Clockwise from left: As more friends go missing, the remaining patients of Pinehurst Sanitarium huddle up for a dark and stormy night (left to right: Jerry Pavlon, Tiffany Helm, Shavar Ross and Juliette Cummins); Reggie (Ross) with big brother Demon (Miguel Nunez); Tommy (John Shepherd) unleashes his anger on Junior Hubbard.
MIGUEL A. NUNEZ, JR:
I loved Danny because he'd let me ad-lib. That song I sing when I'm sitting in the outhouse, "Ooh, Baby!"? I wrote that. That wasn't even in the script. And even today, people still come up to me and sing that song. Danny let you pretty much let you do your thing. He was one of those directors who was real conducive to actors—he let you go in and create. I thought it was a great learning experience for me. The best kind.
CAROL LOCATELL:
My sense was that Danny was a young guy who was gaining experience on the film just like everybody else. He was sweet, and I never felt any tension in terms of our working together—sometimes, directors can be brutal to actors. But I was left to my own devices, really. I think most of us felt that way. Which may show, I don't know.
I was given a lot of free license, especially to use the word "fuck" every chance I got. Remember my final words to the sheriff, when I flip him off? That was mine. All that screaming with the chicken, the "Hiiiiyyyyeeeeee!" That was mine. And, "Will you shut the fuck up?" That was an ad lib. Although, I do think "fuckwad" might have already been in the script…
RON SLOAN:
Danny knew what he wanted, but he was open to improvisation. I personally felt a lot of freedom. I don't know, I just felt damn lucky to be there. It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences—this is still the most fun character that I have played in my whole career. And I love Carol Locatell. There was an instant chemistry between us. In our rehearsals she would constantly slap me around and cuss. Which was a great motivation for my character—the more she would abuse me, the more Junior would love her. We couldn't help but laugh. And it is amazing that our dialogue still lives on today. Carol and I occasionally do conventions together, and fans are always asking us to do our lines. One fan even posted a montage of them on YouTube. That's pretty cool.
JULIETTE CUMMINS:
When I got the script, the big issue was how much nudity was in it. Because I was under 20 years old. At first they said it was just going to be a flash of lightning and you saw me as a dead body, nude. Then they sprung that thing with the mirror—that stupid line my character says in front of the mirror—on the set at 1:00 a.m. They had to get more T&A into the film, and I was it. And also because Tiffany Helm wouldn't do the nudity—she was just not going to do it. So it suddenly became, "Okay, take off your robe." I had to make a decision then and there about whether I was going to do it or not. I couldn't call my agent in the middle of the night. Danny took me aside and he told me that it was going to be non-sexual: "You're just talking here—this isn't a porn thing." So he comforted me in that respect.
The funny thing is, I don't know why everyone wants me to take off my clothes. I don't have what everybody wants, giant boobs—I've got a handful and that's about it. Back then, it was a big thing to take off your clothes, and I was always asked to do it. And being young, you think it's going to affect your career and maybe you won't get hired for something else because you took it off. Nowadays, you have Oscar-winning actresses like Halle Berry doing nudity. I don't think it makes a difference now, but back then, it was a big thing. But I was and am a little bit of a rebel. I figured that nobody knew me, anyway, so was this really going to hurt me? I grew up here in the Hollywood Hills on Ronald Reagan's old ranch, before it became subdivided—I remember I would go barefoot and topless. And my scene wasn't supposed to be sexualized anyway. But still, to this day, everyone goes, "Oooh!"
JOHN SHEPHERD:
I don't think any of the cast really knew of any tensions going on. I certainly didn't. I really liked Danny. I remember he always wore a Yankees hat. And he came up to me one day early on and said, "Look, kid, this is your film. This is your shot. If you take this seriously and do a good job, I will treat you right and this film will treat you right." And after he gave me that power and confidence as an actor, I was able to do great work. I really had respect for Danny because he seemed to take it seriously.
SHAVAR ROSS:
Sometimes Danny could get really serious. There was a scene near the end of the film, right before the big chase sequence, where I'm sleeping, and Juliette comes to put the covers over me. They had set up this high-angle shot, and originally you were supposed to see my face. But every take I was chuckling, and my eyes were twitching. Danny got a little upset—"You're laughing and joking around." But that is the only time I remember him ever raising his voice, at least around me.
TIM SILVER:
A New Beginning was an unpleasant experience for a lot of people, in a creative sense. The fault probably lies in Danny's approach to the material. There were many of us who were pretty shocked after that first day. I don't mean any disrespect to Danny. Who knows what his assignment was from the powers that be on the East Coast? He was on a mission. Scuderi was the one who sent him, and Danny's job was probably to push the envelope as much as possible, in terms of sex, nudity and violence. And Frank's major effort was to reign that in so we could have footage we could show onscreen. There was a constant struggle, in a sense, throughout the entire production. Everyone was looking out to make sure that what Danny was doing was on target. But I thought Frank had the most consistent understanding of that and the best insight into what makes these movies work.
"I was in that outhouse, and it was freezing," laughs actor Miguel Nunez of Demon's demise. "I had to do the whole death scene from top to bottom multiple times. First with the camera straight out in front with the door off. Then with the left side of the wall off. Then they put that wall back up and took the other wall off and I had to do it again. It felt like I shot my death scene for like two weeks—it took me that long to die."
FRANK MANCUSO, JR.:
My feeling was that Danny was going to be the guy directing the movie, and any director goes out there and tries to put their own imprint on whatever it is he or she is doing. Everybody's bringing their own sensibilities to the party. And Danny was somebody Phil Scuderi knew. I was always respectful of Phil, and unless I had any particular aversion to what he wanted to do, I wouldn't fight him. Especially on this one, because on this one I was telling everybody up front, "Okay, I'm not going to be there every day, managing this movie." My real task at hand was to make sure that the creative needs of the movie were being met. At the same time, Danny's creative sensibilities needed to be expressed, but it had to be expressed in a context we were accustomed to living with.
DANNY STEINMANN:
Psycho is a great horror movie, but basically nothing happens for the first 45 minutes until you get to the shower. But after the Friday movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween—audiences demanded there be as many kills and thrills as possible. The mood is carnal. The faster, more intense, crazed and horrific, the better. I tried to keep the film moving, put as many scares and kills in as possible, make the visuals interesting and the action exciting. And if there are places for humor, go for it.
It does surprise and hurt me to find out what others have said. It's like being punched in the gut. This was not a "troubled" production. The film came in on schedule and under budget. The producer and I never had a serious argument or even a spat. The two films I had done prior to A New Beginning had both gotten away from me. I would not let this be another casualty. I have many faults, too many probably, but when I worked on a film I gave it my all and expected the people working with me to do the same.
My responsibility was to shoot a decent movie, the best it could be. I've been described as a paranoid, tense, out-of-control sex pervert and cocaine addict; desperate, crude, incompetent and an asshole with no talent. Some people like the movie, believe it or not. Some people hate it. But there's no way it would retain the amount of cont
roversy and interest it has if the director was basically a madman.
The cast and I got along quite well. I won't trade insults with those that inexplicably turned on me, but I do thank the people that remember their participation in the movie fondly and have only the nicest things to say. As principal photography ended, I was given a beautiful copy of the Jason mask on which the cast and crew signed their names with lovely messages. Frank gave each of them a $100 bonus. I gave everyone a clock radio.
The Friday the 13th films have always been known for their edge-of-your-seat third acts, usually involving a scantily clad blonde, lots of running and screaming, an eviscerated corpse or two thrown through a window, and a chair jumper of a surprise ending. But the success of the previous four films had upped the ante; by Part V, there was not just one heroine, there was also a hero and a child in peril. The deaths had to be more creative, over-the-top and amplified. The stunts needed to be bigger, the thunder louder, the lightning brighter. And so much rain that even the Los Angeles Fire Department had to be called in one night to drench the set when the rain machines weren't enough.
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
I found the whole thing very scary because of my situation and the conditions I was working under. I was the only one alone in the woods and in the dark and in the rain, and it was 30 degrees. I had nobody to commiserate with. So it became very real to me. How could it not be? You are out there in the dark, it's a limited crew and a closed set. It was scary.
MIGUEL A. NUNEZ, JR.:
The whole movie was like a Jason factory of death. While they were killing me, they were using Jason to kill somebody else down the street. I was in that outhouse, and it was freezing. And I had to do the whole death scene from top to bottom multiple times. First with the camera straight out in front with the door off. Then with the left side of the wall off. Then they put that wall back up and took the other wall off and I had to do it again. It felt like I shot my death scene for like two weeks—it took me that long to die.
RON SLOAN:
My death scene was very challenging. Just before my decapitation on the motorcycle, I had to do what is called a film reversal. I was placed in a harness that whipped my body backwards when triggered. They would then film me changing my facial expression from screaming to normal. A cutout blade was also used, with the blade snuggly placed against my neck, giving the illusion of it deeply penetrating. So, then when the film is played back in conjunction with the decapitation, my body reaction also physically looked like I was hit with blunt force. We did this many times and at different camera angles until Danny was happy with the final results. I had a camera strapped to the handle bars of the dirt bike, which made steering very difficult—basically I could only drive straight. And, of course, Danny said that the camera was worth 50 grand, and if I dump the bike he'd kill me for real!
And, after all that, they then had to toss a reproduction of my head on to the ground and film it rolling. The casting of my head was not fun. I had to keep my mouth open with my face in a screaming position during the whole mold-making process. And time goes by so slowly when the materials are dripping down into your mouth. Then, when they finally cut the mold off my head, the penetrating sound of the plaster cast saw vibrated like it is going through my brain. But right at the end, the special effect artist exclaimed "Oh, no, I think we have to do it again!" He said that the mold looked like it cracked and might not work. I told him, "Make it work! I do not want to go through that again." He was probably joking with me, but I was not joking with him. A root canal would be more fun.
"Near the end of editing Part V, I hadn't gotten my hair cut in a long time and I was under all this pressure to finish the movie," recalls Bruce Green of editing the decapitation of Junior Hubbard. "So I had this guy cut my hair while I watched this one scene over and over. And after the guy was done, I went to pay him and he was literally shaking. He said, 'I'm sorry—that was horrible!' I was looking at takes for the way the light was hitting the knife, and he just saw mayhem. He didn't talk to me anymore after that. He thought I was the devil."
JERRY PAVLON:
I had come into Part V from a very disciplined culture of theatre training. My idol at the time was Ian McKellen—that should tell you a lot. So someone telling me, "Now you're going to be encased in five inches of plastic from your waist up and over your head, and you'll have two straws inserted into your nose to breathe through…?" But to my own surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole fascinating world of makeup effects. The makeup shop was a horror film buff's dream—like a toy store with claws hanging off shelves, dead people's faces half-painted and human fingers sitting on workbenches. It was marvelous. I loved it. And the guy in charge of the shop even asked me, on the last day, if I'd like to take home the unused dummy head of me. But I declined. I don't get a lot of light in my apartment in New York anyway, and somehow, having that thing in the corner smiling at me at midnight would have been strange. I'm sure my friends would have been delighted, though.
SHAVAR ROSS:
I had a great time hanging out with the makeup and special effects people. I got to try on a lot of different, bloody things, since I wasn't getting killed off. I remember being like, "Give me a knife in the hand or something! I want to see what it looks like!" And they would do little makeup stuff for me.
JULIETTE CUMMINS:
I had a great time filming my death scene. When the blood started going down my neck, it was cold and I'd start laughing. I was thinking, "I'm not getting killed. This is all pretend. This is magic. This is fun!"
CAROL LOCATELL:
I think the most direction I ever received during Part V was how to squish a tomato. In my death scene, I was supposedly making stew, and then I get a cleaver in my face or something. Then they cut to my hand, and I'm squishing a tomato while I die. Those are the shots that these movies are about—honestly, that is my truthful recollection. I remember they were like, "No, squeeze it this way! Squeeze it that way!" We did that far more takes of just that one shot than of anything else in the entire movie.
BOB DESIMONE:
The cast member I mainly acted with was Rebecca Wood-Sharkey. Who was, in real life, Ray Sharkey's wife. And I was a big fan of his, because of his performance in The Idolmaker. But I had just met him previously on another movie I had done, and he was a major junkie at that time. I was so shocked and so sad. So the night Rebecca and I were going to shoot our scenes, I was explaining this whole story to director Danny Steinmann. Then all of a sudden Danny gets this weird look on his face—Rebecca is standing right behind him. She says, "Are you talking about Ray Sharkey? He's my husband. He just had a little problem with Valium." I just went, "Uhhhh…" I had no idea she was his wife! And then we had to do our big flirting scene! But ultimately we both got killed, so who cares.
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
The scene that is most memorable to me is after I've been running away from Jason, and now I'm back in the house alone. And I'm soaking wet, the wind is blowing, and then the grandfather flies through the window. It was shot in one long take—there were no cuts. The whole thing had to be blocked very precisely and I had to hit all my marks exactly, while I was reacting to things that weren't there. They didn't even shoot the shot of the body coming through the window until later—I was looking at nothing. That whole scene was the most difficult, but it was also the most challenging and the most fun. And, along with the scene at the end in the hospital with the sheriff, it was when I felt most like an actor, and really able to act.
JERRY PAVLON:
There's a scene right before the climax begins, where it's me, Shavar, Tiffany and Juliette, and we're all outside the house. It's a long shot on us and then the camera moves in, as we are just staring and looking scared. Danny was very clear about how he wanted to shoot that—he told us that this was a "Hitchockian move," where the camera dollies back but zooms in at the same time. He loved that move, and knew exactly what he wanted. And even as we were filming it, I could see the
picture in my head, as the camera pulled back and I could see them zooming. Then when I watched it in the theatre, it was exactly what I had pictured in my head. That was very cool.
Ethel's uncensored death.
SHAVAR ROSS:
I remember that scene, because I started laughing and I couldn't stop. I was cracking up because the camera was all up in my face, and we had to do it a million times. And everybody's all serious. Then here comes the camera, and they say, "Okay, here we go! You're looking… you're looking… and Pam has just ran off!" I was just busting up. And I never did quite get it right—in the movie, if you look you can see I'm smirking.
STEPHEN POSEY:
The one shot in JAWS that almost everybody remembers is when Chief Brody is sitting on the beach and first sees the shark, when it attacks the kid in the water—a fast dolly in, zoom out. It keeps the main focus of the shot in the center of the frame, but changes the background radically. And it worked so well that after JAWS, everyone tried to figure out how to do it and used it in their movies. In that shot for Part V, we didn't do it for shock value, but to isolate the kids from their environment, and also did it more slowly to create an ominous feeling. I love zoom lenses. It is a very cinematic device, and though it has been overused in a lot of genre films, there's no reason not to use it if it achieves the affect that you want. Especially to make the audience feel uneasy.
Danny and I talked about the visual look we wanted for Part V. Danny liked more saturated colors, and night and darkness. A lot of it would be determined by the budget and the location, and what kind of lights we could get. But we wanted to take what was a low budget independent film and make it look like it was a mainstream film. You wanted it to be raw, but you wanted it to have some kind of artistic integrity. And I came out of film school, and my biggest influences were Sven Nykvist and the films he did with Ingmar Bergman, that sort of art stuff.
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 40
