Susan Tran: Hi everyone, I
just wanted to introduce you to Mick Garris, he's an executive
producer and a director for the Masters of Horror series. It's
going to be premiering this Friday, October 27th at 10:00 p.m. on
Showtime. I'd like to turn this over to Mick so he can talk a
little bit about the series and the directors involved [inaudible].
Mick Garris: Hello. I've
never done one of these 15 people on a line at the same time before,
I hope it doesn't get too unwieldy. And a lot of you I've spoken to
before, we know each other from way back, and hello to the people
I've never met before. I'm not going to make any kind of grand and
glorious statement of any kind, just want to thank you guy, because,
I mean, mostly you are fan sites who are into the genre and the fans
are the people that this show is all about.
And the
fact that we're back for a second season is, largely you guys are to
blame, so it's your fault. But this year, I think, is even more
adventurous than last year. We've got Toby Hooper back with the
damn thing from the Ambrose Bierce story, Richard Christian Matheson
did the adaptation, and Family, which was John Landis, written by
Brant Hanley.
I wrote
one called The V Word, that Ernest Dickerson directed, with Michael
Ironside, and Sounds Like was one by Brad Anderson, based on a short
story. Pro Life is an original by John Carpenter, who's back this
year; Dario Argento came back this year with a story by F. Paul
Wilson called Pelts it's our wettest episode of the year, I
guarantee Tom Holland did We Scream for Ice Cream, we all scream
for ice cream, which was scripted by David Schow from a John Ferris
story; Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat is Stuart Gordon's film this
year; Joe Dantι did the The Screwfly Solution; I adapted an original
story that Clive Barker wrote for the series and for me, called
Valerie on the Stairs.
The
Washingtonians is directed by Peter Medak, based on a story by
Bentley Little; Right to Die is an original by John Esposito,
directed by Rob Schmidt; and then our Japanese film this year is
Dream Cruise by Norio Tsuruta. So that is the lineup for this
season, and rather than blather on at my own speed, I'd much rather
just answer questions from everybody.
Jack Reher: The current trend
of grind house horror films coming into light with Tarantino and
Rodriguez, and Eli Roth. What is your take on those, versus the
classics?
Mick Garris: Well, I think to
horror is all about a visceral response. And the visceral
response becomes increasingly difficult over the course of the
years. I don't think the original Dracula is going to cause a whole
lot of goose bumps. However, a movie like The Sixth Sense, where
you see virtually no blood, no violence, is incredibly powerful, a
really great horror film that is genuinely frightening and
suspenseful. I think there's a great tradition of the [Palecki]
independence, the guys who have to grab attention by screaming the
loudest, that led to the grind house cinema of the '70s that I think
that Rodriguez and Tarantino are glorifying because there was so
much vitality and life and wildness, and this unbridled sense of "We
can do whatever we want to do." And screaming for attention like a
kid crying for its bottle.
I think
horror is supposed to be rude. It's supposed to break the rules,
and it's one of the reasons that it has such a large adolescent and
young adult audience, is because it's a breakaway genre. It is to
movies what rock and roll is to classical music.
Jack Reher: Do you think
there are any more taboos that haven't been broken, like Hitchcock
broke it by having a toilet flush onscreen. But now when Takashi's
Masters of Horror was banned and then they released it on DVD, what
do you think is the next taboo to be broken?
Mick Garris: I don't know. I
think Imprint goes as far as I want to see, and even a little
further in some cases. I'm sure there are taboos to break that I
would not want to imagine. I would imagine that one day a snuff
film will become a reality. I don't know if it will ever be broadly
distributed or available legally, but I'm sure that that's going to
exist, and is it just a matter of time? I don't know. There are
certainly taboos that are going to be broken that none of us are
going to be happy with at one point.
Jack Reher: Do you think that
we're gravitating away from the central character? Jamie Lee
Curtis's character in Halloween was great. Janet Leigh's character
was great. Are we getting away from the female-driven horror,
thriller, psychological however you want to call it. This current
trend, you've got When A Stranger Calls, PG-13, I mean the Carol
Kane original was great. Do you see any breakout actresses of this
generation, as far as that goes?
Mick Garris: Well, you know,
this year, it's hard to say. I think The Descent had a lot of
really interesting female characters at the heart of it, and I don't
think they were all expendable cartoon characters. The best of them
are always going to be more character-driven. But who was it who
said 90% of everything is awful? Most studios are going to try to
replicate what has been successful for them in the past. And I
don't think most studios understand or respect, or even enjoy horror
films themselves, so they can't tell a good one from a bad one.
They can only judge it by the box office.
I'm a
life long aficionado of the genre, and for me and my own personal
taste, I know what I think makes a good story and a bad one. And
for me, a well-told horror story is just a well-told story. It
happens to be in that genre, but when I'm making a film, I don't
think, "Oh, this is a horror film, so I have to do this." I just
want to tell the story the best way I know how.
Jack Reher: I had a question
about the desensitization of children and teenagers according to
horror. I mean, they're expecting so much more... What do you see
happens next?
Mick Garris: Again, I don't
know what the next stage is. And the people who understand the
genre the least think that It's all about throwing entrails at the
screen. Certainly that works for a while, but again, you're right.
The desensitization is important when that's the kind of movie you
make. Now, if you're telling a story, again, I hate to trot out The
Sixth Sense again, but that's an incredibly suspenseful, extremely
successful movie that doesn't do any of that. And Brad Anderson's
Sounds Like is another one that doesn't do much of that. So if you
are making films that are all about the kills, or all about the
splat, or all about the blood, then yeah, you have to keep going
further and further and further.
And in
the case of Masters of Horror, yeah, we go far, because it's
unfettered. Some of the filmmakers feel that that's where they want
to take it to get the reaction they're going for. Dario Argento's
episode is a perfect example of that. It's quite bloody and
gruesome, and there' s a grand tradition of Grand Guignon, and this
is definitely following in that tradition.
But
people, I think, -- not everybody but people like to be safely
confronted by this fears. And the body I don't know how many of
you have seen probably most of you have seen Toby Hooper's sequel
to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's one of the most wonderfully
profane films I've ever seen. You know, it says, "You think the
body's a temple? No, the body is meat, and here's how." It just
confronts you with it in ways that make you go Eeeeyow! And it's so
effective, and yet it's really witty in the way that it does it.
So I'm
not one who would ever call for any kind of ban against distasteful
material, but I think there's a great way to do it, and there's a
not so great way to do it. And I'm not going to be the arbiter of
that.
Jack Reher: Your connection
with Stephen King, how did that come about? I mean, your beginning
with him, working with him?
Mick Garris: The first thing
we did together was a movie called Sleepwalkers, which was a
theatrical film. It was an original screenplay that he had
written. And probably not a classic of the genre, but a scruffy
little
Jack Reher: I thought it was
fun.
Mick Garris: Thank you. Well,
King was really, really happy with the process, and we didn't really
meet until a day when he came out to do his cameo, where he's
actually in the same shot. Not only in the same scene, same shot
with Clive Barker and Toby Hooper. And he was really happy with the
movie, particularly before it had been tampered with by the MPAA.
We had to go back five different times to get an R rating for that.
But then when The Stand came about, he said, "If Brian dePalma
doesn't want to do it, do you?" I said, "Sure." And so that turned
into just an amazing experience, because he spent at least half of
the time on location with us, and we had such a great time with that
and the success of that, and we also created a really great personal
friendship during the course of that. So that's where that
relationship came from, and it all started on that day at
Sleepwalkers.
Which is
ironic because my first book, Stephen King wrote the introduction,
Clive Barker painted the cover, and Toby Hooper wrote the Afterword.
And they're all in that scene together in Sleepwalkers.
Jack Reher: You've done an
outstanding job with the series, Mick, I got to tell you.
Mick Garris: Oh, thank you so
much. You know, I watch it too. And these are... The good job
that I'm able to do, is to keep my hands off of other people's films
and to keep other people's hands off of them, and to allow
Showtime and Anchor Bay have allowed us to let people make movies
this way. These people know better than anyone else how to make
this films, and so I couldn't be prouder of being involved with this
show, and with these movies, these unbelievable filmmakers have
gathered together to make. I mean, it's quite humbling, and I often
refer to myself as the [Zelig] of horror, because I find myself
surrounded by all these great people.
Mick Garris: Has everyone seen
Damn Thing?
Jack Reher: Yes.
Mick Garris: And the other two
first ones, Family and V Word?
Unidentified
Participant: Yes
Mick Garris: I really like
Dance of the Dead, but I think the script is even stronger for Damn
Thing, and I think the mood is both of them are incredibly moody,
but this one, I think there's more story there, and I think the cast
is wonderful. I think Sean Patrick Flannery did an amazing job with
this. One of the great things about Toby Hooper is that he still
directs like he's in his 20s. He's still trying to find new ways to
tell a story cinematically, and he's still energized every time
out. And not everybody has that with them when they've made movies
for 30, 35 years, as Toby has. It's really fantastic to see.
Is that
everything I can give you?
Susan Tran: No more questions.
Mick Garris: Well, thanks,
everyone. Thanks to you guys, and again, it's so important that you
guys have helped us out. Just the fan sites have been so great, and
there's been so much interest. And I really appreciate the coverage
and support that you've given us.
Jack Reher: Thank you.
Mick Garris: All right. And
if anybody needs anything else just let me know, and I'll be happy
to help. Take care everybody.
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