Interview: How to Kill Monsters with director Stewart Sparke

With the release of his previous films The Creature Below and Book of Monsters, Stewart Sparke has made a name for himself with these brilliant and inventive horror films.

His latest film How to Kill Monsters recently premiered at FrightFest and undoubtedly builds on the momentum of his first two movies with a mix of both blood soaked horror and tongue-in-cheek comedy. Gavin Brown had the pleasure of catching up with Stewart to talk about How to Kill Monsters and its premiere as well as discussing comedy in horror and how important FrightFest is for him and  his films.

How was the experience of premiering How to Kill Monsters at FrightFest and what was the reaction to the film like?

It was an insane experience because we’ve been lucky enough to get into FrightFest three times. We had The Creature Below there in 2016 as part of First Blood, which was traditionally quite big stuff but luckily, we got in with that because that film cost 12 grand to make but it was really fun. Then, we did Book of Monsters and to come back for a third time on an even bigger screen is insane insane. The experience of doing the intro, with a massive crowd of people was really exciting, but probably the most nerve racking experience of my life, more than getting married! A lot of the nerves were about, are people gonna laugh at the right parts? Are they gonna laugh at the wrong bits, but people really enjoyed it and I have had nothing but positive comments and  we’ve been getting great reviews out of that festival as well.

How did the making of the film go and  was it fun to film?

Oh, yeah, of all the films we’ve done, How To Kill Monsters was the most fun experience we’ve had because it’s got a lot of practical effects. A lot of buckets of blood! We got to work with people that we like working with, because you’ll notice a lot of familiar faces from Book of Monsters, and that’s because we like to bring people back who we love working with and who love working with us. It was like a big family reunion over a month period where everyone got to see everyone for each other. It was just so much fun! 

The cast, as you mentioned, features familiar faces that you have worked with before like Lyndsey Craine, Daniel Thrace, Michaela Longden but how was it working with Nicholas Vince on the film as well?

We met him at Fright Fest in 2016 because he used to do a podcast called Chattering With Nicholas Vince, he interviewed us and we were like, Nick, you’ve got to come to our film, so Nick was forced into becoming part of this horror family! We asked him to come and play a small role on Book of Monsters, and we just have such a great time with Nick. He’s a lovely guy and so supportive of indie filmmakers. This is someone who I’ve idolised in my career because I love Hellraiser, its one of my favourite horror movies. He also came to us with a project as well called I Am  Monsters, which is about working with Clive Barker on Hellraiser and growing up as a gay man in Britain and trying to become an actor. I Am Monsters also screened at FrightFest and has been getting great reviews. I consider Nick a lifelong friend, and I will hopefully be working with him for years to come.

Did you ever consider doing this movie as a straight sequel to your previous film Book of Monsters?

Yeah, interestingly, we actually started writing How To Kill Monsters as a sequel to Book of Monsters called Book of Monsters Volume Two, which we thought we were being clever! Essentially, Book of Monsters ends with the Dad coming home, Nick Vince’s character, saying “What the hell, there’s loads of body parts everywhere”. We always thought, wouldn’t it be funny if armed police were right behind him and they got him on his knees, handcuffed him, they arrested all the girls and they put them in prison. The whole movie would have taken place at a police station in the jail cells, with the monsters following our characters to the police station. It would have been Assault on Precinct 13 meets Aliens basically, which was really fun, but as me and Paul (Butler) were writing it, we were so narratively handcuffed to everything we established in the previous film, that we can’t really have too much fun. We just went, let’s scrap the idea and make an original film. All the fun bits that we wrote, because we wrote a lot cool sequences, we just kept them and it was great to have, for example, Michaela’s character go from nice in Book of Monsters to horrible in this film, we had fun with that.

How to Kill Monsters and Book of Monsters both have comedy elements, as well with the horror, was mixing the two styles important to you with these films?

Yeah, I think when you’re dealing with low budget films, especially ones with practical effects, it’s really important to acknowledge the humour in that, especially when you’ve got the cast we had. Actors are working with a guy in a rubber suit covered in slime, or you’ve got a tentacle on a green stick, hitting him across the face, that is inherently funny. The effects in the film, we are really proud of them. I think the guys who worked on them did a fantastic job, but they’re not going to be the same level as a million pound Hollywood production. So embracing the humour and the absurdity of a giant slug monster dragging Lindsay along the floor and getting slime and vomit everywhere. It’s just part of it. And that allows the audience to kind of get on board with. 

Would you consider going back and doing something more serious or bleaker with your films in the future or do you want to embrace comedy with the horror going forward?

It’s really fun to make comedy horror but Paul and I, because we’ve we’ve worked together since 2012, we’ve got about 20 films in the back pocket written up, that range from really silly to really serious and really scary. I would love to do a super dark, serious horror movie that’s genuinely scary and full of jump scares but really, whatever we do next is informed by the reaction to this film. This film is getting a really good reaction and think I’m keen to stick with more entertainment but I’ve got some creepy and really disturbing ideas, man, I’d love to do some stuff. 

What’s your favourite ever funny scene from a horror movie?

I think my favourite funny scene from a horror movie, that probably is a big inspiration is in Peter Jackson’s Braindead. The lawnmower scene where he comes back into the house for the lawnmower and just kills the population of his town. If someone can watch that, and they’re laughing the way through then it’s like, yeah, you will 100% love what we’re doing. If you watch that scene in Braindead and you’re like, this is disgusting. Our movies are not for you.

Going back to Fright Fest, what were some of the other favourite films that you saw over the weekend?

I’ve got to mention Nicholas Vinces I Am Monsters again. I’m biased, because I produced that but it’s Nicks film and it’s fantastic. Johnny Vivash, one of our cast is the film Isaac, which was like an eco horror movie that was absolutely fantastic. That blew me away, There was a film that I really liked called Piper, which was a Liz Hurley movie. I really enjoyed that.  I could go on. There were so many great movies.

Who are your biggest influences as a director?

Sam Raimi is a huge one. Edgar Wright as well. James Cameron. I think he’s up there definitely with on my top top list of inspirations.

What have been some of the highlights of your career so far?

I think FrightFest has been a big one because it was FrightFest who took a chance on The Creature Below. It’s important for filmmakers to realise how important it is to get into a big, prestigious Film Festival later because as soon as we got into FrightFest, all the other film festivals got in touch, and that really helped to spread the word. For me, it’s not so much about key moments, it’s more about the longer journey of it, and all of that is down to collaboration. It’s the team around you because if you can nurture relationships with great people who you’re friends and you get to work with them time and time again like me and Paul having been working together for so long. We’ve had the same costume people, the same makeup people, the same effects people and that for me is the highlight. 

What are some of your all time favourite horror films?

Evil Dead, Aliens. Jaws. The Mummy, the Brendan Fraser one. I love that movie, it’s just pure entertainment. Jurassic Park, that was like a gateway horror movie for me and Gremlins as well. Anything that came out of that 80s/90s period of cool practical effects stuff, I absolutely love. Monster Squad, Lost Boys, Night Of The Creeps. All those classics!

How to Kill Monsters trailer

How to Kill Monsters is coming to Blu-Ray and Steaming services soon.