Posted by J. My good friend over at In the Comfy Chair recently had the pleasure of interviewing Matthew Hurley of Pumpkinhead fame. AND, since this is easily my favorite horror film of the 80's, she's allowed me to publish that interview here.
Many, many thanks to Terri for sharing and be sure to check out the original interview here. The one truth in life that you can count on is that no one is perfect and no one has ALL the answers. Growing up, when things were bad, I was always told "It could be worse".
Of course when you're young everything bad that happens always feels like the end of the world. As you age, you realize it's true. Bad things happen and you get up, dust yourself off and either try again or start over because Trapped for days underground with no hope for rescue, and only unspeakable horrors awaiting them on the other side of the bunker door, the group begins to descend into madness, each turning on one another with physical and psycho-sexual torment.
As supplies dwindle, and tensions flare, they grow increasingly unhinged by their close quarters and hopelessness. Each act against one another becomes more depraved than the next. While everyone in the bunker allows him or herself to be overcome by desperation and lose their humanity, one survivor holds onto a thin chance for escape, even with no promise of salvation on the outside. I get such enjoyment from watching Michael Biehn on screen. He has the ability to morph into any character he's given, becoming everything from a soldier to a maintenance man, and pull it off like very few others can.
In my opinion, this is one of the best performances of his career. It also didn't hurt that he was surrounded by a very solid, talented cast. Everyone of them portrayed their characters quite flawlessly. Ashton Holmes , Lauren German , Ivan Gonzalez and Biehn stay pretty even keeled throughout, their personalities not really changing much but every other character makes a believable transformation into someone totally unrecognizable.
