Exclusive Interviews with Chillerama’s Adam Green, Joe Lynch, and Kristina Klebe
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Last night we hit the Dark Delicacies signing for the November 29th release of anthology film Chillerama and while there chatted with Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) and Joe Lynch (Knights of Badassdom, Wrong Turn 2), two of the flick’s four directors (Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan round out the directorial posse), as well as actress Kristina Klebe to get the skinny on the debut as well as their upcoming projects.
In addition to the principals listed above (the flick recently wrapped its “Roadshow” tour of the U.S. and is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD and Netflix Streaming), cast members Kane Hodder, Lin Shaye, and Anton Troy and composer Bear McCreary were on hand to lend their Hancocks at the packed signing, where fans and horror luminaries alike (Mick Garris, Dave Parker, Mike Mendez, Neil Marshall, Axelle Carolyn and more were also in attendance) had gathered to celebrate the cinematic love letter that is Chillerama.
Said Green of the enthusiastic response to Chillerama while happily signing away, “It has been way beyond what we had hoped. I mean, it was such a weird movie and we were making it for such a niche group of people that would appreciate something like this, but it spread out so far beyond that.”
Green, who with Lynch is currently writing, producing and starring in the multi-camera sitcom series “Holliston” for FEARnet and who has in the past written and directed the genre features Frozen and Hatchet and its sequel expounded, “What’s been most gratifying to me is that so much of my fan base, at least from the Hatchet stuff, is a younger fan base, like when you go to a convention and you’ll ask them what movies they like, and they’ll say, ‘Well, I didn’t really like John Carpenter’s Halloween,’ and you have to understand that they are from a newer generation, even though you want to punch them in the face for saying something like that. But they were able to appreciate Chillerama when most of them have never been to a drive-in and didn’t really see the movies that we are sort of paying homage to in it, but they were still able to have fun with it, and that was really special because hopefully they are going to start finding these movies and start looking into this type of stuff, which would really be great.”
As for the series “Holliston,” which posits Green and Lynch as two aspiring filmmakers who host a late-night cable access program titled “The Movie Crypt” (FEARnet is describing the series as “Wayne’s World meets Saw“) Green said, “We just wrapped production, and last night in Austin, Texas, Joe [Lynch] and I did a charity event for disabled veterans where we showed some of Chillerama and then we showed the first ever footage from “Holliston”, and I was very nervous because it’s a real sitcom and not one that makes fun of or is an homage to sitcoms, so I didn’t know what to expect of their reaction. You could tell during the first two minutes that the crowd was like, ‘Holy shit, this is so weird,’ and then they were so into it by the end. When we finished with the last clip, it was like an uproarious cheering applause, which was a great start to it. I hope the horror community gets behind it because it’s a risky thing for FEARnet to produce. It’s going to be their first show, and we aren’t doing what anyone expects. We are making a sitcom for our audience and our friends if they talked about the kind of stuff that we are into and if they randomly stabbed each other sometimes. Random acts of violence and the fact that [GWAR’s] Oderus Urungus is my character’s imaginary friend on the show? No other network would allow us to do that.”
In regard to the status of the third film in the Hatchet franchise (which will star the returning Kane Hodder as hillbilly slasher Victor Crowley and Danielle Harris as the flick’s final girl), “It’s supposed to start shooting in April,” revealed Green. “I’ve been working with the director, BJ McDonnell, and developing the script, and he’s been shooting (as camera operator) Tom Cruise’s new movie One Shot, which doesn’t wrap until Christmas Eve. I’ve been so busy with Chillerama and “Holliston” and Killer Pizza (the latter is a property Green’s been developing with Greg Taylor that has been acquired by MGM, which revolves around a 14-year-old kid who takes a summer pizzeria job only to find that it’s secretly a front for a monster-hunting organization) that I haven’t really had a chance to work on Hatchet III. But once he gets back into town, we are going to sit down and really start ironing it out.”
“We have all of the ideas,” Green continued of Hatchet III, “and I’ve had the story since I made the second film, but I really want to give BJ a chance to have his influence on it as a director, which has been fun because normally with most of the stuff it’s like I run the show, but now answering to someone else where I’m like, ‘What about this?’ and he’s like,’ Well, that’s cool, but what about this?’ and they are great ideas and then I’m back to the drawing board is exciting. I’m excited he’s putting his imprint on it. One of the important things was – without giving away what’s going to happen at the end – is that I want him to feel like he came up with what happens at the end of the film because he’s directing the movie, and I don’t want it to be just him exercising my ideas. I want his input, and he’s really embraced that and has been working hard, which is another reason why I feel like I made the right choice. BJ’s out for blood with Hatchet III, and he’s dying to do this, and he’s plotting and scheming. It’ll also be exciting to kind of kick back and watch them make the movie and to be there to help and to advise, but it’s like sending your kid off to college.”
Lynch then riffed for us on the beginnings of Chillerama and its gonzo future, “Even when we first conceived the idea, Tim [Sullivan] and Adam [Rifkin] had kind of come to us, sort of like Roger Corman would do, where it’s like, ‘We have a poster, and now we want to go make a movie for this poster.’ What’s great about that is that they actually had posters so we really felt like the ‘Corman machine’ was back at it again. So what we originally wanted to do was to come up with weird titles and then hand them off to other directors and say, ‘Here you go. Here’s no money and no time, and here’s a camera.’ The idea [for a sequel] is to come up with three or four new guys to exploit… I mean collaborate with,” Lynch laughed, “and to make Chillerama Volume 2. We want to have a whole library so [to the fans] please don’t download it. Buy it so that we can make the sequel.”
As for what we may see in the follow-up, Lynch stated sarcastically, “If it happens, there’s a very good chance that one of the installments will be Deathication Part 2. It will be a ‘found footage’ film where [the character of] Fernando Phagabeefy basically puts cameras in bathrooms and watches people poop. It’ll be directed by Kristina Klebe. She’s going to love it!”
Speaking with actress Klebe (one of the stars of Green’s “Diary of Anne Frankenstein” segment), who commenced shooting the noir feature The Advocate this week, she told us of her interest in shooting that psychological thriller as well as of her enjoyment in genre acting (in addition to Chillerama, she previously appeared in the gritty Rob Zombie Halloweeen redux), “I grew up with movies like The Shining so I really like that suspenseful, Hitchcock thriller style of movie, although I must say that I realized that the most fun you can have as an actor in coming from a theater background is in a horror film. Normally roles are very serious and you are stuck in a confined situation and you just have to say your lines, but in a horror movie you get to run around and scream and kind of act ridiculously but in a believable way so it is actually more fun!”
About Chillerama
Produced by ArieScope Pictures and in the spirit of classic “omnibus” films like Dead of Night, Tales From the Crypt, Creepshow and Twilight Zone: The Movie, with four vignettes that not only celebrate the golden age of B horror schlock but also nearly the entire history of horror cinema itself, Chillerama offers something for every bad taste. With titles like Wadzilla, I Was A Teenage Werebear, The Diary of Anne Frankenstein and Zom-B-Movie, Chillerama features appearances by Joel David Moore (Avatar, Hatchet), Lin Shaye (Insidious), Ray Wise (X-Men: First Class), Kane Hodder (Hatchet and Hatchet II), Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, Sharktopus) and more cameos than one can (body)count. For more info, check out the official Chillerama website.
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