Interviews
[San Diego Comic-Con’12 Interview] ‘Hatchet III’ Director BJ McDonnell and Producer Adam Green
Dark Sky Films and creator Adam Green are once again heading back to the swamps with Hatchet III, this time around being directed by BJ McDonnell, and starring Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Derek Mears, Caroline Williams, Sean Whalen, Diane Goldner, Jason Trost, Zach Galligan, Cody Blue Snider and Rileah Vanderbilt.
To go along with our previous interview with stars Kane Hodder and Zach Galligan, Bloody’s Evan Dickson sent in his brief chat with creator Adam Green and new director BJ McDonnell! Deets inside.
This time, “The story finds Harris hunting down the true secret to ending the voodoo curse that has left Crowley’s ghost terrorizing Honey Island Swamp for decades. Mears will play a brooding, pompous SWAT team leader who is sent in to contain the carnage strewn about the haunted swamp. Williams will play a fast-talking journalist who fancies herself an expert on the legend of supernatural stalker Crowley.“
Bloody Disgusting: BJ, what’s it like taking over this franchise? You were the camera operator on the first two.
BJ: We basically went over what Adam wanted to do with the story and what I wanted to do and wanted to show. And we came up with the whole thing together. It was a natural progression. I knew the characters, the story and the cast. It all came together pretty easily.
BD: Adam, what was it like watching someone hold your baby like that?
Adam: I’ve been getting fan mail where people are concerned, but they shouldn’t be. I wrote it, I’m producing it and my name is above the title. I really want this to be good. In some ways it was harder, because when you’re onset you’re only worried about making the movie. Being behind the scenes you’re worried about everything.
BJ: And we made the schedule. We stuck to the script and shot it and made it through. Even though we were in the swamp dealing with snakes, spiders and mud in the rain. We were in the thick of it all.
BD: The first two basically take place in the same 24 hour period.
Adam: And this is the next one. It picks up right were it left off.
BJ: Marybeth doesn’t sleep.
Adam: It starts right after she blew his head off in the second one.
BD: You could almost watch all three of these as one movie then?
Adam: There’s a plan way down the road that we want to do a version of all three together. And there’s stuff we shot for the first one that we would put back in. Someway down the road there’s going to be an edition where it’s the whole movie as one movie. And Marybeth is different in this one. This time she’s beyond the hysterics she was in in the second movie, now she’s almost completely shut down.
BJ: She’s been through so much.
Adam: If you think about the three films as one movie, the first one is the first act. Hatchet 2 is where things get dark. And then Hatchet 3 is when we get to the climax. It’s incredibly violent from the get-go. We both feel really strongly that this is the best of the three movies.
BJ: There are so many characters in this one.
Adam: But now we’re on Part 3 and the audience knows the deal and we can hit the ground running. It’s so much bigger. All the money went to extravagant stunts. After going through the first two we both had a lot of ideas on how to make it better. BJ’s visual language is amazing. Anybody who is concerned is going to be blown away. We kept it in the family. Passing the baton was seamless. The cast and crew accepted him immediately and we were ready to go.
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.
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