Andrew J. Rausch, Author at Diabolique Magazine

Josh Malerman is an all-around cool guy. He’s a successful horror novelist best known for writing the 2014 novel Bird Box, which later became the source material for the popular 2018 film of the same title. He’s also the frontman and lead guitarist for the Detroit rock band The High Strung. For those who aren't familiar with the band’s work, you’ve likely heard them if you’ve watched the Showtime series Shameless; Malerman wrote and performed the show’s theme song (with The High Strung, of course), “The Luck You Got.” Along with his manager, Ryan Lewis, Malerman recently founded the film production company, Spin a Black Yarn, which just released its first film, an adaptation of Max Booth III’s novel, We Need to Do Something. I had the good fortune of sitting down to talk about movies with Renaissance Man Malerman nearly a year ago now. This conversation should have seen daylight some time ago, but its publication was held up due to personal issues on my part. (My apologies to Malerman, who is a kind man, an enjoyable interview, and one hell of a writer.) Nevertheless, the conversation is every bit as timely as it was then, and I’m sure you’ll find it as interesting as I did. ANDREW J. RAUSCH: What are your earliest cinematic memories? JOSH MALERMAN: The first things that come to mind are all horror-related, and I think that makes sense. For someone to become a horror writer, those initial movies you saw had a profound impact on you, right? Of course, I remember The Goonies (1985) and the less horrific stuff, but the ones that really, really jump out at me are the following: The first horror movie I ever saw was Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). And what an introduction to the genre! Because it’s an anthology story, so I got to see four or five different horror stories at once. And then, if you actually look at the segments of that movie—looking at this as an introduction to the genre—the first segment is a social commentary with Vic Morrow as the racist guy; the second segment is the heartwarming Steven Spielberg “Kick the Can,” which is another variety of horror; the third one is the anything-goes-imagination of Joe Dante, “It’s a Good Life”; then the fourth segment, the monster on the airplane, was a creature feature. And then you could argue that the scariest moment was the Dan Akroyd wraparound. Dan Ackroyd in the classic anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Yes! “You wanna see something really scary?” Yes! Yes! Even that first line. It had to be the first movie where they said, “Do you want to see something really scary?” What a line! So, that was it. The door opened that day, and from there, I have many memories. I remember my brother, my mom, and I couldn’t handle a movie called Strange Invaders (1983), and we left the theater. But I was the one who insisted we go see it. Me and my friend John asked his grandmother to rent us A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). We watched it, we asked her to get rent us number two, and she went and got it. And then we asked her if she would go and rent number three, and she went and got it. I’ll always remember that day, and I’ll always remember what a sport his grandma was. Like, “sure, I’ll go back to the video store for the third time for you guys.” But then I also remember the sort of darker side of it. I remember one of my friends had a copy of Faces of Death (1978), and I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. Now I know the score on that movie, but at the time, I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was all real, and I was sort of like, “Wait a minute. This is not the same sort of taboo to me as watching the Saturday Shockers like Blacula (1972), Firestarter (1984), or whatever was on that weekend.” This was different. This was like, “I don’t know if I want to step into those waters.” So there, you can already start to see a sort of judgment scale or just a personal preference scale of what in the genre you’re into. And for me, most of those landmark moments are hyper-imaginative, supernatural, elastic horror, like Freddy in your dreams or the kid in Joe Dante’s Twilight Zone segment versus the brutal, realistic horror. It’s like when people say, “Well, real things scare me more than horror.” I get it. I know what you mean. But I am able to completely suspend disbelief in a horror movie. Every scary movie that I watch, I am able, for the duration of that movie, to believe that it’s possible. So I don’t need to see the brutality and all that messed up stuff. But a ghost story? Now, this is a thrill! Are there any movies that scare you? Even when you were a kid, were there ever any movies that made you look under your bed after seeing them? I remember after I saw Friday the 13th (1980), I was worried that Jason was going to be under my bed. Honestly, Fright Night (1985) scared me, but I look at it now, and I see that it’s a total homage and spoof, but it’s so well done. But back then, just the images alone scared me. But the ones that were almost too much for me were... The Exorcist (1973) was too much for me. And I was chilled to the bone and had to have the lights on. But a lot of movies have scared me through the years. A lot. But if we’re talking about just as a kid, that one vampire running down the hall in slow motion in Blacula... When the doors all lock in the gym in Carrie (1976)... I didn’t have the wherewithal, obviously, to recognize how brilliant the slow-motion lead-up to the pig blood falling was. I wasn’t aware of film device at the time. And now I watch that, and I think, “This is the most genius thing I’ve ever seen!” But back then, it was just like, “Wait a minute, she’s going to kill the whole high school?” [Laughs.] You know what’s interesting to me about Carrie? Stephen King [as Richard Bachman] wrote that novel, Rage (1977), which was about a school shooting, right? This is the novel that he pulled. Well, I see Carrie as being a precursor to that. In a way, Carrie White is a school shooter. She’s a kid who gets bullied, but she just happens to be a supernatural school shooter. That is super interesting. And I think we would have to go look at it, but I think Rage was written before Carrie, actually. I think it was, too, because it was one of the books he ended up publishing as Richard Bachman later on. You can see the lineage there. That’s so interesting. You can see the lineage of “hey, I wrote this book, and I want to do it again, but I want it to be different.” And this is exactly what we were just discussing, which is the difference between real and brutal horrors versus the supernatural, imaginative, fun horror. Carrie would be the latter, and I think we probably would both agree that we relate more to that. The people who are like, “I can’t watch horror movies—I get too scared,” you want to tell them that they’re the perfect audience! You get scared, just like I laugh at comedies fairly easily, which makes me the perfect audience for a funny movie. The irony is that the people who do have a sense of horror, and what I mean are the people who get scared easily, tend to stay away from that stuff. I just want to reach out and say, “No, no, no, you don’t even realize how much fun you’re missing out on.” Would you say that there are any real-life horror movies that scare you? Funny Games (2007) has always been the one movie that scares the shit out of me, but I know a lot of people who aren’t affected by that at all. Maybe being a parent is part of that. So, Funny Games, for me, is one that I can’t even... I reference it all the time with my girlfriend, and I’ll jokingly say, “Nope, I’ve never seen Funny Games.” [Laughs.] Because that one... Whoa, man! That one messed me up. Even from the word go, where the man drops the eggs and asks for three more... It’s just like, “Oh, no, this is just the freakiest movie.” And it’s like the freakiest entrance for a home invasion that I’ve ever seen. The part that really gets me is the end in that sailboat. They’re in the middle of conversation, and he just shoves her off, and they keep talking. I know your question isn’t about which ones are too much for me, but I might as well address those now. Martyrs (2008). Have you seen Martyrs? No, I haven’t. I don’t even know that one. Ooooh, man! [Laughs evilly.] Brutal! Absolutely brutal! It has one of the most brutal openings that you’ve ever seen. I guess I’m kind of ruining the opening for you— No, you’re fine. There’s just a totally middle-class dad, a mom, and a kid eating, and they seem so nice and everything. And there’s a knock at the door, and it’s these two girls who look like they’ve totally been through some shit. One of them has a gun. And... As they’re walking up to the house, one of them says, “Are you sure this is the right place?” Then they knock on the door, and the guy answers, and she just shoots the guy. And then you’re like, “Oh my god! I don’t think you have the right place!” And then, she shoots the mom. And you’re still saying, “No, this is the wrong place.” Then she shoots the kid. Then you’re like, “Oh my god, whoever this is, this girl definitely went to the wrong place like the friend kept asking her.” And then, the girl who was like “This is the right place” moves a bookcase, and there’s a stairwell that goes down into a dark dungeon. And you’re like, “Oh, wait a minute. This was the right place.” And you realize that she was held prisoner down there for years and stuff. It’s one of the most... It’s just... It’s just too much. And the fact that I’m even talking about this to you, that we’re spending any of this time where we’re supposed to be talking about something that is so fun to me—horror movies—is overwhelming. But the ones that really scared me were... the ending of Don’t Look Now (1973). My god, that movie... What a lesson in restraint. There’s some creepy stuff... Donald Sutherland’s penis is pretty scary! [Laughs.] Yeah. [Laughs.] Another thing I realized, and I didn’t realize this until 1999... The...