An interview with writer/producer/director Joel Soisson

You were involved with A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, or as fans of the series call it, "The weird one," or "The gay one."

I hear that a lot, but I didn't even notice at the time.

Yes, especially the whole coach in the shower scene.

It's funny you mention it, because I directed that scene. And there is a legendary tape out called The Kill Tape. What it is is a tape put together by Dimension Films for their budding horror directors, a compilation of all their favorite kills:  all the Freddy's, the Jason's, Michael Meyers, and Phantasm. The second kill on the tape is my scene from Nightmare 2, how much more validation could you get to be the second kill on that tape.

You've also got Trick or Treat under your credits.

Oh my god, you saw that movie?

I was somewhat obsessed with that movie as a child; I guess I was about six years old.

Well I'm glad you've identified our target audience. I actually liked that movie.

How did you get involved in the Dracula films?

Yes, I was actually dragged into the Dracula genre by my associate, Patrick Lussier. He's much more of a vampire maven than I am.

How do you know him?

We did a film together called Prophecy 3; I had actually been producing it and these things for awhile. Patrick had been an editor for Wes Craven, as you know, and we met through the executives at Dimension. It turned out we worked well together, and every now and then he listens to what I say. What could be better?

But back to the Dracula 2000 thing, which sort of began the series of Dracula films we did. Bob Weinstein actually pitched us about updating the Dracula genre and doing a millennium version. You know, it was fun for me because I really wasn't in to any of that scene at all.

Whose idea was it to stick Roy Scheider in a priest outfit?

That was, what do you call it, accommodating the commercial needs of the genre. We needed a name, and that was the ideal cameo for a guy like Roy to come in and shoot for a relatively short period of time. He's there for such a short time that you recognize that it sort of had to be stunt casting, and it was. It's probably not one of our proudest moments in the series in terms of just doing what's right for the movie. I like Roy, he's a great guy, and he has such a huge history, but it does feel kind of phony.

Most people are pretty impressed with Mr. Jason Scott Lee in the priest outfit, the banner guy of these films.

Yes, he does quite well. Didn't you place him in another of your films recently?

Besides the Dracula movies, we actually cast him in the next of the Prophecy series. We just finished Prophecy 5; we shot 4 & 5 back to back. And the great thing about Jason is he would get so immersed in the culture of different places, like when we were in Romania. He would just disappear and go stay with local families and talk to the people and come back with all of these stories, which was great.

Who do you have lined up for the next Prophecy movies?

Well in the first one (Prophecy 4) we've got some of the people from Dracula 2, like Jason London. And in Prophecy 5 we've got Tony Todd and Jason Scott Lee. The thing we try to do in sustaining these franchises is to keep it fresh.

I love The Prophecy.

You know that may be my favorite film we've done, just because of the ideas involved.

It has a huge cult following.

I know it does, and I think it's because it's not just dependent on pop up gags and stuff. The idea that there are angels up in heaven that wish us harm is such a stirring and yet biblically documented idea, that it's really cool. And obviously you get a lot of people on the backbone of these films who think that they're just against the Christian faith but they really aren't. They actually support faith because if anything, that's what you come away with and the end of each of these films. It's fun with me and I love doing these things and I hope I can keep doing them.

I wouldn't even really call the Prophecy films horror.

It's not, though it did wind up on the horror shelf. It sort of sits in between and I like movies that do that.

And you have Viggo Mortensen in some of them, good old Viggo.

Yeah, actually, here's a film I know you haven't seen. I bet you didn't see American Yakuza.

Oh yes I did.

You have? That was the first time I ever worked with Viggo.

Yes, I always liked when Viggo called that woman "super bitch" after she blew his cover.

Oh my god, you are amazing! You really did see it; I'm impressed. Anyway, the thing about Viggo is he's a really great guy. Originally the Lucifer part in Prophecy 1 was going to be shot with Sean Penn.

EW! Viggo's better.

You know, in a way, I'm glad it didn't work out, because I think Viggo was better. I don't know if you remember that little scene he did on the wall in Prophecy, but the thing I love about him is he's gentle, and he will never impose, but he had an idea. On that particular scene he has a rose and the day before we were getting ready to shoot it he says, "I think I want to pull this out of my ass." Thorns and all, and the director and I didn't think it was a good idea. He just said, "Well, it gives me something to do and it's just such a satanic thing to do." We didn't even know how to go about doing that, and Viggo's the kind of guy that would actually have shoved it up his ass too. We decided to shoot it in two ways, the waist and up version, and the body version. So now the only evidence that he's pulling the rose out of his ass is that he sort of winces. But that's the kind of guy he is; he'll do anything if he thinks it helps enrich his character.

Seems like an abrupt ending to the interview doesn't it? Well..I thought hearing about Viggo was a good end note; plus a lot of the tape was very hard to hear. Thanks so much to Joel, who is awesome, and would like everyone to know that he is a manly man who injured his head in a hockey game, it had nothing to do with a tree branch, nothing I tell you!

-Aine

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