EXCLUSIVE: THE DICK DALE INTERVIEW – ‘RIBSPREADER’

Dick Dale has been making waves down under for decades. Now he is releasing a potential tsunami onto the underground film scene. Under the influence of video nasties with a heaping dose of splatter-punk Dick Dale’s newest feature ‘Ribspreader’ is shaking things up in Australia.

Filmed on a shoestring budget the unabashed gorefest features an array of popular musicians and cult film stars. From country music legend Chad Morgan to shlock cinema legend Lloyd Kaufman, a coterie of stars dots this unexpected audience favorite. ‘Ribspreader’ has already won the Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival as well as the Golden Monster Award for Best Film at Monster Fest.

The story follows an advertising executive for the tobacco industry. Following an unfortunate event, he finds himself transformed into Ribspreader. Mentally tormented by a talking cigarette, Ribspreader embarks on a quest through Murder City to seek and destroy smokers. It’s a hell-bending mindfuck among murderous cannibal junkies, wrestlers, hotrods and a killer cult lead by the notorious Hand of Death.

On Genre reached out to director Dick Dale to talk about his film ‘Ribspreader’ and the underground scene in Australia.

ON GENRE: Your new film, ‘Ribspreader’, took 10 years to complete. How much did the film change from initial concept to final cut?

DICK DALE: Ten years is a grey area. From conception in October 2013 until October 2022 screening. I was writing the film at first, then before I can complete the screenplay (I knew the story) I was already filming scenes for a trailer to raise money. These happened mostly when I took the opportunity to film special guests, celebrities coming to town. I wrote these people into the scenes, and I knew they would add production value to my film. These were Laurence Harvey (‘Human Centipede’ 2&3), Spencer P Jones (The Johnnys, Beasts of Bourbon) and the Deja Voodoo Freak sideshow. I was planning others at the time for later. I started full-scale filming once I had the Kickstarter campaign money in 2019. I tried very hard to stick to detail with what was written in my original screenplay and the artists tried to stay faithful to the amazing concept art we had done up. Locations changing or becoming unavailable were an issue, but I would just roll with the punches. I altered the scene slightly or found similar locations and wasted no time getting it in the can. The same could be said when I originally wrote the part of The Hand of Death for John Jarrett. He wasn’t really available so I cast Adelaide’s own Ozploitation star, Chantal Contouri in the role instead. I rewrote the role for her and then I added a convoy of hotrods, a wrestler bodyguard, punk bikers, and five cameras including a drone. Some things were added and upgraded. Sixteen people also paid to get killed on the screen which also helped finance ‘Ribspreader’. That meant I had to include about an extra ten deaths that weren’t in the original screenplay.

OG: You used crowdfunding to raise most of the money to finance production. What kind of budget did you have to work with overall?

DD: I raised 24,000 (Aust) with the Kickstarter campaign. That helped get things going with making props, fx gear, costumes, insurance and other production costs. I raised about another five grand after with late comers putting into the film. The rest came out of part time work I have done here and there. Bar work, event work and shit labor jobs. I rode the COVID wave by using the government COVID supplement and among other things buying a camera discounted through our esteemed DOP Hugh Freytag. The free time cast, crew and extremely talented artists put into the production, my budget doesn’t even scratch the service. Without that into the equation the film was about 40,000 Australian. That is considered no budget. I did pretty good!

OG: You mentioned Chantal Contouri among others, but there’s one notable Australian entertainer appearing in ‘Ribspreader’ that seems an unlikely fit for a splatter punk flick,
and that’s Chad Morgan, a legend in country western music in Australia, who has been
performing since the early 1950’s. Movies like ‘Ribspreader’ generally aren’t able to get such big names involved.

How did both Contouri, and especially Morgan, respond to working on an over-the-top, gory, splatter film?

DD: Ha, well, Chantal stopped me after I started telling her the plot of the film. It was too much for her.

She has a very visual imagination. So, she told me never to tell her too much. She came on board after other filmmakers that she was working with on a TV show called ‘Aftertaste’ recommended me after I asked if she would be part of my film for a role I thought she’d be great in. The Hand of Death. We had a long and fantastic coffee meeting, and I rewrote the part and upscaled it to fit Miss Contouri. In the end, was created the most epic scene in the entire film. Apart from the actual climax of the film. I was very grateful to have her involved and I have now directed a real movie star. Humbled.

Chad got involved when I asked to host a Country and Western night featuring the great man here in Adelaide.

I know my roots are based in punk rock but occasionally we would put on these events called, Dirty Dick and Danny Hellbounds Kuntree Hoedowns. So, I was asked to MC. Never for one to let an opportunity go by, I inquired if I could get Mr. Morgan involved in a cameo. I got to write a small scene. Once again, people spoke up for me and so he came on board before the show. I shot it quickly and close to the pub. I didn’t want to waste his time, get my shot in the can and move on. He really stuck his teeth into the role too. He knows how to work those assets!! I don’t think Chad really cared what it was about to be honest. I gave his son, Chad Jnr a rundown though as he was slightly concerned about what his dear Ol’ Dad was getting into. All good anyway. I even got my dad an autographed CD in which he was chuffed with being a fan since he was a teenager.

Chad Morgan is a dead-set legend and National treasure. He is one of the most amazing performers I have ever seen. He just turned 90!!

OG: There are several notable names appearing in ‘Ribspreader’, among them the head of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman, and Rat Scabies, the drummer for classic punk band The Damned. How did getting Rat Scabies into the film come about?

DD: I met Rat when he was touring here on drums with the band, The Members. We found we had a mutual interest in filmmaking. Rat has a few unproduced movie screenplays apparently. After a few wines I thought he would be great playing the character, Father Motherwell in the opening funeral scene. I figured we could film his shots in a graveyard in London and do the reverse shots here with a body double. So, a few years later when I was ready, I contacted him via email and made it happen. People often ask me if I flew Rat over to Australia, so it obviously worked.

OG: ‘Ribspreader’ is a splatter-punk gore fest that carries an anti-smoking message. You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that you didn’t plan for the anti-smoking theme to be so prevalent in ‘Ribspreader’.

Do you feel it’s necessary for movies to contain themes of social commentary or is it okay for films to be void of messaging?

DD: I don’t think messages are important in films or stories. I watch movies most of the time for entertainment value. Hopefully ‘Ribspreader’ has that! If it stops people smoking, even better. I think social commentary is a good thing in stories though. Even the ‘Toxic Avenger’ had a message about toxic waste.

OG: You have claimed Peter Jackson’s early films, like ‘Bad Taste’, are big influences on your work. ‘Bad Taste’ has some notoriety for having been banned in Queensland after playing in theaters. With the ebb and flow of censorship in Australia, are you concerned that ‘Ribspreader’ might fall afoul of the censors?

DD: We can only wait and see. ‘Ribspreader’ has already had one screening in Brisbane, Queensland which my poster art claims it is “Banned”. Nearly a full house attended. There maybe one or two parts that come under risk. We shall see. I won’t let it be censored though. It’s all or nothing! Not concerned. More sitting by with glee, watching… hoping… It’s a badge of honor in my book if it causes any outrage.

OG: You’re from Rockhampton, Queensland. How much exposure to horror films and punk rock did you have while growing up in Rockhampton and did you begin making movies there or did that come later?

DD: There was very little in Rockhampton only having two channels on TV. A dodgy channel 7 and ABC. But they did play old Hammer horror movies and such, so on occasion so I got that. I had a secondhand bookstore nearby me in which I was able to get cheap horror comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland at affordable price for a kid’s pocket money. I read about a lot of films in those which made my imagination go wild. By the time I saw a lot of them they were never as good as I thought they were going to be. ha ha

My biggest education in seeing movies was sneaking through a hole in the fence at my local Drive-In Cinema. I saw lots of movies as many times as I wanted, and I never even had a car and was underage. In those days they had speakers on poles you just turned up. Some of my favorite memories watching the ‘Halloween’ movies, ‘The Thing’, ‘Mad Max’ and loads of B grade horror. The only education I got in the Swamplands was in year twelve screen and television class. I loved it but there was no incentive to go further after. The town manifesto was get a job, get married, get a mortgage on a house. DIE! Wash, rinse and repeat next generation.

For punk rock I used to go to Brisbane and get records, see bands and meet like-minded friends. We ended up making our own band, Smegma in Rockhampton as there was nothing else. We were just noise with crazy stage antics but lots of fun. ha

OG: How thriving was the Brisbane punk scene in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s? What bands were you in and which clubs were the most exciting to play?

DD: I didn’t actually play in any bands when I moved there. Great bands at the time were Crucified Truth, Anger in Motion, Rampant Scabies, Bad Ronald, Insane Hombres and Vomit, I remember. The East Leagues Club was a venue, The Outpost, Backstage… ah my brain. Foggy.

OG: Moving to Adelaide in 1991, how different was the punk scene there?

DD: A lot quieter and the punx more conservative looking from Brisbane was noticeable to me. It may have taken about 18 months to two years to really grasp a scene here. I started playing in bands about 1996? That’s when I really started to have a good time with it all.

OG: Adelaide’s club scene included the Squatters Arms, a punk venue which closed in 2013. The owner cited you specifically for helping the club in his statement when the venue closed. Was any part of ‘Ribspreader’ filmed at Squatters Arms, either before or after closing?

DD: The main character Bryan I originally envisaged living upstairs in a room at the Squatters Arms. I worked here about four years as worst barman and band booker. That was a crazy roller coaster ride. I wasn’t able to get permission to shoot inside. The building owner, (not ex-Publican, the lovable Paul Belial you talking about above) seems to be a grumpy old fart who denied access even for money. Probably a nice bloke though that remains to be seen. I did get exterior shots though in the car park and out the front, so it still held that Bryan lived there. There is even a large billboard in the car park. So, when I lived there the story was festering inside my head. I am very happy that ended up in the completed film. We created our own miniature set of the car park as the owner refused us to even shoot there after we did a scene. We blew up things though as you’ll see. So we couldn’t do that for real. We were always going to do that in miniatures.

OG: How do you see underground cinema moving forward into the future?

DD: As always, it will exist as long as there are people out there with the drive and obsession to make their films. The larger studios and funded films will always be trying to keep a cap on the Indy ones. Every now and then something brilliant comes along that can’t be ignored. As we now know. It is in reach of anyone now to make a movie. If you really really want it.

OG: Finally, when will audiences outside of Australia be able to view ‘Ribspreader’?

DD: Well, I’m trying to get it out there in the world. It seems being Indy with no studio backing that’s quite a hard thing to achieve. If anyone has any recommendations I will gladly follow up. There will be a hard copy available soon with DVD, Blu Ray and limited-Edition VHS. In negotiations about that. Looking for an international distributor as I write. Thank you to the likes of yourself Conan and podcasts that I can get the word of my movie out there. If people have a laugh, I think I have more than done my job!
Thank you for asking.
Stay sick!!