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?
VINCENT:
I’ve actually never been much of a horror fan. I can remember watching Fright
Night when I was young, after meeting Chris during Child’s Play. That
movie was scary for me. I also remember getting freaked out by The People
Under the Stairs when I was young…but I’ve watched it recently, and I’m not
sure what I was so afraid of.
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?
WHEAT: Some suck,
some aren’t bad at all. A few, like the remakes of The Fly and The
Thing were masterpieces in their own right. Invasion of the Body
Snatchers was redone quite cleverly in the late ‘70s, not well in the ‘90s,
and there’s another version on the way. (Fingers crossed.) I liked the American
version of Ringu far more than the remakes of The
Grudge
or Dark Water, and there are a bunch more of those Asian-American
transfers on the way, so it’ll be interesting to see how things go with them.
I thought the remake of The
Haunting was a travesty, and last year’s The Omen was surprisingly
lame. The new Dawn of the Dead was fun, and the remake of TCM was
stylish, but too many of the others are mechanical commercial exercises. The
Amityville Horror, When a Stranger Calls, and The Fog come to
mind. I’ve forgotten all the others.
HALL: What is your fondest
memory of working on Halloween H20: 20 Years Later?
DURAND:
One of my fondest memories, and there are too many to list, is preparing the
ground for when I fly through the van window. I was combing the ground for any
stray rocks that might bite me on the landing when Jamie walked by and asked
what I was doing. When I explained, she immediately squatted down to help.
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?
GAINS:
Yes, after Memphis Belle, I relaxed thinking my career would take
care of itself.
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?
GALVIN
[circa June 2006]: Technically The Ring was the last big screen
horror I saw. But Sin City and Kill Bill could fit in there too
just on the basis of blood and gore. The Ring was a disappointment, but
it had some great moments like when the horse went spastic on the barge. That
was pure cinema.
I watched
Wolf Creek on DVD and found it tedious and clichéd. I couldn’t understand
what all the fuss was about. The acting was atrocious. The first half of the
film moved like ice and it was utterly predictable.
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?
HARRIS:
I’ve been going to cons for years, Comic-Con in San Diego being the biggest
stop. I’ve seen all sorts of things — signed the odd pair of breasts, spoken on
panels about our plans for the Spider-Man books in the coming months and had
dinner with Stan Lee.
But
nothing was quite as fun as our panel for The Tripper at last summer’s
San Diego Con. David Arquette showed up to a packed convention hall crowd, we’re
all ready to do the panel together…and he forgot to bring the tape we were going
to screen. It should have been disastrous, but David was great, acted out some
of the film for the crowd live, gave out swag and just kept them entertained.
The whole thing ended up on Defamer and probably did more for the movie’s
visibility than any trailer or clip reel could have.
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?
NELSON:
I’m much more interested in the mind of man. The internal and psychological.
The based in reality stuff. Physical pain and torture, I think, is easy and
boring. The fantasy and psychological give the artist and the audience’s
imagination a broader palette to work with. It involves you in the pathology of
character and storytelling more.
HALL: Which single horror film
do you consider the most underappreciated or misunderstood? Why?
SCHIFFNER: Asking the hard questions. I like it, heh, heh. Hrm… I can
honestly say, Charles, I don’t have a clue.
HALL: Tell us something about
yourself that we don’t already know and may be surprised to learn.
STEVENS: Well, I don’t have the sense that I’m sufficiently well known for
anyone to have really formed much of a sense of what I’m like one way or another
— and so it’s hard to imagine that anything I say about myself would really be
surprising. Despite the fact that I write a great deal of material dealing with
the supernatural, I’m not a believer in the supernatural or the paranormal
myself — but I’m in fairly common company in that respect. Both Poe and
Lovecraft were also of a rationalist, skeptical turn of mind. I think that it’s
fairly common for writers in the genre not to be “true believers” but to simply
understand the power of the images of the supernatural as tools of storytelling.
HALL: What’s next for Elias
Toufexis?
TOUFEXIS [circa June 2006]: I guest-starred on a really amazing episode of
Blade: The Series recently, which is airing on Spike TV sometime in the
fall, I think. Coincidentally, my production company, Untimely Ripped
Entertainment, is working on our first horror movie. I won’t say much about
it…just that it’s about werewolves. Trust me, I’ll keep The Arrow informed.
STAY TUNED FOR
PART 4 OF THIS FEATURE -COMING SOON TO THE SITE!
