Two hopeless men. One cursed village. A bus full of foreign female students. An
army of salacious lesbian vampires. It's gonna be one hell of a night! BAFTA
winning comedy-duo James Corden and Mathew Horne (Gavin & Stacey) decide
to escape their problems and head to the countryside for a weekend of
debauchery. Things don't quite go according to plan and they find themselves
stuck in a village where all of the women have been enslaved by a legendary
vampire curse. As the night unfolds the boys have to put all of their fears (and
dreams!) behind them in order to rise to the challenge of becoming
Lesbian
Vampire Killers!
Blu-ray.com: Tell me about the genesis of the film for you…
James Corden: It started about two years ago, a year and a half,
before any of our fame, if that's the right word, kicked in! Actually, I don't feel
I'm famous in any way at all. But it was around then; Gavin & Stacey hadn't
been on. We'd shot it but it hadn't been aired yet. Then for one reason or
another the film didn't happen. Then a wonderful producer called Steve Clark-
Hall picked the script up and that changed everything. It suddenly picked up
momentum. Literally, picked up Momentum [as a financier and distributor] and
it went on from there.
BD: Amazingly, this is not the first lesbian vampire film…
Mathew Horne: Yeah, there's something called The Hunger and a film
about lesbian kickboxers. Heard of that? Yep, there are lesbian vampire
kickboxers.
BD: Have any of your friends given you stick about the title? There's
an angry bunch of lesbians petitioning your film on their website…
MH: I think that was inevitable and the simple argument for them is
that — and I don't take them too seriously, maybe I should — it can also be
read as a feminist text movie, because they are strong women. We are dumped
and ditched by strong women and we were attacked by strong women and
these are strong women who can destroy men and want to destroy mankind!
So the flip side of it is that it is a feminist text. All my female friends and all of
my friends just burst out laughing when they hear the title. I think it's a really
exciting title and think it makes people want to see it.
BD: The naysayers say that it panders to the male fantasy. Well, it
probably panders to the lesbian fantasy too, right?
MH: Of course it panders to the male fantasy but it is done with
tongue in cheek, so to speak and it also panders to the lesbian fantasy of
course. And even straight girls often much prefer looking at other girls,
strangely enough, than to other men, so they'll be fine as well. All sectors are
dealt with!
BD: Did you audition for the part of Fletch, or were you offered it?
JC: I went and read for it. So did a lot of other people. I don't mean
this in any arrogant way, but I read it and thought, ‘If I don't get this, I should
probably give up,' because it just feels the sort of part I want to do. It's the sort
of comedy that I really like. It requires energy and enthusiasm that I love
doing, a complete commitment. My comedy heroes I like are people like Jim
Carrey, Jack Black and Will Ferrell, men who make you laugh through sheer no-
holds-barred kind of humour. Instead of jumping over hurdles, they simply run
through them!
BD: Were you approached for this film as a pair?
JC: No, not for this. I'd been attached for quite a long time to this film
and when you read it, it seems like it was written for us. It really does. If you
are looking for two people who, I hope, understand comedy and look like best
friends in this age range, probably, we might be the only two. I don't know. Mat
stands on his own as an actor and so do I, but there's no denying that we work
incredibly well together. We just do. It's great fun. It feels like the right thing
for us to do. I don't think this a partnership that means that we'll work
together for the next 60 years but we might work together for the next six.
BD: Is there a straight man-funny man dynamic between the pair of
you [James Corden and Mathew Horne]?
MH: Yes, although there's a certain dynamic set up whereby, I don't
quite know how to put it really as I don't quite know what it is, but I think I'm
funny in a different ways to James's funny. That's all I can tell you. I have
quite a bit of slapstick so it's not as simple as one of us does that, and one does
witty banter. It's funny in different ways. It's more clown-straight man but
more blurred. I haven't seen enough of it in action, haven't watched it enough
of us to analyse it that much; I don't know what it is yet, so it's still evolving.
And when we do our sketch show it will evolve even more and I think by the
end of that, I'll probably know exactly what it is and I'll be able to put it in good
media sound bites for you! At the moment it's ‘A clown and a straight man,
and some blurring!'
BD: How does your relationship work in this film?
MH: It's about a relationship between two men and, comedically, it's
about their vernacular, the type of banter that one has with a good friend. As
you say it's about dialogue and there's slapstick, which is also intrinsically
involved in the gore and the effects. It feels like it has a little of a sitcom feel, a
bit of silent film, and a bit of classic buddy movie there.
BD: And a bust up with your girl friend prompts your character's
adventure?
MH: Yeah. She dumps me. She's a super mega bitch. She dumps me
because she's having an affair with somebody else and as soon as she dumps
me she finds out the guy she's having the affair with is married and she comes
back after me. An equally hard woman has sacked James from his job, so we
decide to go off hiking together. My ex comes to get me back. She wants to
resolve everything just as I'm trying to do something positive in life by going
away and having a good time with my mate. She comes back but she ends up
dead. She gets a double whammy.
BD: What's your character's involvement as a Lesbian Vampire Killer?
JC: Me and Mathew [Horne] play two guys who go camping to get
away from things that have been happening to them in London and end up,
they think, coincidentally, in this town. When they get there, they end up
being chased by lesbian vampires and they end up being lesbian vampire killers.
Obviously, it's very much an Academy Award film.
BD: So are these vampires like traditional vampires, barring the fact
that they're lesbians?
JC: I guess their vampire traits are the same, in that they like to suck
blood from people and they come out at night, but they are the most vamped
up vampires you've ever seen! They can be killed in the same way, yes, with
silver bullets, holy water, staked through the heart. We've got a great scene
with holy water coming out from a shower. That's a favourite.
BD: It seems that there's shades of Withnail & I: two dudes rushing
out to the country and getting more than they bargained for? You've even got
Paul McGann…
JC: I'd never thought of that because I guess when you read that it
bears no resemblance at all. But Paul McGann is a real hero of Mat's and mine,
and when we were told that he was playing the vicar we were so over the
moon. I feel lucky enough to have worked with Richard Griffiths and I have
met Richard E. Grant but I'd never met Paul so it's nice to complete the trio!
That film is very close to my heart. Isn't it everyone's? Yes, God! That film is a
classic. Classic and genius are words that get bandied about too much, but
never in regard to that film. Although when we get to vampire killing, our film
couldn't be more different!
BD: Is horror close to your heart? Because you're establishing
yourself as a comic actor…
MH: I would like to continue to see myself as a comic actor. Thank
you. You can put that in. Journalists always ask ‘Do you want to do different
things?' But I'm more than happy to do what I'm doing. I absolutely love what
I can just about do, and it can embody other things such as horror. I studied
film at University and a big part of that study was to examine their meanings
and whatnot, particularly the feminist angle.
BD: As a student of film, do you think people try to read too much
into the genre of horror film?
MH: I think so, at times, but horror's a great one for that. There are
very set rules for about what things mean and it is all quite funny. As long as
you don't take it too seriously, it can enlighten and it's interesting and can
inspire you and open your mind to certain things. So I've always had a healthy
interest in horror, not just from my study at college but from a young age.
BD: Do you have favourite horror film?
MH: My favourite horror film is The Birds. You could argue that it's
not a horror film. From my study of and reading of horror films, it's about a fear
that comes from ‘The Wilderness'. It's got this humanity and that film
embodies all the things I like about horror films, tension, fright, suspense and
all that stuff.
BD: Do you think people will compare Lesbian Vampire Killers to any
other British comedy-horror films?
MH: I think it's going to be inevitably compared to Shaun of The
Dead, because it's the personality involved, the relationship at the core of it,
and the fact that's it got some blood in it. It's not really like that film. It has
much more of a teen heart than Shaun and the Dead. That was a brilliant
comedy horror movie and that's the genre it was, romzomcom, that's inspired
the sound-biting!
BD: Are comedy and horror difficult to splice together?
MH: Totally. As an actor, it's very difficult to know where to pitch it in
certain scenes: if you are being attacked by a vampire, yes. As an actor, you
think that's a scary, frightening thing. My life is in danger, but also you want to
make people laugh, so it's about how to make that feel funny, and that's
what's really exciting about this job. Because you can come on set every day
and try stuff out, try different ways of doing it. If people laugh then that's
probably the response you go for.
BD: Do you and James have a specific working style together?
MH: Without a doubt, when we've down time, that's how it works
with us. There's no point sitting at home and writing sketches and emailing
them to each other. You just have to hang out. It sounds like an excuse, just
hanging out, but it really is not, and this is why we are able to do this film
really. Strictly speaking, we should be in an office writing our sketch show but if
we are working together, it's the best environment, because not only do you
get to interact with each other and create new ideas, we can also test them
out on people around us. If some people on the crew laugh it's in, as far as we
are concerned. We make each other laugh and if one other person laughs and
gets it, it's in.
BD: Can you think of any touchstones for the film, Shaun of The
Dead, maybe?
JC: This film is without question in the same vein as that, although I
wonder if our producer would like me saying that! Although I don't think he'd
see any reason for me not to! If our film were compared in a positive light with
that film, then I would be nothing but proud, because that film for me is one of
the best British films of the last ten years. And what's amazing is that I didn't
realize quite how long ago Shaun of the Dead was, because it still feels fresh
and current. It really does. But if we were going to stand this up and say, ‘This
is Shaun of the Dead,' we're tits.
BD: Speaking of tits, is there much nudity?
JC: There isn't really. In fact I don't know if there's any to be frank,
but these are lesbian vampires so maybe…!
We'd like to thank James Corden and Mathew Horne for talking with us.
Lesbian Vampire Killers is available on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK from 3
August, courtesy of Momentum Pictures.