We Are What We Are) is providing his skills to the project and Travers explains that the movie is a nice balance of everything terrifying, “There is a good amount of blood flying around thanks to our talented SFX guys Brian Spears and Pete Gerner. There’s some medical stuff and some good old fashion slasher gore with weapons made from a junkyard. I like to think it’s a well-rounded movie when it comes to the bloodshed. If you swirl it around a bit and get your nose right in there, you can detect a hint of asparagus and oak. (“Sideways” joke, love that movie).” Quaffable, Paul.

“Old 37”: It’s not the ride of your life!

Most horror movie lovers know that within every good horror movie is the potential for a few more. “Old 37″ has all the elements of becoming a franchise and Travers says he would like nothing better than to make his nightmare reoccurring, “We would LOVE the opportunity to make a second and third film. Just like every town has an Elm Street, they also have winding desolate roads without streetlights where accidents happen. “Old 37″ will be there to take the sick and injured.”

But for now, Travers will concentrate on the original, working hard to get it to fans as soon as possible. Although no release date has been scheduled, you can check out the “Old 37″ website here, and of course iHorror will keep you updated on any news regarding this highly-anticipated film. Thank you to Paul Travers for giving iHorror the first look at this eagerly awaited movie.