Director Chuck Russell interview: On a death battle between The Mask, The Scorpion King and Freddy Krueger
The filmmaker behind films such as ‘The Mask’ and ‘The Scorpion King’ talks about the art of reimagining old horror scripts and extracting performances from stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne Johnson
(Originally published in The Hindu on December 12, 2024)
If Chuck Russell could, he would make a movie about film fanatics burning film critics at the stake, and make it the most hilarious horror comedy of the 21st Century! This outrageous assumption comes from my hilariously candid chat with the American filmmaker behind wacky titles such as The Mask, The Scorpion King, The Blob, and more. Sitting down with The Hindu after a session at the 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, Russell is at his spontaneous best.
“Let’s first kill the critics. Remember, they are called critics, so they think their job is to be mean and critical. The real question is, are the audiences seeing the films?” poses Russell.
I had just stated how attempts from young Indian filmmakers to speak in an under-explored genre, such as pure-genre horror, are often scrutinised as mere emulations of the West. Whether it’s a serial killer or military killing, he says, the human condition of being fascinated with murder is universal, something that makes pure genre horror universally appealing. An advocate for lesser-explored sub-genres in horror, Russell stresses watching horror as a cathartic experience. “If you can face death in a film, and walk out with your arm around your girlfriend, everything’s okay. I believe that horror and comedy release endorphins.”
In over 40 years of making Hollywood movies, most of which are cult-classic adaptations or remakes, Chuck Russell has become notorious for putting the wildest of spins on the source material. Take The Mask for instance; with the help of Jim Carrey’s genius, Russell put a hilarious new twist on Mike Richardson’s green cartoonish troublemaker. Russell says he never imagined it would become the pop-culture phenomenon it turned out to be.
“Here’s what happened: as a young producer, I did a movie called…….
Read the full interview here: