Interview with E.L. Katz

"The Genre Really Needs to Go Further, Try New Things, and Be Brave"

E.L. Katz started directing short films in the mid-2000s and soon made a name for himself as a screenwriter and director. He wrote Pop Skull for Adam Wingard and made his feature film debut in 2013 with Cheap Thrills. Since then, he has worked extensively in television (Scream, Swamp Thing, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Channel Zero). After Small Crimes, Azrael is his third feature film. – by Javier Parra

Where did the idea for Azrael come from?

One of my best friends for a long time is Simon Barrett, the screenwriter of The Guest and You’re Next. For years, we’ve been trying to work together. We’ve also been supporting each other because we both like making weird things. When you work in Hollywood, not everyone likes weird things. There came a point in our careers where we challenged each other and said, “Let’s write the horror movies we want to see.” It didn’t matter if anyone would actually make them. And Simon had a dream—it was almost transmitted straight into his brain. He described it like Prince of Darkness by Carpenter, like what happens when you hear static on the radio. It got into his head like a vision of the future, almost like a warning about where things were heading. He wrote the script, and we decided to make it together.

I was going to ask you what it was like working with Simon Barrett, but you got ahead of me.

We’re family. Sometimes family yells, sometimes family fights… but there’s a lot of respect and love, and we both come from the same background. We feel that the genre really needs to go further, try new things, and be brave, and that’s our biggest shared belief. He’s like a soldier. He’s my brother-in-arms.

How did Samara Weaving join the project?

I spoke to several actresses, and I didn’t want to lie to them. I told them it was going to be miserable work. “You’re not going to have fun. You’re going to be in the woods for thirty nights straight, covered in mud, crawling around everywhere, and it’s going to be freezing.” One actress told me, “I can’t do this for the sake of my mental health,” which I completely understood. Samara Weaving, on the other hand, said, “Let’s do it.” She didn’t care at all, she wasn’t afraid. She liked the idea, the challenge, and the adventure. So we decided to go all in with her.

You worked on one of my favorite series, Channel Zero. What was it like working with Nick Antosca?

It was a dream come true because Nick is a really weird guy, and he loves supporting weird filmmakers like him. He has these crazy ideas and loves bringing them to life. There was a sense of artistic freedom. Even though we were making a TV show, which is usually a corporate product, it felt like an independent film project. In The Dream Door [Katz wrote and directed all six episodes of the fourth season], we were doing whatever we wanted—whole scenes with strange wide shots to make them feel like they were filmed inside a nightmare.

Who are your influences?

After so many years as a horror fan, you end up being influenced by a lot of people. I love Lucio Fulci and Tobe Hooper. For Azrael, there’s a lot of survival horror influence. John Boorman’s Deliverance, Peter Carter’s Rituals, Jeff Lieberman’s Just Before Dawn, and also some Soviet cinema. I love Tarkovsky and Come and See by Elem Klimov. There’s also a lot of 2000s French extreme horror. That era was amazing for the genre—beautiful, super-violent films with incredible actors.

What are your favorite horror films?

That’s really hard because it changes all the time. It’s embarrassing because when you name the obvious ones, people go, “Oh, you’re so basic.” Of course, we love The Shining. Of course, we love The Thing. Of course, we love all of those. But I think The Beyond is my favorite [he says while showing the tattoo inspired by the film on his arm]. I love how eerie and weird it is. I also really love George Sluizer’s The Vanishing, the original. It’s terrifying. And The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—there’s nothing else like it. It’s a true daylight nightmare that burns into your brain.

How did Fulci enter your life?

Through those old Italian special edition VHS tapes from Anchor Bay. They had great, uncut transfers. I started with Argento’s films and then dug deeper into Italian horror. You know—Argento might be more elegant, but Fulci is really raw. I love City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery, The Beyond, Contraband, Conquest… I think his special effects were really disturbing.

Would you dare to do a Fulci remake?

Oh! That would be a huge responsibility. But I’d do it. A while ago, I would have said no, but now I think I’d do it—just to protect it, because I don’t want anyone else to ruin it. Only I can ruin it. I’d go for The Beyond, which is such a unique mood piece, and I think that’s something missing from a lot of modern horror films. But don’t tell anyone in Hollywood. That’s something I’ll keep in my dreams.

[Interview taken from the Festival Journal for October 10 & 11, 2024]