Part 9 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?
GALVIN:
I’ve always loved psychological horror films over blood, guts and mayhem. The
Exorcist was the first film that ever truly scared me to the point where I
kept looking over my shoulder as I walked home in the dark. So the sense of evil
is more effective (at least on me) than the execution of evil. Maybe it’s the
writer in me, and my own imagination imbues the experience. But apart from
The Exorcist there was a really good run in the ‘80s with The Omen,
and The Amityville Horror (again the devil as the source of fear). Films
like Poltergeist, Halloween, and Rosemary’s Baby also
impressed me but didn’t actually scare me. Then the early Friday the 13th
films made horror sexy by focusing on groups of young teens as the victims.
Freddy Krueger is an unforgettable villain, again because he got into your
dreams rather than just chasing you around with a chainsaw. So the ones that
really impressed all had a pervasive sense of doom in common and they allowed
people to participate with their own imaginations.
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?
HARRIS:
Honestly? I hate them just like most everyone else, on the surface. But if
they’re done well, I admit to liking some of them. Truth be told, I’ve been in
the mix on plenty of them and will happily make one, two or however many if it’s
a good gig and it pays. I promised you honesty.
HALL: What is your fondest
memory of working on Constantine?
NELSON:
Um…I worked on it for two days for the money. Hate to disappoint you.
Although, I did like the film very much. I would have liked to have played a
character in it.
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?
SCHIFFNER: If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely have more of
one…a movie career, that is…heh, heh. No, I think everything has been great so
far. I’ve got no regrets at all. I plan on getting my butt back out to L.A. and
making some more movies.
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?
STEVENS
[circa July 2006]: The last thing I saw was Silent Hill, which, I’m
afraid, didn’t live up to my expectations. This was one of those movies that,
based solely on the trailer, seemed as if it might actually be pretty good —
and indeed, the things that impressed me about the trailer, which was the visual
stuff, was pretty good. But, in the end, production design, like special
effects, however good they may be, aren’t scary in themselves. And I didn’t
really find the movie particularly scary — and the story itself — the
framework by which they delivered those visuals, didn’t work at all.
The last
horror movie I bought was a copy of The Brood, which, like all of those
early Cronenberg films, was just as scary and disturbing as when I first saw it,
many years ago.
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?
TOUFEXIS: I once had a guy recognize me on the street in front of all of my
friends because of a cheesy car commercial I did. That was my own little horror
movie right there. I get a lot of letters about Decoys. Mostly from
12-year-old girls, who shouldn’t be watching the movie wanting an autograph. I
also get letters from devout fans of Dead Like Me.
Which is
amazing because I’m only in one episode. The strange thing is when I get letters
from grown men in, like, the American Midwest, asking me details about the
aliens in Decoys or the vampires in Blade: The Series. Details
about the aliens’ home planet or about how much blood a vampire sucks on a daily
basis. Strange sometimes. Though I do try to answer them. Not that I really know
what the hell I’m talking about. I once got a letter from a man asking me how I
lost forty pounds from Decoys to TV’s The Dead Zone. I wrote him a
long letter about diet, exercise and motivation. I felt like Dr. Phil.
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?
VINCENT: As far as films go, honestly nothing scares me. I have to say, I
don’t get afraid watching movies. Maybe it’s because of my history behind the
scenes. I enjoy psychological thrillers most, I suppose.
HALL: Which single horror film
do you consider most underappreciated or misunderstood? Why?
WHEAT:
Okay… I thought about this for a long time, and then decided to talk about
an underappreciated horror writer rather than a single film. Too many people,
including horror fans who’ve seen his work, don’t know Jimmy Sangster’s name.
And that’s a real pity.
On the
obscure side, Sangster wrote a couple of somewhat cheesy but still memorable
Quatermass-style sci-fi flicks in the ‘50s, including X: The Unknown and
The Trollenberg Terror, which our generation saw as The Crawling Eye
on those TV creature feature shows that were on all the time when we were kids.
Sangster
is far more famous, however, for writing the initial Hammer outings of
Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy, as well as several of their
follow-ups. All of those are available on DVD, and since he is still with us, I
hope his fair share of residuals payments continue to reach him.
Less
well known, but definitely worth tracking down are Sangster’s
mystery-suspense-thrillers from the ‘60s. Among the best are Paranoiac
(with a villainous young Oliver Reed), the wonderfully creepy Bette Davis
vehicle The Nanny, and one of my all-time favorites, the twist-filled
Taste of Fear, which I first saw on TV in the middle of the night 35 years
ago as Scream of Fear.
The Nanny
and Taste of Fear don’t seem to be out on disc yet, but both exist on
VHS, and I’m sure they’ll have DVD releases at some point in the future.
After
leaving Hammer in the late ‘60s, Sangster came over here and wrote American
features and TV shows, including an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
I’m hoping he’s living comfortably now in the South of France, and that he’s
aware of how much he influenced generations of horror and suspense writers who
followed him.
HALL: Tell us something about
yourself that we don’t already know and may be surprised to learn.
DURAND:
I love to write. I have numerous scripts finished and more in the works. I
am currently writing a novel.
HALL: What’s next for Courtney
Gains?
GAINS
[circa August 2006]: Things are good. I’m producing nowadays, as well. Just
finished shooting one called The Phobic. Doing another, Benny Bliss.
And I’m putting one out through distribution (Future Farmer Pictures) this
month, August 29th, called Smut.
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STAY TUNED FOR
PART 10 OF THIS FEATURE -COMING SOON TO THE SITE!