Tales of Halloween Interview Spotlight: Pat Healy
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 one of the actors, Pat Healy (The Innkeepers), on the set of Neil Marshall’s segment, which shot in Eagle Rock, CA, one nippy November night.
Dread Central: So, how do you know Neil?
Pat Healy: I don’t. I mean, I’m familiar with his work, but he called me because he was a fan of mine and asked me to be in his short here so I said yes right away. He’s a really lovely guy.
DC: Is this your first night of work?
PH: No, I worked last night, but working at night has its own special, strange, creepy kind of vibe.
DC: It does! Doesn’t it just lend itself to the horror?
PH: Yeah, especially in this dark neighborhood. It feels very much like Halloween around here. People creeping around in the shadows.
DC: Are you a fan of the holiday Halloween, and do you get dressed up for it?
PH: I dress up and put on make-up so much for a living that when it comes around to Halloween, it’s like, “Oh, I don’t want to do it anymore.” I have nieces and nephews who are young and I take them trick or treating and so I always enjoyed it as a kid so getting to experience it again as an adult again like a kid, you know, through their eyes. As an adult I tend to stay in on New Year’s Eve and things like that, trying to stay out of trouble.
DC: But you’re not staying out of trouble in this film!
PH: No, I’m walking right into the eye of the storm.
DC: Tell me a little bit about it; is it a forensics character you play..?
PH: Yeah, so Kristina [Klebe] plays the cop. She’s a really tough cop and I guess, you know, it’s a little bit of a role reversal. She’s a tough cop and I’m a bit more of the ingenue – the forensics guy who discovers that the killer is actually a giant pumpkin and has a crush on her.
DC: I heard that, yes, and how does he discern that it’s a pumpkin of all things?
PH: Ron measures the bite marks on the body that bit this guy’s head off and I run the data through a computer and make a 3D model and it comes out like a big giant smiling jack o’lantern and that gave her the impetus to start looking for it. And then I come and aid her in the field mostly because I have a crush on her.
DC: Kristina was so great in Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween and more recently in Proxy. Are you a fan of those rather gruesome slasher films?
PH: Yeah, I enjoy a lot of different horror movies. I’m sort of enjoying the rebirth of the anthology horror movie like V/H/S and ABCs of Death because I grew up in the era with Creepshow and Cat’s Eye and Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Dark Side and all that stuff so it holds that type of special nostalgic place in my heart because I was, I’d say, 10 to 13 when all that stuff was happening so it played on my mind in a certain way that brings back memories; both good and sinister, weird and creepy. Very deep in your subconscious.
DC: Yeah, so as an actor, what are some of the factors that go into your decision to play a role such as this? I know you like Neil Marshall, but is it the script, the role itself, or is it the people you’ll be working with?
PH: Well, I like Neil and I like Kristina and I thought the script was fun; it’s not a lot of heavy lifting, you know… an acting teacher that I have says, “Make sure you know how deep the pool is before you dive in; you might hurt yourself.” This is not, you know… we’re not doing anything incredibly deep. I don’t think anybody would argue with that so, in that respect, it’s just really fun and playing around and again, like Halloween, dressing up in costume and playing a character; there’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of smiling… we were working last night, and it’s silly. You can sort of exercise all of the tools of the profession, but at the same time I’ve gone to a lot of dark places, especially in the last few years, so it’s nice to do something where it’s just fun.
DC: Kristina said she hadn’t read the other scripts; was that something that you were offered… to look at the scripts to kind of see if you fit into the context of this world?
PH: I suppose I could have, [but] I didn’t read the other scripts and I didn’t ask so… I know that there are references to those other sequences in our script, but I don’t know specifically what they are. It makes it kind of exciting because when I see them, I’ll see how I fit into the grand scheme of things.
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.
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