PopHorror Let's Get Scared
When the new immersive experience, I Like Scary Movies, was announced, the buzz was incredible. It continues to build as the start date slowly slithers closer. I Like Scary Movies creeps into LA starting April 4th, and is described in its press release as a “multi-sensory installation” and “a groundbreaking immersive art installation that is a true celebration of some of the most beloved horror films.” Horror fans from all over will be able to freely walk through each piece of the experience that represents five iconic horror films – Nightmare on Elm Street, Beetlejuice, It: The First Chapter, The Lost Boys and The Shining. Photos welcome, and fun expected. It was announced today that the experience has been extended through June 16, 2019. I, for one, cannot wait! I had the insane pleasure of speaking to the mastermind behind the event, Maximillian, where we chatted about the event, his passion for horror, and of course, horror movies.
PopHorror: What made you want to do this huge production of I Like Scary Movies? Are you a horror fan yourself?
Maximillian: Oh, yeah. I don’t think you can do this without being a fan yourself, at least I hope nobody does that, because you feel it, you know? I really feel that horror is a way of life and a lifestyle. Just like sports fans. You can tell a sports fan. They’ve got their memorabilia. They watch their sporting events throughout the year. Same thing with horror fans. They live a life – I live a life – that is very much like that, that has dark sensibilities to the things that you gravitate towards. So yeah, I live that life in a way that is just a little bit left of center, which I feel that horror fans march to that kind of beat. That’s what really drew me to wanting to do this.
I built this company, Ultra Productions, and for years and years. we’ve been doing different, really high profile productions, stunts, experiential events and really immersive experiences for fans of new movies. The thing that I always see, especially going to places like Comic Con, is people’s love for these beloved movies that had come out so long ago, and even current stuff. We’re doing a really good mixture, with things like IT [read our review here] involved in it and everything else, but also you see things like Beetlejuice [read our retro review here] and even going back to the original Nightmare on Elm Street [read our retro review here]. You go to Comic Con, and you see people really celebrating those characters and those worlds. It got me to thinking a little bit, you know, other than once a year on Halloween, other than really exercising that really cool sensibility… what else do we have, you know?
I really wanted to do that for fans, rather than just watching their favorite movies over and over again. We can open those worlds up again. We can explore those worlds again, have fun in those worlds again, and celebrate them a little bit more. And also dive deeper into the content, because I feel that these are such rich environments, especially when we look at something like Beetlejuice, with so many fun visuals and things that I was really excited to have fun with, really get in and mash it up a little bit. Remix it a bit, so that was really my motivation. Just have fun with these movies again that are just ingrained in our pop culture.
PopHorror: Horror is definitely a way life. And I love the mixture of movies in this, having IT involved, and especially Beetlejuice, because I feel like it’s not celebrated enough.
Maximillian: Me, too. It’s one of my favorites. I agree with you. These five movies were carefully curated by me. I really wanted to have a mixture that spoke to every sort of horror fan in a certain way, you know what I mean? From the original slasher with Nightmare on Elm Street, to ’80s vampires with The Lost Boys [read our retro review here], to the Tim Burton fans – which I’m a huge one – with Beetlejuice, to classic horror with The Shining, [read our retro review here], and of course, the current blockbuster with IT. I really wanted something for everybody.
PopHorror: The Lost Boys is my favorite movie, so I’m super excited.
Maximillian: Everyone has a different reaction to the titles, and that’s the thing that’s always been very rewarding. There’s always one or two in the bunch, when you get to those particular titles, that they just light up. And The Lost Boys fans really do. You don’t get a chance to see that, or a chance to experience The Lost Boys anymore, and I have found that those people are really excited about it. And I was, too, which is why I was adamant about having that in the mix.
PopHorror: On the website, it says that LA is just the first stop on this tour. Where else will fans be able to experience it, and can they request their city?
Maximillian: I think they should definitely request their city. I’d love to see where people would like to go. We’ve got a few different ideas that we aren’t quite saying yet. We want to secretly put this out a little bit. But yeah, I would love to see where people would like it to go, and we’ve got some pretty big plans. If everything goes according to plan, and people respond the way I’m hoping they will, and I’m thinking they will. I think that doing something outside of the traditional Halloween season… I think that’s going to be something that people will get excited about. And hopefully, they all chime in and say, “Please come to us. Be one of us.” (laughs)
PopHorror: As a child, was this something you knew you wanted to do? Have you always known you wanted to take the creative route in life?
Maximillian: That’s funny. That’s a funny question, because the answer is a very solid “Yes.” The example I can give you – and this is why I’m here – is because I had a very supportive family who is also very left of center, and they allowed me every year… My parents and my grandmother, we all lived together in a house in the valley, and they allowed me to destroy the house for Halloween. I am not kidding you. I look back on it now, and I’m shocked. I continually thank them for it, because had it not been for them.
The things that I did to that house… I would literally take shredded boards and nail them in an X pattern over the front of the windows like an abandoned house. I put black, plastic sheeting walls with big pillars up against the front of the house so it would be like a queuing system, because it was the attraction in the neighborhood every single year. We were called ‘”The Halloween House.’” There were lines around the block to get in. I would do this with my friends and my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and in junior high and high school, I would destroy the house every year, and dig six foot graves. My uncle was a carpenter, and he created an electric chair for me, and a big, giant jack-in-the-box and all kinds of fun stuff.
And what’s really funny is, the guy down street worked in production, and he worked on the original Poltergeist, which is one of my favorite movies. So it was the second year or so that I was doing it, he happened to come by, and he was impressed with what I was doing. He says, “I worked on the original Poltergeist, and I have one of the bodies from the pool scene. Do you want to borrow it?” And I was like, “Yes, please!” So every year, he would lend me this Poltergeist body, and I would put it on display in this deep grave with a strobe light and things, and then I would give it back to him. Then one year after like three or four years in a row, he was like, “You know what? This thing is just rotting in my attic. Do you want this?” And it was like me getting some massive horror prize, it was incredible! I still have it. This was back… probably at the beginning of high school, and I still have this Poltergeist body.
So yeah, the very long answer is, “Yes.” It’s always always known that I wanted to do this, and to this day, Halloween is a very big thing for me. I’m a Halloween freak, and every year, I do my own house up and have a good time with it.
PopHorror: I love your passion for horror, and that makes me so happy. That makes me want to see this even more.
Maximillian: Thank you! That was one of the things that I think struck Warner [Brothers] as well, because when I first came to them with the idea, I said, “Look, I just want to play with these movies.” And my concern was how much they would let me play with them, and they’ve been really fun to deal with. They understand that I want to do more of an art installation with them. I want to celebrate these movies in a little bit of a different way. Because as much as I love the scare mazes at Universal, and Knott’s Scary Farm, and all of that… I just wanted to do it a little differently. I wanted to do something that is a celebration in a different sort of way, and give people time to hang out in the environments and touch and feel things and really just have a good time with it.
PopHorror: That’s so cool! What has been your favorite project to take on so far? I was looking at your company’s website, and you’ve done so many amazing things. I don’t live in LA, and it was years ago, but I’m so disappointed that I missed the White Castle.
Maximillian: Oh, my God! (laughs) Speaking of Phoenix, I remember vividly that people actually drove in from Phoenix to come get a slider because you couldn’t get White Castle on the west coast. That goes down as one of my favorites because it was a big turning point for my company, Ultra, for a large production scale. Real interactive experiential before it was even really a word. That was the first one, and it was before social media ever existed. It was incredible, because it brought people in from all walks of life and like I said, people drove in from Phoenix to get a burger.
Plus the celebrities. It’s usually difficult to get them to come down on a promotional level, but they all came down on their own. Quentin Tarantino and Sofia Coppola, when they were a couple, they showed up to get a burger. Jay Leno comes up on one of his motorcycles, Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear. I was like, “What is going on?” It was really cool. It was all by word of mouth. It was traditional press at that point, but there was no social media, no tweeting. It was just them hearing about it and going, “I want to see this.” That definitely goes down as one of my favorites.
We did a big thing at Comic Con for Insidious Chapter Two, and that was a fun one. I really enjoyed that. And we recently did something for The House With the Clock In Its Walls [read our review here], the Eli Roth movie. We did an experience that was primarily geared towards kids and was a reactionary room environment. To see kids in particular just ignite with the mysteries of magic was really fun.
I also love the Planes project that we did. We built an actual flying version of Dusty, the crop duster from the movie Planes. That took me to all corners of the country, flying and performing with this airplane in airshows. That was a really neat and different thing, to have access to these airshows and meet the different, cool pilots and everyone in aviation. That was a really neat experience. I’ve been fortunate to do some really unique things. I never do the same two things in my life, and I’m always solving these really cool puzzles, and just coming up with these crazy ideas. I really never know how I’m going to get there, so I just lead with my passion. And somehow, it all works out and turns into something people dig. I’m lucky.
PopHorror: One last question… what is your favorite scary movie?
Maximillian: That’s a good question. And I hate to say this, because it’s one of my movies here, but The Shining is a real important movie for me.
We want to send a great big THANK YOU to Maximillian for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with us. If you end up visiting the I Like Scary Movies Experience, be sure to tell us in the comments! As always, stay tuned to PopHorror for all of your horror and pop culture news, reviews and interviews!
