In a career spanning over two decades, Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso has proven his versatility, tackling everything from reality TV to World War II zombie films. However, his latest project, The Creeps, is a loving, over-the-top tribute to the cinematic spirit of the 1980s. In this interview, Marko opens up about the roots of his deep affection for that decade’s films – a passion that helped him pen a “goofy, very silly” script during the darkest days of the pandemic. From his attempts to secure the rights to American Ninja to the absurd situation of directing his Highlander hero, Christopher Lambert, during a Finnish lockdown, Marko shares the personal journey that led to The Creeps.
Support Nordic Watchist: We’d like to share our new partner, Recce, a brilliant new, free App designed to simplify your viewing. Review films and series, and instantly find out exactly where to watch. By following the link below and signing up you will be supporting the running of Nordic Watchlist for another year and it won’t cost you a penny.
Nordic Watchlist: I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you are a massive fan of films from the 80’s. Can you tell us a bit about where and how that love began?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Oh, really? Haha, I’m such a nerd. And my kids keep saying that I’m such a nerd. And I have more toys than they do. I love the 80s. This era for me is this time of innocence, innocence and naivety, when everything was a little bit simpler, in a way. So, I love that. When you watch the Rambo movies, or when you watch Gremlins, or Indiana Jones or Back to the Future, they have such a light, fun heart. And I wrote the script in late 2020; it was the pandemic, right?
So, the world was a very depressing place. Everybody’s in lockdown, everybody’s having their fears and restrictions and everything, so I decided to write something very silly, very goofy, very funny, for me at least. And the 80’s is something which is exactly that, what kept me entertained during the pandemic time.
Nordic Watchlist: The Light in the Dark, I like it.
Marko Mäkilaakso: Yeah, so that’s where it sort of came about, and then I just pitched it for fun, for these couple of producers I knew, and they were like, “okay, let’s do it”.
And I was like “seriously?” And they said “Yeah, let’s shoot it in three months” and I was like “Okay” And then we did. And the funny part was that the whole of Finland was in the beginning of 2021 still in lockdown except one region, and this is the region where we shot the movie.
Of course, there were restrictions on how many people could be in one scene and so on.
Nordic Watchlist: Makes sense
Marko Mäkilaakso: So that gave us the freedom to shoot the movie without massive problems, but we did have issues of bringing in actors, like Christopher Lambert, who was stuck in Helsinki Airport. His connecting flight was denied, even though he had approval to come to film, and that was a horrible chaos to figure out, then we got him so we could shoot him on time.
Nordic Watchlist: I can imagine. Was Christopher Lambert always originally in the script?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Oh yes. When I wrote it I never thought to be honest that Christopher Lambert was gonna say yes. But I wrote it because I’m a Highlander fan and I’m a Christopher Lambert fan.
I directed the other Highlander actor, Adrian Paul, way back, 2011, in another Sci-Fi Channel movie. I remember I always thought, “I wanna make a movie with Christopher,” and I’ve directed both Highlanders.
Nordic Watchlist: You got the Highlander Bingo!
Marko Mäkilaakso: Exactly.
Nordic Watchlist: And how was it for you, being a fan, directing Christopher Lampert?
Marko Mäkilaakso: I wanted to make a practical joke to him. When we shot the first scene I had a Highlander shirt on and I went to him going like “is it too much?” And he was like “yeah” and I was like “okay”
But he was such a nice guy. He was very polite, and introduced himself to the entire crew. very sweet, and once you get over your own excitement, like, “can you sign my DVD?” Then you know, it just becomes that you’re working, and if it works, it’s fun, and it did, so it was fun.
I had a great time, and it was one of those weird, absurd situations, it’s pandemic, it’s lockdown, and here I am with Christopher Lambert, doing a scene where he says “There can be only one”
Nordic Watchlist: Edgar Wright has now remade a known 80’s film. If you could remake a film from the 80’s, which film would it be and why?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Oh, that’s a good question. Once, I tried to get the rights from an 80s movie, not like a running man budget-level movie, but it was called American Ninja with Michael Dudikoff in 1985. But way back, I was really pursuing to get the rights. And it was so complicated, I had U.S. producers trying to get the rights and everything.
That was one that I was really passionate about trying to do. But to make with a big budget? Cujo, I was pursuing that as well with another producer, and it was almost there, but something happened, and I was just informed it was not gonna happen. So that’s it. But it’s because I love the movie.The book is great and rich you know, broader than the movie, which is a very slim sort of adaptation. So I wanted to go more Cujo for the book, and adapt that into an epic Creature feature. Those were the ones which I was really, really pursuing,
Nordic Watchlist: I really love the puppets of the Greaves in the film. Can you tell me a tiny bit about the making of the puppets?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Yeah, I can. We had only one puppet, that’s for starters. It looks like we have two, but we had one actual puppet, and then we had a, like, a small dummy which you can throw, or whatever.
And I was mostly operating the main puppet.
I wanted the entire movie to be with the puppets, but we would have need puppets to achieve the more complicated stuff, so CGI was necessary, and of course, you know, that brings its own set of problems, but still, the design was basically, of course, inspired by The Gremlins and Critters and stuff like that.
I basically just drew the design on a piece of paper, and then a friend of mine who is an art director in various John Bluth movies and Disney stuff, and background artists, and all that, and Lion King and so on, I said to him “hey, do me a favor, can you design this?” So he did. He did a great job. The cover of the Blu-ray is that design.
Nordic Watchlist: So you were the one operating the puppet most of the time?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Yeah, most of the time, except there were insert shots with the puppets against a black background or something like that, those were operated by other people, but when we were on set interacting with some actors that’s always me, or driving the snow bike.
There is no animatronics, there’s nothing like that. I love the Muppets, you know, I love the Jim Henson stuff, and with that you have to know what you’re sort of doing, even though I’m not a pro or nothing, but I can make it become something. That’s why I wanted to do as much as I can by myself. So just lay down in the snow with the puppet and just go for it.
Nordic Watchlist: What’s next in the works?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Well, there’s some stuff, a horror movie, a serious horror movie. I can’t talk about it too detailed, because the producers wouldn’t necessarily like that, but, yeah, that’s next spring, supposed to be shot, so hopefully all goes accordingly.
Nordic Watchlist: Amazing. Would you say that The Creeps is your ultimate passion project, or is your ultimate passion project still In the making?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Yes and no. It is a passion project in the sense that I wanted to make this sort of goofy, silly movie. And I knew that it would be very hard for me to convince anyone to put any money in it.
I’m lucky to have made it, I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, I’m fully 100% aware of that, I’m not expecting the entire world to scream and say “oh my god the Creeps is amazing!”
But, it’s a sweet movie, even though there’s sex and all kinds of things. It has a heart, which is in its imperfection. People may if they kind of go into it in the right mode, that it’s over the top and silly and goofy and all that, like in the 80s, many movies were.
Then they might appreciate it a little bit.
But yeah, it was definitely a passion project for me to do that type of a movie, but once you have done something like that, it’s always “well, now I want to make a serious movie” like, real drama, I love changing styles.
Nordic Watchlist: It’s very apparent from watching the film that you love what you do. How did you get into filmmaking to begin with? Is that something you always knew you were gonna do?
Marko Mäkilaakso: Yes, ever since I was 8 or 9 or something. First, I wanted to be a Disney animator for comic books like, Disney comic books.
I’m a pretty good drawer, and that was my passion very early on. I did my own comic books and stuff. And then my dad bought a camera, and that changed everything. I made all stop-motion animations, shorts, everything. And when I was 14, I won some sort of award. I made a series, a 15-minute drama about friendships that lost another friend, and they’re mourning that. Deep stuff for that age. And I won some sort of a prize for that, the short was called Forever, and
And then my dad was like, “Maybe there’s something in this, what your passion is about” and then I just started pursuing it. I didn’t care about school; I just knew what I wanted to do. I started doing shorts, and people started seeing that, and then I got music videos or commercials, and people started seeing that and all of a sudden I thought, okay, I’ll move to Los Angeles. Another stupid idea when you’re young which I will never regret. So I moved to LA, and I did a second unit job for a movie starring Zach Galligan, the star of Gremlins. And that was fun. L.A. was a great experience, and then I went back to Finland and I just started doing more stuff.
I did reality shows, which I didn’t like, just for money, travelling around the world and doing this sort of reality crap. That was fun for travelling-wise, but it was not fun for me creatively. So I said, no, I just want to make a movie. I tried to make a World War II zombie film. And then I ended up in Lithuania, and I guess my mumbling worked somehow because there was money from US and Italy, and Lithuania, and we shot that movie in 2006, in the wintertime.
It got a good distribution all over, but, you know, was sort of forgotten. And then, after that, it was on to the next, and the next, and the next.
Dazzler Media presents The Creeps on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download – Available Now
