INT: Anghus Houvouras

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

ARROW IN THE HEAD
INTERVIEWS
ANGHUS HOUVOURAS

Anghus
Houvouras wrote and produced the upcoming star studded horror film THE
FURNACE. Directed by genre fav William Butler and starring the groovy Tom
Sizemore, Danny Trejo and Michael Pare, the film brings horror back to jail
a la PRISON and I for one am excited for that reason alone. Its a great yet
underused setting within the genre! Anghus took some time to talk shop with
us about the flick and here’s the 411.

What
are some of your favorite horror movies?

Night of
the Living Dead, Evil Dead, James Whale’s Frankenstein, Exorcist.

 

What was the initial creative spark that got The Furnace
running in your head?

 

My
Grandmother had an old boiler in her basement that wasn’t used anymore.
When I was a kid, my Grandmother would send my brothers and I to the
basement when we were being loud and annoying, which was frequently. So in
the basement of this old house was this old furnace that hadn’t been used in
30 years, and the door would slowly creak open and close. It used to scare
the hell out of me. One day I just asked myself: “I wonder if what would
happen if someone had been burned alive in there”, and I’d pretend you could
hear voices coming from it. That image of the old furnace stuck in my head
for years, and one day I just wrote the story, and it came out of my head
like a faucet.

 

Writer/Producer
Anghus Houvouras

 

You co-wrote the film with Director William Butler, how would
you describe the writing process?

 

It was
really interesting, because I’d never written a script with anyone else
before, other than the voices in my head. There’s always a sense of
trepidation when someone says “I’d like to add some things to the script.”,
because your initial response is panic. “WHAT?”, you think “You want to
CHANGE SOMETHING?”. But William Butler is a talented guy, and he added a
lot to the story, fleshed out some the characters really well. It was a
really positive experience.

 

I know that the film is set in a prison, but what kind of
“evil” are we in for? Ghosts? Possessions? Zombies?

 

Without
giving too much away, i can tell you that a ghost haunts the bowels of the
prison, and as the state expands into an old, unused portion of the prison,
they unearth something evil, something that should have stayed buried. It’s
an evil, malicious ghost that unleashes high holy hell on the prison.

 

 

Tom Sizemore = one of the greatest men to have walked the earth

 

You also Produced the picture, props on getting actors of the
likes of Tom Sizemore, Michael Paré, and Danny Trejo aboard. How arduous was
it for you lock your name cast?

 

Most of
the casting was done out of Los Angeles, handled by the Production Company
and our casting agent Bob. And sweet lord did they do a good job. When
they started reading me off the names of who they had cast, my jaw dropped.
I was like “WHA?”… “Who?”. Assembling the cast was actually easier than I
would have initially thought. A lot of the cast members told me that they
loved the story, and it played a big part in their decision to do the film.
It was kind of surreal to hear actors you respect and admire telling you how
much they loved your script. You’d think it would make your head swell, but
it’s really humbling. And the cast was so cool to work with. Great on
camera, a lot of fun off camera. I think some of the best times I had
during the shoot was hanging out with the actors on the days off. Breakfast
with Danny, souveneir shopping with Kelly Stables… it’s amazing how grounded
everyone was.

 

Where did you guys shoot? A real prison? How did the location
affect the shoot?

 

Yeah, it
was shot in Nashville at the Tennessee State Penitentiary. You might have
seen it in other films like Last Castle and Green Mile. It’s this old,
nasty looking prison on the outskirts of the city built in the late 19^th
century, and supposedly haunted. It was a logistical nightmare at times,
since there was no running water or electricity, but damn does it look good
on camera. Every shot has this cold, disturbing vibe to it. The colors,
the degradation, it’s going to look scary as hell.

 

How gory can we expect the film to be?

 

Very.
Depending on how it’s cut, this could be a really gory. I kept joking on
set saying “this one might end up on Unrated Director’s Cut DVD”. There are
so many disturbing scenes in this movie. Decapitations, dismemberments,
people being burned alive…. There were even times while I was watching and
thinking ‘where the hell did I come up with this?’. I remember when the
screenplay was first being considered, one of the readers told me that one
scene was one of the most disturbing things they’d ever read. That made me
smile.

 

Michael Pare = nice guy badass

 

Will the effects be practical/CGI or a bit of both?

 

Mostly
practical. There were some plate shots done for some CG scenes at the end,
but I think 90% of what we did was practical. The guys at Cape Fear FX and
Optic Nerve did some kick ass work. There was one night where they were
dumping 50 gallon drums of blood, flooding corridors with it… the kind of
stuff that can look really fake if done CG, so there was a great effort on
everyone’s part to do as much practical as we safely could.

 

Any female nudity (or male for the ladies and dudes who dig
dudes) in the film?

 

To quote
Chef from South Park: I believe there is some sweet lovemaking down by the
fire

 

When can we expect the film to be released and where (DVD,
Theatrical?)

 

Later
this year, hopefully theatrical.

 

What’s next for you as a writer/producer? Any other projects
in the works?

 

Yeah.
Right now I’m working on two projects. One is a horror film I’ve been
working on for a small eternity called Dead of Winter, a retelling of
Frankenstein set during the Second World War. And a revenge picture called
Butcher, a gruesome little story of a guy left for dead who comes back to
execute a whole lot of people.

 

Without giving too much away, which scene in your opinion
will be the highlight bit in The Furnace?

 

Has to
be the big payoff shot at the end in the furnace room. I can’t give it
away, but there’s a moment at the end where everyone thinks they know what’s
going on… then we totally flip it on you. It’s a real mind fuck. I don’t
think I’ve ever seen it in a horror film before.

Danny Trejo = total badass

Looking good so far Anghus!
Break a neck with THE FURNACE!