Debuting just in time for the Halloween season, Fright Krewe is the brainchild of horror master Eli Roth (Hostel, The House with a Clock in its Walls), and popular author James Frey (I Am Number Four). It tells the story of a group of teenage children from different walks of life who inadvertently unleash an evil demon into the world, and now must band together to defeat him once and for all. The show takes place in New Orleans and goes deep into the mythology behind voodoo and demons. In short, it’s a darkly fun blast that perfectly compliments Roth’s horror roots and sensibilities.
That’s It LA was fortunate enough to be able to attend an advance screening of the first two episodes of the series, with Roth in advance, as he treated us to a Q&A (moderated by Collider’s Steve Weintraub) to discuss how the series came to be, and what’s in store next for the Fright Krewe.
Here’s what he had to say:
MODERATOR: So let’s start with the most important thing – what was your reaction to seeing a few kids have to leave?
ROTH: First of all one of them was 4, so that doesn’t really count. 6 was the minimum…So obviously it’s so different. It’s a show that is you know, obviously for kids and for us to watch with our kids. But it was really fun to see you guys enjoying the humor, and the scares, and really amazed with what we actually got away with.
This is your first time I believe showing it to an audience?
Yeah, everything else. I mean, you know, when you’re doing television, it’s the intimate experience your watching your house. From the very beginning, one of the things we set out to do was to make was a 2D show that was beautiful. and felt like you could play it in a theater, and that looked theatrical. And Shane Acker, who’s here tonight was really helping make it look cinematic. You know, we didn’t want it to look like look – I love Mike Judge’s animation, and grew up on Scooby Doo, and those types of walk cycles. But now, you know, with the support of Dreamworks Animation, we thought, okay, we really want this to look cinematic…we really want to be able to render it in such a beautiful and cinematic way that it was a thrill to watch it on the screen. Everybody has large TVs and 4K now so when you’re making something…you really have to think of it as a home theater experience.
So this is going to be, for a lot of kids, this is going to be the first scary cartoon that they’ll see. What does that mean to you?
It’s everything to me. Honestly the first scary cartoon I saw was Pinocchio. And we don’t think of it as scary but when you’re a kid, I was three, when I saw that movie, it freaked me out. When those kids are in Pleasure Island, and they get turned into donkeys? That was the scariest thing. It was terrifying. And then when he’s inside Monstro the whale. Like that was the most horrifying thought as a child. And then years later, someone pointed out that Hostel was a remake of Pinocchio. They said, “when these kids go to Amsterdam looking for sex? It’s like Pleasure Island. And then they wind up in the factory.” And I was like, “oh my god it is Pinocchio.” You think of these things that got under your skin as child. Like I remember when I was a kid coming home after school watching Scooby-Doo and other Saturday morning cartoons. It was the most exciting thrilling thing for me. And James Frey and I were talking. You know for our kids, there isn’t anything that’s the “new Scooby-Doo.” And Scooby-Doo’s always, you know, the guy with the with the mask and the meddling kids. What if we could really have real monsters in our own mythology…there’s so many great things and so many life lessons you can Trojan horse into kids’ scary animation. Like things about bravery about finding your superpower and messages about friendship.
Also I thought about how what voodoo was to me when I saw it as a kid how it was portrayed. It was a voodoo doll, putting someone in a spell, and we thought, “no, there’s so much this incredible religion.” What if we had writers who were from New Orleans? And people that were actual relatives who were voodoo priests and priestesses, and they had technical advisors that, from the very beginning, could show this incredible range of the culture and of the city and of the religion. But really, it’s about bravery and friendship and finding your own superpower. And I think those are such important messages to get to kids that, if their life is scary, and school is scary, and they get into a scary situation, maybe they’ll think about Soleil, or they’ll think about Stanley. It’s about kind of finding your own voice and finding your own strength.
How long ago did you guys start really brainstorming this? And think about bringing this to life?
I sat down, I believe it was, 2015…And we originally, because James invented this whole I Am Number Four book series for young adults…we thought originally like, “let’s write a book series like Goosebumps…because that seemed easier. Then we can set it as an animated series. So we drew all the characters, and we had like different names for them…they go through different evolutions, but we did, you know, the first pass and we sat down with DreamWorks. And we pitched it out and they loved it and they bought it. They helped us develop it. and we brought in our show runners who did such an amazing job, Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco…it’s really nice when you spend years and years on something and it really hits the mark so much higher than you ever thought. Literally eight years ago, we sat there. We have the original drawings, the original artwork, the original concepts we did back then and you know, I mean, it’s incredible what it’s really become.
I am curious about when you guys came up with it? How far ahead? Did you think about like an ultimate arc? How much were you just like, ‘We’re just going to aim at the eight episodes” or how far did you think about it?
Well the original concept was – There was this going to be this event called “The Fright.” That was the very first thing is like, “The Fright” happens, once every two years. And they unleash all the monsters and now they have to go to see Alma. And she teaches them about it and they get there. And then okay, how are they going to each like, each week, you’d have to get a different monster back in the jar. That was kind of a first idea, but I thought well, okay, well if 300 monsters get out [there’d be 300 episodes]…But then DreamWorks was like, “well who’s the big bad? Who’s the one that’s behind those monsters and the overarching mythology?” And that’s where, you know, we really started looking into those things and thinking about that. And that’s where Joanne and Christine were great in coming in and saying like, “Okay, now we’re gonna we’re going to change it.”…You start with kind of a bunch of ideas. You have like 500 ideas and you go, “Season One will be this” And then…it’s like, clay. You just start screaming, “Oh, get rid of that. Get rid of that. Get rid of that.”… It’s fun to think about what stays and what lasts, but it’s always better…what you come out with in the end is always the right version of it. It’s like you forget these old ideas. Your brain has this hard drive and once the idea is gone, you delete it and people are like, “remember that idea we had? Oh, that’s right! That was a bad idea.”
What makes the crew in Fright Krewe so special and what sets these characters apart?
First it’s our incredible voice talent. Let me just say that…You see yourself in all of them. Like I’d love to think that I’m Soleil. Someone that’s really into gore. Like what if our lead character that’s so into horror and into gore, and loves New Orleans, and is almost an outcast…the episodes they get scarier, they get darker. And the kids get into real trouble and they have real real adversaries…That’s, you know, they are all kinds of aspects of yourself…So we tried to also kind of show the types of characters and faces and kind of ethnic makeup that I hadn’t seen when we were growing up. This is a show for 2023. We want it to reflect 2023 audiences in the way we do the parents, the way we do the characters, and the kind of wonderful diversity of New Orleans. But not just sort of have it be part of the world. It’s really just their friends and these are the stories, and these are the monsters that they have to fight… I think taking the archetypes of the popular girl that used to be best friends…There’s the kind of geeky girl…and doing our Fright Crew spin on it was really fun…That’s what happens with our characters over the series. When they get turned into monsters, that’s it. You gotta deal with it. You’re a monster now. And whatever the rules of that monster are, you gotta live by that now. So that was the fun. Taking those characters and pushing [them] to those dark places.
What do you want to tease for the upcoming episode?
Oh, we have some fantastic, fantastic monsters. They get scarier. They get darker. The kids get into trouble. But it’s really intense. It’s beautiful and scary. And we have some fantastic cameos from certain voice actors that are that are popping in and out of the episodes, that came on just to be part of the show that are really, really fun.
What did you learn so far making the series that if you get to make more episodes you’re going to take with you?
That’s a great question. I’ve learned that when you have a great group of writers, and animators and our art director (who’s here as well)…whatever your vision is, sometimes the best thing is to shut up and get out of the way because they’re going to bring something so beautiful. And if you can do that, what unfolds in front of you is like taking the seed of your idea and growing into this like incredible jungle. And…whatever my ideas are, this was the classic case of “best idea wins.” It was really a great group working together. It wasn’t like, “I gotta get my idea and blah blah blah.” No. Everyone in the room all felt it. We all agreed, “like that’s the best idea.” So whatever ideas I have in mind for my future season, if someone comes up with a better idea, we’re going with that.
Fright Krewe begins streaming on Peacock October 2nd.
