Exclusive Interview with The Haunt Creators Douglas Tait and Isabel Cueva
You know Douglas Tait from his creature portrayals (most famously in NBC’s “Grimm”) and as Jason Voorhees in the film Freddy vs. Jason. But we’ll bet you didn’t know he’s a funny guy with a beautiful and talented wife – as a producing pair, they’ve put together their talents and made a TV pilot called “The Haunt.” “The Haunt” is a character-driven comedy pilot in the vein of Waiting for Guffman and “The Office” but set in a tourist attraction haunted house world!
In a small town, the veteran cast members of “The Haunted Manor” have their careers turned topsy-turvy after their overzealous director decides to revamp the show and make drastic changes. Forced to leave their comfort characters, Amanda (Cueva) and Johnathan (Tait) must learn to take on new roles and work with “new blood” within the walls of the pre-fab haunted house maze. In the pilot, we see a hilarious string of auditions and a genuine scare in the end!
Isabel Cueva and Douglas Tait created, wrote, directed, executive produced, and star alongside Martin Klebba (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Disney star Adrian R’Mante (“Suite Life of Zack and Cody”). Diversity is key here, giving actors of different races, ages, and body types equal time in the show.
“The Haunt” recently premiered at The Hollywood Comedy Shorts Festival and won “Pilot Award of Merit” and “Best Ensemble Cast” at the Best Shorts Awards.
Dread Central: Who initially came up with the idea for “The Haunt,” and how did the two of you develop it together?
Isabel Cueva: Doug always wanted to make a project with characters in a haunted house world and monsters. Since he was a kid, he has always been a fan of haunted houses, monsters and classic characters. I grew up seeing “The Munsters,” and I loved watching monsters and characters that were funny, sweet and tender. So when he mentioned the thought of doing a project in this type of world, we got to work right away, and we started developing characters. We both came up with characters and ideas. Guess who “Amanda” is based on? The answer is… Doug’s mom! Yes, he created my character Amanda based on his mom! One of the characters I created, was Darnell. Some of Darnell was inspired by my experience working in Louisiana.
DC: Had you worked together before? Some spouses love it, others think partnering up on business things should be avoided. What’s your process in working together?
Douglas Tait: Yes, we have worked in films acting opposite each other, and we worked together on our award-winning short film In the Name of Freedom. We both produced it, but Isabel wrote, and directed it. It’s available on Amazon and iTunes. We love working together because it works. We both trust each other’s creative input, and we each have different strengths. We have such a great time making projects and creating babies… so to speak!
DC: How do you two divvy up the duties on writing and directing?
IC: Well, when we were writing, one of us was usually on the computer, and the other was acting out the dialogue. That worked great because instantly we knew what worked well and what didn’t. That saved a lot of edits in the rewrites. As for directing, we did a lot of prepping in pre-production to be clear on what we wanted. When one of us was in a scene, the other directed, and for the scenes when we were both in front of the camera, we split it up based on who could bring more to the table.
DC: Isabel, tell us what you love most about Amanda.
IC: What I love most about Amanda is that she has more than meets the eye. She is fully committed to her job and is much stronger than people think.
DC: Doug, tell us how you came up with the character of Jonathan – he’s not the usual type you play… was it easy, or a challenge?
DT: I wanted to play something unlike anything I had played before. My character Jonathan was inspired by a friend I had worked with at a Universal. He actually played Frankenstein in the theme park and he took his job very seriously. He wasn’t very social but I found him very interesting. It wasn’t a challenge because I knew this guy very well, and I had played characters like Jonathan in my improv shows.
DC: How did you come up with all those kooky characters trying out for roles in “The Haunt”? And faves?
DT: Well, we wanted all the characters to be very different and memorable. We created some of the audition characters inspired on people we know, and some we created considering the “original cast members” and how they would grow together in the first season. Since we have been actors for a long time, we had many stories in our audition history to pull from. Agh favorites? That’s a hard question! We love them all!
DC: Do you love haunted mazes/houses, or are you more like making fun of them in this series?
IC: We both love haunted houses. When Doug was a kid, he created Halloween shows and haunted houses for his neighbors. We wanted the show to be about real types and the funny situations in that world. We know that there are always funny and weird things that happen in this type of world, and it’s super entertaining and fun.
DC: The pilot ends on a really great cliffhanger… can you give us just a little peek into what to expect as the show progresses?
IC: Yes, we have developed the first season. “The Haunt” and the characters take some nice unexpected turns in the first season. Let’s just say, the veteran cast members of The Haunted Manor have no idea what their overzealous director Ricky has in store for them. And Ricky has no idea how much these characters love their job and what they are willing to do for them.
If you’re in Southern California, and you’d like to see it, “The Haunt” is officially selected to screen at the IFS Festival Independent Filmmakers showcase Festival) May 7 @4pm at The Beverly Hills Music Hall.
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