Elbow Grease & Ingenuity: Interview with Larry Fessenden

I’m delighted to have had the chance to briefly correspond with one of my favorite filmmakers Larry Fessenden. He's currently working on the Guillermo Del Toro produced remake of Juan Antonio Bayona’s Spanish ghost hit The Orphanage (El Orfanato). He also heads up Glass Eye Pix, a collaboratively run independent film production company that is churning out thoughtful horror and genre films. I’ve been a huge fan of Fessenden since I first saw Wendigo several years ago at a Pittsburgh film festival. His character-driven work is drenched in metaphor, but anchored by realistic situations, believable characters, and contemplative dialogue. Fessenden is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and is considered a true auteur in the realms of independent film. He not only wears many hats on his own productions, but can often be found producing and acting in the works of many other filmmakers.

(photo uncredited)

Interview by Chris Hallock

ATHO:

Larry, thank you for taking time out of your hectic schedule to answer a few questions for the readers of All Things Horror. I believe you are currently working on a remake of the surprise Spanish hit The Orphanage while acting as the go-to utility man for nearly all the Glass Eye Pix productions. How do you stay sane in all that chaos?

Larry Fessenden:

That is what keeps me sane, being overworked. Long before it was fashionable I had some form of ADD, I always had to be many things at once to feel like I had any worth at all. When I was a kid I wrote books and acted and drew and tried to convince myself that I was good at playing soccer and every other damn thing you can think of.

ATHO:

I'm a big fan of allegory, and your films are a great example of every day human problems manifesting in the guise of frightening supernatural evil. What are your favorite ideas to explore thematically when you’re writing a screenplay?

Larry Fessenden:

I love allegory. I believe the human mind operates at the level of metaphor. In everything from our religions to our superstitions, but also science and mathematics, these are all symbols representing reality. Joseph Campbell observed that things can be both true and not true at the same time, meaning, the truth of an allegory can be illuminating without it needing to be literally true. This is why a literal interpretation of the Bible for example, is a waste of time, and alienates people who might otherwise learn from its teachings. To my mind vampires and werewolves are not much different from Greek Gods and Christian Saints: they all help us cope with an indifferent reality populated by stupefying cruelties and arbitrary terrors.

Anyway, what interests me is the intersection between our mythologies and realities; the power of our subjective perception, the tendency toward self delusion, both personally and on a societal scale. That is what always creeps into my screenplays.

ATHO:

In a lot of your work, there is way more to fear from the human characters than the supernatural elements. Do you have a healthy distrust of humans (wink)?

Larry Fessenden:

I deeply distrust humans. I am appalled at the avarice and greed, nastiness, deceitfulness, narcissism and violence in humans. It goes without saying that there are great feats of altruism and simple kindness all over the world but as a species I see little redeeming qualities.

ATHO:

Your films require patience and reflection, and you explore every day horrors such as addiction, environmental devastation, even childhood rites of passage. With socially conscious films like Habit and The Last Winter, do you get accused of being too liberal, having an agenda, or more rudely being called “preachy”?

Larry Fessenden:

I do get called preachy and liberal and all those nasty things, especially on the internet where everyone with a grudge has a say, but in truth horror has always had a cautionary element, from the story of Frankenstein to Jekyll and Hyde, there is a tradition of calling attention to human hubris, a warning to those who would play God or go against the laws of nature. How is it I woke up in a century where one political party has decided that destroying the earth and letting corporations destroy our society is the right and noble path and anything different is left wing propaganda?

ATHO:

Seems in most of your work, the characters themselves are the driving force, more so than the narrative. Meaning, their actions seem natural with the integrity of the character in mind. You don't ever portray people as stereotypes or mere fodder to move the plot along to a shocking or gory scene. Do you base your characters on people you’ve met, or are they usually inventions of your mind while you’re writing a story?

Larry Fessenden:

I appreciate this observation about my work. When an actor plays a role, he or she must identify with the character, and if you play a villain, you must see the role from the villain’s point of view. This is how I approach writing as well. Every character in a drama believes they are coming form a justifiable place. If you approach material this way, you will avoid clichés because you are not objectifying people or their actions. Of course things get fun when you approach “archetypes” this way because then they behave with more dimension. In my own work, I try to make villains sympathetic and protagonists flawed. Even in my so called “preachy” films (which ones aren’t?) the environmentalists are flawed people. I believe Otis, the “villain” in WENDIGO is given ample justification for the resentments that lead to his homicidal behavior. In a case like that, I am also issuing a warning: do not presume you are always on the “right” side, for your arch enemy feels the same.

As for plot, never could follow plots or mysteries or games with twists. Maybe it’s the ADD again, but I get lost in the details and textures in storytelling. I am never so bored and frustrated as when I am supposed to be tracking plot points in a film and am not being allowed to watch everything else. Hitchcock always said he didn’t care about “Content”, by which he meant the plot. He cared about the psychological effect of the filmmaking on the viewer. I am of that camp. Of course I care very deeply about themes, but those come out of the complete experience, the color, camera moves, acting and sound and music— not the plot!!

ATHO:

Clearly you’re an auteur, and your films look like you’re very much in control of a singular, untainted vision. What’s the most compromising thing you’ve had to do to get a particular film finished?

Larry Fessenden:

I have had very little interference in my films so far, and films that I am producing are auteur driven. I believe in the individual communicating to an audience through the medium of film. Most of the compromises I’ve dealt with have come about by the inevitable input one gets when making a movie, and my own inability to absolutely demand what I want. So it is perhaps my working style and sense of inclusiveness that has led me to end up with things that weren’t what I wanted, so that’s no one’s fault but mine. In writing The Orphanage I had to defer to Guillermo Del Toro as well as New Line and Warner Brothers, but honestly, I did not find it oppressive; they let me work things out and the script in the end grew out of a collaboration.

ATHO:

A lot of your work is described as a “slow burn” which allows for contemplation between the moments of action and horror. Do you ever feel pressure to add more action because of the waning attention spans of some audience members?

Larry Fessenden:

No. I believe if a film is crafted well it can be riveting even when very little is going on. Meanwhile I can see a blockbuster where there are cuts every single fucking second and be bored to screaming. WARNING TO READER: This does not make me a film snob. It has to do with what what is truly exciting: mystery, imagery, long takes, not knowing what predictably will happen next, being disarmed, being drawn into the little details that in life can have a deep effect. The transcendent moment. It is an insult to movies to imagine they can not captivate without being loud and brutishly stupid. Who doesn’t like Doritos Flavor Blast, but that’s not the only food we want, I hope— who doesn’t want a quick bang in the bar bathroom stall, but there’s romance and tenderness too.

ATHO:

One final question for you, Larry, and I thank you so much for donating your precious time. If you had all the time and money at your fingertips, what would be your dream project?

Larry Fessenden:

If I really did have all that money, I would make a lot of little movies, cool unexpected movies that would rattle people’s cages and inspire them and make them cry and make them want to change the world or kiss their loved ones or just stay inside on a rainy night and get spooked. I would pay my crew well and hone my craft and work efficiently and not waste a lot of shit. I would work with the best actors-- my favorite movie stars and people you’ve never heard of. We’d have the coolest collaborators in every department and everyone would have the time to live and breathe the projects and when it was over we’d know we had brought something good to people and not taken to much to do it. That would be my dream project. How’s that for some liberal shit?

Find out more about Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix Productions here:

Glass Eye Pix

Scareflix