Over three seasons , Syfy anthology show Channel Zero — which take its inspiration fromCreepypasta stories — has search some extremely glowering nightmare . time of year four , The Dream Door , begins a terrific unexampled chapter tonight , so we caught up with creator Nick Antosca to get the nervous scoop .
We ’ve go through the integral six - part season but wo n’t be bollix up anything here , since there are some frightful turn that must be experienced at first hand . The Dream Door is loosely based on Charlotte Bywater ’s brusk story ( read it here ) , and this season ’s music director is E.L. Katz ( Small Crimes , The ABCs of Death 2 ) . It ’s about newlywed duo Jillian and Tom ( played by Maria Sten and Brandon Scott ) . As The Dream Door begin , they ’ve just moved into their first house — which happen to be Tom ’s childhood habitation , gift to them as a nuptials present tense . The couple were best protagonist as tiddler , then reconnected as adults and quickly got hitched , though it shortly becomes decipherable that they really do n’t know each other as well as they think they do . Tom ’s concealing some sticky personal stuff , but Jillian ’s secrets are way more malevolent , due to the sudden re - appearance of an “ imaginary ” protagonist she call up she ’d long since outgrown . Let ’s just say that “ Pretzel Jack”—a rubber - limbed buffoon — rivals the “ Tooth Child , ” fromseason one ’s Candle Cove , as one of Channel Zero ’s most freakishly alarming characters . And that ’s saying a lot .
io9 : First of all , congratulation on come up with a character that take aim the whole “ scarey clown ” thing to an entirely new level .
Nick Antosca : He ’s a buffoon , a contortionist , and a childhood friend … and a homicidal madman .
io9 : It ’s all sort of dreaded , really . And of course , praise on season four . What would you say are the big themes this season ?
Antosca : The demons that we carry with us into human relationship , and how we have to deal with the demons that other people transport into relationships with us . And like Dr. Carnacki [ Jillian ’s therapist , played by Steven Weber ] says , trust and green-eyed monster — it ’s a venomous roach . I wanted to search that and to apply a genre to do it .
io9 : What specific element set The Dream Door aside from old season ?
Antosca : It ’s a much more romantic time of year . That ’s one matter we ’ve never done before , and that was something that was really interesting to me to explore . I feel like when we get into relationships we take a huge leap of faith . We make ourselves really vulnerable , and it ’s a scary thing . That ’s something that horror can explore very well . It does n’t needfully always do it , but some of the great revulsion moving-picture show that we know and love do . Rosemary ’s Baby , for case , is really about trust and infidelity , and I wanted to take the show in that direction .
io9 : One of the themes I ’ve noticed that take to the woods throughout all four season is the power of memory — how thing that pass in your childhood can control you and confuse you even years later . Why do you think that ’s so primal to the kind of horror that Channel Zero is explore ?
Antosca : I think the goal has been to make personal repulsion , and to make psychological horror , and it sort of naturally turns toward motif of individuality , get off our past tense , espouse our past times . That ’s the kind of horror that I see really joint to my ribs .
io9 : Stylistically speaking , last time of year — the lavish , goryButcher ’s Block — was heavily influencedby the works of Dario Argento and David Lynch . Which film director or whole kit and boodle did you look to when you were coming up with The Dream Door ’s tone and production design ?
Antosca : There ’s a lot of dissimilar ones , but I think the chief ones are De Palma and Hitchcock . It ’s always a sort of stew of horror influences every season , but De Palma was the big one for us . We want the season to feel very composed , very black , and at the same time beautiful . There ’s a niggling bit of Cronenberg in there , too . Actually , there ’s a little Cronenberg in almost every time of year , but in this one , The Brood was an influence .
io9 : How do you think the show has evolved over its four seasons ?
Antosca : I feel like I ’ve learned more about myself as I ’ve made the show every season , because every season is about some different personal thing . Some of them are more explicitly personal—[season two],No - End House , was for me a little bit about the going of a close friend . This season is about a human relationship and I pen it as I was getting engage and about to enter into that variety of a womb-to-tomb bond — which is scarey and exciting and you sort of trade with questions , like the questions that the characters apportion with in a much more supernatural sense .
io9 : Hopefully you have n’t , like , found a door in your cellar …
Antosca : You know , there is a tree trunk in my parent ’ cellar filled with all kinds of wild things that I invented when I was a fry , and longsighted floor with really touch stuff that I wrote as like a five and six - class - honest-to-god . Honestly , that was n’t consciously an influence on the season , but I ’m sure it was poking around somewhere in my fountainhead .
io9 : What do you think sets Channel Zero apart from the other horror anthology shows that are out there now ?
Antosca : I call back it is that focal point on personal repulsion , on psychological repugnance . I also think it ’s the format — there ’s no other show that does six episodes each season as a show window for a single film director , so they ’re tie together thematically , but each one has a really distinctive feel . And honestly I think we have the best monsters .
io9 : Have you had a favorite monster over the four season ?
Antosca : I intend it ’s a throw out - up between theTooth Childand Pretzel Jack . I love them both because they ’re both terrifying and homicidal , but also kind of adorable .
io9 : I do n’t know how much we want to uncover about the eccentric , but is the actor who plays Pretzel Jack a real contortionist ?
Antosca : Yeah ! His name is Troy James , and I first saw him on Instagram . We hired him for one episode of Butcher ’s Block . He ’s the schizophrenic disorder demon , the head game that track [ Olivia Luccardi ’s character , Alice ] down the hall , bent over backward and crab - walking . I see what he was capable of , and frankly we spell the whole [ fourth ] season around it . That ’s why I made Pretzel Jack a contortionist as well as a merry andrew , because I knew what Troy could do . Now , the great unwashed have discovered him and he ’s cash in one’s chips to be in a number of moving picture coming up , but I think this just a perfect , perfect function for him . He ’s doing all that poppycock with no help from engineering .
io9 : How many more season do you hope to be capable to do ? Can you cod anything about what may be fare in the future ?
Antosca : I know what two more seasons would be . I have no idea and wo n’t know for at least a calendar month or two whether we ’re getting more seasons . If we get to do the two more that I want to do , then continuity among seasons might become a little snatch clearer . You might see the return of sure iconic characters that people love from earlier season .
io9 : Are we talk crossover ? cameo ?
Antosca : Not exactly a crosswalk . I think it would be a familiar character integrated in a new and unprecedented manner .
io9 : So should we seize that these stories are all take place in the same universe , or is that too much of a reaching ?
Antosca : Um … no comment . No comment .
Channel Zero : The Dream Door premieres tonight on Syfy , and will run over six consecutive nights through Halloween .
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