Paradise, Dario Argento, The Fog, The Exorcist, Carrie, plus the music of Ronnie James Dio and Danzig. Initially conceived as a spin on the Faust myth (the show was originally titled Faust Times at
Crowley High) in which Faust was a sixteen-year-old metalhead, Wallace developed Todd and the Book of Pure Evil into an eighteen-minute short film of the same name back in 2003. It would take seven more years for it to reach the small screen as an episodic television series but the progressive nature of the show’s potty-mouthed humour and pot-smoking teenagers likely wouldn’t have stood a chance of hitting the mainstream prior to trailblazing series such as Trailer Park Boys, Slings and Arrows and Durham County shifting the landscape of Canadian television in a more adult direction. According to Wallace, development executives at SPACE actually encouraged him to make the
series bloodier and scarier. The Toronto native admits being nudged to include more nudity too, but that he and partners Picco and Anthony Leo opted to play it more conservative than the broad- caster’s wishes, being that the self-described “awkward dudes” were far more comfortable with prosthetic nudity than the real deal. “What’s really funny is that we have this episode about a giant penis that turns people to stone,
and the first time we had a meeting with the [broadcasting executives] about it, they laughed and said, ‘Wow, I can’t wait to see what the director does with this one because this is impossible to shoot,’” says Wallace. “It was never a question of ‘No, you can’t do this.’” That elation is likely to be shared by horror-lovin’ audiences once they get a load of the series’
dedication to practical creature and makeup effects. In order to stay true to the show’s rich ’80s influences, the creators enlisted the help of David Scott, whose credits in visual effects and pros- thetics include Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, Dawn of the Dead (2004), 300 and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. “There’s a fair amount of CGI embellishment that is going on but from the very, very get-go,
we wanted to do this with prosthetics,” says Wallace. “We wanted something tangible that we could see – even if it’s not realistic. We’re not really kidding anybody about the realism on our show. … But we want you to get swept up enough in the situations and the characters that you gen- uinely feel for them. If it was between a CGI monster or a guy in a rubber suit, we’re gonna choose a guy in a rubber suit.” For Scott, whose influences include the Planet of the Apesmovies, Ray Harryhausen and An Amer-
ican Werewolf in London, seeing how practical and digital technologies could be used in tandem was not only enjoyable but often the key to marrying the two most important facets of the show: horror and comedy. “The biggest influence for me when I was thinking about how to approach some of the stuff for
Toddwas from the Evil Deadmovies, where you’ve got extreme graphic horror melded with incredible slapstick comedy,” says Scott. “I found that if you took a pretty much straight-up approach to the horror, then put it into that comedic environment, it kind of became funny inherently. The other thing we found was that you could never have too much blood. The more blood we threw in there, the fun- nier it got.” Aside from the laughs derived from the likes of rock ’n’ roll zombies and human fat monsters,
Todd’s comedy is rooted in a smarmy Breakfast Clubmeets Mean Girls depiction of the confidence- eroding struggle known as high school. Todd (played by 23-year-old Alex House) is the axis on which the show turns (hence the clever name), but it’s the supporting cast of characters – including Todd’s love interest Jenny, his one-armed pal Curtis, bookish science nerd Hannah and guidance counselor Atticus Murphy Jr. (who shares an allegiance with a Secret Satanic Society that has designs on the book for their own evil purposes) – that is vital in creating the ensemble feel. Consequently, they all have their own run-ins with the book, which feeds on high school’s fertile soil of desperate souls in need. Each episode a new student or staff member manages to abuse the book’s awesome, unholy power and jeopardize humanity with only Todd and his friends standing between the world and crea- ture-ridden Armageddon. Oh yeah, and when Todd needs advice (often!) he talks to Jimmy the Janitor, played by raunchy
cult hero Jason Mewes (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). Mewes, as usual, plays a version of himself, complete with a juvenile preoccupation with sex, and a mouth not made for prime-time TV. “He’s probably more foul-mouthed than his character Jay in real life,” says House, in reference to
Mewes’ recurring role in director Kevin Smith’s movies. “He pulled out his testicles one time with me. … It was a close-up of me because it was a serious moment and I look over and there’s Jay’s pink fleshy sack right in my face and he’s kinda wagging it at me, stifling laughter. I kept it together for five or six seconds but then I just broke into laughter. If we do a second season, I expect to see
Afterbirth: Grotesque fat suits were employed for a couple of episodes, including “Big Bad Baby.”
his genitalia several times.” House admits that he didn’t consider himself a natural choice for
the role of Todd in that he isn’t a horror diehard (though he’s fasci- nated by mega-fauna – “…terror birds, giant alligators, ancient giant sloths and stuff like that”), and Wallace needed to make him a heavy metal playlist to school him in the likes of Iron Maiden, early Metallica, Swords and power and fantasy metal for him to properly embody the part (“…lots of stuff about conquering vast kingdoms and slaying trolls”). With Scott’s vivid effects, it wasn’t much of an acting stretch to react to the show’s creepy creatures either. “We were shooting in the basement with some zombies in a later
episode and they looked so good,” recalls House. “David Scott made them look absolutely terrifying. We hadn’t lit or anything yet so it was completely dark in the basement and I was like, ‘I can’t do this right now, guys. Turn the lights on.’” If you’re getting the feeling that Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is
about to break new ground on TV, you’re not alone. Wallace boasts, “Never in a million years would I have thought that
we’d be able to get away with what we have or even have as much creative freedom.”
Horror High: (left to right) A Crowley student grapples with a giant penis monster, and an example of David Scott’s practical effects.
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