Jeff Buhler

JEFF
BUHLER

Jeff Buhler had the inenviable task of adapting one of a horror icon's most popular stories onto the big screen, which has led to a notice of being one to look out on the horror horizon.

The life long horror fan and screenwriter was given the task to write the screenplay for Clive Barker's MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, the first story in his acclaimed BOOKS OF BLOOD series that launched Barker himself as a force in the horror genre. Sticking true to the film's formula, its anticipated release has gained enthusiasm and controversy from a studio's perplexity on giving the treatment it deserves.

Buhler followed up MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN with INSANITARIUM, a balls out horror film that marks his directorial debut, which was released July 15 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is about a young man who fakes insanity to break into an insane asylum to rescue his sister but realizes there's a lot more sadistic experiments being given to the patients than just treatments.

To promote both INSANITARIUM and the upcoming release of MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, Buhler entered the Crypt to discuss both films, working with Clive Barker, and the controversy surrounding the film's release.

COLONEL’S CRYPT: What was it about screenwriting in general that made you want to write and make horror films?

JEFF BUHLER: I’ve been a horror movie fan since I was a little kid. I was pretty fanatical about it. I was one of those guys that I don’t exactly know what drew me to it as a movie fan growing up but science fiction and horror has always been my thing. I’ve followed all the trends in horror since probably the big slasher fest of the 80s, and even before that, a lot of the classic stuff.

CC: What were some of your favorites?

JB: I gotta say that I’ve been a huge fan of the George Romero films. DAWN OF THE DEAD was pretty much it for me. I remember begging my parents when it first came out, I was way too young to see it, but it was playing at a drive in and I convinced my parents to take me and they had no idea what they were taking me to see. They offered to sit in the back seat while I watched whatever movie I wanted to watch, so I made them sit through George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD (laughs). That literally just warped my mind at that age. The original FRIDAY THE 13TH, I love that movie. I love movies like THE BEAST WITHIN or MANIAC and of course the classics; THE SHINING, ROSEMARY’S BABY, and THE EXORCIST. They don’t need any mentioning, everyone knows they’re classics.

CC: That brings us to INSANITARIUM. Where did you come up with the idea for INSANITARIUM?

JB: I really wanted to do something that was an homage to the movies like Sam Fuller’s SHOCK CORRIDOR. Sam Fuller films are just such great B movies. They’re just fantastically produced and fun and the characters take everything so serious in the film and there’s no winking at the audience. That’s the style of film that I wanted to make. Obviously this film owes a lot to SHOCK CORRIDOR and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST as well as the zombie films like DAWN OF THE DEAD and 28 DAYS LATER. I really wanted to do something that emulated and paid homage to films like that while also blending a couple of different genres together. There’s the zombie thing going on. The movie basically starts out as a psychological thriller and it turns into a complete bloodbath. I like that idea. I tried to do that with MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN as well which was to start down one road and fall into the conventions of a particular genre and at a certain point in the film, take a right hand turn down another pathway and it becomes exciting and exhilarating when you take that turn and that you are going down a different road now. As you can see with INSANITARIUM, it takes the pathway down a bloody road.

CC: One of the things that was good about INSANITARIUM was that you established the story well within the first five minutes.

JB: Thanks. We worked very hard on the economics of storytelling at the beginning. There’s a lot of stuff and this is something I really owe to the fantastic editor I worked with, Janice Hampton, who’s just done some fantastic work in the past and is very experienced. She was very helpful with me in terms of finding exactly what pieces of information would tell just enough to keep the audience wanting more. If you tell too much and people sit back in their chairs and you’re telling them a story as opposed to letting them figure out things as it goes on. We didn’t want to just spell it out at the beginning. That was really helpful in keeping the momentum going. I appreciate the notice there.

CC: How was it being the director on INSANITARIUM as opposed to having someone else direct your script of MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN?

JB: It was challenging and it was exciting. I think MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN was what allowed me to be able to direct INSANITARIUM. I had written an earlier version of the script prior to MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN when I went off and worked with Clive Barker and we got that movie set up and rolling. It was a lot easier for me to go back around with INSANITARIUM and have people take the material a little bit more seriously. That certainly helped open up some doors. Working with producer Mason Novick helped open up some doors and he’s also a great creative producer. He helped me own the script and streamline it into a script that has a lot of momentum to it. Then there came the moment where I had to throw my hat in the ring as a director and I was very fortunate that the guys at Sony and Stage Six would think that I would go do it. I was going to film a short that would be a calling card which would allow me an opportunity to direct a feature project. The guys at Sony said “Why don’t you go ahead and take a shot at directing INSANITARIUM,” and I was very fortunate to have it and to have the confidence and the studio behind me, made it a lot easier to make the jump. You can prepare yourself for directing a film for years and years but until you do it, you really don’t know how to do it, you just sort of jump into the fire. One thing that took me by surprise is that being a director in many was is like being an answering machine. You have all of your department head coming towards you before every take and they’re asking “Where should this go,” “What color should this be,” “How much blood should we have,” and all these questions. You have spent a year working on every nuance and every character in the script, and when you have the answers at the tips of your fingers, it just makes your job that much easier. I think had I not written the script it would’ve been far more daunting of a task to jump into my first feature and I was lucky to get the opportunity on this one.

CC: How was it assembling the cast, because there is a fine cast in INSANITARIUM, particularly Peter Stormare?

JB: He’s fantastic. Peter Stormare, Armin Shimerman, these guys are pros, they’ve done a lot of work. Peter comes onto the set. He brings a lot of personality to the character. Obviously the guy is kinda nuts himself so he’ll grab the role, it’s not an issue. What’s fantastic about working with actors like Peter and Armin, Kevin Sussman, Jesse Metcalfe totally surprised me, everyone was solid but guys like Peter, they come onto the set and do a slightly different flavor in each take to give me more choices in the editing room. They’re continuity is flawless and they’re just fantastic actors and I was very honored and fortunate to have those guys in the film. I think a lot of the credit should go to Kelly Wagner who was one of the casting directors for MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN and cast INSANITARIUM and was very much on board with my concept of getting realistic, grounded actors who had a lot of talent, not going so much for a look or a nod of going back to the classic B movies. I didn’t want to go back and do the Tarantino move where you pluck the actual actors from that time period and put them into the film. I wanted actors who were going to fill out the characters and be the characters themselves as opposed to telling audiences this is a wink back to that time period. In pursuing that, we got a fantastic cast and I have to say that Jesse Metcalfe as the heroic brother, he really pulled it off too so a lot of credit should be given to him for his performance.

CC: Moving from INSANITARIUM to MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, it goes without saying that it is my favorite story in the Books of Blood series.

JB: It’s funny you say that because I am very good friends with Joe Daley who was the producer of the film and has worked with Clive Barker for over a decade. When Joe came to me and said, “Look we’re going to start making films based on the BOOKS OF BLOOD anthology,” and he handed me a hard cover book that had all six volumes of the BOOKS OF BLOOD. He said, “Go through the stories, find which one you like the most, and come back to me and we’ll talk about it.” I told him, “Well thank you very much for the book. I’ll put it on the shelf and treasure it forever but I don’t need to re-read these stories.” I basically know them all and I told him the one I wanted to do was MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, so he rolled his eyes and said that “Everybody wants to do MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN.” It’s a difficult story to crack. A couple of writers came on board and had come up with some various takes on it. I wasn’t really sure what was so difficult on it. Not to discredit other people who had tried to work on the film but it was one of those things where when I thought about the story in film, that just shifting the point of view of the character of Leon Kaufman slightly so he would have a bigger visual medium to display his love of the city to open the story up. Clive really loved that angle using him as an up and coming artist who’s on the cusp of breaking into his photography career and using the camera’s lens as a visual way of representing his love of the city that we are so familiar with from the story which virtually takes place in Leon’s head so it allowed us to get outside of Leon’s head and bring that awe and wonderment that you experienced in the short story to a more visual medium that’s displayed in the film. Getting Ryuhei Kitamura to direct it was an absolute stroke of genius. He did a great job.

CC: Could you elaborate more on the difference in process between writing your own material as you did with INSANITARIUM and adapting a story such as MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN?

JB: It’s two different animals entirely. When you’re coming up with your own stuff, you might draw influences from material or movies or books, things that have influenced you in the past, but you are really using your imagination to guide where the story is going. When you’re adapting, you have to be conscious not only of where you want the story to go, but also of people who love that story want the story to go. Especially when you are talking about someone as beloved as Clive Barker is, his fans are completely devoted to the many universes he’s created, the characters he’s created, and there was a strong desire for me to treat the material with respect and also to treat what I felt Clive Barker fans would enjoy. It was to deliver a Clive Barker movie that would be respectful to the scenes and to the spirit of the short story. That was hugely important so that’s what guides you when you are doing an adaptation like that. I have to say being a huge fan myself it was a little daunting working on that material. Clive was fantastic and he’s such a great creative writer. He really let me play in his sandbox for a little while and then he would come in with some ideas and he has such a wonderful grasp on story and narrative in that he was so helpful in mentoring me that it was just an unbelievable experience. He made it a lot easier than it could’ve been.

CC: We’ve heard from Clive on his disappointment with the way the film’s been handled and I have to say I agree. What’s your take on it?

JB: I think it stinks. I think it should’ve come out on May 16th on 1500 screens because the movie rocks. It’s Hollywood. There’s politics. There’s other things that shape these decisions and it’s frustrating for artists when materials that they’ve worked on for years and put their blood and sweat and tears into it get batted around by executives who are making decisions based on entirely other circumstances. That’s Hollywood for you so it’s not surprising. I think the enthusiasm from the fan base has been overwhelming. I think it’s also refreshing that people really took a stand online. They wanted to let the studio know, “Look, if you’re going to do a limited release, we think it stinks. We want to see it in a theater in our home town,” so I think it sent a message. Whether or not it’s going to make the powers that be change the release plans, I don’t know. I do know that it sent a message that there’s a huge fan base for this movie. People are dying to see it and I think it was a vote of confidence for Clive and for myself. I was pleased about that. It will screen at Comic Con and that will be intense and it just premiered at Fantasia in Montreal. Clive will be at Comic Con to present the film to the fans on July 26th and I will be there with him.

CC: Like I said, I personally think it sucks because in my opinion the BOOKS OF BLOOD changed the course of literary horror and I think it can change the course of cinematic horror as well.

JB: I appreciate that but that’s Hollywood.

CC: With that said, what are your feelings towards the horror genre today and where do you see it going within the next five years?

JB: I saw an early cut of the film THE BOOK OF BLOOD, which is the next film in that series. It’s great so I know those guys are doing their part in terms of frightening, adult themed horror. A lot of people complain that the PG-13 is dragging down the genre or the hard R film doesn’t make any money. There’s always that battle. I think there’s room in the genre for all of it and I think that sometimes the PG-13 horror films keep the powers that be interested in the genre so that the smaller, more daring projects have an opportunity to get off the ground. If you go back historically, horror movies have been around since the beginning of film and they always will be around because life can be terrifying and people love to be scared. There’s this cyclical nature. Fads will come and go but horror movies in general will always be there. If you can create something that truly is terrifying, there will be an audience for it. That’s just the bottom line. Doesn’t have to be a slasher film, a bunch of teenagers, this and that, if you can create something truly terrifying, than an audience will show up regardless of what it’s rated.

CC: Do you encounter people who complain about PG-13 horror films yet claim one of their favorite horror movies is either JAWS or POLTERGEIST?

JB: (Laughs). Yes but if you really think about it, POLTERGEIST really shouldn’t have been rated PG.

CC: Oh hell no.

JB: I remember just like every Spielberg film. When you’re nine years old watching JURASSIC PARK, there’s damage being done. With JAWS, that movie really messed me up. Even today, I think about it every time I go into the water. I won’t even let my feet dangle over pool water. The rating doesn’t matter. The scare factor matters. You can make a PG-13 film that is terrifying. People don’t do it that way. They do the easy way out which is to make a marketing film, a film that has names and handsome guys and gals on the poster, it’s much harder to write and create a film that works within the genre and has some imagination. In the case of Clive Barker, his work is an adult themed horror film that is designed for adults. He deals with certain themes that you often can’t do in a PG-13 film. There’s a place for all of it. INSANITARIUM is not the scariest movie on the block, even I’m aware of that but it’s a lot of fun. It’s a movie that you can enjoy. You can pop it in and it delivers. The action delivers and the gore delivers. Whatever works, works. PG-13, R, whatever.

CC: What’s coming up for you?

JB: I just finished a script with a Brazilian horror movie director named Dennison Ramalho who did a great short a few years back called LOVE FOR MOTHER ONLY. It’s one of the most terrifying short films I’ve ever seen. The film is twenty minutes long and it just leaves you shivering. The guy is an unbelievable genius. He’s a fantastically talented director and we had worked with each other a few years back. We became friends and we share a lot of the same ideas and likes with music and movies. He had this idea for a movie, it’s like ROSEMARY’S BABY in the Brazilian jungle. A woman from New York gets sucked down there to this weird cult and needless to say some crazy things happen. It’s called THE HELL WITHIN. I’m working on a few projects, and hopefully will get to direct one of them as well.

CC: Well I hope Lionsgate fucking wises up and plays MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN in theaters, and I wish you the best with INSANITARIUM

JB: Thanks Scott.

CC: And with that, I leave the last word to you.

JB: MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN will be out there. The question is where so keep track of your listings and go check it out. Talk to your local theater and demand that it be played.

CC: Thanks for your time Jeff.

JB: Thank you, it was an absolute pleasure.