Monster Movies

Tobe Hooper

New passion for novel-writing aside, Tobe Hooper hasn't forsaken filmmaking. He's currently in postproduction for a film about an Emirati couple who discover their new apartment has been built on an ancient burial site, which is home to malevolent spirits.

AC: Let's talk about film for a bit. What are you working on?

TH: It's a film called Djinn – not like the drink, but D-J-I-N-N – and it takes place in the United Arab Emirates in Jebel Ali – that's between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

We shot on location, and it was really far out, and shooting there was far out. These things exist. They coexist. It is not a new concept; it's been around thousands of years. It's creatures that see us, but we can't see them. But they're living with us in another frequency, outside of our being able to see them. I know what it sounds like, but ... they're made of smokeless fire, and they'll drain your batteries. All the car batteries would get drained; the camera batteries would get drained ....

We shot for some time there on the actual ancient grounds, and all kinds of electric weirdness went down. It was totally incredible. We had a holy man who would circle and say prayers around the little village we were shooting in.

It's kind of string-theory-like; it falls into the very geometric nature of the culture, and it is about dimensions that press through a membrane, mostly one way. That's from the djinn's membrane side and our world. But it's quite an emotional movie, too – it's performance and story and twists and turns and mystery and suspense. I'm way proud of it.

Everyone's happy with the cut. And so now we move to the stage of CGIs and gotta go back to London to finish up with the mix, and the sound design's being done there. I'm really happy with it.

AC: And what's next?

TH: Well, Djinn will be finished, and there'll be another movie at the end of the line – sometime next year – and then I don't know. Hopefully I can get back to Austin, spend a little time there. It's about time.