five with frights:- James Cheetham
-
Mr. Frights got the opportunity to do a little Q & A with Author & zombie
make-over artist
JAMES CHEETHAM. For
my first interview, I couldn't have asked for a more entertaining & interesting
set of answers to our 'Five with Frights' questons...
www.jamescheetham.ca
-
MR. FRIGHTS: So far, what accomplishment are you most proud of with regards to your body of work?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Honestly, I'm just proud to have been published, that was my initial goal, anything that happens after this is icing on the cake. If I had to pick one story it would be
Fade To Pale of course.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Can you tell us about a horror movie, book, piece of art, or show you've seen recently that you really liked a lot?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I saw a British movie recently called
Creep which was directed by
Christopher Smith. It had it’s ‘roll your eyes’ moments but for the most part I was impressed with it. Its a few years old now but I’d definitely pick it up for my collection.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Can you tell us a little about your latest work?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I’m working on a book called
Ballad of a Bought Farm. It’s been a hard story to write. It’s about a heroin addict who ends up stranded in the country after a car accident. He’s taken to a farm where nothing is as it seems. The family residing there are all bizarre, each of them hiding a secret from the main character who soon realizes they all play an imperative role in his life, and his fate. Hopefully, this will be the year we get the zombie series out there too.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What can fans expect next from you?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Lots of zombies, a few short stories, and Ballad.
Myphotocookie.com and I will be putting out 4 new Zombie Photo cookie designs this coming Halloween. You have to be a zombie to become one of our Halloween treats though…you have 8 months people…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Have you ever played a scary practical joke on anyone, or had one played on you? Tell us about it.
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: A long time ago I worked in a paint warehouse and in the winter, when things slowed down, we played a lot of practical jokes on one another. My favourite was the credit card scam. We had these old Hustler magazines in the filing cabinet so one day, while our boss was busy, we found his wallet on his desk and stole one of his credit cards. We put the card down over one of the ads in the back of the Hustler magazine—a nude photo of a Tranny—then took a utility knife and cut the picture out so it was the exact size of his card. We glued the photo to the back of his card and put it back in his wallet. The following Monday he came in steaming mad. He was with his wife at Safeway buying groceries and the credit card machine wouldn’t read his information. The cashier of course turned it over to see what was wrong, and there was the naked Tranny staring back at her.
We had so much fun with James' answers and he was gracious enough to endure all of our off the wall questions so we couldn't just stop there. If you want to see the full interview, click on the "Grab Bag Questions" below.
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What drove you to horror/dark fiction?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I always loved being scared. Even as a kid I would ask for
Fangoria magazines for Christmas. I loved the horror movies of the seventies. They were so campy, but I grew fond of them.
The Howling freaked me right out—I saw it at the drive-in as a kid (what better place to see a horror movie?). I saw
Dawn of the Dead at the same drive-in and couldn’t sleep for a month. You can’t argue with that kind of emotion, that’s as real as it gets.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: You're a writer of stories, have you ever or would you ever write a screenplay for a dark fiction/horror movie? And do you have any thoughts on what subject it would tackle?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I plan on giving screenplays a shot but I just haven’t had the time. A lot of the movies today rely on gore and special effects to sell the project and I don’t think that concept works. Real fear comes from what you don’t see. I would definitely keep that concept in mind. I would love to give Canada their own zombie movie and really CBC it out. The Americans reading this won’t understand what I mean but the hosers will. Lots of Quirky Canadian tongue-in-cheek dark humour.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Tell me how you would like to die MOST fictionally if you were the victim on a homicidal, possibly possessed, fictional serial killer?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Hey, the last thing I want to do is give anybody bright ideas…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Death By chocolate, or Death by Still-living Sushi?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I’ll go with chocolate…sounds sexy.
- MR. FRIGHTS: If you were to remake any famous
horror film, which film, and how would it be different from the original?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I think
Carnival of Souls would be a fun one to tackle or
The Last Man on Earth with
Vincent Price. I love the whole concept of isolation and loneliness. Some people would go insane. I like to think I’d thrive. I suppose
I am Legend is a remake of
Last Man on Earth, but it stunk…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Chainsaw or Butcher Knife?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Butcher knife. You have to be really crazy to use a blade. A Chainsaw does all the work for you and that’s only if you can get it started. A butcher knife says: “Man, you just pissed off the wrong guy…”
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What internal organ do you think is the most disgusting to see sliced open on-screen?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: None of that really bothers me. When I saw
Dawn of the Dead I was maybe ten or twelve and it screwed me up. I was physically sick all night, especially the scene with
Tom Savini
getting his guts ripped open. The last gore scene that really bothered me was the face stabbing in
Pan’s Labyrinth. I could feel that one…yikes.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: If one of your books was turned into a movie and you could cast/or star with any horror icon alive today, who would it be and why?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I thought
Leslie
Easterbrook was great in Rob Zombie’s movies.
Bill Moseley too, they seem to understand how to properly convey madness on the screen in everything they do. I think Zombie had it right recruiting all the stars of the past for his movies, like
Sid Haig and
Ken Foree. They bring movies alive…there’s no need to use your imagination, they have you up front and centre.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Fast or slow zombies?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Slow. Fast moving zombies don’t give you time to be creeped out. The slow moving ones may never reach you, but that doesn’t mean they’re giving up. I think you can write deeper plots when the characters have a chance in hell…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Zombie Infection... started by secret Government scientists or a mysterious meteor from space?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I have my own theory. When
Prairie Frost comes out you’ll know!
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What is the most disgusting thing you ever ate?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Well I can give you a funny story that might make up for my lack of a decent answer. In the middle of the night a couple of years ago I couldn’t sleep so I wandered the house a bit then decided to grab a spoonful of ice cream out of the carton. Of course it was dark, but I know what a frozen carton of ice cream feels like, so I got it, I opened it, I dug a frozen spoonful out and popped it in my mouth then headed back to bed. It turned out it was frozen slow-cooker stew, not ice cream. It came in the same kind of carton. It did seem kind of odd that there were peas in it.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Do you believe comedy and Horror can blend well together?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Of course, and that’s how it should be. You have to give the viewer or the reader a chance to let their guard down. You can’t be bad assed scary all the time, that grows old pretty quick.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: If you were held hostage, and were given a chance to escape if you offered one part of your body for extraction/dismemberment... What part would you offer up and why?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: These are some messed up questions. Take a toe, they’ve done nothing for me lately…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Who is the scariest person alive today?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Osama Bin Laden. Say what you want, that dude looks evil. He is the closest thing to the devil I’ve ever seen short of maybe Charlie Manson when he’s all goofed out…
- MR. FRIGHTS: Freddy or Jason, who needs a Stridex pad the most?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I think they’re both pretty. Besides it’s all about what’s on the inside.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What is your favourite horror based novel/book/comic series?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: I think some of
Stephen King’s older stuff is first rate, The Shining for sure. I like the classic stuff too like
Poe. He could weave some pretty dark images. I loved
Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness and
Thomas Harris’ Hannibal books. I don’t think I could pick just one.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Who is scarier, Stephen King or Pat Robertson?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Pat Robertson hands down. I have met some very nice people in the horror industry.
Stephen King is the guy you want to sit down and have a beer with. Pat Robertson, or any religious fanatic who calls people sinners for not believing as they do are the scariest people in our society. I have some religious friends, and they remain friends because they don’t try to change my beliefs. You can be a good person without believing in God.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: If Roger Daltrey wasn’t available, name one famous rocker you would cast in a vampire movie or write a part for and why?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM:
Mick Marrs from
Motley Crue. He’s a pretty creepy looking dude.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Ever thought up a horror special effect and put it into a story in hopes you could see it one day on tv or in a movie? What was it?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: There is a part in
Ballad of a Bought Farm that makes my skin crawl every time I imagine it, and as bad as I want to, I’ll have to pass until the book comes out.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Best Horror Special effect you have ever seen?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM:
AVATAR! Just kidding. I guess I’m old school, or just plain old. I like the good old days when nothing depended on computers.
Tom Savini is God…I’ll buy his religion.
-
MR. FRIGHTS: What is the first horror film/book you ever saw/read and how old were you?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM:
Dawn of The Dead is my defining moment as many people already know. I was a kid at the drive-in with friends of the family, in a van. It was an all-nighter.
Dawn of The Dead,
Phantasm,
It’s Alive, and
The Fog, deep fried
pizza pops and a teenage pal who scared me so bad once we got home, I puked. He also put his toe in my glass of milk once, that’s a whole other story…
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Have you ever given one of your body parts a name?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Yes, I call my pecs ‘the bitches’…lol
-
MR. FRIGHTS: Scariest US President EVER?
-
JAMES CHEETHAM: Come on, too easy…