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Perhaps it is fitting that David Arquette‘s feature film directorial debut is a horror film. Obsessed with Halloween, Arquette frequently goes all out with costumes and events for his family. This year, his daughter Coco was debating between a Princess Fiona and Pippi Longstocking costume.
Those suggestions are of the family friendly variety. Arquette‘s film The Tripper is a slasher movie in the adult-oriented gory vein. Released on DVD this week, the story of a Reagan-obsessed serial killer stalking a group of hippie kids will be sitting on Blockbuster shelves and Netflix queues for any viewing party playlists.
The Tripper had an interesting evolution itself. Arquette notably forgot the footage he intended to show at 2006’s San Diego Comic Con. It played a limited theatrical run in 2007 before its final resting place on those little round discs that last forever. Now Arquette can turn his attentions to his true passion, getting ready for 2007’s Halloween festivities.
Hollywood.com: Your movie is coming out for Halloween. What timing!
David Arquette: That was the plan.
HW: Has Coco decided between the Princess Fiona and Pippi Longstocking costumes?
DA: Well, I think we might be going for Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty.
HW: How did that come into the mix?
DA: Yeah, a dark horse kind of came out of nowhere. I don’t know, but there’s magic. I thought the swan was going to make a noise but it didn’t. It just kind of came up. She said, “Princess Aurora” at one point so we went out and got the costume. But it’s a little uncomfortable so I’m not sure how it’s going to fly. Last year she wanted to be Jane from Tarzan and Jane. So Courteney [Cox] dressed up as a gorilla, Tarzan’s mom, Carla. I dressed up as Tarzan but it scared her too much. Luckily, I had a backup costume for her and she changed her mind to be Ariel, the Little Mermaid. I was Neptune but Courteney was stuck with the makeup from the gorilla costume which kind of made her look like she just had sort of a caveman unibrow. It was pretty funny!
HW: What are you and Courteney dressing up as this year?
DA: I’m probably going to be a prince and Courteney will be a queen or something.
HW: So you bought these costumes. Is it that simple, or did you add elaborate touches?
DA: Last year I did. I added quite a bit. I got Courteney the gorilla costume. I had the Neptune and the other costume so I always like to make sure to make them personal. As far as her costume goes, it’s pretty store bought. I tried to find something a little more unique, sort of authentic princess looking but there wasn’t anything really out there.
HW: Why do you love Halloween so much?
DA: We grew up, my grandfather was named Cliff Arquette. He played a character named Charlie Weaver who was always in costume. He had a big costume closet and left us with a big makeup chest and stuff, so we always played around with it all. There was always just something. My whole family’s funny and my father also always dressed up as a clown for my birthday. It’s just something we do.
[IMG:R]HW: Does Courteney love Halloween as much as you?
DA: She does enjoy Halloween. I’m not sure as much. I’m the one with the costume closet now. I can dress up like my whole family, my whole group of friends. We can have a costume dinner party.
HW: What was your first Halloween together like? Was it during Scream?
DA: I’m not sure if it was during Scream. I have a really bad memory when it comes to certain things but I’m not too sure.
HW: Were you already going all out, or did you ease her into it?
DA: I can’t remember. We had a really cool one, one time in Vegas. We had Halloween in Vegas and that was really fun one year. We went with her mom and stepdad. I dressed everybody up. She was a hippie and I was sort of the pimp daddy hippy, like a big afro crazy psychedelic hippie style. Her father-in-law was Sherlock Holmes and her mother and her friend were geisha girls. Then someone was a mobster boss, like a gangster.
HW: Do you have any Halloweeen festivities planned this year?
DA: Yeah, we’re doing a little community event. We dress the whole neighborhood up so we’re doing that, just get together with friends and family and check it out.
HW: When you do something for the kids, do you have to tone it down?
DA: Yeah, I mean, when I go to Halloween on my own it’s different. Halloween’s really for the kids nowadays.
HW: What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
DA: My favorite Halloween candy, I think I’m going to be a traditionalist and go with Candy Corn. Actually at [our production company] Coquette, we have sort of a nonunion spinoff of Coquette which we did a couple of reality based shows out of. That production company was called Candy Corn.
HW: Do you expect people to watch The Tripper on Halloween day?
DA: They actually bumped up the date and it’s in stores right now. The idea is to get it in so people could get it before Halloween, so they could maybe watch it leading up to the festivities.
HW: Does it have a place in viewing parties that might also include Halloween or Scream?
DA: Yeah. It really is sort of a party movie. Friends get together, have a couple beers and check out the movie. That’s the way it was intended to be seen.
[IMG:L]HW: You had an interesting journey with the film since that fateful Comic Con…
DA: It’s independently produced and financed. We produced it ourselves and everything from the ground up. It’s been a real journey. Two years ago, we went to Comic Con with some sneak peaks for the audience and a sort of trailer that we’d thrown together. We were still in the editing room at the time. On the way to my panel, I lost/misplaced the DVD. So I ended up having to sort of act out part of it, just to explain what it was. That was a little embarrassing but I got a lot of press out of it so people sort of put it on the map. Then we looked for distributors and we couldn’t really get anybody. A lot of people wanted it to go straight to DVD but we wanted to have a chance to have a theatrical release so we ended up self distributing it. I got on a bus and did a three week tour around America to different cities that the film was going to play in. I met and talked to a lot of people and did a bunch of horror film festivals and just got it out there. It was another wild experience because I sort of learned the ground level of film distribution. Not the way it should really be done but more of a four walling kind of way. It was an amazing experience and we learned a lot. It allowed us to get a really good deal with Fox Home Video and they’ve been really supportive and great.
HW: What are you like as a director?
DA: I just like fun films, good films, films that make me feel something. I don’t like films that waste my time. I like films that try to fool you before you go in the theater. I like films that people put a lot into them and think them through and have fun with them. You can tell they’re fun to make and watch. I like all kinds of different films, especially since I’ve gotten into directing and read a couple books on it and watched a few movies that they’ve recommended. Just watching The Graduate again or watching The Piano, these different movies like Psycho, different movies that make you look at the filmmaking process.
