“If I had to make [Noah Baumbach’s 1995 pic] Kicking and Screaming today, I’d make it for $50,000, not $1 million,” said producer Jason Blum (The Purge, Insidious, Whiplash) at his SXSW keynote address on Sunday. In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times’ John Horn, Blum blended his own producer origin story with practical advice for filmmakers seeking to emulate his rise to top of Hollywood’s low-budget horror hierarchy. “Don’t wait for the industry to go forward,” he told the crowd, explaining that his own career was accelerated when he learned from a past error: passing on The Blair […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2014Want horror-movie makeup tips from an Oscar-winning legend? Here, Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome, Men in Black) offers DIY tips while demonstrating how to make “Miss Shock,” a gruesome character created by Bob Burns in 1959 for a live event with The Tingler director William Castle. In this fast-paced 15-minute clip, Baker starts off by making a mold of his daughter’s face and then moves on to the artistic detail work he’s revered for. (Hat tip: Mutiny Co.)
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 23, 2014The following essay appears in the new horror-film anthology, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks. Click here for an interview with the book’s editor, Dr. AC as well as for links to four other essays published at Filmmaker. “It’s all so horrible, isn’t it? The nightmare of childhood. And it only gets worse.” The prairie is a paradox: a place of bounty and scarcity, virility and decay, the sublime and the surreal. You can see this in the juxtaposition of lush landscape paintings depicting thick wheat fields, warm sunsets and quaint farmhouses, with black-and-white photos […]
by Dave Alexander on Jan 16, 2014The following essay appears in the new horror-film anthology, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks. Click here for an interview with the book’s editor, Dr. AC as well as for links to four other essays published at Filmmaker. “Laughter burns a cripple like acid.” Having kids is hell for your hobbies. After adopting my son, Nicholas, I returned home to discover my father-in-law had boxed up all my DVDs and stored them in the garage to make room for a crib, mobiles, and large, brightly-colored pieces of plastic that light up and buzz. It was […]
by David Lee White on Jan 15, 2014The following essay appears in the new horror-film anthology, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks. Click here for an interview with the book’s editor, Dr. AC as well as for links to four other essays published at Filmmaker. “I suspect that the less you know about me, the longer you’ll stay interested.” Habit: [hab-it] noun, 1) an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary; 2) a dominant or regular disposition or tendency; prevailing character or quality; 3) addiction, especially to alcohol or narcotics The vampire of legend is eternal, and its […]
by Aaron Christensen on Jan 14, 2014The following essay appears in the new horror-film anthology, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks. Click here for an interview with the book’s editor, Dr. AC as well as for links to four other essays published at Filmmaker. “Do you have the crazy?” Expectations, when great, are seldom met and tend to leave an impression of disappointment. I often find the opposite to also be true; the fewer expectations, the more gratifying when something turns out to be a jewel amidst detritus. With this in mind, it fills me with quiet dread that by cresting […]
by Aaron Gillot on Jan 12, 2014“An epic pot-luck movie party where everyone has brought a favorite dish and wants you to give it a try” is how Dr. AC (Aaron Christensen) describes his latest horror-movie anthology, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks. And, indeed, anyone looking to scratch past the Rosemary’s Baby‘s and Paranormal Activity‘s to uncover more idiosyncratic, personal and sometimes more terrifying work will find their needs met by the book, which couples great film recommendations with astute commentary by passionate critics. Included are essays on a number of my personal favorites — The Changeling, Dark Water and […]
by Dr. A.C. on Jan 12, 2014As the producer of films like The Ring and Mulholland Drive, Neal Edelstein is no stranger to horror films and thrillers. And with his new project, Haunting Melissa, he’s moved beyond traditional pictures with his first immersive production for iPad and iPhone. Available for free in the App Store, Haunting Melissa centers around the search for a girl who vanished from the farmhouse where her mother had earlier gone insane, but this story is told in a succession of videos released to the viewer in seemingly random bursts. The temporal extension – and unexpected timing – of the narrative through these push notifications […]
by Randy Astle on Oct 30, 2013If you’re looking to make a horror film simply because you think it might be an easy road to notoriety, you’d be dead wrong. This is a dish that’s best served cold by filmmakers who are fans — those who have long loved being chilled to the bone — so it should be in your blood. If you’re a filmmaker who’s new to horror, immerse yourself in the classics and study their techniques before you set out to try to create a monster of your own. The potential pitfalls you face when making a horror film are what’s really frightening. […]
by A.D. Calvo on Oct 28, 2013Tokyo Sally is the second narrative feature by director-cinematographer-editor Kal, after his 2010 debut Superhero in the Rain. He’s also a prolific producer of music videos, documentaries, and spots for companies like the Food Network. The Tokyo Sally project, which features Anna Adams, consists of one 60-minute film and a related app, Tokyo Sally: Lost Highway, both of which are nearing completion. Kal envisions the film as the first in a series of ten pictures that will explore different aspects of horror and suspense films; each will be self-contained but, when seen together, will relate to a larger story. The film […]
by Randy Astle on Oct 7, 2013