SXSW Panel: Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts

Besides screening killer films, SXSW has a plethora of entertaining panels for film lovers to enjoy. Once such panel that I had the pleasure of attending was Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts that was supposed to include genre directors; Eli Roth (Cabin Fever/Hostel), Ti West (Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever/House of the Devil), Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof/Inglourious Basterds), Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), and Matt Reeves (Cloverfield/Let Me In). The line to get into this event was exceedingly long, so it wasn’t surprising that many of the people populating the line got pretty irritated when it was announced that both Tarantino and Roth had to cancel and wouldn’t be attending the panel. However, the irritation faded away pretty quickly when the audience found out that Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers/The Descent) and Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror/The Faculty) were thrown in as replacements.

The panel was moderated by Cinematical’s Scott Weinberg and the topics/questions posed by both Scott and the audience made for an entertaining hour and a half. The first topic brought to the table was dealing with the ratings board (MPAA). What was surprising about this topic was the fact that none of the directors had horror stories to tell. They elaborated on their experiences and talked about some of the tricks they used. For instance Neil Marshall confessed that he had never been cut by the MPAA, but that he does tend to censor himself. Robert Rodriguez advised that “giving them something right up front that they can get shocked about” sometimes worked to dull their senses for the rest of the movie.  Ti West said that like Marshall, he had never been censored either and said of the ratings board that he sometimes wanted to hate them, but didn’t. Matt Reeves conceded that the MPAA gave his creature feature, Cloverfield a R rating because of “Monster Intensity.” My favorite though, came from Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer who said that in order to make sure his film received a hard R rating he “put in more f**ks,” and that seventeen year old kids that get to goto an R movies are excited because they hear one more f**k. Also, apparently desaturating the blood for the ratings board screeners is common practice.

Another interesting topic of discussion was the use of nudity in horror films, and once again, while there is some nudity in the films of these directors it was extremely evident that it wasn’t something that any of them thought was a necessary ingredient for a successful horror film. Marshall stated that he made a point to not put nudity in his film The Descent.

Of course there can’t be a discussion on horror films without bringing up the dreaded remake, or the advent of 3D into the genre market.  Matt Reeves’ film Let Me In, a remake of the film Let the Right One In seems like it could be one of the few remakes that resonates within the horror community. He is obviously passionate about the material, and was able to relate to the characters on a personal level. He also stepped up and voiced his opinion to the studio when they suggested that he make the children older, insisting that it would hurt the entire film. Then Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer talked about his plan to make Zombieland 2 in 3D.

Overall the panel participants were enthusiastic about the current state of the genre. They were excited to be at SXSW and their love of cinema was evident.