Fangs for Voting: 'Impaler'

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LISTEN UP, AMERICANS! Soon, you will shoulder the responsibility of voting for the next president of the United States. Will it be the Mormon guy, the actor guy, the hair guy, the girl guy, the Satanist vampire guy ... what?

Oh, yes.

Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey is the first Satanist vampire presidential candidate in American history, and if you think you're fascinated, meet W. Tray White, who grabbed a camera, scraped up a crew and made "Impaler," a strange, funny and moving documentary about the Democrat from Minnesota with a taste for blood.

Express talked to White before Friday's 5:30 p.m. screening of the film at Hoff Theater at the University of Maryland, where the director will be on hand along with executive director Mark Rosen and Sharkey himself.

» EXPRESS: How'd you get started?
» WHITE: Well, it came to me through a quote that I saw on the Internet, it said, "Unlike most politicians, I will not hide my evil side." And I thought it was funny, so I called Jonathon. I didn't know why I was calling him — I wasn't sure if I was gonna prank call him or what — but he was a nice guy and it kind of blew up in the media.

» EXPRESS: You have to be very insistent that it's not a mockumentary
» WHITE:Yeah, most people think it's a mockumentary and give me dirty looks. Like, how could you make up something so stupid?

» EXPRESS: How much access did Jonathon give you?
» WHITE:One-hundred percent. That doesn't mean he was totally honest with me all the time.

» EXPRESS: He's a politician.
» WHITE: That's true.

» EXPRESS: And a monster.
» WHITE: Uh, maybe. So I was there from the start and I had unfettered access to him, but like I said, the audience will see he might not always be honest, and it's not about the little things, it's about some of the major things. We kind of unravel a mystery.

» EXPRESS: So you're not there to make fun of him?
» WHITE: No. In fact, people are really shocked. They think it's going to be this funny and absurd movie. And while it is — it has this absurd sense of humor — it's also really sad and quite bizarre. And that's beyond Satanism or vampirism or politics.

» EXPRESS: You really bring out Jonathon's humanity.
» WHITE: Yeah, and that's one thing I really wanted to do. At first, of course, I had the notion to make him into a cartoon figure and have fun. I wasted several days asking him stupid questions and pulling little pranks on him. And then I realized, "I don't want to be mean-spirited; this guy is a human."

» EXPRESS: It must have been hard to separate him from the hype around him — the nature of it.
» WHITE: Quite frankly, I wanted people to experience what I experienced. And to make it the most honest documentary I could. So we downplayed the enormous amount of media attention he was getting right off the bat. But it's not particularly glamorous, all this attention he was getting. So I didn't want to hype that up and have some crazy "Rocky"-style media montage.

» EXPRESS: How does this film befit Jonathon?
» WHITE: Man, it's so hard, because he understands that, in his mind, any attention is good attention. He does come from a professional wrestling background — he was what was called a "heel." So he's used to getting booed and such; he feeds off it, he thrives off it. And there are tons of, quote, "vampires" out there who despise him and don't want him representing the vampire community. Or the Satanist community.

» EXPRESS: I'm sorry for laughing.
» WHITE: I was cursed on the Internet; vampires and pagans and Satanists put a mass curse on me for making this movie. It's awesome. But on the flip side of that, there are a lot of supporters. And I've only had one, I guess, bad review of the movie and that wasn't by anyone in the media. It was a Satanist blogger, and he was that this would hurt Jonathon's chances of becoming president.

» EXPRESS: But does he understand that he's not going to become president?
» WHITE: He understands that in certain states, to get on the ballot — like with Minnesota, I think you only had to pay 350 dollars. There is no petition to enter the race in Minnesota. And so he's going through that kind of process.

In the history of the United States he's the first Satanist vampire that ever tried to run for office. As much as I want to mock the media for that, that's the story. If you look at his platform, he's a moderate Democrat who leans left with the exception of his impalement policy, and he had some interesting ideas for Minnesota. We didn't get too much into that, because to me it wasn't the story.

» EXPRESS: Would his vampirism get in the way of his duties?
» WHITE: Well, I did see his vampire behavior a lot, enough to where I didn't put all of it in the movie. The first actual vampire experience didn't even hit me until I woke up the next morning in my hotel, and I was like, "Wow, that was weird."

» EXPRESS: Do you think he really believes he's a vampire?
» WHITE: Yes, I do. I actually berated him on the very last day of shooting. Throughout the movie I'm pretty calm and talking normally and everything, but the last day, I went at him and was just like, "Dude, do you really pray to Satan? Come on, be honest. Do you really need blood to stay alive? I saw no cracks in that area, but you definitely, throughout the movie, see cracks in him and some people take it that the movie shows his gradual loss of reality

» EXPRESS: Was it hard for you to give up control of the narrative?
» WHITE: You learn how to kick holes in walls. It's frustrating for a moment and then, once you understand, you just go along for the ride. It sucks so bad because there's so much. Like, Julie, his pagan wife, she was fired from her job as a school-bus driver, which is kind of a big deal, that's like an interesting legal issue.

» EXPRESS: That was just religious discrimination.
» WHITE: It was flat out: You're married to a Satanist and you're a pagan yourself and we don't want children riding in the bus with you. In the little town of Princeton, Minnesota, they were the talk of the town. And some yahoos decided it would be funny to kill a beaver, stuff it with garlic and nail it on their door. I mean, why a beaver? What's that? That was a very traumatic day for the whole household. It was good stuff — I had it on camera — but I couldn't put that in. That's why we have DVD extras, I guess.

» Hoff Theater, University of Maryland, Campus & Union drives, College Park, Fri., & Sat., $5.50; $3 U-Md. students, faculty/staff, seniors, children, alumni; 301-314-8499. (College Park)

Photos courtesy Trey White