He also pennedMouse Huntand co-wrote the Joe Dante-directedSmall Soldiers.
The Dark Backwardis and forever will be my sentimental favorite, he says.
It is the only thing I ever wrote that isnt influenced by outside voices.
Credit: Courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse
Every script you write, tosomedegree, is influenced by the business at large.
Is this a financeable story?
Is this character a castable character?
Courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse
Who is going to want to see this movie?
WithThe Dark Backward, I was totally naive to all of that.
I did not understand that thats how Hollywood worked at all.
I wrote it purely from my heart.
It was something I wanted to write because it was something I wanted to see.
Because that will never ever happen again, thats why it holds such a place in my heart.
It was more of a shock to me than anybody.
Below, the filmmaker recalls how he made one of the most bizarre movies in cinematic history.
ADAM RIFKIN:The Dark Backwardwas the very first screenplay I ever wrote.
I came out to L.A. from Chicago with big dreams of making movies.
Its what Ive always wanted to do ever since I was a little kid.
When I wrote it, I was 18, 19 years old.
I was trying to figure out what I was going to write for my first script.
He was so bad, and the experience was so uncomfortable, so depressing.
I thought, You know, this could be a fun thing to explore for a screenplay.
I knew I wasnt going to get a lot of money.
Ive always loved movies, all kinds of movies.
One pop in of movie that Ive always felt a kinship with were cult movies.
We all know what the classic cult movies are and I used to watch them all.
We tried to get the movie made many times and we never could.
Everybody said it was too weird and that it would never make money.
But Judd Nelson read it and was insistent that he get to play the part.
I didnt think Judd would be able to pull it off.
You know, when I pictured Judd Nelson, I pictured him as the burnout character inBreakfast Club.
Judd was so determined to play the part, he wanted to audition for me.
I thought, Alright, hes great.
So, I cast him.
Judd Nelson was a big enough star that just his name attached to a project instantly funded it.
Bill Paxton, I just loved fromNear Darkand fromAliens.
I was absolutely determined to get him to play that role.
We all three just had a sort of meeting of the minds.
Thats what I wantedThe Dark Backwardto feel like.
I wanted it to feel like old vaudeville, the cartoon version of show business.
And he responded to that.
James Caan is legendary and he couldnt have been more hot at the time coming off ofMisery.
So, I pursued James Caan doggedly and he kept saying No, no, no.
I just kept trying and trying and trying.
He had no idea who I was.
I was just some kid trying to get this movie made and he thought I was a nuisance.
And he did it.
We offered a cameo to Wayne Newton.
I want to play this guy.
But mostly Tony Gardner created the third arm.
He was actually the first person connected to the project.
I was a big fan still am of horror movies and I read about him in an issue ofFangoriamagazine.
We shot it all in L.A.
The budget was about $700, 000.
Ill tell you, it was a dream come true to make this film.
Thats why we put all the effort into making the sets look unique and filling everything with garbage.
I wanted the whole movie to just feel like one giant garbage dump.
When I was writing the script I thought, Whats a very inexpensive way to have production value?
Well, if we have lots of garbage everywhere itll create a lot of atmosphere for really no money.
Because garbage is free!
And it really helps make it look like its own world.
I didnt want to have any recognizable product names in the movie.
It wouldnt feel like the whole world was its own universe.
So, I created this fake company called Blumps.
Blumps is the company that creates every product in this universe.
So, every food product, every piece of hardware, every medical product is a Blumps product.
The logo for Blumps, the womans face, is my grandmother, which I thought would be fun.
Shes still kicking, shes 96, and shes very excited that the movie is playing in Brooklyn.
Everybody was there because they wanted to do something unique.
At times on the set I really felt like we were part of a traveling circus.
It really was a gang of misfits, but it was really fun.
Judd and Bill, theyre the best.
What was really interesting is that Judd was very confident in letting Bill be so big.
Judds natural personality is very large.
I mean, hes a very big personality in real-life.
Those words will haunt me forever.
(Paxton diedfrom a stroke in Feb. 2017 after heart surgery.)
It got an art house release.
So, they released it, and they really believed in it.
When the movie came out, most people hated it.
But the few people that liked it, really really liked it.
The reactions and the reviews were very polarizing.
The release advertising strategy was to take the best reviews and the worst reviews and alternate them.
That actually got peoples attention.
It was not a success, but it really has found an audience as the years have gone on.
Im humbled by the whole thing.
Watch the trailer forThe Dark Backward, above.
