Lieberman, Jeff (Satan’s Little Helper)
It seems like it”s been a very long time since Jeff Lieberman”s name has been mentioned in association with new horror, but that”s all changing now. From the resurgence of his popularity with Synapse”s release of his classic bad acid trip Blue Sunshine to MGM”s descent treatment of his take on nature-run-amok movies Squirm, the time is right for Lieberman to get a brand new film ready for the masses.
How wonderfully coincidental, then, that he just so happens to have a brand new horror film ready to go. It”s called Satan”s Little Helper, and it deals with a kid who”s obsessed with a video game of the same title. On Halloween night, someone begins to stalk his neighborhood, killing indiscriminately,and the kid thinks it”s just part of the game he”s so obsessed. Needless to say things don”t go well.
Mr. Lieberman was kind enough to answer some questions about the film recently via e-mail, hope you dig the results!
Johnny Butane: So what have you been up to in between Just Before Dawn and the start of Satan”s Little Helper?
Jeff Lieberman: Well, I did do another genre type movie called Remote Control back in ‘87 which was six years after Just Before Dawn. I’m very eclectic in my creative flow and jump around between serious Documentaries like one I did on Sonny Liston for HBO, to writing the screenplay for Neverending Story 3, which incidentally starred an as yet not huge Jack Black. I remember telling him he was a cross between Nicholson and Beluchi and encouraged him to keep at it ‘til he hits. For that I think I’m entitled to at least ten percent of what he’s making now, but I’ll settle for five.
JB: Where did the idea for SLH come from?
JL: My 50th birthday party was a Halloween costume party. So everyone shows up in these elaborate costumes and the party’s rocking. Then this gorilla enters the house in one of those full out gorilla costumes and starts dancing with me. I figure it’s one of my friends and by his behavior I’ve got a pretty good idea of who it is. Then, while me and king Kong are swirling around the room, I spot my friend, decked out like Roger from Squirm, with worms dangling from his cheeks. So…who the fuck is the gorilla? Everyone’s here. I went from party mode to horror mode in an instant. Any psycho could just walk into this party with a mask on and we’d feed him pigs in a blanket. It was terrifying.
Turns out it was a “gorilla gram” from my buddy Charles Rocket (the actor) who couldn’t make it back east for the party so he sent this present. At any other time, you’d immediately peg it as a gorilla gram but on Halloween it’s a whole different story. And that story…turned into Satan’s Little Helper. Imagine inviting Jason for dinner and you get the idea.
JB: The theme of the movie seems to be the separation between fantasy and reality in today’s youth; did you have any personal experience with this?
JL: I think every kid does, and since I was a kid once…I remember sitting in a tree as a kid with a friend debating the old “who could win in a fight” argument. Superman against Batman, Godzilla against the Beast from Twenty thousand phathoms, etc. These monsters and super heroes were real to us, and more importantly, we WANTED them to be real. Well now they’re making video games that are using the latest technologies to make things as real as possible. What could be more real than reality? The lines have not only blurred, they’ve melded or morphed.
JB: How did the funding come about?
JL: I was invited to a horror convention in Vancouver called Cine Muerte where they’d show my old films and I’d talk after them. Attending the convention was a named Carl Tostivin, an avid genre fan, as well as the owner of the famous Scarecrow Video in Seatle. Carl is also an executive at Microsoft and when he heard I was interested in having another go at the genre, he opened his check book. Not your typical Hollywood story by a long shot and I salute him for placing such a big bet on me.
JB: What kind of a casting process did you go through before finally settling on Alexander Brickel for the child actor?
JL: It was incredible. I thought from the get go that finding this kid was going to take months and if he’s not right, no matter what I do, the movie will suck. He’s got to sell the concept. So the first thing a casting director does in these situations is do a “cattle call” and put like forty kids on tape for the director to fast forward through. It was on the very first tape that Alex showed up. Right there I said, “that’s the kid.” Of course I wanted to meet him person to see if he could memorize lines, take direction, etc, but instead of taking months it took one day.
JB: What was it about Brickel that made you decide he was the one?
JL: He’s the classic “off center” kid, 180 degrees from the cute scruffy Speilberg kid. I think that why Todd Solondz cast him in his movie Palindromes. He’s known for looking for off center young characters.
JB: Where did most of the filming take place, and how long were you in production for?
JL: We shot a total of 28 days, and filmed in a lot of different locations. The film is supposed to take place in a fictitious island in Massachusetts called “Bell Island” but the main part of the film was done in Westchester New York where I live. We shot along the Maine coast for the setting, and did some other filming on the North Shore of Long Island but all cut together it comes off as one place set just the way I wanted it.
JB: Any interesting anecdotes from the filming?
JL: Young Dougie, the Little Helper, leads his pretend master the ‘Satan Man’ down into the basement of his house proclaiming “this can be our secret door to hell.” When Dougie’s mom Amanda Plummer calls him to go upstairs, the Satan man stays in the basement moves over to the laundry room and starts sniffing panties. So, being the director, I have to direct exactly how I want them sniffed for camera. My AD Neil Daly got a message to everyone up stairs in the house to check out the monitors and they actually rolled film of me doing this—giving panty sniffing directions. But hey, there’s a right way and wrong way of doing everything!
JB: What are you inspirations when you sit down to write a movie?
JL: Pot.
JB: The premise of Satan’s Little Helper seems borderline comical, did you decide to take a more light-hearted approach with the film than you have in your past movies?
JL: I think all my films are borderline comical. The trick in a horror film is not to use comedy at the expense of the tension and story. If something happens purely for the sake of a joke, it’s a comedy, not a horror film. If there’s laughs, and there are lots of them in this film, within the context of generally realistic behavior, then it works great because you can laugh, then be screaming, or at least sweating, in the next instant. It’s a balancing act and very hard to pull off. I think I did though.
JB: What is the status on the release of the movie? I know you’ll be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on May 6th, but have there been any deals for distribution made as of yet?
JL: We just finished the film and no distributor has seen it as yet. That will change very shortly, certainly by Tribeca.
JB: One last question; What”s the status on a possible DVD release of Just Before Dawn? Do you know what kind of features may be on it when/if it does come out?
JL: The status hasn’t changed. The original producer is extremely ellusive about it. I’m not sure he even has the negative to the film. I’d love to put it out, and do it right. That film looks gorgeous in it’s original form, just as good as Deliverance, the film that inspired it. So if I were involved I’d give it all the bells and whistles it deserves but right now, who knows.
Speaking of scoops, (I know we weren’t but when you’re being interviewed on the web you can say anything the fuck you want, right?) there might be a huge scoop coming up concerning Blue Sunshine. Too early to say what it is but when it’s scooped I think you’ll agree it’s scoop worthy! Calling all genre fans—please show up at Tribeca so the distributors can see the film with the hip (and twisted) audience I made it for.
Many thanks to Jeff Lieberman for taking the time to chat with us. Be sure to check out the new & improved site for Satan”s Little Helper right here!
Categorized:Interviews News
