Interview with "Boogeymen" Barry Watson and Stephen Kay 2005

Produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures (which made it’s debut last year with the #1 horror hit, The Grudge), Boogeyman crept into theaters yesterday. It’s directed by Stephen Kay (who did some episodes of The Shield — a show I love — and the supernatural-themed 2004 TV movie starring Anne Heche, The Dead Will Tell) and stars Barry Watson (a TV actor whose shows I never saw; but I did like his work in the little-seen 2001 feature chiller, When Strangers Appear).
Boogeyman is a basic horror movie clearly made for young-teen and preteen audiences, but early reviews seem to be from people who hold it to the same standard as classics The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or The Sixth Sense. In Boogeyman, the character of Tim (Barry Watson) is an outwardly normal, 20-something guy. He’s got a good job and is moving forward nicely in his relationship with his spunky girlfriend, Jessica (Tory Mussett). But Tim is haunted by an intense, paralyzing fear that has been with him since childhood. It’s tearing him apart, and it’s getting worse every day. When Tim was eight, something horrible and unforgettable happened: As Tim watched from his bed, frozen with fear, his father was violently snatched into the closet by the Boogeyman, and was never seen or heard from again. Tim is terrified that the Boogeyman will someday return and take him, too.
The star and his director talked to some select online outlets, including Horror.com, about Boogeyman, what scares them, and what it was like to shoot in that creepy house. After the interviews were over, I left my tape recorder in the room and they had to chase me down — I jokingly said maybe it was a Freudian slip and that I didn’t really want the interviews, but I was honestly kidding… Think what you will of the movie (personally, I thought it was bland but certainly not horrible) but I do hope you will enjoy reading these interviews. I found both Stephen and Barry to be open, charming, funny and interesting in their answers about scary movies and what they like about the genre. (Please note: There are some spoilers in this interview.)

Q: Stephen, what’s it like working with Ghost House? Do you have a good creative atmosphere?
Stephen: They’re great. I mean, they’re filmmakers, so it’s collaboration. They’re not going to say, ‘Here. We’ll see you in six months.’ They’re filmmakers.

Q: How did you get the job?
Stephen: I honestly didn’t have to sell myself. I knew Sam, I knew one of the other producers. So they called me and said, ‘Any interest?’ and I am a big fan of the genre, so I took the opportunity to work with those guys. It was fairly graceful, in that respect. There wasn’t a lot of, ‘Look, I can do it! I never done anything even similar to it, but I can do it!’ It wasn’t that. And I think that’s part of their thing as filmmakers, they just go, ‘If you can tell a story, you can tell a story.’

Q: How hands-on are they?
Stephen: They’re hands-on. Very hands-on. Sam was doing Spider-Man 2, so he wasn’t around much. But at the end of it, he was very, very active. And Rob [Tapert, producer] is completely hands-on. Rob’s there every day, every second.

Q: What are some of your references for this genre?
Stephen: Obviously, I love the Japanese stuff, which I think is just incredibly compelling. More compelling than what… I’m not a big slasher cat, so the Japanese stuff I like because it gives a little bit of distance and a little bit of silence and it plays off that. It plays on the psychological side of it more than it plays on the gore of it. I love all the late 60s/early 70s horror stuff. Obviously, you get into The Exorcist and The Omen and all that stuff, which I think are just phenomenal because they are character pieces, which is, you know, you watch those movies and you go, ‘This is just a movie about parenting. And it’s just twisted.’ That’s my world.

Q: How do you find kids that can act in scary scenes? [The movie features a little girl character, and one scene of several ghostly children]
Stephen: Give them raw meat, actually. [laughs] You know, kids are… I mean, the little girl in this movie, Skye McCole Bartusiak is just a straight-up actor. In dealing with her, she is just as sophisticated as in dealing with any actor.
Barry: Yeah. She’s probably the best actor I’ve worked with. Forget Helen Mirren! [laughs] Skye! No, really she is unbelievable. In the movie there’s that scene where you finally realize that she’s a ghost and I still get tears in my eyes every time I look at her. I’ll look at [that scene] and I’ll just start welling up. All my favorite stuff in the movie is with Franny [Bartusiak’s character].

Q: There’s so much of you in this movie…
Barry: I know. Aren’t you sick of it? ‘I wish he’d just go away!’

Q: …So when you read the script were you concerned about that, or did you look at it as a good challenge?
Barry: It was a really exciting challenge for me. When I read it, I like, ‘Well, OK. There’s some things that might not quite work.’ But I knew Stephen was doing the film, and you know, Sam and Rob were on board. I knew the communication was going to be there. If we needed to talk about anything [I would be OK], and I’ve never really had that before with anybody I’ve worked with — even other actors. The communication was just unbelievable, so even before we started shooting we went over everything to make sure we were all on the same page.

Q: What parts creeped you out, while shooting?
Barry: Probably just having to put myself in such a dark place.
Stephen: You had bad dreams.
Barry: Yeah, that’s right. I totally forgot about that. I starting having these horrible dreams, like in the first month of shooting. I’d show up every day going, ‘I woke up, gasping for breath.’

Q: Do you remember what the dreams were about?
Barry: They were probably just silly things. Little bunny rabbits hopping around.

Q: Ah, Night of the Lepus!
Barry: They were scary bunny rabbits! No, I can’t say. I don’t remember them at all.
Stephen: I just remember him coming in and going, ‘My god. I couldn’t breathe. It was like something was sitting on my chest.’
Barry: Yeah, and I’ve never had anything like that. But it’s like, you know, isolating myself and trying to get myself in a dark place. Not through the whole film, because that wouldn’t be any fun to watch if you just saw this guy freaking out constantly. Well, he pretty much does, I guess! [laughs] It was basically just me in that dark place.

Q: Were you actually closeted in, in some of those scenes?
Barry: The beautiful thing about is the way Stephen shot it, he makes the scenes look so tight. It’s so claustrophobic with these extreme close ups and everything and I think that’s what makes it so uncomfortable to watch it. That’s what’s makes it so great. Instead of doing these really wide shots, you know, Stephen really kept it tight. Obviously, I wasn’t in these really, really closed-in spaces except for when I’m climbing out of the bed.
Stephen: And that one night.
Barry: Oh, yeah. That one night. Let’s not talk about that! [laughs]
Q: Sam Raimi said what creeped him out was the kids crowding around you.

Barry: Oh, yeah? Well, that was an interesting scene to do because it was like you’ve got all these kids and not all of them are actors. So there was some giggling going on at first, then it was like, ‘All right, guys. You’ve got to settle down, let’s get this done and let’s put on those faces.’ It was actually kind of fun because it got me laughing so much, until like, Take 10. Then I was like… ‘All right guys, let’s stop messing around and just do this.’ That wasn’t the creepiest part for me, but I guess it is scary [in the movie]. It’s hard to take yourself away, out of working on it, and then you kind of wait till a year later to see it. It’s interesting because even I got scared a little bit, I screened it a couple of days ago. The hairs on the back my neck stood up. I was actually surprised that that happened. But it’s beautiful once you get all the stuff in post, with the sound and everything. I think it’s great — I’m really excited for it.

Q: How do you convey your character’s different states of mind, when you have so many scenes alone with no other actors to bounce off of?
Barry: I actually thought that was going to be the most difficult part of this movie, but I got to the point to where I was alone for so long that I actually really enjoyed working by myself. Then Stephen would be like, ‘Guess what? You’re working with another actor today!’ I’d be like, ‘What do I do?’
Stephen: Barry doesn’t like to listen to other actors, so it’s better to not have them. [both laugh]
Barry: It’s like I was doing a silent movie for a period of time, with so much of it on my own. Just getting to those places, like going from dark to light and those little things you do to prepare as an actor, that most people wouldn’t understand. Some of the stuff that you think about has nothing to do with being afraid, or anything like that. When you’re in the moment, sometimes you’re thinking about something that could be the funniest thing in the world, but for some reason you need to get to that point to make what you’re doing work. I know that doesn’t make sense at all, but it sure does to me. [laughs]

Q: I liked the scenes with Lucy Lawless. Can you talk about working with her?
Barry: Lucy is a blast to work with. She is such a sweet person. I didn’t have that many scenes with her, but she was absolutely wonderful. There are a couple of things that got cut out, some flashback scenes, that she was in. She is a total pro and I just had a blast working with her. She’s kind of like me in a way, where we’d goof off and little bit before shooting and we’d hop right into it. I had a great time working with her. And I used to go in every morning and do the Xena call to her [ululates].
Stephen: I hated Lucy.
Barry: Yeah, I know.
Stephen: No, I thought she was a blast. She was a genuine blast. And the scenes that were cut [it’s sad, because] she was really amazing.

Q: Might they wind up on the DVD?
Stephen: They’ll be on the DVD, yeah. She is genuinely funny and she is honestly one of these people who you don’t expect to be as complicated and interesting as they are. She keeps getting more interesting.

Q: How was she cast?
Stephen: She’s sleeping with the producer. [laughs] No, the part sort grew in significance and so I said to Rob one day, ‘Could Lucy play the mom in this?’ I asked her if she wanted to play Barry’s drug-addled mom, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’

Q: What is that loud, piercing noise in the soundtrack?
Stephen: It’s actually Barry.
Barry: It’s gas. Too much fiber.
Stephen: It’s um, it’s an instrument. It’s playing, I believe — and I’m not positive — but I believe it was seven different things. But the main instrument is a violin played backwards, and then just mushed. I think. But what was fun about the sound design of the movie was, the guys down in New Zealand did a great job. They were the shit. The stuff they were trying and the layers and layers of sounds, were… you’re not even aware you’re hearing [them]. We were listening in one of the huge, tricked-out rooms and they just cranked the shit up and your ears are going, ‘Wait. I’ve never heard that. That’s insane. What is that?’ Sam felt very strongly that horror movies should have score, and not songs in them. The more I watched the movie, the more I believed it should almost be tonal as opposed to musical.

Q: What are some scary stories you guys heard as kids that stuck with you?
Barry: I can’t think of anything off-hand. I should be prepared for that question. [laughs] That’s the first time anyone’s ever asked me that.
Stephen: You saw Bigfoot.
Barry: I did. I did see Bigfoot when I was a kid and I still believe it to this day. I saw a big furry man outside my window. [all laugh] It’s not funny! It was real.
Stephen: We’re not going to go anywhere near that!
Barry: Hey, it was in Michigan on the Northern Border of Canada. It could have happened.

Q: What about movies?
Barry: We didn’t talk about that much. Stephen would throw out a movie every once in awhile, like, ‘Have you seen that?’ He gave me The Eye one time [the Asian horror movie, not “the eye” one hopes — sw].
Stephen: We talked about anything other than what’s scary.
Barry: Exactly. Save it all for when we’re shooting.

Q: Did you like horror movies when you were a kid?
Barry: Yeah. I think most people, even if they say they hate horror movies, there’s that feeling you get inside that you love. I mean, I love it. I love to have the hairs on the back of my neck stand up or get that chill up my spine. The Exorcist I loved, it’s probably on everybody’s list. But The Omen was definitely one of my favorites and also John Carpenter’s The Fog.

Q: The design of the house in the film is so similar to the one in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Was that a conscious thing?
Stephen: We actually came upon an existing house and sort of based everything around that house. But that is one of those movies that you study when you’re trying to figure out how to tell a horror story. I mean, that movie’s got to be in the top four that you look at. And I think subconsciously you can’t help but go, ‘That was cool… how they had to go from here to here… and they got stuck, and…’ The fun of that house to me is that it is this odd, creepy maze and it does take on a life of its own. It’s like the original Haunting and stuff like that, where you go, ‘That house is a character. You never quite feel comfortable in the house.’ I like that. Even though Tim grew up here, he walks in [years later] and there’s definitely a familiarity but as the night goes on he becomes a stranger in the house. I thought the production designer did a beautiful job with the crazy things we could do in it. You know, the exterior of the house was one we found in the middle of nowhere — we should have actually shot inside that house! They picked up the house and moved it, and the production designer was living in the kitchen with no running water or anything while he fixed it up for shooting. It was freaky as hell. The things he allowed us to do in there, in terms of moving walls and things that… I wanted a lot of sheen and a lot of darkness.

Q: You had some interesting perspective shots from inside the closet.
Stephen: Yeah. I actually wanted more of that than there is. But there’s always going to be people going, ‘But that’s a subjective point of view’ and then you fight that battle and sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. But it happens even in movies where there isn’t a boogeyman; there’s something really creepy about there being another eye in the room. And we had the perfect excuse.

Q: Was there any thought of making it all psychological, like it’s all in his mind?
Stephen: Yes.
Barry: Wait, isn’t that the movie?
Stephen: Yes, absolutely.
Barry: There was plenty of talk about it all being in his head.

Q: So when he goes between the motel and the houses going through the closet, is that psychological or supernatural?
Barry: No. It’s like Being John Malkovich, but scary. [laughs]
Stephen: Yes! No, for me it was always the idea of someone… OK, when Kate comes into the house and he’s bursting out of the closet, he’s been sitting in that fricking closet, freaking out. And then he goes back there and these are all sort of brain hiccups. I had an odd period in my life where I was having these anxiety attacks and that’s what this is to me — where you go, ‘Fuck, I can’t breathe.’ Rationally I understand that there is nothing in that closet and I should just pull it open and nothing’s going to be there and instead I pick up a frickin’ hammer and I go to the closet, and oh god… It’s a coat! No, it’s a hand! No, it’s… And you know, to me that is what’s interesting about the movie.
Q: So you chose to leave some of it ambiguous?

Stephen: Yes. That’s the fun of it. That’s the fun of this kind of a ride.

Q: How much control did you have over final cut?
Stephen: Well, it’s always tricky. There are probably five directors in the world that can go, ‘This is my movie.’ There are people who put up a lot of money to have their opinions. You try to keep the theme clear. No matter what happens with the window dressings and that, you go, ‘It’s still a movie about a guy facing his fear.’ If you don’t face your fear, it will kill you. It will paralyze you. So you go, ‘All right. That’s what the movie is. That’s what I can hold onto no matter what else.’
Barry: We did win Franny being a ghost.
Stephen: Yes, we absolutely did.

Q: Are you happy with the final product?
Stephen: I don’t think I have ever done a movie where I haven’t gone, ‘Oh, I wish I’d done this, or that.’ And that’s not only because other people do it, it’s because you take a step away and you get a little perspective and all of a sudden you go, ‘Oh, fuck!’ [It may be a PG-13 movie, but it’s an R-Rated director! — sw] There are beats in screening this movie that I literally was like, ‘Oh my god. How cool would it have been if…’ And you know, it’s got nothing to do with anyone. And I think probably 90% of the directors you talk to will agree that with perspective comes wisdom.

Q: What are you working on for the DVD right now?
Stephen: We’re timing it and they were talking about the new scenes they want added. You know, the deleted scenes. There are some crazy storyboards and stuff like that. It should be fun. There’s enough bonus features that hopefully people who have seen the movie [in theaters] will also want the DVD.

Q: Will there be any bloopers?
Stephen: I wish they would let us do bloopers. I think because it’s a horror movie, people are like, ‘Oh, you can’t do a lot of goofy stuff.’ I told them yesterday that I would like to do the goofy commentary. I’ll do a serious one, but I also want to do one where I can make fun of moments in the movie.
Barry: Yeah, those serious commentaries are no fun to watch.
Stephen: We have a lot of interesting stuff. There will be a making-of documentary and all that stuff. That’s why I buy DVDs.