Ahead of Horror Channel’s UK TV Premiere of HATCHET on Friday 14th September 2018, director Adam Green gives an exclusive interview about his beloved franchise and what the future holds for Victor Crowley…
HATCHET is finally getting its first showing on UK TV, courtesy of Horror Channel. We’re excited, are you?
I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve always said that even though HATCHET may have world premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC, it was at FrightFest in London where “Victor Crowley” was truly born. FrightFest was “the screening heard around the world” and the UK audience was so enthusiastic over HATCHET that every genre festival on the planet seemed to call asking to program the film the very next day. A decade and three sequels later it’s about time that the film plays on Horror Channel, which feels like its natural home.
HATCHET is such a joyous celebration of the slasher genre. Looking back, who influenced you the most?
While I may have grown up on a healthy diet of all of the great slashers, my two biggest influences for HATCHET were actually not slasher films at all. John Landis’ AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and Tom Holland’s FRIGHT NIGHT were the two films that influenced HATCHET the most. The fact that those movies contained so much comedy made them massively entertaining, far beyond what audiences had come to expect from those sub-genres. There may be nothing funny about “Victor Crowley” and the violence/gore may be turned up to eleven, but HATCHET has a comedic edge that very few slasher films that came before it (intentionally) had.
Any more ‘HATCHETS’ in your murderous tool cupboard?
A major reason why the HATCHET sequels have succeeded is that they were planned out from the very start. In the first film I actually showed some of the weapons that “Victor Crowley” wouldn’t actually use until the later films and I held back crucial elements of his mythology to be revealed later on down the road. Of course it was also a risky move given that there was no way of knowing if I’d ever get to make the sequels.
Originally I had only planned for HATCHET to be a trilogy, but when I decided to bring “Victor Crowley” back for more I planned out another complete roadmap for where it could all go. With the success of VICTOR CROWLEY (HATCHET 4) it looks like I’ll once again be able to make the sequels I have planned. I’ve been able to stay in love with “Victor Crowley” because I only head back into his swamp when I’m ready to do so. Given that HATCHET is a cult franchise and not a studio property, my crew and I have always been able to make each film only when we want to. The “Hatchet Army” has always been willing to patiently wait until I’m ready. Not every filmmaker has such a luxury and I have never taken it for granted.
You and Joe Lynch feature quite heavily in the new FrightFest documentary. Still the best of friends?
I’m pretty sure that Joe and I became common-law married a few years ago simply based on how much time we spend together. We’ve released a new episode of our weekly podcast (THE MOVIE CRYPT) every Monday for well over five years now.
THE MOVIE CRYPT has become a huge part of our lives and our audience’s lives as well. I speak on behalf of both Joe and Arwen (my Yorkshire Terrier and our other co-host on the podcast) when I say that our annual 48-hour LIVE marathon to benefit Save A Yorkie Rescue is the most important thing that we do in our careers every year. Our professions may come with a lot of cool perks, but no amount of success, standing ovations or awards can match what it feels like when our fans help us save hundreds of dogs’ lives every year. Last Christmas we raised $24,000.00 during our 48-hour marathon – all of which went towards helping homeless and abused dogs in dire need of foster and medical care. The President of the rescue sent us a book a few months later containing the stories and “before and after” photos of each individual dog that we saved and it was… emotional beyond words. For all of the struggles, hardships, and general bullshit that Joe and I may go through trying to make movies for a living, when we get to put all we’ve accomplished to use for something so positive it is all worth it.
You scare us a lot, but what scares you the most?
The easy answer would be to say that the decrepit old clown that sleeps under my bed scares me the most but the truth is that these days it’s the entire goddamn world that’s scaring the shit out of me. Mass shootings have become part of our daily weather forecast here in the US and this whole trend of social justice warriors claiming that they are offended by everything and assassinating people’s lives and careers just to make a public showing of what “wonderfully tolerant citizens” they think they are…? I mean, when does it stop? The most revolting aspect is that they’re doing all of this in the name of “change” yet they’re actively trying to destroy people’s lives over a bad joke they may have made a decade ago and may have even already apologized for since. Make up you minds, Assholes! Are you saying that you want change or are you saying that change is not possible? It’s a terrifying time to be an artist.
If you had to choose – Jason, Freddy or Michael?
Michael. Always Michael.
Do you still see yourself as a member of the ‘Splat Pack’?
Yes. I’m a proud member of the ‘Splat Pack’ and I always will be. I may venture off into other arenas but as last year’s VICTOR CROWLEY proved, I still find it tremendous fun watching a character get “fisted” with their own severed arm. Let’s not forget that even my sit-com HOLLISTON has included several exploding heads, sliced off fingers, stabbings, and burned off faces. Hell, “Victor Crowley” chopped my own character’s face to pieces with his hatchet in the first three minutes of the second episode in Season 1. I’m not going anywhere and I’ll never fully grow up.
Still rocking with HADDONFIELD?
For the moment HADDONFIELD has once again been put on the back burner. Until someone invents a way for me to clone myself I just can’t do it all. The resurrection of HADDONFIELD was never expected and it was really just dumb luck that when I randomly played a couple of our songs during 2016’s 48-hour live MOVIE CRYPT marathon the right people just so happened to be listening and suddenly there was all of this interest again. However, after how well our record “Ghosts Of Salem” was received and after how well our reunion show went at the Worcester Palladium last Fall (our first performance together in seventeen years!) none of us want to just sit back and watch this second lease on the band’s life pass us by. Watch this space…
We hear you’ve got various projects on the go. What can you currently update us on?
Much like I did with my last two films (DIGGING UP THE MARROW and VICTOR CROWLEY), I’m trying to keep whatever I’m working on secret but that said, my first novel “I, SURVIVOR” just came out and is available through Amazon. In VICTOR CROWLEY “Andrew Yong” (the only known survivor of the massacre) is promoting his autobiography “I, SURVIVOR” and, me being me, I thought “how cool would it be if the book existed in real life so fans could read Andrew’s life story?” So Joe Knetter (my co-writer) and I wrote the actual book! The book is going to surprise a lot of people…
On the comic book front, the first issue of the next HATCHET comic series (“Vengeance”) and the second HOLLISTON graphic novel (“Carnival of Carnage”) both come out in wide release around Halloween. My assistants at ArieScope have created a little documentary celebrating the 20 years of Halloween short films that I’ve made. The documentary will be available on-line around mid-September, just one month before the 20th annual Halloween short film is released. Aside from all of that, THE MOVIE CRYPT continues to release a new 2+ hour long episode every Monday morning and we’re gearing up for our 3rd annual 48-hour live marathon to benefit Save A Yorkie Rescue this December. Lastly, Season 3 of HOLLISTON continues to be worked on but I suspect it is still going to be awhile before all of our schedules line up to get back on stage together again. I know it’s been a long wait but the show has been through hell and back with all that has happened since our friend and co-star Dave Brockie died in 2014. When the show continues on it will be because we’re all ready and the time is right.
Will we see you at FrightFest next year?
I would be at FrightFest every year if it were up to me! I think my next FrightFest will be my 10th FrightFest, is that right? Somehow I keep getting older while Alan Jones keeps getting younger. I’m certain that he’s a vampire.
Hatchet is broadcast on Horror Channel, Fri 14th September, 9pm.
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