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Jennifer: So that's someplace that you shot [scenes] in?
Karl: I can't tell you the real name of the place, but the site does exist. I had to give a fictitious name [in the film] to the real place… I went to this paranormal center for other reasons and met this doctor... I found out that she is from the Ironbound section of Newark where I grew up!
Jennifer: Is she still alive?
Karl: Oh, sure! As a matter of fact she just finished writing a book called "Shopping for Miracles"... I asked her a lot of questions about vampires because I'd never shot a vampire film before. I wanted it different. She helped me with it, and she was always there to help me with any questions I had.
Jennifer: So really this is more inspired by the things that she told you rather than by any specific incident that she told you about or anything that she's written?
Karl: No, her information: the things she said, how she explained things to me - the folklore of vampires. She's just a super authority on it. So she told me so many things about vampires I never knew, that I could not possibly squeeze into the movie.
Jennifer: So she knows - from what I've read in general - that there are two different types of vampires. There's this folkloric vampire with a European tradition that's sort of Christian based, then there's this new wave of vampire I don't know much about… who engage in blood rites.
Karl: Like a blood fetish. Since I got involved in this vampire thing I've learned a lot. There are people out there - and I'm not a judge to say whether a vampire exists or not - who do believe they are vampires, and they call themselves vampires. Then there's the counter-vampire. They're vampire hunters. They actually do exist. And they feel that they have the authority to hurt, injure or kill anyone who says that they're a vampire. I never knew this existed but it is true. There's also, as I mentioned before, people who are into blood fetishes. They are "wanna-be" vampires. They go to the goth clubs, they wear the gothic clothes. They try to emulate that type of aura of a vampire, live that type of life. That's something altogether different. So I learned all this as I was going into the vampire movie. That's how my connection with Dr. McMahon came about.
Jennifer: So you were just talking one day and found she was from Newark, or did you say, "If I'm going to shoot a vampire movie I'm going to do it locally"?
Karl: It just happened when I first met her… she said, "I'm from Newark, too!" So we actually lived only a few blocks apart. I never knew who she was or anything like that… she had moved out to California to continue schooling.