Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on July 30, 2008, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
“What I love about the Wendigo is that there are so many ways to tell that story,” says filmmaker Larry Fessenden, who has explored his share of them over the course of his career. He won serious critical acclaim for his 2001 feature simply titled Wendigo, and further explored the theme in last year’s equally lauded The Last Winter. Now he’s bringing the Native American legend to the small screen in the Skin and Bones episode of NBC’s Fear Itself—though this time, the director didn’t originate the story.
Scripted by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, who penned Cigarette Burns and Pro-Life for Fear Itself forebear Masters of Horror, Skin and Bones never actually shows us the Wendigo. Instead, it focuses on Grady (Hellboy veteran Doug Jones), a rancher who returns to his horse farm after a week lost in the surrounding mountains. His emaciated appearance is startling enough, but his loved ones soon discover that what now resides inside him is far worse. “It’s kind of the most traditional version of the Wendigo tale,” Fessenden says, “where somebody goes out into the woods, has a bad time, comes back and is faced with the dilemma of eating their friends—you know, that problem [laughs]. Our character returns to his wife, two kids and brother, and it becomes the story of this possessed man’s interaction with them over just two days. It’s very concise, and I loved the script; I did revise it, but I really liked the sort of tentpoles they had set up for me—which is a new model for me, because I’ve written so much of my own stuff.”
Fessenden has been keeping busy over the last few years not only writing and directing his own features, but sponsoring up-and-coming filmmakers through his low-budget Scareflix label. His involvement with Fear Itself came about through actor Ron Perlman, with whom he has collaborated twice. “We had a good experience on The Last Winter,” Fessenden recalls, “and he called [Masters and Fear creator] Mick Garris and said, ‘You’ve gotta check out this guy.’ And I don’t know whether Mick was impressed, or if it was late in the game and he had his [Masters] roster already set, but that was not to be.
“But ultimately, I got a call from Andrew Deane, Mick and another producer on Fear Itself [which Garris later departed], and they showed a great deal of enthusiasm for The Last Winter and acted like I would be an essential part of their new brew, and I was very honored,” he continues. “They first pitched it as a writer/director gig, so I offered them a couple of stories—one of which was a werewolf movie, which I’m still obsessed with making—but it became clear that they had scripts already written and those were ultimately what they wanted to use—the money had been spent. Many months later, Andy called and said, ‘Let me just send you a script; this is one we think you’d be great for.’ ”
Fessenden agreed, and soon determined that there was only one actor for the role of the slowly degrading Grady: the man who has brought everything from fantasy creatures to superhero antagonists to life on the big screen. “I woke up one night and said, ‘Oh my God, Doug Jones, that’s it!’ ” he reveals. “I must say I don’t know what magic had hit me, but this was brilliant, and I immediately submitted him to casting. That’s a notoriously difficult process, because the networks generally think in terms of television [names] and they really hadn’t heard of Doug, so I said, ‘Excuse me, let me educate ya’ [laughs].
“They became aware of who he was and how important he was, and I said, ‘Listen, he is the special effect, I’m gonna save you huge amounts of money and you’re gonna get something great, and the fans will be excited because he’ll be without the same amount of makeup we’re accustomed to.’ That paid off in spades; Doug was approved very quickly when they figured out who he was, and he is absolutely the centerpiece of the film. He is so spectacular, it’s really remarkable and I believe it’ll be remembered as an iconic episode, and this little minifilm of Doug’s performance.”
Skin and Bones’ cast also includes John Pyper-Ferguson, a TV and movie veteran who has guested on practically every genre series of the past two decades (from three X Files installments to the recent Night Stalker revival), and Molly Hagan, who has amassed her own lengthy screen résumé since falling under Chuck Norris’ protection in her 1985 feature debut Code of Silence. “John does a lot of TV, and it’s funny how these guys are very content with that, whereas I’m such a movie-centric person,” Fessenden observes. “He was an awesome comrade, and totally got it. There was all this talk of different name people from television and movies, and when I finally saw his audition, I said, ‘You know what, just cancel all that and go for this guy.’ And Molly was really smart; she’s actually a comedienne, which made it interesting, because she has a kind of intelligence you don’t often see in this type of project, and interesting comic timing. But she also has a great authenticity, and it ended up being a strong cast, and the kind I like: very naturalistic.”
In the course of capturing his vision under the strictures of network TV production, Fessenden says he received a level of freedom and trust that surprised him—or at least, his friends. “They were like, ‘Oh, you’re usually complaining about everything,’ but I came back from this saying, ‘No, it was really great,’ ” he reveals. “I liked my producers, who were all behind me, and they had made a sort of leap of faith in hiring me. I had no track record in TV or anything like that, and in fact the way the producer sold me to the network was, ‘Well, he’s a low-budget kid and he’ll do it fast.’
“Indeed, I had seven days where [Fear Itself’s] other directors had eight or even nine; it sounds like, ‘One day, ah, what the hell,’ but one day means everything on a film. I loved the challenge, though, and I was never insulted by the limitations. I had the right DP—Alwyn Kumst, a robust South African and very much my kind of guy, a rugged and determined artisan who was always two steps ahead, setting up shots for the next day. I was blessed with my team, and I found the production experience very satisfying, to walk onto a set with a great bunch of artisans.”
He was equally pleased that he wasn’t held back too hard in terms of how explicit he could make his televised horror show. “I went in knowing the assignment,” he notes, “and that was fun for me. I was like, ‘I’m not even gonna try to show this, but I’m gonna imply it up the wazoo,’ and through all the comments, they didn’t restrict the content, which is very extreme: children are in peril, people are eating their friends; it’s pretty gruesome stuff. But the way I filmed it, I’m glad to say that it wasn’t an issue. I know that other episodes have had to trim frames, and that’s fair enough. Look, it’s network, and it’s crazy what we’re even trying, and that’s the cool thing about Fear Itself: attempting to push that envelope.
“The other thing that’s great about the Fear Itself model, as spearheaded by Andy and the other producers, is that it really does try to embrace the auteur idea,” Fessenden continues. “Even as we did revisions, based on notes from the studio and the network, I was involved in everything.” While the New York-based director wasn’t able to spend time in the cutting room alongside editor Lynne Willingham, he was in daily contact with her, reviewing DVDs of various cuts, and was also able to bring in Jeff Grace, who has scored The Last Winter and several Scareflix features, to do the music. “It was a pretty fertile creative environment,” he says. “They’re trying to make it about the directors, as Masters of Horror was.”
With Skin and Bones about to air, Fessenden is turning his attention back to features, though he’s mostly mum on details of his upcoming projects. “I do have some of my usual low-budget things that I’m scheming, but I also have two scripts for which I’m courting interest,” he says. “I have a big, secret project, and I just know it’s not time to announce that yet, and then I have another one that I love, which would involve Ron Perlman and another wonderful actor. I’m very secretive until these things get going—why talk about something that may not move forward? I hope that one will happen, but it’s taking forever—it’s a Hollywood thing, and those always take forever to make real.”
