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  • - I think the M-80 firecracker,

  • is the weapon of choice.

  • - [James] Oh, what're you gonna do with that?

  • - [Joe] Well I think you have to,

  • shove it down the front of her dress.

  • (cackling) (bomb exploding)

  • And, set it off, because otherwise how are you gonna

  • get rid of her?

  • (chainsaw revving) (techno synthesizer music)

  • - [James] Hey I'm James A. Janisse,

  • and some of you may know me as Dead Meat.

  • If you do, you probably already know

  • that I love to watch people die.

  • (screaming) You know, like, on screen.

  • I've always wanted to talk to the horror legends

  • who put those kills on screen and find out what scares them.

  • And also, if they could survive their favorite kill scenes.

  • This is Meat Up.

  • Today's guest, director and Gremlins creator Joe Dante.

  • (slow swing music)

  • - Hi Joe, I'm James. - Oh, Hi.

  • Come on in.

  • - Thank you. Thank you.

  • Hey, welcome back to another episode of Meat Up.

  • I'm James A. Janisse and today I'm here with Joe Dante,

  • who has done so much marvelous work, thank you.

  • - And, we've got the meat, for Meat Up.

  • - That's right.

  • - Foods here, it's from Lala's

  • - [James] Yep, we ordered out.

  • - You have the best one which is pechuga dijon.

  • - [James] Oohh

  • - It's the best thing they have.

  • - And Lala's is an Argentinian grill

  • from, its in Studio City.

  • I've gone there before.

  • - There's one here in Hollywood.

  • - Oh, this is from the Hollywood one.

  • - Because this would really be cold

  • if it came from the Studio City.

  • - That's what I thought, yeah.

  • [Casual Music]

  • Horror fans might best know you for Piranha or Gremlins

  • but your career has spanned a lot of different genres

  • and a lot of different films but they all have

  • that kind of fun play to them.

  • The're kind of fantastical.

  • - I like the genre and um when you start out in something

  • and it works then they tend to tell you

  • that we like you to make more of it.

  • - Mhmm

  • - But it's fine with me because I enjoy these pictures.

  • - Yeah, and I've heard ah, various other people

  • kind of complain or like it rubs them the wrong way

  • that they get kind of pigeon holed into the genre

  • but even though you say your fine with it.

  • It does seem like you've been able to

  • breakout of it a little bit.

  • You haven't just done horror.

  • - Well yeah because, because I think horror

  • and comedy are kind of aligned

  • and some of my favorite comedies are

  • horror pictures and uh vice versa.

  • - What are some of your favorites, like that?

  • - Well everybody always says

  • Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

  • - Of course.

  • - That's the one that that blends all the stuff

  • that scared you when you were a kid with the things

  • that made you laugh when you were a kid.

  • But I remember watching the James Whales movies,

  • um, like the Invisible Man.

  • Where you know the Invisible Man is obviously crazy

  • and he does a lot of weird crazy things

  • and it was sort of funny, but then in the middle

  • of it he will hit someone over the

  • head with a stool and kill them.

  • You sort of, you laugh kind of catches in your throat.

  • - Yeah

  • - And a laugh in the right place is a relaxer and

  • you can scare people a lot more easily if their relaxed.

  • (upbeat swing music)

  • - [Jame] Roger Corman, would it be fair to say

  • like you started your career with him?

  • - I wouldn't have a career if it wasn't for Roger Corman.

  • - Yeah, yeah.

  • - And I am not the only one who can say that.

  • There's a whole generations of people in Hollywood

  • whose career wouldn't exist if it wasn't for

  • working for Roger, because you made movies

  • that were under the radar for not much money

  • and you learned all these problem solving ticks

  • that you wouldn't get otherwise.

  • - Mhmm

  • - And because you had to have a movie at the end

  • of your ten days or whatever it was that

  • you got to shoot it and it got released

  • which was fairly terrifying.

  • And so many of the people who went through The Corman School

  • became Academy aware winners and became

  • the pillars of the industry.

  • And Roger is still going, he's 92.

  • I had lunch with him yesterday.

  • - Oh wow

  • - And he just doesn't show any signs of quitting.

  • He's still making movies.

  • - That's so good to hear. I love hearing that.

  • You began by editing some stuff for him right?

  • Editing trailers and uh.

  • - Yeah, I started in the trailer department,

  • uh, which is a great way to learn

  • how to make movies because you have to take every scene

  • and reduce it to down to its components.

  • Uh, you take a three minutes scene

  • and you got to reduce it down to 30 seconds

  • and then in doing that you start to realize,

  • well you don't really need that

  • angle at all. You can go from here to here.

  • All those things are in your head when

  • you finally get a chance to direct a movie.

  • - Mhmm

  • - So instead of wasting time shooting angles

  • that you don't need and covering the scenes

  • as if every angle in every shot and every actor

  • is going to be important.

  • You do what you need to do,

  • in order to be able to make it work.

  • - Did you ever edit any of your own features?

  • - I, yes, I started out editing my own picture

  • Hollywood Boulevard, which I co-directed

  • with Allan Arkush and he also

  • - Mhmm

  • - co-edited it with me.

  • And then I did Piranha which I was one of the editors on.

  • I did The Howling which I was one of the editors on.

  • But I discovered when I got into the studio business

  • that to give the director the power

  • of editing his own movie.

  • Is really in their eyes giving him a little too much power.

  • - Yeah.

  • - And so its like, they feel that you're

  • not really the best judge of what it is that you shot.

  • So, its better to have someone else do it.

  • (energetic groovy music)

  • - Yet you have this tendency to blend genres,

  • a Gremlins is, it's like what kind of movie is this even?

  • Is it a kids movie?

  • Is it a holiday move?

  • A comedy?

  • A horror?

  • And I always appreciate that.

  • I am fine with ambiguity.

  • I'm fine with things not being put into boxes but ah.

  • - But you obviously don't run a studio.

  • - Exactly. Yeah, or how do you respond to people

  • trying to tell you to make things that

  • are more one or the other?

  • Which I'm assuming--

  • - Nobody wants to be dictated to.

  • On the other hand, you know, these people are

  • spending a great deal of money

  • and they have a market and they have ways of

  • doing business and stuff and you want to make them happy.

  • In the case of Gremlins, which was made

  • for Steven Spielberg, who was very accommodating,

  • to letting directors make their own movies.

  • Once the time comes to show it to studio

  • and the studio was totally confused by the movie.

  • They just didn't get it. They didn't understand it.

  • They think Gremlins are so ugly and

  • they rub their nose on the curtains and its like urgh.

  • Why can't they all be like Gizmo.

  • Why can't they just all be cute and lovable.

  • Part of the success of that movie is due entirely

  • to Spielberg's insistence that even

  • at the last minute