Harry Shannon has had a varied and fascinating career, including work as a music supervisor on several big budget Hollywood films, but horror readers know him best as the author of such novels as The Pressure of Darkness, One of the Wicked, and his recent title Daemon. But Harry has also written several screenplays, and the first one to be produced, DEAD AND GONE, will be released on DVD by Lionsgate this Tuesday, July 1st (and will be followed by a companion novel from Delirium Books in August). My interview with Harry is just the first of several features Fear Zone is running on this new fright flick in the weeks to come.


Even though DEAD AND GONE is the first film you've written the screenplay for, you actually kicked around Hollywood for quite a bit working in music departments for films. I'm particularly intrigued by your "Music Supervisor" credits on UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and BASIC INSTINCT. What can you tell me about those experiences?

I've had a couple of other scripts optioned, but this is the first one to be produced. Feels like I've been around since the Jurassic Period. I started as an actor, singer/songwriter in 1967. Did commercials, movies, on the road with groups, singing cover tunes in bars. That led naturally into a job as a staff lyricist for a music publishing house called ATV Music Group, which at the time--1975 through 1982--was owned by ITC Films, and administered the Beatles catalogue. I was assigned to write title songs for a couple of movies, along with my country and pop writing, worked as an executive there and did some bit parts and voice over work before leaving the biz for a few years in the 1980's to return to school to study psychology. I was hired again in 1988 by an independent studio called Carolco Pictures to run their music department. I did that while counseling clients on the side, writing a bit and finishing my education. I left Carolco in 1992 after looking after twenty-plus movies (RAMBO III, RED HEAT, TOTAL RECALL, TERMINATOR 2, RAMBLING ROSE) and they hired me on to be Music Supervisor of two more films as I was going out the door. I also wrote songs for UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, and joyfully worked with maestro and old pal Jerry Goldsmith on TOTAL RECALL and BASIC INSTICT, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score. I was fortunate enough to work with people like Jerry, as well as Billy Goldbenberg, Elmer Goldstein, Michael Small. The old days were the golden days of film scoring. Now they just seem to back the movie with pop songs.

I picture you with a guitar. Were you a musician before that?

Yes, I started playing guitar in my teens during the folk era. Around 1964. I was a Bob Dylan nut, and also adored Joni Mitchell. That's also when I started writing songs of my own, although I'm a far better lyricist than melody guy. I also play a bit of 5 string banjo, autoharp, keyboard and bass. I'm so-so as a player, but just enough of a genuine musician to earn a bit of respect from people who can really play. Composers liked to work with me because of that quality. It's not as common as you would think.

How and why did you move into writing horror fiction?

I'm a maniacal reader, and early on came to love the dark stuff by Saki, Bierce, John Collier, Dahl, Bradbury, Matheson. Then I got distracted by mysteries and thrillers and Gold Medal pulp fiction, MacDonald's Travis McGee, the Donald Hamilton books. When Stephen King hit with Carrie I was immediately sucked back in and went along for the ride. And I still have a soft spot for those slightly cheesy 1980's books and movies.

My first attempt at a novel was Night of the Beast, an homage to and parody of those books and films. To be candid, Dead and Gone is exactly the same type of project, intended both as a tribute and a knee-slapping in joke. Horror was one of my first loves, and guess it is just in my blood. No pun intended.

Now you're a veteran of the small press horror world. What have you learned working with different publishers the last several years?

Don't be in so much of a hurry. A lot of my short fiction came out before it should have, and Night of the Beast probably wasn't ready, either. Be patient, and learn from people who have been published (who always warned me to be patient). Also, you can easily get burned in the small press, by well-intentioned people who are unable to stay afloat in a highly competitive business. I adore books, the way they look and feel and smell, and so write because I have to--most of us probably feel that way. Unfortunately, there are always predators willing to exploit that affection. A long time ago Scott Nicholson emailed me that he figured he'd write ten novels, and if no one was buying them by that time he'd have to give up. I thought he was nuts.

I'm not about eight novels along, and in many respects feel like I'm just starting to figure out how to write.

What was the genesis of DEAD AND GONE?

Yossi Sasson and I met through his wife, Einat. He was a talented photographer who clearly wanted to direct. One day I was trying to talk him into writing his own screenplay. I asked him if he had an image in his head that he couldn't shake, hoping to get him to run with that idea. He mentioned a person who was supposed to be dead or in a coma being glimpsed walking at the end of a dark hallway. That gave me a tingle. I expanded on that, imagined a spouse, a deserted cabin, pitched him a story. We shared how we both loved the EVIL DEAD movies. I made up even more of a plot. Instead of going off on his own, Yossi kept reacting to my ideas, encouraging me to do it myself, and pretty soon the whole movie was there in my head. So I did the first draft over a couple of weeks.

How collaborative was the screenwriting process?

I did the first draft alone, and then Yossi gave me notes. I used almost all of them, if memory serves. From that point on I made changes as casting and budget required. Hell, a lot of them as time went on. However, the biggest happened one night just because I woke up at 3:00 am with the belief that the lead, which was originally female, should be switched to male. So I got up and wrote a version with a trophy husband who brought his bitchy studio executive wife to a remote cabin. That changed a number of other things for the better, including the gender of some supporting people, and once Yossi read it later that day we both realized it was ready to rock.

Were you involved in casting at all?

Yes, I brought Quentin Jones from the start, then Ben Moody from Evanescence. I also asked Kyle Gass of Tenacious D and Kathryn Bates to get on board. See, I knew many actors and crew people already, and Kathy was an old friend who used to act with my wife. During casting I was working, so Yossi was kind enough to let me view VHS tapes of the readings at night, so I could offer opinions as we searched for our female lead and the rest of the supporting roles. It was a very interesting process. We saw a lot of terrific people who we couldn't use for one odd reason or another, very sad. Maybe next time.

You play "Sheriff Johnson." Did you write the role for your part?

Yeah, you guessed it. Hadn't acted in years, but I kind of knew from the start it would be fun to play a bit part the crusty old Sheriff. The DVD is also something to leave my daughter, and it's type-casting to be sure. I had myself in mind when I wrote the part, and it came naturally to play him, a big old bear of a man, a cigar-chomping country philosopher. They let me carry a gun, and I got to drive away with a beautiful girl to boot.

What was it like being directed in a role you had created?

Yossi and I had become good friends, and he pretty much trusted me to roll with it. Plus, I got to do my scene with Gillian Shure and Chris Bruno (of TV's THE DEAD ZONE) another friend of ours, and he's a consummate pro. We were all very relaxed. It doesn't get much easier than that.

How much of the production were you involved on location for?

Other than the days we did my scenes, I visited the set just a handful of times. Yossi and the crew sent photographs while they were scouting, and then I drove up to see it in person about half way through shooting. We had a mishap with the DP the first time around, so we had to wait a few months to go back up (so that the ground and trees would look the same) and I returned twice, once for fun and once to repeat my scenes with Gillian and Chris Bruno.

When I did my first film, the most exciting part of the process for me was seeing the development of the special effects, from concept art through testing the appliances on the actors' faces. When I did my second film, I really liked seeing everything come together in the editing. What has your favorite part of the process been?

That's an excellent question, Greg. Yeah, the makeup stuff was a blast, since I just ran wild writing the script. I tossed in severed limbs and heads and walking corpses with abandon. I doubted we'd be able to do it all. My friend, CG artists Nick deSomov, introduced Yossi to Dan Crawley, who laughed his ass off at the story and worked wonders in his studio. I'm sure he finished the film in the hole by a few grand. We still have a video of the first test of a sliced off arm spurting water as a stand-in for blood, and everyone laughing. Some of the actors spent hours in makeup, especially poor Kathryn Bates, who was stumbling around half blind from the contact lenses she wore for the ending. We had to walk her to and from the scene. I never get bored with being on the set of an indie, because the pace is so fast. Bigger budget movies are like watching paint dry. Music is a joy, because it's my old job and I'm so connected with how composers think and react to film.

Now, editing may be my least favorite stage. I have tremendous respect for the job, a good editor can save a director's butt and even an entire movie, but as a writer it occasionally drives me up the wall. For example, Michael Knue came up with ways of cutting Kyle Gass as Reverend Grass that were nothing short of brilliant. The changes supported the humor, but also milked the character, added to the motivation of the lead actor, absolutely perfect choices. However, some other changes were made to the first two reels that still feel odd to me. Somehow I'm still not able to be objective in those particular instances. I keep expecting it to flow the way it was originally written. Now, I have to add that I'm never happy with anything, and there are some lines I still don't like, either because of what I wrote or how it ended up being performed, so ignore me.

Editing is an amazing skill, difficult and tedious, and it requires the talents of both a writer and a director to be good at it, but also an ability to disconnect and be logical. So it beats me how they manage to do that.

It seems like the film sold to Lionsgate pretty quickly.

A company co-owned by Lionsgate and Ghost House approached us pretty early, I think due to our Myspace page . They were one of the first companies to see the movie. Yossi handled most of that stuff, although I was consulted, since the financial investment was on his side of the equation. They seem to be very nice folks, and we've been very pleased with their work so far.

I hear a lot of horror authors knocking horror films, but it seems that an awful lot of literary horror panel discussions at cons turn to cinema. I think that for many writers filmmaking is the Big Dream. What do you think?

Oh, hell yes. It's fashionable to bash it and pretend not to be interested, but that's bull. The film industry is the brass ring financially. Not that anyone is going to make a bundle off this kind of movie, but the eventual compensation can be so much more lucrative in film and television than for the average author slugging it out mid-list and small press. I adore movies, because they use every possible art form from acting to photography and music and art and sound design. When they work, they really work. And indie horror is a blast because it is so much like fixing up the yard for Halloween with all your friends involved. As you know, Greg, ya can't beat that. And I can't wait to do it again.

As a former music supervisor, what did it mean for you to have Henry Manfredini scoring the film you helped create?

It was heaven. We were so lucky he agreed. Harry and I are old friends. He scored a couple of films for Carolco back around 1990, DEEP STAR SIX and IRON EAGLE III," and we liked each other immediately and stayed in touch, even after I'd pretty much left the industry to be a shrink. I think he's an under appreciated talent, and when you listen to his body of work it's very damned impressive. Plus he's done wonders with very little money every step of the way, from the "kill, kill, kill" in FRIDAY 13th to the gorgeous orchestral sounds he used for our movie. Here's a true story. My daughter got a weird chuckle toy from a fast food joint, and started messing with it in the back seat of the car one night. Anyway, when I heard it my skin crawled. I immediately drove home, called Harry on the phone and played him the sound, and said "This is our movie, a demented chuckle." He got that at once, sampled the sound and we mixed it in with the orchestral score. He's a genius, and a really, really nice guy.

Someone should have taped us, two old goats sitting around the Post studio cracking each other up.

After following your screenplay through this whole process, was it a relief to have "final cut" on the novel?

Actually, it was a strange experience, because I'd worked so hard to cut things out in the movie, and here I was fleshing it back in, adding characters and subplots and extending dialogue to fit the novel format. But once I decided on adding a deeper relationship between Sheriff Pete and Kate, and a few new supporting characters, it wasn't hard. I'd been keeping notes the whole way anyway. If the novel version were to be filmed it would become a really creepy mini-series. That's never going to happen, but perhaps we'll have a DEAD AND GONE 2 someday, if we get a cult following with this one.

What's next?

I'm working on a novel, a new thriller, and Yossi and I are shopping a new screenplay of mine called PAIN. We have had a few clicks, but it's tough to find money in this climate. I'm sure we'll get it off the ground soon. We had to do DEAD AND GONE so fast, and under such financial pressure, so next time out we want everyone else to be properly compensated for their work. Because the best part, we hope, will be reuniting with some of the people we worked with on DAG. It was a tight set, a lot of people I knew and loved, and many of them are still friends with one another to this day. One couple got married a couple of months back. We all just have to keep creating and working and trying, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time it did.

Congratulations on getting this film made!

Thank you, Greg. And thanks for your interest in the project.

The DEAD AND GONE Website

Harry Shannon's Website