Interview: Rob Zombie
Prince of Darkness
Rob Zombie movies are not for the faint of heart. There are few laughs in his horror films — just blood and gore and fright. If you’re still reading, Zombie’s Halloween sequel H2 hits theatres this month, promising all of the above
By Chris Alexander
From his grizzled, heavy-metal hillbilly visage, to his creepy multimedia endeavours, to his very name, no one has done more to legitimatize trash movie culture than Rob Zombie.
The former frontman for the metal band White Zombie (named after the
Bela Lugosi film), Zombie forged his identity with liberal inspiration
from the vintage-exploitation, cult and horror worlds. Thanks to
several Platinum-selling albums in the 1990s, Zombie looked to be the
heir apparent to Alice Cooper. But in 1998 when White Zombie disbanded,
the man born Robert Cummings launched a solo career and, eventually,
turned his attention to writing and directing movies.
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Taylor Mane as Michael Myers.
Above: Rob Zombie
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First, in 2003, Zombie released his ’70s-styled shocker House of 1000 Corpses, and then in 2005 its blood-spattered sequel, The Devil’s Rejects. Two years later came his controversial, and rather successful, remake of John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 horror, Halloween.
This summer Zombie returns with H2, a Halloween sequel
that once again casts the lovely Scout Taylor-Compton as Haddonfield,
Illinois, resident Laurie Strode, and Tyler Mane as her deranged
brother Michael Myers. The film picks up where the last movie left off,
with Laurie in hospital being treated for wounds inflicted by her
masked sibling. However, as Michael hacks, slashes and batters his way
back to her door — his intent as malicious as ever — we slowly begin to
realize that the madness which has plagued the killer since he was a
child may in fact be hereditary.
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Zombie was in Los Angeles when Famous spoke with him by phone.
From the time you got the greenlight to do H2 last December until completion earlier this year…well, it was a pretty small window. It must have been a stressful shoot.
“It was insane, but making a movie is always insane. By the same token, we really made things happen in the time that we had. Somehow, everyone seemed to move twice as fast which I really think worked to the advantage of the picture because there was no time to second-guess. We were moving ahead so furiously that no one could keep up with what we were doing and I think, creatively, the movie has really benefited from it. There’s a real energy here.”
In the first film you were somewhat shackled by the shadow of John Carpenter’s original. Have you strayed from the formula with H2?
“Oh yeah, this one is all mine and that’s why I was excited to do it. When you’re remaking a movie you need to be faithful in some respects, at least that’s what I thought when I made Halloween. If I had taken it and radically changed it, people would be like, why call it Halloween at all? And if I had stuck too close to the source, fans would have been just as irate. I was damned either way. So, this time, I just did 100 percent what I wanted. I never looked back, didn’t think about people’s expectations. I really believe that you need to be free to create good work.”
How do you feel about Hollywood’s need to keep remaking classic horror films?
“At first I was pretty bummed out by it all, but now I’m numb to it. The business has changed so much and it’s almost impossible to get something greenlit unless it’s a remake or a sequel or based on a graphic novel or something. So you just have to realize this and work within those boundaries.”
Outside of going entirely with your own creative instincts, what’s the biggest departure in H2?
“It’s way darker, way grittier. I thought my Halloween was a nice-looking film but it just wasn’t dirty enough for me. I’m a big fan of crud, so to speak, so instead of shooting 35 mm, this time I used Super 16 mm, which is what I shot The Devil’s Rejects on. I just love the way it looks, so dirty, so worn. It looks like what 35 mm used to look like in the ’70s. To me there’s life in that grime, a reality that really brings an almost documentary feel to the movie.”
There’s always a tendency in mainstream horror films to bring humour or satire into the proceedings. Is there any comedy within the confines of your film?
“There’s really no humour in H2 at all, it’s very grim. Every character is totally f--ked up, totally damaged after the events in the first movie. We basically follow the path of three people, Michael, Laurie and Dr. Loomis [once more played by veteran British actor Malcolm McDowell] and how they all came out of it. Loomis seems to have come out of it perfectly and if there is any dark laughs in the film, they come out of what a douche bag he’s turned into. But that’s Malcolm, that’s what I love about him. He’s so good about playing that part. He can be such a prick on camera and yet he can be so charismatic and lovable at the same time.”
Like Tarantino, you seem to thrive on resurrecting these ’70s cult actors like Malcolm and assimilating them
into your cinematic universe. Who else have you brought on board for H2?
“I was so totally excited to have Margot Kidder in this one. Some people thought that, because of the troubles she’s had in the past, there would be issues with her on set, but she was a joy and she’s incredible in the movie. It seems that many of the actors who worked in the ’70s have a different vibe; they have a looser, freer aura about them. Whether it be Margot or Karen Black or Brad Dourif, they all just have such a different sense of who they are. I love working with them and, for me, it’s just a thrill to still have them around.”
Chris Alexander is a Toronto-based writer and radio personality and the Canadian correspondent for the horror magazine Fangoria.