Also his rock n’ roll horror flick Old Scratch
We recently caught up with writer/director/FX artist Rob Hall to discuss his upcoming webseries Fear Clinic which debuts later this month on FearNet and the subject of the recently announced Laid To Rest sequels came up.
“The titles are Chromeskull: Laid To Rest 2 and Laid To Rest 3: Conception. As of right now, 2’s a straight sequel and 3âs a prequel,” he told Shock. “The scripts are being written and the treatments are all done and they’re in active development.”
When asked if he already had ideas mapped out for potential follow-ups while making the first film, his answer was surprisingly no. “This was stuff that came after the first one was made,” he explains. “A lot of it was trying to figure out what I would want to see next as a fan.”
“I’m okay with making a movie like Laid To Rest that really polarized people,” he confesses. “People either really love it or they really hate it and I’m cool with that. I think a lot of the criticism we got was intention. For me, I wanted to not over explain the killer. I felt like we were sophisticated enough to not have to do that. I thought the audience was sophisticated enough to be able to except that there’s just people out there with weird perversions that like to do bad shit. I mean, you hear about it all the time. But people really wanted to know the backstory [of Chromeskull].”
“And actually, I take that as a compliment,” he affirms. “It means people are invested and that they want to know. So a lot of the storyline for both movies centers around Chromeskull’s past. Obviously, Laid To Rest 3 shows you how he got to where he was, whereas [part two] is more of a direct sequel, but you do get a lot more information about who he is and what he wants. I think that will satisfy a lot of those people that liked the carnage of the first one, but wanted to know more about Chromeskull.”
Also on the filmmakers future slate is a project titled Old Scratch, a script that dates back to right after the completion of his feature length debut Lightening Bug.
“It’s my rock ‘n roll horror film that I’ve always wanted to make,” the filmmaker gushes. “I’ve always wanted to see a good rock ‘n roll horror film and to me, the closest that ever happened was in the 1986 Trick Or Treat, but that’s very silly. There’s also Rock N Roll Nightmare and Black Roses, but they’re all really cheesy and dated, so my idea is to basically take Memento and make it a horror film.”
“That’s kind of what it is,” he continues. “But with a guy playing metal records backwards and then bad things happen. I’ve always wanted to make this movie because I grew up in the South and there would actually be these preachers and religious fanatics that would come to our schools and take time out of our day and make us meet in the auditorium to play records backwards and say, ‘Look. Didn’t you hear it? It’s says my sweet Satan!’ And it’s like ‘Are you kidding me?’ It amused and scared me at the same time to where I would go home and experiment with that. Iâd play records backwards with my brother and be like ‘Did you hear that?'”
“In Trick Or Treat, they use it as a silly, gimmicky thing to bring back the flamboyant rock star. In this, it’s actually exploring the idea of the devil and Satan being in the music and if that’s possible and what actually happens when you do hear a reverse message on a record. What does that do to your subconscious? So we explore that on a deeper level and on a much more religious angle. It’s something I’ve always been interested in and it’s going to be my ultimate rock ‘n roll horror movie. I’m very excited about it.”
“We’re hoping to shoot all three of these movies all back to back in Georgia early next year,” he tells Shock. “That is the plan.”
Check back for our full interview with Rob Hall on Fear Clinic shortly!
Source: Robg.
