INT: Brendan Hood

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

The Arrow
interviews Brendan Hood

With “They”, Brendan Hood got his first theatrical victory in terms of one
of his script’s hitting the big screen. He should rejoice, throw a
party and call Hugh Hefner for some female merchandise, right? Well,
things aren’t always what they seem. Brendan recently
contacted me and we started talking horror shop. I found lots of
what he brought up quite interesting, so I got this interview going
with the man. Anybody interested in the film biz should read
and learn.

1- What’s your
favorite horror movie?

That’s a difficult question to
answer because there are so many horror films that I absolutely love
and couldn’t do without. Generally, I really enjoy genre films that
work on several different levels – horror movies that seem to be
telling one story, but have a great deal of subtext. “THE SHINING”
is a great example of that. On the surface, Kubrick’s film seems to
be a story about a man being driven to insanity by a supernatural
force within an isolated hotel. But the movie, I think, is really
about domestic violence. The same holds true for “Rosemary’s
Baby”,
which is more about urban paranoia and marital betrayal than a woman
who happens to be living next door to a bunch of witches.

If I had to choose only one film
though, I’d probably go with “ALIEN.” That was the first horror
movie which terrified me for months. It’s certainly one of the most
disturbing films ever made, and I think that’s not only because of
the unsettling visual concepts, but also due to the nightmarish
scenes of claustrophobia and rape. It’s just brilliant. The movie
gets to you, especially if you’re watching it on a ninety foot
screen at a movie theatre, and you don’t even know why. That’s what
makes for a great horror film.

2- How did you
get into screenwriting? Did you stumble into it or was it always
your main professional ambition?

I always wanted to be a
screenwriter ever since I was a kid. I can still remember seeing
“Poltergeist” in the theater

when I was really young, and hearing the audience screaming their
lungs out when JoBeth Williams is trapped in the swimming pool with
all of the decomposing skeletons. And I just thought, “I want to get
an audience to do that.”

3- Do you have
other cinematic ambitions apart from screenwriting? Maybe directing
or producing?

I would like to put myself in a
position of having greater creative control from now on, where my
vision actually makes it to the screen in some shape or form. So I
guess producing and possibly directing would be in the cards.

4- Where did the
inspiration for “THEY” come from? What triggered you to write it?

I actually came up with the
original idea for “THEY” when I dislocated and fractured my knee
during a Tae Kwon Do class. I needed surgery and the doctors ended
up placing a few metal clamps in the kneecap to pull the fracture
together so it could heal. And while I was recovering, just the idea
of having metal in my body started to creep me out.

So I came up with the idea that
there were a bunch of monsters out there – organic machines who were
basically a fusion of metal and flesh that would prey upon human
beings and use them for replacement body parts and skin. These
creatures existed in our world, but had somehow never been detected
for two reasons – they had the God-like ability to alter reality and
the power to erase people’s memories.

The original script was about a
group of recent college grads who run across one of these creatures,
and gradually come to realize that “they” exist. But the monsters
respond by erasing the memories of the people around them –
including their friends and families – until the kids are totally
isolated. They start disappearing from pictures. Their personal
identification vanishes. As a result, when the creatures start
coming after the main characters and picking them off for their
“spare parts,” the students’ identities have been taken away. Nobody
knows who these poor kids are, and nobody will care if they go
missing.

That was the original idea anyway.
“THEY” didn’t refer to the creatures themselves as much as it
alluded to the victims and what happened to them. But it wasn’t
about “night terrors,” that’s for sure.

5-
Although you are the sole writer credited on “THEY”, I heard rumors
that many writers had a crack at your script, making all kinds of
changes. Is that rumor true?

There were several different
writers on the film, but the script was really molded and changed by
the producers. For whatever it’s worth, they’re the true authors of
the movie.

6- How did you
feel about the casting of the picture? Did it fit the characters you
had envisioned? I personally loved Laura Regan.

It’s funny, you always get a
picture in your head of what the characters will look like and which
actors will play them. For instance, I always thought of Paul as
looking like Jared Leto (“MY SO-CALLED LIFE,” “FIGHT CLUB”).
Additionally, I initially thought of Sarah Polley in the role of
Julia. But that’s really just to help you envision the story while
you’re writing it. As for the film, I think the actors did the best
job they could with the material they were given. Ethan Embry is
great. I really love Dagmara Dominczyk and thought she brought a lot
to the role. Laura also did a nice job.

7- Are you happy
with the way the film turned out compared to your initial
screenplay?

Well, the original screenplay that
I wrote is my vision for the film, and what got made was really the
vision of the producers. Those are two separate things. Personally,
I’ve never been a huge fan of cheap scares or endless scenes of
people sitting around and giving exposition that doesn’t advance the
plot. Great horror films work because of four important components:
a strong story structure, three-dimensional characters, original
concepts, and most importantly, tension. “THEY” was developed in
such a haphazard manner that it really didn’t allow for those four
qualities to be addressed in a logical approach that championed
creative thinking. Stuff was put into the script and thrown out very
arbitrarily, and it ended up hurting the final product.

However, on
the flip side, the producers bought the script and changed it into
something that they wanted to make. You absolutely have to respect
their right to do that. They did pay for the material, after all.
But regardless of how you might feel about the film, I think
audiences and movie critics alike also have to be aware of where the
blame or credit lies.

8- I’ve seen both
the UK and the USA cut of the film and they sport different endings.
Did you have anything to do with either of them? If not, who did?

I actually had nothing to do with
the endings. The original ending of the film, which I didn’t write,
had Julia waking up in a mental institution and realizing the entire
film was a hallucinatory dream. I think people became concerned that
scene
would feel like a huge cheat, so they filmed a few different endings
for the UK and United States cuts of the movie. Ultimately, an
ending is only going to work if you’ve got an interesting story that
engages people. I loved the idea of the downbeat conclusion in the
U.S. version, but in order for that to fly, you’ve got to have a
main character that the audience cares about. Additionally, many
people also found the ending to be terribly abrupt since there were
several glaring plot questions that were left totally unanswered.
But there again, that’s a development problem, and certainly not my
fault or Robert Harmon’s fault.

9- If I say the
words “Robert” and “Harmon”. What thoughts spring to your mind?

One of the most talented directors
and nicest guys around. Anyone who claims to be a horror fan has
probably seen “The Hitcher”, which is possibly the finest cult
thriller of the eighties. Fortunately, when he directed that film,
Robert had a great script by Eric Red to work with. I’ve already
mentioned subtext as being vitally important to a horror film, and
whether it was intended or not, “THE HITCHER” has got it in spades.
That being said, there are few directors who can create atmosphere
or mood like Robert can, and I really think that he did a nice job
with “THEY.” Again, you have to realize that the script was always
changing and he didn’t have a solid foundation to work with, so
Robert really had to pull a story together out of almost nothing.
That’s a horribly difficult thing to do, and he really did as good a
job as anyone could, I think. But he’s a terrific director, and a
fine individual as well.

10- What’s next
on your plate in terms of screenwriting? Are you tackling another
horror script?

I’m actually developing one of my
original scripts with Stan Winston Productions and Brian Gilbert,
one of the producers of “WRONG TURN,” who’s been wonderful. They’re
just great and I’m looking forward to bringing that project to the
screen, if possible. It’s an amalgam of a horror film and a classic
hero myth…sort of a comic book superhero movie that’s operating
within the realm of the horror genre. I’m also working on a couple
spec scripts and will be pitching another
project early next year. So I’m staying busy.

11- Since this was
your first script made into a theatrical feature, what can you say
that you’ve learned from this experience?

Never compromise on the creative
side. I think anyone who’s considering becoming a working writer
should consider forming relationships with creative people in the
industry — producers and studio execs who get their writing and
will fight for scripts — and try to get movies made with them.
Obviously the film business is a collaborative medium with a lot of
individuals bringing their ideas to the table. But despite that, you
also need voices in the room who will try to support the original
material. And those voices are definitely out there. That’s
partially what I learned from the experience on “THEY.” The
movie industry is a lot like going through high school all over
again. Some people are going to have great experiences, and other
people end up having a hard time. But you always try to learn and
grow stronger. No matter how rough it is, you don’t give up. You
never give up.

In my review
of “They”, I blamed Brendan for the outcome of the film, not knowing
about the screenwriting tune-ups from others that took place behind the
scenes. I’d like to apologize to Brendan for taking things at
face value and blaming the film’s shortcomings on his script. I learned through this interview that we don’t always know all that
goes on behind the curtain. I, for one, am happy that Brendan took the
time to chit-chat with me because it cleared up a lot of things. Good luck
on your next project dude, I hope it’s a smoother ride than this one
was.