A hummingbird has just entered Sean Cunningham's kitchen. It’s currently fluttering in the background as we begin our conversation and he tells me something that shocks me to my core. When asked about his childhood and whether or not he was into monsters? Sean replies with…

“No no I was never one of those movie geek people. I was just never drawn to it. Although I did think the magic tricks, you know the werewolves changing right before your very eyes, they were fun to watch. I really grew up though on radio serials like The Lone Ranger and I would get just swept away by those stories. I discovered monsters later when I started making movies and how they figure into the story world.”

Cunningham is no stranger to the genre. Meeting Wes Craven whilst working on his second movie, the two struck up a friendship which resulted in him taking producer duties for one of the most controversial movies of the early seventies… The Last House On The Left (1972).

 It was the 1980 slasher classic Friday the 13th though, that really changed the game and brought to the screen for the first time a type of brutality that had rarely been seen before. This trend would continue throughout the decade with countless movies trying to outdo each other with their kill rates. As a byproduct of 80’s action cinema the antagonist for the Friday the 13th series switched with the killer being the mother of a drowned child, to the drowned child all grown up and beefed up like a supernatural Terminator ready to dispatch unknowing teens as ruthlessly as possible.

“Jason was contemplated to be like the shark in Jaws, but then something happened and the audience started to root for him. I’d go to cons and fans would talk about seeing a Jason movie like it was a Tom Cruise action movie”

Cunningham has also worked on other horror films including producing the popular House movie series. Then in 1989 there were several competing deep sea creature features set for release... Leviathan, Lords Of the Deep, The Abyss and DeepStar Six. Directed by Cunningham DeepStar Six was set to be the first release of these aquatic beast flicks.