How
did you become interested in horror?
I was a wee little lad of
six years old. ‘Twas 1970. Back in the day, we only
had 7 stations on the television, so, being a
precocious one, I would mentally count the number of
shows my mom would tell me when I asked her what was
on TV. If she gave me an amount less than 7, I knew
there was something she didn’t want me to see. So on
this one occasion, I kept grilling her station by
station till she finally mumbled something about
this movie called DRACULA being shown on this film
series called CREATURE FEATURES. After jumping up
and down and crying and moaning, I finally got the
green light from Mom to watch DRACULA. It fucking
changed my life. Thus was born—Tim the Monster
Maker.
Who are your major
influences?
It may sound cliché, but it
all begins with Forrest J Ackerman. After catching
DRACULA, it wasn’t long till I discovered
FAMOUS
MONSTERS magazine and became one of Uncle Forry’s
acolytes. His influence on me is incalculable, as he
showed me the men behind the monsters, and inspired
me to become one of them. Later, at 13, it was
seeing KISS for the first time that brought me into
“the wonder years” of teenage-dom. Gene Simmons
showed me that on the surface we may be Clark Kent,
but underneath we can all be Superman. Later, in
college, it was discovering Jim Morrison and Ray
Manzarek and The Doors that I learned that Superman
could and should have soul and spirit. So, Forry,
Gene and Ray are my three main mentors- and I am
blessed and honored to now be able to call all of
them my friends and collaborators.
What is one of the first
horror films you can remember seeing?
Like I said, DRACULA was
the first. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was the second, and
then THE MUMMY’S HAND and so on and so on. Every
week it was a Universal horror classic that came my
way via Creature Features on Channel 5. A new trick
or treat to unwrap every week. And, of course, on a
daily basis, there was the gothic vampire soap opera
DARK SHADOWS!
What is the scariest
horror film you have seen?
As a child, the one that
scared the shit out of me and still creeps me out to
this day was CARNIVAL OF SOULS. I was so scared, I
wanted to turn the damn thing off, but was too
frightened to jump out of bed and switch the
channel. The empty eyes and ghostly grins of those
white-washed specters dancing in slow motion at the
pier… I’m talking goose bump city.
What
are some of your all-time favorite Horror Films?
Hands down, the champ is
THE EXORCIST. Nothing comes close. It stars the
greatest villain of all- The Devil. And how often
does it take that ol’ Lucifer fucking us right in
the ass before we finally acknowledge that his
counterpart, God/Goodness/whatever you want to call
it, does exist?
After that, in no
particular order--- HALLOWEEN,
NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET, HORROR HOTEL,
CARNIVAL OF SOULS,
FRIGHT
NIGHT,
THE OMEN,
SUSPIRIA,
DEVIL’S REJECTS (although
I don’t really consider that a horror film),
HORROR
OF DRACULA,
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE,
BLACK
CHRISTMAS,
ROSEMARY’S BABY,
MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH…
Man, I could go on and on…
What is your all time
favorite B rated horror film and why?
By B rated, I assume you
mean anything made under ten million dollars? Well,
doesn’t that include nearly every decent horror
movie ever made? There are very, very few horror
flicks made by the studios on big budgets that are
anything less than processed crap, so this question
makes me choose from a huge list, as I will take a
well intended but flawed B movie any day over a
technically stellar but soulless studio flick).
Hmmm… Okay- here it is--- I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF.
I just LOVE that movie. Up till then, all horror
movies featured adult protagonists and were made for
adults. With the advent of the Drive-in, films were
being targeted for the teen demographic for the very
first time- and TEENAGE WEREWOLF was the first
attempt at a teen horror flick. It’s basically
REBEL
WITHOUT A CAUSE with fangs and fur, and I love it’s
underlying theme of children becoming monsters due
to adult neglect, abuse and manipulation. That’s
exactly the theme of my latest film,
DRIFTWOOD.
Favorite Seasoned Horror
Director:
Favorite “Seasoned”? By
that I assume you mean OLD? Well, in that case, it
would be John Carpenter, because if I look at my
list of 100 favorite horror films, he’s directed
more of those 100 than any one else. (HALLOWEEN,
FOG,
THING,
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS…)
Which up and coming
director do you see flourishing in the horror
industry?
Man… You gonna make me
chose amongst my buddies? There are so many, so I’m
gonna name a few. Ryan Schifrin (ABOMINABLE). Chris Siverston (LOST). Paul Etheridge (HELLBENT). Adam
Greene (HATCHET).
If
you could pick one horror film to have been yours,
which would it be?
Hate to be redundant but….
THE EXORCIST.
Favorite ongoing horror
series:
DARK SHADOWS. No contest.
If you could be slain by
any horror creature who or what would it be and why?
LeStat. Because I love
vampires, wouldn’t mind being one and that LeStat
sure has style.
Which murder weapon
makes your skin crawl?
The current Presidential
Administration.
Current horror film you
are most excited to see.
Only one on the near
horizon is
THE OMEN and I refuse to see that because
it looks like a scene by scene, word by word
regurgitation – making it only of interest to filmgoing flocks that have not seen the Donner
original. If you’re gonna remake something, people,
give it its own flavor!
So
Tim, how did you find yourself in the directing
chair for Raw Nerve’s first project?
Quite uncomfortable. It was
a cheap chair, with very little cushioning. It fell
over quite a lot. With me in it. But if you meant
how did I get 2001 MANIACS’ going, well… After I
produced DETROIT ROCK CITY, I decided I was tired of
being the tug boat that brought everybody else’s
ocean liner ashore. Basically I figured if I put all
the energy and drive into my own directing career
that I had put into others, maybe something cool
could happen. And so I started looking for a project
to sink my teeth into. At the time (it was 2000),
Robert Zemeckis was remaking the films of
William
Castle and the remake trend was just beginning. A
guy named
Chris Kobin walked into my office and said
he had the rights to remake the films of
HG Lewis. A
big light bulb went on over my head, and next thing
you knew, me and Kobin, two total strangers, became
writing and partners and fellow journeymen on the
long road to MANIACS.
We always had
Robert Englund
on board from day one, we wrote the script for him,
in fact - so armed with Robert, the script and some
killer storyboards. We hit the pavement looking for
a producer. We found two of them and both of them
turned out to be bogus (we actually were days away
from filming each time only to see the project
completely fall apart) and then, four years after
writing the script (!), I finally met
Chris Tuffin
of Blood Works. Tuffin is a real “can-do”, no
nonsense type of guy. He loved the material and
immediately secured half of the financing. It was
right around this time that John Landis introduced
me to Eli Roth, with whom I immediately bonded, the
two of us being uber horror geeks. “Cabin Fever” had
just come out and hit big, Eli was the “shit”, and
he was about to start his own horror label, Raw
Nerve, with
Scotty Spiegel and
Boaz Yoakin.
Eli knew that a
Robert Englund remake of an
HG Lewis film was
a no-brainer, and so he was able to secure the
second half of the financing from his partners. And
thus I found myself in the director’s chair for not
only Raw Nerve’s first project, but BloodWorks as
well.
How old were you when
you first saw the original Two Thousands Maniacs and
what was your initial reaction?
I saw TWO THOUSAND MANIACS
for the first time in 1980 when I was 16 years old.
I saw it at a Grindhouse on 42nd in New York on a
double bill with THE HILLS HAVE EYES. I had heard so
much about Lewis and his brand of splatter, and I
must admit, I was delighted by the subversive nature
of the whole film. I couldn’t imagine what people
must have thought when it first came out at Drive-In
theaters in a climate of BEACH BLANKET BINGO and A
HARD DAYS NIGHT. I was quite aware of the film’s
cinematic shortcomings… I mean, let’s face it— It’s
not THE EXORCIST… but it had an audacity, a
rebellious in-your-face spirit that I just fucking
loved. I couldn’t wait for it to come out on video
so I could show it to my friends and freak them out.
How many times have you
been asked “Why didn’t you include the barrel roll
scene from the original film?”
Enough to make me want to
maim the next person who asks me, Gregg.
Let me ask you this… Why
didn’t you include the barrel role scene from the
original film?
You mother fucker! For the
millionth time--- The barrel roll was written in the
script and storyboarded to be the death of Malcolm.
But once we got to the location in Georgia, Eli and
I discovered this authentic cotton press that was
still in working order. Sick fucks that we are, we
simply couldn’t pass on the concept of a bunch of
rednecks squashing the black guy in the cotton
press. Goodbye barrel roll…
As
you know, you co-wrote this film with Chris Kobin.
How does that writing process work? Did you guys
ever arm wrestle over plotlines?
I did? I didn’t know that,
Gregg. I thought Chris Kobin just got me diet coke
and donuts… Geez… Talk about stating the fucking
obvious, bro. And to think I passed on getting
interviewed by Harry Knowles for you… So where were
we? Oh, yeah. Chris and I have a very interesting
relationship. He’s a right wing, stalwart Republican
with a wife, two kids and a house with a picket
fence who still believes George W. Bush is the best
thing to happen to America since prostitution was
legalized in Nebraska. I am a single, liberal
Democrat who still has his childhood monster toys on
his shelf and longs for the day when the only bush
in office will be Hillary Clinton. So while writing MANIACS, we basically made it our duty to offend the
other with as much bashing of each other’s politics
as possible. Red State versus Blue State as played
out in Pleasant Valley.
Normally, I create an
outline, then email him various scenes to write
without him having to worry about how they fit into
the whole. Kind of like when, as a director, I send
out my second unit director to get me certain shots
that I need. Once I get these scenes from Chris, I
string them together and shape them and polish them
and create the finished product, then send it back
to him for a final look-over. It gets to the point
where we are so on the same wavelength, we can’t
remember who wrote what. Creatively, I can honestly
say we’ve never disagreed about anything, except
that I still can’t get him to accept the fact that
the South didn’t win the Civil War, a major plot
point of 2001 MANIACS.
Your
film should be called 2001 tasty breasts. The girls
are crazy hot in this movie! Do you actually hold
nude auditions for these roles? How does that work
exactly?
I personally, was always
clothed while casting. But yes, when an actor or
actress is auditioning for a part that requires
nudity, part of the process is to do what is called
a “body check”. It’s a very boring (yeah, right)
process where the actor or actress basically
pretends they are in a doctor’s office and I am the
doctor and my female assistant is the nurse (As SAG
rules require that there must always be both a male
and female present). Then off go the clothes. As
toilsome as this process is (yeah, right!!!), it
serves several very specific purposes: You want to
make sure that the performer is “real”, so often
undergarments are stuffed, you see what I’m saying?
You also want to make sure that someone doesn’t have
a lot of tattoos that will require time consuming
body make-up, that they don’t have a third nipple or
a lot of zits on their back, whether or not a guy
needs a wax job on his ass…
I mean, I’m quality
control for all the ticket buyers out there who want
their flesh tasty! Also, seriously, I need to know
if there will be a problem with the nudity. I don’t
want to hire somebody who shows up on the set and
then refuses to get naked. If they won’t do a body
check, chances are they won’t do a nude scene on
camera. Last, but not least, it truly is all about
breaking the ice so once the cameras are rolling,
the fact that a gorgeous naked human specimen is
standing right next to me is no big deal (YEAH
RIGHT!).
Marla Malcolm plays the
role of Joey. Can I have her home address please?
Sure. But it is also the
address of her very large, very muscular and very
cool HUSBAND.
On the commentary track
for HOSTEL, Eli Roth mentions that the production
shoot for 2001 Maniacs was rough, mostly due to lack
of funds. Is Eli smoking too much hash in Slovakia
or is there some weight to this comment?
I’m sure Eli smoked a lot of hash in Slovakia, I
would have too. But he is also very accurate in
saying that lack of funds made things rough. When I
watch 2001 MANAICS with all it’s scope and it’s 24
principal actors and it’s three hundred extras and
horses and chickens and sheep and dozens of
locations--- I sometimes wonder just how the hell we
shot it in 18 days for the paltry sum that we did, a
sum which I am sure is 1/8th the amount he had to
make HOSTEL. But you do what you got to do, and you
make it work.
The special effects in
2001 Maniacs are truly awesome. Do you have any
experience with special effects or do you leave that
up to the professionals?
Special Effects were always
my forte. When I was a kid I was a magician, the
Great Sullivini. I loved magic, and I have always
considered gore effects nothing more than bloody
magic tricks. It’s all about misdirection and
illusion. I used to make Super 8 movies in my local
cemetery, and I learned early on with clever
editing, you could create some really great effects
on a small budget. So when it came time to make 2001
MANIACS, I didn’t want to use any CGI- I wanted to
do everything on-set and in-camera, just like I did
back in the day. So I storyboarded every murder
knowing exactly how I knew I could do them myself if
I had to, and then I worked very carefully with Roy Knyrim and his great crew at SOTA FX to actually
execute my visions. Sort of the way a magician like
David Copperfield might conceive of a trick, and
then have his team of craftsmen build it.
What happened to all the
heads that were being served up for dinner during
the final sequence of the film? Do you hand them out
as prizes or just keep them all to yourself?
That’s a very sore subject
with me. I had this whole vision of putting them in
a glass case for posterity, but somebody, and I have
my suspicions, stole all eight of them along with
Peaches’ metal mouth piece on the last day of
shooting. If you are out there reading this, and you
know who you are, all will be forgiven and you will
redeem your slot in heaven if those heads somehow
found their way to my office. The address is New
Rebellion, 1366 ½ Riviera Ave, Venice CA 90291. You
can even send them C.O.D.
Your film contains some
very awesome and definitely very memorable deaths.
How many did you actually come up with before
deciding on the final eight or so?
The very first thing Chris
and I did was design the deaths. We used the
original film as a starting point (for instance the
boulder that falls on the girl became the Liberty
ball that crushes Leah, we kept the drawn and
quartering but updated it, we did have the barrel
roll) and then we came up with other deaths that we
felt were in the spirit of HG Lewis— clever deaths
that involved some handiwork on the part of the
maniacs that could often included group
participation, and that ultimately involved some
irony (gay guy getting speared thru the rear with a
BBQ rod, horny kid turning into an orgasm of acid
and gore, etc…) I honestly can’t remember any others
that we thought of that we didn’t use.
Is there any chance for
a sequel?
Do Catholic priests molest
young boys? Hell, YES!
One last question
please. I noticed that horror vet Robert England was
in your twisted little film. Did you ever answer the
phone on set to hear an old raspy voice flirting
with you on the other end and then have the receiver
morph into a big wet, sloppy tongue? Just curious…
Only when my mother called
to see how things were going.
What do you love most
about the horror genre?
Getting to do interviews
with geeks like you for websites that only a handful
of people will ever read. But seriously, folks—I
love this genre because it is to film in general
what rock and roll is to music. It is the rebellious
genre of a medium. The bastard child where anything
goes and usually does. Fuck yeah, I’m a bastard.
How important are sex
and gore to the success of a horror film?
Depends on the type of
horror film. To an exploitation flick, not having
them would be like McDonalds without Big Macs. But
sex and gore in an atmospheric gem like
THE OTHERS
would be like
Johnny Knoxville reciting Shakespeare.
How do you feel about
the current state of the genre?
Feels good to be in the
right place at the right time for once. Horror films
have never been more popular and more daring. Sure,
there are stinkers like STAY ALIVE and
WHEN A
STRANGER CALLS, but then there are home runs like
the SAW franchise and an abundance of kick-ass
independents like LOST,
HATCHET and
ABOMINABLE.
Where do you think the
Horror genre is headed?
I think there will be a ton
of sucky remakes and sequels, but there will also be
some really cool stuff along the way, and
eventually, very soon, we will get our next Freddy
Krueger. Our brand new boogeyman for the next
generation.
Any final comments or
thoughts?
Are we done? Ba da bump.
Honestly, thank you, Gregg, for shining the light on
guys like me who are lucky enough to make a living
doing what we’d do for free- playing with monsters
and telling twisted tales. I love what I do and love
hearing from other monster kids, so hit me up personally on
Myspace.com where you can also check out and my
supernatural teen thriller
DRIFTWOOD. Yee Haw!
