How did your journey with the Final Destination series begin?
It started when I was 14. I lived in this small town in Kentucky and I saw this classic horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and I fell in love with it. So I went home and wrote a story idea for the next movie. I sent it to Bob Shaye in New York who ran the New Line cinema, and he sent it back to me because it didn’t come through an agent. He said, ‘I can’t read it’. So I wrote him back an aggressive letter and said, ‘Excuse me, Sir. I’ve seen three New Line movies and I’ve spent four dollars on your movies, so I think you can take five minutes to read my story’. So he actually read it he wrote back to me. I became pen pals with him and then I went to New York when I was 19 to study acting for the summer. I got an internship in New Line cinema and then I just ended up working there for 11 years. I learned all about the film industry through them and they made Final Destination .
You’ve written horror films for more than a decade and half now. Is there a science or a method to writing horror?
They try to make a science out of it, but the thing with movies is that people on the business side of stuff always try to copy whatever becomes a big hit. So when Halloween (1978) came out, they started making lots of slasher movies. When Elm Street came out, there was a whole new film of fantasy horror. The slasher wave kind of died down. Then there was a wave of found footage. And now everything is ghost and paranormal stuff. I’m working on a slasher film for Lionsgate so I’m hoping that it kicks off a whole new round of slasher films.
Horror films reflect the times that they’re in. So if you see a movie like Night of the Living Dead (1968), back in the 60s, that movie was very much about “the others”, that is people who are different than us. It reflected the racial strife in America during those times. In Dawn of the Dead (1978), it was all about consumerism. The Last House on the Left (1972), which Wes Craven did, was set during the hippie generation, when everybody was all about love and peace. The film shows that underneath all that there was evil in the world. Elm Street explored that as well. It’s fun to see how horror films reflect what’s going on in the world.
So, how are horror films reflecting the current times?
This is going to sound like I am selling myself but I promise I’m not. I wrote a TV pilot with a friend of mine that is basically based on the idea that all the hatred and ugliness online has taken form of a demon. In the first season an African American family deals with that. With each season our plan is to deal with different segments of society, and how they are oppressed. Next season we will have a Christian family, then a Muslim family and then a gay family. Every season we’ll try to show how hatred affects people.
The recent horror movie that dealt with the racism that has bubbled up in our country is Get Out (2017). That movie renewed the effort that you can say something about what’s going on in the world through films.
Do you think horror films have a fatigue factor? Do you see yourself struggling to innovate?
Being a lifelong fan, I know the tricks of the trade. That’s why I’m moving into directing now because I want to have some more control. In writing I try to take it the other way than what is expected. But you know what’s the worst thing to have happened to horror films? Cellphones. You always have to make sure your characters don’t get a signal because if they get a signal, they can call someone. So you always have to have them say, “Oh, there’s no signal here”. That’s hurt the horror industry more than anything. (laughs). So you have to outsmart that.
As a writer of mixed race, do you make your scripts more inclusive?
I try to include everybody and they keep taking them out. When I wrote Final Destination , from the very beginning I said, ‘This film is set in New York. America is said to be the melting pot and New York is the melting pot of the melting pot. So please remember that this needs a diverse cast’. So they shot it in Canada and I start seeing the casting and they’re all white kids and I’m like this is not New York. So they put Tony Todd in it, who I love. But they didn’t make any of the kids diverse. So in the second one I specifically put it. In the first one I did too but they always say, ‘Oh, we cast the best actor’. But that’s bull.
You also produced episodes of Dante’s Cove , a gay supernatural TV show. Are you planning anything more with queer characters?
That was particularly targeted towards the gay audiences. In general, I try to include everybody and all experiences of humanity. But my Lionsgate film did have a gay character but the actor after he was signed in, his representatives said they didn’t want him to play a gay character. I’m not happy about that. The horror audience is always accepting. It’s the studios who are fearful.
You’ve said earlier that the gay audiences are especially drawn to horror films. What’s the attraction?
One of tropes in horror film has always been that the final girl, the one who lives till the end of the film is usually not the most popular girl. She’s not the one partying and having sex but studying and being quiet. People don’t understand her. That’s just something that gay people can relate to, as not fitting in. That’s the beauty of horror films. Whether you’re gay, a woman or a skinny, pimply white guy who is awkward, you can relate to them. The jocks, the popular and the pretty people always get killed. That connects to not just gay people but also anyone who feels like an outsider.
