Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi and Octavia Spencer Interviews
Writer/director Sam Raimi returns to the horror genre with Universal Pictures' 'Drag Me to Hell.' Raimi's cast had nothing but praise for the filmmaker while on the red carpet at the film's world premiere.
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Transcript: Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi and Octavia Spencer Interviews
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Role Drag Me to Hell.
Drag Me to Hell Writer/Director Sam Raimi
How difficult is it to figure out what scares people now? Has it changed over the years?
Sam Raimi: "Well I don't know ever what scares other people. What I usually try and do is just, in the case of this movie, try and scare myself. What would be spooky and fun for me? And I just feel like any storyteller what works for me, might work for other people. That's the best chance I have of entertaining others or having the proper affect on them. So I try and make it spooky, scary, fun for myself, funny for myself, and then hopefully the audience will think so too."
How do you balance the spooky and the scary with the funny? How do you know what exactly is the right mix of that?
Sam Raimi: "I don't know what the right mix is but I'm such a coward that I try and look at every horrific situation with a sense of humor - probably because I can't take the horror straight. That's probably why I sometimes mix some black humor into the horror films that I make."
Was this ever going to be an R-rated movie? Is there another cut of it that goes a little further on some scenes?
Sam Raimi: "Well, the R-rated version was only six seconds actually shorter than the PG-13. They're very, very similar. It's shorter. You'd think it would be the other way around but the R-rated version is shorter because when I would use different takes to get the PG-13 version, they were a little bit longer. So, it's very similar."
So you didn't have to really lose anything to get a lower rating?
Sam Raimi: "No. We really designed the film as a PG-13 film, so there was very little that had to be done to keep it a PG-13 film."
And why is Alison Lohman the perfect person to torture in this movie?
Sam Raimi: "Well, in the story the desire is to have the audience identify with this person that commits this sin. And I wanted somebody that was likable, that had a real positive personality, that had a certain amount of charm, was pleasant, was a good person, because I think the audience always know when they look close into the eyes is that a good person if you're portraying one. And I think in the case of Alison she is and it was going to be a lot easier for me to hook the audience with a character if she was Alison Lohman. So, once that happened, we were able to make her sin and hopefully have the audience identify with her so that when this demon from hell began to pursue her as punishment, the audience was guilty of having committed that sin because they made the choice with her. That's why the casting of Alison Lohman was so important to me."
Octavia Spencer
You don't get scared to death in this one. You're not one of the people who has to get dragged to hell, right?
Octavia Spencer: "Well, let me just say my life this week has been hell, but I don't get dragged to hell in this picture. I'm just dragged to the bank every day. I'm a loan officer...well, my character Nancy is a loan officer who works with Alison. She's an amazing little actress. She's like a Jessica Lange, just really beautiful. I just remember watching take after take and she brought something different each time. She's going to be a force to be reckoned with in that age bracket."
And you get to take direction from Sam Raimi and it's his return to horror after so many years. What was that like?
Octavia Spencer: "Wonderful because first of all, people probably don't know this but he's very, very approachable. He is collaborative. He'll come and ask you, 'Now Octavia, what do you think you'll be doing here?' And I'll say, 'I think I'll do this, Sam.' And he's like, 'Yeah, let's do that.' It's wonderful. It's every actor's dream to work with a collaborative director."
Do you run into those often?
Octavia Spencer: "No, I've been very fortunate this past couple of gigs to. And then very nice people, so that coupled with a genre I love is heaven."
So you are a horror fan?
Octavia Spencer: "Oh honey, oh you have no idea. Like seriously, one of my biggest dreams was to get killed in a horror film. I don't want to do that anymore."
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