My Soul to Take, Wes Craven’s first time helming a feature since 2005’s Red Eye and the first film he’s written and directed since 1994’s New Nightmare, is being released on October 8th in the middle of a crowded month for horror films, with no less than ten being rolled out over the next few weeks leading up to Halloween. Especially given this past weekend, where none of the four horror releases managed to make much of an impression at the box-office, Craven and distributor Rogue Pictures have to be feeling a little nervous about the movie’s prospects (since not even 3-D seems to guarantee success anymore – see the disappointing performance of would-be franchise-starter Legends of the Guardians). B-D’s Chris Eggertsen recently spoke with Craven to get his thoughts on the jam-packed release slate, post-converting the film to 3-D, and whether he’s attempting to create a new slasher icon with the “Riverton Ripper”. See inside for the full interview.
Even for a man regularly described as an icon, opening weekend can be a nerve-shredding experience; of course I’m talking about director Wes Craven, who over the past 40 years has been responsible for some of the most successful horror movies of all time and yet still describes the days leading up to his latest film’s release as one of wanting to “pull the covers over my head”. I can’t say I blame him, though – after the disappointing performances of all four new horror releases at the box-office this past weekend, he has reason to worry.

Bloody-Disgusting: You’ve been absent from the directing scene for a few years now. Were you feeling uninspired and then this idea struck you, or were you just taking a break?

I didn’t realize it was that long, but I guess…part of the time was taken up with producing…it sort of came around to the realization that myself and my original partners on both `Last House’ and `Hills [Have Eyes]’ had come back into ownership of those films. So that’s very unique for me. There’s only two films, only my two early films, that I have any kind of ownership in. So we just as a way of recovering from the economic crash and everything else, it seemed like a smart idea to remake. So we did that on those two films, and that took some time. You know, a lot of time was [spent on] finding the right directors and making sure the post went right. And at a certain point it felt like, `ok, that’s enough time from that…it’s time for you to get back to directing and to even writing and directing’. And that’s kind of when I started working on `My Soul to Take’. I had the idea and was excited about it, so I was off writing. Which was to me a big relief. It sort of took me ending the company I had and everything else and just getting back to being a separate artist and a writer as well as being a director.

B-D: What inspired you to write this script?

It was just having the basic idea. You know, just in a nutshell, the idea of what this film was about, and taking the risk of taking a half a year off to write and get it in the right shape. And then [I had] a studio that wanted it to do it, so…but I think essentially it was just thinking up the idea, having it sort of come to me, and being excited about it, and wanting to see how that would be worked out into a script and a movie.

B-D: I wasn’t able to see the film because I’m in L.A. and they didn’t screen it for us, but the general details of the film seem to harken back to your two most successful films, `A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and `Scream’. I’m just wondering if that was something that was intentional, or is that something that only occurred to you later on?

No, it wasn’t entirely intentional. I do like stories about kids within a family situation, and the secrets of the family. That was interesting to me. It was also interesting to do a film where the central character was male instead of female. Because in some ways it may have been autobiographical in a strange way. You know, it felt like it was a time to do something that was a little bit closer to the way I felt when I was growing up. So that’s kind of my coming-of-age film. I did want it to be about character, and I did want it to be something that I hadn’t seen before. And I think in that way, in the fact that it’s so different, makes it kind of like some of my old films that were also very different, even though each one is quite different from the others. But it feels like it’s in the tonality, and the sort of depth of some of my earlier films that I wrote myself. I’ve been…directing other people’s material, so it kind of jumped a number of years before it came back to doing something that came from my own mind.

B-D: I love that you’re using a cast of basically unknown young actors. Was that something you felt was important for this movie?

Well, it mostly was the age of the characters. The characters were 16, and I didn’t want to [make] a film of 24-year-olds playing 16. So it was important to get kids who were really in their teens. We actually had…I think Paulina was 16 actually when we started…I think also one of the other cast [members] was a minor…so the important thing was just that they were younger and looked like 16-year-olds. Max [Thierot] had done two or three films before. Zena had worked made films since she was a teenager, since she was like 12, I think. So they had some experience. Others, like Paulina, it was her first film. But the important thing was they looked like the kids they were supposed to be, the right age.

B-D: I was surprised when I initially heard that the film was going to be post-converted to 3-D.

It was the studio’s idea. They approached me. At first I was very skeptical. But they asked me to just look at what was being done, and I visited the post-production house…that ended up doing it. And interestingly enough they had done `Clash of the Titans’, which I’d read a lot about how bad it was. And I saw it there in their projection room and it looked really quite fantastic. So that was kind of the beginning of saying, `hey, wait a minute, what’s going on here?’

There [are] a lot of factors about 3-D that are complicated and need to be done right. One is that you really need to check the theaters that are showing your film. Because a lot of theaters – because it’s kind of a new thing – don’t have the right projection. They don’t have the right screens. And 3-D does take a light source [that] needs to be about eight times brighter than normal film. So you have to have a commitment to those theater owners to have the proper equipment. Now, it’s expensive equipment, and even the light that is used is like $3,500. So some of the theater owners might be tempted to run it at a lower light level just to save themselves money, because it lasts longer that way. So I had to make sure that the studio was ready to literally go to the theaters and make sure that they were showing it properly. And then also that I would have control of the process…and [that] we would use it subtly and it wasn’t going to be about hammers flying through the air into the audience. But to use it subtly.

You know, I think the sense is, both in the studio and myself now, is that this is kind of what’s coming to cinema, this is where it’s going, so if it’s going to be used in a more subtle way, let’s find out what you can do when you do that. And we did with `My Soul to Take’. There’s a lot of very interesting things you can do there. Not hitting the audience over the head with it, but…for instance, when Bug has visions or when Abel’s going crazy – these are a couple of characters in the film that go into weird psychic spaces – you can change the shape of rooms very subtly to the eye in a way that you couldn’t in a 2-D film. So I just looked at and searched out the aspects of 3-D that lend themselves to narrative and storytelling in a way that was subtle and not gimmicky. And that was fine with the studio, so off we went.

B-D: As far as the look of the Ripper, is this kind of your attempt to create a new slasher icon like Freddy or Ghostface?

Honestly, no. The studio’s kind of hinting that it’s the next Freddy Krueger and we should all be so lucky, but I think it’s kind of unlikely to try to do that. It really is…the story is complete within itself. But the Ripper is kind of one of those iconic, in the sense of bigger-than-life characters that you’re not sure whether he’s alive or dead and has a lot of power, so in that sense it falls into the category of that kind of character.

B-D: How heavy are the supernatural elements in the film?

Well, you know, part of the central concept is that there’s a possibility that the souls of a man who had multiple personalities…because one of the personalities of this particular man who was living [unintelligible] years before our story began, one of them unknown to him was a serial killer. In other words, it would take him over when he was asleep, would take him out and kill people and then take him back and lie him down in his bed again and then disappear, and this man didn’t realize.

And on the night that he discovered he had this…horrible character, personality within himself, [the evil personality] warned him if the man revealed this to his psychiatrist that the killer, or personality, would kill this man’s family. The man does the right thing – and all the other personalities encourage him – so on that night the bad character takes over the man the police kill him, or it seems that he’s killed. And by extraordinary events, seven children are born that night…these are our seven central characters. The film takes place sixteen years later, on their sixteenth birthday, and the legend [in] the town that they all have one of the souls, one of the personalities, of this man. So obviously one, in that case, must be the killer. And it’s kind of built around that concept.

B-D: Have you put any thought into what a sequel would be if that eventuality were to arise?

I’ve thought about it a little bit, but it’s almost unlucky, and who knows how the film’s even gonna do? So let’s see what happens with this film and whether the audience opens themselves to it or gets behind it. I think you have to make a leap, because it’s not your normal horror film. I tried to do something very different. It’s not like a typical slasher film. It’s very much something new and different, and it will depend of people kind of getting that. And you know…I can’t tell, but I know it’s a film I’m very proud of and excited about, but I can’t predict how the audience is gonna respond to it.

B-D: I have to ask about `Scream 4′, because there’s such a hunger out there for this movie. Are you definitely envisioning this as the start of a second trilogy of sorts? How likely is it that it will continue on past `Scream 4′?

Our basic policy on this press tour is not to talk about `Scream 4′, since it’s not the film we’re promoting. But I’ll just answer that question and no more. But yes, the concept is to do the first of a new trilogy, and you know, you have three characters from the original trilogy coming back, and then you have a cast of young new characters.

B-D: Beyond that, do you have another project in mind already?

Well, we just wrapped `Scream 4′ so we have all of that post-production to do, so that’s gonna take us the rest of the year. So that will be what I’m up to. And then who knows? I certainly hope to take a break after that, I’ve been working for a long time between these two films. So I don’t have any distinct plans for the future. Many people are talking to me about television, and this and that, but right now nothing is definite. I’ve been totally submerged in these two films.

B-D: It’s such a crowded field out there right now for horror. Are you worried at all about `My Soul to Take’ coming out at the same time as so many other horror movies?

You know, you just can’t worry about that. We tried to find a weekend where there wouldn’t be three or four other ones opening. You know, after that it’s just whether your audience is gonna be faithful to you enough to go out and watch the film and buy the tickets. There’s nothing you can do about it, so I usually…kinda pull a cover over my head and try not to think about it. [Laughs] Because obviously it’s important to one’s career and everything else, so you just hope it does well but you try not to get your hopes too far up.

B-D: I’d heard there were some pretty extensive reshoots. What did you feel was lacking in the footage from the principal photography period?

We just did a tweak on the ending, basically is what it was. And you know, it’s a complex film and how to resolve it at the end in a way that made sense to the audience. It was always about that, and it’s not that unusual with films.