Horror Reanimated… the home of Bloody Books

Interview with Frazer Lee by JD’L

December 15th, 2008

After months of wheedling, the odd bribe and the performing of certain unmentionable household chores that finally secured it for us, here, at last, is our moment of intimacy with independent film maker, writer and script doctor Frazer Lee.

Joseph D’Lacey Hi, Frazer and welcome to Horror Reanimated. May I offer you a goblet of goat’s blood? Some spider caviar, perhaps?

Frazer Lee I’ve already eaten thanks. They don’t call me redbeard for nothing. It’s a pleasure to be here, it smells funny!

JD’L You stop noticing that after a while, sadly. Now, we’ve said a little bit about you in the intro but that’s just pigeon-holing really. How would you describe yourself and what you do?

FL I’m a hack director and writer with an obsessive-compulsive disorder that leads me to tell horror stories at any given opportunity. Now wash your hands.

JD’L Appreciation of the moving image and the creation of it seems to be your driving force but what about the horror element in your concepts? Where did the fascination arise? Do you, Satan forbid, enjoy any other genres?

FL I first became horror-fixated as a kid, around ten years old, watching Hammer and Universal horror double bills on the tellybox. We only had three channels back then, so watching Frankenstein(‘s Monster) meet The Wolfman, or Captain Kronos staking vampires (and snogging Caroline Munro), was far more exciting than whatever was on the other two! I spent my childhood in a series of dour Midlands towns, so I really had my fill of reality every time I went to school, popped to the shops or looked out the window. Horror provided the most imaginative and visually stimulating escape route I could find, whether in books, on TV or the radio. The fascination persists to this day, it’s the most potent of genres. I can be telling the most innocuous of stories, a family picnic – bunnies hopping through the tall sun-kissed grass – and ten minutes later, people start to bleed. I just can’t help it. Yes, I do enjoy other genres though, especially science fiction. I like any story when it is compelling enough I guess, whatever the genre. But I always feel dirty enjoying other stuff and go back to my beloved horrors with a bunch of flowers and an apology.

JD’L Glad to hear it, you splitter! Which film discipline are you most at home with – screenwriting, producing or directing?

FL I don’t feel that I’m at home with any of them yet, which is partly what keeps me interested in doing them. I haven’t directed for a while, so that’s giving me the biggest gut-ache right now – I’m ravenous to do it again, it’s like having a constant raging hard-on and not having any… you get the picture I’m sure! Whether I’m screenwriting, or involved in a directing task, or playing the producer at a meeting it always strikes me how the different functions bleed into one another – I’m so immersed in my projects there’s no dividing line. But I do try to just focus on the job in hand (ahem), to keep a semblance of sanity and to, hopefully, do the job well.

JD’L When we met at Gamefest III earlier this year you were promoting a number of projects. Can you tell us which are your favourites, how they’re going and what you’re working on right now?

FL I just finished a new draft of a supernatural horror screenplay ‘Grey Girls’ and I’m excited about that – it is very cruel and could be quite chilling, disturbing if I got it right. It has a lot of bodily fluids in it – I’ve become quite obsessed by the amount of weird and wonderful fluids in daily human life – and it has schoolgirls, plenty of schoolgirls. The screenplay is under the noses of a couple of producers and I’ve tried a few funding avenues myself, but I’m realistic that it may never come off. My beautiful little bastard ‘Urbane’ is a project that refuses to die, but as yet doesn’t have the backing to live – and may never do so. A shame if it doesn’t because it’s a fun slice of demonic surgical horror, but hey the world has lived without it just fine so far. I’m still working on my first horror novel, which is progressing in fits and starts – paid screenwriting work takes precedent of course. Talking of which, I was just hired to write a trilogy of horror movies back-to-back, and just completed the first draft of movie number one – but my contract means I can’t say any more than that about them!

JD’L Bollocks. Perhaps you’ll spill a little news our way when the contract permits…

Fitting creativity into real life is a difficulty many of us face (see my blog post ‘To edit, change nappies or clean house? That is the question by JD’L’) how do manage your time, Frazer?

FL Hee, time management goes really well some days, and… not so well other days. I enjoyed your blog post and don’t envy your position, looking after your kid and trying to get through rewrites and such. I have it pretty easy really by comparison! Of course I have to pay the bills so I can’t be too picky about taking on work assignments, and I don’t have an agent so I have to negotiate my own terms and that can be tricksy sometimes. My wife is very supportive of my efforts and I truly appreciate that. If I don’t do the washing up though, I will be out on my ear…

JD’L I know EXACTLY what you’re saying.

Here at Horror Reanimated we entertain the delusion that horror is on the rise as a genre in all media. Lots of new horror on TV at the moment – and more to come – strikes me as a sure sign of the genre’s increasing popularity. But new horror publishers are also springing up and zombies, in film particularly, seem more celebrated now than ever. What are your thoughts on the trends?

FL It is encouraging that telly programming is promoting new horror stuff. To me, it’s at least an acknowledgement that there is an audience that would rather watch something ‘other’ rather than all this fucking lazy and tedious ‘reality’ programming. Here’s some reality for you, you bastards – tons of people are dying from the effects of disease epidemics and warfare while the ‘developed’ world obsesses over the latest perfumes, watches, cars – now use your bloody imaginations and tell me a fucking STORY, perhaps a horror story, to illustrate that. No? Okay, human Tetris it is then… No wonder zombies are more popular than ever, we’re surrounded by them.

There are reality/horror crossovers too of course – I’ll never forget ‘Ghostwatch’ with Mister Pipes, hee what fun! And Charlie Brooker had a decent crack at it with his Big Brother zombie thang (too much ‘shakycam’ for my taste though). The more the merrier really, because I truly believe the genre never went away, and will never go away. As long as there are compelling horror stories being told and horror fans to enjoy them, the horror genre is an infinite Halloween-love-fest!

One plea though, to all the short film makers out there – enough zombie/vampire movies already! WE GET IT, YOU LOVE GEORGE A. ROMERO! And we love him too, we do! It’s just… PLEASE try something more original.

JD’L If money were no object, which horror film would you remake and why? What would you do differently?

FL Ooh, if money were honestly no object?

I’d honestly be spending it on making new films, striving to tell original stories, shiny and new! I like those films they already made just the way they are, warts and all, thanks.

JD’L Which horror novel would you be most keen to adapt for the big screen?

FL The one I’m writing

JD’L As you know, Horror Reanimated gives you the power to present the Sword of the Ultimate Darkness to the all-time best work of Horror in any medium and consign the all-time worst work of horror in any medium to the Plague Pits. Please make your nominations.

FL I’d have to pull out that sword and thrust it into the warped hands of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. It describes the horror of being alive, the horror of being dead, everything that lies between those two states and beyond into new, utterly corrupt forms. It is, my dears, more than just a ‘page turner’ – it is the all-time best work of horror in any medium.

And the worst? I’m going to break a golden rule of mine and pass judgement on a movie I haven’t actually seen – only a few brief clips, and that was enough. But I have this Sword of the Ultimate Darkness, see? I can do whatsoever I wants to do my precioussss…. So, into the Plague Pits you go, Neil LaBute’s ‘reimagining’ of The Wicker Man, and not a moment too soon! You are a sad illustration of the vapid, barren cunt that is the Hollywood remake system, sucking what little talent is out there into your pestilent maw and shitting out endlessly foul stinking little bum nuggets of WRONG.

JD’L Master of understatement, you are, Frazer! Apart from waaaay too much housework to ever catch up with, what’s next for Frazer Lee?

FL Who knows? Meetings, writings, rewritings. A series of elations and disappointments. That’s for certain. But whatever else comes my way, don’t think I’m not going to sniff it, because I shall. Oh yes I shall.

JD’L Frazer, thank you very much for sharing some of your precious washing-up time with us. I do hope you’ll keep us informed of your developments.

FL I will indeed! Thanks for indulging me! Now where’d I put those marigolds….?

Entry Filed under: The Function of Fear