Part 8 of 10
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CHARLES HALL INTRO:
They
have terrorized the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis and Linda Hamilton, and have
walked down the aisle with Uma Thurman. They did battle with a flesh-eating
creature, demon-hunting brothers, and a possessed doll. And they unleashed upon
the world a sadistic serial killer, a vengeful tooth fairy, the deadly Ocularis
Infernum, and a silver-eyed antihero. For them, it’s all in a day’s work.
Over the past few months, I
had the pleasure of interviewing the ten individuals described above. These
‘blood types’ include actors
Courtney Gains (Malachai, Children of the
Corn), Travis Schiffner (Jeepers Creepers II), Elias
Toufexis (Decoys, TV’s Supernatural),
and
Alex Vincent
(Andy Barclay, Child’s Play, Child’s Play 2).
Also in the mix
are actor/former special FX makeup artist
Christopher Nelson (Kill Bill:
Vol. 1 & 2), and actor/stuntman
Christopher Durand (Michael
Myers, Halloween: H20).
Rounding out the pack are scribes
Kieran
Galvin (Feed), Joe Harris (The Tripper, Darkness Falls),
Neal Marshall Stevens (Thir13en Ghosts, Hellraiser: Deader),
and
Ken Wheat (Pitch Black, The Fly II). Together,
they have helped shape our darkest nightmares.
In addition to thanking the participants, I would like to extend special thanks
to John Fallon
and Christopher
Showerman
for their generosity and encouragement. I hope readers enjoy Blood Types
as much as I enjoyed creating it.
HALL: Which horror films, if
any, left a lasting impression on you? Why?
HARRIS:
I’m sure I’ve got the same list as many or most. The Omen, The
Shining, we can go down the list. But, really, what got me hooked and amped
was watching the first couple of Friday the 13th movies, over and over,
on VHS back in the day. We were the first house on the block with a VCR and it
was my dad bringing home those movies — Friday the 13th (part 2 is still
my favorite), Halloween, Phantasm…
Going back
even earlier, I’d watch the old Universal monster movies on late night
television. The climactic hunt of the monster at the end of Frankenstein
has always stuck with me. And Creature from the Black Lagoon is
responsible for the single most vivid nightmare of my youth.
HALL: Psycho, Night
of the Living Dead, The Omen, and other landmark horror films have
been remade in recent years, and there are more remakes in store. In general,
how do you feel about remakes?
NELSON:
In general? I’m not a fan of them really. I think it’s got so out of hand
now. You can’t convince me there isn’t a ton of great original ideas out there
to be made. I think maybe it’s laziness and kind of safe. A good horror film, as
I said before, is of its time. They try and tell ya they are reintroducing it to
the new generations of filmgoers. Nah… just release the original then. If you’re
going to remake something, remake material that was good but didn’t have a
fighting chance due to money or…etc. Not necessarily horror. Something cool like
Capricorn One.
HALL: What is your fondest
memory of working on Jeepers Creepers II?
SCHIFFNER: My fondest memory. Wow, that’s tough. I think that as an actor
you are constantly trying to make it as real an experience for yourself as
possible. It’s kind of like when someone is lying to you and you know it. The
human eye is really hard to fool. So at some point you really have to believe
everything is happening in order to really react and make it look believable to
the audience. There is a scene in Jeepers when I am talking to ‘Double D’
and Rhonda in the field. That night, for some reason, the reality lines really
blurred for me. I really felt like I lived that moment in time. That’s probably
my favorite moment in the film, just because it felt so real to me.
Here’s a
funny one though. If I had a big scene the next day, I would work on it in my
hotel room the night before. For some reason, one night I was having trouble
getting freaked out for a big scene I had the next day. So I turned out all the
lights and started trying to scare myself. I actually ended up getting so
freaked out that I didn’t sleep at all that night. I ended up watching TV all
night, trying to take my mind off of all the scary crap I made up in my head.
The makeup lady the next day made a comment on how bad the bags looked under my
eyes, and asked if we went out drinking the night before.
HALL: If you were given a
chance to do it over, is there a moment or a period in your film career that you
would revisit, revise, or perhaps change altogether?
STEVENS: Well, at any point in your professional life, you can only make the
best decision that you can, based on the information that you have at the time.
Later, it’s easy to say, “If I only knew then what I know now.” But, of course,
you can’t know.
In
retrospect, I might say now that I wish that I hadn’t made certain deals that I
made, which didn’t turn out as I’d hoped. But that’s not to say that, had I
decided differently, that those choices would necessarily have turned out
better.
It’s easy
to say how you should have bet, once everybody else’s cards are on the table —
but when you’re in the midst of the game, you can only ever really know what
cards you’ve got in your own hand, and you try to play them as best you can.
HALL: What was the last horror
film you saw in a theater? What was the last horror DVD you rented or purchased?
Did the films live up to your expectations?
TOUFEXIS [circa June 2006]: Uh…Fantastic Four? Wasn’t that a horror
movie? That one scared me. No, no, I kid. I saw Hostel and I almost threw
up. But it was truly a good horror movie. I recently picked up a copy of Dog
Soldiers for a friend of mine because, let us be honest, that’s one
seriously cool werewolf movie. Most films in general don’t live up to my
expectations. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but horror movies these days just don’t have
the same punch they used to. I liked M. Night Shyamalan’s stuff though.
Except for The Village.
HALL: Horror fans are famously
loyal. Could you tell us about some of the more interesting fan correspondence
you’ve received? Have there been any memorable festival or convention
encounters?
VINCENT: Horror fans are awesome. Totally loyal. I’ve met some really great
people in the past few years and it has been very exciting to travel to new
places and meet fans that I never knew I had. A few fans in particular come to
mind, and I greatly appreciate their support.
HALL: The range of horror
films–from the psychological suspense of Rosemary’s Baby to the visceral
terror of Hostel–is evidence that different things scare different
filmgoers. What scares you?
WHEAT:
Irrational childhood fear of hypodermic needles and bees have stayed with me
through the years, although bees have never scared me much in movies. I’m not
fond of heights in real life, but that’s a hard one to pull off on screen. Maybe
it’s the 2D thing. I suppose all of these relate to the anticipation of pain,
which gets to just about everybody in one way or another both in life and on
film.
HALL: Tell us something about
yourself that we don’t already know and may be surprised to learn.
GAINS:
I taught acting for fifteen years. I write music and play guitar, and take
great pride in being a father.
HALL: What’s next for Kieran
Galvin?
GALVIN:
I have several completed feature length screenplays that my business partner
Melissa Beauford and I are financing. They include: So Far So Good — a
story about three young environmentalists – a polemic on globalization. Then
there’s Myself: Sometimes, which has received development funding support
from Film Victoria, and in the meantime I’ve been privately hired to write a
screenplay about a search for the extinct (?) Tasmanian Tiger. No horror films
on the horizon. But I’m open to offers.
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STAY TUNED FOR
PART 9 OF THIS FEATURE -COMING SOON TO THE SITE!
