Blood, guts and boy bands: Nick Carter on his leap into writing horror movies

TORONTO – Flashback to the early 1990s and you might’ve found a young Nick Carter roaming the aisles of his local video store with VHS copies of “Friday the 13th” and “Hellraiser” in hand.

“Blood, gore, guts,” the Backstreet Boy singer says. “That’s some of the stuff I love.”

Now after years of serenading teenage girls with ballads like “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” and “Shape of My Heart,” Carter is going back to his love for heart-stopping slasher movies by creating one himself.

“Dead 7” teams Carter up with members of other boy bands, like ‘N Sync and 98 Degrees, who are resurrected to fight a zombie plague that’s infesting a small western town.

It’s a concept Carter imagined after finding it tough to break into the acting world through auditions.

So instead of playing in other people’s scripts, he decided to co-write one himself and got the production company behind “Sharknado” to foot the bill.

The result is a horror-western mashup — half “Magnificent Seven” and half “Night of the Living Dead” — where Carter takes centre stage and fellow Backstreet Boys singers Howie Dorough and A.J. McLean play smaller parts.

Former ‘N Sync members Joey Fatone and A.J. McLean, as well as O-Town singer Erik-Michael Estrada, make appearances too.

Convincing all of them to sign onto the B-movie was actually pretty easy.

“The thing about musicians — especially boy-banders — they all want to act,” Carter says.

“You know, Joey and Chris, I know all these guys. Do we hang out? Not necessarily as much, but we share the same path and the same experiences. There’s a lot of common ground there.”

His fellow Backstreet Boys also share a love for the horror genre.

During their early days, the group brought elements of classic monster movies to the “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” music video.

Carter played the Mummy.

In his personal life, the singer is a fan of more recent horror flicks, and they aren’t necessarily top-shelf picks either.

“‘Critters’ (is) one of my favourite movies,” he says, naming the 1986 thriller in which furry aliens invade a farming town.

Carter says he also loves “Ghoulies,” a tale of pocket-sized demons who hide in toilets, and “House,” about a horror writer who inherits a house possessed by a Vietnam War veteran.

“Most people would think they’re the corniest thing on the planet,” he says.

“I wanted to create a movie like that (which) has a little bit of that quirkiness. That’s just how I am.”

Carter is currently touring for his third solo album “All American,” released in Canada earlier this month.

The Backstreet Boys are also thriving as a group. Production is underway for their ninth studio album and the boy band is considering a more long-term space in Las Vegas.

“We’re trying to work on a residency out there,” Carter says. “We’re doing a nine-show experimentation thing to see if it works.”

Other possibilities have also been floated, including a Backstreet Boys stage musical and a tour alongside the Spice Girls.

“It all depends on (if) we have the time to do it,” he says.

“Dead 7” airs on U.S. cable channel Syfy on April 1. There are no immediate plans for the film to show on Canadian television.

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