News

INTERVIEW: Lin Shaye Talks ‘The Call,’ Tobin Bell, and More!

Published

4 years ago

October 1, 2020

The Call, a new film from writer Patrick Stibbs and director Timothy Woodward, Jr (The Final Wish) is out this Friday, and Lin Shaye sat down for an interview with iHorror to talk about working with Tobin Bell for the first time, filming in a mansion in Beverly Hills, and what’s next on her always busy schedule.

Set in 1987, the film centers on a woman driven to her breaking point by constant bullying from local teenagers who call her a witch and repeatedly vandalize her property. Upon her death, her husband (Bell) invites the vandals to their home and informs them that his wife left them each $100,000 in her will. All they have to do is fulfill one small task. Go upstairs, call the phone number on the desk in their study, and stay on the line for one minute.

Sure it sounds simple, but when the dead woman answers things get scary very quickly.

As she has said on numerous occasions, the most important thing to Shaye when it comes to taking on a new project is finding a story to tell. There has to be something more than just ghosts and monsters to pique her interest. When The Call came to her, she recognized its good bones, but she wasn’t fully ready to commit to it as it was.

“Now that I’ve gotten old, I’ve earned my big mouth,” Shaye said, laughing. “There were things in the script that I wasn’t sure about, but I thought the idea of the call was a terrific idea. I didn’t want to do a witch story. I didn’t think that was what it was about. I thought the core of it, the bullying and what that does to somebody, became much more important to me as an actress.”

With that in mind, Shaye, Stibbs, and Woodward–who the actress refers to as a “get it done guy”–collaborated to refine the story. When the time came to cast the film, it was Shaye’s manager Gina Rugolo who thought that genre legend Tobin Bell would be right for the part of her husband.

“We had never met, but I joked that we have the same godparents, Leigh Whannell and James Wan,” she explained. “So Daddy and Daddy had never introduced us, but I’ve always appreciated his work. Long story short, it was a great idea. We immediately had this real warmth and respect and affection for one another and I think that shows up on screen. I loved working with him. I think that really amplified the horror in the film even more.”

Tobin Bell and Lin Shaye had almost immediate chemistry on The Call.

The next challenge came when it was time to get into makeup for the film. By the end of the film, Shaye’s character has gone through quite the ghastly transformation which meant a lot of time in the makeup chair before her workday began.

This wouldn’t be so bad–the actress has famously transformed herself numerous times in her career–except that they discovered while filming in an older Beverly Hills mansion that the building had a mold problem. Sitting in a chair for hours in a basement while make-up is applied is one thing. Sitting in a moldy basement is quite another!

“I needed to get out and get a breath of fresh air every once in a while because I was afraid I was going to get black mold poisoning or something,” Shaye said with a big laugh. “The actual process, Ching Tseng, our makeup artist was really amazing. She was great. Great attitude, tireless, but those little lines that she put on my face with that little tiny brush took for fucking ever. I had to go get a dose of fresh air and come back in for the next hour, but she was brilliant. She could do everything.”

With the make-up in place, she was ready to really confront the teens who had tormented her character, so much so that she says she thought they were really scared of her at times.

“What I say about acting is that I find so fabulous is that it’s the one place where you can dig into the deepest, meanest, most horrible part of yourself safely,” she explained. “You’re allowed to tell the ugly truth, but in a safe place and be rewarded for it. In real life, you can’t expose that much of yourself like that. People will never talk to you again, basically. It was very fun.”

The Call opens this Friday, October 2, 2020. You can purchase advance tickets for the film on Atom Tickets and Fandango. For more information on the film, you can also visit their OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

As for what Shaye is working on next, her docket is, as usual, completely filled.

She’ll be making an appearance as Ted Bundy’s mother in an upcoming film by Daniel Farrands. She also took part in a film titled We Are Gathered Here Today which concerns a family who gathers via a series of Zoom calls as the family patriarch lies dying in the hospital with Covid-19. Shaye plays a self-described “rock and roller alcoholic” who wears black nail polish and rings with skulls on them. She said making the movie was a powerful experience and one that she thinks it will really draw people into its story.

For you gamers out there, Shaye is also working on a video game and from what little she could tell us, it sounds epic!

“The video game won’t be until next year sometime, but it’s a big one,” she said. “It’s for Digital Domain. We did the mo-cap thing, but the script is 956 pages long so I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTTGe2sJOU

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Movies

‘The Strangers’ Invaded Coachella in Instagramable PR Stunt

Published

12 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Renny Harlin’s reboot of The Strangers isn’t coming out until May 17, but those murderous home invaders are making a pit stop at Coachella first.

In the latest Instagramable PR stunt, the studio behind the film decided to have the trio of masked intruders crash Coachella, a music festival that takes place for two weekends in Southern California.

This type of publicity began when Paramount did the same thing with their horror movie Smile in 2022. Their version had seemingly ordinary people in populated places look directly into a camera with an evil grin.

Harlin’s reboot is actually a trilogy with a more expansive world than that of the original.

“When setting out to remake The Strangers, we felt there was a bigger story to be told, which could be as powerful, chilling, and terrifying as the original and could really expand that world,” said producer Courtney Solomon. “Shooting this story as a trilogy allows us to create a hyperreal and terrifying character study. We’re fortunate to be joining forces with Madelaine Petsch, an amazing talent whose character is the driving force of this story.”

The movie follows a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) who “after their car breaks down in an eerie small town, are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in The Strangers: Chapter 1 the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature film series.”

The Strangers: Chapter 1 opens in theaters on May 17.

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Movies

‘Alien’ Returning to Theaters For a Limited Time

Published

14 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It’s been 45 years since Ridley Scott’s Alien hit theaters and in celebration of that milestone, it is headed back to the big screen for a limited time. And what better day to do that than Alien Day on April 26?

It also works as a primer for the upcoming Fede Alvarez sequel Alien: Romulus opening on August 16. A special feature in which both Alvarez and Scott discuss the original sci-fi classic will be shown as a part of your theater admission. Take a look at the preview of that conversation below.

^{Fede Alvarez and Ridley Scott}

Back in 1979, the original trailer for Alien was kind of terrifying. Imagine sitting in front of a CRT TV (Cathode Ray Tube) at night and suddenly Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score begins to play as a giant chicken egg starts to crack with beams of light bursting through the shell and the word “Alien” slowly forms in slanted all caps across the screen. To a twelve-year-old, it was a scary pre-bedtime experience, especially Goldsmith’s screaming electronic musical flourishes playing over scenes of the actual movie. Let the “Is it horror or sci-fi?” debate begin.

Alien became a pop culture phenomenon, complete with kid’s toys, a graphic novel, and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It also inspired dioramas in wax museums and even a frightening setpiece at Walt Disney World in the now-defunct Great Movie Ride attraction.

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The film stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, and John Hurt. It tells the tale of a futuristic crew of blue-collar workers suddenly awakened out of stasis to investigate an undecipherable distress signal coming from a nearby moon. They investigate the source of the signal and discover it’s a warning and not a cry for help. Unbeknownst to the crew, they have brought a giant space creature back on board which they find out in one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

It is said that Alvarez’s sequel will pay homage to the original film’s storytelling and set design.

_{Alien Romulus}

^{Alien (1979)}

The Alien theatrical re-release will take place on April 26. Pre-order your tickets and find out where Alien will screen at a theater near you.

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News

Home Depot’s 12-Foot Skeleton Returns with a New Friend, Plus New Life-Size Prop from Spirit Halloween

Published

16 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Cameron McFarland

Halloween is the greatest holiday of them all. However, every great holiday needs amazing props to go with it. Luckily for you, there are two new amazing props that have been released, which are sure to impress your neighbors and frighten any neighborhood children who are unfortunate enough to wander past your yard.

The first entry is the return of the Home Depot 12-foot skeleton prop. Home Depot has outdone themselves in the past. But this year the company is bringing bigger and better things to their Halloween prop lineup.

This year, the company unveiled its new and improved Skelly. But what is a giant skeleton without a loyal friend? Home Depot has also announced that they will release a five-foot tall skeleton dog prop to eternally keep Skelly company as he haunts your yard this spooky season.

This bony pooch will be five feet tall and seven feet long. The prop will also feature a posable mouth and LCD eyes with eight variable settings. Lance Allen, Home Depot’s merchant of decorative Holliday gear, had the following to say about this year’s lineup.

“This year we increased our realism within the animatronics category, created some impressive, licensed characters and even brought back some fan favorites. Overall, we are most proud of the quality and value we are able to bring to our customers with these pieces so they can continue to grow their collections.”

But what if giant skeletons just aren’t your thing? Well, Spirit Halloween has you covered with their giant life size Terror Dog replica. This massive prop has been ripped out of your nightmares to appear frighteningly on your lawn.

This prop weighs in at almost fifty pounds and features glowing red eyes that are sure to keep your yard safe from any toilet paper throwing hooligans. This iconic Ghostbusters nightmare is a must have for any fan of 80s horror. Or, anyone who loves all things spooky.