Combine comedy and horror, and you get Carl Rimi. The standup comic pulls double duty as star and co-director of the new hair-raising film “iPossessed.”
Deco caught up with Carl at Dania Pointe’s Improv to tell us about his dream for scream.
Carl Rimi (during standup set): “She goes, ‘What do you do for a living? I’m like, ‘I’m a comedian.’ She’s like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re a medium?’”
[The audience laughs.]
The sound of laughter gets Carl Rimi hyped.
Carl Rimi (during standup set): “So I took her home and made love to her ’cause her dead grandmother wanted her to.”
[The audience laughs.]
His comedic style is to observe.
Carl Rimi: “My parents used to own video store when I was a little kid, so I worked VHS tapes. I talk about that, talk about the adult film section. You know, whatever, get a little spicy.”
Video store customer: “What’s that werewolf movie with E.T.’s mom in it?”
Jamie Kennedy (as Randy Meeks): “‘The Howling,’ Horror, straight ahead.”
The comedian is channeling the same “Scream” section.
Carl Rimi (as Tad Volo): “We can wait this out, and then we can all get the hell out of here.”
Straight-up horror! And the now filmmaker/actor is haunting the big screen with “iPossessed.”
Carl Rimi: “It’s about these five people who go to this house, and it’s haunted, and the way this house haunts them is by their own dark secrets, and their past regrets start creeping up throughout the night. So it’s more the people that are there; it’s their possession, their demons they’re holding in. Hence the ‘i’ in the ‘Possessed.’”
In the psychological thriller, Carl plays a veteran Army ranger … with his shirt off?
Carl Rimi: “Yeah, I’m getting a lot for that. Like, I have my shirt off like three times in there, and all my friends are like, ‘C’mon, bro.’”
Carl Rimi: “I wanted [my character Tad] to be a menacing figure throughout the film, and I think I accomplished that when you see the film. That’s why my shirt’s off. It’s not like I needed to.”
[The audience claps.]
Carl Rimi (during standup set): “Some of you might not know what we’re doing here is, we’re doing a movie tour.”
For a small indie film shot in Florida, the actor wants to spread the buzz through a national comedy tour.
Carl Rimi: “I think we created kind of a different angle is, we’re promoting people from comedy to a horror film. But no bits about the movie, you know. I call it, like, a 20 minute infomercial or a 45-minute infomercial, now get to the product.”
And the product is full of blood and screams.
Carl Rimi: “Nobody knows I’m a filmmaker, and then I go, ‘Oh, by the way, I made a movie.’ And then people are usually like [makes confused face], and then I’m like, ‘It’s a horror film.’ And people are like, ‘Where’s the punch line?’ They don’t get a punch line.”
For more information on how to check out “iPossessed,” I double dare you to click here.