Logan Huffman interview for Final Girl
Final Girl hit FrightFest last Friday and heads to DVD next month. Directed by photographer Tyler Shields, it’s a noir-inspired horror that provides something different amongst the assorted gorefests competing for fans’ attention. One of its key players is Logan Huffman as axe-happy teen torturer Danny, whose plans for the seemingly-helpless Veronica (Abigail Breslin) take a nasty and unexpectedly surreal turn.
I caught up with him for an intriguing chat about the improvised nature of his role, the way the movie changed as it went along and his thoughts on the genre in general. He also offered up a memory of late director Wes Craven, somewhat appropriate given this week’s sad news…
The film is kind of unique compared to today’s horror movies. How did you come to be involved?
Well Tyler and I have been buddies for a while and I’ve been shooting with him for a bit. And he just called me up, asked me if I wanted to do it, so I did it. I’ve been studying and training in vaudeville for three years, so I’d been waiting for the right character to do vaudeville work. Danny wasn’t written as anything when I saw the script, so I just kind of went with it. Tyler and I are good buddies, so he just kind of let me say what I wanted to say and do what I wanted to do. I wanted to create an axe murderer with the feet of Fred Astaire, you know?
Your character is the most distinctive in the movie, with the big hair and of course the axe!
I usually have my hair grown out real long. My first scene was the dancing scene, but it wasn’t written as a dancing scene, I was supposed to just be polishing my shoe. But I grew up in a rockabilly family see, so I wore a pompadour my entire childhood. My first car was a ‘56 Mercury. My Dad rolled around in a ‘56 Chevy. My brother had a 29 Model Line pick up truck hot rodded out like John Milner. So I wanted to pay homage to all that jazz, I wanted to create a Looney Tunes character. I walked up to Tyler and I said “Hey man! I wanna put my hair up really, really tall, almost like a rooster. I want this guy to be kind of a metaphor for a big cock!” A big rooster… because, you know, I’m method. Tyler saw me just once, for the entire filming process (in Canada), and when he saw me back in LA I was Logan again.
I started balancing the axe, because I carried Anna Belle with me the whole time. I always make friends with the props department, your props are everything. I grabbed Anna Belle, and I carried her the whole entire time. I got the vibe and tried to balance her with one finger, and then Tyler knew I knew how to swing. So I did a little swing dancing, and Tyler said “Do a little dance for us and walk out.”
Logan Huffman interview for Final Girl
I notice you named the axe! Where did that come from?
Just something sweet and pleasant. Being from Indiana I always kind of had the crushes on the girls with the two names, and I thought Anna Belle was kind of a sweet name. And she just spoke to me, I didn’t really… objects have souls, so I just listened to it. Anna Belle seemed fitting.
I interviewed Tyler earlier in the month, and he mentioned you and the other actors… you kind of appropriated your wardrobe and went out on the streets of Vancouver. What sort of stuff did you guys get up to out there?
We just went to a couple of bars, chased blonde women… I scared a few of ‘em off, but we had a good time, just talked and meddled around, you know? Made good conversation.
I trust you didn’t take the axe out with you…
No, but I carried a switchblade in my pocket. Kidding! (Laughs)
How did Tyler explain some of the stranger aspects to you? The film becomes increasingly hallucinogenic and trippy during the last act when Veronica drugs her attackers…
Well Tyler’s original edit, it was a little… they always want to put in stuff and make it look a little bit more trippy, but his original interpretation was very straightforward and more classical. Me and him we… all the movies I watch are 1962 and back. I enjoy that era and I enjoy that time. So the thing I liked about Tyler’s shooting is there’s a lot of wides, and there’s lots of things quiet, just like how an old film does it. You know how it is, they come in and they change a few things… I can’t wait for the director’s cut to come out at some point, because you don’t find out she’s an assassin until they’re in the woods.
Tyler’s never had a sip of alcohol, or cigarette, or any form of drugs. I think it was more his interpretation mentally, of having an abstract mind. And they had abstract minds these gentlemen, it was about what they truly feared. That was the most fascinating aspect of it. We never focused on the drug, we focused on our deepest fears.
Logan Huffman interview for Final Girl
The film’s having its UK premiere at FrightFest. Bearing in mind what you were saying about the era of movies you like, were you a fan of horror films coming into the project?
Yeah, when I was a little boy every Christmas I would get a Bela Lugosi or Lon Chaney movie inside my stocking. I’ve always loved horror movies. I like ‘em when there’s a lot of fog and that spooky way about ‘em. Good lighting. So this was really fulfilling for me. I’m going to do another horror movie this month which I’m really excited about, I get to be a cannibal. Yeah I can’t wait to do that man. He’s obsessed with jazz of the Fifties and Sixties, so it’ll be cool.
He won’t be anything like Danny. Wes Craven told me that, when I got my first job… I got fired from that job, because I’m severely dyslexic, I didn’t learn how to read till the age of nine, and he told me ‘all acting is controlled schizophrenia’. So I like to know my characters and then let them go. So I just can’t wait to find this new individual.
Final Girl is out on DVD Sept. 7th. Read our DVD review of Final Girl here.
