Kevin Williamson entered the world stage with a fresh, fun take on a genre that many of us grew up loving. 1996's Scream was by turns hilarious, wonderfully Meta and rich with "inside baseball" horror fan references and, in moments, legitimately terrifying. The film called out the rules of horror and in so doing, redefined them. The screenwriter then went on to write and produce two of the franchises sequels, and develop six television series including The Vampire Diaries and the upcoming, more adult-themed, look at serial killers and cults, The Following, set to debut on Monday, January 21 on FOX.
The creator had the initial idea for The Following when he was researching Danny Rolling, known as the Gainesville Ripper, while penning the original Scream. Rolling murdered five students on a college campus in Florida, and when he read about him, Williamson has said that he thought, "Wouldn't it be terrifying if rather than a drifter, this was a charming professor who was killing these women?"
The seed of that idea serves as the foundation for The Following. Kevin Bacon stars as Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent who was charged with hunting down and capturing Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), a charismatic, Edgar Allan Poe-obsessed literature professor/failed author turned serial killer. In the eight-years following his incarceration, Carroll has been able to amass a group of would-be-killers and lost souls to do his long distance bidding. Hardy is called in to consult to stop the string of murders that results.
At this recent TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, the dominant topic of conversation was "violence in entertainment". Certainly, that has been part of the national dialog in recent weeks, and we've been paying attention to and covering how that unfolds here at IGN (and will continue to do so). What was unique at the TCA press tour was that all manner of depicted violence seemed to be lumped together. Attempts were, seemingly, made to tie fantastical television series and the recent real-world tragic shootings together.
We were able to sit down with Williamson directly after the panel for The Following, where he was, repeatedly, asked the same question about a link between violence in the media and real world brutality. We were able to speak with the writer a bit more about his take on the topic, the tropes of horror, what we can expect from this series, and people needing to chill.
IGN: You know, I grew-up watching horror films and one of the things that I want to touch upon is that what struck me as I was listening to the line of questioning in that panel, is that the tropes of the genre are being misunderstood. A few things jumped out at me in that regard. One, was of course everyone wants to talk about the recent school shootings and it's natural to want to search for a cause and solution. But in my mind, the two are truly unrelated. It's not like they're making a comparison to the fictional The Silence of the Lambs, or even referring to a real-world serial killer. I wanted to get your take on that.
Kevin Williamson: Well, it’s so hard; I’m so sensitive to it. First, because I knew it was coming. When something so senseless happens, everyone’s trying to make sense of it. But you can’t, because that is the nature of it being senseless. It’s almost too easy to go to television, and go to the video games, and go to the movies and cite that their cumulative impact is what’s causing it. It’s just not true. But how do you tell a mother that whose lost a child and is trying to make sense of all this? I do have a strong opinion about it. I’m a Hollywood writer, so it’s kind of obvious what side of the fence I would fall on in the debate. I have a very, very strong opinion about what does cause it, but I'm not sure that now is the time for me to share. If you want to come by my house for dinner, I’ll be happy to let you in on it. I’ll debate it all the way through dessert and coffee. But I don’t know that I want to put myself out there and go down into that rabbit hole.
IGN: I think what’s interesting is that a movie like We Need to Talk About Kevin is looking at the causes for and evolution of that kind of violence. specifically. And it is a very serious film, so I feel like you could spend the entire press conference for that film on this topic. A show like The Following isn’t dealing with that kind of a killer, or that kind of violence. That’s where I think that line of questioning gets really murky, because it just lumps things together, which can confuse issues. Also, the tone of this show is fantastical and pulpy.
Williamson: Also, what constitutes too much? Going back to the violence question. So we can’t write stories about the good guys versus the bad guys anymore? Or we can’t show violence at all? I just don’t understand who gets to draw the line. There’s such a…I’m going to the dinner conversation here, and I should stay out of it. Because I have a great argument for it.
Continue on for more on violence in the media, cults, for-fun horror and The Following...
Source : ign[dot]com
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