Part 1 of 10
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?
DURAND: The first film that really, I mean really,
scared me was The Blob. Of course, I was only about five at the time. The
local pizza parlor used to have Friday night movies, and my parents would take
us. Obviously the subject matter was way too much for a little kid, but I jumped
to my bed for two weeks convinced that the Blob was underneath. In retrospect,
the absolute cold indifference of the Blob is what scared me the most. It was
just a big mass that never quit.
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?
GAINS: I’m not a fan. I like the originals.
HALL: What is your fondest
memory of working on Feed?
GALVIN: The money I was paid.
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?
HARRIS: Woulda, coulda, shoulda… I
second-guess myself all the time, but not convincingly. And not in public.
Without liquor.
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?
NELSON: As much as I love the genre, I don’t go and see
every horror film that comes out. I have a pretty good idea if I’m going to like
something or not based on how they package things. I think the last one was
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. I walked out before it was
halfway over. They still can’t get that awesome idea right. On DVD? The last I
bought was An American Werewolf in London, and only because I wore out my
other one. Rented? The Descent. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would
be.
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?
SCHIFFNER: The bummer is that we didn’t attend any of
the horror conventions after the movie was released. We did it before. Go
figure. But you are so right. People were so excited about the second Jeepers
Creepers. It was incredible. People asked about character development, and
plotlines — I mean, some really detailed stuff. I was truly blown away. Victor
Salva, the director, said to me after that convention that he absolutely loved
how dedicated horror fans were. I did have a girl want me to sign her undies,
which made me feel like a rock star for a brief second.
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?
STEVENS: While I like monster movies, I’ve never really
found monsters to be all that scary. What I tend to find scary are movies or
stories where things that we normally think of as safe and familiar–our homes,
our bodies, our minds–are somehow penetrated, revealed to be vulnerable. And I
think that that works, whether it’s the hammering at the bedroom door in The
Haunting or the familiar places and people in Night of the Living Dead
suddenly transformed when the dead come back to life, or when the husband and
the friendly neighbors revealed to be part of a diabolical conspiracy in
Rosemary’s Baby.
Take the people and the places and the situations where
we feel safest, or are at our most vulnerable–and intrude upon those
things–and it will always be scary.
HALL: Which single horror film
do you consider the most underappreciated or misunderstood? Why?
TOUFEXIS: I have a pure love for Sam Raimi’s Evil
Dead trilogy. But I feel, from the general public and critics at least, it
gets kind of mocked. Especially Army of Darkness. Maybe you just have to
be a fan to understand that type of film and to appreciate it. And I really
liked Bill Paxton’s Frailty, but nobody I know has ever seen it. And, no
matter what anyone says, In the Mouth of Madness is freaking scary. And
John Carpenter’s Vampires has its moments… Okay, I’ll stop.
HALL: Tell us something about
yourself that we don’t already know and may be surprised to learn.
VINCENT: I am a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails. I went to
twenty-seven NIN concerts in fourteen months since 2005. I write poetry and song
lyrics and hope to one day put them to music.
HALL: What’s next for Ken
Wheat?
WHEAT: Well, for the first time in many years, I’m
writing solo, and I’m just finishing up a psychological horror/thriller script
that I like a lot. (Hopefully I won’t be alone in that opinion.) We’ll see how
that one goes, and I’ll move on from there. That’s all any writer can ever do.
STAY TUNED FOR
PART 2 OF THIS FEATURE -COMING SOON TO THE SITE!