By April MacIntyre Jul 7, 2008, 23:32 GMT
Sci Fi's "Scare Tactics" takes its creative cues from "Candid Camera," "Punk’d" and "The Twilight Zone." The show will premiere on Wednesday, July 9 at 10:00 pm in two back-to-back new episodes.
Tracy Morgan - The 59th Annual Primetime EMMY Awards - Arrivals - Shrine Auditorium - Los Angeles, CA, USA © Glenn Harris / PR Photos
"Scare Tactics" takes the hidden camera premise and ramps it up by a thousand. Arranged by friends and loved ones, the "unwitting" victims are set up in elaborately staged high production value pranks designed to scare the bejesus out of them.
Satan's baby, aliens, horrible industrial accidents to babysitting in a haunted house, victims are caught hysterically reacting to these elaborate ruses.
Each "Scare Tactics" hoax is shot as if it's a stand-alone sci-fi short film; these "movie-moments" demonstrate the emotion taking over the victim.
Victims are set up usually by family or best friends, who have asked the producers to arrange the scenario.
The latest season of "Scare Tactics" returns to Sc Fi, this time with host Tracy Morgan of "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live."
Monsters and Critics spoke to Tracy Morgan and Executive Producer Scott Hallock (other EP’s Kevin Healey and Mike Harney were not on the call) of Sci Fi’s “Scare Tactics on a conference call the other day.
Tracy, old school/new school favorite horror movie or TV show of all time? Give me old school first.
Tracy Morgan: Old school? I got to say Blacula. New school? No, I want to say old school I'm not going to say Blacula. I'm going to say The Exorcist.And new school, I got to say Flavor of Love.
TV’s Flavor of Love?
Tracy Morgan: Yes. That's scary.
Do you have anybody in your inner circle that you think would be gullible enough to fall for this elaborate scheme?
Tracy Morgan: Absolutely. Everybody around me.Everybody around me can be scared in - you know, like Scare Tactics. Once it's elaborate and you set it up right...people won't even see it. When you watch Scare Tactics, these people don't even see it coming.
And that's what makes it awesome because we love to see other people get scared, as long as it’s not you who slips on ice, it's tragic but you're going to laugh...because it's not happening to you.
Tracy, what's your biggest fear?
Tracy Morgan: The IRS. That's it.
Yeah, I hear you. That's a really scary thing.
Tracy Morgan: The IRS knocking on my door.
..IRS, INS, SS - anything with an “S”?
Tracy Morgan: (laughing) Somebody made a mistake. Somebody made a mistake. My name is not Wesley Snipes.
If you sent the IRS to my house for no reason I think I would be pretty scared, something like that.
Scott, I noticed that your crew for this show is huge compared to most reality shows. I mean, you've got a full art department, post-production people, and special effects. Is this another thing that sort of delineates your reality show from a lot of others?
Scott Hallock: Hopefully. we take the production of the show obviously very seriously. We like it to look big and cinematic and so yeah. It takes a - we have a really talented art department.
We bring in special effects people when we need it like special makeup effects or explosions or, you know, fire, gunshots, any of that kind of stuff. So the cinematic nature of the show is really important to us and yeah, there's about - there's over - I think the staff is over 60 people.
Wow. Tell me about some of your special effects makeup people. Which outfits do you use? Who do you use or go to?
Scott Hallock: Boy, I wish I could give you specifics. I don't want to give away our secrets.
KNB FX? Rick Baker? Matt Mungle? Drac Studios or do you have special in-house special effects makeup guys?
Scott Hallock: No, we always farm it out. You know, like someone came and did the special effects for Satan's baby for the premiere episode. Trying to think of what some of the other effects were. We had a chupacabra looking kind of bat monster in our second episode that also premiers on July 9th. It kind of looks like one of the creatures from The Descent.
Right. Do you use different makeup artists for different shows?
Scott Hallock: Yeah. We use different people for different, for each different effect.
Why did you sign on for this Tracy? What interested you and what's going to be different this season from the past?
Tracy Morgan: Well, I'm a fan of Scare Tactics and I love the show. I was surprised when they asked me to do it. I was really happy to do it. I was excited. And besides that, I'm a big fan, long-time fan of the Twilight Zone so this is my rendition of Rod Sterling. I got to be Rod Sterling. So I'm just excited to do it, you know.
Scott, how is this season different this season before?
Scott Hallock: Well first of all it's a perfect marriage to get Tracy and Scare Tactics together. We've always considered this a comedy show even though it's scary. It's really only scary for the one person in the bit and all the rest of us are in on the joke. So we're laughing.
So to have someone as funny as Tracy be the host, that brings the show to a whole new level right there. So people are actually going to get a lot of entertainment value I think out of the host portion of the show as well as the bits. And the bits this season are the biggest, best bits we've ever done.
One of the favorite bits in past seasons has been the Rat Monster bit where a little 28-inch-tall actor dresses a half man, half rat and terrified a guy. He's back. (Gabriel)'s back this time as Satan's baby in the premiere episode. And he pops out from underneath the sheet and this girl who was setup by her mom starts screaming her head off. And it's phenomenal.
Do you have anyone this season or any of the past seasons that refused to sign the waiver for their episodes to be aired?
Scott Hallock: You know what? It's very rare. And I can't really go into - everybody signed this season. Absolutely everybody signed who's on the show this season. In the past if someone refused to sign, it was usually - we had one bit that was supposedly at a bachelor party and there was a stripper.
And the guy refused to at the end because he was going to be running for office and didn't want to be on TV. So it's usually for that reason that people don't sign. But like I said, it's rare. And because everyone's setup by a friend or a family member, it usually takes the onus off the show and people feel like oh, it's okay. It was my friend setting me up and it was a good joke.
And, in fact, the biggest source of new victims for the show is from people who are on the show as victims themselves.
The shows like a roller coaster. We want it to be a thrill ride. We want it to be when you're done you get off the ride and go, "Oh my God, that was great. I got to do it again." And the way they get to do it again is to setup a friend.
What makes a good victim when you're looking at people to cast?
Scott Hallock: People who are expressive. People who react. People who are verbal. We like people who when they buy into the story and they believe Satan's baby's in the room with them, we want them to react and say what's on their mind and, you know, if they scream, then that's fine.
But, you know, it's equally entertaining to see someone who takes the leadership role and, you know, tries to fight back against whatever's happening to them as it is to see someone get scared. So both reactions are great as long as there are big reactions. That's the best thing.
Best reaction?
Scott Hallock: I think my all-time favorite reaction is coming up in the first episode. The woman who is frightened by Satan's baby. This girl was set - her name is Brittany. She was setup by her mom to answer phones at this medical clinic. And we find out from the beginning that she's always wanted to be on TV.
And she didn't realize she was on TV at the moment she said that. And then this woman comes into the clinic in labor and moments later, gives birth to Satan's baby, this 28-inch-tall actor (Gabriel) is painted red. He's got horns on his head.
He pops out from under the sheet and attacks the doctor and the girl starts screaming and she points at him and the little baby turns to her and says “praise me.” And she goes, "No, that is the devil. That is not who I praise. I love God." And she's actually talking to this thing as if it's real. It was the...
Tracy Morgan: Yeah. It was awesome.
Where’s the line drawn, Scott?
Scott Hallock: Comedy and horror are actually really close. And I think because these people are setup by their friends, you know, it excuses it a little bit. Plus we just - everyone has to have a good time at the end of the day.
So we try not to be mean and we try to when the prank is at its scariest, that's when we reveal and people's reactions at that point are just phenomenal because people are so relieved it's not real. So we really - we don't want to be mean.
We want people to have fun on the show and they do. And like I said, people once they've been on the show, they want to setup their friends. They usually come to us and say, "Okay, I've got these five people I've got to setup."
Origins of Scare Tactics?
Scott Hallock: My partner Kevin Healey and I were working on Spy TV for NBC at the time that SCI FI approached us and they said hey, you know, how about developing a hidden camera show for us.
To us the SCI FI channel, it was just a natural to focus on horror. And we really feel like Scare Tactics - we have four bits in every episode and we want them all to feel like four little short horror movies.
And so that's kind of where we started out. They have to have stories. They have to develop, they have to evolve and they have to build. It's not just jumping out and saying boo and have someone be startled and then - it has to be more than that. There has to be a story. And so that's really where we started, was can we do four little short horror films an episode.
You know, we've been lucky in that we've been able to really pull off whatever we've wanted. Anytime, you know, it's never the network really pulling us back either. If we decide not to do something, it's usually because we just don't feel like the story's there or, you know, we just, you know, no one's going to believe this.
How do you control laughing Tracy?
Tracy Morgan: Scott is a really mean producer and he runs a tight ship. And he doesn't allow me to laugh and joke and crack even though there's really funny stuff going on. No, I'm just joking. No, I have fun. We have a - we have a lot of fun when we're rolling and when we're taping. We have a lot of fun. There's a lot of good vibes and good energy on the set.
Scott, what’s the most complicate prank that you've pulled off?
Scott Hallock Jeeze, trying to think. They're all complicated in their own way. But honestly, the Satan's baby bit from the premiere episode is one of those that you're like going into it, you just don't know if anyone's going to buy it. You know, it's like I can see scaring someone with Big Foot. That's scary. But that's still - that's a stretch too.
But to have someone believe that this 28-inch-tall actor just popped out of a woman and is now running around and he's painted red and he's got horns on his head. Like we honestly didn't know if anyone would buy it and it actually worked twice that night. We set it up with - the first thing he does, obviously you've seen it, you know, is he makes the nurse's clipboard burst into flames.
And then that kind of sets it up and it's like whoa, what is this. Because if you're just a person in a clinic, how do you explain that that just happened other than you're on a TV show. But that for some reason luckily doesn't occur to people. And then for him to make the car explode, it's like, whoa, where am I. And she believed that - she was worried she was going to burst into flames.
How do you guys come up with the scares?
Scott Hallock: We have besides Kevin Healey and I and Mike Harney who are the Executive Producers, we have like a couple of writers helping us out as well and we all basically - you know, we'll get in a room and we'll throw ideas out and we'll spitball them and kind of, you know, make sure that the - we're telling a good enough story and there's enough, you know, levels kind of to the scare.
Sometimes the friends will - like we'll run the bit we're thinking of doing by them and make sure that they think the bit's good for their friend. That their friend will get into it. Like if someone is like into vampires, we might put them in a where they find themselves in a vampire bit or something like that.
But on the flip side, if someone's terrified of spiders, we're not going to put them in a room and throw spiders on them. We don't want them to have a bad time. So we would actually keep that person away from a bit with spiders.
Tracy Morgan: I'm not good at that stuff. Those guys are great at what they do and I just sit - I just really just walk the piece to the audience and set them up, host it, try to bring some personality to the hosting area and just set up the whole scene.
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