Interview: Ti West
Coming to theaters this weekend is Ti West’s House of the Devil, and that film is getting a heap of praise. West has interestingly taken a step away from feature films to partner with IFC, to create a new web series he directed and wrote.
Ti West takes a few minutes of his time to chat with Killer Film about his web series, House of the Devil, and his controversial Cabin Fever 2. Enjoy!
Melissa Molina: Right before we get to Dead and Lonely, I wanted to chat just for a quick minute on The House of the Devil. So, the look and the feel of the film is very European, why do you think that seventies exploitation flicks get copied a lot, but this European style rarely gets referenced in most modern film making?
Ti West: Do you mean European in the sense that it has the time and the look of a more serious movie?
Melissa: That and the style…
Ti West: Well, I think part of it is just my own personal taste. I think like mainstream horror nowadays has become the lowest common denominator. So, mostly what your seeing is just like people getting killed, and that doesn’t particularly interest me. I mean all that stuff that are in the horror movies now and is pretty much all about how are they dying, how can we cut this guys’ head off? That just never really factors into my brain when I’m making movies. I like movies that take themselves seriously. When I made The House of the Devil its just about the character, this sort of situation, about the style of the movie and it’s really just about the contrast. We have kind of like this psychedelic ending to the movie with this really strong contrast and a really just mundane realism of the first half of the film. That’s something that I find very important that I take. Contrast is what helps makes the art of horror effective. I’m a firm believer, in that particular case I want to see like the brutal realism of just kind of the mundane of it before getting hit with all of this sort of action and horror stuff.
Melissa: With the drama on Cabin Fever 2, was Dead and Lonely an escape to do something personal without too much interference?
Ti West: One of the things with The House of the Devil was the end, as so was Dead and Lonely. Dead and Lonely would be the extreme of go off and do something. IFC was really great and supportive. The House of the Devil was after Cabin Fever 2 and that was very much a movie that, when Cabin Fever 2 went south, I went off to make that. It was a movie that I had written and directed and I worked with some of the people that I always worked with. So that was a return to form and returned to people who trust me a little bit more. I don’t think I was totally returning back to my roots necessarily, but at the same time its nice to be back with familiar people.
Melissa: What inspired you to create Dead and Lonely? Is it the whole myth of the vampire or is there something more to it?
Ti West: Not particularly. I really wanted to make it short and episodic, and I like the idea of web series. That this is a new form that I wanted to get involved with. To me, what is interesting as far as the vampire angle was I like that how it was 2009 ,and you use a computer and your forced to kind of assimilate and adapt. Being a vampire you wouldn’t have many friends and wouldn’t be able to be dating anyone. It’s just the weird loneliness that would come with that, and I just felt it would be kind of amusing and sort of ironic. So the really big interest to me was that I like the idea of it being 2009, dealing with modern technological issues and communications and the same stuff that everyone else is doing. It kind of takes the myth, taking the wind out from underneath the sails and makes them look like regular people except they’re vampires. They really have no better situation than the rest of us.
Melissa: Have you had any personal experience, not supernatural related, where this has happened to you?
Ti West: Do you mean like goofy dating situations?
Melissa: Well, yeah.
Ti West: Yeah, probably, I’m trying to think of if I have a good story, I don’t know if I do. I’ve certainly had my share of bad dates as much as anyone else. Nothing quite to the extent of the web series.
Melissa: How much involvement did IFC have in the process of making this?
Ti West: A lot! They were very supportive, the way that they should be. They were really excited about the project, excited about all of the people that were going to be working on it, the idea and just were very supportive. They had a couple of notes but nothing that I would be up in arms about. They were great at making the viral website and keeping me in the loop with designing the actual website. It really it was a fantastic collaboration and they let me do my own thing. They said “These are things we need to have” and it was really satisfying. I think that IFC is one of the best companies I’ve worked with and Magnolia (Pictures) with The House of the Devil is by far the best distributor I’ve ever worked with. I feel, in contrast to how I was two years ago, I feel good.
Melissa: How long did it take for you to shoot this and, because I’m a budding filmmaker myself, what kind of camera did you use?
Ti West: It was a pretty relatively easy shoot, there was only about four of us. We shot on the HVX200 P2 Card camera. We wanted to keep it a positive experience since there was only four of us, so we shot it about a week over the course of the summer. We shot in June and I delivered everything by September.
Melissa: Are you going to be making anymore of these web episodes like Dead and Lonely?
Ti West: I hope so, I have some other ideas and I wanted to do something episodic that had cliffhangers and it was sort of a new experience for me. Coming out and being done with it now, I enjoyed it. I wanted to have that kind of moody, soundtrack vibe and that kind of Risky Business vibe. I think I accomplished that to where I feel very comfortable. I have some other ideas that are different so if IFC wants to do another one I’d be glad to.
Melissa: Is there any other upcoming projects that we can expect from you?
Ti West: Yes, there are though there are a couple of scripts that are seemingly happening. When it comes to being a filmmaker, you have to understand that at any time they could fall apart, so I’m very cautious in doing something and then a week later it just didn’t work. I think that once I finish shooting something, though now it’s more like once I finish making the whole thing, but before I finish doing that I don’t think that it’s real. So there’s definitely rumors, the things on the Internet are not relatively accurate but I sort of keep my lips sealed for now.
Either way, we believe horror fans will be following what Ti West does next. House of the Devil is in a limited run theatrically, Dead and Lonely is premiering soon October 26th on IFC, and look for Cabin Fever 2 early 2010 from Lionsgate. Feel free to leave any comments below!
