SLITHER has perhaps the worst poster of any terrific film released in 2006. It may have actually kept people away, what with the way its space slugs converging on a bathtub cradling a classically nubile nymphette. It fails in every respect to convey the wicked humor and superbly self-aware irony that permeates every frame of… Read More »
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
SHAUN OF THE DEAD is a crisp and lethally funny blend of B-movie monsters and those “kitchen sink” dramas from Britain’s theatrical renaissance of the late 50s and early 60s. Our angry young man is the Shaun (Simon Pegg) of the title, a feckless drone with a dead-end job that is a daily, even hourly… Read More »
Rider Strong has CABIN FEVER
The hazards of going from child actor to adult actor are legion. It’s one of the topics that came up when I chatted with Rider Strong no August 28, 2003 about CABIN FEVER, which is anything but a kiddie flick. Despite having given two performances the day before as Benjamin in the touring company of “The Graduate,”… Read More »
David Cronenberg’s SPIDER
David Cronenberg is on familiar turf with his latest film, SPIDER. The twist is that, while the film is rife with the horror, it stems from seeing the sane world through the eyes of a schizophrenic. When I talked with the soft-spoken and erudite director, I asked why he eschewed his usual trappings of blood and gore.… Read More »
Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright Gift Us with SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Click here to listen to the interview. Co-screenwriters Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, star and director respectively, of SHAUN OF THE DEAD were, you’ll pardon the expression, dead tired when I chatted with them on August 12, 2004. They’d been up late the night before doing a smashingly successful Q&A at a preview screening of… Read More »
Simon Barrett & Adam Wingard Say YOU’RE NEXT
Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett take the art and craft of the horror film very seriously. And when I spoke to them on April 28, 2013, it was not all fun and games. They were refreshingly cerebral about horror, and about what they wanted to accomplish with YOURE NEXT. In little things, such… Read More »
Drew Goddard & Amy Acker Visit THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
The problem with doing an interview for THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is that it’s a film that should have its delicious assortment of surprises kept under wraps, not spoiled. Keeping those secrets while the film was in development and then production was one of the topics covered with director/co-writer (with Joss Whedon) Drew Goddard… Read More »
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Exposes INTRUDERS
I spoke with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo by phone on March 19, 2012, and one of the things I most wanted to discuss with him was his unconventional approach to a horror film with INTRUDERS. In it, the monster has more to do with family secrets and the misguided attempts by the parents to spare their… Read More »
James Wan & Leigh Whannell are INSIDIOUS in the Best Sense
James Wan and Leigh Whannell collaborated on the original SAW and with that film proved that they had a keen understanding that a successful horror film is about mood, tone, and using just the right sound effects. In INSIDIOUS, they use just that approach in making a haunted house story into something with fiendishly clever… Read More »
Guillermo del Toro Penetrates PAN’S LABYRINTH
Maybe it was the season, but Guillermo del Toro seemed positively jolly when I spoke to him on December 15, 2006. PAN’S LABYRINTH was earning well-deserved Oscar(tm) buzz, and had won the San Francisco Film Critic’s Circle award for Best Foreign Language Film just four days before. The obvious place for me to start, having… Read More »