The new horror film Aaron’s Blood will be released in theaters on June 2nd 2017, and on-demand/digital HD on June 6th 2017. Film critic Remy Cashman was able to interview Stovall for a bit to find out more about his inspiration for the film and his experiences throughout production. But first, a brief synopsis of the film.

SYNOPSIS:

HorrorBuzz: Have you made horror films before, or was this your first one?

Tommy Stovall: This is my first “real” horror film. I started making films as a teenager for fun with an old VHS camcorder, and I was a big fan of horror as a kid, but I never thought I’d do it for real. The first two films I did were not horror.

HB: Your film was a very interesting take on the transformation of a human into a vampire, and seemed to play a lot off real-life fears for a parent. What was your inspiration behind that?

Tommy Stovall: The movie isn’t really about vampires—the vampire theme is really just a construct for the story. When I was thinking about doing a vampire film, I asked myself “how can we do something that hasn’t been done?” So it became a goal to do something original, and it developed into a father/son story and what a parent would do for their child if they were sick.

HB: I couldn’t help but notice that you and the young man in this film share the same last name.

Tommy Stovall: He’s my son!

HB: What was your experience working with not only a child actor but with your son?

Tommy Stovall: It works pretty well! It can be tricky because of the parent/child relationship and he does rebel sometimes. But we’ve done a few films together, he gets on set and he’s very professional and takes it seriously and has fun with it. I know him so well and I know what to say. I wrote the film for him because he had always wanted to play a vampire.

HB: Was the decision to cast your son based off of those fears as a parent?

Tommy Stovall: I based a lot of his character off him—he dealt with bullying a lot as most kids do, and we built off that. The interesting part to me was the parent reaction, and the character I wrote had a lot of my own feelings and what I would do in that situation, so it wasn’t too hard to write because it came naturally. It’s nice to see people respond to the father/son aspect rather than just the vampires.

HB: You made the film take place in Sedona, AZ. Was there any particular reasoning behind that?

Tommy Stovall: Well, mostly because I live here and it’s convenient! But it does add to the story since it’s a rural setting it makes it more claustrophobic.

HB: Lastly, what are some of your favorite vampire films? Did they have any influence on this one?

Tommy Stovall: The films I grew up with were The Lost Boys and Near Dark, which was definitely the most memorable. I went back and watched a lot of those films to refresh my memory on the vampire world and what’s been done, taking a lot of different elements of vampire folklore.