AC Freak
Aaron Christensen hails from the small farm town of Mead, Colorado. Years of talking to cows in relative seclusion drove him to pursue a B.A. in Theatre Arts at the University of Northern Colorado, if only to have a more appreciative audience. After graduation, he moved to the Midwest and has been working in and around Chicago since 1991.
In addition to all that ackty-schmackty stuff, Aaron (aka “Dr. AC”) is one of the Midwest’s rising authorities on horror films/monster movies, having seen some 1500 creature features (and counting). His first Dr. AC guidebook, Horror 101, was published earlier this year by Midnight Marquee, Inc. and is available wherever tomes of ill repute are sold. Fellow genre aficionados are welcome to join in the fun on MySpace (horror101withdrac) or on the official Dr. AC website – http://www.horror101withdrac.com.
Horror Society: You wrote HORROR 101 – as Dr. AC. Now, what qualifies you as a Doctor? What school does one have to attend to get their Ph. D in horror?
Aaron Christensen: Ha! Well, first off, just to clarify, while I did conceive the idea for H101 and performed editing duties (as well as contributing a few essays of my own), the book itself was actually written by 78 different horror fans from all over the world. My original idea was that I would create a list of “must-see” films that all serious students of fright flicks should check out in order to get an overall view of the horror genre. I started off thinking that I would write all the essays myself, but as I got started, I realized that what I really wanted – in addition to providing a kind of “freshman class” for the budding horror fan – was to give a voice to everyday horror fans everywhere. So I put out the word and assembled this amazing group of aficionados as varied and diverse as the genre itself.
As I’m sure you at Horror Society are well aware, there is this misconception amongst the “civilian” crowd that we’re all these bloodthirsty mouth-breathers who can’t string two sentences together because we’re too busy sacrificing infants in midnight ceremonies and ogling topless hotties before they get sliced and diced. The truth I’ve discovered is that oftentimes, horror fans are among the most intelligent and articulate people out there – perhaps because we are so often required to defend our passions. Sports fans don’t have to justify themselves, but because we like blood and guts and monsters, we do.
As far as my doctoral qualifications, you got me. It’s all a big sham. I sent away for my “Doctor of Horror” certificate by sending in 9,000 box tops from Count Chockula and FrankenBerry cereals, along with 666 pull tabs from Monster energy drink. But seriously, folks, I think if you want to earn your degree, what’s required is a serious passion and curiosity about the genre as a whole. You gotta be willing to dig in and dig deep. You gotta watch the black-and-white classics (yes, even the silent ones), the Universal classics, the 50s and 60s sci-fi/big bug stuff, the awesome 70s drive-in stuff and on into the modern age. The serious horror fans watch everything they can read about and/or get their hands on, from the big Hollywood studio product to the indie horror made on a shoestring, a prayer and a bottle of Karo syrup. Our education is never done – we are students for life…and maybe even beyond.
HS: Do you have a Horror 102 (or 201) planned?
AC: The short answer is “yes.” When I’ll actually get around to it is another question. There are so many aspects to the horror genre and fandom in general that I would like to explore and there are only so many hours in the day. Producing (and then promoting) a book or any artistic endeavor is a major investment of time and energy. In addition to WildClaw Theatre and other creative ventures I’m involved in, I still need time to hang out with my fellow freaks, go to conventions and watch horror movies! But yes, there are a ton of must-see “sophomore” films out there, as well as informed horror fans waiting to write about them, so I can’t imagine that it will be long before I’m compelled to start rounding up the troops again. Stay tuned.
HS: Tell us what WildClaw is and how did you get involved with it?
AC: WildClaw Theatre is the brainchild of our artistic director Charley Sherman, who co-wrote and directed a brilliant stage adaptation of Clive Barker’s In the Flesh back in the ’90s for Organic Theatre. It was creepy as hell, first time I’d ever felt truly uneasy sitting at a stage play, and I’ve never forgotten it. Well, fast-forward a decade or so and I find myself working with Charley on a staged reading of a Shakespeare play. We get to talking and discover that we’re both big horror fans. Over the course of the conversation, the notion comes up of creating a theatre company devoted exclusively to producing plays that focus on horror and the supernatural. Not jokey, splatter theatre (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but serious horror that gets under people’s skin and has them looking behind them on the way home.
Well, a couple months later, Charley calls me up and asks if I would be interested in being one of the founding members of WildClaw, dedicating ourselves to fulfilling that challenge. How could I say no? There are now seven ensemble members, each of whom brings something special to the table, be it graphic design, costuming, makeup, lighting, acting, etc. It’s a truly remarkable collective and I’m honored to be counted among them. In less than two years, we’ve produced three full-length plays, hosted the first annual DEATHSCRIBE radio play festival, created our Blood Radio podcast and blog, and put on another half-dozen horror-themed shindigs, including last month’s Zombie Bowling at Timber Lanes. We take our horror seriously, but we also know how to have a good time.
HS: What types of horror films are your favorites?
AC: Boy, that’s a tough question, Mitch! Isn’t it? You wouldn’t think it would be, but when you take horror as seriously as you and I do, you want to be accurate and honest, not give some crap-out answer like, “Slashers!” or “I love ‘em all.” It really depends on my mental temperature of the day, to be perfectly honest. I really do have a passion for the genre as a whole, and so it’s hard to say that I prefer one subgenre over another. I really love it when a film or filmmaker can bring something new to the table, especially in this “seen-it-all-before” climate. I recently saw a great little Brit horror flick called The Children written and directed by Tom Shankland (who also helmed last year’s The Killing Gene) and it just knocked my socks off, because we’ve seen the “killer kids” thing before, yet the movie had my friend and I on the edge of our seats! Definitely check it out once it makes its way Stateside.
I also read a lot of horror reference books, so oftentimes that will shape what I’m in the mood for. I recently polished off John Stell’s Psychos! Sickos! Sequels: Horror Films of the 1980s (highly recommended, by the way), so I’m dying to go back and revisit some some old favorites from that decade, as well as giving a second look to films that I might have dismissed upon their first viewing. I’m a big proponent of re-viewing because the old adage about “you can’t step in the same river twice” is so true when it comes to cinema. The movies don’t change but we do, and when we see a film again, we are looking at it with different eyes. It’s happened many a time where a picture that I couldn’t stand the first time around becomes a new favorite or I’ll be less impressed by a flick than I originally was. Again, it’s all part of being a good student.
HS: Are you a fan of the horror remake trend?
AC: Oh, is that ever a loaded question. No, of course not. It annoys the hell out of me that Hollywood is too scared to produce anything without some form of name recognition anymore, even if it’s something like the “in-name-only” remake of Prom Night. However, I will say that 2009 has turned out some halfway decent remakes already, in the form of My Bloody Valentine, The Last House on the Left and The Uninvited (the English-language remake of A Tale of Two Sisters), so this might be the year that remakes don’t suck.
But as we all know, these are the exceptions to the rule and I don’t think that any of these top the original films. It’s sad, because there is some really exciting stuff going on in the foreign and indie horror markets. If studios would put some marketing muscle behind those films, it would cost less than producing some soulless remake and I think they would find that theatrical audiences would respond favorably to these fresh ideas. But nobody’s willing to take those chances, so it all gets dumped to DVD; then it’s up to the brave and the persistent to discover them on their own. It’s really a tragedy.
HS: Do you see the horror genre gaining mainstream popularity because of the new remakes?
AC: I’d say it’s probably getting more attention in the media, but I don’t feel like horror is becoming more any popular with mainstream audiences, no more than it ever has. I don’t think the remakes are helping anything in the long run. Wish I could say otherwise and maybe there is data out there that proves me wrong. I think that popular audiences still have the sheep mentality – they’ll go see something familiar and it will be a financial success as a result (case in point: the Friday the 13th remake), but do they become better or more serious horror fans as a result? I don’t think so.
HS: On your profile for WildClaw you said you didn’t like Rob Zombie’s Halloween, and you would be glad to tell us why. So… tell us why!
AC: Well, what that really tells me is I need to update my profile. The Halloween remake? Hello, old news! My biggest beefs with it were that Zombie took the most brilliant thing about the original – the fact that Michael turns out to be a supernatural incarnate of evil, just as Loomis says he is! – and made him a big scary hormone case with a screwed up childhood. They explained away the mystery and made him an everyday psycho. Plus, the acting (Danny Trejo and Brad Dourif excepted) and dialogue were really, really, really bad. And yet, we’ve got a sequel to look forward to. Goody.
HS: What do you have planned for the future? Any new projects coming up?
AC: Well, WildClaw looks to be keeping us all busy, with our new season on the horizon. We just opened Scott T. Barsotti’s awesome zombie play, The Revenants, this last weekend, which I think people are really going to dig. We’re also accepting submissions right now for this year’s DEATHSCRIBE radio play festival, we’re talking about programming some film festivals, producing audio dramas for the Blood Radio podcast… Lots to do and more ideas coming in all the time.
Personally, I recently conceived and directed the Revenants video trailer (now available on YouTube and the WildClaw blog), which was my first time behind a camera. I’d like to explore the medium some more from a creative standpoint, after years of being a “watcher” and a fan. I’ve got some ideas of my own plus a couple friends have shown me screenplays that could make for interesting short film projects. I’m also in the 4th year of my weekly “Fool’s Views Movie Reviews” on MySpace, Facebook and elsewhere. Of course, there’s the HORROR 101 follow-up that’s always sitting on the back burner of my mind. More than anything though, I always look forward to the opportunity to hang out with friends, cook up a mess of food, then sit back and watch movies for hours on end. Ain’t nothing better than Sharing the Scare, you know?
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