IN CONVERSATION WITH PHIL CLAYDON

Writer and director Phil Claydon is perhaps best known so far for the romp that was LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS. Now, just in time for spooky season, he has returned with HELLOWEEN, the tale of a nationwide killer clown uprising that may be engineered by the infamous murderer Carl Cane from his asylum cell. Gore In The Store interviewed Phil to discuss the film, its inspirations, both fictional and factual, and the advantages and pitfalls of working in micro budget British horror.

GORE IN THE STORE - Could you talk about the real life inspiration for the film?

PHIL CLAYDON - The real life inspiration was the 2016 creepy clown sightings. Remember when those viral videos came out and were all over everywhere? It was big in America, and it started to get big over here, and nobody knew what it was connected to. Everybody was wondering, is it a hoax, is it for a film promotion? Is it this? Is it that? 

I was developing micro budget horror films with Jonathan Sothcott and the financier gave us a remit, which was to make a clown movie that was set at Halloween, and because it was micro budget, it had to be a maximum of two locations. So that was kind of a remit. That's when my brain went directly to where I needed a jumping off point, a what if. And my what-if was when I went back to V FOR VENDETTA, where I thought what if there was a sinister idea behind the movement of these clowns, and what if they were all wearing the same makeup? And what if it was either a hoax or a threat, and we didn't know. So that was the building out of the world. And then I had to think about, how do I construct this where we're at micro budget? I don't have money to do a big anarchic punk uprising of clowns, which would be awesome in a MAD MAX kind of way, but this needs to be a contained horror movie. And my brain went to THE PURGE. The first PURGE movie has a big idea, a big concept, but ultimately it’s a home invasion movie. And that works really well because it built this insane world of impending doom, but the movie was actually about Ethan Hawke and his family at home. So my thought was, I'll use newsreel and viral videos to build this world out of what's happening, and then I'll focus that on a central character like a Charles Manson type or V FOR VENDETTA type that is the brain, the mind behind the craziness that is about to unfold. And that's where the inspiration for Carl Cane came from.

Why do you think it is that clowns have become such dominant figures in horror these days?

PC - I think it comes from the fact that we all hide behind masks. Clowns just have that weirdness about them, the uncanny valley of not really seeing who the person is, and they have the theatricality of this makeup. It can go either way. It can be kind of bland, where it's mysterious and you read more into it, where it's more mime, or it can go extreme into quite scary makeup, and has all these different levels of what a clown is. But I think intrinsically, there's just something about the fact that it's a human with a mask on, and we can't read that as human beings, we always have difficulty. And it creates that unknown factor which is great for horror movies, whether it's the doll in POLTERGEIST, which is still scary as hell, or whether it's Tim Curry as Pennywise. And then obviously, Art from TERRIFIER has become huge these days. So it's in there in popular culture, isn't it?

Do clowns scare you personally?

PC - I love the idea of a clown because the fact is, you're not too sure what they're going to do. There's a cheekiness to them. But also there's a dangerous nature to them, because you are just unsure. They're unpredictable. And that's what I liked about the clown idea. And I just like that it's a movie about masks. Everyone wears a mask in society until somebody unleashes the true people behind it. And that's what Karl Kane is doing, really. It's kind of behind his mask. He's pulling everybody out with his ideas and creating this movement. So the clown mask became a good theme to have and to play with. And I think it's always good, because you can write a great well written role and actors love playing the clown.

Do you have a favorite clown in any media at all?

PC - I don't have a personal favorite, but personal scares came from Tim Curry from IT. You know, we grew up with that mini series as kids, so it freaked us out. And then I remember the POLTERGEIST doll, the clown doll just sat on the chair, not moving, but was scary as hell.

You mentioned earlier, the remit that you had. I wanted to ask about how long it took from the original idea to actually getting the film on screen.

PC - It was very quick. I think that I came in at the end of May. So I started writing through June, July. It took me about three weeks to write the script. I was also doing my day job and working as a lecturer of film production. So I kind of had to do my job, and then start writing what initially was called Maniac Clown. I started writing and then handed it in about mid July. We were green lit about three weeks later. So then it was kind of September to kind of prep everything, and then we started shooting at the start of October. So it was a very quick turnaround. I think that was the nature of the fact that the finance was there to do it. So then, as with most film opportunities you kind of back into what the remit is, rather than “here is a movie I want to make!” That gets your relationship, but then it's like, “Yes, we love that idea, but this is what we want for the market.” And that's where you have to switch your ideas and switch gears. So it was a quick, fast paced turnaround, which helped.

You had a quick, fast turnaround, sounding like the project was ready from the get go, but have you had any other difficulties in making low budget horror movies in the UK?

PC - Yeah, it's always so difficult to make any film. LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS took five years from script to screen, and it fell apart on one occasion. And it's just all about raising money. I don't think it matters, whether it's a micro budget, whether it's one million, whether it's three million, whatever you're doing, you know what I mean? It's just difficult to get finance together for any film, whether it's a genre film or whatever.

Do you think there is a snobbery towards genre films, in the UK specifically?

PC - I don’t think it is a snobbery. I thought that when I first started making films, but now realize this intrinsic difficulty in raising finance for all films. There just isn't that much of an infrastructure already in the UK that can kind of help a pipeline. And so they can only bet on a few films. And usually horror has kind of slipped through. You know, Film 4 has done some and BBC Films have done some. So I think there's a want to get them made. But obviously, if they have a slate where they can only finance three films. If they only  finance three horror films, you know, they can't do it. They have to kind of diversify. So it's like we need to get back to the old days of Hammer. Maybe we can do that through getting a pipeline of micro-budget films out there. That could be the way to go.

One of the things I liked about the film was seeing Michael Paré on screen again. How did you get him involved?

PC - Jonathan's got loads of contacts when it comes to cast and he's got a good brain for casting. So Michael was something he suggested to me. I had originally written the  character of Sean Parker as a British police officer, a detective who has a relationship with Ellen (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott), and was kind of unsure about this situation. Sean was the guy that arrested Carl Cane when he was young, and he was starting to link it together. And so I thought, Michael would be great. Obviously, he's a British detective, so I don't really want him doing a British accent. So I went away for about two hours. I had to think about it. And then said, Well, you know what? Let's make him an investigative journalist, because that makes sense. The casting of Michael works better for the script because he just went and rewrote his role. He's just got such star quality, apart from just being a lovely guy to work with, coming in on this from the movies that he's been in, where he has come, to do our kind of small movie where he doesn't have all the thrills and spills of what another production would have. He was great, he got his hands dirty. He was fantastic for the role.

Aside from Michael, there's a very British sensibility to this film, similar to LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS. Is this deliberate, or do you want to go further afield in your kind of storytelling?

PC - I just like making movies. I was lucky enough to make ALONE here in Wales, and I was lucky enough to make LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS here, and I was lucky enough to make HELLOWEEN here, and make an American horror in LA with New Line. So it's wherever you can tell your story and  whatever fits your story. I never think you need to pigeonhole your film. With HELLOWEEN, it's UK based like 28 DAYS LATER. It's that kind of situation that's happening here. This is kind of like anarchy on the streets. It's happening in the UK. And it just just felt very appropriate for the way the UK is right now culturally. 

After lesbian vampires and killer clowns, are there any other kind of horror icons that you would like to tackle? 

PC - I want to get into sci-fi and aliens, which is in my script I've written called LUST, which is a teen sci fi horror movie. It's kind of like this generation's WEIRD SCIENCE, but with cool horror elements. It's an insane tale. And I think just playing around with goopy alien creatures and all that kind of stuff would be fun, and that's all in that film. In my head, I have always wanted to make a zombie film, a vampire film, an alien film, so I kind of like these specific genres. So, the clown films jumped into that now. 

We talked about Michael Paré earlier, and you mentioned WEIRD SCIENCE. Is the 80’s a particular influence for yourself then?

PC - I grew up in the VHS era, so I was lucky to grow up with all the John Hughes movies, all the Carpenter horrors. I was lucky to grow up with the first 10 years of Spielberg. So I feel very lucky. And my filmic education came from sitting down watching Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD 2 movies, trying to figure out as a kid one was really scary, and the other one's really funny. All of that era had such a huge influence on me. And what I liked about it, and I still like about it, is that they were out-there ideas, the storytelling was fast paced. I think I always wanted to have that kind of energy, of what the 80’s movies gave us, which was real high concepts, real fun characters and real fast paced energy.

And what do you have planned next?

PC - LUST is the thing that I want to get going next but, who knows? Because, as I said, with the film industry, you go down one path and then another one will take over. But that's what I'm pushing for. And then, as you said, you're always pushing one project that you have written, then you start writing something else. And I'm kind of doing a riff on the slasher film called DEAD X, which I'm writing at the moment, which is kind of like FLEABAG meets SCREAM.

Iain MacLeod

HELLOWEEN is On Digital 29 September from Miracle Media and on Blu-ray 13 October from 101 Films.