TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE INTERVIEW SERIES 5: IS THIS SEAT TAKEN? author Sarah Langan

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE INTERVIEW SERIES 5: IS THIS SEAT TAKEN? author Sarah Langan

We continue our ongoing interview series with noted horror author Sarah Langan, discussing her episode "Is This Seat Taken?"

Vegas Outsider: As I ask with all the other story creators, how were you first approached to participate in Tales From Beyond The Pale and what were your initial thoughts about the project itself?

Sarah Langan: I knew Larry through my husband—they’d worked together on film projects. When he and Glenn were putting Tales together, I think they wanted a variety of stories, and since I’m a woman and write novels, not screenplays, they were curious. The project is a great idea and I’m happy to be involved. For personal reasons, I was glad for the excuse to write a screenplay. More generally, it’s a good time in media to experiment. Nobody knows what’s going to stick, and hit the zeitgeist. There’s a lot less money right now, but because of that, there’s a lot more freedom. When that happens, artists tend to produce their best work.

VO: Could you briefly discuss your episode Is This Seat Taken? in terms of the overall plot, brief character descriptions, and how the idea for this tale came to you and developed?

SL: It’s about a man in his late twenties with self-esteem problems. He lives at home and can’t find a job, but meets a woman on the Long Island Rail Road who changes all that. They’re perfect for each other, only they’re both dangerous psychotics.I was thinking of old movies like His Girl Friday, and Desk Set, only more thrilling, less screwball. I miss those movies, because in them, men and women seemed more like partners in crime.

Movies now tend to set men and women up as enemies, or opposing sides of a gender war that happened thirty years ago. You’d think, from the smallness of women’s parts, and the increasing emphasis on their beauty over their acting, that we’d gone back in time, to the 1880s. More and more, Hollywood romantic comedies seem totally irrelevant to my life and the people I know. My husband never smoked pot all day long with his buddies, and didn’t want to grow up. And I never stood over him, like a shrew, moaning about my biological clock.

VO: The central relationship between the two main characters Cassie and Robert is unconventional, to say the least, but despite their backgrounds and how they come together do you feel that in an odd way they are better together than apart?

SL: Oh, yeah. At heart, Is This Seat Taken? is a love story. They’re both wounded by social and personal forces specific to their generation, but they find and understand each other. Sure, they’re killers, but they only kill bad people, after all.

VO: What was your involvement in the recording process if any at all, and what were your thoughts on how the final episode came out given your background primarily as a fiction writer?

SL: I sat in for auditions, and came to the recording, which was a lot of fun, and also an education. My husband, who’s a professional, did the heavy lifting, and directed and edited. I was glad to see his world, and also glad to know that in writing, I’d found my perfect niche. I don’t like telling actors what to do, or editing. Both are pretty exhausting, for my type of personality. It definitely fueled my interest in screenwriting.

VO: The episode's ending is wide open with the main characters and I'm curious as to what you think happens to them in the long run? Would you be interested in pursuing this couple further in your writing?

SL: I’d be interested in telling this same story in an expanded form, but for me, the compelling part of it is the love story. Their future is a weird, dark one, that I think only works as an idea. Following them on a killing spree wouldn’t be much fun for me, and I’d lose my sympathy.In the long run, I think either Cassie gets sloppy and they both get caught, or Robert talks her into a very honed, Dexter sort of series of murders. They’d stay together, regardless.

To check out this episode and more, go to www.talesformbeyondthepale.com