Born in Santa Monica, California, on December 4, 1951, Mick Garris grew
up with his mother in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Van Nuys
from age 12, following his parents' divorce. Garris was making his own
8mm home movies around that time, and when he got older be became a
freelance critic for a number of film and music celebrities. He wrote
publications for various bands and movies for newspapers and magazines
like "The San Diego Door", "The Los Angewles Herald-Examiner",
"Cinefantastique" and "Starlog" through the 1970s.
For eight years he was the lead singer in a band called The
Horsefeathers Quintet, which disbanded in 1976. In 1977 Garris was
hired as a receptionist in
George Lucas' newly formed company
Star Wars Corporation where, through industry contacts, he created and
served as the on-screen host for a Los Angeles cable access interview
program show called "Fastasy Film Festival," which aired on
L.A.'s legendary Z-Channel. Guests included filmmakers like
John Landis,
Joe Dante,
John Carpenter and
Steven Spielberg and actors like
William Shatner and
Christopher Lee.
In 1980 Garris worked as a press agent for the newly merged
Pickwick-Maslansky-Koeninsberg agency. He also began making a name for
himself with photographing and directing "making-of..." features for
such films as Scanners - Ihre Gedanken können töten (1981),
Das Tier (1981),
Halloween 2 - Das Grauen kehrt zurück (1981),
Das Ding aus einer anderen Welt (1982) and
Videodrome (1983). In 1982 Garris was
hired by MCA/Universal to write the script for
Coming Soon (1982), which was
a collection of horror movie trailers featuring
Jamie Lee Curtis as the hostess and
directed by John Landis. While
struggling to find more work, Garris was hired by
Steven Spielberg to be one of the
writers and story editors for Spielberg's sci-fi anthology series
Unglaubliche Geschichten (1985).
Garris worked as as an editor again for Spielberg in the sci-fi fantasy
Das Wunder in der 8. Straße (1987).
He also wrote screenplays for more horror anthology TV shows, from
Freddy's Nightmares: A Nightmare on Elm Street - Die Serie (1988)
to a stint on the HBO cable series
Geschichten aus der Gruft (1989),
as well as co-writer on the screenplays for
Die Fliege 2 (1989) and the 'Stephen
Sommers' remake Die Mumie (1999).
Garris wrote and directed
Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)
as a prequel to the
Anthony Perkins "Psycho" films,
featuring Perkins in his fourth (and last) appearance as Norman Bates.
Co-starring with Perkins was
Henry Thomas (from
E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982)
fame), whom Garris hired to play young Norman. That same year Garris
was approached by MCA/Universal to create a syndicated TV series about
werewolves which was to be based on the hit
John Landis film
American Werewolf (1981).
The resulting series,
She-Wolf of London (1990),
ran for two seasons.
In 1992 Garris directed an original screenplay by
Stephen King,
Schlafwandler (1992). The following
year Garris received story and screenplay credit for the comic horror
film Hocus Pocus (1993), and the year
after that he took the reins at the request of Stephen King for the
six-hour mini-series
The Stand: Das letzte Gefecht (1994) based on King's
best-selling horror novel. The mini-series, which had a grueling
20-month shooting schedule, was one of the most-watched shows of 1994.
Garris and King again teamed up for a three-part made-for-TV rewriting
of King's novel,
The Shining (1997). Later that
year Garris oversaw the directing for
Stephen Kings Quicksilver Highway (1997),
based on a pair of horror stories by King and
Clive Barker. Garris directed
Höst (1998) (later changed to "Virtual
Obsession"), based on a novel by
Peter James, with a screenplay
written by P.G. Sturges,
about a computer genius stalked by a female colleague bent on
digitizing her consciousness. Taking a break from horror films, Garris
directed The Judge (2001), an
adaption of the mystery novel by
Steve Martini. Garris and Stephen
King reunited for
Riding the Bullet (2004),
directed by Garris and written by King, based on an internet short
short about a hitchhiker being picked up by a soul-searching angel of
death driving a 1959 Plymouth. They also collaborated on
Stephen Kings Desperation (2006), based
on King's 1997 horror novel.
In 2005 Garris was able to assemble a group of his fellow horror film
directors in the anthology horror series
Masters of Horror (2005),
which he created and executive-produced. Garris' own contribution,
"Chocolate", was based on his own short story, written 20 years
earlier.
