Horror
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So You Want to Make a Horror Film? On Jump Scares and Other Basics of Fright
If 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, 2013 -
DIY Multiplatform Storytelling: Kal on the Tokyo Sally Film and App
Tokyo 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 -
Five Questions for A Plague So Pleasant Director Benjamin Roberds
Putting a new cinematic spin on the zombie genre is Benjamin Roberds’ microbudget (under $3,000!) indie, A Plague So Pleasant. In the film’s near future, a zombie epidemic has created an undead population that is largely harmless, attacking only when threatened. It’s even a felony to shoot a zombie in the U.S. A Plague So Pleasant‘s drama turns on protagonist Clay Marshall’s desire to do just that — shoot a zombie, the boyfriend of her sister, in order to jolt her back to reality. Also significant about A Plague So Pleasant — the filmmakers are releasing it online and for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2013 -
Developing Original Horror: Jeffrey Grellman on Writing Mermaid Down
Writing in a genre like horror is a balancing act between striking all the traditional chords and finding a new way to engage — and frighten — your audience. There are certain plot points that more or less must be reached, but how that’s done is where the audience gets all its enjoyment and where all the writer’s creativity comes into play. There’s been lots of engagingly original horror films coming out lately — The Conjuring, You’re Next, etc. — but to specifically discuss the writing process I wanted to talk with someone who’s still at the development phase. Jeffrey […]
by Randy Astle on Aug 26, 2013 -
¡Viva La Revolución!
A few months ago I went to the Los Angeles premiere of a horror film, Aftershock, directed by Nicolás Lopéz and produced by Eli Roth. Roth stars as an American who travels to Chile to visit local friends, but what starts as a romantic comedy about a trio of losers trying to get laid shifts dramatically and horrifically when a massive earthquake hits. Roth, in a khaki suit, plaid shirt and blue tie, looked more the producer than director of horror films such as Hostel and the upcoming The Green Inferno. He introduced Lopéz with generous praise. Roth had known […]
by Ben Odell on Jul 18, 2013 -
The Camera as Narrator: V/H/S/2
The new horror anthology film V/H/S/2–once you’ve shaken the blood from your hair–leaves behind some striking images and moments. Oh the lowly horror genre: the place where there is more cinematic risk-taking and experimentation happening than in the likes of “serious” films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master or Terrence Malick’s pulseless To the Wonder. There is, in particular, one short sequence in V/H/S/2 where the experiments with camera narration are revealing not only in terms of the potential uses of narrative point of view but also in terms of how we process visual information. It’s easier to think […]
by Nicholas Rombes on Jun 7, 2013 -
“He’s Kind of Killed All of Them at This Point:” Adam Green on Holliston and Hatchet III
Imagine that you grow up to be a successful filmmaker? Cool, huh? Now imagine that you get to wake up (or continue the previous day’s all-nighter) and go to work with some of your best friends. Even better. Throw in the fact that you are good buddies with the lead singer of one of your favorite bands — who also happens to play your boss on your acclaimed sitcom — intergalactic, Hollywood-star-slaughtering monster/Gwar frontman Oderus Urungus plays your imaginary friend, you have become peers and collaborators with childhood idols and inspirations ranging from Chris Columbus (screenwriter of The Goonies and Gremlins) and […]
by Billy Brennan on Jun 4, 2013 -
Jen and Sylvia Soska on American Mary
Dead Hooker in a Trunk isn’t just a title. It’s also a warning shot, serving notice of the film’s intention to come out swinging and pull no punches. Sure enough, the 2009 debut feature from Canadian writer-directors Jen and Sylvia Soska made good on its promise, boasting beguiling swagger, badass one-liners (“Like dying could kill me”) and more gore than you might reasonably expect from a $2,500 budget. And while Dead Hooker capably illustrated The Twisted Twins’ appetite for exploitation and aptitude for tempering gruesomeness with biting comedy, it offered little hint that their next feature would be as accomplished […]
by Curtis Woloschuk on May 29, 2013 -
“Someone Who’s Arrogant Who’s Being Killed:” Ben Wheatley on Sightseers
Ben Wheatley first gained attention with a nine-second video clip that went viral in the pre-YouTube era. In “Cunning Stunt,” a man successfully jumps over a moving car, celebrates, and is instantly wiped out by an unseen oncoming vehicle. It’s a funny, jolting gag restaged in Wheatley’s 2009 feature debut Down Terrace (a sick-funny look at a homicidal low-tier-criminal family bumping off everyone in their immediate circle). Death by vehicular homicide again makes for the first death in his latest film Sightseers. Chris (Steve Oram) just wants to take his girlfriend Tina (Alice Lowe) on a relaxing rural trip through […]
by Vadim Rizov on May 9, 2013 -
“Twilight’s Fine, But It’s for Children:” Xan Cassavetes on Kiss of the Damned
Could John Cassavetes’ children, all of whom have grabbed his passed torch, be any more different? Son Nick has dabbled in gritty crime fare (Alpha Dog) and mainstream melodrama (The Notebook), daughter Zoe helmed Broken English and has ties to the fashion biz, and now eldest daughter Alexandra — or “Xan,” for short — has carried on the tradition, making her own distinct narrative directorial debut with the vampire romance Kiss of the Damned after previously making the cinephilic doc Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession. Adamantly stylized, worldly, and nostalgic, Kiss of the Damned, which Xan also wrote, joins Neil […]
by R. Kurt Osenlund on May 3, 2013
