October 21, 2016

This week’s episode of the Shock Waves podcast is a good one! We welcome to the show very special guest Oz Perkins. He’s appeared as an actor in things like DEAD & BREAKFAST, LEGALLY BLONDE and REMOVAL, but more recently has delved into writing and directing some of the most unique and intriguing horror films of the last few years. We talk to him about his acclaimed debut feature FEBRUARY, aka THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER here in the States, as well as his new movie I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE, which debuts on Netflix as one of their original features on Oct. 28th.

In our lengthy and candid chat, he reveals a lot of interesting tidbits such as how he felt first seeing his father Anthony Perkins in the original PSYCHO, being inspired by Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE, how the films THE STRANGERS and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN directly influenced his work, and much, much more.

As far as earliest horror recollections, he told us, “When my brother and I were little, we’d have our birthday parties, which were inevitably sleepovers for 20 kids. And whether they were ready for it or not, we were watching THE TOXIC AVENGER. Let me tell you, a lot of these kids were not even f-ing close to ready! You’re at Tony Perkins house, all these kids are (about) 9 (years old), and its TOXIC AVENGER time!”

Ryan also asks him about his flirtation with the new FRIDAY THE 13TH film, which he confesses he really, really wanted to do. “It was recent. To my surprise, I really wanted to do it. Because Jason was my guy! We all have our guys (growing up), and my guy was Jason. There was a moment where I was like, yeah I want to make a studio movie! I want to make a Jason movie. It’s the 13th movie! They’re bringing it back to the 1980’s vibe, and its camp councilors in shorts and I wanted to do things in (water) tanks with swimming. I loved the idea of it. It’s just the kind of thing that they’re only going to choose one person and it wasn’t me. I don’t think it was my pitch. I don’t think it was this or that. I still think you can make a scary movie out of it, and I still think you can make a scary movie at a studio level. Whether or not that’s the mandate? That’s none of my business. All I know is this was the kind of FRIDAY THE 13TH movie I wanted to make. And it’s not going to be that one.”

You can hear all this, along with Elric’s report from The Tension Experience, movie reviews for TRASH FIRE, ALICE SWEET ALICE, WOLF, FROM THE DARK, DRACULA 1979 and much, much more! Embedded below for your convenience!