A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing HALLOWEEN 4 director and Samhain aficionado, Dwight Little on all things horror, the new film NATTY KNOCKS, and duh, of course, HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS; and in case you’re new here, is one of my own personal Kryptonite films. Put that sucker on, and I’m pretty much dead to the world. With the 35th anniversary of the 1988 movie looming over us, I used this opportunity to gain a deeper insight of the film I rented over and over again at my local Mom-and-Pop video store and that has become not only a fan favorite over the years but a beautiful throwback to the nostalgia of Halloween in the 80s.
Which begged Dwight Little to ask me himself,
“Why do YOU think people love this movie so much, right, now?“
To which I gave the obvious answer of-
“Mr. Little, HALLOWEEN 4 is thee perfect seasonal Halloween film. It holds so many memories and nostalgia for us children of the 80s and embodies the look and feel of the holiday with an added bonus of Michael Myers slowly walking around chasing folks.”
Tell me I’m wrong…
DL:
“Those streets of Haddonfield, all the dead leaves, the old drug store, and the shallow fields, the movie on top of it being Michael Myers, just has that nice atmosphere of what it was like to go trick or treating.“
NN: And that opening is a banger as well!
DL: You know we put a LOT of energy into that, and I had asked the writeron set, ya know, how much do we actually KNOW about the origins of Halloween? I looked up some references on it and found out there’s some old Scottish agricultural tradition where the fields have gone bare and everyone has to do their last harvest to get ready for the Winter. And so there’s all this iconic imagery of scarecrows and pumpkin men, and looking back into the roots of it all, is how we came up with that title sequence that seems so beloved. I just didn’t want to do the pumpkin [intro sequence again] and wanted to try something else.
NN: With RETURN turning 35 this year, tell me some of your fondest memories of being on set, or something that sticks out to you looking back on making the film.
DL: “Well, I was such a goofy fan of Donald Pleasence. Growing up, ya know, this was the guy from THE GREAT ESCAPE, and he was a James Bond villain so in my eyes he was English Royality. So, to be able to work with Donald as a young director, it was such a thrill, To be honest, I was intimidated for about the first two hours on the first day of filming with him on set, but we fell into such an easy actor/director relationship and he never made me feel like he didn’t want to be “directed” and so I was able to really dig in with him and not be scared away by his star status and that was something I really enjoyed.”
“I also loved both the girls, Danielle Harries and Ellie Cornell. They found a chemistry on their own, I didn’t even have to do much, and Ellie is just naturally took care of Danielle, and seemed bonded right from the beginning, which gave a real heart to the movie.”
NN: Yeah, it’s a tragedy what they did to her in Part 5. To me personally, I think she’s the greatest final girl of the franchise!
DL: Well, I didn’t have anything to do with 5 and to be quite honest I haven’t even seen all of 5. I think it’s a shame and I think they should have kept her alive in the end. Ellie’s takedown of Myers, is one of the most ferocious Final Girl things ever. The way she drives the truck and the way handles herself is fierce. She was really terrific and such a believable actress. She never tried to overdo it, and she’s sexy without even trying to be.
NN: Yep. She feels really relatable to a lot of us female horror fans.
DL: Yeah, she’s not just a hottie. She’s a lot more than that.
NN: In the community, there has been rumors, that there’s a scene that was filmed that explains how Loomis and Myers survived that fire at the end of HALLOWEEN II. Is that true?
DL: “No that is not true, but here what is true. Alan McElroy, the writer, and I decided we needed to do all the heavy lifting explaining what happened in one elevator ride. So what happened was you see the attendants come into the mental facility and then the guard takes them down the hall and tells them the whole story on the elevator ride. By the time the doors open at the end of that elevator ride, basically we’ve done all the explaining we needed to do there. And then when you see Michael on the gurney, and the camera comes down, you can see that his hand is covered in burn scars and has been in a coma for ten years, face still wrapped… and that felt like we helped the audience make that turn from 2 to 4. By the time they put Michael in the ambulance, you’re not even questioning it.“
“HALLOWEEN 4 was a great experience for me and holds a lot of great memories.”
HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS has given us 35 years of sweet Halloween nostalgia, a goofy Myers mask blooper, and a final girl that comes correct in her stance against Myers. Upon the news of Miramax picking up the rights to Halloween in plans to make it a series, like the upcoming Friday the 13th: Crystal Lake show, I sincerely propose that this fan-favorite attempt to pick up from the events of after 4 and make an adult Jamie the killer in a clown costume. Myers can be dead and laid to rest for a while, I think. I would be at peace with that. Hell, maybe even make an episode where we finally get some justice for Ted Hollister! I would like to see it go that route OR pursue John Carpenter’s original plans and explore different Halloween urban legends throughout the series.
Either way, we’ll always have Halloween 4 and me, personally, the fact that Dwight Little did tell me I probably know more about that movie than he does. I know it’s Halloween and all, but Christmas came a little early for me this year.
Grab your Nightmare Makeup Kit, if you know a guy named Wade, tell him to fuck off and rewatch Return for its 35th anniversary this year.
It’s no secret to anyone here how much I adore HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, so when I was asked to interview Dwight Little, the master director of Halloween aesthetics, I never said yes to something so fast in my life. A visual showman and a pure fan of the holiday we all love, Little returns to his roots with a brand-new horror movie set on Halloween Eve called NATTY KNOCKS which, ironically, roots itself into some old-fashioned Halloween tropes and lore makes this holy matrimony of Halloween delight, what Dwight Little calls, “A Seasonal Halloween Movie“
Dwight Little’s new Halloween visceral venture, NATTY KNOCKS, brings back former alumni he’s worked with Robert Englund, Danielle Harris, and newcomer to the director’s world, Bill Moseley as the film’s crazed antagonist Abner Honeywell in a horror genre-mash-up mixed with supernatural and urban legend elements. Honeywell (Moseley) is traumatized as a child via his witness of his Grind House actress turned prostitute mother, Natty’s untimely and brutal death by the hands of vengeful women who proclaim she’s a witch; giving the small town where they reside, a horrible crime turned into an infamous legend over the years and setting us up for a sweet Halloween treat filled with vengeance. Dwight Little describes the set-up as “a Roger Corman inspired B-Movie within a B-movie”.
Protagonists Danielle Harris and our film’s John Houseman(as Dwight Little describes his character), Robert Englund, who unravels the ghost story of Natty so beautifully, round out the family reunion of Halloween film nostalgia which is a true love letter to the fans of HALLOWEEN 4 in retrospect. Little states that filming with the horror alumni again, more than 30 years after both HALLOWEEN 4and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, brought back both great memories and fuzzy feelings-which is a whole ‘nother piece in its own right of which we will explore in Part 2 of my interview with Mr. Little where we celebrate the 35th anniversary of HALLOWEEN 4.
Speaking of HALLOWEEN 4, D.L. says he purposely inserted some Easter Eggs, including maybe some ominous images from a particular movie intro, honoring the 1988 fan-favorite film of the franchise inside NATTY KNOCKS, so make sure to look for that while watching! There’s just something about watching a Halloween horror film with Bill Moseley and Robert Englund that has TheReturn of Michael Myers sprinkled throughout the movie, that just makes me feel so damn good inside.
NATTY KNOCKS is currently streaming FOR FREE on TUBI, which Dwight highly praises as a “wonderful opportunity for horror fans to enjoy good horror movies on a budget,” and I couldn’t agree more. The Blu-ray is now available on AMAZON, which you can buy here!
Dwight Little also has a new memoir, Still Rolling: Inside the Hollywood Dream Factory, where the director talks make or break creative battles, Hollywood intrigues, unpredictable studio executives, and temperamental actors are all documented in colorful detail. That being said, I asked D.L just how scandalous this book really is?!
D.L.- “There is actually some gossip, and it’s not a takedown of anybody, but I’ve worked with enough well-known profiled people like Wesley Snipes, Keifer Sutherland, etc… and there’s some good, interesting stuff about movies and TV stars. But there’s mostly a lot of behind the curtain stuff, and I think film fans are going to like it… Especially those who love HALLOWEEN 4. It’s really a must-read for any big fans of that movie as there’s some deep dives into both that and PHANTOM and horror fans, I think, will really love it.“
Horror fans and Hollywood aficionados can pick up the book here at Amazon!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview, where we talk all things HALLOWEEN 4!
No one ever stated it quite as succinctly as my friend Muse when she paraphrased Ice T. On his third character in the HATCHET franchise, Shen has more than established himself to be the cinematic pain in Kane Hodder’s ass.
As VICTOR CROWLEY (2017) writer and director Adam Green often says, “Parry Shen is the final girl of Honey Island Swamp.” From Shawn and Justin in the first two HATCHET movies, to Andrew Yong in the most recent installments, Shen has proven impossible to eradicate. And no one is complaining.
With the fifth anniversary looming for the utter shock and surprise that was the unveiling of the fourth film of the series in August of 2017, we arranged a phone call with the franchise’s true MVP.
Before Shen embarked on day trip last Friday, we spoke about the secrecy that surrounded VICTOR CROWLEY, the struggle to keep a straight face acting alongside Dave Sheridan, a moment of “method acting to [Shen’s] detriment”, and whether he’d be down for a fifth flick should Green decide to resurrect the Bayou Butcher one more time
But before we dive into the interview, please note that we said “should” Adam Green decide to do another HATCHET movie.
If.
Nothing is in the works. There are no definitive plans. Again…if. Not to put a damper on things, but it had to be said.
“Now, enjoy the rest of the album!”
Parry Shen, everybody.
NIGHTMARE NOSTALGIA: So, Adam Green reaches out one day and says that he wants to make a HATCHET movie. In secret. Walk us through that conversation.
PARRY SHEN: Adam emailed me the script. It was all through email, I believe, the first time. And I was kind of astonished because I thought [HATCHET III (2013)] was it. He was pretty sure that the third one was going to be it, and I remember him on the set just kind of observing–he was writing HOLLISTON at the time and B.J. (McDonnell) was directing–and I was like “this is it, huh? He said “yeah,” but I saw a glimmer in his eye, like if there is a fourth one, the gears were running in his head, “it would have to be just…you.” (Laughs) He knew how the third one ended, because he did write it, and that came to fruition years later.
I remember thinking, because the first three took place consecutively, with revisiting and making it literally ten years after the first one, it just made sense logistically, the story made sense about how to bring Victor back in a new way and I was like, “oh wow, this is really cool.” And it was cool to be front and center for the first time in the franchise, through deathocracy you know, everyone was gone! (Laughs) It was just a really cool challenge to have more weight on my shoulders.
The whole secrecy of it, I though, was really cool. We, people who were a part of it, thought that it had ended, so the fans for sure thought that. To have them a couple of steps behind while we did it was kind of awesome.
NN: I spoke with Kane Hodder at a convention a while back and asked how y’all managed to make a movie and no one had a clue. He said “that’s a good question! I have no idea!” Do you ever stop and marvel at the fact that no one said a word for two years?
PS: Everyone was so on board with how cool that concept was that nobody wanted to mess it up. It was like, why would you do that, you know? So much had been set up in terms of the three (films), that’s the trilogy and that’s it, and after a while it became very easy because we just didn’t talk about it. When people would ask me what projects I had, I would tell them other things and just keep it pushed to the side. When it was time to release, and seeing teasers from Adam–this is going to be the trailer once the world knows–I was like, “oh wait, that’s right! I did shoot that (laughs). Because I never talked about it for a year afterwards, it was like out of sight, out of mind. Oh wow, that’s right!
NN: Speaking of Kane. Across the board, cast and crew mention how terrifying Hodder is when he emerges for a scene. Grizzled veteran of Honey Island Swamp that you are, has Kane lost any of that affect on you?
PS: No, he hasn’t lost any affect because every iteration, the makeup gets better every time, so there’s always something that’s different. And Kane always brings a level of ferocity (laughs) to the performance. So yeah, it’s never lost upon me.
NN: You’re on your third character in this franchise, but with Andrew Yong, you got your first opportunity to pick up where you left off. Is it more challenging to come in for a new role or the continued portrayal of an established one?
PS: They’re both different. It’s probably the most challenging to create a new character from scratch. You’re doing a different back story, whether Adam gives it to you or coming up with it for yourself with the clues of the dialogue.
It’s probably easier to have an existing character because then you have something to springboard, having things to go off of for Andrew, his experiences from the third movie to roll into the fourth. But, at the same time, there’s a lot of stuff that popped up that wasn’t there that was like new information that I had to do homework on. His past history with Sabrina (Krystal Joy Brown), his ex-wife, and Adam had written the actual book I, Survivor after we had shot the film. That would have helped out a lot (laughs) in terms of providing back story. 300 pages of back story.
NN: On GENERAL HOSPITAL, you sprint through filming 100-plus pages per day, but with HATCHET flicks you’re primarily shooting at night, in the elements, and in a constant state of panic. As an actor, how arduous is that particular pivot?
PS: They’re actually fairly similar because for both we’re moving at a very quick speed for different reasons. With GENERAL HOSPITAL, it’s the sheer amount of material that we have to get through because we have a new episode that airs every day. For HATCHET, it’s a lot of material in the constrained amount of time that we have to shoot for budgetary reasons. And also because we’re fighting daylight because we’re filming at night.
Those skill sets, of being able to make choices quickly and making the most effective choice (chuckles) quickly was kind of the same. It’s not an easy thing to do because there are a lot of people who need time to ramp up, which is very understandable. But at the same time, I think one helped me with the other. My experiences on GENERAL HOSPITAL helped me to get back into the saddle with the pace of HATCHET, and my experience with HATCHET helped me get ready for the fast pace of GENERAL HOSPITAL.
NN: Was it hard to keep a straight face with Dave Sheridan?
PS: Yyyes. Yes. His improvisation is great. It kind of sucks because I have to play the straight man in all of this, where I can only contribute to the improvisation that makes sense in the frame of things.
I always say that one of my favorite scenes from the HATCHET movies is when [Sheridan’s] saying “Austin’s dead.” And [Brian] Quinn comes behind me and says “dude, I’m right here.” And [Sheridan] says “Austin’s alive!” All I can do is give a shrug like “why would you…?” But I love that because the way the camera was framed, you could get so many actors and see their expressions, and seeing Austin pop up in the back is just so well done. The timing was great from everybody.
NN: Sounds like you had a bit of a mishap filming the scene where you emerged from the water outside the plane?
PS: The only mishap was that we all felt that it would be really cool for us to emerge from head to waist like we were really coming out of the water because we were submerged instead of just exiting the water. The camera crew, I think, were taking bets like “nah, they’re not gonna do it,” because it was cold. If you haven’t been in extremely cold water before, it’s hard to describe, because you’re breath is just sucked out of your lungs. You can’t even control it, it looks like you’re doing this fake acting (laughs) of being cold, but you really can’t control your body when it’s that cold. And it was that cold. It was at night and the water was freezing, but let’s just do it real quick. “Action!” and we did it. I even took a couple gulps of water like I was having trouble swimming away from Victor. I took a big gulp when they called action and the end result was us literally just walking out of the water (laughs). We didn’t have to do any of that!
And then I found out that Kane had pissed in the water. So, I had taken a mouthful of water for no reason and swallowed his diluted urine. It was so dumb, as soon as I swallowed I was like “they’re not going to see this. It’s so dark.” It was like method acting to my detriment.
NN: This is one of our favorite questions: be it at a convention, through your website, or a random encounter on the street–what is the strangest request you’ve received from a HATCHET fan?
PS: You know, I don’t get the weird ones (laughs). Usually that’s like Kane or Danielle [Harris] who get that stuff. I’m not a violent person in the movies, so no one asks me to choke them like Kane does, So, it’s going to be very boring. I can’t think of anything that’s been weird.
NN: OK, so a little more tame.
PS: Yeah.
NN: Anything weird from the soap opera fans? Both are rabid in their own way.
PS: Sorry, this one’s gonna be a boring answer (laughs). I’ve been very fortunate to not have any weird requests. The only strange thing that’s happened was when I was in a restaurant. I had a story line (on GENERAL HOSPITAL) where there was a baby switch and I took someone else’s baby and kept him as my own, raised him as my own. Someone (at the restaurant) yelled “you give that baby back!” And I said “no, he’s mine!” (laughs).
NN: Bit of a sidebar here, but tell us about MADELINES.
PS: That was a movie I did with Brea Grant and Jason Miller, who I did a movie with called UNIDENTIFIED (2013). We just worked really well together. We have the same sensibilities. He’s my producing partner. Then he and Brea started working together and Brea wrote this script about this couple who invent a time machine, something goes wrong–the coding goes wrong–and basically she experiments on herself to go into the future.
But something goes wrong and we see the coding and realize that she is going to reappear at the same time every day for the next ten years, basically. So, 3,600 of her are coming every day for the next ten years and we have to figure out a way to get rid of them. And it gets kind of grisly. The only solution they have is to basically start killing them off one-by-one.
NN: And while we’re at it, Green’s Halloween short FAIRY TALE POLICE was so incredible. How is that not an actual series?
PS: I loved that concept and loved the shoot. I was so excited to possibly keep doing more in that universe with fairy tale characters and policing that area with Rachael Leigh Cooke. I watch it at least a few times every year. It’s so well done. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, you can find it on YouTube.
NN: Would you be down for a fifth installment if Green decides to give it another go?
PS: Yeah! I mean, it’s no secret now that he said that there should be one. He has some pieces in his head. They’re pretty ambitious, but we have to keep outdoing the last one, so with less budget and bigger ideas that he wants, does make it more challenging. It’s kind of always having the right things in place to be able to meet the expectations of what you have in mind. Your imagination (chuckles), right? Then meeting somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I’d be totally down. Ready to go.
NN: It had been 10 years since the journey began when VICTOR CROWLEY had its big reveal, and now we approach the fifth anniversary of that release. The HATCHET Army is fiercely devoted, but as a member of the inner circle, what does being a part of the HATCHET family mean to you?
PS: It’s a lot of different things. It’s obviously the fans. I went to a HorrorHound convention recently, and was able to visit with a lot of the fans over the years, and how they got introduced to the film. Some of them were stationed overseas in the military, and all they had was a few movies, and HATCHET were one of them. It helped them get through that time in their lives. Some people were bed-ridden from a sickness and it helped them get through that time. Other people are aspiring filmmakers, young students, and that sort of got them inspired to get into makeup effects and filmmaking.
And on the other hand, Adam just chooses very well the people he surrounds himself with. They’re like-minded and have become really great friends. You can see when we do the Halloween shorts, (Green) just gets everyone together and it’s just really cool when someone is indoctrinated into the HATCHET family, because we know that you’re in that club and you’ve got a good friend for life.
Nightmare Nostalgia 