Film Courage: We had this comment come in on our channel “In a horror
movie only the villain character matters. All the other characters
are expendable most are going to die anyway.” What's your reaction to that?
Steven Shea, Filmmaker: Well I disagree. I would say with that I think in a movie
every character matters you want to build good characters across the board if you can build a
good villain character that's fantastic because a throwaway villain character is not good for
your story just a straight villain you want that villain to have motives you want that villain
to have some kind of connective element those always make the best villains but you want to
lead character to root for and in a horror movie it's it's it's somewhat of a Russian
Roulette you don't know who hopefully you don't know who's going to get killed there's definitely
a lot of cliches and horror films a lot of 80s cliches which I always think is interesting that
even nowadays like people still use 80s cliches instead of 90s or 2000 cliches if that even exists
2000's more about the torture element of horror with just brutal violence and and graphic gore
and whatnot but every movie needs good characters totally even horror movies every movie so you want
to connect with someone if you can connect with if you connect the most with the villain that's
fine you're connecting with someone and maybe you think the villain's right a lot of people watch
The Avengers and like oh Thanos had a good point it's like you want your villains to be dynamic
and so if you can make a horror villain that's Dynamic that's really impressive especially one
that's like a Jason Voorhees who was done wrong he lost his life due to someone else's incompetence
he yearns for his mother who killed in his name like he he has all these different reasons why
he's doing things it's not like he just shows up and start slashing people for no reason
Michael Myers was one where they he had good reasons for a while but now it's kind of
just like a hack and slash kind of a thing but when you can make your villains Dynamic is awesome
so I don't necessarily think that every character is a throwaway character there's
definitely some low budget movies that don't pay as much attention to that and just think
oh if I follow this simple formula then it'll be good because it's a horror movie
people die there's blood you're happy and it's like well not always and that's why
there's a thousand of those that don't go anywhere or don't reach cult status because
they're not good but every movie needs good solid characters all across the board
what are some of those classic 80s horror cliches not 90s or 2000s but they sure what do we see the
80s the 80s definitely brought us where it's like you have your very distinct characters here's your
jock guy here's your sexy girl here's your nerdy guy here's this person has some kind of your
Stoner character or someone that does drugs which is really funny because I love I really want to do
a slasher movie with modern tropes where it's like oh here's your yoga instructor here's your vlogger
here's your host your Airbnb host yeah here's your Minecraft beta tester or something but you all you
have those consistent characters whereas nowadays those well people still sort of fit those types
in reality it's so much more across the board there's not just a football player you might have
a football player that loves playing Dungeons and Dragons you might have a nerdy guy who just made a
million dollars with his crypto there's there's so many different Avenues nowadays that it's kind of
interesting that people really focused on those types of tropes and like they made a movie like
scream which ironically scream they came out in 1996 from Wes Craven that was the movie that made
me go into filmmaking because it talks about all these tropes and it pulls back the curtain on the
thought process that goes into movie making and I'd never really thought about it until then that
really opened my eyes to be like oh there is a lot more to movies than just stuff happening
like these all these decisions are made really specifically and so with 80s tropes it's like
oh no this is going to happen and that caused you to die a big thing was the AIDS epidemic
so in Halloween and Friday the 13th they're like oh if you have sex you get killed because of the
time people were dying from AIDS and that was a really big fear in the country and so they
took advantage of that to be like look this is scary nowadays to be like oh no this this one's
going to lose this 401K it's like oh that's like terrified well Social Security is not going to be
here anymore or you lost you lost all your Bitcoin you lost your Bitcoin Drive something like that
what about 90s tropes what about 90s horror 90s ended up reimagining the 80s tropes and making all
of the the characters very intelligent scream kind of kick-started that genre of filmmaking
usually every decade in horror there's a movie that kind of kick-starts and reinvigorates the
franchises in the 90s scream did that and so then all of a sudden you had new slasher movies like
I know you did last summer urban legend or like there's a killer but all of our kids are totally
smart they're on computers they have cell phones like they're totally hip with the world around
on them they make references to pop culture these are these kids are smarter now than they were back
then where they're just like hey let's go smoke up behind the barn oh no he's got a
machete that's kind of how the 80s were we're in the 90s everyone's smarter so they're all
they're all running better because they were they're more aware self-aware and then in the
2000s you get into the Saw movies and hostel where it's just about brutalizing people and
just graphic torture which I was never really into because I'm like it's boring that's boring
that's not smart it's just kind of I know this person is stuck in a trap and it's like all right
nowadays I don't I don't even know oh paranormal activity in Blair Witch Project was a huge boost
too in found footage horror because people were kind of like oh man they made Blair Witch Project
for sixty thousand dollars and they sold it for a million dollars I can make a million dollars
if I run around with a camera in the woods and so then all of a sudden you get a thousand of those
kind of movies and a lot of them are not done well that that's a total needle in a haystack
movie nobody could have bet that that movie would make so much money and be as impactful as it was
and it is scary like because they pitched it as being real and I remember driving two and a half
hours three days in a row to the nearest theater playing it in 1999 because and I took friends
the next two days so I'm like you have to watch this movie it's incredible it's going to blow
your mind and it's and you watch it nowadays and I still think it's impactful like I still
get jumping in and getting nervous and anxiety because it's just such a real visceral experience
and then the rise in reality of Television after that you suddenly get Survivor and all these other
reality shows and that now that's a huge boom Market because the studios first off are like
oh this is really cheap we don't have to put anything in visual effects we have to pay all
these people like there's people running around with the camera this is fantastic we'll make a
ton of money and they do and that's why we have like 100 reality shows now but horror constantly
reinvents itself because eventually themes outstay their welcome and someone figures out a new way to
tell a historian the great thing about horror is that the entire world can relate to it every
single person dies every single one of us on the planet so everyone on Earth can relate to
trying to stay alive because we all have to you look at like an American Comedy like I remember
when American Pie came out and they were like oh they sold this movie overseas for nothing
it's like well yeah because there's probably a lot of communities in Africa that aren't worried
about getting some in high school like they can't relate to that it's not doesn't connect as well
but horror Sci-Fi Action sci-fi every single one of us has stars over our head it connects
us all and action like everyone wants that that big ex explosions and escapes and everything
so there are a lot more connectivity to those types of movies than there are for dramas
or comedies and things like that how do you think some of the Stephen King films have evolved over
the decades because a lot of them had this broader message they weren't just scares
and different some of them are gory obviously but there was usually a broader message yeah
Stephen King's stories Stephen King's a fantastic writer his books are so visceral and so deep and
so thick my wife's a huge fan of Stephen King's we have a ton of his books and the movies of Stephen
King started really really strong everyone was like Carrie and The Shining I love Christine
personally there's a bunch of those movies that came out Pet Sematary I really enjoyed
and then eventually they started turning them into television and I think that's when it started
getting watered down we're like we can make a six hour mini series based on the Stephen King book
but it has to be rated PG and so then it's kind of like other than it the original it which was
still very impactful the other ones start getting a little more watered down and they're not it's
all made for television so you can't really keep all the themes with it and it's like oh
here's the Tommy knockers and The Langoliers and all of a sudden you're like I don't rose red and
you kind of lose that after a while and nowadays they started like they brought
it back and they remade it which I really really enjoyed because they made it more of a
a fun fun movie that's still scary but it's a lot of fun to watch
they made his movie Cell which didn't do very well a lot of his stories are very hit or miss
with film a lot of them are internal a lot of internal things happening in the character's
heads and it's really difficult to translate that into a movie I think the last one was Dr sleep the
sequel to The Shining and I thought they did a really really good job in it but it's just not
it's not ever going to be that original movie especially at the time period when that came
out it was such a more much more of an impact than if you had brought it out today I think
what was the one where it was about a tabloid journalist The Dark Half okay where he he flies
and then he oh the Night Flyer yeah the NightFire yeah he's a vampire right but then he there's
a well I don't want to give it away but then there's like this other ominous pilot and that
the Two Worlds Collide yeah I think it's the Night Flyer okay he has a little Cessna that
he like goes around and they keep fighting and he's bitter and he's using these bars and he's
just writing these horrible tabloid stuff but yeah he stumbles Upon a Crime and yeah okay that was
and there's a lot of the Mist is really well done there's a lot of them that are well done there's a
lot of them that all right they just remade pet cemetery which I like the original one better
the new it I really enjoyed though I did enjoy that a lot
and there's just so many Gerald's Game was good Netflix did that one that wasn't even good
but I feel like it's kind of hit or miss with his stuff because the books
are so involved and so mental that it's hard to kind of portray that as easily.