Exclusive: Channel Zero’s Nick Antosca Talks The Past, Present, and Future of SyFy’s Creepypasta Anthology Series
Mike Sprague
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Tonight marks the season finale of the third season of SyFy’s “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block“. If you haven’t been keeping up with the series thus far, make sure to add the first three seasons to the top of your must-see list ASAP.
And speaking of “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block”, recently I was invited to partake in a conference call with “Channel Zero” head-writer and showrunner, Nick Antosca. It was a killer interview session and today we have cultivated the best of the best for you guys. Check it out below!
And don’t forget to tune into SyFy for the season finale of “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” tonight!
Dread Central: What can we expect from the season finale of “Butcher’s Block”?
Nick Antosca: Uh, good question. Without giving spoilers, you can expect — in some cases, expect the unexpected. Expect to see certain character’s different comeuppance. Expect the state of the protagonist to be maybe different than what you would have expected starting out in the first episode, which was always kind of our intention as part of the interesting journey of this season. And expect some experimental cinema.
DC: “Channel Zero” has a pretty solid track record so far. Is there any pressure to continue to deliver or even top the previous seasons?
NA: Honestly, only the pressure we put on ourselves as both writers and horror fans. The pressure really is to do something different every season. I mean, I think each season, while there are thematic connections and some kind aesthetic continuities, I feel like we’ve done what we set out to do in terms of doing a different flavor of horror every season, and a kind of different vibe.
And so now we are prepping the fourth season, we want to make sure that we continue to do that, that we provide the viewers with a new experience every time. And part of that comes with having a new director each season. Somebody who we can showcase who can bring that fresh point of view.
DC: Have you thought about translating “Channel Zero” onto other platforms?
NA: That would be awesome. I thought about doing a lot of things like that. It’s sort of, what it comes down to is the appetite of the studio gives us money to do something like that. I mean, I would love to do short adaptations of smaller creepypastas that maybe don’t lend themselves to six episodes, but have a great core idea. I love the idea of doing an interactive version for one them.
I mean, that’s something that’s been brought up from time to time, but it’s never really been explored, just because there’s no money to do it. But if there were, that would be creatively, I think, really cool and rewarding. And of course, gaming and creepypasta kind of go hand in hand. So I think that’s a really cool idea.
DC: What was it like working with Rutger Hauer?
NA: Harley Peyton suggested Rutger Hauer, and we were all like, that would be amazing. I’m sure he’s never going to do it. But we sent him the script and he just responded immediately, and got him on the phone with Arkasha Stevenson, the director, and was just an awesome guy, and full of ideas.
He’s incredibly invested. He gets involved with every aspect of his character and you talk with him for hours about what does this scene mean, what can we do here, how can we make this vivid and strange and unique. And I would say a lot his dialogue is stuff that he tweaked or came up with himself. I mean, when you’re working with somebody who’s that invested and that smart, you want to kind of take advantage of it.
DC: Can we expect callbacks to previous seasons in the upcoming final episode, or have there been any this season we might have missed? And if not, are there any ideas to do so in upcoming seasons?
NA: I’m not going to give it away, but there are some fun connections. In fact, actually, there are some very small things that appear in No End House that call forward to Butcher’s Block. But yeah, there are some little things, and there are some things that will appear in the fourth season that are connected to previous seasons. So the subtext of your question might be is there a Channel Zero universe, and in my mind, there is.
DC: What are some of the top creepypasta stories you would like to adapt for season five and onward?
NA: Well, if we were to get a season five, which I would love, probably my top choices — I mean, there’s the Russian Sleep Experiment, which we haven’t been able to get the rights to, so I’m going to leave that one off. But otherwise, that would be up there. But I would say This Man, which I guess is not technically a creepypasta but is a kind of creepy, viral meme that is often considered along creepypastas. And there are some others, too, and it also depends on rights issues. But yeah, those are probably my top two.
Thanks for talking horror with us, Nick!
How excited you are for the season finale of “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” and future seasons of “Channel Zero”? Let us know below!
“Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” is directed by Arkasha Stevenson and stars Olivia Luccardi (IT Follows), Holland Roden (“Teen Wolf”), Brandon Scott (Blair Witch), Krisha Fairchild, and Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner).
Synopsis:
“Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” tells the story of a young woman named Alice (Olivia Luccardi) who moves to a new city and learns about a series of disappearances that may be connected to a baffling rumor about mysterious staircases in the city’s worst neighborhoods. With help from her sister, they discover that something is preying on the city’s residents.
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