February 26, 2016

This past Tuesday, February 23rd, the fine fiends over at Scream Factory released a special edition Blu-Ray of Wes Craven’s 1988 cult classic THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW. On top of finding a new retrospective documentary on “The Making Of THE SERPENT & THE RAINBOW,” along with a still gallery and the original theatrical trailer, you’ll also find a brand new commentary track with lead actor Bill Pullman, moderated by yours truly!

After having been very, very fortunate as to have worked on and conducted so many interviews & commentary tracks on these special edition releases (so much so that I’ve lost count), I thought it might be interesting to take you, our faithful readers, behind the curtain to see how this particular assignment came to be.

Often times, when a company like Scream Factory is putting together the special features for one of their upcoming releases, they’ll commission a producer/filmmaker with the gig and allot them a certain amount of time and money to complete the task. I’m sure you recognize the Red Shirt Pictures logo at the end of a lot of mini-docs that appear on these discs and the man behind that production outfit is Michael Felsher. Often times, whomever is producing the supplemental materials for the disc, whether it be Felsher, Aine Licht or, in the case of SERPENT, Reed Kaplan, I’ll get an email or phone call asking my availability and if I’d like to participate.

Just by the sheer nature of how quickly these projects come together, I don’t often get a lot of time to prep for these gigs. In the case of SERPENT, I got an email on June 9th of 2015 and was asked if I’d be willing to moderate a commentary track with actor Bill Pullman. Being a huge, huge fan of the thespian, I immediately agreed. I mean, here’s a guy that’s worked with Wes Craven and Mel Brooks and David Lynch! How could I turn down the chance to chat with him?

The track would be recorded the morning of June 11th, which gave me maybe a day and a half to properly research and prepare. Here’s the thing – normally, the horror titles I get asked to do I know very well, just from having seen them a dozen times as a kid, but SERPENT was one of the few Craven movies I wasn’t nearly as familiar with as the rest of his filmography. It’d been years since I’d actually sat down and seen the movie, so with less than 2 days to get ready, I got right to work.

I reached out to a few friends and tried to do as much reading as possible on that first night before I sat down with a notepad to watch the movie again. My friend Joseph Maddrey (writer of Analog Love!) had written a book called BEYOND FEAR, which looks at and analyzes the work of Stephen King, Wes Craven and George Romero. He had a really great chapter devoted to THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW and so that was a really great starting point for me as I was neither familiar with the original non-fiction book by Wade Davis, nor was I aware of any of the crazy, superstitious things that happened during the production. This would give me plenty of fuel when it came to filling up an hour and forty-five minutes worth of commentary time!

After that, I called Joe to further discuss what he’d written in his book, and in turn he sent me over a copy of a fantastic article by Michael Doyle titled “The Blackest Magic” which appeared in the December 2013, Issue 140 of Rue-Morgue magazine. I mentioned the assignment to Blumhouse.com editor-in-chief Bekah McKendry and she immediately lent me the book “Drums Of Terror,” an extensive look at voodoo in cinema that had an entire chapter devoted to THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW. The book also gave me great context in terms of what had been done with voodoo themes in horror movies before and after Craven’s film.

In record time, I had absorbed enough information about voodoo, the real life story that inspired Wade Davis’ book and the unbelievable tales regarding the somewhat hectic shoot of the actual movie. I was ready! Then I was informed that because of Pullman’s schedule on the new INDEPENDENCE DAY movie, he’d only be available for roughly an hour. Hell with it, I decided to roll with that time crunch and make it count!

It’s always a bit odd and awkward when you’re sitting there in the tiny waiting room of a recording facility which doesn’t feel all that different from the waiting room of a doctor’s office – and the person you’re about to spend the next 60-90 minutes with walks in and sits next to you. Of course, everyone in the room recognizes who this person is! But he has no clue who I am. Do I speak up and inform him I’m doing his commentary track with him? Do I play it cool and wait until we’re both called in, then introduce myself like it’s not a big deal, even though it is and deep down I’m freaking out inside a little? Well, I opted to introduce myself immediately and somehow I still magically managed to keep my cool.

Once inside the recording booth with Bill, I was reminded that he only had an hour, the tape rolled and our commentary session began. As is always the case, it was a complete blur and all of that information I managed to soak up in the 48 hours prior to this job immediately left my brain the moment we walked out the door, but I do recall Bill being an absolute pleasure to speak with. And my job was to hopefully make it as easy as possible for him to talk about this little film he made 20 years ago and be comfortable. I think I succeeded, but you never really know until the disc comes out and you have a chance to listen back.

As is always the case, I was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t discuss what had just transpired until either Scream Factory announced the special features or until the actual release date of the Blu-Ray. In this case, sadly it took a lot longer to come out, because we lost Wes last year. At the time that I did this commentary, I knew he was aware that SERPENT was being worked on and he fully intended to participate in some capacity. But sadly, we never got the chance to include him.

With the disc getting released this week, I was finally able to revisit this conversation I’d had with one of my favorite actors 7 months prior that I’d practically forgotten about. I’m amazed at how well versed I managed to sound in every detail regarding the movie, considering that 2 days before this commentary, I knew next to nothing about the making of the film! (And have since forgotten it all.) But sometimes that’s the thrill of doing a job like this. Really throwing yourself into the work, analyzing and then discussing it with one of the key principles.

I’ll confess, when I get the final disc, check out what small contribution I made to it and look back at the pic from the day we did it, it gets to me every time and I’m beyond thankful for these opportunities. Of course, there’s always a dozen other uncredited people involved that go out of their way to make sure these releases are the best they can possibly be. For SERPENT, it was producer Reed Kaplan, Cliff MacMillan and the crew from Scream Factory that always go above and beyond, mainly because they love the genre and they love these films. I hope this gives you a little insight into the love and care that goes into your favorite genre releases.

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW is now available from Scream Factory.