Fangoria has now posted the second part of their interview with Peter Jackson concerning his picks for Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments. He focuses in this group on the movies that specifically inspired and informed him as a filmmaker. Part 1 had the movies and moments he loves, but here, Jackson gives us the scoop on the movies that actively shaped the director he is today. Have some nuggets with your Happy Meal:
ALIEN – I remember at the time reading the urban mythology…how the other actors didn’t know it was going to happen and that it was all a secret, which I don’t believe, because to actually engineer that whole effect with the thing coming out, everyone would have had to know about it.
THE SHINING – (T)he redrum moment where you see the reflection of the letters in the bathroom mirror, and you suddenly have this realization of what it actually is. And the way that Kubrick stays with it, and the way he cuts, is a powerful moment.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON – It was just before I made BAD TASTE, and it was that period in the ’80s when there was so much great stuff coming out, and it was films like AMERICAN WEREWOLF that just kept inspiring you, and you wanted to try and do makeup effects as good as that. It was pushing the boundaries and it was exciting.
THE THING – Who would ever think of a chest cavity opening up and then closing over somebody’s hands? Just the thought of it is so bizarre that you can’t help but be blown away by the moment when it happens.
THE EVIL DEAD & EVIL DEAD II – “EVIL DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR and DAWN OF THE DEAD are the three films that sort of did more than anything to inspire me to want to get into making horror movies.
RE-ANIMATOR – I loved the gore in RE-ANIMATOR. What Stuart Gordon did was a great exercise in making a gory film entertaining. It was disturbing, but there was no way you couldn’t love the movie. He did it with such imagination and a wink of the eye. The tone of RE-ANIMATOR is fantastic.
THE VANISHING – (It) is far and away the most successful movie at just saying, ‘Can you just imagine for a second how horrible this would be? To wake up and find yourself buried alive, you’re never gonna get out, and it’s gonna be a slow, terrifying, horrible death…It stays with you.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS – (T)he most disturbing moments have nothing to do with scary ones. It’s just the sequences between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins…the actors are superb.
THE RING – The one scene that definitely sticks in my mind is the horse jumping off the boat. It’s just such a bizarre idea. It’s really weird, never seen it before, wouldn’t think that it would be disturbing. I mean, what is there that’s scary about a horse jumping off a boat? But it is, it’s really creepy and weird.
Go ahead and scope the full interview here. It’s quite a list when mixed up with Part 1. Almost reminds me of MAY, with the care in which Mr. Jackson has cobbled together so many pretty parts to make his own beastly whole. Jackson’s love of horror and enthusiasm for the genre is obvious, and I’m man enough to admit I love him a little bit for it.
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