Christopher Webster [Celluloid 10.14.15] scifi horror



You may know Mike Mendez as the madman behind such giant spider flicks as Big Ass Spider and SyFy's Lavalantula, but he's also been doing the horror genre justice with great low key films like Gravedancers, which was part of the original 8 Films to Die for Series, and The Covenant.

In Tales of Halloween, Mendez offers what is perhaps the most refreshing of all the shorts in "Friday the 31st" - a genre mashup that will bring a smile to any true fan of horror or scifi.

Here, Mendez talks inspiration and what makes horror so funny.




QE: Between "Friday the 31st" and your last movie, Big Ass Spider!, you're obviously into old school fx movies. Which ones are you influenced by the most?

Well, I wanted to be a make up artist when I was a kid, so I was always a big fan of make-up fx Spectacles. Films like "The Thing", "American Werewolf in London" or "The Fly" always had fantastic transformations. So I loved that stuff, Rick Baker, Rob Botin, Screaming Mad George were my jam as a kid.

But I've come to embrace the wonders of digital fx and now it is more of a combination of the two. I was also very influenced by the sub genre of splat-stick with films like "Evil Dead 2" and Peter Jackson's "Dead-Alive".



QE: Did you need to convince the group that having a stop motion alien in a halloween movie made sense?

Thankfully I only had a little resistance about the alien. Luckily people realized how passionate I was and they let me do my thing. The stop motion people seemed to be on board for it.



QE: Did the FX prove challenging to get done in the short time you had to shoot and get out of post?

FX were a major challenge in my short. It's fx driven. I had to be very clever and very surgical in my execution of how to do it. 2 days is hard for an 8 minute short. 2 days for an 8 minute short chockfull of special fx? Nearly impossible unless you had a very detailed and out of the box plan in place.



QE: You approach genre with a large helping of humour. What is it about horror that's so funny?

I don't know. I really enjoy the macabre and I really enjoy killing people, I just like doing it in a fun lighthearted way. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I like a good sense of fun!



QE: If you could only recommend one movie you've seen this year, what would it be?

Well "Fury Road" of course. Other than that, please go see "Tales of Halloween"! (laughs).


Tales of Halloween hits October 16, 2015.




Recommended Release: Big Ass Spider!





Follow Christopher Webster on Twitter.

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blush (6 years ago) Reply

What's up, I log on to your new stuff named "Director Mike Mendez Talks TALES OF HALLOWEEN [Interview]" on a regular basis.
blush http://www.tessielashes.com/

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