James Wong: Exclusive Interview

Staci Layne Wilson/Horror.com: You've got a great cast, Jim. How did you assemble all of these young actors? Do you have a casting person that looks for actors for you?

James Wong: Yes. John Papsidera is our casting director. He's done all our movies, he's great. He's done high profile ones like Batman Returns and he's done our little movies but he really has the pulse of the young kids are up and coming. I don't think this movie needs a big star. I think this movie is the star.

Q: Death is the star.

James Wong: Yeah, death is the star. So we wanted to get a bunch of kids who are real so they are relatable but who are really likable, because you want to follow them and hope they survive. So I think we found a great bunch and I think they're going to do really well after this.

Q: Yeah, you did. And the deaths of course like we say are the star of the show. Of course I'm sure every other question you've heard today or on set is what's your favorite death? But no one has picked my favorite death which was actually the tanning bed deaths.

James Wong: That is my favorite death.

Q: Oh, OK [laughter] I loved that but one thing I was looking for but was kind of disappointed that it wasn't there was that you have this one girl with very obvious breast implants so I was waiting for one to go poof...[laughter] Did you ever think about going there?

James Wong: I didn't go there because 1) I didn't want to go and say "Are those real or not real?" I didn't want to go there, because I thought it was too personal.

Q: Well, it's kind of obvious though…

James Wong: I'm a guy, I don't know anything!

Q: Whatever you say…  [laughter]

James Wong: I thought that would be more sort of that person... you know, it became the actress in real life versus the character they're playing. So I didn't think about that.

Q: I see. I never thought of it that way. I assumed she was cast because of that. Well, I loved the segue between the tanning beds and the coffins. How much thought do you put into that sort of thing?

James Wong: Oh, that was totally thought up before we even shot so it was in the script. It was actually difficult to get because if you think about the logistics of the tanning room, how big it is, how hard to get to the coffin, you know to get the right angle it's almost impossible to get those two things lined up. We had to get a special lens, they didn't have the lens on the day we were shooting so we had to go get special lenses and stuff to make that work.

Q: When things happen in day to day life… like, say when something falls, do you kind of think of how that could play out into a domino-effect death scene?

James Wong: Particularly after the movie, just directly after the movie there were times when I'd go "Oh, don't sit there!". You know, I'd really get freaked out a little bit. There's so many times I'm walking around and there are these things like these cherry-pickers, particularly when you're walking the studio, there's all this stuff that you know is an accident waiting to happen. But people just walk blithely on. They just walk right underneath that thing. I take the roundabout path, I think I'm much more careful and cognizant of that stuff because I've been thinking about this for a long time, more than the regular people. I think people usually just walk right on.

Q: Ignorance is bliss.

James Wong: That's right.

Q: You have the scene with a horse and, being a lifelong equestrian, I know how spooky and dangerous they can be. What was it like working with that horse on the set?

James Wong: I know. The horse was trained in Calgary. They use these things where the horse would run this path because they knew that they had to set a course. They lay out a path for the horse; it was very well trained in that regard. We just put our people around the path so it looks like the horse is running this kind of jigsaw through people, but the horse is actually just doing it's own thing and the people are pretending to be part, you know with the angles and stuff, pretend to be in danger.

But you're right. It is very difficult to get a horse to do anything it doesn't want to do. The last bit where he jumps over the thing, the hay-baler, I think that was the only time the horse did that. It didn't want to do it anymore. Those are the kinds of things that you're lucky to get it if you get it and that's it. But to be honest, I think the horse did pretty well. It reared when it should and there's stuff that we had to cut out because it didn't work but it did a great job.

Q: It's a beautiful horse.

James Wong: It is a beautiful horse.

Q: You're doing Black Christmas next, which is one in a long line of remakes. How you're bringing something different to it? Is it still a sorority — I don't know if sororities are as popular as they were in the 70s?

James Wong: Yeah, it is still a sorority because we felt like that was the one place that still...it is because it's the old-fashioned fake family that played with the theme that Glen had about family. In this version of Black Christmas there's a lot more attention paid to how Billy became Billy, how he got to where he's at. There's a lot of themes about family and what family means and you know, why this is happening today. So the sorority actually plays into that theme very well so we kept that.

Q: I know you're not directing, but you're producing it. Did you co-write it as well?

James Wong: No, I didn't. Glen wrote it while we were doing FD3.

Q: So what is your role in it? I know some producers are more hands-on that others.

James Wong: I sit around the set and say "Hey, do you want to do this?" [laughter] I'm producing which means there's a responsibility for me to help Glen in whatever way he needs. There's a responsibility for me to sort of oversee the movie and make sure that all the parts that should be there, will be there on the screen in terms of themes and the characters and how they're brought out and stuff. So it's not as much of a hands-on situation obviously. I think that I have a lot to contribute to that.

Q: So what's the tone? Is it slasher, is it psychological…?

James Wong: I would say it probably edges more towards slasher. But I think there is psychological elements to it.

Q: What do you think of the recent trend of torture? I think that torture is the new Samara… You know, it used to be ghosts, now it's torture.

James Wong: I'm not so comfortable with it. I don't really like those movies that much. I don't enjoy watching those. I think FD3 is how I'd like to watch a horror movie, which is sort of more entertaining and sort of suspenseful and "How are they going to do this?" versus ...I really don't like the idea of torture. It's just not my gig. It's not the way I like to approach horror.

Q: There's a lot of directors who are doing it quite well nowadays. Did you see Hostel or The Devil's Rejects?

James Wong: I haven't seen those, but Glen had. I know what they're going to be about, so I sort of didn't need to see them.

Q: What kind of movies do you like to see just as a fan?

James Wong: I've always liked like sci-fi movies, I like scary movies but not the ...the last movie I liked horror-wise was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I thought it was well done. I like action, sci-fi ... that kind of movie.

I'm a fan of almost all kinds of movies. When I was in film school I never thought I'd be doing horror movies. But then I never thought I was going to write sci-fi either, although I read a lot of sci-fi when I was a kid. But we started out doing kind of cop or dramatic teenage kind of shows. So I'm hoping to be surprised at the next venture.

Q: So have you seen some of the movies that have been nominated for the Academy Award this year? Do you follow that?

James Wong: Yeah, I've seen Capote. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain yet. Not because of any reason, I just haven't had a chance to see that. It's interesting that all the Academy Awards this year are almost independent-like films. So that's different.

Q: Yeah, I wonder if there might be a little bit of a trend. King Kong really got shut out. The big extravaganza type movies were just nothing at Awards time. What do you think about horror movies not typically getting Oscar nods? Because there are some excellent horror performances, yet they really don't get the accolades.

James Wong: Well, I think people don't take them seriously. I think there's a lot of really great filmmaking in horror movies but you know the ideas in them are generally not so complex. I think people are much more willing to give accolades to dramatic human emotion, very emotional stories. I think they feel more touched by them. Horror movies are more reactive, you just kind of go "Oh!" and then… you know. But I think the process of making it is just as difficult. Although there are some that take the easy way out. Like for instance, if you torture somebody you're always going to get a reaction. To me that's not as intricate as other ways of making a movie.

Q: In FD3 you do have more emotion than you did in the first one; there's more at stake. These people have lost people close to them, boyfriend, girlfriend. Was that a factor when you were writing the script that you wanted to add a little more drama?

James Wong: Absolutely. Because I really felt like the first one I think we tried to do that but not well enough. So I wanted this one to connect more. In the first one we had this sort of... I think we were trying to connect them, but it was false. I think it was sort of like "Well, the guy and girl should get together" kind of that feeling. But it wasn't believable.

Q: Well, I must be shallow because actually the first one is still my favorite. You know what I loved about the first one was the very black comedy and the John Denver jokes and stuff like that. I loved that. Which is terrible, but I did.

I noticed in this one you kind of tied in with the "Roller Coaster of Love" song. How do you find songs like that?

James Wong: Oh, the love roller coaster song in there because of the actual roller coaster. So that was easy. But Turn Around Look At Me is Glen's. I think he said his uncle had all these Letterman  albums and stuff. So he heard it and he said, "Boy, that's creepy," so that's how that came about. The lyrics sort of fit so well with the action.

Let me go back to...I didn't mean to say I didn't like the first Final Destination film but I just thought that the relationship that they had, between Clear and Alex, we had a whole love story within it that didn't work. I just meant that the love story part didn't work well.

Q: I see. Now I'm wondering… how far can this franchise go? Are we going to have, like, the scooter of death in FD15?

James Wong: You know, I don't know. I think it's sort of not up to me.

Q: Do you want to do more?

James Wong: I don't know. Yes and no. I had a really good time doing this. It was a lot of fun and I think the movies are fun to watch. I don't want to keep repeating myself. I want to do something else of course. So, maybe every other one or something.

Q: This movie is rated R but I can see myself at 12 wanting to see this movie.

James Wong: My daughter is 13 and I'm taking her tonight to the premiere.

Q: I don't think that it's bad for kids of that age. What do you think, as far as you know, the horror aspects?

James Wong: I think there an age, obviously. I have 8 year olds too and they cannot...I'm showing them some of the like dvd promos and they go [scared, surprised sounds]. They're all afraid of watching that. I think it depends on the kid. To me, this is much more of a fantasy kind of fun thing. There are intense moments. But my kids have been on the set, they've seen the machine that shoots out the gore at people and stuff. So for them I think it's much easier to realize it's a fantasy, so I didn't have a problem with my 13 year old coming to see it tonight. I think depending on your background, I certainly understand it if a parent doesn't want them to see this movie.

Q: In the movies you have obvious homages to Robert Wise and Val Lewton; What are some of your favorite old horror movies?

James Wong: Wow. Well, I have to say some of the Val Lewton stuff where you don't see the monster. Of course, probably the best horror movie ever made is The Exorcist. It probably can be said that it's much more than just a horror movie.

The movies I've made so far have been pretty explicitly out there. But I think that's more a sign of the times than what I personally prefer. I like the more suggested horror than real explicit stuff. I think it's sort of where we are today, that it's harder to get the audience to react.

Q: Yeah, they keep wanting to up the ante, don't they?

James Wong: Yes, and we try to keep up!

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Staci Layne Wilson reporting.