H13: Andrew Johnston – The Dangerfields
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 28 October 2012 03:33
The Dangerfields? Didn’t they curl up and die ages ago? What if we told you that the New Year would be bringing with it a career-spanning retrospective release from these noisy mofos? What if we told you that the band’s front (and back) man, Andrew Johnston, was the latest victim of Uber Rock’s 13 Days Of Halloween? A man who knows his Chain Saw from his Chainsaw?Who will survive and what will be left of them?…..
1.) What are your most vivid childhood memories of Halloween?
The main thing I remember is the parties my family would have. We’d duck for apples and whatnot. I didn’t really dress up, but I did have a mask – or a ‘funny face’, as we called them. It was a black-bearded man, with ‘real’ hair. It wasn’t a monster or anything; I just looked like a short tramp. Generally, I wasn’t allowed to go ‘trick-or-treating’, I think because there had been a kid abducted in Northern Ireland around that time or something. But I must have gone out one year, because I remember some woman giving me cooking chocolate, which I thought was a horrible thing to do at the time, but now I’d like to shake her fucking hand.
2.) Why do you think that the worlds of horror and metal/punk have always been so closely linked?
It’s dark; it’s exciting; it’s the teenage fantasy. Metal fans and horror fans never grow up. Horror imagery just lends itself really well to heavy music, since the days of Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath. Having said that, if I see one more teen horror film with a shit nu-metal soundtrack, I may have to ‘do a Dark Knight’ in the cinema.
3.) Has there been a horror remake yet that has bettered the original movie?
I actually prefer the remake of Dawn of the Dead, though it’s a completely different movie. They both just happen to be zombie films set in shopping malls. I also enjoy both versions of Night of the Living Dead, 1968 and 1990. The 1980s Fly and The Thing are also arguably better than the originals. But of the recent bunch, apart from Dawn of the Dead, no. Rob Zombie’s Halloween was good until Michael Myers put on the mask, then it was just more generic bollocks. Texas Chainsaw missed the point. Friday the 13th had some of the most feeble kills of the entire series. If they remake Jaws or The Exorcist, all hope is lost.
4.) What’s the greatest ever horror movie kill?
I’ll give you three: Quint’s death in Jaws, Leatherface’s first appearance in Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Jason freezing the girl’s head with liquid nitrogen and smashing it off a counter in Jason X. The Omen and Final Destination series have some great ones, too.
5.) Who is the baddest ever horror movie villain…and why?
Hannibal Lecter. He’s terrifying even while locked up in a cell, and he’s just as dangerous with words as he is with deeds. He’s probably one of the few horror villains to actually have some decent lines.
6.) Who is the greatest ever Scream Queen?
Let’s say Jamie Lee Curtis, for Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train and Halloween II. She’s not the hottest – that would be Lindy Booth from Wrong Turn and the Dawn of the Dead remake – but she was in the best films.
7.) Name your Top 5 favourite horror movies of all time…and tell us why!!
i. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: It’s everything a horror movie should be: fucking scary for a start, and brutal, relentless, slightly surreal and chaotic. It’s like the Reign in Blood of horror movies: exhausting, and a total kick in the face. But also, it feels real, like a documentary. It’s just a shame Tobe Hooper hasn’t made much worthwhile since. The success of Chain Saw seems to have been by accident rather than design.
ii. Jaws: Never mind horror films; Jaws is one of my favourite films full-stop. It’s well-written, well-acted and operates on a completely visceral level. It took something that not a lot of people thought about – sharks – and made them shit-scared of them, to this day. Although, as an animal-lover, I must say I have mixed feelings about this!
iii. The Silence of the Lambs: Another one that a lot of people don’t consider a horror film, possibly because it had a proper story and proper characters and won lots of awards. But it’s about a cannibalistic serial killer, so it’s horror in my book. Again, a great script, great acting and great direction.
iv. The Exorcist: I probably prefer The Omen for story and characters – plus I was born on the 6th of the 6th, so I’m obviously the Antichrist – but The Exorcist is a scarier film. It’s still the only horror film I would feel uncomfortable watching in the house by myself, and I’m an atheist.
v. The Wicker Man: It’s hard limiting this to just five films. There are so many I love – Halloween, Psycho, King Kong, American Werewolf, Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, The Haunting, The Fog, Scream, Return of the Living Dead, all the Hammer and Universal stuff. But there’s just something special about The Wicker Man. Great dialogue, brilliant cast and a genuinely surprising denouement.
8.) What underrated horror movie would you recommend to our readers just in case they have never seen it?
I’m always surprised at how few people seem to have seen REC, the Spanish film from a few years ago. For me, it’s the most effective horror movie of the past 20 years.
9.) What is your guilty pleasure, the trashy horror flick that you hold dear but everyone else runs away from?
Probably Bloodsucking Freaks. It’s a terrible movie, but it’s just so gonzo and hilarious that I go back and watch it every couple of years. Everyone I’ve shown it to has been disgusted.
10.) What is the greatest ever horror movie poster?
It’s got to be Jaws again. The shark as a phallus. It doesn’t get more primal than that.
11.) Have you ever had a ghostly supernatural experience?
Yes, I was convinced I saw a ghost in my friend Paul’s front room back in the early ’90s. We were watching Noisy Mothers after a night out drinking; I fell asleep, they all went to bed and I woke up with what I thought was one of them waving their arms in my face. But I reached out and there was no one there. So, I jumped up in fear and ran upstairs. Paul told me his granny had died a few years earlier in the room I had been in, and her bed had been where the sofa was that I was conked out on. In hindsight, of course, it was just a drunken episode, a nightmare. I don’t believe in ghosts or the afterlife at all.
12.) What ‘star’ of the music world would you like to see slaughtered in gory horror movie style?
Ted Nugent. I love his music, but he has earned a violent death. Grizzly or Prey would be apt.
13.) What are your plans for Halloween this year?
I’m going to see Frankie Boyle in Belfast. Beats having to deal with drunken students in Jimmy Savile costumes in some awful club.
Dangerfuckinfields: Complete Recordings 2000-2010 will be released on TNS Records in early 2013.
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