This is the entire community of horror that we’re discussing when we start talking about Jack Ketchum, who’s now had a couple of books adapted and going to have more.  And I’m wondering about your introduction to this world and when that occurred.  I suspect getting the acting award at Screamfest was a major validation of all your hard work and attention to craft these past few years.  But I’m also wondering, was this your first real taste of the horror subculture?

It really was.  And I always laugh to myself because I think, I did [THE LOST] and then I did WICKED LAKE and I did CABIN FEVER 2 with my good friend Ti West.  It’s very funny to me because I’ve had many people talk to me as if I grew up in this world or as if I loved this world, and the funny thing is, I never liked this world!  And when I say never liked it, what I mean is that I didn’t grow up watching the movies Chris watched—aside from movies like TAXI DRIVER.  I didn’t grow up watching TEXAS CHAINSAW and I didn’t grow up watching THE EXORCIST.  Honestly, I was genuinely afraid of those films, I never got into it.  So I laugh to myself, playing a character like this because everyone’s looking at me and they’re like, “Oh, you’re so scary,” and I’m thinking I just responded to the character as opposed to the genre.  It’s like much like in WICKED LAKE, which is a horror movie in the truest sense, I responded to the character—as I always do—and I tell people that sure, I’ve done a couple genre movies now in horror and I’m grateful for it.  But aside from wanting to expand creatively into other genres, I always look at the story and I always look at the character.  If it happens to fall in the horror genre, then it does.  If it happens to fall in the romantic comedy world, then it does.  But I never was heavily influenced by horror.  I think I just happened to kind of fall into it and fall into it with a couple guys that are at the top of their game—and would make a good movie, period, whether it was horror or whether it was a crime drama.  Chris is a really talented filmmaker regardless of what genre he’s in.  For whatever reason, [horror] is just where I started off.


Marc and co-star Robin Sydney in THE LOST; the two also appear in WICKED LAKE.

It doesn’t sound like you’re afraid of being thought of as “that horror actor” by casting directors and producers.  It doesn’t seem like that’s how you’re thinking of your career.  You’re approaching each film, each part, on its own merits, and hopefully the industry out there recognizes that.

That’s interesting, because I was just going to say… I don’t want to sound arrogant for saying this, but I definitely struggle and wish I had more faith in certain people in our business.  Because it’s like, a lot of people wouldn’t look as deep as you look, Peter, or as deep as Chris would, or other people.  I get afraid sometimes they only look at the face value, and with a movie like WICKED LAKE, I’m going, “Look, this is a little indie horror movie but it’s like the work I did for [Ray Pye]."  It’s as if there’s only a few people that know what I was doing.  And I just hope people can see that here I am playing Ray Pye and then I’m off wearing all pink and listening to Brian Eno and talking in this foreign accent and really playing this puppy dog of a character.  I know it’s the horror genre but I just hope people can see [the differences].

I think they will.  I think you’ll be surprised once you encounter more people who think about the genre and its films in a certain way.  Those are the folks who are always going to appreciate what you’re trying to do—well, I hope that’s going to be the case!  But let’s return to the subculture or horror fandom, whatever you want to call it, since this was a new area for you.  Has there been anything that surprised you about it once you started going to festivals, working with these different filmmakers and becoming friends with all of these people?  Was there something that you didn’t realize about it growing up, not being a fan of horror films?

Actually, it’s funny you brought that up because the first thing that came to my mind was sensitivity.  Because you watch these movies and they make you squirm in your seat and you think to yourself, “Who is that guy?  How could he do that?” or “How could this filmmaker make this?  He’s got to be like a serial killer!  What does this guy do?” And I will say the funny thing is that a lot of these guys that I’ve encountered, especially with my core group of friends, is that they are all very sensitive, very nice.  It’s like Chris Sivertson, if you meet him in person, this guy has a lot of sensitivity towards people and actors and I just laugh to myself.

He’s not a drooling wild man who spends all his time thinking about gore effects.

No, and that’s the same with Jack Ketchum.

He’s a real humanist.

He’s a humanist.  And you think, “This is incredible.”  And, you know, Lucky McKee, [is] living on a ranch right now in Oklahoma, and these guys are all like puppy dogs, that’s what’s so funny to me.  I’ve encountered scarier guys in the comedy world.  And even writers like Sean Decker from Fangoria who shows up all in black with jet black hair down the middle of his back and tattoos—and next thing you know, he’s got his arm around my sister and she’s like, “He’s so nice.”  Once you get in with these guys, it’s unbelievable.  They’re just not what you think they would be.

Your name might be added to that list after a while.  With performances like yours in THE LOST, people might think, “…and then I met Marc Senter and he’s an engaging, funny guy and wasn’t scary at all.”  So you’re in that category, too.  But I know we’re running out of time, and I’d like to talk about your other projects.  I know you’ve got a couple in the can, and a couple that are just starting out.  What should people know about these, or at least the folks who already admire your work in THE LOST?

Well, I guess that I’d say that CABIN FEVER 2 is going to be a total blast.  I mean, this is another guy, Ti West, who I truly believe in.  I think Ti is a superb filmmaker and I think people are going to be surprised.  Because they’re going to get more than they expect or anticipate from him.  My favorite part about that film [is that] it’s like KARATE KID meets CARRIE.  That’s how I always describe it.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for people because it’s very ‘80s-influenced.  And the character that I play we loosely based on Johnny, the bad boy from KARATE KID.  It was like, “Let’s have some fun here.  You loved these ‘80s movies, Ti.  Well, what do you want to see?”  And we just couldn’t get KARATE KID out of our heads, and Johnny—“we’ve got to bring this guy back to life.”  And so we incorporated this character and I was going to play [him] as a martial arts expert as opposed to the typical football jock or something.  I’m excited for that, because it’s going to be that type of movie.

Great.  You got me excited now.

And WICKED LAKE—hats off to the new young filmmaker Zach Passero, a dear friend of Chris and Lucky’s and a USC film student friend of theirs.  I could go on and on forever about this.  I think Zach did a superb job, and was probably one of my favorite directors that I’ve ever worked with.  That guy is really connected and just a really nice guy.  The character I played in that loosely was created because Chris Sivertson and I were at a ComiCon party, down in San Diego, and there was this guy that came up to us.  Since this day we’ve never met someone who’s left such an impact on us.  And my only regret is that I didn’t get that guy’s number so that I could invite him to this screening to watch.

Don’t worry—he’ll contact you if he hears about the movie.

Yeah.  And so that was a lot of fun because Chris and I saw this guy at this party, and we’re like, “Oh my God, we’ve got to incorporate this type of character into a movie.”  And sure enough, along came WICKED LAKE and Chris said, “Look, man, I want to write this guy into this movie,” and it’s cool to think we were able to bring that to life.  That was a big turn-on for me because I was able to take this real-life guy and do an approach that we would call “an external.”

Well, I’m really looking forward to both of these now, if for no other reason than to see another side of you as an actor.

And then lastly is HIPPY.  That’s the next thing that I’m prepping for right now.  Which is Chris’s next gig and I am just so excited about this because you know it’s going to be awesome.  It’s about the Summer of Love, just a bunch of hippies, but it’s the darker side of the hippy world, the underbelly of that world.  It’s such an interesting era to explore and you know we’re having a lot of fun with this.  Just the music alone that we’ve been listening to has just been such a blast and I’ve already got my hair growing out long and playing around with different stuff and—

I hope we see you doing some dancing in this movie.  No dancing?  [Marc is a trained dancer.]

I hope so, too.  I’m going to try to get it in there.

Please—otherwise you’ll have to do a full movie musical at some point.  Why not?  You could do it.  I thought that Ray Pye kind of danced his way through THE LOST.  So don’t worry, I’ll go see you even if you’re not in a horror film.  And I suspect a lot of other people will, too.