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Jake West (Part 2) Go back to Part 1 of this long interview.
“I think it was amazing; to me, it was the icing on the cake. When we were first writing the script, I asked the question: would it be possible to get Lance? Although obviously we know that his character died in the first one so it wasn’t going to be the story of Ed Harley. Then the word got back to me after about a week or so that somebody had contacted Lance and asked him if he would be interested in reprising that role. And he said yes. I remember that I got to speak to him on the phone. He was: ‘Hey, how’s it going, dude?’ So I explained that I love this character of Ed Harley and I’ve got this idea of where I’d like to try and take it in terms of how he’s haunting the character of Bunt from the first film. “What’s interesting about this Pumpkinhead - even the design on the Pumpkinhead is slightly different from the last one - the idea is that this time, the physical remains used to become the beast are the physical remains of Ed Harley. So it’s actually a different monster from the first one, in that sense. Physically it has regenerated from different flesh. So I like the idea that the person doomed to become the next Pumpkinhead gives a slight physical difference to it each time round. This Pumpkinhead is very wiry and athletic and a bit sharper in terms of its joints. Lance was at such a physical peak when he played Ed Harley in the first film, I really like that wiry look that he had and we tried to put some of that into this one. “Some fans may be upset that it’s not an exact copy of the last monster but I thought that it would be wrong to do that actually and it would be interesting to try this as an idea. Whether that will work or not, we’ll see whether the fans go for it - but it’s still recognisably Pumpkinhead and, compared to the embarrassment of Part II, I think that we’re on the road to where it should be. As for Lance, the guy’s instincts are absolutely spot on. He knows how to make these things work, he knows just what to do, he’s very instinctual. And when you meet him, he’s just so relaxed. And he’s so easy to collaborate with.” Everybody’s very down on Part II which, if viewed as separate to the franchise, is an okay monster film in its own right. “Yes, but it doesn’t have respect for the mythology of the subject. I just felt that the mythology set up in Part I was the thing to follow and therefore this is actually a continuation of that storyline because we have the Bunt character who’s grown up. He’s got his sister there and he’s got involved with this dodgy town doctor played by the wonderful Doug Bradley. Then we’ve still got Lance because he’s haunting Bunt but also he becomes Pumpkinhead, he physically regenerates into the monster as well. So you’ve got an interesting level of play, I think. On the one hand you’ve got Lance as the beast, on the other you’ve got him as this kind of mentor who’s trying to get Bunt to do the right thing. So there’s an interesting dichotomy between the two things that he is in this film.” With Brad Krevoy being involved with Part II, is he aware that it’s not really liked? “Brad Krevoy himself acknowledges that it’s not a very good film but he wouldn’t want us to be slagging it off because I don’t think that would help. The approach is very much that Part III is very much a continuation of Part I, it’s a truer sequel to Part I, and I think if we can keep it in that field then everyone will be happy.” It must be a thrill to have Doug Bradley aboard. “It’s a great thrill. I had actually met Doug about three times. What’s really interesting is that the first time I ever met Doug Bradley was when they showed some Hellraiser shorts at the NFT, back in the early ‘90s. As part of that slot, because the guy who programmed it needed some more stuff to put on, they screened my short film Club Death which, as you know, is on the two-disc edition of Razor Blade Smile. Club Death was my graduation film which I then finished after I left. It was quite a bit overly ambitious for a £3,000, 16mm film. So that screened with those shorts and Doug Bradley came down to introduce those shorts - and that was the first time I ever met him. He obviously didn’t know who I was and he had forgotten that himself. “But then I met him again when we filmed the Hellraiser extras for the Anchor Bay UK ‘cube’ set, so it was great seeing him again. And then, by another piece of good fortune, Evil Aliens was invited to the Luxembourg Fantasy Film Festival, Cinenygma, and Doug was on the jury there. He was one of the guests at the festival and we shared a plane ride together back from that festival. We were on the same flight and I was just reading a draft we had finished of Pumpkinhead III. I mentioned to him that I had a film coming up which I might have a good part for him in but I didn’t tell him it was Pumpkinhead at that point because I didn’t know whether it was going to go ahead. This was before script approval. “And then, lo and behold, when we got to the casting stage I managed to get Doug. Because obviously as a horror fan and a horror aficionado, to work with Doug Bradley is working with a horror star. He’s a bona fide British horror icon and I think he’s one of the only few now. And a top bloke and a great actor. Very underused, I think he carried forth the legacy that was started by people like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, he is of that ilk. So it was a real coup for our film to get him, and I remember Mike Hurst, when he knew I’d got him, was like: ‘You bastard! You’ve got the only British horror icon left!’ I said, ‘Well, you could try for Christopher Lee but he won’t get out of bed these days for this kind of thing.’ So yes, that was a big thrill, I must say.”
“Gary Tunnicliffe is an absolutely top, smashing guy but his shop is based out in Los Angeles so I had numerous Skype conference calls and conversations with him. He sent designs through and we chatted. He’s just great, he went above and beyond the call of duty in what he did for us in terms of the money we had. He even offered to build the transformation effects. I think he may have spent all of the profit he might have made by ploughing it back in! Because he got really enthusiastic about doing the beast, and then he sent over a great crew of guys that you met: Mike, Blake and Mitch. They were really experienced, they’ve all worked on other films, but Gary is this presence behind them. Everyone’s always telling you stories about Gary. Obviously Doug Bradley had worked with Gary a lot as well, so we had a lot of laugh. So I feel that I know him, even though I’ve never met him in the flesh. When I get out to LA I’m going to meet up with him and take him out for quite a few beers because he’s a top guy.” When you were actually shooting in Romania, what was the biggest surprise? “I think I was surprised because I wasn’t sure that I was going to be allowed to do stunts and blow things up. I didn’t know that I could do that because that’s outside my realm of experience from working on lower budgets. When I first met up with the stunt supervisor, he showed me a reel of things that he could do: these guys on wire rigs and jerk-backs and pyrotechnic stuff. Then the next day I phoned up Barbara and we discussed this and we started writing a lot more action into the script. That was something that I was really excited about because I just didn’t realise I would have it. We were in Romania and obviously the dollar stretches a lot further out there. But we did some pretty major stunts. You saw that explosion: it was pretty fucking incredible! So things like that was my biggest surprise and delight, because when I was originally working on the script I still had my low-budget head on and I was avoiding things which I thought would cost a fortune. And then we managed to write in much more in there than I had ever envisaged I would be allowed to do.”
“I never approached this film as a TV movie. We completely approached it as a theatrical film. There seems to be a good chance that it will get sold theatrically in some territories. Obviously because it’s funded by the Sci-Fi Channel they’ve got their cable premiere for the US but I believe they’re talking to a number of companies about the possibilities of doing theatrical releases elsewhere. That depends on how it goes. But I don’t think: this is a TV movie, I’ll put less effort into it. I put exactly the same amount of work and passion into it that I would do for any film I work on.” I was thinking that the scale of the production is bigger than your last two films. Is this how you want to work now? “Well, I’d like to work on a bigger scale! But Evil Aliens was a big leap up from Razor Blade Smile. On Evil Aliens we had £227,000 or whatever but to me that was a huge leap up from £20,000. So this exponentially is a similar kind of leap up from there.” By your fourth or fifth film, you should be making Titanic II! “If I could approach any James Cameron level budget, I’d be very happy! But ultimately it depends on the film and what the budget needs. If I had a low budget film idea and I really wanted to get it made, I would still consider making an independently financed picture, but if I get the opportunity to make bigger films and work with a better level of talent, which is really what the budget buys you. When you work with someone like Lance Henriksen, it gives you the bug to want to work with that level of actor. It’s a different league of performance that you’re getting. “One thing you continuously get criticised for on your low budget films is always the performances. I think that’s unfair. It doesn’t make you a better director because you’re working with better actors. The acting is better because these actors are just naturally better: they’ve had twenty, thirty, forty years of experience. And you can’t get that when you’re working on low budget films. That is one of the things that I think sometimes fans are too overly critical of. I think they should cut people more slack because actually people are just trying to forge their careers and you only get good by practising, you only get good by working. So therefore I’m very keen to work and continue working and also continue pushing myself creatively and challenging myself. “This film was a big challenge for me because it allowed me to do things that I’d never had the chance to do before. Like this time I’ve got a visual effects company doing the work, it’s not me in my bedroom with a friend for a year, doing it with five computers set up. So that kind of thing is really a treat! You’re working as a professional rather than as an enthusiastic amateur, I guess, but it was Evil Aliens which led to this. I think that Evil Aliens has been very well received generally, by the horror community anyway, maybe not so much in the mainstream, but that’s what really got the break in the first place and I hope that will continue. Obviously it depends how this film does and what people think of it when it’s done. I hope it will lead to more work.” Go back to Part 1 of this very long interview where Jake discusses how he was picked to direct Pumpkinhead 3 and the version of Pumpkinhead 4 we'll never see.. Website: www.jakewest.com | ||
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