Interview With Robert Benjamin, Writer Of ‘Bloody Hell’

Bloody Hell is so bizarre. But it’s also bloody and witty and has some of the best performances I’ve seen all year. We all are familiar with the story about some American traveling overseas only to have their perfect getaway turn into a nightmare when they’re kidnapped by the locals and tortured. But Bloody Hell puts a fun twist to it, and the adrenaline rush of a climax will have you cheering. I spoke with the film’s writer, Robert Benjamin, and we talked about the inspiration behind the story, renting Creepshow with his grandma, and of course, horror movies.

PopHorror: Hi Robert! How are you?

Robert Benjamin: I’m good. How are you?

PopHorror: I’m good, thank you! I watched Bloody Hell last night, I thought it was great! It was funny and bloody and brutal. I love all of those things. I really enjoyed it.

Robert Benjamin: Great!

PopHorror: So what inspired you to write Bloody Hell?

Robert Benjamin: Basically, I was traveling, and I was in a tram, and there was a family of foreigners. Probably eastern Europeans, or something like that. They were chatting in their language, and one of the women would look at me and smile and then go back to chatting. And then look at me again and smile, and then go back again to chatting. And I was like… What the hell are they talking about? They were probably being very nice, but I, apparently me, I had to hypothetically think about what I would do if I woke up chained to a water pipe in a basement? So I went to the gift shop at the airport, and I started jotting down all these ideas about what I would do. I think I actually outlined the entire movie at that gate. That’s how it happened.

PopHorror: Oh, wow! I would probably be thinking, “This is how horror movies start.”

Robert Benjamin: Exactly!

PopHorror: This film is fresh off a very successful festival run. It has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which you don’t see very often, and it’s secured distribution from The Horror Collective. With this being your first feature, how does it feel to have such a positive reception to your film?

Robert Benjamin: It feels great. You make something like this, and you have no idea how it’s going to be received. It’s definitely different. And there’s so much content out there, too. You never know what people are into anymore. So, the fact that there had been so much positivity surrounding it… I’m not going to lie. I was pleasantly surprised. Very surprised, but pleasantly surprised. It’s been great so far.

PopHorror: That’s awesome! I have seen nothing but good things about it. Everything I read is just glowing about it.

Robert Benjamin: That’s great! I love to hear it.

PopHorror: What made you want to be a filmmaker?

Robert Benjamin: Oh, you know. I’ve loved movies my entire life. It’s odd. One of the first movies I ever saw was Creepshow. I don’t know why I saw that; I was six-years-old. My grandmother rented it for me, I think just to keep me quiet. I’ve always been into horror. I’ve always loved movies, and I’ve always written as well. In my English class in seventh grade, I remember writing like fantastical stories, so it just kind of makes sense to try to do both.

PopHorror: What an awesome grandma!

Robert Benjamin: Yeah, no kidding!

PopHorror: What’s one piece of advice that you wished someone would have given to you when you first started?

Robert Benjamin: Just keep writing, and write, write, write. Write all the crap out of your system. I wouldn’t say I started late, but I don’t think I wrote enough to get to where I wanted to be as soon as I wanted to do it. That said, it could be a complete blessing in disguise because we have Bloody Hell here now, so maybe it was meant to be. But I wrote a lot of crap early on, and I think I just needed to keep flashing my system of that. That cringiness.

PopHorror: I like how you keep calling it crap.

Robert Benjamin: It was. It was crap.

PopHorror: I know that Covid has stalled a lot of projects, and things have been cancelled and pushed back. But what do you have coming up next? Are you currently working on anything?

Robert Benjamin: I have something in the works that I’m really happy with. I think we’ll have to see what happens next week with Bloody Hell because I also know that the producers are kind of itching for a part two. So we’ll see if there’s a demand for that. I’d love to continue that story. But we’ll find out!

PopHorror: I read an article today that mentioned the producers are hoping for a three part story.

Robert Benjamin: Mm, yeah. When we were discussing the story we talked about how it could be a trilogy. And there’s definitely a possibility for that. I think right now, I’m focused on: “Is this first one going to do well? Then we can discuss more.” But sure, we could always make three of them if that’s what everyone wants.

PopHorror: I think you’re definitely on the right path because it’s got such raving reviews. One last question for you, Robert. What is your favorite scary movie?

Robert Benjamin: That’s a great question, and no one has asked me that. It’s also a very difficult question, so I’m glad I set it up with Creepshow because I think Creepshow is my favorite horror movie, just because… I don’t know what it is about it. Just how well it’s done, especially for the time. I don’t think that’s necessarily my favorite scary movie though, because it’s more of a tongue-in-cheek, DC Comics type of film.

I don’t want to sound cliché, but the two scariest movies I’ve ever seen are The Exorcist and Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Having said that, the only movie to ever scare me and keep me up at night was the ending to Sleepaway Camp. I saw that when I was 13 years-old, and I was not expecting that. I had seen so many slasher movies up to that point, I figured it was just going to end like all the others. But holy crap! That ending! Woah. If you haven’t seen Sleepaway Camp…

Thank you so much, Rober,t for taking the time to speak to us. Be sure to catch Bloody Hell in theaters now. You can also find it on your favorite VOD platform.