October 20, 2015

It’s difficult to describe the work of filmmaker Larry Fessenden, but his voice is the unique and intriguing kind that we as horror fans are always in search of. We want to see something different. Be challenged. Think about the films we see long after we’ve seen them, on top of being scared.

Whereas for the last several years, it’s been difficult to track down the earlier filmography of Fessenden as a writer/director, those beautiful souls over at Scream Factory have come to the rescue as today marks the release of THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION; a new boxed set that features his films NO TELLING, HABIT, WENDIGO and THE LAST WINTER, all on Blu-Ray and all in high def for the first time ever.

There’s plenty of other rarities and surprises on the box, so we chatted with the man himself to tell us what we can look forward to.

Blumhouse.com: Congratulations on this box set release. It’s really terrific! And a beautiful, beautiful thing to be able to collect ones filmography in a set like this! How difficult was it to put this set together? For a while, it seemed like a lot of your movies were with different studios. Was this a matter of timing being able to collect them all in one boxed set?

Larry Fessenden: Yeah, honestly, and it’s sad to say, but I was clearly the one most interested in putting this box set together. (Laughs) It came to pass that IFC bought NO TELLING and HABIT and they had bought THE LAST WINTER when it initially came out, so I realized they already had most of my films. The Weinstein Company had DVD rights to THE LAST WINTER, which slowed us down for about a year. But the real missing piece of the puzzle was to get WENDIGO from beyond the grave. It went to Artisan, which is a label we of course all know for having made THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, but when they made the sequel to that, they went under. I really wanted WENDIGO back because I’ve always hated the cover that they put on it. As a filmmaker, you live with these little thorns in your side. I spent a year trying to get IFC to buy WENDIGO. It was a complicated legal process and we were tied up with lawyers. I have emails going back to 2010 about a box set. I found Shout Factory and they were great and really wanted to do this. It went up before the board and they decided the numbers made sense, so I’m pleased to say this wasn’t a charitable act. (Laughs)

BH: Well they did such a great job on the Blu-Ray release of BENEATH, which you made for Chiller.

LF: They did a great job on that, and they were an ideal home. Meanwhile, as I idly waited by for the lawyers to sort things out, I asked Dude Designs if they would put some new artwork together. They gave me producer credit on the set, just because I kept dabbling on things. Like everything, you run out of time! I basically had 5 years to wait for everything to clear, and I still made the extras in one frantic month. And I kind of regret that, but… It is what it is! I pictured myself as some elegant filmmaker being celebrated with these documentaries, but really what it is is a treasure trove of old video footage from the past and old Super 8 movies. It’s much more like an attic!

BH: Well that’s cool stuff to have on there! And speaking of documentaries, I know that filmmaker Adam Barnick is now working on some stuff specifically for the Glass Eye Pix website for your 30th anniversary! We debuted one of those doc’s here on Blumhouse.com last week. Was that an extension of what you put together for this box set?

LF: Well yeah. Adam and I had talked a year ago and he said, “I’d love to do some behind the scenes stuff for you.” And I said “great!” And of course, I forgot to call him! I did it all myself on the box set, with a little bit of help from friends. But I hooked up with Adam after the fact and said let’s do them anyways. We’ll put them up as promotional items as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Glass Eye Pix. That’s crazy, my company is turning 30 years old! I’m trying to pump out my own movies, but really all the movies we’ve done as a company and try to have these little documentaries about all the people that have worked tirelessly as they passed through the Glass Eye boot camp!

BH: When you hit these monuments like a 30th anniversary, you start reflecting on stuff. What was it like getting a lot of the people from your films back for the commentaries on the box set? I haven’t had a chance to check them out myself, but I know you hadn’t spoken to Jake Weber for a while, but my buddy Scott Reynolds and I had him on our official podcast for THE FOLLOWING, and he mentioned that WENDIGO was his favorite movie that he’d ever done and he was so humbled that we remembered and loved that movie. What was it like reuniting with some of these people like Jake?

LF: Well Rob, let me very particularly thank you and Scott for that hook up, because of you reporting that back to me and then helping us get back in touch, you’re really instrumental in what is my favorite thing on the entire box set, which is Jake Weber in Los Angeles and Patty Clarkson in London, clearly not having seen the movie in 15 years, and just so charming in recounting their experience of making our little film in upstate New York. It’s a really gratifying piece of audio. You were a big part of making that happen so thank you. And then I went to Patty’s movie, which is wonderful. LEARNING TO DRIVE. And I met with her and Jake, and everyone was so gracious. We had a lovely time reuniting.

BH: One of the things I love about the Blu-Ray format is sometimes I feel like I’m seeing some of these movies for the first time again. The transfers are often spectacular and I’m in particular looking forward to revisiting your earlier work in high def! Being that it’s been a while since you’ve probably seen them yourself, how do you feel about these new transfers and the process of restoring these films for Blu-Ray?

LF: It’s really cool! I always see that little thing that says “director approved” and it’s kind of hard to say that! Because honestly, this was clearly all done out of budget. I think I had a day to re-transfer. On one hand, you feel a little rushed and you wonder if you’re doing right by the film. But quite honestly, because the technology can get the most out of these old film prints, it really is a revelation how much better it looks than the DVD. I feel so excited. Every time I beat myself up over the extras, the real show is the feature films themselves and they look great. Exponentially better than any previous release. A lot of people ask why I didn’t put BENEATH on, and the answer is simple. That already had a Blu-Ray release. This is the first time any of the other movies have been put out on Blu-Ray. THE LAST WINTER in particular is just an elegant looking film and I’m happy to get it on this format.

BH: You guys has just done a screening of HABIT in New York and Meredith Snaider (Anna) showed up! It’s rare for her to show up for one of these things and it’s my understanding that she didn’t realize there was a cult following for HABIT?

LF: Yeah, it really took her by surprise. I think she had a good experience making the movie but she did move on in her life into other things. The screening was fun! I sat next to her and she was kind of giddy. And I think in the end she felt “wow, we made a really cool movie. It wasn’t just a vampire movie.” It was fun to see someone who in a weird way is not steeped in show biz and horror just watch the movie objectively. She seemed really pleased. And then she got up and did a Q & A, and she requested to return to anonymity and I think what’s wonderful, as much as I’d love to trot her out and tweet about it, I think it’s kind of cooler for her to remain a mystery. I like letting her return to her civilian life and letting the vampire in HABIT remain mysterious. It’s refreshing in these days!

BH: She’s totally the character! She’s disappeared again!

LF: She is! And she has. And so be it. And speaking of her character, she literally hasn’t aged a day! Whereas I’m an old fat man now. (Laughs) If we ever make the sequel, she could just play herself and it’ll look like she stepped right out of her coffin again. (Laughs)

BH: So, the announcement went up on Fangoria last week regarding TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE Season 3! I was wondering if you could share some updates with us and give us a status report!

LF: We have a fantastic line-up. The first one will go out in time for Halloween to be enjoyed as a streaming episode. We have a wonderful little movie from Beck Underwood, one of the Glass Eye soldiers. We’re going to release that in the next week or so. Suddenly you will start hearing a lot about TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE Season 3 and I’ve got to say, it’s fantastic. It feels like we’ve made 10 movies and of course, they’re just audio plays, but they’re completely immersive and fun. I’m really excited.

BH: I love that Stuart Gordon is involved this season! I love that every time you and Glenn (McQuaid) do more TALES, your talent pool grows! It’s always fun to hear that you guys are consistently bringing in interesting and unique genre voices!

LF: Absolutely. It’s essential that we keep pushing the envelope and getting talents involved that we all want to hear from again. We’ve got Stuart Gordon doing an H.P.Lovecraft story with Dennis Paoli, his writer and Barbara Crampton is in it. And Richard Band did the music! So it’s truly a reunion of the RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND crew. It’s spectacular. There’s other nuggets including some of our favorite performers. We’ve got Eric Red making one as a writer/director. And I want to highlight the efforts of all of our usual stable of people. It’s going to be great.