The Funhouse Massacre – Exclusive Interview with Screenwriters Renee Dorian and Ben Begley

Staci Layne Wilson |

Nov 16, 2015

Six of the world’s scariest psychopaths escape from a local asylum and proceed to unleash terror on the unsuspecting crowd of a Halloween funhouse whose themed mazes are inspired by their various reigns of terror. That’s right, kids! It’s time to learn all about The Funhouse Massacre (review).

Dread Central: I loved how your story was a throwback; yet, there was a lot of originality to it… how’d you strike that balance?

Ben Begley: We wanted to pay homage to our favorite slasher films from the 80s/90s but not make it feel like it was just a carbon copy rip-off of any of them. So we pulled the essence from some of our favorite movie killers – Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers – and mixed them together with a few real life killers – Manson and Dahmer – and then infused a heavy dose of comic book villainy, paying homage to the inmates from Arkham Asylum.

Renee Dorian: We hadn’t seen too many movies where there was more than one killer, let alone six, and it was important to us that each killer had their own unique kill style and personality. We missed the good ol’ days of slasher films where the killer could be fun to watch like Freddy Krueger, where even though you know they are evil incarnate, you’re still kind of rooting for them in some sick way.

BB: Modern horror lately has been pretty dark with lots of ghosts and demon possessions and torture, with the occasion zombie comedy, which we love all that too, but we missed the simplicity of the slasher genre and wanted to make a film that brought the fun and ridiculousness of those movies back. Where you can laugh and be grossed out at the same time. So we were always mindful of making nods to our favorite films and comic books, but never writing the scene in a way that was exactly like you’d seen before.

RD: We wanted to go for broke and make this an over-the-top, gory, and funny ride, something you’d go to as a midnight movie with your friends, because that’s our favorite kind of horror flick to watch.

DC: How does working together work… do you take turns writing different portions or characters, or does one person do the dialogue and the other the action…? Describe a typical work day for you two.

RD: It varies from project to project, but with this film, Ben and I worked on the entire outline of the story and the character development together and mapped it all out. Then I got super busy with a live show I was writing and co-directing for a murder mystery company I run (there’s a lot of murder we write about). So Ben locked himself in the office for hours on end, with an inhuman amount of coffee, and then would bring pages to me and we would go over them together and then he would return to his cave.

BB: Yes, my writing process is a pot of coffee and listening to The Social Network soundtrack on repeat; that’s literally the only music I listen to for hours. If it can make Jesse Eisenberg focus on writing the code to build Facebook, it can help me focus on anything. But every step of the way, we were a team making sure the script, story, and characters were moving in the direction we both wanted. On the next project we are going to take specific scenes and write them in our separate caves and then trade off and rewrite each other’s scenes.

DC: When you wrote The Funhouse Massacre, did you already have your cast in mind? And was the screenplay already sold before you wrote it, or was it a spec thing?

RD: We had some cast ideas in mind, especially while writing it. We always wanted Robert Englund to be in it but never thought in a million years it would become a reality, and it did! So that was pretty amazing!

BB: As more cast kept jumping on board, our minds were blown by the caliber of talent that were signing up for our gory flick. But that’s where our amazing casting director, Emily Schweber, came in. Her office is what got us so many great actors. From Jere Burns to Scottie Thompson to Clint Howard, the list goes on and on.

RD: We couldn’t have asked for a better cast to bring this script to life or for a nicer group of people. There were no egos on set; everyone came to play and have a bloody good time. And when Ben and I first started writing the script, we just wanted to write a movie that we’d want to watch.

BB: Yeah, we had no idea if it would ever go anywhere other than our hard drive, but we wanted to go out on a limb and write it anyway. We’d done several shorts and web series before but wanted to step up our game.

RD: It’s kind of crazy how the script was bought. I worked with Andy Palmer (our director) and Warner Davis (our producer) on an indie drama years ago called Awaken; then they helped produce a web series I wrote called “CLUED-less.”

BB: We hadn’t talked in a little while, each side doing their own thing. But then I happened to post on Facebook, “Excited to finish the third draft of our new horror comedy!” Andy called me up that day and asked what the pitch and the budget was. We sent him the script, and then by Thanksgiving of last year it was optioned, it sold in January, and we were filming by March 25th.

RD: It was pretty nuts how fast it all came together! And now, not even a year since we optioned it, it’s coming out in theaters.

BB: We realize we hit the lottery on this one, and we are incredibly excited and grateful that so many people have worked so hard to bring this movie to the screen.

DC: You’ve got some awesome kills in this movie! Without any spoilers, please share with us one of your personal faves and how it evolved from page to screen.

BB: There may be a kill involving a giant mallet that I’m a big fan of… Oh, but then there may be a hands-on decapitation; I think that’s my favorite.

RD: To pick just one is tough, like asking which child is your favorite; it varies on which mood I’m in. (Just to be clear, I don’t have any kids!) But if I have to choose, there’s a pretty unexpected death by friendly fire that makes me laugh every time. But the face rip-off is pretty badass too, which was something Kurtzman’s team came up with. That wasn’t in the original draft, and now it’s one of the most memorable moments. It’s so gross and awesome at the same time!

BB: Most of the kills from the page ended up onscreen, unless it was something that was just too dangerous to do. We had one where the character was supposed to be body slammed and his head hits the ground and his neck snaps open, but since that could actually kill someone, it’s just implied in the movie.

RD: The kills in our movie are better than we could have imagined thanks to Robert Kurtzman and his team, Beki, House, and Barry. They did such an amazing job on each gory gag.

BB: I remember House saying to me he couldn’t remember ever doing this many kills for one movie. Which was pretty awesome! Renee and I both made sure to be on set any time Kurtzman’s team was pulling off one of the effects. They are such pros, and we were always amazed by not only how fast they worked, but how damn amazing the kills looked. It was so cool to work with such a legendary team in the horror world.

DC: What are some of your favorite horror movies? Some influences of classic and current writers and directors?

BB: Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street are two of our favorite slasher films of all time. Halloween because it’s still terrifying to this day and Nightmare because Freddy is so much fun to watch. The imagination behind the kills in the entire Freddy series is something to marvel at. They both heavily influenced Funhouse, especially Wes Craven. I remember watching Scream, and that was the first time I realized you can laugh and be scared at the same time. That is the kind of horror film we like. Where the laughs surprise you just as much as the scares.

RD: I remember being so afraid of Freddy as a kid, but also thinking he was a comedian in a way. Charming almost, in a twisted sense. Like Ben said, the horror films that have a sense of fun to them as well as scares have always been my favorite. I’ve loved horror films since I was a little kid; Ben was a scaredy-cat until he was a teenager.

BB: That is true. Scream was the first I scary movie I saw, but it unleashed me into the world of horror, and I’ve never looked back! As for current films, I loved Trick ‘r Treat, Slither, You’re Next, I have a guilty movie obsession with The Final Destination series, this awesome indie vampire movie Afflicted, The Conjuring scared the hell out of me, Drag Me to Hell (anything Sam Raimi, for that matter), The Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite movies ever! The list goes on and on.

RD: Poltergeist was definitely one of my favorites growing up; I would watch that movie all the time. But currently I really like The Strangers, The Babadook, It Follows (we actually went to the theater as a group and saw this while filming Funhouse Massacre), and The Conjuring terrified me so much, I can never watch it again.

DC: What’s next for you? And, any big goals in the next few years or so?

RD: I have been working on an audiobook trilogy; the first one is done, and I have two more recordings to go. It’s called House of Royals, and it’s a really fun vampire story. I am also working on a couple other screenplays. In the next few years I would love for Ben and I to write, sell, and star in more films. Work with friends and make movies – I think Judd Apatow has it right. And of course, having your own TV series wouldn’t be bad either. But I’ll take what I can get.

BB: I’m working on a few new scripts, two horror comedies and an action comedy. They are all in the process of being “looked at” so hopefully one of those gets off the ground soon. Renee and I have a top secret project we are working on that The Funhouse Massacre fans will be excited about, but we’re also working on a comedy script too. So I’m keeping busy writing. Like Renee said, our career goals would be to make our own movies with friends, like our very own Movie Club. Bucket list goal, however, is to play a superhero someday in a giant Marvel movie… but that requires far more muscle than I currently have.

The movie is presently playing at select AMC theaters. Check your local listings.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1CrsJgFqkU&w=640&h=360]

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