Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: The Avenue, Witchboard

Witchboard: Russell on Respecting Original Films Space, Growth, VFX

Chuck Russell (Witchboard) spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether he considered cameos from Tenney's original films, practical effects and more.

When Chuck Russell returned to write and direct the reimagining of Witchboard for The Avenue, it was a return to his horror form since his directorial debut was in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and his 1988 follow-up remaking the 1958 classic The Blob. As Russell made a career working across different genres, a lot has changed in horror since then, especially when it comes to balancing the use of practical and CG. Russell spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether he wanted any of the surviving original cast from the Kevin Tenney films to appear in his incarnation of Witchboard, bringing a greater authenticity to the franchise, which changes the board from an Ouija to a pendulum, and filming the project with as many practical effects as possible. Set in present-day New Orleans, Witchboard follows a cursed artifact that unleashes a vengeful witch, drawing a young couple into a deadly spiral of possession, temptation, and occult terror.

Witchboard Writer-Director Chuck Russell on His Approach to Easter Eggs for the Film, Historical Accuracy, and a Terrifying Bed Sequence

With the 'Witchboard' reimagining, did you consider having cameos from any of the original stars, like Todd [Allen], Stephen [Nichols], or Kathleen [Wilhoite]?

I respect that style of filmmaking. I personally have never done that because I'm trying to create our own little look. We owe it to the audience to do something with great passion. Even though you could consider [the original trilogy], true entertainment. I have my own themes, but I respect my audience enough. I'm not trying to school them. I want to have fun, entertain myself, and I didn't want to break what we call the "fourth wall" and start to say, "That's a guy from another film, or things like that." With all respect to the original cast, we did recreate key scenes. Kevin Tenney, the original filmmaker, seems to appreciate the film, which is nice. Things like the famous shower scene, people were saying, "Are you doing an homage to [Alfred] Hitchcock? I go, "No, you have to see the original 'Witchboard.' I'm doing an homage to 'Witchboard' with the shower scene and taking it through the roof. Have you seen the film?

Yeah, I saw this one. I remember way back when I was on the original ones. I'm going to have to re-watch the originals again. I enjoyed yours. I love to twist the flashback sequences.

No spoilers, but we have a parallel storyline,because I wanted to investigate the Queen of Witches, wn important character in this film. I will tell you that all the lore and legendary stuff about witches is absolutely historically true, including a French village they found where they'd all murdered each other, which is one of the story points in our 'Witchboard' lore.

Given your timing with your horror return, and I wanted to reference your earlier work with 'Nightmare 3' and 'The Blob,' how do you feel you have grown as a filmmaker, and how has your work on 'Witchboard' benefited?

Honestly, I'm more confident as a filmmaker, and I allow myself to enjoy making the illusions. There's a little David Copperfield in all of us that does practical effects, and nothing's more fun than when I write. Some writers have asked me, "If you don't know how to do an effect, how can you write it?" It's just the opposite. I hope not to be able to do the effect. On 'The Mask,' we had no idea if we could do any of that. CGI was brand new, so it's challenging us, but it's going to give something new to the audience if we meet that challenge. In the case of 'Witchboard,' I took my practical effects a little further, and I had more fun doing it, coming from the theatre. I've always been confident directing.

I always like the part where there are the hands that emerge from the bed and grab Madison's character.

I'm very proud of Madison. That's the biggest practical effect in the film and something I'd never seen before. I built [Emily's] entire bedroom eight feet in the air, so that's all on camera, and they're all grabbing Madison. We had puppeteers from beneath, and we did several takes, and she was very brave. When you see the fear in her eyes, it appears to be these creatures, but it's our puppeteers reaching up blindly and grabbing her from beneath the set, and the same thing is true of the bathroom scene; it's a bottomless bathtub.

I was wondering how much of the film was practical effects or CG?

It's 90 percent practical, but now I use CG as a little bit of a painting tool. So that goes into removing wires. You'll notice the creatures grabbing her in bed are especially gnarly looking, but those are enhancements on the actual puppeteers grabbing her on set live.

The Avenue and Atlas' Witchboard, which also stars Aaron Dominguez, Jamie Campbell Bower, Melanie Jarnson, Charlie Tahan, and Antonia Desplat, will be released in theaters on August 15th.

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