Episode 140: Talk w/ Modern Horror legend and creator of the cult film “Hatchet”, Adam Green

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0:42 Not only will you save each money next month, but you'll also be able to secure your family and your home. So do yourself a favor and call or text 209-573-0589. Again, that number is 209-573-0589 to get a free energy savings consultation about your path to energy independence today. Guidelines Smart Energy. Take control over rising energy costs. Hello, everybody. Welcome to a very special episode of Uncle Dad Talks. As always, I'm Uncle Dad, and with me is the ever so handsome, the erasing Cajun himself, Mike Hampton. Mike, say hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you for the Cajun shout out. It's fitting for today's show.

1:23 Oh, absolutely. That's why I had to do it. Words cannot describe how excited I am. Mike, we always talk about our bucket list guests we want on this show. Well, this is one for me. This is probably one of my top five guests I've always wanted to get. And the fact that I finally have him shows that, as you always say, Mike, if you manifest it enough, it'll happen, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, look, here we are. It's hot. We had a whole therapy session with you before we even got him on this, on this screen with us. So we got it. He's not lying about that. We can be very real here. Before I introduce him, I just want to tell a quick story about this man and what his stuff means to me. So when I was, I can't remember how old I was, but I was definitely a teenager.

2:05 And I remember going to Blockbuster and renting the original Hatchet movie. And when I rented that movie, I was, what is this? This is so, you know, it looks, I'm not gonna lie, it looked a little generic at the time. But I was like, that's fine. I love stuff like that. Let me watch it. So I got it. I rented it. I put it in my dad's, I don't know if you guys remember those TVs that had the combo of the VHS and DVD player. So I put it in there. And I watched it. And at the end of the film, I am not kidding, my jaw just dropped because I had never seen somebody of that time, the modern era of that time, make such a great modern take on old school horror. I've never seen that. And then what really made me fall in love with this movie is immediately afterwards, I watched the making of documentary about it without the DVD.

2:52 Because back in the day, DVDs had special features. And i watched the making of and when i truly just fell in love with this this man's his disability to to create what he wanted to create because to me first and foremost he was a fan and i've always been a fan of horror that's how i connected with my mother a lot was through horror movies funny enough and you know being able to see another person achieve their dream with their heroes of their own made me feel that one day i could do that and i now i make a podcast with a hero of mine. So with that being said, I cannot tell you how much this man means to me and how excited I am to have him on. Everybody, give it up for the modern horror legend himself, Adam Green.

3:35 I don't know how or what I'm supposed to say now, like, with up to any of that. So thank you guys for having me. And that was a hell of an intro. I introduced the guy. Mike knows I like to live honestly on my sleeve as much as I can. And I'm really working on being even just more just truly to genuine who I am. And I'm the same way. And sometimes it gets me in trouble. Yeah. Honest it's just the best way to live just say what you think absolutely man and i'm learning that more and more the older i get you know i'm 35 now and i think just having you know to me even though i don't i didn't know you right like you were always like a a hero to mine to me because every movie you came out with i felt like you were telling something that you wanted to be wanting to tell and i don't think enough filmmakers do that especially in today's world how many ghostbuster movies do we need i love the ghostbusters don't get me wrong on but do we need more and more of those i don't know yes but you know i i just to talk about you and your uh hatchet is a i guess uh as everyone likes to say old school american horror movie it's a slasher movie it's now a franchise i guess because there's four of them but they're like Like imagine if you could go back to the 80s and see one of those movies, but have it be entertaining.

5:04 Other than just the few seconds of Michael Myers or Jason or Freddie killing somebody. I tried really hard to emulate my heroes, two of which were John Landis and Tom Holland, because American Werewolf in London is a perfect film, in my opinion. Fright Night was a movie that took, I mean, both of them, they took these tired sub-genres of werewolves and vampires, and then it's like well what if we did it where it wasn't just that what if we actually got really good actors had like you know it's it's all objective of course but what i try to do is make the films as entertaining as possible i tend to do that through comedy which is what both of those guys did as well and then keep the comedy out of the horror so when When Victor Crowley's there, it's not funny.

5:57 And he's going to do awful things to you. But that combination of both is really hard to find financing for because comedic horror movies, I mean, I don't know. People call it horror comedy. To me, they're just horror movies. They're also entertaining. But it's really hard to market. You'll notice the original trailer for Hatchet. There's not an ounce of humor anywhere in that because the fear is well if we show funny stuff, then it dilutes it and people don't understand is it a spoof like well i don't get it and so it was really hard to get made in fact every studio passed on it every single place and that's one of my own problems in life is like all you have to do is tell me no, especially several times and then I have to fucking do it just to show you you're wrong so I wish I wasn't like that because I don't know I'd probably just be a wealthier person if I was just like fuck it I'll do it whatever it is I'll just go do it but like I want to do my stuff and so I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't I don't only do my stuff. My second film, Spiral, I didn't write that.

7:11 I co-directed that with Joel David Moore. One of the best experiences I ever had. So I don't know. I just sort of go with what feels right. And yeah, I guess that's it. But it's been incredible the way this movie connected with so many people around the world. I had three in mind when I made the first one. And the only people who I told what was going to happen in parts two and three were Cain and John Buechler because he designed the makeup for the first hatchet. And I was explaining to him, we're not going to reveal this till the second one, but Victor Crowley's mother is black and his father is white. And so I want the hair to look a certain way. I want this, I want that.

7:54 And he was like, no, I got it, I got it. it and so if we had never gotten to make two and three it would have been disappointing but like whenever like i was afraid to tell too many other people i was working with no but i have a sequel in mind because you just sound like an asshole like this one isn't even done yet what if it sucks or what if we don't even finish it what if it never comes out what if no like so many things can go wrong and the amazing thing with hatchet is that these films never had marketing. There was never this big marketing push behind them. Even though they've all had some sort of theatrical release. I think the first one was on 100 screens or something like that.

8:35 But nobody knew it was there. So it didn't matter. But. Anyway, it's just, this was like really like a fan driven word of mouth thing. And now to be God next year will be 20 years since we shot the first one. And the fact that there's three action figures now, Halloween masks, comic books, going to conventions and seeing people cosplaying as Victor Crowley. The fact that like with the last one, I, the theatrical release for it was a tour. So i did like 50 50 nights or 50 cities or something like that and most of them were sold out some of them sold out so fast we had to add a second show like and that's again just like word of mouth you don't see tv commercials or billboards or any of the things that the studio movies get so i owe all of this to the fans yeah not that that's my favorite of all of my films that's my favorite it i mean holliston will always be my favorite thing because that was the best time ever frozen was really hard but really proud of that movie and i think that's technically my most successful one too so as much as hatchet has become a franchise i think frozen is probably the most i think because it's just more mainstream but every few years it like makes its way into like the top 10 on some streaming site and it's just amazing to see it keep going you shouldn't go on ski lifts. They're fucking bullshit.

10:04 Nobody should ski. Why are people strapping their legs to wind boards and sliding down a mountain? What do you think is going to happen? Just stay home. Stay home and watch TV. It's so much better. I'll stay home. I'll stay home. You know, Adam, you mentioned Kane Hodder, who played Jason in some of the Friday the 13th, which was my favorite horror movies growing up. Was that one of your favorites that obviously you reached out to Cain to have him be on your movie. Was that something that you watched over and over and over and got inspired about how he just does what he does? I really, my favorite of all the slashers is Michael Myers. It's always going to be Michael Myers. I know Cain doesn't like when I say that.

10:49 I love all of them. Just like the mythologies, the simple like campfire tales, because I think that's what makes a good slasher. I think it needs to be a backstory that even if you're not going to do every detail of it, you can at least just get the basics and people get it. Like, all right, I understand this. They need to look cool. and they also need a twinge twinge is that the right word tinge that's probably the better word of sympathy there has to be some way that like this wasn't their fault i i think or like there was just something wrong so i think they missed out of them so i'm going on a tangent here such a good opportunity with that nightmare on elm street remake i mean in in several ways but well you know what though i i it looks like we might be recording still so i'll just say i thought the same thing from that Freddy from that remake they were gonna make him not do it it looked like that anyways yeah because in the trailer they showed the Molotov cocktails coming into the boiler room and he was yelling I didn't do it and I was like that's what I had pitched I'm like that's such a cool way to go but yeah oh right I had to get back around the Kane Hodder sorry.

12:04 So yeah i was obviously incredibly familiar with kane's work i always sort of assumed we would just find somebody new an actor who could do you know makeup performance and hopefully stunts so that we wouldn't have to double victor crowley and then it was john buechler who said what about out Kane Hodder. And I was just like, get the fuck out. I'm like, what, you really? And he's like, I'm going to the set of Devil's Rejects today. Kane's doing stunts on that. And, you know, I could just give him the script. And I'm like, sure. And then like a week later, I'm meeting with Kane.

12:45 And I think, I think a lot in life, I don't like to really say luck because I don't think, I know some people have luck. It's never really been my thing. Unfortunately, I would love to have some. But I think that the timing just worked out really well, because at the time that I sat down with him. He had recently lost the role of Jason with Freddy vs. Jason, which to this day, nobody can give a straight answer on what happened there. And then he had just turned 50. He had just lost his mother. And to me, those were all reasons to not do this. Because what if this sucked? Like, what if it wasn't good?

13:28 And now, like, that was his next move. but something about that script and then our meeting together he drank the kool-aid with the rest of us and he believed in it and he just he worked so hard like that guy is just amazing and he saw this as an opportunity excuse me to to create a character from the ground up because with jason six other dudes had played that part before him and so now this was like something he could kind of take ownership of. And in the beginning, some of the things I wanted, I know he had to have blind faith in me on.

14:11 I wanted Victor Crowley to be twitchy and run and be unpredictable. And as angry and violent as he is, he's also kind of scared. And he was used to the Jason thing, the solely stalking and the breathing. And we got rid of all of that stuff. One thing I love that he's done with the character as more films have been made is in his mind, he's like, in the beginning, I'm killing because I'm trying to protect myself and I'm scared. He's like, but by the third one, I kind of like it. I kind of enjoy it. And when you know that, when you go back and watch all of them, you see him get kind of comfortable with maiming people and almost wanting to see what he could do next.

14:57 So it's cool. But yeah, he's the best. And honestly, I don't know if without him getting involved, without Tony Todd, and Tony Todd, I was like, listen, you're going to be the lead in the sequel. This isn't a cameo. And he was like, sequel. Everyone thinks they're going to have a sequel, right? But I think it was just... I'm just dumb. I don't know. It was just naivety, I guess. I'm like, no, of course we're going to get to make another one. And we're going to make a third one. It's manifestation, my friend. You do have to manifest things to a certain point. Obviously, you can't just live your life thinking good things. You got to go work for it.

15:41 But to always just be a pessimist and defeatist. What like i understand it sucks to be let down we all get let down by many things in life but if you're gonna do something do it and believe in it and love it and i think i really do believe there's people out there who will recognize that when they see it and that's what makes us connect to things there's certain movies i love i don't even know why but there's just something about it and so yeah just whatever it is even it's not filmmaking but just go for it and just you're You're never going to regret that you tried your best, but you are going to regret if you bitched out. Sorry for the tangents, but all I ever wanted to do was be in the play little shop of horrors.

16:27 And when I was in college at Hofstra, they put on little shop of horrors and their, their stage productions were huge. People would come in like from the city to see their, their theater program. And I was like, this is my moment. I've got this. Like back then i was still like the singer and abandoned stuff i could sing and i'm like i'm gonna do this and i got the sides and i knew the song for the dentist like that's the role i always wanted and when i got there i could hear the guys auditioning for the voice of audrey too and i got so freaked out because they were so fucking good these were like soul singers and stuff. So I left.

17:09 And then when I went to see the show, the dentist was the weakest one in the show. And afterwards talking to the professor who was the director, he's like, what'd you think? I'm like, it was great. I'm like, what was up with the dentist? He's like, only three people auditioned. And I'm like, and so I learned in that moment, the worst that would have happened is I wouldn't have gotten it. I would have survived. I've, I've not gotten many things in life and I'm still here. So yeah. So my point is whatever it is, just do it and do it the best you possibly can. And it's hard with independent filmmaking because you know what the best is that you could do, but you can't do that because you don't have that kind of time or resources.

17:50 Resources so everything is a compromise so the fact that these movies are even watchable, is is a feat on its own and it's all due to the people around me because i work with the greatest people so it's not me it's them it's always a support group it's not just one person right yeah well especially filmmaking as the creator of it or as the director writer i'm the one who gets to be the face of it but it's everyone around like i don't make the effects i'm not the the one who made that stuff look super cool. That was Rob Pettigraft and his whole team. Will Barrett's the one who shoots it. That's why it looks so good. Or Jan Michael Asada did the fourth one. Sarah Albert, who produces everything. I mean, so many people, it just goes on and on. Without them, I'm nothing.

18:33 I love that, man. And that goes just in life in general, right? Just your team, your support group, that's how you get through life. And I love that. I know we don't have that much time left, but I have to ask this before it's too late. So one of my other iconic things in my life that I idolize is tell them Steve Dave. And, and when I heard that Brian Quinn or BQ from a practical Jokers, or as I know, I'm from Tennessee day was going to be in your, the fourth Victor Crowley movie. My mind was literally blown because these are two people, you know, you yourself and then somebody else who another person who I just absolutely. Idolize is just going to be doing a film together.

19:15 I have to, I don't really know the stories. How did you guys get together and have a month? That's kind of like another manifestation story. When I found Impractical Jokers, it was by accident, which I think for a lot of people, you're just flipping through the TV and then you're like, what could possibly be so funny that these guys are laughing like this? I had like a migraine. I think I was sick. I was on the couch, so I couldn't even look. And I'm just blindly flipping through the TV. and then I just hear these guys like cackling. And at first, like I only, I watched it to hate watch it. I'm like, how, what could possibly be so funny? And within seconds, I'm like, these are like the people I went to high school with. Like these guys, these are my friends.

20:00 And so I was asked by, I'm trying to remember the name of the site, but they were doing this series where they had artists write about other things that they're enjoying. And it was, everyone was doing films and that's why they asked me and I'm like, can I do a reality show? Can I do Impractical Jokers? And they were like, are you serious? The Talk House. That's what it was called. You could probably still find the article, but I just wrote about why the show was so great, how much I love it. And then like almost immediately on Twitter, Murr's now following me and Q's following me. And then when Murr and I were the ones who connected first, he's like, like dude i saw frozen in the theater like four times q's the biggest hatchet fan like we're so blown away that you like the show and so then literally it was like that and now i've been really close with especially q for seven years eight years or something like that and they've had me do like a movie night on each of their cruises that they do and the best thing to know about those guys and brian johnson as well like from tom c dave they're exactly how they present themselves in my life.

21:08 There's no persona or they're just that great. The friendship is real. They're the most generous, kindest, wonderful people you could ever meet. And so I like to hope to believe that those kinds of people can find each other if they're open to it. But I also think most people are great. We live in a time right now where everyone thinks we're so divided everyone hates each other i just did like eight convention appearances over the last few months where i was all over the country everybody's awesome like so just make some effort smile a little bit and don't be an asshole and you'll be so much happier i i i love all that what you're saying and what you're saying to you about bq like that's gonna be my my next bucket list item one day is to get him on the show i know that's a tough one though but i'm gonna But that's what's going to happen. I feel it in my heart.

22:02 Mike, are you still with us? I'm still here, yes. I'm listening to it all. I just have one quick thing. You're from the Northeast, Massachusetts, Boston. What made you pick the swamps in New Orleans? That's where I'm from originally. Is it just the lore of that, the history of that place? Okay. This is another great story. Okay. So I came up with Victor Crowley when I was eight years old at summer camp. And because the counselors had their cabin where they would party at night. So they tried to scare us from going near there. And they're like, if you go near this cabin, hatchet face, we'll get you. And I was already into this shit. So I was like, who's hatchet face and how's he going to get me? And what's he going to do?

22:46 And they didn't have anything else to their story. Nothing just, well, I don't know. He'll get you. I'm like, this sucks. And so when we were going to sleep, the other kids in my bunk, I think it was like eight. Yeah, it was definitely eight. And they're like, do you think hatchet face will get us? And I made up the story, which is largely still the same story that's in hatchet he was the deformed boy the dad was trying to save him and chop it down the door with a hatchet got him in the face and then the next morning the counselors had to call my parents they were gonna send me home from camp it was awful because everyone thought i was the weird kid from that point on but then cut to like 20 years later and two of my childhood the.

23:29 Group that I grew up with are still my closest friends to this day. And Ben was marrying my other friend, Mary Beth. And Ben was into basketball and the final four, I guess, college games were happening there in New Orleans that year. And so that's where we had to go for Ben's bachelor party. You couldn't pay me to watch a basketball game. I have no interest in a sport where the score is that high, like change the fucking sport. Like you should, if you're getting over a hundred points it something's wrong so that's a different tangent for a different guy while we were in new orleans i didn't want to go to the games so well everyone else was at the games i was just wandering around and i saw in one of the voodoo shops it was actually reverend zombies voodoo shop there was a sign for like haunted swamp tours and i was like maybe we could do it after the game maybe we could do this like at night and like we don't we don't do them at night I'm like there was an idea and then we end up going to see a jazz band the drummer for this band was a burn survivor and he didn't have hands he had his drumsticks duct taped to his wrists and this dude was fucking amazing like he could play so well but I'm looking at him and then I'm in New Orleans the Haunted Swamp Tour Ben and Mary Beth and I was just like I gotta go write and it was pretty quick The first version of it was called Victor Crowley and I wrote most of it.

25:01 I was the DJ at the, the rainbow bar and grill on sunset, like the heavy metal hangout here in LA. And I wrote a lot of it in that DJ booth. And then, and. The rest was, I guess, history. But that's how it ended up in New Orleans. That's great. I got to look that guy up, the drummer with the tape. Yeah, I don't remember the name of the band. I don't even know if I ever knew the name of the band because we were just in the bar to go have drinks and the band was playing. And I was like, this drummer is incredible. And then I went and looked and I was just like, holy shit, is this guy good? So, yeah. Mike, we got to get him on the show, yeah? That could be another movie. movie the guy with uh drums drummer drumsticks taped to his hands and just drums people to death.

25:47 In the french quarter maybe that's funny all right i know you gotta go so we'll let you go but adam absolutely just you made a you made my 17 year old self incredibly happy today and just thank you so much for being a part of the show and just being a part of what you do and allowing us to just be a little piece of your world one day so thank you so much that was absolutely I can't thank you enough Thank you and thank you both for your kind words And for watching what I do There's more coming eventually It's been a weird four years with the pandemic And the strikes and the bullshit But it seems like it's starting again So we'll see Anybody who's hearing this or seeing this The Hatchet Steelbook Collection Is available now at Dark Sky's website I think it's darkskyfilms.com And it's all four Unrated versions of the movie and a new fifth disc that's got two new hours of bonus features that I personally made. I really think you'll dig it.

26:45 Awesome. Yes, please go out and get that. We'll link it in the bio of the episode as well. Thank you so much. And actually, before you go, can you tell our audience where they connect with you online? Yeah. My official website is aeriscope.com. A-R-I-E-S-C-O-P-E.com. I think there's like a hundred short films, every episode of Scary Sleepover, Horrified, all those shows that I do. And then I am on social media still. I don't know why or for how much longer. Instagram is probably better because Twitter, I don't really look at. It's just, I don't need my day ruined. With instagram my algorithm is so like tight like so tuned in that all i see are like red pandas kittens puppies like i don't have to see anybody's political shit i don't have to hear your opinions on i don't i'll just tell you right now if you want to tell me your opinion something i don't care what it is so tell somebody else but it's at adam underscore effin underscore green so you can find me on Instagram and then my weekly podcast is The Movie Crypt we've known it over 11 years now every single Monday we have one coming up really soon that's a roundtable with two of the actors from Blair Witch Project where we're going to get honest about where those, hundreds of millions of dollars went and it's going to be very very eye opening for people so you can look for that wherever you listen to podcasts, Awesome Are we going to see you at San Diego Comic Con?

28:15 Hopefully not i haven't gone in like 10 years okay and uh i'm sure someday i'll go back again like to do a panel or some sort of presentation on something but other than i used to love comic con i never missed a year i just it was i couldn't do it anymore like it's it got so crazy so many people and then what really did it for me is i was like you know sometimes you're on like the main floor and there's like gridlock and you're like, don't panic. As a woman was coming by me, she sneezed in my open mouth. And I haven't been that since. So maybe someday.

28:55 But a horror convention, sure, you might see me at a horror convention. Those are cool as hell. I'm going to throw one out there. You should go to StocktonCon one day. StocktonCon. We're there all the time. That's the one you should go to next. StocktonCon. Alright. Thank you so so much, Adam. We really appreciate it. Take care. And Mike, any last words? Yeah. Well, that's the next movie is the woman who sneezes in your open mouth. While we're playing with no hands. Wow. Right. What was this? I just did the Trump dancing. Yeah. All right. Maybe it's Trump. Music.