She may not often pop up on lists of the top horror icons, but Dee Wallace has damn sure earned the right to be on every single one of them. With memorable roles in Cujo, The Howling, Critters, Popcorn, The Frighteners and Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Wallace is undoubtedly one of the top “scream queens” of all time.
In a lengthy chat with AV Club this week, Wallace reflected on a handful of her most noteworthy roles, including her work in all of the aforementioned horror films.
She shared many incredible stories during the career retrospective.
On Cujo…
“Cujo was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and it’s the film I’m proudest of. You know, how far can you break down? When do you break down? How do you break down? It was just relentless. At the end of it, they treated me for exhaustion for three weeks afterwards. I’m still on adrenal supplements, because I just blew out all my adrenals!”
On The Howling…
“That movie would not be half the movie it is if we hadn’t had Joe Dante. He paid for all the commercials that are in there himself. He was instrumental in bringing in the names of characters from a lot of the old werewolf movies. He just added so much in there for the true horror fan.”
On Critters…
“You know, I hadn’t watched it in awhile, and I watched it again with my daughter, and darn, it’s a good movie! And, darn, I’m really good in it! I was surprised!”
On Rob Zombie’s Halloween…
“I was supposed to die when I was going down the bookcase, but three weeks later the producers called me and said, ‘We need you to come back.’ I said, ‘But I’m already dead.’ They said, ‘Rob wants to kill you better!’ So I went back, and that’s when we shot me crawling through the floor and into the other room and going to the table and all that.”
Be sure to read the full chat on AV Club, which includes way more on each film.
