The Haunting in Connecticut
The Haunting in Connecticut
Daniel Farrands – Producer Interview
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Staci Layne Wilson reporting
Staci Layne Wilson: So, you've had a few screenings of the movie, now...
Daniel Farrands: Feedback has been great. Honestly, the greatest thing was the test screenings that we started last summer. The scores were through the roof on this film, so it was phenomenal to see the audience respond the way they did to this movie.
Staci Layne Wilson: It looks scary, and I’m usually not creeped out by trailers!
Farrands: Well, of course. You’ve seen them all.
Wilson: Yep.
Farrands: This is more chilling. I don’t know that it’s one of those movies that kind of reinvents the horror wheel, but I think it plays into it really well. It just gets under your skin. It’s very creepy. I think it attends to all of the haunted house conventions and turns them on their head a little bit. I think what I found most intriguing about this story was that it’s a character driven piece. It’s not about just the haunting aspects of it. I thought the most fascinating part of it was the fact that it was a family story. It sort of wrapped up the supernatural drama.
Wilson: Was it that you saw this special on TV? The way it starts out draws you in to the people, in a mysterious way.
Farrands: Absolutely, and that’s what’s so compelling. I remember when I saw the Discovery Channel show, they were all in silhouette, remember? You’ve seen it. Then they used pseudonyms. You had no idea who they really were.
Wilson: So it’s not like they were jumping out seeking fame.
Farrands: No, no.
Wilson: Did that add to their credibility?
Farrands: I think it added to their credibility, but it reminded me so much of what the Lutzes had gone through, the family whose story was made famous in The Amityville Horror. As you know I had been very close to the Lutz family having done the documentary on the History Channel. So it was not just the supernatural elements, but I think it was their way of telling the story that reminded me of the way that the Lutzes told it. There was just something about the tone in their voice that you could tell they were very affected by something. Whatever that was, who’s going to say, you know? We weren’t there. I found it really interesting and compelling. So, with my Amityville investigator’s hat on [chuckle], I called Lorraine Warren who had been one of the investigators in the Amityville house.
Wilson: Yeah, I actually interviewed her at the junket.
Farrands: Oh, did you? For Amityville Horror?
Wilson: Uh-huh, right.
Farrands: She did publicity. Lorraine is so sweet and such a kind-hearted soul, but she and her now late husband, Ed, had investigated the case in Connecticut as well. I asked her if she had kept tabs on this family or kept in touch with them, and she said she hadn’t. She had lost touch with them, but she knew their names. She told me that I should look somewhere in the south. She wasn’t sure where they moved, but somewhere in the south was about all she knew. With this great amount of information, and my detective’s hat on, I began the Google search for this family. The way that I did find them (and it took a while) [is] I found a church newsletter somewhere in Tennessee, you know, a little community church, and all it said was “[The mother’s name] thank you for bringing the basket of goodies to this Sunday’s luncheon.” I thought maybe that’s her. Maybe that’s the mother. I took a chance. There was a number on the newsletter. I called the church and asked about her. I think they thought I was insane which is probably true, but I left a message and within a week she got back to me, and it was her. It was her. She was a little skeptical, but I think it actually did help that I have this connection with the Amityville case, so I think maybe initially that put her a little more at ease to just talk about this. Honestly at that time, I don’t know that I was interested in “Let’s go do a movie.” It was like maybe we could do a different sort of follow up on their story; some other form; maybe another book. It hadn’t really solidified as to what this might be, but one thing led to another, and I’m like "God, this is such a great, scary, but also sort of human drama" that I asked her if she would consider giving me, along with my managing company at the time, an option on the rights to the story, and she agreed to do that. That’s how it began.
Wilson: So what is the story from your perspective? Is it about an evil ghost or is it a poltergeist? What is the conclusion that you have come to?
Farrands: It’s really the story of a family overcoming terrible obstacles, and I think everybody can relate to that in some way. Every family goes through moments and times of terrible strife and difficulty, but this family faced some pretty insurmountable odds. Their eldest child was extremely sick and was predicted to die. They had other small children in the house. They had a cousin who had come to live with them because she wasn’t getting along with her family. They had lost a lot during this time, and I think initially for most families [it] would have driven them apart. This story and what happened to them in that house is what ended up bringing them together and ironically, in a way, saving the boy's life. So I think that made it really interesting. The cancer that he had went into remission and never came back.
Wilson: Now is that in the movie? Because the trailer doesn’t really address that at all. It looks more like séances and scary stuff.
Farrands: They really didn’t play up the idea in the campaign that the boy is sick. It very much is going with that idea. I mean, it opens with him going through all these invasive chemo therapies and treatments that for an adult would be mind blowing, but for a kid who is 15 years old, to have to face something like that, and to face his own mortality, and I think that’s what the supernatural aspects of this thing relate to. It’s like is this kid seeing the end of his own life? Is he seeing that tunnel ahead of him and is that the channel for the supernatural or is it something that’s just lived in the house for a long time? The film sort of asks those questions.
Wilson: How come, being the fabulous writer that you are, you didn’t write this story? Why did you want to take a producing role?
Farrands: Thank you. It’s a good question. Initially, the idea was that I would write it. I ultimately backed out because we had just done a deal with Dimension, well it was NuImage and then Dimension got involved in it, and I had written a spec script for the Amityville Horror. That did not come to pass the way we had all predicted and had hoped that it would. But I had just done this haunted house script, and on the heels of that I had just done a haunted house documentary, and I was working on something else at the time, so it just didn’t make a lot of sense for me at that point to do yet another one. It was a great opportunity for me to step in as a producer.
Wilson: That must be freeing in some ways.
Farrands: It was. It was very freeing. It was also challenging in ways I hadn’t expected [laughing]. What a great introduction to the world of production and producing. It was a natural transition for me anyway because I tend to want to be more hands on with my projects, so this was a great opportunity. I think the writers that came in had a great take on it, and it was a natural fit.
Wilson: Were they already a team?
Farrands: Yup. They’ve been a writing team I think for many years. They wrote Bones a few years ago.
Wilson: The TV show?
Farrands: No. The Snoop Dogg horror film. You remember that one?
Wilson: Yeah, vaguely.
Farrands: A few others as well. Adam Simon had done a documentary on the history of American horror films. It was very good. I think it was called American Nightmare. He sort of likened the whole George Romero, and many other horror films of the period such as “Last House on the Left” to what we as a culture and a country were experiencing at the time, especially the Vietnam War. It was very, very well done. Both are very talented guys. Tim Metcalfe had written the sequel to Fright Night. Both are veteran horror guys, so we’re lucky to have them. They did a great job.
Wilson: How about the director because the movie at least the way its cut and the clips that I’ve seen make it look really suspenseful.
Farrands: Right.
Wilson: How did he come on board?
Farrands: Interestingly enough I had not even met Peter Cornwell. He was a guy who was from Australia and had written and directed and literally self made an animated feature, a clay-mation feature, a short film called Ward 13. One of the most clever things I think I’ve ever seen, it was as if Spielberg had a done clay-mation short. It was so well shot. He did it all himself, and this film won a number of accolades and won prizes at festivals. He had come to the attention of some people over at Lion’s Gate and Gold Circle so he was a director on their short list of people that they wanted to work with. He just seemed to have the right take for the film. Peter’s a great guy, a genius actually [laughs] when you see what he did with this animated piece and then making this cross over into a world of actors cause I think all of us had that concern of “oh, he’s only really worked with clay figures.” I think he had a knack and a gift for telling a very human story, and I think that’s what sets this movie apart from others in this genre. I think if anything, it’s not the big budget version like Poltergeist was, but I think you also like Poltergeist because you really grow to feel for the family, and I think that’s really important in a film like this.
Wilson: If I’m remembering correctly, I’m thinking back, it’s Virginia Madsen and then there’s the son. I seem to remember a daughter.
Farrands: Kyle Gallner plays Matt, the son. Amanda Crew is terrific as his cousin and confidante Wendy, and Elias Koteas plays a priest who tries to help the family.
Wilson: Is there a dad in the film?
Farrands: Martin Donovan. He did a great job as well. I think what they portrayed really nicely together was this family unit. Even the smaller children were great. What I walked away from having seen it the last time, which was actually back in July with the test audience, was that there’s an emotional center to the movie.
Wilson: I think that’s really important.
Farrands: Good. I think that’s really important to see in a horror film. Often it’s just the blood and the scares. There are some moments of genuine humanity and a couple of tear-jerking moments in there as well. I give a lot of due credit to Peter's directing and Virginia’s performance. Having her was a huge score for this project.
Wilson: She seems to want to be in a lot of these supernatural movies lately, and it kind of makes you wonder, even for yourself, are you drawn to that genre or does it find you because you’ve done it so many times?
Farrands: I don’t know what her answer to that would be. I know for a fact that she loves horror movies. Rusty Schwimmer is her best friend, and Rusty was one of the stars of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. When we interviewed her for His Name is Jason, the documentary on the Friday the 13th films, she was like, “You know, Virginia and I would go and see Halloween like a hundred times. It was our favorite thing. Honestly, Halloween is one of my favorite films.” So getting to be in horror films, I think, was a goal of each of them when they came to LA. I think they’re both from Chicago. It was funny to hear, working on this completely unrelated project, Virginia Madsen’s story of how horror movies were so central to her formative years.
Wilson: It’s kind of interesting. I looked you up on IMDB which I think I’ve never done before. I just happened to do that. I saw Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Tooth Fairy, …Rob Roy? [laughing]
Farrands: I know, where did that one come from [laughing]? That was literally a favor to my friends at the History Channel who were doing another show right on the heels of Amityville, and they’re like, “Please do this one. We don’t have anybody to do this one.” I was like, “Let’s do it!” So it was fun. In fact, at the time, I thought I was going to Scotland to do it which was part of my motivation, but that didn’t happen.
Wilson: Would you be completely satisfied if you worked in horror for the rest of your life?
Farrands: I think you hear from the people like the Wes Cravens and the John Carpenters and Steve Miners and some of these people that we grew up with and watching their horror films, and it seemed that when their careers went on they felt like the horror movies were some kind of ghetto or a starting point. For me, it’s why I got into the business, so doing this is like a dream come true for me. It’s a thrill. I hope I never lose that child-like fascination with all of it because if you do, I think you can very easily fall into some of the pitfalls of this business if you don’t have passion for it.
Wilson: It’s your soul torn apart.
Farrands: Yes, exactly as Pinhead would say!
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