It’s not uncommon for action guys with huge potential to fall between the seams, and Paul Logan (unfortunately) has been one of those guys.
With the right look to be both a hero or a villain, with skills in Kendo, Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu, and a black belt in Okinawa Go-Ju-Ryu Karate, and a background in stunt work and fight choreography, he’s the ideal candidate to be a top shelf action star, but the reality of today’s fledgling movie market and fluctuating medium on which films are now shot, productions aren’t going after struggling would-be action stars who have not established themselves in “A” productions.
Logan is one of the few guys working today in the low budget and independent film market who deserves to be noticed, and it’s actually a testament of his will that he’s been working in the industry in multiple fields (acting, stunt performing, and in appearing in action/martial arts roles) for several decades now. After a string of low budget under-the-radar action films like Blazing Force, The Ultimate Game, Ballistica, The Terminators, and Code Red, Logan is back with an unbridled vengeance with the action-horror hybrid The Horde, which he wrote for himself.
He stars as an ex-Special Forces soldier who accompanies a group of teens on a weekend excursion to the woods when they are hunted down by a horde of mutant freaks, intent on slaughtering them. He turns the tables Rambo style and hunts the hunters down one by one. For anyone who’s never seen a movie with Logan, The Horde is an ideal place to start, and it will easily impress both fans of horror and action, as it’s a perfect cross-pollination of both genres. In this interview, Logan goes into detail about his career, his life, and The Horde.
You’re someone I’ve been paying attention to for quite awhile. I’ve always hoped that you’d find or create the right vehicle for you to star in, and I’m happy to say that The Horde is that movie. It’s come at the the right time for you. You’re at the right age and maturity to be in something like this.
Oh, that’s awesome. Thank you. I’ve worked my ass off for years, trying to do something like this.
How hard is it to create a project like this for yourself and to see it through?
It is hard, and it isn’t. Everyone has scripts, or this or that. But getting it funded and getting people to believe in you and can get behind your dream is tough. Unless you have a trust fund and can fund anything … that’s not me right now. I’ve done tons of other people’s projects, I’ve done Days of Our Lives for years, I’ve done a bunch of stuff for the SyFy Channel. I’ve been doing martial arts since I was 13. I love to do action stuff. The reason I’m built the way I am is because of Stallone. I was the skinny kid who got bullied every day, so I started martial arts when I was 13. I graduated high school at 17 and weighed 145 pounds and I was like a rake. I didn’t like that. I wanted to change by body. I got a poster of Stallone from Rambo and put it in my dorm room and said, “I want to look like that.” I went to the gym and became a pest. I would ask people, “What do you for chest? What do you do for legs? What do you do for your abs?” It was trial and error.
[quote]The reason I’m built the way I am is because of Stallone.
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Here I am. I still train. I’ve never done drugs, I’ve never done anabolics or any of that stuff. I’ve always loved the action genre. I’ve written seven scripts, and The Horde is one that I knew could be done on a lower budget, which helped getting it funded. The reason the script came about is because most horror movies are the same. It’s a bunch of kids, they go to the woods, there’s a killer hunting them down one at a time, you’ve seen it a million times. That’s what the horror audience wants and enjoys. I didn’t want to mess with that too much, and so I said, “What if you have the same scenario, with a bunch of kids on a nature photography trip, and a bunch of Hills Have Eyes cannibalistic mutant badass nasty people hunt them down, but you have one person in the group of kids who is ex-Special Forces, a Navy SEAL, and can turn the tables and hunt the hunters?” You’d have everything of a horror film, but when the guy comes at me with a machete or an ax, there’s an action sequence. It would make the horror and the action audiences happy at the same time. Most horror movies you have victims running around the woods, screaming, all scared, and they’re chopped to pieces. No one fights back proficiently. That’s what I wanted to throw in there. What if Texas Chainsaw had a Navy SEAL or a Rambo guy in there?
I would definitely say The Horde is The Punisher meets Texas Chainsaw. You would make a great Frank Castle, man. Let it be known here and now.
Oh, dude, I know. I’m a huge comic book fan ever since I was a kid. I’m a huge Batman freak – I’m Batman every year for Halloween. I love the new Daredevil series and Jon Bernthal is doing a great job as The Punisher, but if they offered me that job, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I love The Punisher, I love Batman, I love Wolverine. I like the good guy/bad guy heroes. That’s what I like.
Let’s rewind a little bit. I saw a movie you did years ago, a little action movie called Blazing Force.
(Laughing.)
Look, I know why you’re laughing, but I’m bringing this movie up because it’s where I first noticed you. I want to lift that up because it was such an earnest and honest little film. That, to me, is where it’s at. That showed me who you are. I knew then that you were someone to watch out for. I mean, this movie looked like you were shooting on location without permits.
Oh, yeah. I’m trying to remember. I had just come off doing another film called American Tigers.
With Sam Jones and Cynthia Rothrock!
Yeah! Exactly. We did Blazing Force … I was contacted to play the lead bad guy, kind of a supernatural character. It was fun. The coolest thing about that movie was that we shot at Vasquez Rocks where they shot the old episodes of Star Trek. It was what it was. It was very early in my career. I was happy to get a starring role in an action film. I was really starting to get into characters and diving in. What I always try to do is I try to separate myself from a lot of other action guys with my acting as well. I’ve been doing the action stuff since I was 13. A lot of the action guys can’t … they’re not the best actors in the world. And a lot of the best actors can’t do the action. I always wanted to be one of those guys who can do both. Like Statham. I try to bring believability to my characters. 15-20 years ago you could run around and blow things up and sell the movie, but today’s audience is much more sophisticated. You need to make it believable. With The Horde I tried to show that. There’s a whole love story. Die Hard was a love story too if you think about it.
The era of the action star is kind of fading, and we desperately need real-deal action stars to keep the genre alive. I’m so glad you’re here with this movie. You’re showing me that you’re still fighting the fight. You’re fighting against the tide.
You know what? My whole life – my whole career – has been a fight against the tide. You know what I mean? I grew up with a lot of challenges, and you can do two things when you’re challenged. You can sulk and die or you can plow through and get to the other side. To harden steel you have to put it in the fire. You have to hammer it flat and fold it over and make it stronger. That’s what I’m all about. There’s still a huge action audience. Look at all the Expendables guys. Those guys are still at it. I just saw Criminal the other day with Kevin Costner. Liam Neeson did us all a huge favor with the Taken movies. He showed the action guys that we have a longer shelf life now. If you can take care of yourself and get good scripts you’ll have a long shelf life. I’m at the perfect age to break through this barrier. I’ve done a lot of films, but I want to do bigger and better stuff. I’d love to be in Expendables 4.
The Horde is the best calling card I’ve ever seen from you. I’ve seen other films you starred in like The Ultimate Game, Ballistica, The Terminators, Code Red …
I am so thankful for all those films. They were leading roles for me, and they were great vehicles, but a lot of those films would have been better if we didn’t have to make compromises. You always make compromises on set. Budget, time, and even sometimes the stunt guy you have on set can’t fight because they lied on their resume. You have to water down your fights. The Horde was great because I got to do everything exactly the way I wanted to. I wrote the script, I did all the fight choreography, I did all my own stunts – which I always do; I’ve never been doubled in a movie – and I didn’t have to make excuses for this one. We got literally 99% what I wrote in the script onto the screen. That’s unheard of. I’m so thankful to my director and my team that funded this. I’m so happy with the way it turned out. It’s a fun ride. The main thing was that I did not want to make it campy. It’s not a campy horror film. This is not that. It’s real, it’s visceral. The horror is intense, and the action is brutal. I’ve trained in MMA, so you see knees and elbows, and breaks, and arm bars. I wanted everything to hurt.
And I love that you got Don “The Dragon” Wilson to do a cameo in the movie. He sort of passes the baton to you. That was awesome.
Oh, you know what, that was great. Don is a good friend. I met Don a couple years ago, and I think we were at an event in Germany. We were sitting next to each other for a couple of days and became friends. When I wrote the script before I met Don, that cameo was written for Michael Berryman. You’d think he was a bad guy, but he’s actually a good guy who warns us off. When I talked to Don, I told him he would be great for that, and he came in and he killed it. It’s a great little bit in the movie. He sets the tone. It’s great.
If you do another Horde movie, you two guys should team up.
Oh, we’re talking about that, actually.
You’ve got some other stuff in the pipeline, man. You just did a movie with Steven Seagal, a Sniper film.
I did. It was fun. I met Steven years and years ago. It was nice to chat with Steven when he was on set. The film is fun. We’re a SEAL team, and he’s a sniper, and he gets left behind during a mission that goes wrong. The rest of the movie is getting him back. Steven is one of the guys who paved the way for guys like me. Those movies he did made me want to be an action hero. Fred Olen Ray directed this one, and it was great working with him. I’d never worked with him before. It was awesome.
I know who the audience for The Horde is. I’m that audience. I thought the violence and gore was even more extreme than I’m normally comfortable with, but that’s just me. Who are you hoping to appeal to with this film?
That’s the whole thing; it’s a perfect blend of action and horror. The distributors – Gravitas Ventures – they’re both strong in action and horror, and they said they could put it in either category and it will live up to it. You want a great action movie, you’ve got it. You want to watch a great horror movie, you’ve got that too. It appeals to both types of fans. It has hard-hitting action, and if you want to be scared shitless, this is it. Honestly. It’s a crossover. If you happen to like both genres, you’re going to be happy.
I hope you can keep up this momentum and ride right into your next movie, man.
I’m hoping that The Horde will open up some doors for me so that people can see what I can do without any sort of restraints. So that they can see what I can do as a leading man action hero. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. The next one I’m putting together is another one I wrote called The Edge of Madness. It’s Die Hard in an insane asylum.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Please watch The Horde. It comes out May 6th. It’s going to be on VOD, and many other platforms. There’s a whole list. Go to TheHordeMovie.com and there’s a list of all the VOD where it’s coming out. You can follow me at TheRealPaulLogan on Twitter and follow the movie at TheHordeMovie.com. My Instagram is also PaulLogan88. I answer my own fan mail. You can also visit my website PaulLogan.net and ask me a question. Also, to my fans, thank you. Without you, I don’t have a job. I do appreciate you. Every one of you who has taken the time and invested in watching one of my films, I really appreciate it. The Horde will definitely deliver.
The Horde will be available in the US and Canada on the following platforms: iTunes, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, Microsoft Video Store, Playstation Network, Hoopla, and in the US on AT&T U-VERSE, DISH, DirectTV, Cox, Charter on Demand, Verizon FiOS, Suddenlink, Mediacom, Insight, WOW, RCN, and in Canada on Eastlink TV, Rogers on Demand, and Shaw.