‘Creepshow’ Series Director John Harrison On Working With George Romero
Since the release of the first film in 1982, Creepshow as a franchise has both terrified and entertained audiences with tales that tapped into our darkest fears. Shudder has continued that tradition with the Creepshow series, now in its fourth season. Greg Nictero has led the charge on a show that captures the nostalgia of the original films but also taps into contemporary cultural fears. Plus, you’ll find yourself laughing on more than one occasion.
Dread Central spoke with John Harrison, who not only directed two stories this season, but has been involved with Creepshow since the very beginning. We spoke with him about his experience working with George A. Romero, what makes a story distinctly Creepshow, and what to expect from this season of the series.
Dread Central: Congratulations on another season of Creepshow. How does it feel to continue to be part of this incredible series?
John Harrison: Oh, I love it. I love it because I love the format, first of all. But I have to hand it to Greg Nicotero, with whom we’ve worked together for many years. I’m so pleased that he’s able to maintain the style and the love and affection for this show. That goes back to when we were all working with George [Romero]. So it’s a thrill to still be able to play with it.
DC: You’ve been involved with Creepshow since the beginning. You were the composer, correct, for the original film, but you were also the first assistant director. It’s just got to be such an incredible experience to be able to see it from what it started out to what it’s become.
JH: I mean, back in the day, and I say this often, if somebody had said to George and to me and to the rest of us that were making the movies in the 45 years, this movie is going to be considered a classic, and everybody’s going to still love it, and half the people that love it weren’t even born when it was made, we would say, you’ve got to be kidding. But we were having so much fun doing it, and we had a great team doing it. But you’re absolutely right. The experience of sitting next to George for the entire production was the best film school I could have ever gone to.
DC: You must have learned so much from him, and you get to continue to do that now. And so you have two segments in the new season on Shudder. Can you tell me a little bit about the two segments that you’ve directed?
JH: One is called “Smile,” which is a really interesting psychological horror about a world-famous combat photographer who a ghost from the past as it were, comes back to haunt him for something that happened years ago. The beauty of it is, is that it’s not a real gore fest. It’s not a real monster movie. It’s a very dark psychological drama, and it has a wonderful twist at the end. So I really enjoyed doing it because it was very different than some of the other creep show episodes I’ve done.
The second one was called “Baby Teeth,” and it was more traditional, there is a creepy monster in the closet, and we don’t know what it is. But it’s going to be quite dangerous and quite violent. It’s about a young girl who has an encounter, let’s put it this way, has an encounter with the Tooth Fairy that’s kind of unlike the fairytales we’ve all read.
DC: There’s such a great range and you get to work in creatures, but then also do a more psychological drama within the Creepshow lens.
JH: That’s the beauty of an anthology. That was the beauty of the original with George. And when I did Tales From The Dark Side, the TV show and the movie for Paramount, I got to do different stories all within one movie. So it’s kind of like each one of these is a little film in
DC: I love that you’ve done so many anthologies and you’ve been able to tell so many different stories. And I’m glad that you mentioned Tales From The Dark Side because I absolutely love it, especially the final segment with the artist is one of my all-time favorites. And I just wanted to hear a little bit more about creating that segment because I think it’s such an incredible way to end that film.
JH: Well, it’s definitely inspired by the whole Creepshow mythology. I mean, having come out of the Creepshow world and then working with George and all of the episodes that I did for Tales From The Dark Side, it definitely has that kind of twist at the end, but I wanted it to have a very different feel. It’s the one in the movie that is the romance. Nothing really happens except for the beginning when the gargoyle comes down and attacks. The rest of it is all just romance until the very end. So again, getting back to the whole beauty of anthologies because you have an enormous palette to play with.
DC: If there was going to be one unifying thing amongst all of the Creepshow segments, in the series especially, what do you think a segment needs to be distinctly Creepshow?
JH: I think that because all the stories are different, there’s no real easy answer to that. But I do think that overall the stories should have a kind of other reality feel to them so that we’re kind of stepping out of our normal world into a world that has elements that are beyond us, which can affect us in a way that tells us something about ourselves. The kind of horror that I love is character-driven. When you have stories like this, and I think this is true of all the Creepshow stories, there’s a character who either has done something or deserves something or needs to be shown something that in normal life they wouldn’t be able to.
So the other element that I think characterizes Creepshow is that it’s got to be fun. Yeah, these stories are dark, but at the end of the day, you can sit there and you can laugh along with ’em. Some of the things that happen are so outrageous that it’s just enormous fun. George and Steve King started that whole thing, and that was their intention, and Greg has been able to keep it going in the current Creepshow.
DC: Do you have an episode or a story that’s not yours that you would recommend for people to watch to get into the show and see what the show is delivering?
JH: There was a story that Greg did, [season one, episode two] and I just thought it was outstanding. It really does capture the Creepshow ethos, and it’s called “The Finger.” I can’t tell you the whole plot, I would spoil it. It’s everything a Creepshow episode should be. It’s fun, it’s dark, it’s got a great central character, and it’s got a fantastic special effect monster.
DC: So I would love to actually hear about how you got involved in Creepshow in the first place back when it was with George Romero and Stephen King. How were you recruited to be both First AD and Composer? Which one came first?
JH: Well, the AD part of it came first, although everybody knew that I was a musician. I had moved back to Pittsburgh after being on the road as a musician for a while. I started a company with my friend’s film company. We got in touch with George to do some work on one of his projects and became friends. And that’s just really how it all started.
One day at the beginning of Creepshow—and I worked with him on Dawn of the Dead, and I worked with him on Night Riders— his then partner, Richard Rubenstein called me one day and asked me to be George’s first assistant director on Creepshow. And I said, “Look, I have no idea how to be an assistant director.” He said, “It doesn’t matter, George just wants somebody who’s a friend that can help move things along. We have second assistant directors who can handle all the union stuff and all the other paperwork stuff.” So that’s what happened. And I was basically just George’s friend. I was there on the set every day.
We talked about everything including music. So when it came time to do the music, his initial intention was to do what we call library tracks or needle drops, which he had done in the past on his other films. But the stuff we had was not really of great quality. And I said, “Look, I got some gear. I can maybe goose some of this stuff up.” And he said, “Well, that’d be great. What I really need is a theme.”
So I went away and I wrote the theme, which everybody knows, and that led to writing another cue and then another cue, and then another cue. The beauty of it was that I was with George the whole way. I wasn’t just handed the film and said, go write a score and bring it back. I was with him from the jump, and so I kind of knew intimately what we were going for,
DC: What a great experience to be able to be so involved in that.
JH: It was fantastic.
DC: That’s so cool. Did you have a favorite segment in the original that you enjoyed working on the most, or was the most rewarding? I suppose it is like picking a favorite child, but I’m always so curious.
JH: Well, it’s kind of hard to say because they all had different challenges. I would say that “The Crate” was one that was the most complex in terms of what we needed to do, the visual effects the way George wanted to stage it with the comic book panels. It also became the most complex from a composing standpoint as well. But on the other hand, maybe the most difficult one was “They’re Creeping Up On You” because we had to deal with 20,000 roaches.
DC: Yeah, no, thank you.
JH: Well, someday when we have more time, we’ll go into that in greater detail and I’ll really creep you out.
DC: Then just to wrap up, I would love to hear about the first scary movie that you ever saw.
JH: Oh, that’s easy. Listen, I grew up in the 1950s, so I had the advantage of all the Hammer horror films, Roger Corman stuff, and all the drive-in movies, The Blob, The Thing, The Tingler, all the stuff that was on Chiller Theater late at night. I just gobbled those things up. I loved that genre and I loved those movies. The one that has stayed with me forever, and not to diminish any of these others, they all had great things in them, but the one that has really left the most dark and damaging impression on me is Robert Wise’s The Haunting. Based on Shirley Jackson’s novel and in black and white, 1960, it was a terrifying movie, and there was not a ghost or a monster in it.
DC: It’s still really scary!
JH: If you can watch it in a theater, try not to watch it on television, although it’s just as great, but try to watch it either in a dark room with the sound turned up. It is all atmosphere and suggestion, and it is absolutely terrifying. And if you haven’t read the book, read Shirley Jackson’s novel. St. Shirley. It’ll creep you out.
Creepshow season four is out now on Shudder with new episodes airing every Friday on AMC.
Categorized:Interviews
