What’s the most frightening consequence of possession? Is it the demon itself or the fear of losing something close to you? We recently sat down with creator Robert Kirkman and director Chris Black to discuss the dichotomy between family and demons in Outcast AND their real lives.
Do you pull inspiration from relationships with your personal life?
Robert: I mean sure, every writer does that. So yeah, there’s certain relationships with my sister, my mother, my wife, my daughter, you know all kinds of different things that I draw inspiration from so I don’t sound like a complete knucklehead when I’m writing.
Chris: There was a scene where Megan and her husband Mark were fighting where I pulled some dialogue word for word from a fight I had with my wife.
Which is scarier: demons or the loss of family?
Chris: I mean I think the loss of family trumps everything. When you talk about stuff that scares me, stuff that terrifies me, I mean I love genre material, I’ve always loved genre material, I’ll watch any zombie, alien, vampire, werewolf thing that you put in front of me, but that’s fantasy. I mean, to me, I’m married, I have two young daughters…it’s like to me the single most terrifying thing I can imagine, is losing my family.
Robert: But there are days…(laughter)
Chris: There are always days (laughs).
Robert: I think it’s one of those things that’s most appealing about this genre is that you can tell very real, very grounded stories in the face of this hugely supernatural phenomenon, you know the loss of family is the most terrifying thing a family man can think about and the loss of family is at the center of this. A family can still be there, but they are possessed and they’re different people…and that’s very terrifying.
Chris: And this is something we’re exploring now in the show and as we’re getting into the second season what possession is is loss of self. And there’s nothing I think more terrifying than that…than not being able to control who you are or not being able to control your own actions, hurting people you care about because something else has taken control of you. I mean I think that’s the most terrifying thing I can imagine.
