five with frights:- Kevin Tenney
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Mr. Frights had the opportunity to chat with KEVIN TENNEY, one of our cherished masters of the genre and the man behind such films as 'NIGHT OF THE DEMONS' & 'WITCHBOARD' as well as other contemporary fan favorites...
Brain Dead
Shoreline Entertainment Brain Dead site
www.viipillars.com/456/brain-dead/
www.viipillars.com/brain_dead/
10EBrothers Brain Dead Site
IMDB for Brain Dead
Brain Dead Fan PageNight Of The Demons
7 Arts Pictures Night Of The Demons site
IMDB for Night Of The Demons
MR. FRIGHTS: Why horror?-
KEVIN TENNEY: Why NOT horror? It has a built-in audience, who will go see a film they’ve never heard of, with a cast they’ve never heard of, and who will give it a great word-of-mouth review if they like it. Try doing that with a love story or a romantic comedy. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that three of the most ridiculously successful low-budget films in the last 10 years (Blair Witch Project,
Open Water, and
Paranormal Activity), have all been horror films. -
MR. FRIGHTS: If you were the one who were to bite it on screen, how would you most like to go out as a victim?
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KEVIN TENNEY: I would like my character to die from friction burns caused by
Angelina Jolie…
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MR. FRIGHTS: The feelings you had for re-making Night of the Demons, was it more like nostalgia and being happy to introduce new audiences to something brilliant (my words of course), or was it like a second chance, giving you the ability to fix anything you may not have been happy with on the original?
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KEVIN TENNEY: I was constantly being asked by fans if there was going to be another
N.O.T.D. sequel, and my answer was always the same; I don’t know, because I don’t own the rights to the franchise. Then other would-be filmmakers and screenwriters approached me with their ideas for a fourth
N.O.T.D. film. Again, I told them I didn’t own the rights, and I would point them toward
Blue Rider Pictures, the production company that did. However, almost everyone expected
Blue Rider to give up the rights free of charge, which quite understandably,
Blue Rider was unwilling to do. Finally, after being barraged by so many wanna-be’s,
Blue Rider offered my company,
Prodigy Entertainment, a free option to see if we could find a serious financier for a
N.O.T.D. sequel. We took the project to
Seven Arts Entertainment, and we decided that since
Amelia Kinkade was no longer interested in reprising her role as Angela, it would be better to re-invent the entire franchise than to merely re-cast the Angela role for another sequel.
As for second chances, I would have to be directing from Joe Agustyn’s screenplay again in order to fix things I didn’t like in the original. This would have been brutal for everyone involved, since I always feel every single thing could have been done better on every film I’ve ever directed. Once the film’s finished, you just have to embrace it, warts and all, and then move on to your next project. By having somebody new, Jace Anderson and Adam Geirasch, write and direct the re-make, this was my chance to bring an updated version of N.O.T.D. to an entirely new generation of horror fans. Are there things I would have done differently than Adam and Jace? Absolutely. But I already directed my version twenty-something years ago. Ultimately, this had to be Adam and Jace’s N.O.T.D. in order for it to be a true re-imagining. -
MR. FRIGHTS: Horror fans are always craving more from those we consider masters of the genre, so what's next for you? Any new projects in the works?
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KEVIN TENNEY: It’s funny that you use the term “master of the genre.” Fellow horror director,
Jeff Burr (Stepfather 2,
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3), and I were discussing the Showtime series,
Masters Of Horror, and how we had never heard of some of the filmmakers who were chosen to direct certain episodes. Even though Jeff and I have both directed a few well-known horror films, he and I were never approached by the series. Jeff said to me, “I guess we’re not masters yet; we’re just practitioners.” I swear, I loved that so much, I am going to one day produce an anthology horror film entitled, Practitioners Of Horror.
In the meantime, I and my Prodigy Entertainment partner, Greg McKay, are putting together the funding for a Witchboard re-make, as well as a sequel to Prodigy’s first film, the zombie/comedy, Brain Dead. -
MR. FRIGHTS: If you could work with anyone in horror that you haven't worked with, past or present, who would it be and why?
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KEVIN TENNEY: Jamie Lee Curtis and
Linda Blair; they are both beautiful, talented actresses as well as true horror icons. And I’ve had a school-boy crush on both of them for decades.
Hit the Grab Bag Questions below to go on with the interview...
GRAB BAG QUESTIONS
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MR. FRIGHTS: You've written and directed for television movies, would you ever consider lending your talents for great horror to a TV series?
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KEVIN TENNEY: My agent asked me that years ago, and I said no. I felt that although film is a director’s medium, television is a producer’s medium, and I was too much of a control freak to just be a weekly hired gun. But I’ve since mellowed to the idea over the years. Given the right project and/or circumstances, yes, I would be willing to direct episodic TV.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Do you have a favorite camera effect? Something perhaps signature about your work?
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KEVIN TENNEY: I do like my sweeping spirit P.O.V. shots, ala the
Witchboard films, but I also love wide-angled lens shots and mirror shots, ala
Night Of The Demons. I did the camera-through-a-moving-car shot in
Witchboard 2 and
The Second Arrival, but lately, I’ve really been obsessed with match dissolves that transition from one scene to the next, ala
Tick-Tock and
Brain Dead. Mostly, I believe film is first and foremost a visual medium, so I try to make sure I give the audience something interesting to look at while telling them an entertaining story.
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MR. FRIGHTS: What are your thoughts on the whole revitalization of the vampire in recent years and how it's gone so far?
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KEVIN TENNEY: Although I liked films like
Near Dark,
The Lost Boys, and
Fright Night, I’ve personally never found vampires to be scary. I think it’s funny that the new crop of vampire films and shows are now considered non-scary to everyone else.
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MR. FRIGHTS: Which is scarier to you... possessed dolls/puppets/toys or possessed people?
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KEVIN TENNEY: In this economy, possessed doesn’t scare me anywhere near as much as re-possessed…
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MR. FRIGHTS: Do you have any favorite horror (books, movies, etc.) you might recommend to fans?
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KEVIN TENNEY: Before
The Exorcist and
Jaws were great films, they were great books. If you haven’t read them already, you really should. And even a lesser
Stephen King novel is better than most other horror authors’ best works. As for films,
Carpenter’s The Thing, the original
The Omen,
Saw,
Alien, and
Aliens are all truly well made and genuinely scary. If you prefer creepy atmosphere, the films
The Uninvited (1944 version),
The Haunting (1963 version), and
The Legend Of Hell House are good choices. Also, just about anything directed by Hitchcock.