Robert Englund is a legend in his own right. The actor has carved his way into people's memories with his most memorable role as Freddie Krueger in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series of films.
Hell, if you don't know Freddie, you don't know horror; but this isn't a flick with Freddie in it. No sir, Robert now finds himself at the helm of a riotous indie horror comedy called "Killer Pad." In fact this is the second time he's take the wheel; the last being nearly 20 years ago for the 1989 film "976-Evil" written by none other than "Mystic River" writer Brian Helgeland.
So it isn't a great screenplay and it's badly edited for the most part but such are these types of films; the type you browse through at the vid store for a night in with pals, wings and a few beers.
It brings back memories of the 80's styled horrors like "Monster Squad" and more.
We chat to the director about his experience, what made him take the helm for the second time and more. Stick around...
He's at Sundance so he asks if I'm there. I say no as I'm badly swamped with work, perhaps next year. It's no wonder after Verio's server crash left us dry for five days running.
He talks about the festival and documentaries being really great this year. He carries on with:
"One of my movies 'Red' with Brian Cox...we just had a great screening for that. I think it's a dark horse but it really was received well. I'm just really proud of it."
We talk a bit more and get on to the first question.
I ask why he decided to take the wheel after such a long time:
"Well, you know I'm sort of a...I hesitate to use the word artist, I'm a professional for hire. I did a reality show in 2004 and then because that sort of took a little bit...it took me a year to do the show and it never sold.
So I was playing catch up with all the sort of low budget horror spoofs that had come my way as an actor, many of which are entering the market now. I have one at Sundance and 'Behind the Mask' which was very well received last year and so in the middle of all of this my old friend Wayne Rice who had been very successful in the world of teen comedies and family films most notably 'Dude, Where's My Car?' which of course was huge.
He had been toying with the idea of doing a low budget teen comedy with some horror elements in it. A little bit of a horror spoof and he sent me this script for 'Killer Pad' which I thought was delightful and it was sort of our goal at the time to make it for the demographic of teenage boys who don't perhaps have their driver's license yet.
I had a lot of experience as an actor working in low budget film and I kind of know what you need and what you don't need and they asks me to direct it and I said yes.
It just sort of fitted into my schedule at the right time. I don't really know if I'm going to evolve into a director. I mean, there are a lot of people out there who are serious filmmakers. I don't consider myself that yet but I am a professional and I have done over seventy movies as an actor.
Robert Englund talks about casting decisions and more:
It was such a great opportunity for me also to reacquaint myself with all of the marvelous young talent that's in Hollywood, there's an entirely new generation of really talented kids out there. I was able to also use a couple of people that I've been noticing...Shane McRae who I'd watched on a sitcom called 'Four Kings,' Bobby Lee whom I've been a big fan of the last couple of years on MADtv and this wonderful kid Andy Milonakis who has this crazy show on MTV.
So I was able to coral all of them into the movie as well as a bunch of other talented kids and we came up with 'Killer Pad'"
Robert Englund talks about the film's hilarious intentions:
"Some of the effects are intentionally cheesy because we want it to be...we're not trying to be anything else...we're not trying to be a Ridley Scott movie. I think in a positive way it's a really fun, silly movie. I think it's silly in the best possible sense. I think my actors and my makeup guys, you know my makeup and effects guys, they all got on board with that and the music.
I don't think it's an insult to go directly to DVD these days; it's a huge audience. The short of shelf audience on genre films; whether it's a teen comedy or a horror or a science fiction or action films, they're very, very strong. I think this is probably a good choice for our producers and our distributors."
Robert Englund talks about his new project in Italy:
"I must have had a good time doing it because I'm going to be directing a movie in Italy shortly; in fact I leave at 4 AM this morning to scout more locations in Italy. So they obviously haven't been turned off by the most recent experience directing."
What's that called?
"Well we're toying with the title but it's a dark fantasy tale and it's English language and it's based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol. I'm hoping to introduce not only a kind of dark romance like 'Phantom of the Opera' but also we're going to have a new horror creature that in the history of movies, has never been seen before.
A fallen angel which we were inspired by from the writings by Nikolai Gogol. And it's very different you know."
January 23rd, 2:30PM, ET.
