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SCREAM ’09: Star Chris Massoglia on ‘The Hole 3D’ and Scary Marionettes
One of my favorite films this year is Joe Dante’s 3-D family horror film, The Hole, which follows brothers Dane and Lucas and their neighbor Julie who discover a bottomless hole in their basement that brings their nightmares to life. While on the red carpet arrivals for last night’s 2009 Spike Scream Awards (airing Tuesday, October 27 at 10:00PM ET/PT) we caught up with Chris Massoglia, who plays the older brother in the film. While everyone is focusing on his role in Cirque du Freak, we took some time to talk 3-D and evil marionettes (is there anything better?).
While I was lucky enough to catch this sucker at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September (read my review), Massoglia has yet to see the final film.
“I haven’t seen it yet, maybe at the AFI fest, hopefully I can come out for it,” he tells Bloody Disgusting. “The shoot was awesome, it was cool. We were in Canada, and it was a really fun shoot because we filmed for a month, then had a two-week break over Christmas, and then filmed for another month. We went up and skied during Christmas. Working with Joe Dante was really awesome, ” he exclaims adding that he had never seen a Dante film until now. “Before [THE HOLE] I had not seen any, but I had heard of `em. Then he (Dante) gave me the `Burbs, which was randomly hilarious.”
THE HOLE was shot in 3-D… REAL 3-D, not that post-production bull sh*t. Massoglia explains that it wasn’t all that different of an experience.
“As far as an acting standpoint it wasn’t that different. It was filmed with real 3D cameras; it wasn’t transferred to 3D. They had one camera down here and one on top and then they had mirrors doing the effect. Acting wise it wasn’t that much different – there were some things with blocking, like if there was an over the shoulder shot you had to be careful not to move your shoulder or your shoulder would be out in the audience,” he jokes.
Without giving too much away, there’s an incredible marionette sequence in the film, which Massoglia had some input with.
“I don’t actually fight the marionette, but I run in after the fight.”
“Did you see him working with it, its an actual marionette right?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s awesome. They had puppeteers doing it the entire time. I actually did ADR a couple weeks ago and they wanted me to do some of the voice stuff for the marionette. I saw the footage and it looks really cool.”
While the marionettes were all practical, the finale of the film has a heavy does of CGI.
“It was really cool at the end of the movie, it goes into a totally different world of your fears and all that. It was cool, I did a lot of CG with VAMPIRES ASSISTANT, so I was used to it. There wasn’t that much green screen in the whole movie thought.”
THE HOLE is looking for a distributor as we speak so hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy it sometime in 2010.
Stephen Graham Jones is one of those horror literature names you know, even if you’re not that into horror literature.
The author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw, and dozens of other entries in the modern horror canon has built a reputation for two things: Chilling fiction and a jaw-droppingly prolific output, and today we can exclusively reveal the next story he’s unleashing on readers.
On March 9, 2027, Jones and Saga Press will release Ears, a new haunted house horror novella about a down-on-his-luck man who finds an unlucky ally in the ghost of a child in footie pajamas, complete with bunny ears on top.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Mr. Morning Gun, the hapless narrator of this first person novella, is a disgraced history teacher who now is an unhoused person who is largely living within his electric car and the empty homes he looks after for local real estate agencies in a specific way: He flushes the empty houses toilets to keep, primarily, the wax seals on the toilets fresh, and the plumbing flowing. For this he gets a bit of money under table. One day, at “The Messner House” he gets caught by an aggressive realtor having a tryst, and the ghost of the previous owners’ missing child intervenes, killing the couple, and saving the former teacher and he finds himself embroiled into an ever-increasing layer of cover-ups as the girl in the lavender footie pajamas keeps killing folks to keep the house empty, except for him.”
What inspired a story like this? For Jones, it began with something very practical, which quickly morphed into a new expression of horror.
“I was wondering if the chargers for electric cars are universal or not, but didn’t know how to phrase a search to figure that out, so I had to figure it out the only way I know how: with a story—with horror,” Jones told Bloody Disgusting. “With, as it turned out, a haunted house. So, now I know that they probably are universal. And that that leads to… to bad things.”
Bloody Disgusting is pleased to exclusively reveal the haunting cover for Ears, designed by Luisa Dias.
Ears is the latest entry in Jones’ always-busy publishing schedule, which includes a new novel, Off the Reservation, arriving this fall from Saga. Beginning next spring, Saga will also reissue three of Jones’ earlier horror works for a new generation of readers, delivering new editions of Demon Theory, The Last Final Girl, and Growing Up Dead In Texas.
Those reissues don’t have firm release dates yet, but you can expect Ears to arrive on March 9, 2027.
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