This past October was one of the most insane months ever for horror. It was so jam-packed that incredible content may have slipped right under your radar. One such piece of horror entertainment was the newest season of “Channel Zero”, “The Dream Door”, which was opened by Cheap Thrills director E.L. Katz.
In the must-see new season, which is available in full on Syfy and VOD, newlyweds Jillian and Tom discover a bizarre door in their basement that unlocks something horrifying – Pretzel Jack. After meeting with writer and producer Nick Antosca, Katz had the chance to read the pilot, which led to his hiring as season director.
“It’s always such a wild series that I knew I would probably respond to the material no matter what it was, and after reading the pilot, which was this insane blend of contemporary ‘Twilight Zone’, domestic drama, and violent slasher thriller, then I was really hellbent on making sure I got the opportunity to do it.”
For those who have yet to see it, “The Dream Door” is insanely bloody and offers astounding practical effects work. Even Katz is surprised as to how violent he was allowed to go, crediting Syfy and “Nick Antosca being a wizard somehow.”
He continued: “The first death in the script is incredibly violent, and I remember reading it going, ‘Sure, on television, we’ll probably only get away with a couple stabs,’ but that’s not how it turned out.” Katz suggests violence against non-human entities may have opened the door (pun not intended) to extraordinary gore. “We might have had more flexibility in other areas because lots of the violence is against non-human creatures that don’t look recognizably human when you mess them up.”
Beyond the blood-soaked mayhem that ensues, there is some insane effects work that Katz harkens back to the 80s.
“We always wanted to have the opportunity to bring something practical to set – I love old-fashioned latex monsters, and animatronic puppets – and this felt like an opportunity to go back to the late 80s, really lean into those kinds of creations.
“Francois Dagenais and his team are really gifted at putting together the huge workload that’s put on their shoulders in a lovely way. You always end up enhancing things in post, and that part of the process has become more and more invisible. But the old school way is always the most fun.”
Speaking of doing things practically, “Dream Door” introduces a horror icon for the ages: Pretzel Jack, played by contortionist Troy James.
“In the short story it wasn’t as fleshed out, and the contortion concept of Pretzel Jack came together in the writer’s room,” Katz reveals. “In many ways, in bringing him to life onscreen, we had to justify why this creature would be moving like that – he would never be contorting to freak people out, he doesn’t even think about scaring people or being menacing. His little performances are only for Jillian, he’s basically still performing for the scared and lonely little girl that he was the protector of a long time ago. But because he was designed in a way that he would be able to do that with his body, when it comes to moving around, or attacking people, his body just has less limitations, so it makes him a more dangerously flexible creature.”
But is Pretzel Jack scary?
“I always loved Pretzel Jack,” Katz told me. “He was never scary to me. He gave me the chance to create a slasher character and a Pixar character all in one.”
In regards to Pretzel Jack, Katz shares how Troy James was cast as the contortionist clown.
“I remember after reading the script just going into YouTube and typing in ‘best contortionist’ – and Troy James came up. Watching his ‘America’s Got Talent’ video made my head explode. I sent the video to Nick [Antosca], and he said that they’d used him for a quick memorable scene in ‘Butcher’s Block’, and that yeah, of course they were thinking about him.”
Digressing a bit, readers may not know, but Katz actually started as a horror journalist and even wrote Adam Wingard’s Home Sick and Pop Skull. He reflects on how he started his career with his longtime friend, who begins shooting Kong vs. Godzilla next week.
“I remember going to my job counselor at my film school, and telling him that I just wanted to work in the horror genre – and he told me that was way too specific, I needed to be much broader in my interests,” he explained. “When I graduated film school, I made the 12 hour drive so I could crash on Adam Wingard’s couch since we’d decided the day before that we were going to work on a movie together – and I remember having a groggy Waffle House breakfast with him, passing out, then getting him to drive me to the local bookstore to get a copy of the newest Fangoria. We skimmed through it and decided that we were gonna make a slasher movie that somehow fused Repo Man, The Rivers Edge, and Fulci-style gore. We’ve been working at this stuff ever since.”
Katz is finding his groove, but before taking on directorial duties with “Channel Zero” he shot the micro-indie Cheap Thrills. He learned a lot on that production.
“I learned how to shoot fast as fuck,” joked Katz. “The reality is, I’ve never worked on a leisurely schedule, so my feature experience was basically the same pace as this show. Like, with this we’re basically moving as fast as I did on Cheap Thrills. You get the chance to do two takes at most sometimes. The first step is preparation – I spent every hour that was available with the DP, Isaac Bauman, another ‘Channel Zero’ MVP, and we attempted to shotlist 6 hours of television. Every day at the end of prep, almost all weekend, we would be building this giant shotlist bible. Then once you’ve completely prepared, you need to be able to adjust very quickly when things change or fall apart….or, if you can see a way to do something better on the fly. I think being reactive is very important to the job – conditions are always changing, so it’s key to have a game plan, but you need to be able to go off book. Some scenes we’d have shotlisted like 15 shots or something, and then you look at the clock and you go, hell, this might just work out better as a weird one. You have to be willing to gamble occasionally too. You don’t always even have time to do things the safe, conventional way, with all of the coverage that you think you need. Sometimes you have to make a crazy choice and just hope it works.
“Beyond that, time is everything. Don’t waste it.”
“Channel Zero: The Dream Door” is available to stream in full now.