Is That A Machete In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

So far, so good for the hands-on producers of the Friday the 13th remake —Andrew Form and Brad Fuller of Platinum Dunes — the few audiences who've seen the movie have responded favorably. "Actually, it's all not just the genre people [who like it]. Even some really mainstream journalists surprised us when they told us that they had really enjoyed the movie," said Fuller.

Staci Layne Wilson / Horror.com: Yeah. I think you did a really good job with the jokes and things where you still maintain some levity but not in a cheesy way. Is that what drew you to these particular pair of screenwriters? [Damian Shannon and Mark Swift] The tone?

Brad Fuller: They wrote something that we loved a long time ago. It was something called Gator Farm [After we tried a couple of other writers for Friday] somebody said, 'Well these guys cracked Freddy vs. Jason — you should look at them'. And we already liked them. We sat down with them and we got [a partial script that was] eleven pages long. It was the opening sequence. It was fantastic. So that was it for us.

Andrew Form: They nailed the tone. And that was the hardest part.

Wilson: There are so many Friday the 13th rereleases on DVD coming up and a new documentary, His Name Was Jason. Do you feel like you kind of sparked this groundswell of new interest in the old Friday movies?

Form: We don't know there is that kind of interest in this Friday the 13th! [laughs] So I don't know how we could have done that. I mean, we will see if people respond by going to the movie. If they do, that would be great. We did this because of those old movies, so it'll be wonderful if other people respond and take an interest, too.

Wilson: I thought it had a sort of Chainsaw '03 feel which is still my favorite Platinum Dunes movie. But now I must ask: Your next remake, is it going to be A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Fuller: Yes. [But we don't have a director yet.]

Wilson: You don't know yet? So are you going for the same kind of feel [you have here], a very slick assured stance rather than sort of the fun cheesy, cheekiness that people like about the original Nightmare?

Fuller: We are going to try to stay away from the cheesy. I think we don't do cheesy well.

Wilson: Sometimes you do when you don't mean to. [laughing]

Form: Thank you. You don't forget, do you Staci?

Wilson: Sorry. I've still got an Unborn aftertaste.

Form: I was talking about your review of The Hitcher.

Wilson: Ah. You don't forget, either!

Form: It's funny, because do you think that the cheesiness started in the first one, or do you think it happened later in Elm Street?

Wilson: I'm thinking back to when I saw it, when it first came out, and I don't think that it felt kitschy to me then. I remember being scared. I believe that it's a patina of cheesiness, then.

Fuller: It definitely has that. We're not sure… you know, we haven't hired anyone so we don't know what feels like.

Form: It's going to be a very visual movie, especially with dreams — that's for sure. I mean we're definitely going to go down that road, and we want it to be visual.

Wilson: And what are you thinking when it comes to the famous finger-claws?

Form: Oh, they are definitely there. That's the thing: The claws. You don't take the Chainsaw away from Leatherface, you don't take the machete away from Jason. And you don't take the glove away from Freddy.

Wilson: And what else have you got coming in the immediate future? The Horsemen?

Form: It comes out March 13th. A limited release from Lions Gate. It's a very hard sell, that film. It's an arty horror film I would say. Or a thriller, it's not really horror, but the subject matter is very dark. And not commercial. Probably not for the mainstream, but you know… we loved making the movie. Dennis Quiad is amazing in it, and we are very proud of it.

Fuller: It is hard to sell people on hooks in this current climate right now; people being suspended from hooks.

Wilson: I guess Pinhead's out of a job then, huh?

Form: I mean in a torture kind of way. You know in Friday we wanted to have fun and with Jason, make it quick and it's a wink, and it's fun. Horsemen is the opposite of that completely. It's dark and dreary, it's like a drama with some horror mixed in. Dennis plays a detective who is trying to solve serial murder crime and he discovers that it is not just one killer it's multiple killers. And they are using the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse [as their M.O.] And he figures that out and realizes that this horror that's out there and I have to go after that killer alone.

Wilson: How graphic is it?

Fuller: It's pretty graphic.

Wilson: So in the limited release, will that be an NC-17?

Form: No its R, it got the R rating. To us it's more towards the Chainsaw type feeling of films as far as what you show and how intense it is.

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Coming soon! Our exclusive on-camera interviews with the cast of Friday the 13th