Segan, Noah (Cabin Fever 2, All About Evil, Chain Letter)
Heather Wixson
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Noah Segan may not be a household name quite yet, but if his career keeps moving at the breakneck pace he has enjoyed over the last several years, it’s only a matter of time before the word is out on this genre up-and-comer.
This week Segan is celebrating another milestone in his career: the DVD release of Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (review here). Dread Central decided to catch up with the young actor to talk about the film as well as some of his upcoming projects including the dark comedy All About Evil and Deon Taylor’s gritty indie horror flick Chain Letter.
After learning at the start of the interview that Segan is a huge horror fan with an American cinema flavor to it, I asked the actor what he thought of Eli Roth’s original Cabin Fever, which paid homage to its American horror predecessors, and his thoughts on stepping into the second installment.
Segan said, “I actually had not seen the first when I was presented Spring Fever. I went ahead and watched the first one then, and I liked that it was a comedic and subversive take on the genre that fans hadn’t seen in a long time. I think it brought a sensibility back to horror so getting to be in the sequel was pretty amazing.”
Anyone who has seen the original Cabin Fever knows that the movie set the bar for gore and blood gags in the early 2000’s. So, just how far was the sequel going to try and raise the bar this time around? Segan says the bar was set pretty high.
“‘Crazy messy’ is the appropriate way to discuss what it was like on set for Spring Fever,” explained Segan. “We may have officially used the most blood in a movie since Meet the Feebles. It was crazy – I still have things that are covered in blood. There is no preparation you can ever make for that amount of fluids on a film set.”
I spoke to Segan about his experiences on the set of Cabin Fever 2. He credits director Ti West as the reason he enjoyed working on the project so much since the duo bonded over a love of both Heathers and Back to the Future during their collaboration.
“Ti was a huge influence on what I wanted to do in the film. He has a real laid-back style because he does what a great director does – he hires the right people – so his approach with the actors on set was very much of an old-school era attitude,” Segan said.
Segan went on to discuss West’s approach for the follow-up to Roth’s unique vision of cerebral terror that was established in the first Cabin Fever. Segan said West definitely worked hard to pay tribute to Roth’s first film but also set out to make Spring Fever stand on its own merits, not just as a sequel.
“We definitely paid homage to what Eli did in the first film and acknowledged some of those hallmark scenes that made the original so great,” explained Segan. “We all had an obligation to take the sequel a step further, though, so Ti definitely pulled out all the stops when it came to the gags for the sequel. We knew had to take it up a notch, and I think we delivered on that.”
Now that Spring Fever is about to be unleashed on the horror masses, I asked Segan about his upcoming projects. It turns out he has no plans to slow down this year either.
One of the more buzzed about projects for Segan is the upcoming comedy horror film All About Evil, wherein the young thespian shares screen time with the one and only Mistress of the Dark, Cassandra Peterson.
“In All About Evil, all you have is Cassandra on the screen, not Elvira,” explained Segan. “The director made it a point to take her character in that direction but not ignoring her iconic status at the same time. It’s almost like an inside joke for the audience, kind of like the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities.”
Segan says that All About Evil is about as far away on the spectrum from Cabin Fever 2 as you can get in terms of tone. While both have a wry intelligence to them, All About Evil is definitely more of a comedic film than a dark horror movie. Segan assures fans that while the project will have them in stitches, there’s still plenty of room for the scares.
“All About Evil skewers more towards the comedy side than the horror side of things, but exploring different tones in the film just works so well. There’s no reason you can’t be laughing one moment and crap your pants the next when you’re watching a movie. There are no exclusivities in art so I think there’s room for comedy in the horror genre,” said Segan.
Another upcoming project Segan has to look forward to is Chain Letter, directed by Deon Taylor. Since this scribe had recently spent some time with Taylor for his other projects, Dark Christmas and Dead Tone, I asked Segan about his time working with Taylor alongside the likes of Nikki Reed, Keith David, Brad Dourif, and Bai Ling.
“I had a real blast working with Deon Taylor,” Segan explained. “From the moment I arrived on set, we established this great working relationship, and that made it easy for me to trust him and everyone else.”
“Chain Letter is one of the more mainstream horror films I’ve ever done, but there was a freedom and honesty that Deon puts into his productions that you don’t see every day as an actor. It was one of the rare times where I’m not the bad guy so I really got to bring more Noah to my performance than usual,” added Segan.
Not satisfied to stay busy in the acting arena alone, Segan recently served as a producer on the exploitation grindhouse throwback flick Someone’s Knocking at the Door, which Segan promises to be unlike anything you’ve seen in a while.
“Someone’s Knocking at the Door is exploitation, grindhouse film with a sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll flavor to it. It’s very much a festival-type horror film, kind of like my earlier movie Brick, but just way more horrific. It almost defies definition. I am really proud of what we did with it,” Segan said.
Now that the actor can add the producing credit to his ever-growing resume, it may not be far-fetched that one day Segan will add the title of director. For now, though, Segan jokes that he’s willing to take on any job just to fulfill his addiction to being on a movie set.
Segan said, “I just love everything about a film set. If I woke up tomorrow, I’d be just as happy working craft services if I couldn’t do anything else. I’m just happy whenever I get to be on a set, and I’ve worked really hard to educate myself in all aspects of filmmaking since I left school when I was 15, so anything I can contribute to the filmmaking process makes me feel very fortunate as an artist.”
Our thanks to Noah for taking the time to speak with us.
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