“Halloween Girl” Interview With Richard T. Wilson

I recently got the chance to interview Emmy-award-winning Writer-Filmmaker Richard T. Wilson on his latest work, “Halloween Girl.” “Halloween Girl” is a horror graphic novel adaptation of Richard’s “Halloween Girl” short film inspired by his horror web series Under the Flowers. “Halloween Girl” follows teenage ghost Charlotte and her friend Poe as they battle The Hollow, an evil secret society. The novel is an absolute blast and has some really exciting things in store for its readers. 

It definitely feels nostalgic and pulls inspiration from classic black and white horror comics. I really adored reading the first edition, and I can’t wait for more! Richard is clearly very passionate and knowledgeable about graphic novels and their ability to portray social messaging within their stories.

Charlotte feels like an authentic teen and watching her navigate the spirit world is simultaneously fun and terrifying. Her friendship with Poe is heartfelt and real. “Halloween Girl” brings back the joyful and campy feelings of creature features and 2000’s teen horror novels.

What was your inspiration for the Under the Flowers/“Halloween Girl” series?

Well, it’s kind of a sad story because my career had been based in educational film, and I’d done mental health awareness for pretty much my whole life. I worked with families through a program called Outreach Arts. And I lost my parents six months apart and it was really a roller coaster ride because they were sick for a very long time. I remember sitting with my wife in the backyard after my mom died- she passed last- and I said, “you know, I just want to take some money and invest in a film that has nothing to do with Outreach Arts because I gotta get this out.” I think it had already been making its way through it- that other part of me. You spend all these years writing about this stuff, you don’t get a chance to laugh, you don’t get a chance to have some joy and laughter because it’s all very intense stuff. And so that had already kind of been coming out anyways. And I said, “I’m gonna do this,” so she said, “do it!” And that’s how the “Halloween Girl” came. I worked through a lot of stuff with my parents, my mom in particular, in the film. And then we did that and it went really well, and we went and you know we had specials and all that jazz and we got some Hollywood screenings. I was like, “wow this is so cool!” And then it was like, okay that’ll be a one shot, and now I’m back to work. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about Charlotte and then I was seeing all these other characters like Poe, and I thought “oh wow.” And I resisted, believe me, you know like, “I can't get into this.” And then I couldn’t stop! Then I was just typing away and Under the Flowers came up. I swear it was like it was just sitting there all these years. It was like literally sitting in a corner like, “we’ve been waiting for you to write.” Then I just couldn’t stop writing them. What happened was it got to be really difficult. Doing Under the Flowers, I’m really proud of, but it was really difficult. Being an indie filmmaker and trying to do all this stuff. I love my crew and my cast, everybody, but it was tough to get it together and make it all work. After a while, when we were on the third season I said, “you know, I think we’re getting close to winding this up. I can only do so much more with this.” And then, the pandemic hit. I had written a fourth season to wind everything up, and the pandemic hit. So we couldn’t do that. Then I started to write the Halloween Girl graphic novel, because I had been putting it off, I had been wanting to do something like that for many years. Ever since we did the second season of Under the Flowers I was thinking, “yeah, I gotta do it. I love graphic novels!” I was a comics kid! I loved black and white horror comics and Marvel comics and all that. But it was graphic novels, when they started to come out in my twenties, I said, “oh my god, this is incredible. This is a really great format and you can take this form that was mainly for little kids for so long and you can take it places. You can go places I never imagined.” So, I kept my eye on it for years. I got really into Neil Gaiman, especially Sandman. I loved Death, she was just my favorite. So I started to write and I didn’t tell my wife about it because I was so afraid that it wasn’t going to work. I’d never done it before, and I first took a stab at adapting the “Halloween Girl” short film and opening it up. I was still finding my way as I was very familiar with film scripts because that’s all I was used to, and I was trying to learn the format. But, I was a couple weeks into it and my wife and I were in the car driving to the grocery store and I said, “you know, I’ve been waiting to tell you this. This (graphic novel writing) is working, I’ve never been happier in my life.” And that’s the truth, that’s not hyperbole. I wrote this story and it was like being ten again! It was just like being a kid all over again and getting to talk and run around and have adventures and joy, but also bring in all these other issues that were in my head. So that’s how it started but honestly, I’m really proud of the work I did with mental health and drugs for years. I know that’s what I was meant to do, but I’ve never been happier creatively. It came late in life, but I’m just happy it came. So, anyways, I’m working on the third volume now.  

Was it difficult to break into the graphic novel world and adapt a film into a graphic novel? 

No, they’re so closely related. I’m all about dialogue and action, and I’m a huge fan of art in general, whether it’s comic art or museum art, I love art. I can’t draw, I have a really great admiration for people who do graphic design or are painters. The emotion they get out, there’s an intimacy there. That’s what I like about graphic novels, even more than I like about making films, the intimacy. I love reading, but I don’t love novels. There can be a lot of meandering, and I just want them to get to the point. I’ve found that the graphic novel, for me, just hits all the boxes. It’s very similar to films, but it’s a lot more fun. You can go anywhere and do anything, it’s not like “well, this is our budget, and how are we going to do this?” So I really love writing for graphic novels, I really do. 

What’s been your favorite part about writing the “Halloween Girl'' series? 

I keep using this word, but the joy involved in it. Somebody had said this the other night when they had read it, she said that it was about friendship and courage and spooky adventures- and that’s my favorite part. We’re talking about friendship, we’re talking about these two girls that have a lot of fun and a lot of adventures as they’re trying to save the world and almost getting destroyed every time. They’re just having a great time being themselves and they're just normal people, that’s another thing that I was really set on. I didn’t want these pin-ups, they’re people. I wanted them just to be people and be kids that were finding their way and having a great time along the way and doing great things. And discovering things about themselves along the way, there’s a lot of discovery for both of them. I almost feel like I should call it “Halloween Girls” because Poe is such a big part of it. There’s a lot going on with her in the second issue which should be coming out in January. You’ll really see a lot of the horror and what goes on with the hollow. 

Why do you think this story is so important? 

I think it’s important because I think it's important to have strong female role models in this genre, or any genre. And I don’t want to continue some of the stuff that’s been going on for a while. Like I said, I want my characters’ souls, they’re just people going through their lives. I want them to transcend what’s around us, what’s more important is what goes on in their souls than all that other external crap. That’s been something that I’ve tried to do with all my work, to try and make it as timeless as possible. It’s commenting on present day issues, but I want it to be about deeper things, people. 

What do you hope readers will take away from this? 

I hope they find that it’s fun, it’s easy to slip into, and that- which I found for myself when I was younger reading- a fun way to touch on some serious issues while we have fun. Not to the point where it’s like we’re going to bang you over the head with it, but these are issues that just come out. I think it’s important for people to deal with their ghosts. To deal with the things that haunt them. I wanted it to be a fun entertaining way to do that just like the best horror movies did that. There’s a lot of great ones doing that today, and that wasn’t necessarily the case for a long time. When I was younger it was still happening and then it went away for a really long time, but now we’re living through another kind of golden age where horror is commenting and we can use it in a way that people did in another time to work through horrible things. I want it to be fun and therapeutic. 

Why did you decide to make Charlotte a teen and how do you try to capture the teen experience? 

You know it’s really weird, I asked my friends last weekend and I said, “When you guys dream, what age are you?” And they said, “Well, I’m the same age I am now.” I said, “I’m always twenty-something.” It’s not because I want to be young, god bless you, but I wouldn’t want to be your age, it’s too damn hard. Things get so much better as you get older. But, for whatever reason, I’m kind of shocked into that period. It’s not because I have nostalgia for it, I really don’t, but for whatever reason there’s an energy that has never really gone away. I think in terms of that energy. I’m way far away physically from that energy but in my mind I have it, and it’s not like I’m trying to do that, but there’s a very generic energy from that period in my life that follows through. So, that’s why so many of my characters over the years have been teenagers. I just find that more compelling. It’s funny, my sister says the same thing she says she’s also that way. I don’t know, maybe it’s the way we were raised. My mom was very, I swear she died a teenager. But, there is that energy. It’s not about worshipping youth, I want to make that clear, it has nothing to do with that. It just works for me, if it were a different age that worked then I would write that, but it’s just what works. You know the singer Eddie Vedder said, “all that is sacred in life belongs to the youth.” And I always loved that line. There is something special and something sacred about that period where you’re setting your template for life. I think that’s what draws me creatively to that period because there’s so much at stake. 

You mentioned “Sandman,” are there other comics and graphic novels that really inspired you? 

Yes, it’s funny I only ever had horror comics as a kid. Marvel had “Tomb of Dracula” and things like that. My mom bought me, and she had no idea what she was buying, “Vampirella.” This is 1972, and I saw Dracula on the cover. I saw that this girl was a vampire and I was like mom can I please have that. So she got it for me, I only ever had one issue of that. The stuff in there, I knew I shouldn’t have been reading, but the art was amazing it was so freaking scary! The Spanish artists from that period were amazing, they were truly creepy and they transcended all the other stuff. You opened those books and they would come alive, you felt like you were watching a Hammer horror film, they were that scary. That and also Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller’s stuff is amazing. But, those old comics from the early 70’s are really where I get most of my inspiration. 

Do you think having a prominent female lead like Vampirella growing up inspired you to write something with a female lead? 

I wouldn’t say Vampirella, I think it was Death from “Sandman.” That was the character I found the most compelling back in the 90’s, and I never forgot her. I always thought, “Boy, I would love to write something like that.” But it was her and Delirium later on that really inspired me. Those characters, but Death especially. 

I know you made the “Halloween Girl'' short, is there any chance you’ll make a “Halloween Girl” feature? 

No. I mean, ask me next week and it’ll be a different answer. But, right now I just really feel like I want to write these stories. This is more fun for me than going back and writing film scripts and getting crews together. If somebody else wants to make them into a movie, great, but it won’t be me. I’m hitting a pause button on my film stuff to focus on this. 

What can fans expect next from the “Halloween Girl'' series? 

Lots of horror! Lots of trips to other dimensions. There’s a lot of stuff going on with Poe. We have Charlotte’s son to save. He gets ousted from this world by the Hollow and Charlotte and Poe have to make a plan to get him back. There’s also a romantic thing happening between one of the villains and Poe. And there’s lots of other dimensions too that are trickling over into this world. We’ve got a horror host who gets taken over by the Hollow. I won’t give too much away, but there’s a lot of things happening. We’ve got new characters coming in. There’s one named Billy Bones who is a psychic and can hear Charlotte. A lot of fun!

Where can people find “Halloween Girl'' and the rest of your work? 
“Halloween Girl” is on Amazon Kindle, we’re just doing downloads for the moment. We’d love to get the full book out next year as well. To keep up with the “Halloween Girl” or any of my other work you can go to rtwfilms.com.