Chuck Russell, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob makes his return to the Horror genre with his newest re-imaging Witchboard (2024). The supernatural board-based horror celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival, where the majority of the film was shot.

Withboard takes inspiration from Kevin Tenney’s original cult classic Witchboard (1986), but expands the story in a time-shifting supernatural freak fest that’s perfect for your next pizza party/Friday night movie marathon We sat down with Russell ahead of the Montreal premiere to chat about the making of the movie, the history of witchcraft, and why he says he’ll never touch a Ouija board….

“The most fun I had was returning to Horror after trying different genres, and just pushing myself towards […] things that I think audiences haven’t seen before.”

Chuck Russell: It’s fun to be back in Montreal. We shot our film here and in New Orleans, so it’s kind of a hometown screening and my 1st chance to get to the Fantasia Festival I’ve been hearing about for years. […] I haven’t had a chance to see anything at the festival yet, but I had a fun interview with Fangoria where there were a bunch of fans, which is always refreshing, literally refreshing to get with the fans. Horror fans are the coolest people.

Jonathan Dehaan for Nightmare on Film Street: So, you’ve clearly spent a bunch of time in Montreal. What’s your favorite thing about the city?

Russell: Oh, you know you gotta start with the people. This is the 3rd thing for me to shoot in Canada, the 1st thing for me to shoot in Montreal. I’ve been fortunate to get to shoot all over the world in my career and there’s some of the best crews in the world here as well. The people are super nice and the locations are amazing. Old Montreal can play for all kinds of places. We played it for 1,700 France for some of the- I don’t want to call them flashbacks because what happens in in 1700s affects what happens to our characters in the present day. So, it’s all one linear story. It’s a lot of fun the way it worked out.

NOFS: It’s really interesting that it took 4 of these movies to finally start introducing witches.

Russell: [laughs] I know! I react very strongly to titles. And one of the reasons I wanted to reimagine this, It’s a catchy title but I was shocked there wasn’t witches. So, I really wanted to to go to go heavy on my Queen of Witches and really figure out who she was and how motivated her revenge might be.

“Horror fans are the coolest people.”

NOFS: Oh yeah, a witch burned at the stake, as a character, makes for the ultimate revenge story. Were witches always your starting point when you were developing the story?

Russell: I think the when the antagonist is highly believably motivated it can make that antagonist more powerful in the story. And Antonia Desplat, who plays Naga Soth, did an incredible job.

For me, having seen the original back of the day, I felt like it’s still very resonant with fans. I like to think of it as the 3rd the trilogy of my horror, reimaginings, from the sequel in Elm Street 3 to The Blob to this. I felt like there was room for improvement, yet room for the honoring the legacy of the film, but I wanted to take it into a much deeper place with new characters. and I’ve been fascinated with pendulum boards. Throughout my horror writing a directing phase, I’ve researched a lot of this and whenever you can connect with what I consider to be real spiritualism, It makes the story much more resonant

I’d never seen a pendulum board on film, and they were literally the predecessors to Ouija boards. The Pope in the 1700s outlawed them, so if you had a pendulum board you could end up being burnt at the stake, which is why Ouija boards were eventually developed. But cinematically, to be honest, I just knew I could do some interesting visuals with them.

“I like to think of it as the 3rd the trilogy of my horror, reimaginings, from the sequel in Elm Street 3 to The Blob to this.”

NOFS: Ouija boards and pendulum boards have so much history behind them and they’re so iconically scary. Did you see this as the ultimate sandbox to play in or was it like the ultimate high stakes object?

Russell: It is a great opportunity and a great sandbox to play in, particularly when I finally had a great vehicle for the visuals of a pendulum board I’d imagined previously. That’s the joy if this. I think it’s goes back to people telling tales around fires and retelling myths and legends. It’s just fun to personalize something like this, and but not to feel limited by the original [movie].

I love the genre so for me it was just pure fun to come back to horror, and maybe I have my confidence up in this genre, but I actually never felt [any] pressure. Just like The Blob, there was a love for the original but, I think, room to kind of explode it. So for me, it was a great platform. I guess we’re always concerned we’re making a good movie. And for me, the first reactions from audiences are what I’m really looking for. And we’re real excited about how the film is playing so far.

NOFS: Many of your horror films are considered classics by horror fans but what are some of the movies that influenced you and got you interested in the genre?

Russell: Like a lot of people, I started watching [horror movies] too young. The thing that blew my mind, and I wasn’t such a kid, was The Exorcist because it it dared to do something a lot deeper in the face of the church and break some taboos. That shook me up. You know, I was still young and it blew my mind. There was an era of The Exorcist and The Omen, where they just took horror to another level and went beyond monstery things to things that might really be going on

I believe and respect the fact that there really is evil in the world. And in the few times in my life I felt the atmosphere of what I consider to be real evil, I think there’s also forces of spiritual good. You can’t really do a film about darkness without a little light, so for me I’m always looking for the power of the human spirit versus the supernatural power of evil. I know that’s sort of a generalization, but it defines a lot of my work.

“I had reoccurring nightmares when I was a kid, and that really informed a lot of my work.”

NOFS: You’re gonna have to tell me about some of those brushes of yours with pure evil.

Russell: Well, weirdly enough, early in my career when I was location scouting, I got into a couple of old houses for other people’s films, and when you’re there alone with the camera it it’s you start to feel like a ghost hunter. There were a couple of times I brushed against that, and you know even the evil of war and things like this […] the evil potential in mankind, but the good potential in mankind is in the balance. I try to dramatize both.

NOFS: Did you ever photograph anything weird during those location scouts?

Russell: No, I’ve never had anything on film, but I personally had an out of body experience during an operation I had. I really did get to watch myself, and I checked myself for accuracy later. it’s a story I don’t talk about a lot because things happen to everybody and, do we really want to discuss them? I don’t want to debate with anybody.

I had reoccurring nightmares when I was a kid, and that really informed a lot of my work. I became interested as a teenager in what is a nightmare? Does everybody have them? How do you break the nightmare cycle? I actually researched it a little, and I had my own things. I did as a kid. It just still blows my mind that at night we all drop into this world where anything can happen and in the morning our minds are actually designed to forget it. Your memory of a dream becomes only a verbal memory. This is technically true. Otherwise, a year later you wouldn’t be able to remember whether you finished college that year or fought a dragon, you get your all your memories get tangled, so your dreams are literally designed to dissolve very quickly. So whatever it is, it’s always fascinated me.

“I personally would never touch a Ouija board. […] These things are gateway drugs into spiritualism, and you don’t want to pick up any little hitchhikers along the way.”

NOFS: Based on all this, I have to assume you would really respond to a place like New Orleans. There’s such a matter-of-fact belief about spirituality and forces of good and evil there.

Russell: Yeah, that’s true. You can chat about spiritualism with the average person in New Orleans, and they have a strong opinion. I respect that. I personally would never touch a Ouija board. There is a spiritual world. These things are gateway drugs into spiritualism, and you don’t want to pick up any little hitchhikers along the way.

I warn our audience against dabbling into things we don’t know, but the human intention is what it’s all about. That’s why there’s voodoo dolls. The voodoo doll is delivered to the victim’s home, so the victim could see, ‘oh, I’m going to have a stomachache. There’s a pin in the doll’s stomach and that’s supposed to be me’. The intention is passed on by the practitioner so the victim creates subconsciously his effect. Whether you want to believe in actual magic or just human intention, these things can work, and we are to be cautious around them. And also be cautious of your own Karma, people that are doing this stuff.

NOFS: Do you worry that making a movie like Witchboard might inspire people to play with ouija boards?

Russell: It’s one of the reasons I was relieved to realize I could use a pendulum board, which is a divination tool and could be spell casting for love. You know, it’s not necessarily an evil tool. [But] the most fun I had was returning to Horror after trying different genres, and just pushing myself towards stronger imagery and deeper imagination, and things that I think audiences haven’t seen before. That’s really why I chose Witchboard.

“I love the genre so for me it was just pure fun to come back to horror,”

Chuck Russell’s Witchboard (2024) celebrated its World Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival! Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the fest and let us know if you’re excited to see sci-fi thriller in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!