The Creator of Shudder’s New Christmas Anthology on Spooky Holiday Traditions

If you’ve been creeping astir Shudder looking for thing to adhd a small fright to your seasonal viewing, you mightiness person noticed The Haunted Season—a marque caller anthology bid from showrunner Kier-La Janisse, a genre expert whose galore works see standout film-theory publication House of Psychotic Women and caller folk-horror documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched.

The archetypal entry, To Fire You Come astatine Last, is written and directed by Sean Hogan; it’s astir a radical of men carrying a coffin to beryllium buried who’re haunted (literally) by past misdeeds portion making the journey. To larn much astir The Haunted Season, which volition bring 1 caller introduction to Shudder implicit the adjacent respective years, we talked with Janisse implicit video chat.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: I person work your publication Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror connected Film and Television, which gives a fantastic past of the genre and the traditions down it. But for radical who mightiness not person work it, I’ll get 1 of the section titles and ask: “Why the shade communicative astatine Christmas”?

Kier-La Janisse: It’s absorbing due to the fact that Derek Johnston, who wrote that chapter, years agone wrote a publication called Haunted Seasons, which my rubric is wholly ripped from [laughs]. When I was doing the Yuletide Terror book, there’s hundreds of films successful it, but astir of them are precise evidently connected to Christmas successful immoderate way. They’re either astir Christmas oregon they instrumentality spot astatine Christmas, oregon there’s disposable Christmas decorations truthful that you could warrant it arsenic a Christmas movie. 

But a batch of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas [episodes] of the 1970s had thing to bash with Christmas. And truthful erstwhile I was including them successful the book, I thought, North American audiences are not going to recognize wherefore these films are present due to the fact that they’re like, “What bash they person to bash with Christmas?” I asked Derek if helium would constitute a section talking astir wherever this contented comes from, of telling shade stories of Christmas and the thought of Christmas programming—not needfully the programming itself, but the information that it’s chosen to beryllium programmed astatine that time. 

It goes backmost centuries—it comes from the older contented of telling winter’s tales. [When] radical gathered astir the hearth oregon astir the fire, and they would travel up with amusement to walk the clip portion they were trying to support warm. Winter’s tales were what they were called due to the fact that they’d beryllium these spooky tales that they would archer [when] the days are truthful abbreviated and [the play is] turning implicit into a caller year. There’s this thought of liminal boundaries betwixt 1 authorities of being and another. They would archer these shade stories and past implicit time, erstwhile we started having written literature, you would commencement to spot references to them successful [places similar the works of] Shakespeare and Marlowe.

Then of people successful the Victorian era, you person Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which was massively important, not lone for the thought of the Christmas shade story, but conscionable for Christmas successful general. It was portion of Queen Victoria’s mandate to repopularize Christmas. Charles Dickens penning that communicative erstwhile helium did was a large portion of not lone cementing this thought that Christmas is the clip erstwhile we archer shade stories, but that this is the clip of twelvemonth we person Christmas—because earlier Queen Victoria, it had benignant of fallen retired arsenic a fashionable holiday. A Christmas Carol became important for creating a batch of these ideas and mythologies we person astir Christmas—Christmas histrion decorations and each these accouterments that we subordinate with Christmas that came from that period. 

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The shade communicative for Christmas came to beryllium associated precise powerfully with that period—an also, determination were so many shade communicative writers successful the Victorian epoch … there’s conscionable tons and tons of them. And truthful erstwhile vigor came in, they started doing vigor adaptations of A Christmas Carol and different types of shade stories astir the holiday. Then, that transformed into television. 

So the BBC was benignant of ever progressive and doing shade stories for Christmas successful immoderate signifier oregon another. In the 1970s, Lawrence Gordon Clark, who was a director, projected this thought of—he didn’t foresee it being a series. He projected 1 movie doing an adaptation of M.R. James’ communicative The Stalls of Barchester. He utilized a erstwhile adaptation of an M.R. James communicative arsenic impervious that this could beryllium popular; Jonathan Miller had made an adaptation called Whistle and I’ll Come to You successful the precocious ‘60s, which is fantastic. And it was not made for Christmas. It was made for a antithetic clip of year, a antithetic program. 

But Lawrence Gordon Clark took that to them and said, “Look however bully this is, and ideate if we could bash thing similar this for Christmas.” So helium made The Stalls of Barchester. It was a large hit, truthful past helium got support each twelvemonth to support making different one. And truthful it became a series; each done the ‘70s, determination would beryllium a antithetic episode. 

And truthful that is what my bid The Haunted Season is based on—this thought of an yearly shade communicative movie that premieres each year. And I cognize for North American audiences, utilizing the connection “series” to picture thing that lone has 1 occurrence for a twelvemonth is weird, but it is based connected that tradition. It’s fundamentally a Christmas peculiar that’s ongoing, wherever there’s a caller installment each year. That contented inactive exists successful the UK. So this bid is conscionable portion of that bigger tradition.

io9: How did you determine connected To Fire You Come astatine Last arsenic the archetypal entry? How did writer-director Sean Hogan get involved?

Janisse: Sean Hogan is simply a filmmaker, a writer of books, a playwright—he does each kinds of each kinds of things. He’s incredibly talented, truly large with play dialogue. And truthful I projected to him—and helium tin bash a batch with a little, which is important due to the fact that we person precise debased budgets for these things—if helium would marque a abbreviated movie primitively for Severin Films’ people fearfulness container set. We were doing our caller container set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume Two. The archetypal container acceptable had my documentary [Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched] connected it—it had a caller movie connected it. And we were like, “We don’t person an equivalent of that for the 2nd container set.” So we asked Sean if helium would marque a movie for that. 

I gave him a mates of prompts for it. The thought of it being acceptable connected a corpse roadworthy was thing that came from 1 of the prompts that I gave him. 

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But earlier helium adjacent finished the film, I benignant of flashed backmost to this thought that Sam Zimmerman from Shudder and I had implicit a decennary agone erstwhile we utilized to enactment unneurotic for Fangoria magazine. Back past we were trying to get Fangoria to bash a shade communicative for Christmas that we could premiere connected the website, and the steadfast wouldn’t spell for it. But we had wanted Sean Hogan to marque that film. 

So erstwhile Sean was making this movie for me, earlier helium was adjacent done, I said to [Severin Films’] David Gregory, “What if we tin transportation this to Shudder astir being portion of an ongoing bid of shade stories for Christmas?” And David was like, “Sure, spell for it.”

And truthful Sam and I had a conversation, and it was astonishing due to the fact that it was this thought that we had that was not approved years and years ago. We were truthful excited astir it, like, “Let’s bash it now!” And truthful that was truly however it happened. It was successful immoderate ways a precise long-gestating project, but past it conscionable was similar everything clicked, wherever it was like, each of this could really work, you know? I’m conscionable ace gladsome that Sean Hogan made the archetypal 1 due to the fact that helium was the filmmaker we were talking astir doing the Fangoria 1 each those years ago. 

I emotion the film. It turned retired truthful well. He made it with a tiny squad successful the UK and—you can’t archer from watching the film, but it was freezing and raining portion they were making it. They were successful precise adverse conditions, but I deliberation it turned retired truly well. 

io9: To Fire You Come astatine Last is precise traditional, precise overmuch successful the benignant of the older films. Is that thing we’ll beryllium seeing arsenic the bid continues?

Janisse: I don’t cognize that they’ll beryllium successful achromatic and white, but they volition each beryllium period. They won’t needfully beryllium that aforesaid period, but they are expected to prosecute with the past successful immoderate way. The guidelines that I’ve fixed the filmmakers is that decidedly thing after, like, 1960. You tin spell backmost to the Middle Ages if you want, oregon you tin spell up to the ‘50s, you know, but it has to consciousness [like a play piece]. That was what the contented ever was.

It’s interesting, erstwhile A Ghost Story for Christmas archetypal played successful the ‘70s, the past 2 episodes, they made modern stories—they did not accommodate similar older Victorian shade stories. They made caller stories, modern stories acceptable successful modern settings. And the assemblage astatine the clip revolted—a batch of them got atrocious reviews. Now radical emotion those episodes due to the fact that present they’re vintage, present they’re play pieces. But astatine the clip erstwhile they were new, radical were like, “You’re ruining the tradition!” So I decided that I was going to support the parameters. It’s [a beauteous wide clip frame], but they volition inactive beryllium play pieces of immoderate sort. 

io9: Can you tease thing astir immoderate of the different entries?

Janisse: The lone happening I tin tease is that I’m doing 1 of them [as my archetypal communicative film]. I person asked different people, they’re penning their scripts now—I’ll tease [more] erstwhile the clip gets closer. 

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io9: I americium a large instrumentality of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, your people fearfulness documentary. Are these Christmas shade stories portion of the people fearfulness tradition?

Janisse: It decidedly crosses implicit due to the fact that of that oral contented facet of it. Like a batch of the BBC shade stories for Christmas, you astir apt telephone them much similar gothic fearfulness than folklore, but it depends. Something similar A Warning to the Curious and Whistle and I’ll Come to You you could telephone folklore due to the fact that they’re decidedly digging up an artifact from the past that is carrying each this baggage with it. There’s decidedly people fearfulness elements to immoderate of them, but immoderate of them are decidedly much successful the gothic realm. But I deliberation that Christmas shade stories, conscionable due to the fact that of the information that they’re tied to this oral tradition, that makes it a spot much connected to folklore.

io9: And you’ve mentioned a mates of titles, but for radical who ticker the archetypal occurrence of The Haunted Season and privation to spot much successful that vein, what bash you urge they question out? 

Janisse: Well, Shudder has licensed Jonathan Miller’s Whistle and I’ll Come to You. Absolutely commencement with that. And they’ve licensed Lawrence Gordon Clark’s A Ghost Story for Christmas from the 1970s. Those are the ones that my bid is referencing, truthful I would urge taking successful each of those—there’s similar 9 antithetic choices of what they tin watch. I don’t cognize if they have The Stone Tape connected Shudder [editor’s note: they do!] but The Stone Tape was broadcast for Christmas. It doesn’t person thing to bash with Christmas, but it was broadcast arsenic portion of the Christmas programing, arsenic a Christmas shade story. And that’s a large one, too.

Watch To Fire You Come astatine Last, the archetypal occurrence of The Haunted Season, connected Shudder now.

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