Part 2 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?
WHEAT:
When I was five, before spending the night in a pup tent on my friend Chucky
Rust’s back lawn, his mother called us inside when she spotted a movie on TV she
thought we’d like. After telling us it was a comedy, she left us in a dark room
to watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. When it was over, we
settled into our really dark tent, and talked for hours about what we’d
just experienced.
It was
the first time I’d ever seen Frankenstein. Or Dracula. Or the Wolfman. And it
was definitely the first time I’d ever seen a beautiful brain surgeon get thrown
to her death by an angry monster. That was it. I was hooked.
Around
that same time, I saw a science fiction cheapie called Riders to the Stars
at a Saturday matinee, and a sequence from that one was burned into my brain.
This spaceship out catching meteorites goes after one that’s too big, causing it
to blow up. But the pilot seems to have escaped. As he floats past his friend’s
rocket, he rotates around. His faceplate is shattered! There’s just a skull
inside his helmet! Whoa! That’s a moment that made me scream, and really grabbed
me. (I’ve seen the film since, and it’s unbelievably tacky, but my memories of
the sequence were shot-for-shot accurate.)
I saw a
million other horror and sci-fi flicks as a kid, but one that I caught at a
revival theatre when I was about 15 had a big impact on me. I’d seen the Hammer
version of The Mummy, which was very cool, but the Freund/Karloff version
totally knocked me out. The tone, the lighting, the ticking clock lead-up to the
knife pressing against the heroine’s breast… That one really made me smile.
In the
early ‘60s, The Haunting and The Innocents also left lasting
impressions. (And like all these others, still work for me each time I see
them.) Then in the late ‘60s, Witchfinder General (called The
Conqueror Worm when I saw it at a drive-in on a double bill with The
Oblong Box) blew me away with its totally dark and downer ending.
The first
time I saw Night of the Living Dead was at a midnight show in Westwood
while I was in college, and the guy behind us whispered before it started that
we were sitting so close we’d be splattered with blood.
Oh, and on
the opening night of the original The Omen, a very cute girl who was a
total stranger kept grabbing my arm during the scary moments. That was an
important educational moment in more ways than one. (The same thing happened the
first time I saw Psycho on TV at a high school era party.) The whole
concept about fear making people grab their viewing companions can’t be
overlooked.
Many
others. Many moments. Alien, of course. (I still have the "You are my
Lucky Star" button passed out in line before the first show at the Egyptian
Theatre.) The Exorcist. (On that cold opening night, William Friedkin
personally passed out hot coffee to hundreds of fans who waited in line for
hours.)
Others
that left a lasting impression along the way? Hmmm… Jaws. Halloween.
Diabolique. Alligator. Dead of Night. Etc. etc.
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?
DURAND:
We do work in a business and I understand the desire to make money.
Unfortunately, that is the only goal of some producers. When a classic movie is
remade for an audience that is too young to remember the original I usually
cringe. There are plenty of good ideas out there and I always prefer new
material.
HALL: What is your fondest
memory of working on Children of the Corn?
GAINS:
Standing in the cornfield after we were done shooting and knowing I was an
actor.
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?
GALVIN:
I would rewrite every screenplay I’ve ever written and re-shoot every film
I’ve directed. Unfortunately the getting of experience and wisdom means that
from whichever point I look back at something I’ve already done I see a hundred
ways I could have made it better. It’s enormously frustrating but somehow
inevitable.
If I were
to pick a specific event, I would have chosen a different film to make as my
first feature — one that was closer to my heart, rather than one that was
easiest to achieve on a low budget, because the process cannibalizes a few years
of your life.
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?
HARRIS:
I saw Black Christmas and I can honestly say it lived entirely up to
my expectations. I bought The Descent just recently and it blows away
mine and anyone else’s expectations before it’s even out of the shrink-wrap.
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?
NELSON:
I’ve been to a few Fangoria conventions. It surprises me how many people
know my résumé. Obscure stuff. I met Adrienne Barbeau once. Good God, she’s
still beautiful. I love it when fans invite you up to their rooms to party after
and talk horror. They sometimes have a better grasp on the genre than the
filmmakers do.
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?
SCHIFFNER: See, I like a balance in horror films. I would be lying if I said
I didn’t want to see somebody get his arm ripped off and eaten. But, I also
don’t go to see endless blood and guts; I like suspense too. I am hard to
please. But like I said before, I have never been right after The Evil Dead.
[Note: Schiffner discusses The Evil Dead in Part VI.] I can guarantee
that if I saw a zombie outside my door there would be no hero in me. I would
have crapped my pants and screamed like a little girl all the way to the
neighbor’s house.
HALL: Which single horror film
do you consider the most underappreciated or misunderstood? Why?
STEVENS: I don’t know that any single film comes to mind. I’m a big
fan of David Lynch and in some ways, I think that a movie like Eraserhead
comes closer, in filmic terms, to reproducing the kind of horror that Lovecraft
achieves in the best of his writing than in any literal adaptation of his work
— and there are moments in Lost Highway or Mulholland Dr. that
are as scary as anything that I can think of in so-called “straight” horror
movies — yet I think that in some ways he’s underappreciated because people
don’t really think of him as a maker of horror movies, or of those films as
being part of the genre.
HALL: Tell us something about
yourself that we don’t already know and may be surprised to learn.
TOUFEXIS: I have a tattoo of the Mandalorian Mythosaur Skull somewhere on my
body.
HALL: What’s next for Alex
Vincent?
VINCENT: I will be filming an independent film called The Craving
very soon. Also, I’m appearing at many horror conventions this fall. [Note:
Vincent refers to fall 2006.] I have been trying to get some more roles in
independent films lately. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂
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