By Nathan Duke
Bayside’s Marc Fratto is building a mini Queens empire forged in blood — fake blood, that is.
Fratto, who works full−time as director for a morning show on Bloomberg Television, spends his often−sleepless weekends crafting screenplays or shooting low budget, do−it−yourself horror films with an abundance of old school makeup effects and no city permits.
The director’s latest, “Zombies Anonymous,” is reminiscent of George Romero’s zombie films in its combination of blood, guts and social commentary. The film, shot during a period of several weekends in 2005, played film festivals during the past year before getting a wide DVD release in video chain stores across the nation last summer.
Fratto, 40, who was born in Bayside and still lives in the neighborhood, founded the film company Insane−O−Rama six years ago and has since produced two movies, the vampire film “Strange Things Happen at Sundown” and “Zombies Anonymous.” The director said he did not have enough money for permits to shoot his films, often relying on wooded areas and friends’ apartments for his backdrops.
“We do it all guerilla−style,” he said. “It’s tough to get permits because you need insurance, which is money we don’t have.”
He said both of his films’ bloody effects are not the result of digital magic, but rather physical makeup, harkening back to the heyday of horror movie effects in the 1970s and ’80s.
“I did makeup effects when I was young,” he said. “It came in very handy when I made the movies. I bought the latex, mortician’s wax and fake blood and put it all over everybody.”
“Zombies Anonymous,” which features social commentary in the vein of Romero’s “living dead” films, portrays a future world in which a mysterious plague prevents people from dying, turning them into zombies. The film strikes both ominous and comedic tones, with zombies using makeup to cover their decomposing faces and attending undead support groups.
Fratto said the film’s living dead are the protagonists and the actual humans, who are prejudiced against the zombies, are the villains. He said the horror subgenre allows for sociopolitical themes to sneak through.
“It’s a great platform for subtle politics in the same way that the vampire movie has become symbolic for sexuality and the spread of AIDS,” he said “It’s become so ingrained that a zombie movie will have a social message. It’s almost difficult to find one without it.”
The director said he was inspired by real−life horrors to begin writing the script for the film several years ago.
“I started writing it after 9⁄11,” he said. “There was a story in the news about an Arab man who was beaten up after the attacks and I realized that people always try to justify their reasons for targeting someone else. So, a light bulb went off in my head.”
The film, which was primarily shot in Bayside but also in Brooklyn and New Jersey, cost a mere $35,000. Fratto said he maxed out his credit cards to make the film and gathered his crew together for a series of weekend shoots during a period of 35 days.
“Zombies Anonymous” screened at the New York City Horror Film Festival and had its premiere at Manhattan’s Anthology Film Archives before getting released on DVD in May.
Fratto said getting his films widely viewed is often a daunting task because so many low−budget independent horror movies get made each year.
“It’s always difficult to get people to fork over cash to get a movie made, even when the climate of the country is going well,” he said. “And it’s been rough to get distribution for the last few years because there is an over−saturation of horror movies in the home−video market. Plus, we are shooting in a low end format. You have to figure out how not to make your film look like a bunch of people getting together on the weekends to shoot a movie.”
Fratto, who owns Insane−O−Rama with co−producer Frank Garfi, said he is currently shopping around three or four scripts he has written, hoping to get one of them made into a film. He said he hopes for a breakout hit with one of his films.
“Our two movies have built up a fan base,” he said. “I think it’s because both of them take a genre that’s been done to death and do it in a way that hasn’t been seen before. So, I’ll keep trying until one of them takes off.”
