The pressures and challenges of faceting this year's anthology.
V/H/S/HALLOWEEN is currently streaming on Shudder, and as a special All Hallows Eve treat we spoke to the director of the film’s wraparound segment, Bryan M. Ferguson. His “Diet Phantasma,” a tale set inside a soft drink test lab, sets the bloody stage for the mayhem that follows, and it does it with a retro sheen that’s pure analog bliss — along with guts and gore to spare.
Things go awry in the test lab of “Diet Phantasma.” (Credit: Shudder/Spit Turner)
There are so many nods to vintage horror nostalgia embedded in the wrap. Can you describe the inspirations for the set and atmosphere? Your lab feels related to Silver Shamrock and I don't think that's a coincidence.
I’m glad you made the connection – I’ve always had a soft spot for Halloween III (love the soundtrack so much) but it wasn’t actually an influence on the segment, though perhaps subconsciously it was? I’m a massive fan of making projects that aren’t set in modern times because I feel things change so rapidly now that your film is dated almost instantly, so setting it in a time and place that once was, where the styling is ugly and the tech is clunky just sits well with me; it makes it more visually interesting.
Anna McKelvie in “Diet Phantasma.” (Credit: Shudder/Spit Urner)
The inspiration for the set came from old British tech documentaries that used to air in the late 1970s/early 1980s – you could almost smell the nicotine in the offices just from watching them. I really wanted a contrast between the “real world” in the control room, where everyone is overworked, coffee breathed and veiled in cigarette smoke while hiding behind a mirror that allows them to view the test subjects in the bright colourful world they’ve created to allow for a false sense of security – almost like a playroom. The juxtaposition just feeds into the satirical element.
Do you have a favorite Diet Phantasma result? And were there particular practical effect challenges and particular inspirations? It goes hard and ties the full anthology together so well.
My favorite was when we blew up the little boy. The whole wraparound was shot in only 3 days and we had an insane amount of practical effects to pull off (fire, smoke, blood cannons, prosthetics, tentacles, projectile vomit, explosions etc) – it was massively ambitious of us but we got really fucking lucky that we managed to avoid a number of tricky resets because most of our effects worked on our first or second take, which generally never happens, so having 95% of the effects in-camera and having two great effects teams pull it off without any hitches was an absolute blessing. It’s not easy to control blood spatter or even smoke when trying to make it look as though it’s a spectral apparition being sucked out of a body into an extraction unit, especially when you’re trying to manufacture a moment being “caught” on camera. We fortunately had months of prep and many tests, but even then you still have no idea if it’ll go to plan.
“Diet Phanstama” (Credit: Shudder/Spit Turner)
Is the order of the lab subject influenced by the short that follows in the film?
I actually had no idea what any of the other segments were about; we were all pretty much shooting our segments at the same time. We went in to make this wraparound like a segment on its own; it’s almost like a segment that has been taped over. The idea was to ensure that the audience would be excited to see what crazy new thing we were gonna do to the next test subject, as every time we cut back the situation escalates and becomes worse and worse.
There’s a lot of pressure when doing the wraparound because a lot of people who love the franchise tend not to really enjoy the wrap or see it as time for a piss break. I wanted this to be the antithesis of a slow build frame narrative that concludes with one big moment at the end of the film. Why not make every moment almost cranked to 11 until we break the needle? You’re not allowed much room for character development because the wrap is made to be a reset/palate cleanse between segments – so I figured we should keep feeding the viewer a strict gore diet while making them laugh.
Becca Murphy in “Diet Phantasma.” (Credit: Shudder/Spit Turner)
The wraparound has as much gore as any of the segments and possibly more special effects. What were your gag and practical must-haves? Was there a first bit in creating this that the rest were built from?
Everything effects-wise in the wraparound was in the script – we really worked hard to find ways to pull off everything, and we kept it lean because we knew we had a lot of pull off. When writing the script, I wrote each kill in sequence, so coming up with inventive ways to kill people with a can of soda, weirdly, wasn't as difficult as I initially thought. However, at first I was like, well how the fuck do I top impaling a guy’s face with a haunted tentacle launching soda can?.. Oh, PULL TAB KILL, naturally…
Tell us about Diet Phantasma. Is there just something innately sinister about artificial sweeteners? Americans often think of our artificial food issues as a national problem; how does that land for UK audiences?
There’s something innately sinister about large conglomerates and consumerism in general (and of course artificial sweeteners masking poltergeist infused beverages). I’m not a big soda guy, I used to be a Diet Coke head when I was in my teens then I moved to coffee – the soda in the UK isn’t as crazy as it is in US; you guys have a lot of interesting flavors and combinations that we don’t get over here. It definitely lands with UK audiences because we're aware of the strict regulations disallowing a lot of the chemicals that are in the American artificial food/soda industries (poltergeist extract?). This is why I try to drink soda when I'm over in America. It’s so I can feel something.
Diet Phantasma: It's tongue on your fizzy! Wait… (Credit: Shudder/Spit Turner)
I get so excited when I see Fango in a movie. Was this a special issue for you? I love the idea of a corporate mad scientist reading a Fango at work.
I’m so glad you dug it! I always get a kick out of little horror fan easter eggs in horror. Inside jokes like that, I feel, makes the horror community feel unified. I wrote it into the script because I always dig when Fango pops up in a movie or TV show; the magazine is iconic. I looked for covers that would fit from issues dated 1982. It was between the one we used (Halloween II) and the exploding head in Scanners. I think we made the right choice!
Becca Murphy and Bryan M. Ferguson serving face. (Credit: Spit Turner)
