Interview: Todd Spence & Zak White tap into gutting terror with three-minute ‘Fear Wish’

1984’s Nightmare on Elm Street kept an entire generation awake and hopped up on coffee and caffeine pills. Robert Englund’s turn as the vengeful, child-killing sleep demon named Freddy Krueger exploited our vital need to sleep, preying upon the body’s biological rhythms and our deep-seated fears of the night. Wes Craven’s monstrous creation, counterbalanced with protagonist Nancy Thompson’s (played by Heather Langenkamp) steely willpower, upended conventions and now looms over the horror genre with a maniacal relish. Indie-thriller Fear Wish – helmed by filmmakers Zak White and Todd Spence – casts a spellbinding glow, nearly dream-like in its own right.

A runtime of only three minutes, Fear Wish manipulates one man’s desperation into a narrative that grounds the viewer, endearing them quickly and efficiently, but leaves an air of dread spinning in the room. It’s quite evident how much of an impact films like Nightmare on Elm Street have had on the two up and coming storytellers. “I was a big ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ fan [growing up] – something about the monster having so much fun being a monster,” White writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email. “It terrified me, but I also couldn’t look away because Englund was so charismatic. Same with ‘Demon Knight’; Billy Zane is having a blast. I love horror that can be entertaining, as well as horrifying.”

Spence’s tastes hit in a similar but contrasting vein. ‘[I loved] anything with werewolves and zombies. I really loved makeup and FX and dove into how horror films were made thanks to Fangoria and shows like ‘Movie Magic’ on A&E,” he says. “But as far as specific movies, I know it’s not full horror, but I’m pretty sure I wore down the local video store’s copy of ‘Teen Wolf.’ Definitely some horror elements in that film, especially the transformation sequence which was terrifying (but still mind-blowingly cool) to watch.”

White and Spence’s three-minute nightmare hooks its gnarled tentacles into the brain and refuses to let go. Below, they hop on a quick Q&A to dissect their film and major influences.

Once you made the shift from comedy to horror in your career, did you find yourself naturally gravitating toward a particular sub-genre more than others?

White: One of the best things about horror is the immense amount of sub-genres. And one of the enticing things about diving into creating horror is exploring all those different sub-genres. I love a good ghost story, a good slasher, a good body horror, psychological, found footage, holiday, alien, vampire horror. You can really stretch your legs and try out different types. The beauty of the genre is you don’t have to pigeonhole yourself into one thing. Variety is the spice of life.

Spence: I think we just wanted to gravitate to things we knew other horror fans would be into. So, it was less about specific sub-genres and just concepts, in general. Is it an idea that horror fans would be immediately interested in, and would we want to possibly later expand upon? That’s usually our requirements to move forward with a concept.

What filmmakers do you find yourself wanting to emulate most?

White: There are countless filmmakers that I find inspiration from. A character quirk here, a dynamic shot there, but the ones I go to time and time again are pretty much who you’d expect. Carpenter, Craven, Raimi ⏤ there’s something special about their films that just click for me. Of course, I could make that list 20 names longer, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll keep it to three. Those three, in particular, have had to reinvent themselves multiple times to stay relevant for multiple decades. An evolution of an artist is a tough thing to pull off successfully. There’s no guarantee. These men managed to change with the times and made some of their best films decades after their big breaks. That’s the kind of career I’d like.

Spence: The first filmmaker that comes to mind, one that I adored growing up and still admire, is John Landis. He’s a director that could do it all and sometimes combine into one film. ‘American Werewolf in London,’ ‘Innocent blood,’ ‘Thriller ‘ ⏤ but then you have his comedy stuff. That kind of quality variety in filmmaking is something we try to add in our work, making characters and concepts enjoyable to the audience which is what will make them want to share and watch them again with friends.

Sometimes what happens with indie horror is a lack of emotional depth in lead characters. But that’s certainly not the case here. In writing FEAR WISH, was that something you knew you needed from the start?

White: The lead character is the surrogate for the audience. We see things through their eyes. If there isn’t an emotional connection to that character, then it’s very difficult to be scared for them, and for yourself in the process. It’s like a good comedy duo, you always need a straight man that can land the joke. To get a good scare, you need a straight man that can react appropriately to that scare. And if the audience doesn’t care about the character, it’s much less effective.

Spence: Zak said something early on that always stuck with me, and it was we don’t want our characters to just be pieces of meat. When you give the audience generic characters, you don’t have a plentiful film, you just have junk food. That is fine sometimes but it’s those well-rounded characters and concepts that will make people return. With ‘Fear Wish,’ we wanted to really drive to feel for Rich and what he’s going through in the short time we’re with him.

Also the idea of needing to make a “fear wish” to get what you want is quite unsettling ⏤ where did that come from? How did the storyline and character background develop?

White: We were really interested in finding a moral dilemma. Something that the viewer would earnestly consider in their real life. Is the life of a loved one worth the danger to your own? What else would you risk everything for? These are questions that we loved digging into. It’s more than just risking death; it’s facing your literal worst fear. It’s so personal to each person. We really like finding out what people would dread the most.

Spence: Yeah, we didn’t want to simply have someone disconnected to the horror of the concept. If you have the flashlight, you yourself are creating your own personal horror which to us feels way heavier than anything else.

What were the logistics behind shooting FEAR WISH: how long did it take? Where was it shot, etc?

White: We work with what we have, which means this is the third short to be shot in Todd’s apartment. One short has been shot in my apartment. All of our shorts are designed to be simple enough to shoot in one day, mainly because two-day rentals are expensive, and we’re already asking too many favors. But again, we work with what we have.

Spence: Exactly. That’s one hump that’s hard for filmmakers starting out to get over. They think they need all of this money to film anything, and it’s just not true. Pull together your resources, and get it done. Don’t make it too difficult on yourself by writing something too difficult to shoot simply.

What would be your fear wish?

White: That time would speed up. Years going by in seconds… no thanks.

Zak: Probably to be buried alive under something massive, like a collapsed building or something like that. Good God, I don’t even want to think about it right now.

Watch Fear Wish below:

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