Horror director Adam Green on his new web series, 'Scary Sleepover'
Who would invite infamous big-screen maniac Jason Voorhees around for sugary snacks and late night chit-chat — twice? Director Adam Green, that’s who. In his new web series Scary Sleepover, the filmmaker convinces horror genre notables to visit him at the offices of his production company ArieScope, bed down, and talk about what scares them. Guests so far have included Kane Hodder (who played Voorhees in several of the Friday the 13th films as well as the swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley in Green’s Hatchet slasher franchise) and Derek Mears (who portrayed Jason in the 2009 Friday the 13th remake). Green has also hosted scream queen Tiffany Shepis (Tromeo & Juliet) and Child’s Play director Tom Holland while actors Danielle Harris (Halloween 4, Stake Land), Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects) and Zach Galligan (Gremlins) will appear in future episodes of the web series (which is available to watch on both YouTube and, in a longer format, at the ArieScope website).
Green explains that Scary Sleepover was partly inspired by the Movie Crypt, the weekly GeekNation podcast he co-hosts with fellow auteur Joe Lynch (the Salma Hayek-starring action movie, Everly). “We’ve had such a great response to the Movie Crypt and GeekNation has said a bunch of times, ‘Do you guys want to do this as a video show?'” says Green. “We feel like that would change the dynamic of the Movie Crypt—I think the guests are much more comfortable if they’re not on camera. I was thinking, How do we do something like this that maybe wasn’t so serious? The concept of having these people that are known for scaring people, in their pajamas, and eating ice cream, and admitting what they’re really afraid of, is something that we could do in a very short format and make really fun.”
Was it easy convincing people to be interviewed in their PJs? “It was so easy,” says Green. “At this point, I’ve been working in the genre so long, and I know so many people, and they trust me that I’m not going to make them look like idiots. And they go all out! I mean, Sid Haig showed up in a purple-and-blue onesie.”
Green’s unofficial co-host on Scary Sleepover is his Yorkshire Terrier, Arwen. The pooch is already familiar to fans of the Movie Crypt thanks to her habit of barking during the podcast and Green’s featuring of her on the show’s official T-shirts. She also gets to be photographed with each of the guests. “I try to explain it to her sometimes: ‘Do you know how lucky you are?'” says Green. “‘Every week you get a picture taken with a different celebrity like Slash or Henry Rollins.’ There are so many people that would kill to have my dog’s life.” Green even “cast” Arwen in his recent meta-horror movie Digging Up the Marrow, which resulted in the dog getting her own imdb.com page. The director says Arwen has taken to her new, Scary Sleepover co-hosting gig like a duck to water—or like a friendly Yorkie to a bald character actor’s noggin, anyway. “In Sid Haig’s episode, I think she licked his head for the entire sleepover,” recalls Green. “He didn’t care, he just let her keep doing it.” According to the filmmaker, the Yorkie is such a camera-hog, it’s become a problem for Scary Sleepover director and editor Sean Becker. “She’s always in the shot,” says Green. “We tried putting her in her crate, but then she just cries. She wants to be part of it!”
Outside of Scary Sleepover, Green is hoping to soon shoot a third season of his and Lynch’s sitcom Holliston, which was derailed last year by the closure of the channel FEARnet and the death of the pair’s costar Dave Brockie (AKA GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus). “It’s been a year that Dave Brockie’s been gone,” says the director. “It’s time to get back on stage with everybody.” Green reveals he may also make a sequel to Digging Up the Marrow. “Nothing’s official yet,” he says. “But the movie hasn’t even been out a full week yet on DVD and Blu-ray and distributors are already asking for a sequel, so that’s really encouraging.”
As for his dream Scary Sleepover guests, Green nominates Steven Spielberg—who, he concedes, is unlikely to be changing into his nightshirt at ArieScope any time soon—and Marilyn Manson. “For somebody who, as an artist, is so fearless, I would love to hear what he is afraid of in real life,” explains the director. “Not to mention if you get to sit down and play, like, Monopoly with him.”
You can watch the episode of Scary Sleepover featuring Tom Holland below.