Last Updated on July 26, 2021
Director Toby Wilkins has been hitting the
North American horror scene hard now of late with the Indie fav
SPLINTER owning on DVD
and the upcoming straight to DVD sequel
THE GRUDGE 3 that will
spook the shelves on May 12th 2009. I recently got the chance to have a game of
verbal ping-pong with Mr. Wilkins to yap Splinter, Grudge 3 and beyond. And here
are the balls he slammed my way.
TOBY WILKINS INTERVIEW
What was the creative seed that ignited SPLINTER in your
head?
The creature concept was something a friend and I had been toying with for a
while, as an expansion of the weird and scary parasites that are found in
nature.
Was it arduous to get the film off the ground in terms of locking the
financing?
That was the work of producers Ted Kroeber and Kai Barry, I had nothing to do
with financing other than pitching my take on the film at a few meetings.
You had a very strong cast on your side; did you find your
gems early or late in the audition game?
Shea Whigham, who plays Dennis, was the first person to sign up, and that was
quite early in the process. But once he was on board it raised the bar for the
rest of the casting process and opened a lot of doors. Jill Wagner and Paulo
Costanzo actually auditioned on the same day as each other which was a fun
coincidence.
How long did it take you and your partners to write the
screenplay?
I didn’t write the screenplay, with the help of Kai Barry I just added the
creature concept to an excellent original script by Ian Shorr.
Once on set, did the script change much during the course of
the production?
Not once we started shooting, no. There were little tweaks here and there, but
once we found our locations and locked down those elements we were basically
done with major changes.
Was it a conscious decision to not have any female nudity in the film? I had
to ask man…because I’m THAT guy 🙂
We certainly didn’t set out to hit those clichés of the low budget horror genre.
I’m not a fan of gratuitous nudity, which is certainly what it would have been
in this setting, I’m much more focused on creating likable, believable
characters and telling a compelling and terrifying story.
I loved the monster in the film; how much of a hassle was it
to shoot it in way that it would appear convincing onscreen?
Thanks, that means a lot. I knew from the start that practical effects were the
way to go, and cinematographer Nelson Cragg and I wanted to get as much
in-camera as possible. So we enlisted Quantum Creation FX who delivered pretty
much everything we needed to bring the creature to life on the set, and we
showed just enough to convince the audience they were seeing things we weren’t
really able to do on our budget.
Did your background in visual effects help at all when it
came to tackling the beast?
It definitely helped make the decision to not go CG with the creature. I knew
that would be a disaster. And then, when you’re working on a tight schedule,
with puppets, and special effects make-up, and guys in creature suits, you
always have to do some retouching work in post. That was where I leant most
heavily on my vfx background.
A SPLINTER sequel, feasible on your end? Any talks about it? The film begs for
one.
I would love to see this creature expanded into a sequel, there is so much more
horror to be seen from it. But it’s completely out of my hands and I guess it
will depend on how the fans respond when the film hits DVD and Blu-Ray this
spring. Also piracy can be devastating to indie film like this and could easily
kill any chance of a sequel.
You recently directed THE GRUDGE 3 with what I assume was
more money than you had on SPLINTER. How different was it to direct a film for
yourself and direct a film for a Studio?
Ghost House Pictures aren’t a typical studio, they are passionate about horror,
and are very filmmaker friendly. We were really lucky with both films to be able
to make the best film we could make with the given resources, and I don’t feel
like we had to compromise for any of the reasons I think you’re hinting at.
What did you try to bring to this second The Grudge sequel
that was pure Wilkins?
I think this third Grudge represents a more Westernized story-telling style,
it’s quite linear compared to the other Grudge films. But really I focused on
the same things I always do, creating real human characters, getting the best
performances from a great cast, telling a compelling and personal story, and
scaring the crap out of people.
What’s next for you, any other projects lined up?
A lot of really exciting doors have been opened by doing these two movies back
to back, and I have a number of projects on the boil, but there’s no one title I
can give you a scoop on just yet. Stay tuned.
CHECK OUT TOBY WILKINS BLOG HERE
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