I met Zach Galligan recently and asked him about this.

Last Friday (12th Feb) Zach Galligan appeared here in Derby in the UK to introduce a premiere screening of his new film CUT, with that film's debut director and other (largely newcomer) cast members.

Before the screening, the audience was invited to ask the cast and crew any questions about CUT or indeed any films from Zach's past.


Needless to say, there were plenty of questions about GREMLINS but I took the opportuity to ask Zach what his strongest recollections were of making SURVIVING.

His answer was almost word-for-word as follows:






"Wow.....you've pulled that one out of nowhere! Just to inform the audience - SURVIVING was a film I did back in 1984 and starred Ellen Burstyn, Len Cariou, Molly Ringwald, Paul Sorvino, Marsha Mason, River Phoenix and tackled the subject of teen-suicide.
My strongest recollections would be two things:

Firstly, Ellen Burstyn. Before we started shooting we did open table readings from the script and I remember us all being quite intimidated by how good she was. We were all thinking - God, if she's this good just reading at the table, how good is she gonna be when we actually start shooting?
Ultimately, I left the film believing then - as I still do now - that she's one of the greatest actresses in the world.

The second thing I remember is the location we were shooting in. It was a place called Lake Hefner Dam in Oklahoma City and it was miles from anywhere. It doesn't look it in the movie but trust me, the place was so cut off from everywhere and I think the sense of isolation from that added to the despair in the story.
It was a great experience that I'll always remember - and thank you for asking."








It was a privilege to gain this unique insight from Zach and I just thought others who like the film as much as I, might value what it's young star had to say about it all these years later.



And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.