Interviews
‘The Dead Don’t Die’ Director Jim Jarmusch Talks Horror and Raves About ‘Train to Busan’ [Interview]
Jim Jarmusch has made two horror movies now – the vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, and the brand new zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die – but just because he spent most of his career directing thoughtful dramedies set in the real world, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love the scary movie genre.
In fact, horror movies are how he got into film in the first place.
“I’m a film fanatic so I’m open, always, to many, many genres,” Jarmusch explained in a recent interview with Bloody-Disgusting. “Horror and sci-fi are the first films I really encountered because in Akron, OH there was, in the suburb, there was a theater. The State Theatre, and on Saturdays they had double and triple features. And my mom would drop me off there and then she could have time with her friends, or I don’t know, and my sister didn’t want to go.”
“So I would see films like, you know, Attack of the Giant Crab Monsters or The Blob or The Thing [from Another World], or all of those kind of films I saw very early on,” Jarmusch continued.
“Then we had a guy in Ohio, on the Cleveland TV station, called Ghoulardi. Friday nights. You know of Ghoulardi?” Jarmusch asked, referring to horror host Ernie Anderson, who was also the father of Oscar-nominated director P.T. Anderson (Inherent Vice).
“He was amazing. He had a lab coat, a goatee, a fright wig, glasses with one dark lens and one with no lens. He talked in beatnik, kind of jive talk. He blew up model cars with cherry bombs. He would put himself into the films with a very early kinescopic effect, so he could be in the tunnel, like ‘Kids, look out! The crab monsters are coming! Whoa!’” Jarmusch said, imitating Ghoulardi’s familiar patois.
All the other Ghoulardi fans out there are in for a treat with The Dead Don’t Die. Jarmusch said he filled the film with Easter Eggs.
“He was fantastic, and he had all these slogans, and they’re in the film,” Jarmusch confirmed. “Like they say, Caleb Landry Jones’ character says to some kids, they say, ‘Turn blue! Stay sick!’ These are things Ghoulardi used to say, slogans that he had. Anyone from Northeastern Ohio whose, let’s say older than 50, would know all of this stuff.”
Jarmusch is a busy filmmaker, of course, and it’s harder for him to stay current with the genre than it used to be.
“You know I’m not up on recent stuff. I do want to see the new Godzilla film,” the director said. “I’d kind of like to see it. I’ve followed all the Godzilla things for a long time and all the off-shoots. But you know I’m sort of old school. My favorites, my kind of peers are certainly Sam Raimi, those are masterpieces, The Evil Dead trilogy, for sure. I love Wes Craven and John Carpenter. I’ve always like the European stuff, Mario Bava and Dario Argento and those things.”
And when it comes to modern zombie movies, there’s one film that keeps coming up again and again in our conversation with the director of The Dead Don’t Die.
“Zombie-wise, you know, Train to Busan was the most kind of badass thing I’ve seen,” Jarmusch said, referring to Yeon Sang-ho’s acclaimed 2016 thriller about the passengers on a commuter train trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Of course, Jarmusch’s dialogue-driven zombie comedy isn’t aiming for the same dramatic and action-packed heights as Train to Busan.
“I’m not trying to make Train to Busan or something,” Jarmusch said. “Which is a kick-ass, fucking great zombie movie, but it’s kind of a revolutionary zombie movie. That wasn’t our intention. We were trying to make kind of these periods of dumb dialogue and then interspersed with a zombie attack. Now that changed as I wrote it a bit, and it became a little less of that and maybe a little darker in the end too.”
And in case you were wondering if Jarmusch was familiar with a certain other film called The Dead Don’t Die – a 1975 made-for-tv zombie movie directed by Curtis Harrington – the answer is… not really.
“I wasn’t aware of it until I came up with the title on my own,” Jarmusch explains. “A brilliant, genius title and then I thought oh shit, there is a film with that title. I looked it up and I saw part of it but I haven’t seen the whole film.”
“You can’t copyright titles,” the director adds. “But anyway.”
The Dead Don’t Die shambles amiably into theaters on June 14, 2019!
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
You must be logged in to post a comment.