Tom Holland talks 'Twisted Tales'
Horror writer, director and actor Tom Holland discusses his new television series Twisted Tales.
Tom Holland is undoubtedly an auteur when it comes to his profession. A writer, actor and director, Holland has certainly made a name for himself directing some of horror’s most recognisable films. After writing the sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece with Psycho II (1983), Holland marked his directorial debut with the vampire flick Fright Night (1985) – now a cult classic of the horror genre. The film became a hit to which he followed with Child’s Play (1988); another cult film that is now recognised as one the most iconic of the slasher horror genre. As well as these hits, Holland worked with the ‘Master of Horror’ Stephen King on the author’s adaptations Thinner (1998) and the miniseries The Langoliers (1995).
Holland now marks his iconic skills in another territory with the new anthology series Twisted Tales. The series follows in the footsteps with renowned horror shows like The Twilight Zone (1959), Tales of the Unexpected (1979-88) and Tales from the Crypt (1989-96) and tells a number of chilling stories that is perfect for the avid horror fan.
I spoke with Holland about Twisted Tales, Stephen King and his all-time favourite horror film.
How did you first get involved in Twisted Tales?
I wanted to get into mobile; you’d go out to a bar or a restaurant and you’d see everybody checking his or her cell phones. I thought ‘Gosh, if I can get content or a way of reaching a much younger audience that would be great.’ Everybody had been admiring me for what I had done like twenty or thirty years ago. So I wanted to work in a new form; I got the offer and I was also interested in shooting in digital, shooting for the internet, shooting with a short time-length for episodes; what I could accomplish in ten or fifteen minutes too. It was challenging in a lot of ways and I had no money. What more could you ask for? [laughs].
Were you heavily involved in the casting process?
Oh yes, for sure. You cast off the story but, because I have so many relationships, I really know a lot of terrific actors. Because these were short, and was shooing in LA, I could get actors who were friends or who I wanted to work with, who would come in for a short amount of time and for much less than they ordinarily got. I got a terrific cast for a lot of these episodes. A lot of them are genre people but a lot of them aren’t but they are terrific actors, which was one of the most exciting parts. What happens when you have no money or production value is you have to depend on the actor in front of the camera. The production value for Twisted Tales really is the actors.
Where did you get these inspirations from for each of these individual stories?
Boy, if I could do that I would do it all the time [laughs]. All my life it is still a mystery: sometimes I can’t stop the stories coming and other times I can’t find one! I really don’t know. The subconscious, the mystery, the blessed, the cursed; I just don’t know. I’ve stepped blocked for months and then I’ve also woken up in the middle of the night not being able to get to a pencil fast enough. I really just don’t know.
You’re an icon in the horror movie genre. How has it been to with fellow horror icons like Stephen King?
Stephen is a genius. He’s the Charles Dickens of my generation for America. Where I stand in awe of him is how productive he is and how he is able to maintain the quality. I’ve got Stephen King stories – he’s more compulsive than I am! [laughs] I first worked with him on The Langoliers (1995) the miniseries in Bangor, Maine. When you’re shooting something you call them early, because you never know when you’re going to need them or not, and so we pulled Stephen away from his writing desk; he was literally in withdrawal because he wasn’t able to write. He would sit there all morning and, when he finally relaxed, I asked him what had made him finally relax after writing and there he was reading the obituaries of the newspaper! At that time, he was working seven days a week: he had a great schedule up in his office; the morning was for one story or book; the other was laid out for another. He was doing that seven days a week so I don’t know where that come of compulsion or self-discipline comes from; that’s a Stephen King question [laughs]. But there’s nobody else like that.
Do you have a filmmaker that has influenced you throughout your career and do you have a favourite horror movie?
The big filmmaker is Alfred Hitchcock and the big film is Psycho (1960). That film changed my life because it was the beginning of modern horror. I could go on about that for hours because I wrote Pyscho II (1983). Fright Night (1985) is my love letter to my growing up as a horror fan and that’s Hammer; that’s my being in love with Hammer House of Horror films; that’s Peter Vincent; I love that stuff. If you can imagine this, I had never seen anything else in horror before the classic Universal horror films from the 1930s and 1940s, then Hammer films of the 1950s, then all of a sudden 1960 comes and there’s Psycho. It redefined horror, it changed it and it made Halloween (1978) possible: everything and it’s because of this odd, little Englishman called Alfred Hitchcock that horror is what it is today.