V/H/S/Mixtape Filmmakers discuss their inspiration and behind the scenes look into their segments
The latest installment in the V/H/S franchise, V/H/S/Mixtape, is upon us just in time for the Halloween season. V/H/S/Mixtape continues the franchise tradition of gathering a handful of genre filmmakers to write and direct various segments, and in line with more recent franchise tradition, the various segments all surround a central theme. This year's installment of V/H/S has the shared theme of music, with some segments directed by music icons such as RZA and GWAR. We at The Horror Lounge sat down and chatted with filmmakers Renee Zhan (O Black Hole!, Soft Animals), Ernest R. Dickerson (Bones, Juice) and David Moreau (MadS, Them) about their segments.
Parts of this interview have been edited for clarity.
The Horror Lounge: Glad to be here talking V/H/S with you guys. Renee, you directed the segment Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance. I had to make sure I got all four dances in there. So you actually filmed in Jim Henson's Creature Shop, correct?
Renee: Yeah.
The Horror Lounge: That's super cool. There's so many pieces of media that came to mind when I was watching your segment, especially with the puppets, like, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, and of course The Muppets. Was there a direct single inspiration for the look of the Curious Chorus, or was it an amalgamation of pulling from different sources to make them?
Renee: Oh, I really like that question, and my friends made Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. I love that series. The puppet design specifically, it was an amalgamation. I wanted them to feel Muppet-like, but obviously not be The Muppets. So it was looking at a lot of the classic Sesame Street puppets, Fraggle Rock... there's things that they all have. Like they all have the eyes that all made of ping pong balls usually... colorful, fluffy, sweet. So with my puppets, each one is named after a thing that can kill you. There's Riptide, Botulism, Skeeto, Hemlock. So I like the idea that they look really cute and nice, but they have the secret deadliness inside them, which I think, you know, is true to the film.
The Horror Lounge: Absolutely, I mean, I even put in my notes how the whole third act of your segment is like a chase sequence, but with Sesame Street characters. So I love that. And Ernest, your segment, I adored the visuals in that one, specifically in the lighting and creature design. The creature design felt very Lovecraftian in a lot of aspects. Could you walk me through some of your thought process on the visual language of the music of Mr. Sze?
Ernest: Well, it was definitely Lovecraft inspired. Actually, I took the idea from two Lovecraft stories that I've mashed together, and I love cosmic horror and the idea that music can be used as a weapon, as a way of defending us against something. Music, sound, orchestrated sound, organized sound that can be used in so many different ways. And I just loved this idea. And so, I just kind of went with it, tried to do a story that we could shoot in...we shot it in four and half days and actually came up with a practical creature that we worked with and just tried to make a ball of twine story where you have a little thread that starts the mystery going and you gradually unwind it and you wind up getting deeper and deeper into something. And so that's what I basically tried to do with this story.
The Horror Lounge: I love that. I thought it was super cool. And you mentioned earlier that you were inspired by two separate Lovecraft stories, which ones in particular?
Ernest: The Music of Eric Zahn and The Haunter of the Dark… I've been reading Lovecraft since I was in high school, and as an African American I definitely had issues with it, but that's kind of why I put an African American as the lead in mine, which is what I think was done also in the Color Out of Space. I think he put a black guy in there that actually looked like a black version of Lovecraft, you know, kind of subverting that whole racist thing that is part of Lovecraft's legacy.
The Horror Lounge: Absolutely. I mean, Jihad, he's great. He gives an epic performance in The Music of Mr. Sze. And David, I really love how much sound played a part in your segment. I mean, I know sound plays a part in film, typically always, but sound is really emphasized in yours. Like you really go to some cool places with the sound design of Heartbeat. And as someone who finds those super quiet rooms really, really creepy, I would never step foot in one. What was it like filming in one were there any particular obstacles in filming in that sort of environment?
David: Oh, we actually built a set because it was impossible to buy because most of those places are kind of small, so we were not able to shoot in a real echoic chamber because it's too tough to find so we have to build a set But it was fun because we got to, even if it was not a real one, we had kind of a glimpse of what it can sound like because the sound was really dry. They don't have any echo. It's very a dry sound, you know? So, it was really fun to lock the cast inside this place with the camera on them and to just let them live the story. And they became a little bit crazy shooting the movie. They were like locked for three days, not three days in a row. We actually let them go out at the end of the day, which I was not for that. I would have loved to have them being three days locked inside (David laughs).
But no, it was fun because they had a glimpse of what it can do to actually listen to your own body sound. I love concrete music. I don't know if you're familiar with this term, but in French concrete music, it's when you do music with realistic stuff, not instruments. It can be a fork, it can be your own body. I saw a sound piece made by a guy who was only making sound by touching his face, and I thought it was so cool... I really wanted to do a story about, just doing musical sound with your own body.
The Horror Lounge: That's super cool. I really dug the sound design. It got under my skin, literally. Hearing her heartbeat and the blood flow, it was creepy. Now, a question for all three... V/H/S has always been a very fun playground for filmmaking. There's really, from what I've seen in the franchise, almost no rules. You can kind of do whatever. So how has it been playing in the V/H/S sandbox compared to other productions?
Ernest: Well, for me, having a great producer, Josh Goldblum. He was so encouraging, you know? Like I said before, a lot of producers I've worked with, I like to call them "Dr. No's" because they're always telling you what you can't do. Josh was always saying "more, more, more." So, it's great having somebody like that behind you.
Renee: Yeah, I would echo that. I think there's something about the format too, that just lends itself to experimentation and going there, because you only have 15-20 minutes to tell the story. So you want to compact all the gore and action and the stuff of a feature length horror movie into the short space of time, and I think you end up with something really interesting and intense.
David: Yeah, and it's fun to have, like Ernest said, somebody like Josh who's actually pushing you to do more and to be as free as you want. And yeah, I mean, it's very enjoyable to have somebody who just lets you have fun. I myself had a lot of fun being able to do whatever we wanted, and I think this is why V/H/S is cool. It's because it gives the space to the filmmakers to go as far as they want to go. It's cool if you go far. So yeah, it's really fun to do, really fun.
The Horror Lounge: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more on all fronts. Josh Goldblum is awesome, and V/H/S in general is awesome. It's a wicked playground for filmmaking. Thank you guys so much again for taking the time to chat with me today, it was a pleasure.
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