Pittsburgh 2026 Horror Realm Convention Part 2: Christine Elise and Eduardo Sanchez

The Fisch Bowl Podcast had the pleasure of attending Pittsburgh's 2026 Horror Realm Convention, and interview many actors and filmmakers behind the scenes of your favorite horror and sci-fi films! Today's episode is with actress Christine Elise, known from Child's Play 2 and Bodysnatchers, and Eduardo Sanchez, co-director and writer of The Blair Witch Project.

Transcript

Cold Open And Welcome

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Attention, all you fishes in the sea.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome to the fishbowl with Sam Fish. Sam Fish, the Fishbowl here, Horror Realm Con 2026 with the infamous, fabulous Christine Elise.

unknown 0:16

Hi.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Thank you for taking the time to swim in the fishbowl. No problem. We're diving in head first. I hope the temperature is just right.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

Let's do it.

Christine Elise On Chucky Sets

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Awesome, awesome. Obviously, number one, Child's Play.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Child's Play 2, Chucky the series.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

The infamous Kyle.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

What was it like working on the franchise and uh the return and everything?

SPEAKER_03 0:41

It's fantastic. And uh 1989, when I got Child's Play 2, it was a my first really big job. We shot up most of it on the universe a lot, which is really exciting to me. Being around the old studio lots is really fun. And yeah, I mean seeing Chucky come to life in right in front of you is incredibly convincing and compelling and really fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Now, Chucky is one of my all-top he's he's up there in probably my top favorite like 80s slasher franchise. In my opinion, there is no other killer doll besides Brad Doriff as as Chucky. Right. Were there any like special stories with Don Mancini or people working on the set?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Anything that was like no, I mean Don Don um didn't get to spend much time on the set of the first one because it was a writer's strike because he wasn't allowed to be on the set, so he was really excited to be on the set of the second one. He took tons and tons of like super eight movie behind the scenes footage, which he sort of uh leaked out little bits and pieces here and there. It was really funny to see. And never everyone asked me what it was like to work with Brad Dorf. I never got to work with Brad. I did a rehearsal with him with our dialogue together, so he would know how I was gonna read my lines because he pre-records all his stuff before we start shooting, and they play it back on set for us. So we have his voice, but he's never there. So I never actually got to work with Brad, which sucks.

Pittsburgh Vibes And Past Roles

SPEAKER_02 2:02

But you're gonna you're gonna uh be back uh distilled Citicon uh actually next month with Brad with Don and I think Fiona has voted out, so it's I think it's Brad and Don and me. Okay. That should be amazing. I'm very excited for that. There's gonna be a huge guest list there. That's what I hear a lot of a lot of fun. Um what do you think of Pittsburgh so far? Is this your first time here?

SPEAKER_03 2:22

No, I drove through once. I I was driving across the country and we took a big detour to come through Pittsburgh at uh city. My stepfather's a big he's from Detroit, he's a big fan of Pittsburgh too. I'm from Boston, so it's got a similar energy to the uh to Boston, sort of working class, industrial sort of city. You know, it's right, right.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I guess our football teams, though.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a sports person, you're gonna make nothing from me on that.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

No, neither am I, neither am I. I also want to say I I really like the performance and boiling point. Oh, thank you. That's that's that's one of my favorite, I think, underrated Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper movies. Yeah, as well as Vigo Mortensen.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Yeah, Vigo, I'm a huge Vigo fan, yeah. And I did that with Vigo, they wrote most of my part out, but that my stuff was going to be shot toward the end of the of the shooting schedule. And uh they were, of course, over budget and over, you know, so they had to cut things and the stuff they ended up cutting was most of my stuff. They wouldn't even shoot it, they just cut it before he even shot it. So Vigo requested that I be his wife in another movie with a Vanishing Point. Yes, and so Vigo requested me for that because he hadn't gotten a chance to work with me so much in the in Boiling Point. And I was happy to be on Boiling Point, not just because of Vigo, but because I'm I'm forgetting his name. Is it James Harris? I think, who is the producer of the Stanley all the Stanley Kubrick movies? Yes, yes, and he produced The Killing, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. So to work with a big film noir guy like that and Vigo is like a dream come true.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Awesome, awesome. Another favorite of mine, Body Snatchers. Yeah, it's late, great Stuart Gordon.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah, um Abel Ferrara?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yes, yeah, there's so many people in that movie, and and I think it's one of my favorite interpretations of the body.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Yeah, it's a good one. I think it really holds up well. It's uh it's got a really, really creepy feel. We shot it in Alabama, in Selma, Alabama, on an abandoned army base. And I think it's the spookiness and the starkness, it was winter time, it's February, you know, in Alabama, it's totally other than you think. And I think it really holds up.

Favorite Scary Movies And Chucky Picks

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Awesome, awesome. On the topic of horror movies and the Chuck E franchise, what would you say one is your favorite horror film, or as the famous screen movies go? What's your favorite scary movie? And then what would you say is your favorite or most heartfelt like child's play installment?

SPEAKER_03 4:39

My favorite horror movie of all time is The Exorcist. I'm a fan of Kalta Chucky, Calti Chucky's my favorite of the movies, but I actually think I prefer the series over the over the seven films, and the series is really solid. I'm really I'm a huge fan of the multiple Chuckies. I know that's a controversial topic. I really like the fact that he can possess he possesses Nika, and I I like those developments. I think it opens up story possibility immensely, and I also really enjoy seeing Chucky fight with Chucky. Chucky arguing with Chucky is always entertaining.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Awesome, awesome. Christine, thank you so much for taking the time to dive headfirst into the fishbowl. Uh we came up above water and we're riding the waves.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Be safe out there.

Eduardo Sanchez Joins The Bowl

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Thank you. Samfished the fishbowl here at Horror Realm 2026 with Eduardo Sanchez, most famous for the Blair Wish Project. Thank you for taking the time to come to Pittsburgh and to swim in the bowl with me. That's right, man. That's right. Let's do it. Awesome, awesome. A lot of questions about the Blair Wish Project. How did that whole idea even come about? And what were some of like the I guess struggles making it? And then the the end result with it becoming such a cult phenomenon that it literally inspired like the whole new genre.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, uh, it was, I mean, you know, it was my partner and I, Dan Meyerick, came up with the idea. We were just like, we loved the old, like kind of fake documentaries. But we loved this movie called Legend of Boggy Creek, and we just thought that those kinds of movies, uh and especially that show in search of, were like, it's just so creepy. The idea of like it being like a documentary, even if it's not real, right? The idea of being a documentary was really scary for us. So we came up with the idea of like the filmmakers disappearing, and then you know, we uh sat on it for a while. We were trying to graduate from film school, and we had some other films that we were doing, and then in like '96 or '96, we started producing it again. We got a couple of people involved that were very integral to the making of the movie, and started rolling. And the biggest, you know, the biggest challenge as always is raising the money. Right. Uh, you know, we made the money, the movie for barely anything, but even even just getting the$20,000 was like, you know, pulling teeth. But we got the money, and uh, you know, and and it was, you know, it was a fairly smooth process. Like, there's a lot of like you know, preconceptions that we had to kind of reevaluate as we went, you know, and kind of change. We started off more as like a straight documentary and ended up as like just this found footage movie that you know nobody we had never seen anything like that before, you know. Right. And we kind of let it guide us, you know, and there's a lot of you know, there's some times when we were like fighting against it and it would just keep pushing us in a direction, and we kind of just gave in. And we learned a lot from the movie of as far as like directing, like sometimes you know, letting the movie go where it needs to go is kind of the best thing you can do as a director. And then, you know, we get we got really lucky. You know, just the ladies we had no idea what we actually do, and we were uh kind of blabbergasted by just the reaction and just uh how it grew up worldwide, and you know, kind of had some complex thing, the classic bar movies, you know. Um we never thought it would be anything like that. So, you know, it was cool, and then the whole idea of like it being you know one of the first films movies. You know, it's just it's just really cool that to be you know part of an inspiration for other frontwriters. You know, there's so much talent out there, and uh I never thought I would be like you know, inspiring anybody. Right. So it's awesome to be at that position and uh just coming to places like this, to co conventions, meeting people like you, you really do get a lot of that love, and I just really appreciate people you know digging the work so much.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Absolutely. And I mean, what what involvement did you have, or what's your thoughts on like the the two sequels that kind of the came out? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Um, you know, Book of Shadows was you know probably the most difficult one for us because it was right after our movie the company artists and really wanted another sequel. We didn't want to do it, we wanted to kind of stay away from Blair Witch for a little while. And um they eventually went with Joe Buringer, and you know, we liked Joe's movies. He was a documentary filmmaker, like one of the best in that era, and you know, really great filmmaker. So we were really like kind of enthusiastic about what he was gonna do, and it just happened, you know, I think what happened with Blair's workers showed was just that they didn't give him enough time, they didn't give him enough creative license. They were just rushing, they had like a release date before they even had a story. Oh, okay. Um and I think that you know Joe, I think, kind of did his best. But I feel like the movie, I mean, it's a it's a cool movie and I enjoy it, but it has very little to do with it's it's kind of like a cousin of coach.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah, I would say it's like a standalone kind of song. It's like it's interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

And then the the 2016 one was you know, was really to me the true, you know, first true sequel in the timeline of Bear Witch, yeah. Um and I thought it was you know harrowing and freaking crazy and like just a really fun ride, you know, claustrophobic. Um and I, you know, really we worked with Simon and Adam uh on another project. We were real good friends with them, so it was very kind of a very friendly kind of situation where we really had a lot of faith in that one. I think they delivered a really crazy sequel. And you know, and I think that the only thing that that I felt was lacking from that one was I wish, and I told them, you know, I told them this a little bit I would, you know, I wish that that it would have uh gone beyond the house. Like I didn't like that it ended up. I I I wanted to see like a third act somewhere else. Like take it, take, take me elsewhere, you know. Right, right. I thought it was very effective, very well done, and um, you know, unfortunately it didn't do uh as well as we wanted it to do, but uh, you know, it it is what it is, and uh it's uh you know we haven't quite found the right mix you know for a Blair Witch movie after the first one yet.

Sequels And Studio Pressure

SPEAKER_02 11:22

So, you know, we're hoping to get it right one day. Awesome, awesome.

Building The Witch Mythology

SPEAKER_01 11:26

And how much of like the the witch, like is that all fictional or was there fictional okay I mean a lot of it was taken from you know just the the local mythology also I think like some witch trials right that that whole kind of injustice, the whole idea of like women being you know victims of you know male whatever, you know, just just manic sh you know we we felt like the the the the mythology needed like kind of like an injustice, you know, to like kind of swan the the curse. So, you know, we really relied heavily on kind of like study about what would happen to that, and the idea that that that was probably happening all over the place, you know. Right. And um and then the rest of the mythology was just we just wanted it to feel real, you know. We wanted it, we didn't want to go too crazy and wanted to the stories to be like, okay, that might have happened, or it might have been something else, but you know, it's creepy that that happened, but just believable enough to like think that that maybe it really did exist. So, you know, that was a lot of fun, you know. Because we, you know, we we needed Heather to go into the woods for a certain reason, so we had to create this book. Right. Um, you know, I think we all uh a lot of people, you know, uh you know uh brought in their talents and and uh you know bought in their their skills and you know writing book mythology, and it was very much a group effort, but uh you know I thought it was it was just a cool exercise, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Awesome, absolutely. And based on what you just said with like the kind of over-delivery like expectation of it kind of the first one kind of going above and beyond like where you kind of thought it would it would kind of go just to start with, when you start seeing you know spoofs of it with like scary movie, and you know, like is at that point are you like thinking I've really made it like that that's an honor, or is it like the opposite? No, no.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

I mean for me the the uh the parody that like really kind of that's two parodies that I really like the Scooby Doo Project and then the Mad Magazine. It's like a little mad, you know, and like um I never thought that my birthday would be in Mad Magazine. And then, you know, the fuck we were like characters in the you know in the story. That was when I was like, oh my god, this is something this is something out of the ordinary. You're right, right. But no, I mean, you know, I love the parodies anyway. It uh it was uh it was an easy media parody, and I do love that people were getting involved and just uh we we were getting VHS tapes all the time of like just uh shopping project, you know, just all the kinds of different parodies that the fans were sending us. One time we had like a huge stuff with VHS tapes, a long blood parody. So it was cool. I mean, look, you know, we we had this VM next week with me, and it kind of caught a lot of people's imagination to that, like you know, so like the fact that people are making fun of it to me was you know, it's like the ultimate form of flattery.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

So awesome.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

It was wide ride, and I didn't expect any of that shit to happen, so it was really attacking.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

I I have to say, when I saw Scary Movie One in theaters and also the Wayans brothers, what a blessed, phenomenal family in general. Oh, yeah writers, directors, performers, comedians. Shout out to uh Marlon Wayans, who will be here, I believe, in September, again at the improv doing a stand-up. I, for one, am very excited to see the scary movie movies back in the right hands for this this new one that's they're supposed to come out. You know, this the the Wayans have their own flavor, you know, and the the the parody scene with Sherry O'Terry, who also, you know, it's it's part of her ex improvisation and execution of the scene.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

But I a lot of talent, a lot of talent after we have to show.

Parodies And Fame Whiplash

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Yeah, it was so much fun to see that so far. Awesome, awesome. And closer question: What are some of your favorite films and any other upcoming projects?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Favorite films for me, like of all time. Of all time, yeah. Um, I mean like Star Wars, yeah, I wouldn't be a filmmaker if it wasn't for Star Wars. Late Runner, Blu-ray fan, like really changed my life. Um pretty much Eddie's course lazy falls from the 70s, early 80s. Um Spielberg, of course, and the most high. Uh, you know, as far as power films, you know, the Exorcist, the Shining. Um so yeah, there's uh I mean I can keep going. There's so many uh great films out there. I mean, right now I'm working on a movie called Entity that is about to start shooting sometime this way in Atlanta, and my partner Greg Hale wrote it, and we were very excited about it. Uh I've been doing television for over 10 years now, and it's my first feature in a long time. I've been really excited about it, and uh looking forward to get upset and moving.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Fantastic, or I should say fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Awesome. And I just had I this is uh bouncing around in my head uh as we were talking, and having you being like, you know, defining like a genre. The other person that I would say has like a signature trope for action movies that he started was Robert Rodriguez with Desperado with the famous like explode right and the the famous you know explosion where like Antonio Banderas and and Selma Hierka walking slow motion. You see, like the I I I saw like a behind the scenes where it was like he just needed like a quick, you know, a little extra something the pirate tenders could do, and him being a filmmaker said, I can slow that down and have it be like this signature scene. And now like every action movie has to have like the scene where like the explosion in the background and running, and I just hope like the comparisons, you know, you were able to, you know, essentially spawn really be like the godfather of like spawning found footage movies. You wouldn't have really any any major ones without the Blair Wish Project and just just a little comparison I I wanted to throw in there.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, I mean look, you know, just any any comparison for the Audrey is awesome. Um yeah, I mean, you know, it's like you know, it's it's like water uh reach's first thing that showed us that you know you don't need a big Hollywood crew and we can kind of you know just be creative through your own thing. And uh we definitely like took uh uh the inspiration from that to do Larry Rich. The fact that Larry Rich was the first of you know kind of flash down with five footage movies. Um you know it was it's like it's an awful man. I mean it's like it's um it's crazy to think that uh you know the movie that I get you know inspired uh still inspire people and everybody has a story about it, and you know, again, I was still blessed that I was a part of it and uh uh happy to be still kind of uh taking advantage of the birds' juice, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Exactly, exactly. Well, Lagoro, thank you so much for taking the time to swim in the fishbowl with me. We we we dove in head first.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

We c rose above the water. Right on the waves, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

All right, thank you so much for taking the time to swim in the bowl with me.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Hey there, all my fishes in the sea. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode and for being a subscriber. Your continued listenership and support means the most and helps keep the show going to deeper and deeper depths. I want to let all my guppies in the sea know the Fishbowl has now officially partnered with FastCustom Shirts.com, where they're now selling custom Fishbowl t-shirts under their podcast and website section. Every t-shirt that's purchased helps and goes a long way to keep the show growing to deeper and deeper in higher, higher depths. I also now have custom hats, beanies, handbags, pens, mouse pads, everything to make you look like the coolest looking fish in the sea. You can DM me directly on Instagram at the Fishbowl88, or on Facebook at just the fishbowl, or you can friend request me, Sam Fish, directly and get yours today. Your continued listenership and support again means the most. It's the most important fishes that flock together. We are a school of fish and we keep the unit going. Let's all keep swimming upstream.