Q&A: Paolo Sedazzari - Director
Q&A: Elliott Jordan - Brian
VIDEO INTERVIEW: Elliott Jordan - Brian

Q&A with Toybox director, Paolo Sedazzari:

Is Toybox the first feature length script you've written?

No. When I was 10, I wrote "Scooby Doo in the House of Hell". Like a lot of kids my age I loved Scooby Doo, but I started feeling a bit let down by the ending where the ghosts were just an elaborate facade for some scam, with the line "I would have got away with it if it weren't for those damn kids". So I wrote this script where the ghosts were real and that really f**ked Scooby, Shaggy and the rest of the gang up.

Are you heavily into horror movies?

I don't guzzle up every last horror video in the store. But I like quality
horror.

Such As?

Rosemary's Baby which for me is the perfect film. But there's also
The Shining, Eyes Without a Face, Mask of Satan and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. If Baby Jane can indeed be categorized as a horror film. Because nothing supernatural happens. It can be classified as a black comedy which is a genre Toybox could find a home in.

Is Toybox a comedy then?

No. It's a horror with a strong element of black humour. I must stress that it isn't a send-up or a spoof horror.

What's the difference?

A send-up is making fun of the whole genre. It also largely relies on the
audience knowing the films it is sending up. For instance Young Frankenstein is a send-up of James Whale's Frankenstein, and it is very much tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken seriously. But the black comedy in The Toybox is a whole different kettle of fish. The humour in The Toybox is working with the horror, with the on-set of impending doom.

How much of The Toybox is autobiographical?

I would say none although there are many similarities that acted as a
starting point.

Like what?

For instance my dad used to love the TV comics - Tommy Cooper, Benny Hill, Morecambe and Wise. It was about the only thing we had in common. But then his constant quoting of them would drive us all to despair. But my family is quite functional and up-standing compared to the family in The Toybox. Just for the record my mum is nothing like Madeleine the mother in The Toybox.

Do you fool around with black magic in churches?

Certainly not and I would strongly advise others not to.

Why did you choose Norfolk as your location?

My granddad retired to Norfolk and we used to go see him in his mobile
home and I thought then that Norfolk would make the ideal setting for a
horror film. It is very much in touch with its past and the remnants of the witch-hunts are still very much around.

The acting is one of the film's many strong points. Do you want to say something about the actor's contribution to the film?

When you read interviews with filmmakers they are always gushing in a
some sickly way about how great it is to work with so-and-so. It is hard to avoid. I am eternally grateful to my cast because they breathed life into my words and made the film what it is.

What directors do you admire?

Loads, but the one that jumps out is Roger Corman. Fall of the House of Usher was the first horror film I saw. It actually really annoys me when people try and denigrate his contribution to cinema and say that he just made low budget exploitation movies. People who say that KNOW NOTHING.

The sequence of Edgar Allan Poe movies he made in the early sixties stand up today as great cinema. The films tapped into the horror that is in our minds. That is much more interesting than some special effects monster. And this is what guided me in writing and directing The Toybox. The more I think of it the more I realise, if there had been no Roger Corman films there would have been no Toybox.