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Dwight Little talks about horror films
Good Day Atlanta's Paul Milliken talks to director Dwight Little about horror movies and what makes them good.
ATLANTA - When a horror movie really scares you, you never forget it.
"I was traumatized, like everybody, by the original ‘Exorcist’ in a way that I cannot communicate," laughs Dwight Little. "I mean…it was a slash-good-bad experience for me!"
Still, that head-spinning 1973 classic didn’t stop Little from conjuring up some big cinematic scares of his own.
The filmmaker’s big breakthrough came in 1988, when he left an indelible mark on the famed "Halloween" franchise as director of "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers." The film was a major hit — topping the U.S. box office — and brought the franchise snack to basics, centering the story on iconic horror villain Michael Myers and his return to Haddonfield.
"We thought, instead of doing another teen slasher, let’s do kind of a ‘Silence of the Lambs’ thing, where we’re on the hunt for a serial killer. Which, let’s face it, is what Michael is," says Little.
Little followed that horror film with another, directing horror legend Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger!) in a lavish 1989 version of the classic Gaston Leroux novel "The Phantom of the Opera."
"It was almost like an instant artistic connection," the director says of working with Englund. "We never fought, we never argued. We discussed, we dug into the character, but it was such a collaboration. It kind of spoiled me for later in life, you know, because he’s a very intense man, but he’s all about the work."
The stories behind those films and so many others — including the Steven Seagal action hit "Marked for Death" and the 1995 family film "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home" — are covered in Little’s memoir "Still Rolling: Inside the Hollywood Dream Factory."
As for what makes a really good scary movie, Little says there’s one simple element that aspiring filmmakers absolutely must nail.
"The villain," he says. "It’s Jason, it’s Freddy, it’s Michael, it’s Pinhead, on and on. It’s the villain."
Click here for more information on Dwight Little’s memoir.
The Source: This is a FOX 5 Atlanta original story. Good Day Atlanta's horror superfan Paul Milliken interviewed filmmaker Dwight Little for this report.