Author: Alton Williams

Ahead of the International premiere of UNCANNY ANNIE at Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween 2019, director Paul Davis reflects on working for Blumhouse, bemoans attitudes to British genre film funding and reveals the movies that inspire him the most…

Welcome back to FrightFest. It’s been a while. Excited?

Very excited. This is very much a homecoming for me having spent the best part of two-years now making movies in Los Angeles. What makes it all the more special is that after two shorts and a documentary, this marks the first time I’ve had a narrative feature film play at FrightFest, and on the 10^th anniversary of my first FF appearance. So this one means a lot to me, as it was something I’ve longed to do ever since BEWARE THE MOON in 2009.

Tell us how UNCANNY ANNIE came about?

UNCANNY ANNIE is my second movie for Blumhouse as part of Hulu’s INTO THE DARK movie series. I had the opportunity to actually kick off INTO THE DARK last October with a feature adaptation of my short film THE BODY (which had its world premiere at FF in 2013). The concept was to release a movie a month, for twelve months, with each revolving around a holiday or particular day for the month of its released.

With THE BODY taking place on Halloween, it literally was a right place/right time scenario in which my co-writer, Paul Fischer, and I had literally just written a spec first draft of a feature version, and within a week it was sold to Blumhouse. The feature starred Tom Bateman (Vanity Fair), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), Aurora Perrineau (If They Could See Us) and Ray Santiago (Ash Vs Evil Dead). I’m still hoping it’ll drop in the UK at some point. I know Sony Worldwide own the rights outside of the US, so we’ll see what happens.

Until then… the series did well enough to get a second year at Hulu and that’s when I got the call to return to Halloween and make UNCANNY ANNIE, which was my opportunity to do something completely different to THE BODY. Essentially I wanted to make a kids horror film with blood and swearing – inspired mostly by Joe Dante’s THE HOLE and Robert Rodriguez’s THE FACULTY.

What were the particular challenges you faced?

Oh man, where to start. First of all these are super low budget movies, but of course, with the Blumhouse brand comes huge expectation, so these are very ambitious films for very little time and money. With THE BODY being my first film, every day was a learning experience. I at least had a bit more money and a few more days on that one compared to UNCANNY ANNIE. When it came to Annie I was faced with a three week prep from the day I received the script (which was being re-written), a 16 day shoot, and under $1m to do a movie that ended up with over 200 VFX shots.  

That said, coming into this film I knew that this is exactly how these movies are now made – and they’ve just completed 12 of them in a year. That is an insane and impressive achievement. So for me it was about coming in and making the best damn movie I could within those parameters. And that’s the same with all of the filmmakers on this. Sophia Takal, Nacho Vigalondo, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Daniel Stamm, Patrick Lussier… doesn’t matter if it’s your first movie, or your eighth. We all get the same shake. And what’s great about Blumhouse is that they give you the freedom to create your movie with 100% encouragement.

All that aside, the biggest challenge for me was post production. My mother sadly passed away a week before my director’s cut was due, so I had to fly back to London and consult on the edit from London. It wasn’t easy, but we eventually got there, and I couldn’t be more proud of the film, and excited to share it with a FrightFest audience.

Your breakthrough movie was the much praised documentary BEWARE THE MOON: REMEMBERING AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (2009). John Landis introduced the film at FrightFest, Was that a defining moment in your career?

It certainly was at the time, and without BEWARE THE MOON I wouldn’t have met Reece Shearsmith, which means HIM INDOORS wouldn’t have happened, which means no THE BODY either.  So it was definitely the moment that kickstarted everything for me. I got to say thank you to John by giving him a cameo in my feature adaptation of THE BODY.

You began your career as a writer / journalist, specialising in horror cinema. Would you say those roots have helped you grow as a filmmaker?

Absolutely. Not only in the sense that your own research leads you to discover movies that had previously passed you by, but had I not been a staff writer at Horrorhound in 2006, I would never have written the 25^th retrospective on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON that lead to the documentary

In terms of my current projects, they’re littered with Easter eggs to movies I love. It’s always fun when someone sends me a tweet that they’ve spotted something new.

You’ve also written a couple of books: LOST IN THE SHADOWS – The Story of The Lost Boys and BEWARE THE MOON – The Story of An American Werewolf in London. Any literary plans for the future?

I’m an ‘idle hands’ kind of guy. I can’t sit and not do anything. These were done purely out of frustration, waiting for movie projects to green light. They were a lot of fun, but I have no desire to do anymore.

I also did some creature performing during that time. I played a sand monster in a Mark Gatiss written episode of DOCTOR WHO (which reunited me with Reece Shearsmith) and then spent the best part of a year on SOLO – A STAR WARS STORY as a wookiee.

Do you have a favourite bunch of horror movies? You’re not allowed to list AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

I do, but you know what, the older I get the more I feel my sensibilities getting tamer and tamer. I couldn’t watch a movie like MARTYRS again. Or LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT for that matter. One thing that has never changed is my love for THE EXORCIST, which to this day I still believe is the greatest movie ever made. George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD also remains a comfort movie of mine – as is De Palma’s CARRIE. I watch that movie whenever I’m about to start shooting a new movie. It’s my lucky rabbit’s foot.

How do you view the current state of the genre, particularly in Britain? Are there any current home-grown directors you admire?

I think horror across the globe is thriving. The world is a mess right now, and from chaos comes creativity. It was the same in 1968 and it’s the same today. That said, I’d love to see more studios and production companies taking a chance on UK talent. I’ve made two movies studio movies for Blumhouse yet I’d still love to make a movie here at home. The horror genre in Britain continues to be treated as an embarrassment that is kept on the naughty step. There’s a lot of pissed off creative people out there, and Brexit has only pissed us off even more. The British Jordan Peele or Ari Aster could be lying in dormant, but we’ll never know that until attitudes in British film funding change. This is the home of Hammer Horror, for Christ sake! It’s time horror became a staple of the British film industry once again. The talent is there… USE US!!!!

As for home grown directors who I enjoy and find inspiring… Edgar Wright, Neil Marshall, Corin Hardy, Ben Wheatley. I also loved Alice Lowe’s work on PREVENGE. I’d love to see more women having opportunities to tell genre stories in the UK. I don’t think we’ve caught up with the US yet in that respect.

Finally, what’s next for you?

UNCANNY ANNIE came out I the US on October 4^th so right now I’m reading a million and one screenplays to make sure what’s next is something I believe in and feel passionate about. There are a couple of things in the pipeline, but until anything is signed, I can’t really talk about them. In addition, I’m also writing my own material again, which is pretty much what I’m spending my time doing right now.

UNCANNY ANNIE is at 3.15pm at Cineworld, Leicester Sq. on Sat 2 Nov, as part of the Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween all-dayer. Paul will be introducing the film. www.frightfest.co.uk

Behind the masks…ahead of his one-man show, I AM MONSTERS! at The Pleasance Theatre, actor and writer Nicholas Vince describes his monstrous journey…

You’re best known for your portrayal of the Chatterer Cenobite in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and Kinski in Barker’s Nightbreed. What is it you remember most about playing these iconic monsters?

The many talented people and long processes involved in creating the makeups. I may have brought life to the characters, but it was the makeup artists (Nigel Booth on Chatterer, Cliff Wallace on Chatterer II and Neil Gorton on Kinski) who sculpted and painted them based on Clive Barker’s designs. Before we reached filming those guys spent weeks creating the masks.

Most of all I remember the laughter. OK, wearing Chatterer was extremely restrictive in terms of seeing, hearing and speaking, and Kinski was early starts and 5 hours in makeup, but there was a great atmosphere on all the films. In fact on Hellraiser I was threatened with death by the sound engineer as my laughter in the dressing room was ruining takes on the nearby set.

How did you first become attracted to monsters?

Aged eight I borrowed a copy of The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends by Anne Terry White from the local library. It contained stories from Greek, Norse, Celtic, French and Persian myths and legends. I must have run out of time to read all the stories as I clearly remember the Greek and Norse stories, and less so the ones at the back of the book. Obviously, the stories are written about the heroes, but they interested me far less than the Minotaur, Medusa and Sphinx.

You were born undershot and had to have major surgery aged nineteen. Can you describe the experience for us?

Basically, I was born with a smaller than usual top jaw meaning my upper teeth closed behind my lower, rather than the other way round, which is normal. The surgery lasted nine hours, during which they detached the upper jaw and using pieces of bones from my hips as wedges moved it forward. It was a pretty trying experience as I was in intensive care for two days afterwards, during which I nearly died. Following that I had my jaws wired together for six weeks. Mum served my portion of family meals on a plate to check I was getting enough and then liquidised it. I remember fish and chips required a lot of salad cream so that I could suck it through a straw.

In your one-man show you talk about being gay but remaining closeted during the 70s. How did this impact on your relationships?

Once I’d moved away from home, I was able to come out to close friends, but not my parents. That didn’t happen until my mid-thirties. I do regret that as they were very loving and when a relationship fell apart with a boyfriend, it meant I missed out on their support. And not being completely out, by which I mean just keeping quiet about relationships, being an apparent loner, it complicated my friendships with good looking straight men, as I was afraid if they realised I fancied them they’d either cut me off or beat me up.

How did you meet Clive Barker?

At a party in Crouch End. We got chatting and he invited me to model for him as he was preparing paintings for the covers of the UK hardback versions of his six volume collection, The Books of Blood. So my face, and other parts of me, appear on the covers of most of the books in that edition.

Is it true that the design of the Chatterer was partly inspired by your own facial reconstruction?

Yes. I’d told Clive about a documentary I’d seen about facial reconstructive surgery where they’d obviously used a similar technique to my surgeons, as the only cut was between my upper lip and gum and they’d peeled the face back so they could detach the upper jaw. The flesh of the face was held in place by clamps, much like Chatterer.

To play the Chatterer, you had to wear a mask and makeup that were extremely restrictive. How challenging was that?

I could only see a portion of the floor through a small hole below my left eye; had false teeth in so speech was like having my hands shoved in my mouth and muffled hearing due to the foam latex mask. So, I had a minder with me at all times leading me onto set holding hands, like a toddler and then they had to relay instructions from behind camera by shouting through the mask. The costume was very tight fitting as they’d taken a life cast of my torso so it could be made as close fitting as possible. I could only lift my arms to shoulder height.

Someone recently complimented me on my ‘meticulous performance’ and I realised that’s one of the strengths of Chatterer. We could only do short sequences with me as I had to learn my moves quickly and I worked hard to replicate them accurately, but that stillness and precision give him a great deal of power.

And the make-up for Kinski in Nightbreed was reported to take two people five hours to apply. Is that true?

Yes, up at 3am for a car from Streatham to Pinewood for 4am and the makeup chair for five hours. But I just had to sit still for that time. The two guys who applied it, Neil and Mark, were on their feet all that time making sure the pieces were properly applied and you couldn’t see the edges. I wasn’t allowed to fall asleep, so they had a VHS player and I remember watching Steve Martin and John Candy in ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Which was frustrating as I also wasn’t allowed to laugh either!

You left acting after Nightbreed to concentrate on writing comics for Marvel and collections of short horror stories. What is it about the writing process you find so alluring?

It’s the fun of telling stories and talking to readers.  In many ways it’s more challenging than acting as there you have a script and you’re putting the flesh on the bones, but with writing you’re faced with the sometimes terrifying wastes of a blank page. I remember Peter Atkins, the screenwriter of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, telling me when I first started writing, “Nick, there will be a time, at least once a day, when you’ll wonder why you ever thought you can write.”

He was right and the only way I’ve found to get through it is to do research, which as a writer said at literary event the other day can be, “Research, bordering on procrastination.” And then it’s just a question of writing something, anything, as you can polish it.

And I guess the allure for me, is that I get to get some of the really weird stuff in my head out and into the world.

In recent years you’ve returned to acting in UK independent horror films, such as Hollower (dir. MJ Dixon), Book of Monsters (dir. Stewart Sparke), Borley Rectory (dir. Ashley Thorpe) and For We Are Many (Lawrie Brewster and Paddy Murphy). Do you have further roles in the pipeline?

There are a couple, but I’m waiting for them to be released before I can talk about them. I did do an interview for the extras on the Arrow Video release of the theatrical and director’s cuts of Nightbreed, which they’re releasing on 28th October, and which is available for pre-order. I believe this is the first UK release of the film since the VHS version back in the 1990’s.

Do have any other plans for I AM MONSTERS! after its premiere at the London Horror Festival?

People have been very interested in the show and I’ve had enquiries about taking it to Liverpool and Las Vegas. Both of which would be really cool, as Liverpool is Clive’s home town and I’ve never been to Vegas.

Nicholas will be opening the London Horror Festival 2019 with his one-man show I AM MONSTERS!, from 8^th to 10^th October (7pm) at the Pleasance Theatre.

I AM MONSTERS Tickets: 020 7609 1800 //www.pleasance.co.uk/event/london-horror-festival-i-am-monsters#overview