Interview with Sid Haig

Sid_Haig1_optHere’s a short vintage interview I conducted with legendary cult actor Sid Haig on the eve of the 2006 theatrical release of 2006’s Night of the Living Dead in 3-D.

The always-diverting Haig was all-too-happy to chat about his experiences on the production (an ultimately forgettable one) and his many other film and TV credits.

Check it out:

“There’s a little bit of stuff they do in post-production and they designed two cameras specifically for this shoot,” said Haig of his experiences working on Night of the Living Dead in 3-D. “For all intents and purposes, you couldn’t tell you were doing anything out of the ordinary.”

NightDead1This latest version of George Romero’s legendary zombie saga throws in plenty of homages to the original 1968 film (at one point, a pair of characters are seen watching the original film on TV!), while Sid Haig essays the role of a creepy mortician who explains the reasons that the recently dead are re-animated and wreaking havoc on the living. Usually, those who are left delivering a film’s exposition are the most forgettable characters in the production, but in Haig’s case, he’s the best one in the movie (which is a pretty so-so movie).

“I thought it was pretty cool to get a gig in this movie,” said cult figure Haig, who’s been popping up in various film and TV projects for the past four decades, most notably as the demonic clown Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s 2003 House of 1000 Corpses. It was that star turn that revitalized Haig’s career and quickly elevated him to horror movie icon status. But even though Haig has appeared in some ten horror flicks since that film, he still keeps his eye open on other genre opportunities.

“Right now, I’m going for content. If I get a hold of a really good story, then I know that it’s something I have to do,” Haig told mes. “I learned a long time ago, never say never. I once said ‘I’ll never do a kids’ show, and then Jason of Star Command came along!

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.