The Arrow
interviews Kevin Tenney
Kevin
Tenney was a name I knew well when I was a younger, bratty horror
fan. Film’s like “Witchboard”, “Night of the
Demons”, “Peacemaker” and “Witchtrap” are all
staples of my teen years. I’ve always felt that Kevin Tenney’s contribution to the genre has been
shamefully overlooked so I hunted the man down,
pinned him against a wall and tossed these questions his way. Enter
the world of Kevin Tenney.
A: What’s your favorite
horror movie?
K:
Hard to
pick just one.
Supernatural
Horror: THE EXORCIST and/or THE OMEN.
Science Fiction
Horror: ALIEN.
Adventure Horror:
JAWS.
Serial Killer
Horror: SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Gut-wrenching
Horror: BENJI.
These are all big
studio films, but I am also a fan of many low budget efforts like:
MR. FROST, THE UGLY, EVIL DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR, and
the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
And growing up, I
was a tremendous Hitchcock fan, especially, REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY
NORTHWEST, SABOTEUR, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, and PSYCHO. I never really
thought THE BIRDS was scary. I just couldn’t be afraid of the
Colonel’s eleven different herbs and spices.
Now this is going
to sound like blasphemy, but most of my favorite movies do not even
fall into the horror category. Before writing and directing
WITCHBOARD, I had probably only seen a handful of horror films, and
then they were either the big, studio films or the Hammer Films I’d
seen as a child. I didn’t get into films like EVIL DEAD or
RE-ANIMATOR until after I’d made WITCHBOARD and NIGHT OF THE
DEMONS.
However, I was a huge fan of anything Ray Harryhausen made when I
was growing up.
A: You’ve come up with some pretty grisly ideas
through the years in your
genre efforts. Night of the Demons in particular is filled with sick
goodies that made my genre friendly self very happy (lipstick scene
anyone?). The question is…how did you come up with this stuff???
K:
The
precursor to the “lipstick scene” was already in Joe Augustyne’s
script. He had the possessed Suzanne (Linnea Quigley) cough up some
bile, which landed on her chest and burned a hole through her skin.
Then she shoved the lipstick through the hole. I
felt the scene didn’t really accomplish anything and was only there
for shock value. That would have been okay, but everyone had
already seen Regan throw up bile and phlegm and everything else in
THE EXORCIST, so I didn’t think Joe’s scene even worked on the shock
level. The character was
supposed to be sexy and alluring, so I started with that. What if
she were topless and drawing on her own breasts with a tube of
lipstick? Then you have a sexy, titillating scene that suddenly
turns into a creepy, oh-my-God scene when she shoves the lipstick
right through her nipple. Actually, I thought it was such a creepy
idea, I had second thoughts and tried to withdraw it a few days
after I’d suggested it, but by then the producers, Joe, the F.X.
make-up people, and everybody else loved it.
I had Steve Johnson (F.X. make-up) build an entire front plate for
Linnea, from her neck
to her waist, rather than just one fake breast. I didn’t want to do
a cut away from a topless Linnea to a close-up of the fake breast
when she pushed in the lipstick. Steve didn’t want to do it at
first, because he was afraid the effect would not be seen clearly in
a wide shot that showed Linnea’s entire body. I explained that I would
start wide and then push into a close-up at the last moment so that
nobody would see it coming. A cut lets the audience know you’ve
gone from the real girl to the fake breast. But a single shot
surprises them, because they think they’ve been looking at her real
breasts when in fact they‘ve been looking at the fake breasts the
entire time.
Just look at the
breasts-turning-into-hands-gag in NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2. They were
trying to top the “lipstick scene” from the first film, but they did
it in a cut, and it didn’t have the same shock value.
A: How would you describe your
writing process in terms of screenwriting? Do you listen to music, drink
Scotch, isolate yourself from the outside world? Can we get a hint
of what Kevin Tenney does to put himself in “screenwriting” mode?
K: I am
not as disciplined as I should be when it comes to writing. I have
to make sure there is nothing around to distract me, or I will
be distracted. A famous writer, whose name I can’t remember at the
moment, said it best, “I hate writing, but I love having written.”
I, too, hate the actual writing process; it’s like giving birth to a
Sumo wrestler. I just finished
Stephen King’s book, ON WRITING, and I am going to try to follow the
routine that he has used all these years. Although I know I will
never be as prolific as he’s been. By the way, I highly recommend
his book to anyone who wants to be a writer. A lot of
critics belittle his talent because of the genre in which he writes,
and I’ll admit I haven’t loved every one of his books that I’ve
read. But his actual writing, his storytelling talents, always grab
me on page one and hold me until the end. I believe he could write
a phone book and make it a compelling read.
Specific Film questions
Witchboard:
A: What was
the initial jolt that inspired you to write the gem that is
Witchboard? I hope you know that to this day, it is the “definite”
picture in terms of Ouija boards. Congrats on that!
K:
It helps
that it’s the ONLY film in terms of Ouija Boards. And
speaking of Stephen King, he said some very nice things about the
film during an interview in BILLBOARD MAGAZINE. I actually lived in
an old Victorian house that had been converted into apartments, like
the characters in the film, and a friend brought a Ouija Board to
one of my parties. The incident with his car getting a flat tire
because someone else had made fun of the spirit actually happened to
him. When I was in film
school at U.S.C. years later, we had to write a feature script for
one of our classes, and the incident with the Ouija stuck with me.
I realized that although Ouija Boards had appeared in various horror
films, I’d never seen a film that actually featured a Ouija Board as
the center of the story. Granted, I hadn’t seen a lot of horror
films at that point, but even now, I can’t think of another Ouija
oriented movie. Once I had the
idea, I started doing research on Ouijas to see what the rules and
history were, and I found out about “Progressive Entrapment,” the
stage you go through before full-blown Possession. I thought it
would make a good story, and the rest, as they say, is history.
A: Your
visual style in the picture was very reminiscent of Hitchcock.
Would you say that the master was an inspiration?
K: Not
consciously, but at that point in my life, I had seen almost every
film Hitchcock had directed, including his first “talkie.” And I
was always a big fan of his fancy camera shots. One low-budget
distributor actually passed on the film when we showed it too him,
because it wasn’t a slasher film, which were very popular at the
time. He said, “You call this a horror film?! This is Hitchcock,
for Christ’s sake!” And he meant it as an insult. Go figure.
A: How did
the casting of Tawny Kitaen come about? Was she the first choice for
the role?
K:
Actually,
my first choice was Deborah Foreman, the girl from VALLEY GIRL. Her
reading completely blew me away. But she wanted top billing, and we
had already signed Todd Allen and given him top billing. He was
willing to share it with her, but not to go down to second billing.
So we couldn’t make it work. I had not seen
BACHELOR PARTY or THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE, so I had no idea who
Tawny was when she came in. She gave an excellent reading though,
and had a very likable quality, which was necessary for the
character. Personally, I didn’t find her prettier or sexier than
the scores of other pretty, sexy girls who read for the part, but I
noticed that almost every guy in the office was drooling over her,
more than they had any of the other girls. That was good enough for
me, so we cast her.
Night of
the Demons:
A: Night of the
Demons is a personal favorite of mine. I heard that it was once
called “Halloween Party”. Why the change in title?
K:
I’m not
sure, but I think the people who made the HALLOWEEN films threatened
to sue the producers for using “Halloween” in the title, so they
asked everybody to come up with new titles, almost like an in-house
contest. Or maybe they just hated the original title, who knows? In any event, I came up with NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, and everyone liked
it. So again, as they say, the rest is history.
An interesting note:
While we were still trying to come up with a new title, the
distributor proposed calling it DEMON BOOGIE. And for a while, it
looked like they might go with it. That very night, I sat down at
the typewriter and came up with 50 alternatives, because I hated
DEMON BOOGIE so much. Years later, when I had Dennis, the
composer, do a blues/rap song at the end of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 3,
he titled the song DEMON BOOGIE as a joke.
A: Looking
back, what was the hardest scene to shoot in that jamboree of crazy
horror fun?
K: The hardest
scene to shoot was Cathy Podewell hanging on the barbed-wire wall
while all the zombie kids tried to pull her back down. The finished
scene may be frightening, but it looked so comical while shooting
it, that the actors kept ruining the takes by laughing. Then the
D.P. and I kept laughing, because they all looked so silly. Plus it
was late, and we were all punchy.
A: There
are two sequels to the film, one of which you wrote (Part 3).
How do you feel about them? Do you think they hold up to the amazing
original?
K:
I
actually think the script to NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 2 is better, probably because Joe
was a more experienced writer by then, and I thought the cast was
stronger over-all than in part 1. I’ve heard it criticized for
being a lame imitation of the first one, or just more of the same as
the first one, but I really enjoyed it. I thought the director,
Brian Trenchard-Smith made a fun film. My only criticism
would be that it had too many jokes and not enough scares, and it
didn’t have the same visual flare. As for NIGHT OF THE DEMONS 3, everyone was excited because they thought it was the best script of
the three, including Amelia Kinkade, who’s played Angela, the
she-demon, in all three. I wasn’t on the set, but obviously some
bad decisions were made by those who were, and many of the
screenplay’s best scenes ended up on the editing room floor, in an
attempt to fix things that had gone awry during production.
Witchtrap:
A: If you had to
change one thing about Witchtrap, what would it be?
K: My name.
A: What’s
your favorite scene from that film?
K: Linnea naked is
always worth the price of admission. It’s funny how the showerhead
impalement from WITCHTRAP and the lipstick scene from NIGHT OF THE
DEMONS are the most memorable scenes, and they both involve Linnea.
Of course, the most famous scene from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD also
includes Linnea. So here’s the formula for all of you aspiring
horror filmmakers: Linnea + nudity + weirdness = memorable scene.
A: Any
funny set stories you can recollect from the shoot that you’d like
to share with us?
K:
Dan
Duncan, a friend of mine from film school, has cut almost all of my
films since the original WITCHBOARD. We were commiserating with one
another about how making professional films wasn’t as much fun as
the down-and-dirty, guerilla-style student films of our youth, so we
decided to make a down-and-dirty horror film on our own. No unions,
no job descriptions, just people we liked working with. I wrote the
script in a week, and we shot it in 17 days on a budget of
$420,000.00. That included salaries, equipment, special effects,
and even delivery items, like an answer print, an inter-negative and
inter-positive, M&E sound reels, etc.
It was probably one
of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had on a set, but the sound
recorder was inexperienced and accidentally ruined all of our Nagra
audio tapes. That meant we had to dub the entire film in less than
a week, and all of the sound F.X. had to be created in the studio.
There’s not a single piece of actual production sound in the entire
film.When we shot the
film, it was called THE PRESENCE or THE HAUNTED, I can’t remember
which. We honestly thought it would maybe play on late-night cable
and nowhere else. But the distributor changed the title to WITCHTRAP to cash in on WITCHBOARD’s popularity, and it ended up
being the biggest seller they’d ever had. I was afraid it would end
my short career, but it actually got some good reviews. Dan and I
were both appropriately stunned. But then, I didn’t expect anyone
to like NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, either, so what do I know? I still
think SAVING PRIVATE RYAN should have won the Oscar for best film.
I guess that wasn’t really a “funny“ story, was it?. Sorry.
Peacemaker:
A: Peacemaker
bears a striking resemblance to “The Hidden” in terms of concept.
Was the flick an inspiration when you wrote Peacemaker or did they
wind up being similar by fluke?
K: Actually, I
wrote PEACEMAKER before THE HIDDEN came out. Everyone who read it
liked it, but they said it was too similar to THE TERMINATOR. An
executive at FOX almost bought it, but they were already in
production on a film called OUTER HEAT, which eventually became
ALIEN NATION. When
THE HIDDEN came out later and was compared to THE TERMINATOR, I
thought, “Here’s a good film that critics are comparing to THE
TERMINATOR in a positive way. Maybe now, someone will make
PEACEMAKER.” Unfortunately, THE HIDDEN didn’t do that well at the
box office, so it was a few more years before anyone was willing to
take a chance on PEACEMAKER. It was great when the finished film
got rave reviews in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. And Joe Bob
Briggs listed it as one of his Top 10 Films Of The Year.
A:
Peacemaker was your first foray into a more action-inclined type of
picture. Did you find it problematic to direct bigger physical
oriented sequences?
K: Not really.
When I was a kid, making Super-8 films with the other kids in the
neighborhood, they were almost always action films. We would
actually devise stunts that we wanted to perform, and then I would
incorporate them into the script. First they were just fight
sequences and high falls, i.e., falling off the roof of our house
onto a mattress and box springs. When we got old enough to drive,
we shot car chases and crashes. In retrospect, I’m amazed that no
one was killed or even seriously injured. I jumped from a car that
was doing 35 M.P.H. and tumbled across a dirt field with absolutely
no padding or protection of any kind. God really must watch out for
fools and children.
A: How was
it directing a veteran the likes of Robert Forster?
K: He invited my
wife and I to the Premiere Screening of JACKIE BROWN, years after
PEACEMAKER, and he still claims it is one of his favorites of all
his films. We’re friends to this day. My wife and I had dinner
with him just a few weeks ago. I would work with him anytime,
anywhere. He is a solid professional and a genuinely nice guy.
The
Cellar:
A: I’ve always
been confused about who was behind The Cellar? Rumor has it that
writer John Woodward did some considerable re-shoots on the picture.
Care to set the record straight?
K: I’ve never met
John, so I can’t tell you what kind of person he is. He was the
writer and a first-time director. After eight days of a twenty-day
shoot, the film was three or four days behind schedule. The
production company fired him and hired me to take over. They
couldn’t afford to shut down, so I wasn’t able to do re-writes,
which I felt were absolutely necessary, and I couldn’t have any time
to prepare.
Friday: John was
fired, and I was sent a copy of the script the same day.
Saturday: I met
with the producers, and they hired me on the spot.
Sunday: I was on a
plane to Tucson, Arizona, which is where the film was shot.
Monday: I was on
the set with a cast and crew I’d never met, calling “action!”
Plus, they could not
afford to let me re-shoot the footage John had already shot, even
though most of it was extremely problematic when inter-cut with what
I was doing.
A: What
type of picture did you want to put out when you took The Cellar
on? Horror? Drama? Both?
K:
That’s
what I kept asking the producers. When I agreed to do the film, the
script read as an “R” rated horror film, but the family dynamics of
the characters was what appealed to me. I even pulled aside the
actress, Suzanne Savoy, to discuss her nude scene before we shot
it. She asked, “What nude scene?” I said, “The one in the
script.” Turns out nobody had discussed it with her. I asked the
producers, and they said they were shooting for a PG-13. I knew
right then we were in trouble. The story was too mature to appeal
to kids but too tame to appeal to adults. Whenever I was asked what
kind of horror film we were making, I’d say, “It’s the kind of
horror film Disney would make, if they made horror films. And
there’s a very good reason why they don’t make horror films.”
A: Looking
back, how do you feel about the film as a whole?
K: “As a hole,”
is a good way to describe it. But it was a good learning
experience. I got to work with children and all sorts of animals
and insects for the first time, and I got to see if I could think
quickly on my feet. It made me confident enough in my own abilities
to tackle later things that might have seemed too difficult had I
not already made THE CELLAR.
Witchboard
2:
A: “Witchboard 2”
came out of the horror oven looking good and visually exceeding its
budget production value wise. Why the shoddy marketing angle? It
could’ve done so much better at the box-office with the right push behind it!
K: You’d have to
ask the distributor. Was that not the tackiest, cheesiest one
sheet/cover art you’ve ever seen? How do you make a beautiful young
woman like Ami Dolenz look that bad? You have to work at it, trust
me.
A: Watching
the film, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the
sequel and the original. Was that a conscious decision of yours to
make them similar? Or was it a production company induced choice?
K: What do you
think? I had originally written a sequel that was drastically
different in style and story to the first one, but nobody wanted to
mess with the original WITCHBOARD’s formula for success. My
brother, Dennis, composed the scores for both films, and we used to
joke with each other that we were getting a chance to remake the
original with a bigger budget.
A: You had
written another script for “Witchboard 2” that was eventually rejected
by the Prod Company. Why wasn’t it to their liking? Do you like the
first “Witchboard 2” screenplay more than the one you wound up
using?
K:
I think
they rejected it because it was too different from its predecessor.
But honestly, I can never figure out why a producer or a production
company makes the choices they make. They’re almost always exactly
opposite of the choices I would have made. I don’t know whether or
not I like the first WITCHBOARD 2 script better, but I know it
wasn’t written by committee, and the characters are more personal to
me, like they were in the original WITCHBOARD. Maybe that’s your
answer right there.
Pinocchio’s Revenge:
A: At first
glance, this film seems like another killer doll on the loose entry,
but you wanted to deliver something a tad more ambitious. What were
your intentions when you set out to do Pinocchio’s Revenge? What
type of picture did you want it to be? Do you feel like you succeeded in your goal?
K: In spite of the fact that I
never would have written this script had I not been hired to do so,
I actually like the finished film quite a bit. Granted, it’s not
MAGIC, which is what I was aspiring to, but after all, I didn’t have
Anthony Hopkins, did I? But we had a strong cast, giving credible
performances, exploring interesting ideas about evil, and I wanted
my last film in the genre to have some dignity. And considering the
distributor wanted something closer to LEPRECHAUN or CHILD’S PLAY, I
think we managed to hit a happy compromise.
A: Did you
find it hard on the nerves directing a little girl? I hear they can
be quite a pain in the…?
K: Brittany Alyse
Smith knew the entire script by heart before the adult cast members
had their lines memorized. She could cry on cue, and she wanted to
please me and her peers whenever she could. She was an absolute
sweetie who was also 100 percent professional. The girls who played
her tormentors were also very easy and fun to work with. Even Chris
Miller, the little boy from THE CELLAR, was a great kid and a joy to
work with. I guess I’ve been lucky when it comes to kids.
A: Taking
into account that this is an original film with no sequels; why is
it called Pinocchio’s Revenge? Revenge for what?
K: Again, you’d
have to ask the distributor. The script I wrote was entitled THE
PINOCCHIO SYNDROME, which they changed after I delivered the
finished film. “Revenge for what?” Obviously I must’ve insulted
Walt Disney in a past life, and the title change to PINOCCHIO’S
REVENGE was my punishment in this life.
Demolition
University:
A: This was your
first non-horror genre picture. Was it a conscious decision on your
part to step away from horror? If so…why?
K: Yes. And I needed some
extra Christmas money. Actually, PEACEMAKER, was my first
non-horror film, but I had decided while making PINOCCHIO, that I
was burned out on horror. I will only do another one if I have a
bigger budget, or an idea that’s so fun, interesting, and/or
original that I can’t resist it. Or if I need some extra Christmas
money again.
A: Ami
Dolenz also stars in this one (she was the lead in “Witchboard
2”). Would it be safe to say that you had a solid working relationship
with the lady?
K: I would date her if I were
single and fifteen years younger. And if I were thinner and better
looking and had more hair and a lot more money and if I were
cooler. And if she lowered her standards quite a bit. Seriously,
she is just as sweet as the characters she played in both films, and
I loved working with her.
I also used Laraine
Neuman in both films, because I enjoyed working with her so much as
well. You might have also recognized Todd Allen from WITCHBOARD and
PINOCCHIO, as well as Robert Forster from PEACEMAKER. DEMOLITION U
was Robert’s last B-movie before JACKIE BROWN.
A:
Was Corey Haim a handful on set or was he on good behavior mode?
K: I know a
producer who worked with him just before DEMOLITION U and another
producer who worked with him right after. They both had problems,
but Corey was right as rain for me. He got along well with the rest
of the cast and crew, and he showed up prepared. He knew his lines,
he hit his marks, and his acting was always effortlessly natural.
There’s a reason he was an up-and-comer at one time. Just go back
and look at LUCAS. The kid can act.
The Second
Arrival:
A: Did you feel
any added pressure in tackling a sequel to a film that you had nothing to
do with?
K: No. The only pressure I
felt was shooting a $5 million sequel to a $22 million original.
Charlie Sheen’s salary on the first one was more than my entire
budget on the second. How do you compete with that?
A: How
would you define the shoot (which took place in Montreal)? Was it
the storm of the century or smooth sailing?
K: It was a tough
shoot. The visual F.X. budget for the first film was 2 million; the
visual F.X. budget for the second was $400,000. It was a very
ambitious project for the amount of time and money we had. Thank
God none of the cast members were prima donnas, or we’d have been up
the creek without a paddle, without a boat, without a creek. Patrick
Muldoon, Jane Sibbett, and Michael Sarrazin were all a
pleasure to work with.
A: Did you
watch the original as a reference before shooting this one or did
you purposely avoid it?
K: Neither. I had
already seen the film when it came out and had liked it because it
was a smart mystery. I did want to reference it though, because I
hate when filmmakers latch onto the success of a first film and then
throw everything out, because they want to make their “own film.” I
say if you want to make your own film, then have the balls to call
it by a different title and not ride the coat tails of a successful
predecessor. If you agree to do a sequel, then abide by the rules
that were established in the original.
Tick Tock:
A: “Tick Tock” was
a departure for you. Not only in the type of genre you’re playing in,
but also in the way you approached the structure of the narrative.
Was it a fulfilling film for you to shoot on a creative level?
K: No film is fulfilling to
shoot, because you never have as much time and money on set as you
had in front of the computer. When I write a screenplay, I envision
movie stars in the leads, and a forty-five day shooting schedule,
with any and every piece of photographic equipment I could possibly
want. Money is no object. But usually, I end up making my films
for 2 million or less, with relatively unknown actors, a very tight
shooting schedule, and small equipment package.
TICK-TOCK was a
little better, because even though I had only a million dollar
budget, the production company agreed to leave me alone, to not
request script changes, to not tell me how to shoot it, to not tell
me how to crew it, etc.
So although I was still limited by time and
money, I was not hampered by having to listen to a bunch of bad
ideas from various company executives, which has usually been the
case on every other film. I also had a solid
cast of semi-names, who worked for less than their usual salary
because they liked the script. Megan Ward, Krisitn Minter, Linden
Ashby, John Ratzenberger, Hedy Burress, and the late David Dukes.
Although they are not “big name movie stars,” they are all
well-established actors who did a wonderful job for me. I know I’m
starting to become redundant, but again, they were all a joy to work
with. John Ratzenberger came up with a couple of his character’s
funniest bits himself.
A: Tick
Tock sports its fair share of nudity and sexual situations. How do
you, as a director, approach those scenes in regards to making the
actors feel at ease?
K: I get
naked with them and offer to give them back rubs. KIDDING!
Truthfully, I always discuss exactly what will be shot, and how it
will be shot before the actress or actor is even hired. That way
they can decide for themselves whether or not they are willing to do
it. Once they’re
onboard, I shoot it exactly as I said I would, and I let them see
the cut sequence before the cast and crew screening, so they’re
prepared for what everyone else is going to be seeing later. During
the shoot, I clear the set of all non-essential personnel. Some
actresses are more comfortable doing the nudity than others, but
I’ve never had one refuse to do it, once I’ve explained how I intend
to shoot it.
Megan was very nervous, because she’s managed to gain a
strong fan following for herself in B-films without ever having to
take her clothes off. This was the first time she’d ever been nude
on a set. But when the time came, she was a trooper and a
total professional. Kristin had done topless scenes before, but I
believe this was the first time she was going to be doing full
frontal. She joked about it the entire time, and if she was in any
way uncomfortable, she did an excellent job of hiding it. She
impressed me even more, because she was running across wet grass in
the middle of the night, and I was half frozen wearing a Parka and
snow boots. Now that’s dedication to your craft.
That reminds me of
funny NIGHT OF THE DEMONS
story. Is it too late now? Obviously, Linnea Quigley had a nude scene, but she had already done them
before and was completely comfortable. It was only the second nude
scene I’d ever shot, so I think I was probably more uncomfortable
that she was. However, Cathy Podewell
had a bare rear-end scene, and Jill Terashita had a topless scene,
and neither of them had ever done nudity. Cathy agonized daily as
her nude scene drew closer and closer, but Jill was very comfortable
with her body and didn’t give it a second thought.
When
the day finally came, Cathy had worried about it so much, the actual
shoot was nowhere near as bad as she’d imagined, and by the third
take, she was pulling off her panties and wandering around the room,
completely at home. Jill, on the other
hand, froze up in front of the camera, and her performance was
incredibly wooden. Everyone could see that deer-in-the-headlights
look on her face, so we finished the scene as quickly as we could. A few days later, Jill came to me and wanted to re-shoot the scene.
I asked why she would want to put herself through that again when
she’d obviously been so uncomfortable. She said, “I’m already going
to be naked in the movie, right? I don’t want to be naked and
suck.” I agreed, and we re-shot her close-ups a few days later. And she was topless again. But this time, she was prepared, and she
did much better.
A: I’ve
never gotten the chance to see this film…what kind of distribution
did it get?
K: What?! You
can’t go to a video and/or DVD store and buy a copy of TICK-TOCK?
The least you could do is rent it at Blockbuster. Obviously if you
didn’t even know it was out, you’ve answered your own question about
the distribution. Too bad. It’s my personal favorite of all my
films.
Endangered
Species:
A: Your newest
film Endangered Species recently wrapped and it stars Eric Roberts
and Arnold Vooslo. Can you tell us a bit about what the picture is
about?
K:
ENDANGERED SPECIES is a sci-fi/action-thriller, much in the same
vein as PEACEMAKER. But it was shot in a foreign country with a
foreign crew, so it did not go as smoothly as films I’ve made here.
The cast was incredible, but the action sequences are not as gritty
and spectacular. Also, because the crew was not experienced enough
to keep up with the D.P. and me, we had to simplify our shots.
Because of this, it is not as visually stylistic as my previous
films. Luckily, it’s a fun story, and the cast ran with it.
The
film actually turned out better than I expected, due mostly, as I
said, to the great cast. Eric and Arnold are
both strong, charismatic actors, and the three of us got along
famously. I’d heard that Eric could be difficult, but he and I
share the same sarcastic sense of humor, and he’s one of the few
actors I’ve ever worked with besides Patrick Muldoon and James Quinn
who could make me laugh like that. We also had John Rhys-Davies and
Tony Lo Bianco, who are also seasoned pros and great fun to work
with.
A: Has it
been released in the States yet? If not, when can we expect it?
K: I don’t think
it’s been released yet, but I’m just the director. They usually
don’t tell me anything. More often or not, I find out one of my
films is going to be playing on television when I see a commercial
for it.
A: What
type of genre do you feel the film falls in?
K: The genre is
science-fiction / action-thriller. But you’ll have to see it for
yourself to see if you think the film “falls”.
Final
questions…
A: Of all
your films, which three would you say that you’re the most proud?
K: TICK-TOCK,
because it’s the best. WITCHBOARD, because it was my first. And
your first is always special. PEACEMAKER, because I personally like
sci-fi action more than horror. But I think NIGHT OF
THE DEMONS is visually the best-looking. I had more prep time on
this film than any other, so I knew exactly how I intended to frame
every single shot before production even began. And it shows.
A: Is there
one that you wish had never seen the light of day?
K:
WITCHTRAP. I had a lot of fun making it, but it is NOT my best work as a
director. I was too busy concentrating on my producer duties. THE
CELLAR. It’s just too much of a muddled mess, and I was not
involved with the final cut or the final sound mix.
A: What’s
next on your plate? What can we expect from Kevin Tenney in the
following months?
K: I just
finished writing a courtroom drama/neo-noir thriller entitled,
TELLING TALES, and I’m almost done with the first draft of an action
drama, which I am calling SPLIT at the moment. And I already have
an idea for a crime drama/bank caper screenplay, which I will
probably write next. I have also been inspired by Mr. King to try my
hand at writing a book, and I have so far written the first two
chapters. It’s as yet untitled, but it’s a coming-of-age tale about
a young boy living on a military base in the 1960’s. Sounds
incredibly exciting, huh? I know, but it’s something I really want
to write.
A: Thanks for
the interview Kevin…you rock!
I’d like to thank Kevin for this lengthy and engaging interview: it made my week
and I will most surely have a drink on the man tonight. This Bud’s
for you, Kevin! If you
haven’t seen Witchboard or Night of the Demons; do yourself a hearty favor
and rent them asap…you’ll thank me in the morning when the
hangover kicks in.