July 20, 2007
ShockTillYouDrop.com: How did the test screening out here go?
Rob Zombie: The test screening was through the roof. Still, even if the movie
audiences love it, you feel weird after those screenings. I went out to see
"Transformers" and after [Halloween] was over [the
Dimension execs] all came up to me and had these looks on their faces and I was
like, "Oh, Jesus. What happened?" and they said the scores were
unbelievable.
Shock: Was that the same sentiment at the East Coast screening?
Zombie: That went great too. The West Coast version of the film we showed was
far more finished than the East Coast version, so it scored much better. That's
to be expected. This whole thing has been amazing just for me, because we've
been doing ADR and sound now, and a scene will just jump, especially for a
horror movie. Once you get the sound effects and music in there it's a whole
different ballgame. When you test these things with rough sound and temp music,
it's a real nightmare.
Shock: Is everything going according to your vision or are there elements
that are surpassing your expectations?
Zombie: There are certain aspects of this that have surpassed anything I
could've hoped for - the two biggest wild cards were always: Who would play
young Michael? And, who would play Laurie [Strode]? Tyler as Michael Myers, too.
I wanted him I and thought he'd be great. Those three people were the unknowns
in a sense. He so delivered above and beyond that people are gonna be blown
away. Everyone else I've worked with on this I knew would be great. Malcolm
[McDowell], who I'd never worked with, but I knew his stuff, I was confident
he'd carry the role. But casting a 10-year-old kid [Daeg Faerch], you hope he's
charismatic enough to carry the first chunk of the movie. That's the one great
thing from the previews, everybody loved classic Michael Myers but everybody
loved early Michael. That's one of their favorite parts of the movie and I was
like, thank God. But you never know, it's like watching young Darth Vader and
saying, "C'mon, when's the real Dark Vader kicking in?"
Shock: Because the film is segmented in that it follows young Michael and
then picks up as he gets older, have you considered lengthening the young
Michael fraction of the film based on the audience's reception to that stuff?
Zombie: It's the same as it always was, what's great is it's basically falling
in according to plan. Because I thought young Michael was really compelling, and
young Michael with Loomis in Smith's Grove was really compelling, but I hadn't
put it in front of an audience - and it scored great. People seemed to really be
into it and paid attention. There was a nice build. I was afraid there'd be this
anticipation like, "Quick, let's get to Michael and have him start
killing!" People really locked on. They want to compare and contrast to
John Carpenter's film but in the first five minutes you go, "Oh, this
movie's so different." There's no sense thinking about the difference. The
audiences weren't doing that. They were locked in and watched it for the movie
it is.
Shock: You and I never spoke about the August release date. Do you share
any concerns about the late summer release considering how "The Devil's
Rejects" got burned two summers ago?
Zombie: August 31st is when the school bell is ringing and it's like the end of
summer. So I don't feel so bad. But with "Hostel: Part II" [Lionsgate]
practically gave that the death slot they gave "Rejects" - like, what
are they doing? We know that because horror movies in general don't have the
promotion budgets they give "Harry Potter" or "Pirates of the
Caribbean" or "Spider-Man." There's also something about it being
summertime, it's at the beach. Do they want to see a dark, scary movie? Probably
not. They want to see "Knocked Up." I think August 31st is kind've
like summer's end, it's fall, let's f**kin' bring it. Any earlier and I'd be
worried.
Shock: After the first test screening you went back to do some
re-shoots...
Zombie: I hate the word "re-shoots"...
Shock: Additional shooting, we should say...
Zombie: Yeah, the movie tested so well in New York that Weinstein was said,
"I believe in this movie so much, if there's anything you felt you didn't
get and you want to get it, I'll give you the money to go do it." Which is
the greatest thing because there's always something more you want. The weird
thing about movies I don't think people really understand is that it's like a
puzzle put together out of sequence. And it's not until you're done that you go
"Shit, if only we had done that," but we didn't because certain things
come alive that are unexpected. It's not like you have a script that's your
blueprint and you make it exactly what's there. Sometimes things change.
Characters might become more important than they originally were, certain
characters become less important. One of the things is the character Danny Trejo
plays resonated so much stronger than I anticipated. There was one more scene
with his character that I needed to resolve with him and it always felt like it
was missing and that's one of the things we went back to get.
Shock: Did the picture become even more violent? There are rumors of more
deaths.
Zombie: Not really, it was like we'd do some violent thing, but it'd turn into
something else. A lot of it is character pieces to connect things. As soon as
someone hears we're shooting more people are like "They went back to shoot
seven more bloody deaths!" Who makes this stuff up? It was so crazy, some
of the stuff we went to shoot was so minor. Like Clint Howard's character
calling from Smith's Grove to give the news of Michael Myers escaping. I
restructured the timeline of the film and had originally shot those scenes
during the day and I needed to shoot them at night because it didn't make sense
within the timeline. Nobody had said you need more violence, you need more gore.
The movie's fuckin' violent enough.
Shock: You're still in post-production, so how is composer Tyler Bates
doing with the score? When we last spoke you said he was playing with a few
ideas.
Zombie: Bates is doing good, that's been really tricky. It's been really tricky
for everybody because it's been a constant thing of how much of the original
stuff do we maintain so that it's cool? And how much do we throw away? It's been
a fine line of it's in, it's out. I mean, all of the classic themes are in
there, it's just how much do you use - as much as they strike up a feeling as
soon as you hear it, you want to be able to strike up new sensations in people
and it's hard to do that with cues that people have heard for thirty years, so
it's been a tough balancing act for him.
Shock: Regarding the poster, is that something you designed yourself?
Because I understand you like to have a hand in some of the marketing.
Zombie: I blurted out, "What if we did something like this?" And then
they did it. They did a ton of posters and I hated everything. [laughs] I saw
that one and was like, you know, I kinda like it! It might not work great as a
tiny image, but as a poster, there's a lot of stuff to look. A lot of times you
go to the theater and the posters are so simple, you can look at it for one
minute and get it. Now, I like how you can stand there for five minutes and look
at the poster. I like that it looks serious - it's not taking all of the lead
actors' faces, airbrushing them perfectly and putting them in a descending order
of appearance. It looks like a serious movie and that's what I'm happy about.
Shock: Has producer Malek Akkad been pressing you about a sequel?
Zombie: Malek says it, but I'm like there's no f**kin' way. [laughs] I don't
know, I know Scout [Taylor-Compton, aka Laurie Strode] hasn't signed on for a
sequel. There's no way I would do it because I approached this movie singular
film unto itself. I don't give a shit about reinvigorating a franchise, that's
all well and good because you have to make money but I just wanted to make a
great film and that's all Carpenter wanted to do. Not make a series. If they
make "Halloween" 2, 3, 4, 9000, I'm not gonna be involved. Because
this film has such a great start and a great ending, to go, "Let's start it
up again!" Would be, to me, "Oh, Jesus Christ."
© Shock
Archived 2007-08 Alex D. Thrawn on www.MalcolmMcDowell.net