Tales of Halloween Interview Spotlight: Paul Solet
Horror hits like V/H/S and The ABCs of Death have proven that the anthology film format has been revived, and so a new omnibus is afoot for 2015 – assembling the likes of Neil Marshall (The Descent), Darren Bousman (The Devil’s Carnival), and Lucky McKee (The Call) behind their collective cameras.
Epic Pictures Group financed and produced Tales of Halloween, which brings together ten segments from different directors into one unified series of stories, all set in an Anytown, USA, suburb terrorized by ghouls, ghosts, and slashers on one, er, epic Halloween night.
We had a chance to chat with Paul Solet (Grace) to get the skinny on his special segment in the spooky series…
Dread Central: What’s the name of your story, who wrote it, and who is in it?
Paul Solet: My segment is called “The Weak and the Wicked.” It stars Keir Gilchrist and Grace Phipps with Noah Segan and Booboo Stewart, along with a wonderful newcomer named Andy Casillas and four terrific child actors. So many of my very favorite people came out for this; it was so much fun getting to work with these guys together, I can’t even begin to tell you.
DC: How were you approached to do this project, and what about it appealed to you?
PS: Axelle and Neil told me about the idea of getting a bunch of friends together and doing an anthology and asked if I wanted to do one, and I thought it sounded like so much fun. Some of my most vivid memories of watching movies as a kid are of watching movies like Cat’s Eye and Creepshow and The Twilight Zone movie, and Neil has been such a great supporter and collaborator, so I was in on the spot.
DC: I realize the stories aren’t all tightly interrelated. But what were some of the guidelines given to you by producers?
PS: The Halloween theme really was the only creative mandate. The guidelines were more about production constraints. Part of the deal for getting to do whatever we wanted meant we all had to get it done with small crews and limited equipment in two-day shoots without formal prep time, so we had to be really creative about how each dollar was spent in order to get our pieces on screen as conceived. But people worked so, so hard on this to make everything happen, it was just such a delight to see how much you could do within those limitations when everyone gave so much of themselves. We really all called in our very favorite people, and they just pitched in for the love of it. So many of my most valued partners in crime came out for this, from Keir and Grace to my beloved DP Zoran Popovic to Grammy nominated composer Austin Wintory to ninja editor Josh Ethier to producer Tada Chae.
DC: Delve into your segment a little bit, and tell us what we can expect — is there a twist, is it funny or is it scary, are there cool makeup effects, or…?
PS: My segment is like Sergio Leone meets The Warriors. I knew I wanted to do something with Keir and Grace because I just had such an exceptionally wonderful experience working with them on Dark Summer, and I am a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns and of Walter Hill, so when Axelle told me I could do anything I wanted as long as there was some Halloween in it, I just was so happy because I knew I would get to dive into my own cinematic fetishes with these totally amazing actors. Stir in a BMX chase, some goddamn gorgeous costuming by Rachel Apatoff, brilliant makeup by Becca Abraham, and the wizardry of Jason Collins’ Autonomous FX, and then shoot it in some of the most terrifying areas in Los Angeles, and you’ve got The Weak and the Wicked.
DC: What are some of the upsides of an anthology, as opposed to a feature length one-plot film?
PS: I have always loved short filmmaking because it lets you explore a world entirely in such a short amount of time, and this is definitely an example of that. But for me, the coolest part of this was just getting to see all these awesome directors work. We never get to see each other do our thing, and on this everyone came to each other’s sets to support and watch and do cameos, and that was just so cool. While I’ve been fortunate enough to get to start writing for Neil in the last couple years, I have been an enormous fan of his and of guys like Lucky McKee forever, so getting to be a part of a team with guys like that was just so fucking great.
DC: What’s your favorite Halloween movie?
PS: That is a tough one but I have to give it to Trick ‘r Treat. Dougherty just totally captured the feel of Halloween — the fun and the mischief and the energy of the whole thing — so effortlessly; that movie will be a classic for many, many years to come.
DC: What was your most-beloved Halloween costume as a kid?
PS: My mom is an amazing seamstress, so our family didn’t mess around on Halloween. My parents dressed me up as Lawrence of Arabia when I was about 4; that was a classic. She also made me a pretty epic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume when it was still a relatively obscure comic. No one knew what the hell I was, but I was SO psyched. My parents, my brother and his wife, and my two nieces recently went as the cast of Star Wars (my youngest niece, of course, going as Darth Vader), so that takes the cake for group costume.
DC: Do you dress up on 10/31 as an adult?
PS: Of course I dress up! This year I was Patrick Bateman one night and Leon from The Professional another. I had the silenced beretta and everything… I think it’s such a cool thing that there is this one night a year where, no matter what your age or your occupation, everyone has a license to just play. I think that’s exactly what we wanted to celebrate with Tales of Halloween.
Tales of Halloween will showcase the following ten short stories:
- “TRICK” Directed by Adam Gierasch
- “BAD SEED” Directed by Neil Marshall
- “GRIMM GRINNING GHOST” Directed by Axelle Carolyn
- “THE WEAK AND THE WICKED” Directed by Paul Solet
- “FRIDAY THE 31st” Directed by Mike Mendez
- “THE RANSOM OF RUSTY REX” Directed by Ryan Schifrin
- “THIS MEANS WAR” Directed by Andrew Kasch and John Skipp
- “THE NIGHT BILLY RAISED HELL” Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
- “SWEET TOOTH” Directed by Dave Parker
- “DING DONG” Directed by Lucky McKee
The film has an ensemble cast including Pat Healy, Barry Bostwick, Noah Segan, Booboo Stewart, Greg Grunberg, Clare Kramer, Alex Essoe, Lin Shaye, Dana Gould, James Duval, Elissa Dowling, Grace Phipps, Pollyana McIntosh, Marc Senter, Tiffany Shepis, John F. Beach, Trent Haaga, Casey Ruggieri, Kristina Klebe, Cerina Vincent, John Savage, Keir Gilchrist, Nick Principe, Amanda Moyer, Jennifer Wenger, Sam Witwer, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Ben Woolf, Caroline Williams, Robert Rusler, Cameron Easton, Austin Falk, Madison Iseman, Daniel Dimaggio, Natalie Castillo, Ben Stillwell, and Hunter Smit.
Cameos include Joe Dante, John Landis, Adam Green, Adam Pascal, Adrianne Curry, Mick Garris, Lombardo Boyer, Graham Skipper, Stuart Gordon, Greg Mclean, Spooky Dan Walker, and Adrienne Barbeau.
Axelle Carolyn created the concept and brought the filmmakers together for this unique production. Tales of Halloween is being produced by Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson of Epic Pictures Group along with Mike Mendez and Axelle Carolyn. Composers Frank Ilfman (Big Bad Wolves) and Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring) are both attached to the project.
Synopsis:
Ten stories are woven together by their shared theme of Halloween night in an American suburb, where ghouls, imps, aliens, and axe murderers appear for one night only to terrorize unsuspecting residents.
Categorized:News
