Page 52 - AVN October 2017

GAYVN
TRICK AND TREAT
Steve Cruz and Raging Stallion explore thriller genre
Shults released his It Comes at Night and, well, I had to rethink it. I haven’t seen his work yet, and there
are no intentional crossover elements. In the end, I think It’s Coming is a better title and more true to my
film.”
The action centers on a house in which violent unsolved crimes have taken place over the years. The
house is put back on the market at a bargain price, and the mayhem unfolds. (“Oh, and in between
there’s lots of unholy hot sex.”) The director says it was inspired by frequent nightmares over the years,
and the idea that shadow people stalk some of us, influence us knowingly or unknowingly, and feed off
our energy.
“I don’t want to give it all away, but we use home security footage mixed with cinematic camera work.
There’s a dream sequence as our star Adam Ramzi, the home buyer, starts to unravel. This is one of the
more cinematic projects I’ve put out,” he says. “I think an effective horror writer also blends moments
of humor to relax you just before they drop you off the edge. I think this movie will really get your dick
hard and at the same time creep you out where you can’t look away.”
Ramzi hadn’t worked with the Falcon Studio Group family in a while as he was busy with other
projects. That made the prospect even sweeter.
“I kind of made the decision that I didn’t really want to work as much this year unless there seemed
to be some kind of creative aspect to the project, so it was really nice when Steve reached out to me and
said, ‘We have this new project in mind, and we want somebody who we know can actually act.’ I found
that really flattering,” says the performer.
“He told me there was a horror element to it, and that he wanted to kind of direct me in a way that I
would have to show a lot of range emotionally. I always love working with Steve, so it was a nice chance
to do something creative with him again.”
I THINK AN EFFECTIVE HORROR
WRITER ALSO BLENDS MOMENTS OF
HUMOR TO RELAX YOU JUST BEFORE
THEY DROP YOU OFF THE EDGE.
I THINK THIS MOVIE WILL REALLY GET
YOUR DICK HARD AND AT THE SAME
TIME CREEP YOU OUT.
—STEVE CRUZ
Adam Ramzi gets more than he bargained for when he buys a bargain-basement house.
NOW PLAYING | By Brady Jansen
A
As a younger kid and through adolescence, Steve Cruz was
obsessed with horror films—his first film genre passion.
“I was ruined by The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby. The
Amityville Horror made it so I couldn’t go into attics or
basements, and I slept with the light on for a better half of
a year thanks to Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror, campy as it
seems now,” he recalls. “But Carrie is the masterpiece of all
horror for me. It really holds up. You can probably see nods
to most of these somewhere in It’s Coming.”
Out last month from Raging Stallion, It’s Coming is the
director’s Halloween trick and treat for fans of fright—and
despite the name conjuring up thoughts of the 2014 horror
hit It Follows, Cruz insists it isn’t related: “I love that movie,
it truly scared me. Not many current horror flicks spark my
interest because I’m not huge on gore. But that one was
effectively chilling! No nods to it, though … I mean, it’s
practically a porn idea in itself.”
In fact, the film initially had a different title: “Actually,
I felt lucky. Four years ago when I worked out this plot, it
was going to be called They Come at Night. Then Trey Edward
52 | AVN.com | 10.17
Ramzi had worked on a horror series on YouTube with a friend years ago—one a little more comedic—
that gave him some experience to draw on.
“I got to play a murder victim,” he laughs of that experience. “You can’t help but go there in your mind
a little bit when somebody is imposing themselves physically on you, whether it’s fake or not … but I’d
never done a porn horror, so that kind of shifted things in a whole different direction. It’s not the easiest
thing to play terrified and turned on at the same time—without giving too much away—but that did
happen at one point.”
Ramzi says he’s always been intrigued by horror films—especially ones with strong scripts: “As long
as it’s well done, I’m on board. The last horror movie that I saw that really knocked my socks off was The
Witch, which came out last year. It’s unsettling and beautiful, and I’ll never forget it. Around the same
time, I watched a movie called Green Room. Two completely different movies, but they were both so well
done.”
But pulling out emotions from an audience isn’t easy. Cruz, who is one of his own editors, notes how
vital that process—and many others behind the scenes—is to achieving the desired outcome.
“It’s a huge part. Building tension, separating time jumps with filter effects. There’s a supernatural
element that I achieved in post that’s super freaky,” he says. “My lighting genius Scott helped me on
set create eerie nighttime lighting when the house is abandoned, morning light to show the house
revitalized. We hired a makeup artist for one of the main characters for an over-the-top effect. I hope
people are left a little shaken.”
But for Ramzi, what was most challenging was hitting the right character notes from an acting
perspective.
“Let’s just put it this way: For me to have to spend an entire day’s worth of a shoot not only hitting a
lot of emotional points within a span of just a couple hours, but then also to get into the porn side and
film a sex scene, was really scary for me.”
While Ramzi came prepared—knowing his lines and what the Cruz and the crew were
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