Tales of Halloween Interview Spotlight: Neil Marshall
Staci Layne Wilson
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Horror hits like V/H/S and The ABCs of Death have proven that the anthology film format has been revived, and so a new omnibus is afoot for 2015 – assembling the likes of Neil Marshall (The Descent), Darren Bousman (The Devil’s Carnival), and Lucky McKee (The Call) behind their collective cameras.
Epic Pictures Group financed and produced Tales of Halloween, which brings together ten segments from different directors into one unified series of stories, all set in an Anytown, USA, suburb terrorized by ghouls, ghosts, and slashers on one, er, epic Halloween night.
We had a chance to chat with Neil Marshall, who is married to producer Axelle Carolyn, and get the lowdown on his segment, which shot in Eagle Rock, California, one nippy November night. It was a fun evening – and, I must say, there was a “first” for me… for someone who’s been on literally hundreds of horror film sets, I have never seen a murderous pumpkin rolling down the street in pursuit of victims! Wild, fun stuff.
Dread Central: Yes, I heard about the killer pumpkin, so it sounds like a pretty crazy premise, but what I’m asking is, how is it being treated in the film? Is it like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, or are you being a little more serious with it?”
Neil Marshall: It’s like Jaws with Gremlins with a kind of pumpkin instead (laughing), but I think we would always play it straight so we’re not mocking the fact that however daft it may be, the characters in the film play it straight.
DC: Is that the through-line with all the stories? Is each one predicated on the next; are they kind of interconnected?
NM: They kind of interconnect; they all take place in the same town on the same night and there are certain interconnecting threads, but the stories themselves are kind of radically different. The tones of the stories are quite different themselves.
DC: Usually there is kind of a tone to it? A consistency?
NM: I think of all, I’m the most fantastic or outlandish, and so mine will be the last one. So hopefully that will kind of build and then people are into it by that point and their mind will fit into that world as opposed to being halfway through or at the beginning maybe.
DC: Well, you’re not known for your comedic side. So this attacking pumpkin is different for you, no?
NM: I wouldn’t say that, but also for me half the reason I made The Decent is because it was just more comedy than horror and it has a little laughter in it and I don’t always play it very straight. It’s also incredibly daft and there’s a lot of comedy coming from the characters.
DC: Do you enjoy working with comedy as much as you like doing your more harsh, brutal things? I’m thinking of “Game of Thrones” and Centurion…
NM: It’s not something that comes natural to me I guess. I don’t regularly write comedy stuff but when this idea kind of popped in my head, it felt natural that it’s more of a comedy horror, more of a dark comedy horror. We’re already playing it for laughs; it’s just outrageous enough to be funny so that’s my theory of it.
DC: And so you wrote this script?
NM: Yeah.
DC: And how long are these stories?
NM: Each of them is round about 10 to 12 minutes.
DC: The concept for this anthology… was it Axelle’s idea or your idea together?
NM: It’s all down to Axelle; she was the one who kind of instigated the whole thing… we’ve known each other for so long, but that combination of events of Axelle and I moving to LA, obviously getting a lot closer with the friends that we’ve known… and the anthology is kind of coming back into vogue again.
DC: They are, which is great.
NM: And that’s one of the few opportunities that a bunch of directors do get together and it just happens that this bunch of directors are all mates and so it was literally like Axelle just said, “Why don’t we do an anthology movie? Why don’t we all just chip in and have fun and make a real low budget anthology movie?” And within days of that conversation… everyone was just like, “Yeah, let’s do it” and then we kind of got it financed very quickly.
DC: That doesn’t happen very often.
NM: It doesn’t; I mean, there’s a price to pay for that obviously. We’re doing it ultra-low budget; we’re doing it, you know, super quickly.
DC: So, will you be gearing this towards releasing around Halloween 2015?
NM: I suppose; we want to release it upon the world next Halloween. Yeah, it’s all about Halloween and how much Axelle loves it and how much I love it. We got married on Halloween so it plays a big part upon our lives… it was just natural that we end up coming to the States because you guys really celebrate Halloween here; we just don’t do it in the UK or in Europe that much. I mean, people try and do it, but it’s a bit sparse compared to the stuff that goes on here… it’s the highlight of our year, the Halloween season; that’s when all the best parties are, all the best events. So yeah, and next year will be the release of this movie.
Tales of Halloween will showcase the following ten short stories:
- “TRICK” Directed by Adam Gierasch
- “BAD SEED” Directed by Neil Marshall
- “GRIMM GRINNING GHOST” Directed by Axelle Carolyn
- “THE WEAK AND THE WICKED” Directed by Paul Solet
- “FRIDAY THE 31st” Directed by Mike Mendez
- “THE RANSOM OF RUSTY REX” Directed by Ryan Schifrin
- “THIS MEANS WAR” Directed by Andrew Kasch and John Skipp
- “THE NIGHT BILLY RAISED HELL” Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
- “SWEET TOOTH” Directed by Dave Parker
- “DING DONG” Directed by Lucky McKee
The film has an ensemble cast including Pat Healy, Barry Bostwick, Noah Segan, Booboo Stewart, Greg Grunberg, Clare Kramer, Alex Essoe, Lin Shaye, Dana Gould, James Duval, Elissa Dowling, Grace Phipps, Pollyana McIntosh, Marc Senter, Tiffany Shepis, John F. Beach, Trent Haaga, Casey Ruggieri, Kristina Klebe, Cerina Vincent, John Savage, Keir Gilchrist, Nick Principe, Amanda Moyer, Jennifer Wenger, Sam Witwer, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Ben Woolf, Caroline Williams, Robert Rusler, Cameron Easton, Austin Falk, Madison Iseman, Daniel Dimaggio, Natalie Castillo, Ben Stillwell, and Hunter Smit.
Cameos include Joe Dante, John Landis, Adam Green, Adam Pascal, Adrianne Curry, Mick Garris, Lombardo Boyer, Graham Skipper, Stuart Gordon, Greg Mclean, Spooky Dan Walker, and Adrienne Barbeau.
Axelle Carolyn created the concept and brought the filmmakers together for this unique production. Tales of Halloween is being produced by Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson of Epic Pictures Group along with Mike Mendez and Axelle Carolyn. Composers Frank Ilfman (Big Bad Wolves) and Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring) are both attached to the project.
Synopsis:
Ten stories are woven together by their shared theme of Halloween night in an American suburb, where ghouls, imps, aliens, and axe murderers appear for one night only to terrorize unsuspecting residents.
Categorized:News
