What do you do when your bride is captured by a group of bikers from hell and then kills you when you try to fight back? You exact your own brand of roadside justice with the help of a crazy priest and an alcoholic country sheriff. After you’ve been resurrected, of course.
That’s the premise of Frenetic Films’@@http://www.frenetic.ch/@@ new indie feature filmed in Eugene, “All Hell Breaks Loose,”@@http://moviecynics.com/all-hell-breaks-loose-trailer-movie-trailers/@@  which was shot on a Canon 7D. DSLR camera technology makes it easy for the small micro-budget indie filmmakers to get started for a price that was once a prohibitive ground floor for equipment and film.
Sixteen millimeter film is a cheap way to make a movie with film. Kevin Smith’s “Clerks.”@@http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/@@ was shot on 16mm. It tends to run somewhere around $40 a minute. This can quickly add up, and for an indie filmmaker, there isn’t much wiggle room when money’s concerned. Digital “prosumer” cameras have narrowed the gap between the professional television and cinema industry and hometown filmmakers.
The movie was directed and co-produced by locals Jeremy Garner@@http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/993106660/all-hell-breaks-loose-feature-film-by-j-garner/@@, “Danger” Ehren McGhehey@@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569199/@@ and the mysterious film critic who chooses to remain anonymous and goes by the name “The Vocabulariast.”@@google search@@
“We had a prospective budget of $17,000, but it ended being more like $24,000,” Garner said.  “It was mainly financed by family and friends. I’ve gone pretty deep into debt with this film. I just hope that maybe I can put it out there and start to work on that huge chunk of money I have to pay back.”
Equipment costs would have been more trouble if not for the serendipitous connections of a big name producer from the picture business — “Danger” Ehren McGhehey of “Jackass” fame.
“We held an open casting call in Portland. We were late arriving, and when we were walking up to the door to start the auditions, some guy tried to punch me in the junk. And there he was: it was Danger Ehren,” Garner said.
As it turns out, Danger is a huge motorcycle enthusiast. It was just by chance that he decided to show up to the casting call of a small out-of-town film casting. He couldn’t be officially cast in the film due to entertainment union rules, but he could produce it. The loophole was found, and he was able to walk in front of the camera.
Danger was also able to lend some of his Hollywood might to the production in the form of equipment.
“He hooked us up with a bunch of equipment. He knew a guy at an equipment rental house, so we were able to borrow a grip truck. It would have been $4,000 a day to use,” Garner said.
Shot in a whirlwind time period of three weeks — remarkably fast for a feature, doubly so for an indie production — the cast and crew braved heat, physical and emotional exhaustion, and even a swarm of bees to put their picture in the can. But to everybody involved, it was all worth it.
On a small family farm miles outside of Eugene, the production crew fought through the sweltering summer heat and intermittent assault by bees and hornets.
Hunter O’Guinn, who plays one of the biker gang’s thugs called “El-Vez,” took a particularly nasty sting to the face.@@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3680281/@@
“I was laying in my truck getting some much-needed rest, and I felt a little bit of poking on my lip. I let it go, I didn’t think it was anything and then, bam! I got stung,” O’Guinn said. “My face swelled up in 20 minutes. I could feel it move up and down on my face as I walked. I thought it was going to split open.”
Other shooting locations included an actual biker clubhouse, where a bar fight scene was shot, and any number of highways and byways in Oregon.
In addition to producing and directing, Garner also applied his expertise in classic special effects for the film, including a head that explodes on camera, not to mention the requisite blood and guts needed for a film about demon bikers.
“I’ve always been a horror fan as long as I can remember,” Garner said. “We don’t really have a theme or a message per se. But I can say that my work has been heavily influenced by the horror genre. My favorite two horror movies are Lustig’s “Maniac” and Henenlotter’s ‘Frankenhooker.’”@@imdb@@
Sarah Kobel Marquette@@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4144583/@@ played the kidnapped bride.
“I had worked on a movie called ‘Crowbar’ with Jeremy,” Marquette said. “I saw the ad on Craigslist and I thought, ‘This sounds like Jeremy. This is my third movie.’ I just quit my job recently … I was doing reception. It was totally boring and not what I want to do with my life. I’ve got a bachelors in psychology that I’ll never use. Now I temp. Maybe it was time to try something else.”
Most indie filmmakers don’t have delusions of grandeur about hitting the big time. For them, it’s about more.
“There’s something to be said about a movie that’s driven by passion. It’s more relatable. These movies most likely won’t be played at the Cinemark,” Marquette said.  “In indie film, there’s no big egos, no drama and no money. This is about making a movie happen. I don’t want to be famous enough to be on the cover of a magazine. But maybe I could be inside it.”