Late Night Classics – The Horror Show

The cover of Fangoria #81 is the first time I heard of a film called The Horror Show. I was immediately attracted to it because the mug shot of Max Jenke was quite gruesome and it was being produced by Sean S. Cunningham [Friday the 13th]. One night I was flipping around the stations on cable and low and behold The Horror Show was on and I was instantly hooked.

It always bothers the hell out of me when a movie that I feel deserves attention doesn’t receive it. At my old job at DVD Planet my staff and I would pass around a variety of horror titles we liked that we wanted to share with each other. I busted out my VHS copy of The Horror Show and every single one of my co-workers came back telling me, “The movie kicked ass”, and “Why don’t they make them like that anymore?”

I am very proud to present to you my interview with director Jim Isaac [Jason X, Skinwalkers] on his first film and one of my personal favorites, The Horror Show.

Jason Bene: You started out as a creature technician on Return of the Jedi, Enemy Mine, Gremlins, and The Fly. Was making movies something you always thought would be the next evolution in your career?

Jim Isaac: I started off in theater and that was my first love. I was producing my own one-act plays with a friend a mine and we were doing alright, we were breaking even. We needed some extra money for one of our productions and his uncle worked in a model shop over at ILM and got us a job toward the end of Jedi. We didn’t have experience at film stuff or even FX or anything. We thought that it would be cool to put some extra money into our theater thing. I was in the creature shop that was run by Phil Tippett and Chris Walas and they were doing a bunch of creature FX with the Ewoks. It was great just to be in there because I had never been in a creature shop before. I was a grunt and did whatever they told me to do and clean and do whatever Chris and Phil needed from us. It was a really interesting time because it was the Star Wars Trilogy and being there with George Lucas wandering around was incredible.

Jason Bene: You had the chance to shadow your mentor and idol David Cronenberg on The Fly. What did you take away from working with such an original voice in horror?

Jim Isaac: I first met David on The Fly and didn’t know alot about him other than the movies of his that I really love. I was really intimidated when I first met him. From his films you would expect him to be a crazy, eccentric, wild, creative artist guy or something. He’s the opposite. He’s incredibly talented and intellectual and one of the smartest horror filmmakers I had ever met. As I worked closer and closer with David in other films [Naked Lunch, Existenz] I learned is that if he’s going to have creature FX in his films they are usually integral to the story. They are not just this side thing were someone gets shot or gets his arm cut off. He’s always been a good friend, he has always encouraged me on my directing desires.

Jason Bene: From my understanding you were not the original director on The Horror Show. How did producer Sean S. Cunningham bring you on board and how much of the finished product belongs to you?

Jim Isaac: That’s a good question. I was the digital FX supervisor early on, and I really liked the script and wanted it to be the first thing I directed. I said, “I can do this, it’s a small film, it’s right up my alley, it’s dark and funny.” They hired another writer/director [David Blythe] and shot it for a couple of weeks. At the time I was doing The Horror Show and Deepstar Six and doing all the FX. My input on The Horror Show hadn’t been that intense yet. Sean called me up on a Friday night and said, “They have been shooting for two weeks and I need you to start directing The Horror Show on Monday.” I said, “You got to be kidding me!” One, I’m neck deep delivering all the postproduction FX on Deepstar Six to you. A lot of them are coming from England, a lot of them are spread all over L.A., we have all kinds of stuff going on. I was sitting with the David Handman editing the FX at night and said, “I would love to direct The Horror Show but here’s my problem with it. One, I have this other job doing FX and two, I am not thrilled with this script now as I was a year earlier, it’s been changed and watered down, plus you are in the middle of production. I think there are some holes in the script right now.” I said, “Look, would you consider shutting down?” You’ve already fired the original director and I had nothing to do with that decision. In fact, I hadn’t even seen dailies, I said, “If you are adamant and excited about doing this, can we take a break and get together with Lance and re-write and also write some new scenes to thread the story together because there all holes in the story.” He said, “No, we can’t do that, we dont have the money, we don’t have the time. We need to start on Monday at 8 O’Clock and pick up right were we left off tonight.” I said, “You’ve got to be crazy, you just got to be kidding me. You got a whole cast that doesn’t even know me.” I’m sure they bonded with the director because David is a really nice guy and they are not going to be happy about this. They were not happy about it, they were very upset. Directors and actors usually and should bond. Creatively they become friends with their actors.

I showed up on Monday morning and the first person I met was Rita Taggart who plays Lance Henriksen’s wife and she stood up on a box and gave a speech on how she completely disagreed with the firing of David. She wanted to state her opposition to hiring a new director, and there I am looking like I was 14 years old. The first week was a bit tricky, but I think as the actors realized I had nothing to do with David being fired and I was there to try and tell the best story that I could. Because of my theater background and my relationship with actors they realized I was more than just a FX guy who wants to blow stuff up, we became really close. Brion, Lance, and Rita were all great. Even if they didn’t like me the first week they still were pros. It just became a much nicer working environment as they got to know me and I got to know them. My first time out directing I felt great about it and learned post-production, ADR, music, and all that technical stuff which was new to me. I really had a great time and we got what we needed. The Horror Show for me was a double-edged sword because who is going to turn down a directing job at that age given that opportunity, but as I have gotten older and learned when you walk into a situation where you’re not happy with the script, that is a very difficult thing to do. I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody because at the end of the day it’s all about the script. I have to shoot this schedule and hope that Sean would see those holes as well and realize we only have 70 minutes of usable footage and we need more. We did a quick assembly cut and sure enough Sean agreed we need time. I had a handful of things that I thought were critical to tell the story and I wrote them. Sean found the money and we were able to build a couple quick sets and do some reshoots.

Jason Bene: Did your work on heavy FX films prepare you for what you wanted from your make-up department on The Horror Show?

Jim Isaac: Yeah, absolutely. The Horror Show was KNB first film for their company. I had hired another company to do the creature for Deepstar Six and they did so much work that I suggested they should start their own make-up FX company. I said, “Sean and I are doing The Horror Show and this can be your first official film.” Every film that I have done has had some make-up and creature FX. With my FX background it absolutely makes it easier for me to describe what I need and what I am thinking.

 Jason Bene: As far as I’m concerned the two finest performances of Lance Henriksen’s career are in The Horror Show and Pumpkinhead. They both deal with a family man, an everyman, who is trying to protect his family at all costs. The scenes between him and Brion James are epic. How involved were you in those verbal duels?

Jim Isaac: I was very much involved with those. Once we got over the hiccup of the first few days we all got along really well. The dynamic between those two was helped by my theater background which is all based on character and you don’t have any FX on a stage production. My feeling was let’s make this relationship really solid and interesting and not just one-dimensional. Now how do we make it so the two of you have this weird connection? A lot of that was just discussions that I had with Brion and Lance. I had worked with Brion earlier on Enemy Mine because he was the bad guy and I was doing the FX in Munich. Even in the execution scene I still wanted that to be a real moment between two guys. We always tried ways to elevate the film so it wasn’t pigeonholed into a one-dimensional slasher film. These are very talented actors and I can’t take credit for any of that casting at all. In my opinion that film would have been in horrible shape if you were dealing with mediocre actors.

Jason Bene: Brion James was an amazing talent that truly honored his craft. How much of the over-the-top maniacal behavior of Max ‘Meat Cleaver’ Jenke was improvised?

Jim Isaac: We didn’t want him to be a cliched bad guy, we wanted something to be unusual about him. We wanted him to be over the top, a little crazy. There is certainly an element of let’s have a little fun with him. Brion was adamant about not just being the scary guy in the shadows. I want him smart enough to figure out how to bring himself back from the dead using electricity. Let’s play with the insane genius, I don’t give a shit about anything kind of thing. He was the one who came up with the high pitch laugh.

Jason Bene: My favorite line in the movie is after Max Jenke gets his first jolt of juice from the electric chair he excitedly says, “All that did was give me a hard-on!” Was that something you wrote?

Jim Isaac: Let me think now, I don’t want to take credit for the best line. I can’t remember if that line was in the original script. I don’t remember if that was an improv line because it was a crazy day. It is a funny line and he delivered it great. That was a very hard scene to shoot back in those days when you had him strapped up to bladders and make-up FX.

Jason Bene: Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham are great friends, and both Shocker and The Horror Show deal with serial killers being sent to the electric chair. Do you know which film went into production first and was there any kind of strife between the two?

Jim Isaac: The Horror Show was first. Shocker, I believe, was released first because Wes had more clout. We tested off the charts. There was some regime change at United Artists right after our test screening. They looked at what they had on their slate and they didn’t want to be known for horror films. They pulled back the release and Sean was fighting saying, “Look at these cards, you have a hit on your hand.” Wes asked Sean if he could see a rough cut of The Horror Show and I said to Sean, “I know you guys are buddies and all but do we really want to do this? I’d rather not show that to anybody yet, especially since he’s doing a movie about the same thing.” I was a little bit concerned about it, but Sean didn’t seem to care. I’m not sure what Wes did or didn’t get out of it. I do know The Horror Show was first.

Jason Bene: There are always message board debates pitting The Horror Show vs. Shocker? I do enjoy Shocker for its tongue-in-cheek silliness, but for my money, Max Jenke is a mean bastard that plays for keeps. Did The Horror Show receive a theatrical release and were the producers disappointed the character didn’t branch out to sequels?

Jim Isaac: We were disappointed that United Artists decided to simply not push any kind of horror films. They made this blanket decision after it tested and was ready to go. Everybody was happy with the cards and all those things were lining up, but somebody there decided that they didn’t want United Artists to be branded with horror stuff. We were probably looking at a 2,000 screen release or even more. We opened in the East Coast theatrically and nationwide around 600 to 700 screens. I don’t even think it opened in the West Coast theatrically. I remember getting a call from Brion James who was sent to New York to do some press stuff and they brought him out in costume for previews. He was really jazzed about it because he saw a lot of posters. It didn’t get the exposure or awareness it could have.

Jason Bene: Jack Valenti and the MPAA were on the prowl in the late 80′s. Were there any cuts that had to be made to get an R Rating?

Jim Isaac: There were and they hated us. They had issues with Sean in particular and the two of them did not get along. They were brutal on us. It was my first time through the process of having to show it to the MPAA and they had notes wanting us to cut a lot from the execution scene. They would tell us how many frames were acceptable on a certain shot. They were brutal, they were tough on us. I think they had it in for Sean and they wanted to make an example of us. The original cut was much longer, but it actually wasn’t as violent and there was more humanity and emotion. It was much more powerful because the released version is more chopped up and was actually more violent, but in a bad way. I didn’t get the connection as much as I feel like we did like with the original cut. There was much more building up between the two characters.

Jason Bene: There is confusion amongst fans about the the film being called House 3, can you explain why there were two different titles?

Jim Isaac: It really came down to a distributing deal that was already in place. It was really for international distributing, for whatever reason it was slotted as House 3.

Jason Bene: Yeah, because Sean produced the House series.

Jim Isaac: Exactly. It filled an obligation in certain territories for that particular distribution agreement.

Jason Bene: The Horror Show is available from Anchor Bay UK in a House box set, but there is still no Region 1 DVD release. I have a beautiful print of it in my DVR que from a broadcast on MGM HD. Does this mean it’s finally coming out or is MGM’s financial woes going to keep it buried?

Jim Isaac: I have no idea. It’s worth making some calls. Sean is the only guy that can probably find that out. I haven’t heard anything about that at all. It would be great if they could do a great quality release. It costs so much money to distribute a movie. There are new movies at Blockbuster Video every five minutes and you have to spend money to create an awareness. If there was some reason they felt the movie would do well to justify it might hapen.

Jason Bene: It would probably have to get remade at this point to get a release.

Jim Isaac: Maybe we should do a remake? Hollywood is obsessed right now with remakes and sequels. I should run that by Sean because he’s remaking all of his stuff.

Killer Film would like to say thank you to Jim Isaac for giving one outstanding interview and we wish him the best of luck on his new film Pig Hunt.