StarWars.com chats with author Joe Schreiber about the terror that awaits unsuspecting characters venturing aboard an eerily not-so vacant Star Destroyer with a deadly secret.
WARNING: This interview is full of plot spoilers about Death Troopers. Read at your own risk, or move along -- nothing to see here.
How did the opportunity arise for you to add zombies to a galaxy far, far away?
My editor at Del Rey is involved in a lot of the Star Wars expanded universe stuff and apparently it came out of a conversation that he and somebody had at a convention about how great it would be to have a Star Wars zombie novel. Eventually, my agent found out about it and I asked to take a swing at it. It was just too good not to try out for.
Are you a hardcore Star Wars fan?
I distinctly remember being seven years old and going with my parents to go see Star Wars, and being completely freaked out and riveted by the experience. It's probably one of the first non-Disney movies I saw on the big screen as a kid. It made a huge impression, obviously. I think we showed up a little bit late, and the first scene I actually saw was Vader coming down the hallway during the blaster battle with the stormtroopers. I was desperate to find out what was going on right from the very first moment.
As a fan of both Star Wars and horror, what to you is the most horrifying part of the saga?
The trash compactor scene! Anything that's underwater and you can't quite see is horrifying. The movie did a great job with that. "Ah! Something just moved past my leg!" is a total horror trope. And it's used to great effect in that scene. Already there's tension; they're in a claustrophobic situation. Every kid knows what it's like to wade in the water and not see where your feet are, then something goes past your leg.
Just the presence of Darth Vader in general is horrifying. He's this guy who's essentially in a walking coffin and there's something really obviously wrong with him because his breathing just sounds unsettling.
What makes some horror fiction and films scarier than others?
In horror films there's a huge temptation to go for, not just the gross-out, but the startle-moment. You can make people jump in their seat with a loud blast of music on the soundtrack, or when a character jumps out at you. But those aren't the horror films that linger with the individual, or in pop culture. The stories that are popular are the ones that create an atmosphere that's familiar and uncanny at the same time; and that deal with characters you can readily identify with from your own experience.
What is it about outer space that makes it the perfect backdrop for horror?
It's a weird combination of how limitless it is and at the same time how claustrophobic and confining it can be. Certainly with the Star Destroyer, I really wanted to explore what it was like to be aboard something that was so big and empty, but at the same time you could feel the pressure of space itself working against the integrity of the ship.
What would it be like to be on-board something that was farther away than the furthest outpost? You feel like you're alone but at the same time know that you aren't. Space, especially Lucas' vision of space, is totally conducive to a horror environment.
With most zombie stories it seems that the real fear sets in when you're looking around a town, or in the case of Death Troopers -- a ship -- and no one is there, but you still feel like someone is watching you.
Steven King talks about that in Salem's Lot. The scariest parts of Salem's Lot isn't when the vampires are jumping out and biting people, it's when you go through the town and no one's there.
What is it about zombies that makes them so popular with horror fans?
They lend themselves to a lot of different situations. They represent the familiar turned into this completely uncanny and impossible to understand version of itself. They're coming for you and they want to eat you. They're not interested in a conversation. They're not Bram Stoker's Dracula. There's nothing romantic about them at all. They're an inarguable force. Clive Barker once described zombies as "the ultimate Liberal nightmare" -- these are the people, the great unwashed, yet all they're interested in doing is devouring you.
The most terrifying thing about zombies is that with bio-warfare being on the cusp of happening in reality, it's not too hard to imagine humans being infected with a synthetic virus that controls them long after they're dead, thus making them the perfect weapon.
Obviously, every scary thing can be pushed to the point that it becomes absurd. But if you're able to manage it in a way and execute it carefully, that idea can be very, very scary.
