Last Updated on July 28, 2021
ARROW IN THE HEAD
INTERVIEWS
STEFAN HUTCHINSON
With
Halloween just around the corner, who better to interview than
Stefan Hutchinson,
a man who lives, breathes and fornicates the Halloween franchise. How’s
that? Well he’s co-written and directed the acclaimed documentary
Halloween 25 Years of Terror and has
written two fine Halloween comic,
“One Good Scare”
and “Autopsis”
with more comics on the way. We recently took the time to
verbal combat with the lad and here’s what he had to say about all that he
has jammed on his kitchen knife.
What’s your
favorite Halloween sequel and why?
It changes all the time. None of them come close
to the original for me. It has hardly any plot and conveys itself on style
and atmosphere – the sequels don’t have anywhere near the same flair – at
best they are narrative exercises which don’t have anywhere near the same
primal power. That out of the way, at the moment, it’s probably II or III.
Having said that, I do like some aspects of H20 as well. The second and
third films, however, have the added nostalgia factor that makes me overlook
many of their faults, and there’s a certain feel to them which they’ve never
captured in the sequels.
‘Halloween II’ has a great score, but I don’t
find the mask or The Shape as creepy as in the original – you see him way
too much, and he’s completely silent – I miss the pervy breathing of the
original. This film also introduces the ‘Laurie was really his sister all
along’ thing, which really hurts it for me. It makes the first film seem
like a series of completely unlikely coincidences. For me, it was always
more terrifying when The Shape went after Laurie purely because she’s the
first girl he sees. It’s much more archetypal and fairytale – almost Red
Riding Hood. If you watch the first film and imagine Laurie Strode as Red
Riding Hood, The Shape as the Wolf, Sam Loomis as the Woodcutter, it works
perfectly (likewise, if you view the Wallace House as Grandma’s House). The
fact that it does so shows how the original is so simple and pure.
‘Halloween III’ is one of those films that’s
worthy of another look. It seems a lot more relevant in these times. Sure,
the last act is a bit haphazard, but it’s got the main man Tom Atkins – and
really, what else do you need?
How did the Halloween 25 Years of Terror project come about?
Originally,
some friends and I had been throwing the idea around of doing a road trip
from Canada to California. This was way back in 2002. Then we found out
about the Halloween convention, and I got in touch with Tony Masi about
helping out in some way, because that seemed like a fun place to end the
journey. At the time I wanted to produce a comic book (which ultimately came
out as ‘Halloween: One Good Scare’), and hadn’t even thought about a
documentary or anything. Tony asked if I would film it, which I was all for,
despite not having a clue how to get the resources together at that time. It
was when I saw the huge list of Halloween people on the list that I
suggested we try and tell the story of all eight films. I had a long
conversation with Stephen Jones (horror writer / critic), and it was he who
suggested the ‘behind-the-scenes’ story angle.
Who financed it?
Originally, me. I was doing a really shitty job
back then, so it was a case of reigning in favors from friends, borrowing
equipment that sort of thing – I had to fly out to Italy on the way to get
the cameras (and, wonderfully enough, there was a brief stopover in
Amsterdam). The money was raised by myself and a good friend, Dave Newton.
Dave sadly died of a leukemia-related illness in 2004, and this is why the
documentary is dedicated to him. It’s just gutting that he didn’t get to see
everything finished.
We cut together
a trailer from the footage which we began to shop around, and I discussed
the project with Malek Akkad in London – probably around December 2003, and
then he was sent some footage and decided to get behind the project. So,
from this point onwards, he arranged the financing.
You interviewed pretty much everybody that is somebody within the Halloween
franchise in your documentary, how did you go about finding all these
people?
A lot of them were at the convention, and many of
those who weren’t had been contacted as part of that. Many of them were
found by Sean Clark, who must have a sniffer dog that hunts down retired
‘Halloween’ actors. I was just floored that he found Little Buddy – no
longer a victim of Conal Cochran, but a piano-playing Rabbi – Great!
Was it as exhausting of a process as I think it was?
Hell yes. The shooting itself was easy enough (we
did two main bouts of shooting – one at the Convention, and all around
Pasadena for the week leading up to it; one in LA over a year later), but it
was everything that came after. It was mentally exhausting. There was a lot
of bullshit. Lots of falling outs, in-fighting because it was a first
project for many and there was a desperate sense of ‘making my name’ going
on, lots of greedy ex-actor types, that sort of thing. It’s actually a
miracle we actually finished it, all things considered.
Is the final cut of the documentary yours and how do you feel about it?
It is and it isn’t. Everything in there is what I
wanted – I just wanted a bit more of it. The way we were doing it simply
wasn’t working. I was writing paper edits from England, and the editor, in
theory, was supposed to be following these edits. Sometimes he was doing,
sometimes, for some own reason, he wasn’t – obviously I must write my edits
in fucking Swahili or something.
So, I watched
it with Malek Akkad, and we agreed on all of the necessary changes. We had a
really, really detailed list written out. And that point the documentary was
running at about 110 minutes – about 10-15 minutes too long basically. And
again, the list of changes were sent off (some of these for the third time
running). And lo-and-behold, they must have again been indecipherable or in
a secret language that the editor was unfamiliar with. At this point Tony
Masi stepped in (he was based in LA, whereas I’m based in the UK) and
oversaw the final version, which came in at 84 minutes. My feelings are
mixed, but I’d put that down to personal possessiveness than anything else.
I think what we
got away with is quite good. I personally would have been more reserved in
who / what was cut away. I think another 5-10 minutes wouldn’t have hurt it,
and also more of the dirt (of which, as you can guess, there is a lot). I
would have gone into more detail on some of the sequels and had more of a
debate structure. In hindsight, I also would have delved deeper
academically, but at the same time, that would have alienated a lot of
people who could care less – so there’s a tough balancing act.
I’ve read a lot
of the reviews lately, which to be honest have been overwhelmingly positive.
However, there are some issues that fans have raised which probably should
be addressed. Firstly, there have been rumblings about the portrayal of fans
in there as obsessive – you have to remember we could only show material
from what was received. I guess the sort of fans who take themselves
seriously aren’t going to film their adoration for all things Myers.
Secondly,
there’s the absence of new material from Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter
– they were asked (more than once), and they declined. It’s not like they
can be forced if they’re not interested, but some people seem to think we
deliberately omitted them or something. Of course I wanted them in there –
Carpenter especially, because he’s a hero of mine with a fantastic body of
influential work. Carpenter felt that he had said everything he had to on
the subject, which is completely understandable. Besides, our focus was on
the whole franchise, not just the original – and it’s clearly stated on the
packaging and every review that’s been put out on it – and for those who
want to know everything about the original, there’s already two
documentaries focusing on that. What else could we possibly tell people –
how many leaves EXACTLY were re-used in various scenes throughout the
original film?!?!?
Was there any footage, moments or interviews that were omitted from the
final cut that you wish had stayed in there?
Yes, absolutely. I would have preferred a little
more visual space in there (location footage from H2 and H3 didn’t make the
final cut), just to give the information more time to breathe, and also to
add some atmosphere, you know, in the spirit of the original film. The
environment is just as much a character as any of the human players. One
scene I would like to have seen in the final version is footage of young
Danielle Harris swearing like a trooper.
“I’m gonna pull the piece of fuckin’ shit
out of your ass” is one gem of a line she says. Sure, nobody needs to
see it, but if we’d left that in, we could have sold many more units to
pedophiles and kiddy-fiddlers everywhere! As well as
that, you always get the good stories that people tell you off-camera but
won’t go into on camera for obvious reasons. I guess this is why it’s always
best, where possible, to interview your celeb-types when they are plied-up
with hard alcohol.
Any funny “meeting the stars” stories you can share with us that happened
during the shoot?
There’s not so many, surprisingly. The first
person you meet, you’re like “Cool! This guy was the unaccredited dog
handler from Halloween 5!” or whatever, but two people down the road,
there’s no sense of anything. We did have several troubles along the way. On
our first shoot, our audio guy, Olly, got arrested at immigration due to
some stupid passport fuck-up in 1996. They locked him up for a few days with
some Mexican gangsters then sent his ass home – absolute bullshit. We nearly
got into further shit on the grounds of the ‘Halloween II’ hospital. It’s
now a federal building – a veteran’s hospital I think. The short version is
– don’t go there, it’s trespassing!
I’d gone to grab the stills camera and turned
round to see Tony Masi and Sean Clark with their hands up and a gun being
pointed in my direction. You have to bear in mind I’m from the UK, so I
don’t see guns – ever, and that can only be a good thing. It was all a bit
surreal. Then, to make it even weirder, some badass cop guy who looked like
Carl Weathers (circa his ‘Predator’ era) appeared out of nowhere and gave
some pretty severe deep-voiced warnings in our direction – “Mah Momma works
in this building… Mah Daddy was a patient in this building… And I take your
intrusion… personally…” Ouch. All the time he spoke he had his thumbs
in his belt buckle as well, and his sunglasses were so dark we never once
saw his eyes… he then went and gave Sean Clark a citation too…
There is one
other story that ‘pops’ to mind, but the culprit shall remain nameless. When
we were interviewing this person, his testicle popped out from his shorts
mid-interview. Sean Clark was unfortunately sat directly in the
ball-of-terror’s line of vision, and apparently it was like a small baby’s
head – “Dude, I just saw his fucking ball pop-out.”
When the documentary was released, the 25Th Anniversary of
Halloween had already come and gone. How come the title wasn’t changed?
Good question.
We did talk about it several times along the way, and we had other possible
titles like ‘Legacy Of Terror’ and tacky stuff like that (I’m guilty of
suggesting the latter). The thing is, it ends specifically at the 25 year
point. It’s an archive of that era.
With that said, I’m assuming that the release of the documentary was delayed
at some point, missing the 25Th Anniversary mark. May I ask why?
Well, as I said earlier, we had a lot of
unnecessary bullshit to deal with from Muppets-who-shall-be-unnamed. There
was also a lot of mundane stuff – you know, life getting in the way. The
actual documentary itself was finished in about May 2005, then from there it
became Anchor Bay’s decision on when they wanted to release it. I never
expected it to be a standalone DVD, so it was really intimidating for it to
come out and have to stand up on its own.
The DVD came with a splendid Halloween comic book that you wrote! What were
you aiming to contribute to Michael Myers world via the comic?
It goes back to
the beginning again, really – the reason I ended up doing the documentary
was born out of my desire to tell original ‘Halloween’ stories. After all,
who wouldn’t want to do that? I wanted to try and capture the qualities of
the original film, and go back to the concept of Michael Myers being ‘The
Shape’ – the shadowy, stalking, sadistic, twisted and terrifying figure of
the original film. There’s an ethereal and metaphorical quality there that
has never been recaptured – the whole notion of abject horror and so on. I
think one thing that does come across clearly in the documentary is that the
original is the end result of a clear vision, whereas the sequels are all,
to varying extents, movies by committee. With a comic book, in many ways
it’s easier to remain true to the mythos of the original film.
One of the big
debates among fans is the ‘two continuities’ of Halloween. When ‘H20’
appeared, it basically wiped the slate clean and abandoned parts 4, 5, and 6
as if they had never happened. There’s a hardcore group of H6 fans who to
this day are still very vocal about that, and I can understand why. Myself,
I’ve chosen to write in the new continuity – the reason being is that it’s
simpler, which to me is closer to Carpenter’s blueprint. Also, as a writer,
it creates a lot of space.
So, ‘Halloween
Autopsis’ fits into that space. It gave me a chance to write character-based
scenes for supporting characters of the films, to show the repercussions and
so on. I think when most writers work on a licensed title, they do it for
the high-profile nature of the job, but I’ve made no secret of my reverence
for ‘Halloween’. I want to do the characters and moods justice without 500
men in suits changing the course of it and test screenings butchering
things. In this sense, Malek Akkad is extremely supportive. He’s very
protective of the characters and thankfully likes the directions I’m trying
to go in.
‘Autopsis’ is
about a photojournalist who develops an unhealthy obsession. It’s about
images, it’s about The Shape, and it’s about Sam Loomis. So far, it seems to
have gone over well, as with ‘One Good Scare’. There are little elements in
there that should find their way into a bigger picture also, should
everything go to plan. As I said, it’s great being able to write for the
characters you grew up with, and you can use this medium to get into their
psyche a bit more.
What’s your take on Rob Zombie’s impending re-imagining of the original
Halloween?
I think it’s going to be great – it’s certainly
going to be really interesting, and I don’t think they could have found a
better person to do it. It’s going to rock like a bastard. From the
interview we did, it’s clear that he has the admiration for the original,
and a clear understanding of what makes it superior to its successors.
I know some are wary of a remake, but if they’d
gone with ‘H9’, after all of the delays and false starts with that film, do
you think it would have delivered in the same way this will? In the sequels,
they have often repeated the same tricks which only serve to diminish any
power from the film. I’d always been opposed to the idea of a remake, but
think about it – we’re getting someone respected in the horror genre, a
burgeoning auteur, rather than a studio boy which would have happened with
H9. It’s genuinely going to bring new life to everything – it’s a great time
to be a ‘Halloween’ fan. The only tragedy now is that the original series
ended with ‘Halloween Resurrection’ and Michael Myers being bitch-slapped by
Busta Rhymes… hopefully we’ll be able to rectify that in the comic books and
restore some dignity.
What’s next for you? Any comics, documentaries or films on the horizon?
I think the
next up will be the download release of ‘Sam’, which is a short novella
that’s going to be available fairly soon from either
www.halloweenmovies.com or
www.halloweencomics.com (which is under
construction). It was a nice way to flesh out the Sam Loomis character, but
again hopefully without demystifying him too much.
After that, if
all goes to plan, there’s going to be more comics. A lot more, hopefully.
With Rob Zombie’s reboot, the original mythos will be continued in the comic
books, and maybe even resolved. I just finished the treatments for the first
mini-series, and the updates for all of this will be up shortly on my
MySpace –
www.myspace.com/rehab54
There’s another
non-Halloween comic I’m hoping to work on, but I can’t say too much about
that now, as it’s really, really early stages.
Outside of all
pumpkin-related japery, I’ve just wrapped a pair of screenplays, both
radically different – but both are situated firmly in the horror genre. One
is called ‘Outside’, and it’s a very cold and cerebral type of tale, and the
other is much more conventional but doesn’t have a title yet. I’m also
developing a sick piece called ‘Sugar’ with Sean Clark which is in the
tradition of 80s slashers, but hopefully will turn out to be a lot darker.
The hope now is that something comes of these, you know, outside of the
safety of the ‘Halloween’ banner, so I guess this is where the hard work
really begins!
Thanks
for the sit down Stef and keep whooping that ass until there is no ass left
to whoop!
Buy the Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD here
VISIT STEFAN’S MY SPACE PAGE HERE
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