Written By: Sam Santiago
This interview was originally conducted in 2011, during the early days of the TrulyDisturbing website, when the site was still establishing the horror space. More than a decade later, the conversation remains as sharp, funny, and relevant as ever.
John Landis needs little introduction. As the director behind "An American Werewolf in London", "Animal House", "The Blues Brothers", and "Twilight Zone: The Movie", Landis helped define how horror and comedy could coexist without canceling each other out. His influence on the genre is undeniable, particularly in how monster movies could be visceral, terrifying, and genuinely funny all at once. Few filmmakers speak as candidly or as passionately about their work, and fewer still have earned the right to do so.
Landis is a man of many words. Let me be the first to say that this man can talk, and I loved every second of it. Some directors you can barely speak to without fighting off sleep. Not Landis. His strong opinions, grit, and passion for filmmaking are unmatched. As a fan, it was an honor to speak with the man behind so many unforgettable films.
Below is my exclusive interview with John Landis, where we discuss "Burke and Hare", Tim Curry, the origins of "An American Werewolf in London", and his complete distaste for 3D cash grabs.
Interview
TD: First off, thank you for taking the time to chat with me.
John Landis: No problem. What can I do for you?
TD: I wanted to talk to you about your latest film, "Burke and Hare".
JL: Yeah, the funny thing about that film is it was shot over a year ago and is only now getting released on September 9. It’s on Video on Demand right now, though. It’s a brave new world. Have you seen it?
TD: I have. IFC sent me a screener for review, but they never followed through with our scheduled interview.
JL: Huh. That’s strange. Why would they do that?
TD: I guess I’m small fries to them.
JL: (Laughs) That doesn’t make sense.
TD: What drew you to "Burke and Hare" in the first place?
JL: Pure serendipity. I was in London with my wife about two years ago. A good friend of mine, Gurinder Chadha, who directed "Bend It Like Beckham", works out of Ealing Studios. She wanted to meet for lunch there, and I was excited because Ealing Studios was legendary in the forties and fifties. They made incredible films like "Dead of Night", "The Ladykillers", and "The Lavender Hill Mob".
It’s also the only studio actually located in London. The others are all outside the city. While we were there, Barnaby Thompson walked by. Gurinder introduced us, and as he was leaving, he came back and asked if I was John Landis. I said yes, and he handed me the script for Burke and Hare by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft.
They sound like morticians, right? (Laughs)
What interested me was that Burke and Hare were real people, and they were awful people. The idea of making a romantic comedy about such loathsome characters was fascinating. You have to make them sympathetic without excusing what they did. We show every murder. Ironically, there are over a dozen versions of Burke and Hare, mostly horror films, and ours is the most historically accurate.
It was such a perverse idea. It was like saying, “Let’s make a romantic comedy about Charles Manson.” It was ridiculous, so I had to do it.
TD: The cast is incredible. Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry. It was great to see Curry back on screen.
JL: Tim and I go way back. Have you seen Clue?
TD: Of course.
JL: I wrote the original draft and produced it, though I didn’t direct it. Tim’s been in several of my films. I’ve worked with him at least five times. He’s fantastic. Christopher Lee was a friend too. He did a day’s work, and we got to kill him. (Laughs) We were lucky to have such great people involved.
TD: The film is very dark, but still feels like a comedy.
JL: That’s the irony. These guys are murderers, no question about it, but you end up liking them. We don’t hide what they are. And it’s a true story.
TD: Andy Serkis was great. This felt like a standout role for him.
JL: The most sympathetic character Andy ever played was King Kong. William Hare is a terrible person, but you like him. He loves his wife, and she’s awful too. (Laughs)
TD: How long was the shoot?
JL: Forty days.
TD: All in London?
JL: Half in Edinburgh, half in London.
TD: The thirtieth anniversary of "An American Werewolf in London" just passed.
JL: Yeah, a few people mentioned that.
TD: That film still has such an impact. As a fan, thank you for it.
JL: Thank you. It was a pleasure to make because I had total control. It was a negative pickup deal, which meant no studio interference. What that is is you make a deal with a distributor company, which was Polygrand at that time, and they agree to give you a certain amount of money when you give them the finished film. With this agreement, you go to a bank, and you borrow the money, and you have to get a completion bond. It’s sort of an insurance policy. So when the movie is done, you get the money back to the bank, and the distribution company gives you the money you originally agreed upon. What’s great about this process is you have no interference. I mean, I was signing the checks. I had complete control of the film, so it was just a pleasure to make. I wrote it in 1969 while working on "Kelly’s Heroes" in Yugoslavia. No one would finance it back then. I only got to make it because "Kentucky Fried Movie", "Animal House", and "The Blues Brothers" were successful.
TD: I heard you and Rick Baker went back and forth on the werewolf design.
JL: I never went back and forth with Rick about that. I told him exactly what I wanted. He wanted it to be a two-legged wolf man, and I wanted it to be a huge monster wolf from hell. But ya know, I win cause I’m the director. (laughs)
TD: There are so many variations on what a werewolf should look like, but I think your version is still the best.
JL: Every movie makes its own rules. There is no right or wrong way to do it. I mean if you ever see the "Wolf Man" with Lon Chaney Jr., he gets bit by a huge dog, then ends up being a two-legged werewolf. I never understood that. And people who say there are rules with vampires or werewolves one must follow is bullshit! They’re made up, fake, so they can be anything the filmmakers want them to be. There are no rules. (laughs)
TD: I’m also a big fan of "Deer Woman" from "Masters of Horror."
JL: Oh yeah?
TD: You blend horror and comedy better than anyone.
JL: "Deer Woman" was meant to be funny, but most horror films, or should I say fantasy films, have what is called suspension of disbelief. For me, the film that did this the best in the horror genre was "The Exorcist". Now I am not Christian or Catholic, and I certainly don’t believe in the existence of the devil at all, but when I saw the movie, it scared the fuck outta me! I mean, the film gives you that suspension of disbelief that there is a devil, and this little girl is really possessed.
TD: Do you think there’s a lack of good horror films right now?
JL: There’s a lack of good everything right now. (Laughs) The last great horror film I saw was "Let the Right One In".
TD: What’s harder, starting a story or finishing it?
JL: Hmm, that's interesting. Coming up with the story. Once I know what I want to tell, writing isn’t that hard.
TD: What are you working on now?
JL: I might be heading to London to make another film if the financing goes through. I’m also writing a small monster movie in Paris.
TD: Comedy or horror?
JL: Neither. I love all genres. Especially musicals and Westerns.
TD: Favorite Western?
JL: The problem when you say the word “favorite” is that it labels things. I can name you twenty-five different great Westerns. There are just so many. It’s hard to just label one.
TD: What do you think of 3D?
JL: It’s bullshit. It’s just a way of making more money. Most films should not be in 3D. I have not seen a film that utilizes 3D better than the original "Creature From The Black Lagoon". The technology they keep praising is bullshit. It’s exactly the same. The difference is that it’s digital. The digital projection allows you to use just one projector. In the old days, you had to use two projectors, and if they weren’t perfectly in sinc you’d get a headache, and it wouldn’t work. The optics are the same. There is no great advance. It’s just a scam. I think people are sick of it.
TD: It’s just sad that so many people fall for it all the time.
JL: Well, I don’t think they do any more. You don’t go see a movie cause it’s in 3D.
TD: No, no, you don’t.
JL: You go because you wanna see it. A good 3D movie has to work flat also. I mean I like 3D, I just think it’s a fad. Just bullshit.
TD: Well, thank you for spending a few minutes with me. It really meant a lot to me as a fan.
JL: You’re welcome. Thank you very much.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This interview was conducted early on in our journalistic career, and we do realise that some of the questions could have been expanded on, and we did not, at the time, see the potential to do that. Hopefully, we will remedy this one day soon and chat with mister Landis again.