Filmmaker Kevin Smith touched down in Australia this week to promote the bejesus out of his comedy “Clerks 2”. Moviehole’s Mark Bennett – an out and out horror buff – was so keen to find out about Smith’s upcoming horror film (announced it a couple of weeks back), that he decided to tie him to a chair, and threatened to play his scenes from “Vulgar” on loop, if he didn’t give up the goods.

“Next up I want to do a horror movie. I just think it would be kinda interesting – for me at least – to go left. I’ve made seven comedies, or variation thereof, and some people would argue that none of them are funny. But it would be nice to make a horror movie. An intentional horror movie, not like Jersey Girl. [much laughter]. It’s a genre that I grew up watching on VHS and on cable when I was a kid”, said Smith.

“No jokes and stuff, not like Scary Movie 4. There are people that do that really well, like Edgar Wright with Shaun of the Dead, but I don’t want to make a comedic one, I want to make a straight-forward horror movie.

“It’ll be a bit of slasher, but I’m kinda looking more at … you remember that movie Race With The Devil? It’s more kind of in that vein. Or Wicker Man. Something in that vein where it’s creepy and unsettling more than gore.”

Smith says some of his favourite horror movies include “The Shining, Halloween. I’ll pretty much for anything that I came of age watching. You know, the ’70s-’80s slasher genre. The current crop of horror movies not nearly as much. There seems to be a lot of remakes and whatnot. A lot of “Let’s do Texas Chainsaw. Again. And let’s do The Hills Have Eyes again.” I’m sure there’s probably ripe material out there. A lot of things are more horrible than a dude in a mask trying to stab you. [inaudible – something like, You can look it up in the newspaper and pull it out of there]. So I’m kinda going for that. The one thing I’m happy about is the idea that I have, I haven’t seen it done before.”

Yahoo/AP: “American cult director praises Thalluri”

“…That movie carries a pretty powerful and meaningful message,” said Smith, in town to promote his new film, Clerks II. “It is a really good-looking flick and very assured for a dude who hasn’t made a bunch.”

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Sydney Morning Herald: “Silent Bob Strikes Back”

“…Dante and Randal are the characters that I love best,” he says. “They’re the ones that put me on the map, they’re the ones that are closest to my personality, like my id and my super-ego. I’m not sure what that means, but I read it in a review once and it sounded very smart.”

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Herald Sun: “Silent Bob Speaks”

“…And if there’s ever gonna be a Clerks 3, it would be somewhere down the road in my 40s or 50s, when it might be interesting to check back in on Dante and Randal. But I don’t know about Jay and Bob so much, ‘cos at 45, leaning on a wall in front of a convenience store might be a little sad.”

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The Age: “Off-kilter universe”

“…The sequel to the no-budget Sundance discovery that started his career a dozen years ago, Clerks II sounds like a desperate retreat after Jersey Girl. But it turns out to be a shrewd career move, in which he takes his characters into the present and even ratchets up his own marketing skills.”

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Herald Sun: “Silent Bob Speaks”

“…And if there’s ever gonna be a Clerks 3, it would be somewhere down the road in my 40s or 50s, when it might be interesting to check back in on Dante and Randal. But I don’t know about Jay and Bob so much, ‘cos at 45, leaning on a wall in front of a convenience store might be a little sad.”

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Herald Sun: “Kevin Rolls With the Hollywood Hits”

“…Smith described a similar event in Sydney on Tuesday as “religious”, with dedicated fans turning out for a reunion with characters they have now followed through six films over a decade.”