News
[Interview] iHorror Chats It Up With Writer & Director Rebekah McKendry.
Christmas time, the time of year when we are all try to do a little more, be a little nicer, and do good onto others. Director and Writer Rebekah McKendry has just done that by giving us the most wonderful gift, a new sinister horror holiday anthology All The Creatures Were Stirring. Rebekah has quite the impressive resume, she is an award-winning television and film director and she has a doctorate focused in Media Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, a MA in Film Studies from City University of New York, and a second MA from Virginia Tech in Media Education. Rebekah is no stranger to horror journalism as she has served as the Editor-in-chief for Blumhouse and as the Director of Marketing for the world famous Fangoria Magazine. Rebekah currently serves as a professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts and is a current co-host to Blumhouse’s Shock Waves podcast.
Rebekah’s husband David Ian McKendry also served as a director and writer on All The Creatures Were
Interview With Rebekah McKendry
Ryan Thomas Cusick: Hi Rebekah!
Rebekah McKendry: Hi Ryan! How are you doin?
RTC: I’m great, how are you?
RM: I am doin well, it is a very rainy day in Los Angeles, aside from that, I am doin well!
RTC: Yeah, I was going to ask you if you were enjoying this rain. [Laughs]
RM: I am looking outside right now, and it’s downpouring! My dog refuses to go outside, I don’t want to go outside either but I am going to have to in a bit. These days it only
RTC: Yup, and when its not here we want it.
RTC: All The Creatures Were Stirring was great, Christmas time is getting to the point where I enjoy watching the Christmas horror films more than I do so around Halloween.
RM: I love that. People are making these lists of the best Christmas Horror that we have been ending up on, which is awesome. But then just looking at the list its like “My God there is a lot of Christmas Horror and they are damn good.” It is just a fun time period to tackle, Christmas is wonderful but there is a definitely a sinister side to it as well.
RTC: There definitely is a dark side to it. I think you captured that, just in your introduction with your two characters going to the theatre, captures that loneliness, the two of them meeting up, to fill that void on Christmas Eve. I really enjoyed that.
RM: Oh thanks! Dave [McKendry] and I started to think about our first Christmas in Los Angeles, we had lived in New York city for years prior and it was within driving distance of our family home. We were used to this kind of snowy home for the holidays, family, Grandma and everyone eating turkey and mashed potatoes, bad sweaters Christmas. We got to Los Angeles and couldn’t afford to go back our first year and you just and it was just weird! It was like a ghost town, everyone that was here was like orphans, Christmas orphans. We all hung out together and BBQ in my backyard because it was like eighty-five degrees on Christmas Day, it was just a completely different vibe for us so it was an interesting starting point, “well its Christmas, I can’t get home, so umm, yeah we should hang out because its Christmas and I feel like we need to do something.” We thought that was an interesting starting point for it.
RTC: You did capture that, I picked up on it right away. Out of the five stories the first two were my absolute favorite.
RM: I love hearing that from people! That’s the interesting thing about an anthology, as soon as people see they are inclined, which is great, to say which one is their favorite, and which one is their least favorite, which is cool, I think is fun because no one ever says the same one for either of those. Every single segment has been someone’s favorite and has also been someone’s least favorite. I then look at them and say “well did great with the parking lot segment,” I love that one. Other people are like, “I didn’t like it, you didn’t explain anything. Where does that monster come from? Why does he live in a van?”
Both: [Laugh]
RM: I just love how polarizing these have become.
RTC: I think the first one, ‘All The Stockings Were Hung’ is about workplace bullying, workplace violence, it was great, and it caught me off guard. [Laughs] It really did! When the first gift was open, I said, “Oh Shit!” We are going to be in for a ride.
RM: We were hoping that would get some people because Chase Williamson we had worked with him before. Chase had starred in a short that we did and so our idea was to put him as one of the top billed on the movie and then kill him within like thirty seconds! We just loved that element and Chase was totally fine with it.
RTC: You and your husband co-wrote and co-directed the film, did the two of you have any creative differences or did everything just flow?
RM: Oh my gosh we always do! Oh Lord no, we argue about everything and that is kind of our process. When Morgan [Peter Brown] and Joe [Wicker] told us that they wanted to purchase the concept and they wanted to fund and get the investments, immediately Dave and I started generating ideas. When we pitched it we had three segments
RTC: I like that!
RM: If we’re not passionate about it, if we approach the concept and we are both like ‘meh, it will work” its probably not that great, and neither of us are really passionate about it enough to argue it.
RTC: Do you have anything in the future that you are going to be working on? Anymore features? Can we expect a sequel?
RM: We would love to do a sequel eventually. Right now we just wrapped on a second feature that I did through Producer Buz Wallick through MarVista Entertainment. It is a thriller, and even though it is a thriller it has a really high body count, I beat someone to death with a teapot in it.
RTC: oh, WOW!
RM: That was pretty fun and I stab someone in the neck with knitting needles, even though it is more of a thriller more than a supernatural horror, it is super fun! We just wrapped that, we are in post on it now and hopefully it will be coming somewhere in early 2019. Dave did a pass on the script for that so it does have some of his comedic voice in it. Dave and I are just pitching around, we have pitch meetings and we are attached to projects that we cannot talk about yet and that we are hoping will get greenlit. If not, like I said, we created a lot of segments for creatures and we have a lot of ideas that we didn’t get to use. So if there is a sequel I would be excited as hell to get the team back together to be able to do this again.
RTC: Very exciting! Again, congratulations, and thank you so much.
RM: Oh my gosh, thank you and stay dry!
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News
Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role
Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.
Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.
“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”
Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.
While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?
The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.
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Editorial
7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch
The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.
The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.
We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.
Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?
Scream Live (2023)
Ghostface (2021)
Ghost Face (2023)
Don’t Scream (2022)
Scream: A Fan Film (2023)
The Scream (2023)
A Scream Fan Film (2023)
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Movies
Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month
Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.
Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.
According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.
Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.
Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.
Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.
While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.
According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”
The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.
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