PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Before taking on the role of the very real Butch DeFeo – the same Butch DeFeo that the Amityville Horror is based on – John Robinson already had an extremely extensive resume of some powerful independent films. Adding The Amityville Murders, the newest addition to the ever-growing Amityville franchise, to his resume solidifies the young actor’s ability at nailing complex characters. John and I discussed his new film, how he prepared for such a strong role, and of course, horror movies.
PopHorror: Were you familiar with the tragedies at Ocean Avenue before taking the part of Butch Defeo?
John Robinson: Yeah, I’d seen one of the earlier films, but I didn’t know fully of the Butch DeFeo story. I knew peripherally about the story, and I when I read the script, I went, “Wow, this is really something to talk about right now.” This is not just a horror film, but a film about psychological trauma and this poor kid. To me, this kid isn’t just a monster, but could potentially be representing a lot of kids in America, sadly enough. I was like, “Oh, wow! Let’s do this. This will be important.”
PopHorror: I definitely thought this installment to the franchise was pretty solid.
John Robinson: It’s hard to do these remakes. I had never done a film that was quite as campy as this, so that was interesting to explore, in that campy realm and where you can go with it. With the topic and just the story of the Defeos themselves, you know what’s going to happen, but you know… To me, if people leave the film and feel for the kid at all, we’ve done something. That is what I was trying to go for.
PopHorror: How did you prepare for the role?
John Robinson: I researched a lot of the story, and I read a lot. I saw a lot of the photos of the house and what happened. And read interviews with Butch and the problem was it’s all over the place. There’s so much information out there, and there are so many theories. People have been obsessed with it for so long that I was like, “Okay, this isn’t helping me.” Even just watching interviews didn’t help, so I was like, “Okay, why don’t I just go back to what I feel and what we’re trying to say.” Talk about the kid, and the relationship with his father, really, and how upsetting that was. Just try to put myself in those shoes with having an abusive father like that at that age where you’re trying to figure out who you are, and how you fit into society.
Especially in the ’70s, when we were going from a somewhat social revolutionary idealism back to autocratic dictatorship of our capitalistic environment, so I could kind of imagine. For me, I left in 2011 to go to Europe because there was something paranoid in the way that I was feeling in America that was, like, almost schizophrenic. You can’t talk to people about how you feel about the country. There’s guns everywhere. There’s stories. There’s the news. There’s constant paranoia already, and now with Trump presidency, there’s even more of it. So for me, it was somewhat easy for me to tackle into. I can totally see, in a sad way, how in the last couple of years, we’ve had more mass shootings than ever in history. I can see why we’re in this space, and so,”How do we talk about it?” was kind of the question. So let’s make a little campy horror film speaking about our American social dynamic right now. Almost like white privilege turning on itself, which I feel like we’re witnessing right now.
PopHorror: Looking at your resume, you have some really strong, independent films on there like Elephant, Lords of Dogtown, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, and then this one. What has been your favorite role so far?
John Robinson: I still think Elephant was my favorite role because I was so young and I didn’t know about filmmaking. The director, Gus [Van Sant], really asked me to play myself and was going, “Hey, let’s explore something here,” instead of, “Let’s recreate,” or “Let’s go into the mindset of,” or “Let’s study this and that.” The Lords of Dogtown was the most fun I’d ever had making a film. But, I think to me, there’s something so nostalgic about my first film and getting to explore parts of myself in front of the camera that came to me as a sort of therapy.
PopHorror: What is your favorite scary movie?
John Robinson: The first scary movie I ever saw was Misery. It still sticks in my head. I watched it from a closet while my dad was watching it, because I was totally not allowed to watch. I don’t think I could still see the movie, it just scarred me.
We want to send a great big thank you to John Robinson for taking the time to chat with us. As always, keep it tuned to PopHorror for all of your horror news, reviews and interviews!
