Subtitles section Play video
- 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