Tom Savini is one of the genre’s few living legends. His resume reads like a roster of the most original, graphic and fiercely brilliant horror films of the past thirty years. A true Renaissance man, Savini has guided his career with the mantra of “the more you do, the more you get to do” and has carved out a unique niche in horror entertainment using nothing but raw talent and sheer force of will. Where most special make-up effects artists might be satisfied with universal recognition as a pioneer and premier practitioner of their craft, Savini has parlayed his reputation as “The King of Splatter” into a complete and rounded career in filmmaking. He is an actor. He is an accomplished director (and if you have any doubts about Savini’s skill in this department, study his remake of Night of the Living Dead - one of the ‘90's best horror films despite his insistence that it falls short of his vision). He is the effects magician behind such horror masterpieces as Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th and the author of Grande Illusions I and II, both essential texts on the subject.
PENNY BLOOD: What’s the current state of the horror genre as you see it?
SAVINI: [pauses] I don’t think there is one.
PENNY BLOOD: How so?
SAVINI: Well, to me, horror movies are the classy old ones that leave things to your imagination and I don’t think we’ve had anything like that in a long time. You know, I love CGI if it’s done well, but everything I’ve seen lately like Van Helsing and those things have been cartoons with people in them. That’s okay if that’s what you want to watch - a cartoon with people in it. You might as well just watch Final Fantasy or something where it’s all animated. Shrek couldn’t keep my grandson’s attention because they’ve got the CGI down to such a point where it all looks very real. So, to him it was like watching some normal movie with weird people in it. It’s not something like Sleeping Beauty that captures your mind with color and imagination and character. There’s so much CGI that even the “real” movies like Van Helsing are cartoons with people. Although, I loved the beginning of Van Helsing… I loved The Mummy. Every time The Mummy is on, I watch it until it’s over. I thought that was excellent. That was a great use of CGI. Because with make-up, you could not do the depth of damage that they do. Like Arnold in Terminator 3 - at the end where he’s all chopped up. That has to be CGI. You couldn’t do that damage or that erasure of body parts with make-up.
PENNY BLOOD: Have you noticed a backlash against the use of CGI with some filmmakers wanting to return to make-up and mechanical effects?
SAVINI: No, I haven’t noticed that. I haven’t seen anything that was truly mechanical like An American Werewolf in London where the stuff was happening right before your eyes… or any of my stuff. Now you have to pretend it’s happening.
PENNY BLOOD: Can CGI and make-up coexist in any kind of truly effective way?
SAVINI: I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface with CGI yet.
PENNY BLOOD: Are you personally satisfied with your position in the history of the horror genre?
SAVINI: Yeah, but there’s always room for improvement. I’m still going strong, and I’m satisfied now, sure. Ask me that again in ten years and I’ll say it again. Probably. Yeah.
PENNY BLOOD: As a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, was your family supportive of your obsession with make up and monsters?
SAVINI: My mother was all for it. My dad didn’t quite understand it until I got my first movie paycheck which was more than he was able to bring home after thirty-eight years of working at the steel mills. My mother was all for it and my older brothers thought it was pretty neat that I would be interested in those things.
PENNY BLOOD: How does it feel to be mentioned in the same breath as some of your own heroes like Lon Chaney, Jack Pierce and Dick Smith?
SAVINI: Well, that’s what I wanted. I mean that’s what I wanted when I was a kid reading about those people. My son, Lon, just had a daughter named Chaney!
PENNY BLOOD: How do you define yourself at this point in your career: effects artist, actor or director? Or do you even draw a distinction between the three?
SAVINI: The more you do, the more you get to do. I think I’m mainly now an actor and director. I turn all effects work over to my school. It’s good for the school. It’s good for the students. It’s good for the producers of those projects. Here they can save money and give these great projects to up-and-comers who are trying to get known in the business and that’s what I do. I just turn all effects work over to my school. These dudes go off to New York to do a movie… six here, five there. They go to Ohio, they go all over the place to work on stuff that I turn down. I might still consult on the projects so they can use my name. If they have me as an actor, they still also use me as a consultant. They can use my name twice.
PENNY BLOOD: Do you ever feel that you’ve become a slave to your success and your reputation as “The King of Splatter”?
SAVINI: No, I mean I get called that a lot, they rephrase it here and there, but no, I don’t think so.
PENNY BLOOD: Has that title ever gotten in the way of pursuing some of your other interests in film like acting and directing?
SAVINI: No, it helps. It helps to be known.
PENNY BLOOD: Did you ever imagine that Romero’s Dead films would be as popular as they are and have as widespread cultural impact as they’ve had?
SAVINI: Of course not. There was no crystal ball back then. You know it’s good when you’re making it, you just don’t know how far it’s going to go. The films were awesome.
PENNY BLOOD: To what do you attribute the renewed interest in those films and in zombie movies in general? Even the big studios seem to be on the zombie bandwagon.
SAVINI: Well, they jump on wherever the cash is. 28 Days Later I’m sure was successful and then you have the Dawn remake - but it’s not really a remake, it’s just more Dawn of the Dead. It has nothing to do with the old one. It takes place in a mall and that’s it. The people are different and there’s a new story. So, it’s more Dawn of the Dead. It’s not a remake. And if they’re successful, they spawn others. George just got the green light for his next Dead film. I don’t know. The thing you attribute it to is the success of one. If 28 Days Later had bombed then you wouldn’t be seeing other ones.
PENNY BLOOD: Has Night of the Living Dead ‘90 at last found its audience?
SAVINI: Oh, I think so. I get e-mails constantly. People say they love it more than the original or that it’s interchangeable in the trilogy. Which is amazing to me because it’s only about thirty to forty percent of what I intended to do. All the great stuff that I wanted to do didn’t get done. That’s the biggest regret of my life that that movie is not anywhere near what I intended it to be.
PENNY BLOOD: I think it definitely stands up to the rest of the Dead films.
SAVINI: Thanks. I appreciate your comment, but really, it’s only in my mind because I know what I didn’t get to do. But it’s a miracle that what’s up there is up there.
PENNY BLOOD: Why do you think it took so long for horror fans to embrace it?
SAVINI: It happens all the time. There are movies that are out right now that have no audience now, but in ten years will become a classic. Bladerunner is a prime example. That thing took years to find its audience. A lot of the classics that we revere today were “boo-hooed” when they first came on and they just suddenly developed a following. The more people that see it, the more the collective appreciation of it occurs.
PENNY BLOOD: Can a horror film go too far or be irresponsible?
SAVINI: I think it can be irresponsible, but going too far? What’s that mean? Scaring people too much? That’s what they want. It’s like a roller coaster. It’s a long roller coaster ride or a short roller coaster ride. [Veering] off to the irresponsible would be if it involved children or something highly offensive, but the real fans are going to be fans and you can scare them for twenty-four hours.
PENNY BLOOD: I think what I’m getting at is a film like Maniac, which you allegedly disowned for a number of years.
SAVINI: No, I didn’t. I didn’t disown that. That’s a widely [held] error that somehow stays alive. I never disowned that movie or the people. I loved working on it. I loved the people involved in it. I don’t know how that rumor started. It’s totally untrue.
PENNY BLOOD: How do you react when your work is cut, reworked or censored?
SAVINI: When you’re in the business, you know that it’s somebody else’s job to put the movie together. You’ve created your pieces and that was your job. Now the director has his job and how to use those pieces and how much of those pieces. So unless you’re an egomaniac, it’s none of your business after that.
PENNY BLOOD: As a father, and now, a grandfather, how did you decide what was appropriate for your children to see in regard to horror films and even your own work?
SAVINI: Well, you have to go down a list. Would you want them to see this? No. Would you show them that? Yes. There’s no general answer. I definitely want my grandson to be trained to know who Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera are! I don’t know if I want him to see Last House on the Left.
PENNY BLOOD: How would you characterize your style as an effects artist in comparison to some of your contemporaries? For example, how is a Tom Savini effect or monster different from a Rick Baker or Rob Bottin effect or monster?
SAVINI: Well, there’s no such thing as someone knowing what their style is. It’s you. The audience attributes style to someone. If I had to say what the audience attributes to me, it’s realism. Acute realism.
PENNY BLOOD: Has easier access to instruction and materials made it easier for young effects artists to find work in the industry?
SAVINI: They have to be trained. They have to learn how to do it before they can even think of getting into the industry. That’s the problem - there’s too many of them. If I just cut up this pillow and glue it to my face and pour blood over it… Oh my God! It’s a gore effect! No it’s not, I’m afraid. You have to know what the hell you’re doing. To make something anatomically correct, to be scary, to put the pieces together shot by shot to make the magic trick work; that comes from training. It doesn’t matter what materials are out there. If you have no talent it doesn’t matter if you have a palette in front of you to paint from… you’re not going to create a painting. It’s the artist who uses the palette. It doesn’t matter what the materials are; it’s the artist who uses them who creates the art.
PENNY BLOOD: Are there any Savini School of Make Up students whose work stands out enough to say this person is the next Rick Baker or Stan Winston or Tom Savini?
SAVINI: Well, they’re already out there. They’re working at Universal Studios in Florida. They’re working at Optic Nerve [on] Return of the Living Dead in Romania. They’re working at Stan Winston’s making molds. They’re working at KNB. They’re all over the place. The students are everywhere. They’re in prosthetic labs. They’re in amusement parks. There’s not one. Not yet. We won’t hear from them until they have a real body of work going on or one forms their own company or something.
PENNY BLOOD: When you’re working on a film strictly as a director or an actor, is the effects crew ever intimidated by your presence?
SAVINI: You’d have to ask them. I don’t pass out quizzes that say, “hey, are you intimidated?” I get a sense that they aim to please. Just like I would if I were working for George Romero again or if I were working for Dario Argento - I certainly would want to please them. Whether that’s intimidation… I want them to respect me as an artist. I get the same thing when I’m consulting on a crew.
PENNY BLOOD: What work are you most proud of?
SAVINI: I don’t have any favorites because if I say the “Grandfather” make up in Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, then I think of Fluffy from Creepshow. One out does the other and they’re all great in my mind. So, there’s really no favorites. It’s like saying “what’s your favorite horror movie?” You couldn’t come up with an answer. Favorites just don’t exist as far I can see.
PENNY BLOOD: Finally, what scares Tom Savini?
SAVINI: Razors and spiders and people on cell phones. I mean people driving on cell phones. I was in Italy and there were people on Vespa motorscooters holding a cell phone up to their head and driving with one hand. It’s just a matter of time before they kill somebody or themselves. But, also, I just hate having to listen to other people’s cell phone conversations. Go away. Go outside. Don’t sit in the restaurant right next to me and talk on your cell phone. I don’t want to know what’s going on in your life. It’s like noise pollution. I wish we could do something about it.
