[James]

REALITY BITES

Eugene Sully came second in the UK's Big Brother 2005. Bet you didn't expect him to love horror movies...



Hello Sir! What's your all-time favourite horror movie?
Eugene: "John Carpenter's The Fog rates highly with me. But I think my favourite is probably The Wicker Man, with Edward Woodward. It's old and done on a low budget: sometimes these low-budget films have to work with a strong plot. The Wicker Man's plot is very strong and very clever. It keeps you thinking and it has lots of surprises along the way. It's almost a moral and emotional rollercoaster with very, very strong characters. The twist at the end of course (Ed's note - spoiler warning!) is that the girl's not been killed at all: he's actually been the one hunted, when he thinks he's been the hunter. It's an absolutely genius bit of film."

And Edward Woodward shouts "Christ!" a lot, doesn't he?
Eugene: "Yes. He says, 'Oh lord, oh Jesus Christ!', because he's just about to meet his maker. Apparently, to get a bit more reaction when they filmed it, Woodward didn't actually see the wicker man until that scene was shot. There was a programme about The Wicker Man, called The Curse Of The Wicker Man, or something like that."

There's a nice Wicker Man wooden box-set on Region 1 Anchor Bay...
Eugene: "I bought a two-disc DVD with the original and the director's cut, where the extra bits drop in quality really suddenly. The American one's probably better."


How do you feel about CGI effects in horror movies?
Eugene: "There was a scene in The Ring, or maybe Jeepers Creepers, which involved people going down a hole - but there was a tracking shot of a car going by a helicopter, and the car was added on afterwards. I saw that as completely unnecessary - it's been possible in the past to actually film a car moving along a road. It has been done! I liked The Ring - it was what I'd call an old-school horror film with a good old-fashioned plot. But sometimes, the Americans tend to put in too many special effects. A lot of it is about cost-cutting as well. The main thing should be to keep the plot going and to keep you thinking, as there's nothing worse to fear than fear itself."

What's the scariest film you've seen?
Eugene: "The Ring scared me, believe it or not! Also, The Fog is definitely scary - just stuff like the plank of wood found in the sea and the whole story. Halloween is a pretty terrifying film as well."

Do you hold much hope for the imminent remake of The Fog?
Eugene: "I'm sceptical. If they can pull it off, then very good. But as always in the case of remakes, they 'trend it up' a bit. The new Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, for instance, was very good, but they tended to jazz it up a bit and went over-the-top. Me and all the people I've spoken to seemed to enjoy it, but it was slightly more serious, with the old love-and-relationships twist and too much personality. In some respects, though, that was maybe more how it was intended when it was written by Douglas Adams."



Are you a fan of slasher movies?
Eugene: "Some of them, yeah. I only recently saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I was quite surprised at how short it was, but I liked it. I know The Shining isn't a slasher, but I thoroughly enjoyed that one too, when I saw it recently. I also liked another film called Psychomania, which is a more of a comedy. I like slightly wacky films a lot!"

Were there times inside the Big Brother house when it felt like you were in a horror flick?
Eugene: "Yeah, sometimes you do feel like that, because you don't know what's going to happen next - what Big Brother's going to spring on you. It's a bit stressful at times, because you're constantly waiting to see what lurks around the next corner. And certain housemates are trying to lead you in a certain direction, to get one over on you, so that's actually a pretty good analogy: Big Brother really is like a big psychological horror film!"

http://www.slasherama.biz/features/eugene.HTML

[texbex]

Very good interview Eugene must remember to get a box set of horror flicks for your birthday!