Here’s the plot: “Alpha Gamma Theta are hosting a party for new pledges for the upcoming year. As the new pledges arrive, so does an uninvited guest. Little do the sisters know someone is watching them in the shadows. As the girls shower, study, eat and sleep the stalker studies the girls. One by one he finds the girls at their most vulnerable and murders them. The police hunt for the missing girls and their killer, but will they find them in time? Or will the girls be forced to fight for their lives.”

Justin Russell directs. More to come, we know, and until then, here’s the trailer:

Source: Dread Central

After over one hundred years of service, The Yankee Pedlar Inn is shutting its doors for good. The last remaining employees – Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) – are determined to uncover proof of what many believe to be one of New England’s most haunted hotels. As the Inn’s final days draw near, odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage “ghost hunters” begin to experience strange and alarming events that may ultimately cause them to be mere footnotes in the hotel’s long unexplained history.

Source: Dread Central

The film is a horror-thriller centered on the last two employees at a haunted hotel that’s going out of business.

Source: Aintitcool

Sounds cool, and if these posters are indication, maybe we will have this year’s House of the Devil?

Find out more on their Facebook page here.

The Film:

In the wonderful essay booklet Criterion blesses to each of their releases, Chuck Stephens’ term to describe of what House (Hausu) is - ”le cinema du WTF?” – is perfect. It’s a crazed 88 minutes. A kaleidoscope of images, music, dreams, insanity, wrapped up in a sitcom structured narrative, with a horror movie quotant of ghosts and gore. As such, my review really doesn’t matter because House is a pure reactionary piece of entertainment, a true experimental film, that much like LCD, everyone will react differently.

The film’s director Nobuhiko Obayashi was a commerical director that earned respect through his pop art experimental short films, and with cinema dying in Japan in the mid-1960s, their box office needed a shot in the arm, so Toho Studios hired Obayashi to deliver a hit. What he delivered was, well, quite indescribable; a marriage of comedy, gore, art, with the utensils of the medium at the time. To say House is unique is an understatement, as Obayashi crams every idea, every film-making technique in editing and FX into its 88 minutes that the film blurs itself into a must watch, even if you’re having a “bad trip”. It’s kind of hard to fully appreciate at first, a film that requires an instant repeat viewing, yet you’re asking, well, what’s it about?

Ask a 100 different people and you’ll get a 100 different responses, and heck, even Criterion has a hard time telling you what House is about on the back cover. While it’s an experiemental art horror film, the film collects ideas from different popular genres at the time, including kung fu martial art films, pinku eiga (pink cinema), kaidan (ghost), and commercials, as it tells a story of a girl and her friends visiting her rarely seen aunt. Is the film a fantasy? It is a child’s tale of horror? A Pop Art critique of genre film-making? Who knows, but Obayashi’s film cannot be summed up so simply.

It’s a film that desperately needs repeated viewings, as I have mentioned a few times already, since Obayashi crams so much visually into the film, it’s sensory overload the first time seeing House. The editing features every technique known, mixing The Evil Dead/Sam Raimi fast zoom-style camera work with kitsch set designs and collage animation, scored by pop songs from America, and phew! – that’s just an eighth of what the hell this film is. Because it is, first and foremost, an true art film, which most casual horror fans will be instantly bored, but it’s a unique, wild, crazy, manic, rainbow-colored film that features a flying head biting a girl in the butt. It’s unimaginably indescribable. House is one of a kind, for better or for worse. See it to believe it.

Oh, and this was to be Japan’s answer to the American summer blockbuster, Jaws. “Wtf?“, indeed.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Criterion ushers in House‘s first ever Region 1 release with their typically solid work. The transfer is in 1.33:1, with the black side letterboxing, that preserves Obayashi’sintent. The film looks a little soft throughout, but I credit that to the film stock, because the overall color scheme is nearly eye-poping. The print is damage free, which allows for strong clarity and some depth.

The original Japanese monaural soundtrack sounds as good as one would expect. Obviously, the sound field is limited, but it’s clear and noise-free. No bass or the music overlapping the dialogue.

Emotions: This is an early 1966 experiment short from the director about a young girl who falls in love with a vampire. It’s 39 minutes long, in fullframe HD, and is equally as weird as House. It’s an interesting yet tough watch.

Constructing a House: Criterion offers up an HD 45-minute making-of feature that includes interviews from all involved that covers from Obayashi’s art background to all aspects of the production of House. Fascinating. The inclusion of rare on-set photos and the marketing campaign are some highlights.

Video Appreciation by Ti West: The director of House of the Devil offers up an interesting perspective of the film in HD, for about 4 minutes.

A kooky Trailer and the always awesome Essay Booklet round out the extras.

Conclusion: It’s an acid trip of a film, that  is borderline weird and awesome to boring and confusing, yet you can’t look away. Criterion’s Blu-ray is stellar, as usual.

The Film: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The extras, you want? Here!

• “Constructing a HOUSE” documentary featuring interviews with Obayashi, his daughter Chigumi (who came up with the film’s story as a preteen!) and screenwriter Chiho Katsura

• Obayashi’s 1966 experimental film Emotion

• New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)

• Theatrical trailer

• Essay by Chuck Stephens

All of that, plus the film in a restored hi-def digital transfer at 1.33:1, in monaural (uncompressed on the Blu-ray) Japanese with newly translated English subtitles.

The film starts off with siblings Brad and Lisa Carpenter (played by Ryan Barrett and Jennifer De Lucia) and both of their good friends Vanessa and Will (played by Breannete Boekhorst and Daniel Zuccala) as they embark on a road trip across Canada to get to an annual family reunion. The fun road trip quickly takes a turn for the worse when the group decides to find a place in the woods to camp out for the night and they soon realize that they are not alone. When six masked assailants crash their camp site, the group endures torture and sadistic psychological games deep in the woods where nobody can hear a tree fall, let alone their blood-curdling screams.

Like last year’s surprise sleeper hit, House of the Devil, Carrer’s intention is to make a bonafide throwback to the late seventies grindhouse era and he proves this by providing many freeze-framing shots, a vintage title sequence and a gritty look distinctively different from the aesthetics of a mainstream film that will make the easily nostalgic grin from ear to ear.

Despite its seemingly redundant premise, If a Tree Falls manages to set itself apart from most films of this genre by boldly breaking the rules and avoiding use of gratuitous shots of gore-laden carnage and ample nudity. Although many fans would expect needless gore and nudity to be prerequisites in an ultra-low budget indie like this, it is the film’s slow-burning pace that skilfully compensates for the film’s lack of special effects, nipples and grue.

What also makes If a Tree Falls unlike most low-budget slashers is its ability to blend in stark realism with grindhouse terror. There are no token slut or jock characters or virgins with superhuman strength. The killers are not disfigured hill billy rapist cannibals or psychos equipped with five minute long monologues explaining their “motives” and the horror doesn’t stop when the sun rises.  The filmmakers’ decision to steer clear of themes dealing with exploitative misogyny and racism also put a smile on this reviewer’s face, as it made it that much harder to determine who would survive or simply last the longest.

As far as the acting goes in the film, it was far better than one would expect to see in a low-budget slasher.  Despite the fact that the lack of playful banter between the leads in the film’s first half makes it difficult to fall in love with any one of the protagonists, it was in the unsettling second half where the actors got to stand out. However, it’s Breannete Boekhorst that manages to steal the show as one of the terrified victims with her believably vulnerable performance.

Even though If a Tree Falls struggles at times to rise above its low-budget origins, it is evocative of the genre it successfully emulates for the film is able to exemplify many of the Grindhouse genre’s strengths and weaknesses.  If you’re a fan of weathered rural slashers of the late seventies, be sure to catch this taut and savage thriller when it hits the festival circuit later this summer.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The horror-thriller film centers on the last two employees at a haunted hotel that’s going out of business. With a cast that includes Sara Paxton and Pat Healey, the film is set for release sometime in 2011. Check out the new images below.:

“We got to the point where we were making different movies, and it was like I don’t want to risk us realizing that so late in the game. It’s also important for me to write and direct my own movies and edit them, so with this MPI-Glass Eye Pix thing, I can do that. The Innkeepers can be my own movie, and [to do that] as long as I can do that is important.”

Can’t blame the guy for wanting the things he wants. Plus, maybe he learned his lesson from the drama on the set of Cabin Fever 2? Hey, at least he wants to attempt original ideas. We really enjoyed his House of the Devil.

“I realize how personal the movies are to me through all of that. I don’t know – the Cabin Fever thing, I’m not emotionally connected to it anymore, but it was super hard when it happened. That fact that the silver lining was to get an Alan Smithee credit was terrible, and I’m not proud of how that worked out. I don’t dislike the people. I don’t know – I thought it could have been a really good movie, and I realized it couldn’t any more, and what are you supposed to do?”

Source: FearNet

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.

The Film:

House of the Devil is a horror film by promising director Ti West (director of the  Cabin Fever sequel) and it ventures back into the time when grindhouse films were in their prime instead of merely being used as beguiling homages in Quentin Tarantino films as they are today.

The film starts off in 1983 with likable and down on her luck college student Samantha, (played by Jocelin Donahue) who is on her search for the perfect apartment so she could escape her roommate from hell that sleeps all day and beds men all night in their repugnant dorm room. When a friendly landlord (Dee Wallace) takes pity on Samantha and offers her residency in the perfect apartment, Samantha thinks her luck has changed—until she remembers she’s dead broke.

Having only until the end of the weekend to hand in her first month’s rent, Samantha calls an ad for a babysitting job for the peculiar Ulman family. (Played by notable character actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) Although being wary of the details and being offered far too much money for the night, Samantha’s despondency takes over her suspicions and despite her best friend’s wishes, she takes the job and eventually discovers that she has entered the House of the Devil.

As soon as the title House of the Devil appeared on the screen in Giallo yellow during the film’s freeze framing and hair breezing sequence, it is clear that West’s intention is to make a true throwback to the early eighties Grindhouse era. However, he avoids the use of social subjugation of women and he also steers clear of glamorizing the style of the eighties which is something unheard of yet refreshing to see. Aesthetically speaking, House of the Devil’s look and feel has a certain panache missing in so many other genre films that many horror fans will embrace this film just for its noble intentions despite its substandard execution.

Unfortunately, this slow burn of a thriller proves to be too slow and with just a simple change of the film’s title, all could have been forgiven. The film takes its time to create unnerving tension (without overabundant boo scares) in the viewer while also killing screen time by having classic eighties rock tunes serenading the easily nostalgic, but after an hour has passed, the only thing viewers know about Samantha is that she is nosy and into ‘The Fixx.’

Aside from one shocking scene in the middle of the film, the horror remains dormant until the last twenty minutes when the Ulman family reveal their so-called “latent” intentions. The finale evokes the same thoughts and emotions viewers would have if they ever do show Thomas Jane’s package in Hung—‘That’s it? That’s all we get?’

The title makes it clear what Samantha will get herself into from the get-go and even though the film looks exceptional and provides a prevalent and yet eerie sense of dramatic irony to the mix, it also misleads viewers into thinking the tale is more about the suspenseful escape rather than the horrific journey of discovery.

House of the Devil is not a horror classic by any means, yet despite its shortcomings, it is able to take viewers back to a time when horror reigned at the video store and the love for the genre was stronger than ever. It definitely won’t make any top ten lists for the year, but it is definitely worthy of hard earned honorable mention.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: Dark Sky Films unleashes a perfect transfer for this film, but understand that Ti West wanted the film to have a grainy washed out look in homage to the VHS-horror days of yesteryear. So don’t expect vivid colors or superb clarity. This is the aesthetic West wanted and it looks great, if you understand what his intentions were. I suppose the DVD is the proper format for this, as I expect the Blu-ray to be good, but perhaps too good for the film.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track isn’t a track from the ’80s, as it’s bold and powerful, yet the ambient music creeps into your speakers. A superb track. Maybe the nostalgia in me would have loved a mono track? Either way, Dark Sky gives us a great disc.

Commentaries: Two tracks, both featuring Ti West, are both worth listening and for both different reasons. The first with Donahue and West is the more informative track, filled with plenty of good information on the film and the filming. The second features West, but with a slew of actors and crew, making it a fun, light, and often funny listening experience. Fans should dig both.

In the House of the Devil: This runs 16 minutes, and is your making of featuring raw on-set footage, interviews, but there’s no direction, making it a ho-hum watch.

Behind the House of the Devil: A 5 minute look at the film with cast and crew interviews. Short, sweet, and more streamlined than the feature before it.

Deleted Scenes running a few minutes are skip able and a Trailer rounds out the extras. For those who ordered the DVD on Dark Sky Films and Amazon’s site, a cool promotional item in the form of putting House of the Devil on VHS! Super cool, and adds to the flavor of what West was doing with the film.

Conclusion: An interesting horror film, with a decent DVD release from Dark Sky. See it.

The Film: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The DVD: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Dating back as far the early silent era of cinema, Hollywood has had a fascination with the thrills and chills of devil worshiping madmen. Haxan: (or Witchcraft Through the Ages) is one of the more notorious first examples of filmmakers use of these ideas, and while director Benjamin Christensen was exploring on how superstition and misunderstanding can lead to hysteria that birthed the witch hunts, in 1922, scenes of a Black Mass with violence, nudity, sexual perversion, and graphic scenes of babies dying, was too much for the Roaring Twenties, and the film soon disappeared.

Criterion has since released the film on DVD back to its original intent, after various censors throughout the years began cutting certain scenes for censorship, but the notion of devil worship to be used as a story device scare audience was evident. Most recently, in 2009′s Sherlock Holmes, Mark Strong’s character of Lord Blackwood is firmly a typical Hollywood devil worshiper cliche. The use of black magic, occult setting, and his black robe, are all the stereotypes we’ve seen in film. “Hollywood is portraying devil worshipers in their horror films, not Satanists,” says Magus Peter H. Gilmore, a High Priest in the Church of Satan.

II

“Satanism is based on atheism, has no belief in the supernatural and does not contain any element of sacrifice in its ritual or other practices. Since Satan is seen by Christians and people who have been influenced by Christian culture as the ultimate Evil, then depicting people who worship and have an alliance with this greatest “super villain” makes great entertainment for the masses,” continued Gilmore. Films such as The Black Cat (1934), Night of the Demon (1957), I Drink Your Blood (1971), and others has used these ideas for pure thrills and exploitation, in order to scare an audience. “In order to use a religion to generate fear, people outside of it have to think that this religion has bad plans for them, so the idea that devil worshipers want to ‘get’ you is an easy way to create scare factors in a screenplay,” explains High Priest Peter Gilmore on Hollywood use of their so-called Satanism.

“For us seeing the range of use of both our symbols and the Satan archetype,” explains High Priest Peter Gilmore, “we are often amused at how so many people involved in film production have decided to rely on cliché rather than doing some research regarding the truth of contemporary Satanism.” While there are a few forms of Satanism, as a religion it didn’t form until Anton LaVey formed the Church of Satan in 1966. Sometimes referred to as LaVeyan Satanism, the religion has a codified system with the release of “The Satanic Bible” in 1969. This form of Satanism is based on atheism, and has no belief in the supernatural and does not contain any element of sacrifice in its ritual or other practices. But these ideas don’t sell tickets to the latest horror film.

III

Films like the Omen series, Beyond the Door (1977), Satan’s School for Girls (1973), Born of Fire (1983), and others often portray a connection almost religiously to Satan. “Our rituals are psychodramas meant as self-therapy, not acts of worship. We consider that films which depict people worshiping Satan show people who are just as deluded as those who worship Jesus, Allah, Jehovah, Zeus, Thor, or any other deity as they all are man made myths. Sometimes these films can be entertaining, and at times they even verge on a Satanic perspective,” explains High Priest Peter Gilmore. “With Al Pacino’s portrayal of Satan in The Devil’s Advocate (1997) there was a Satan who acted like a Satanist for the most part. He gave his son some appropriately infernal advice along the way to educating him about the ways of the world. And having Satan as an almost all-powerful attorney heading a major legal firm was a fine updating on ancient myths. Viewers of the film should note that Satan gives those who deserve it the choice to make their own decisions and face the consequences, and free will and self-responsibility are major values of Satanic philosophy.”

“Every once in a while there’s a devil on screen like Darkness in Legend (1985),” champions High Priest Peter Gilmore, “who really is impressive and who does spout some bit of Satanism – that figure accurately said that ‘We are all animals’.”

“There are just too many cheap, dopey movies with shabby devil worshipers performing criminal acts and in general they stink as films,” laughs High Priest Peter Gilmore, “regardless of their depiction of what they erroneously call Satanism. It is more fun to look at movies that employ devil worship but which include some aspects of genuine Satanism.” In 1981′s Evilspeak starring the creepy Clint Howard, as the nerdy loser Coopersmith, who is brutalized by fellow students at a military academy. He retreats into the only thing he knows well, which is computers, and summons up the spirit of a defunct devil-worshiping priest to help him get revenge against the boys who wrongly terrorizing him. The notion of seeking revenge for wrong doings against you, is a thoroughly Satanic idea, and the scenes were the bullies kill Coopersmith’s dog, is a tragic scene, for which Satanists regard animals in higher regard than humans. Sorry horror film fans, sacrificing animals is a pure Hollywood fabrication and misconception of Satanism.

High Priest Peter Gilmore explains on what films get Satanism right: “In Blanche Barton’s book “The Church of Satan,” there are lists of films and books which contain aspects of Satanic philosophy as a field guide for viewing. On that list you’ll find such seemingly disparate films as Inherit the Wind (1960) showing a defense of atheism against Christian dominance and Roman Scandals (1933), an Eddie Cantor comedy about social foibles set in ancient Rome. You’ll also find Blade Runner (1982) which superbly examines what it means to be a human animal, whether one is born or made, Citizen Kane (1941) which shows how a man who lives for others cannot achieve happiness despite great wealth, and Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) which has a stunning depiction of the Russian devil Chernabog for Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain symphonic poem – itself a Satanic classic. That book is undergoing revision and when re-released will include an expanded film list.”

IV

Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, has had an interesting relationship with film. The 1975 film, The Devil’s Rain, used LaVey as a technical advisory for the film’s production, even giving him a cameo role. The film follows a B-movie plot of selling souls in jars to Satan Himself, but LaVey let the filmmakers texts from the liturgy of the Church of Satan, as well as coaching the Mexican extras on how to chant certain hymns correctly. But his biggest association to film, was when he was quoted on saying Rosemary’s Baby (1968) was “the best paid commercial for Satanism since the Inquisition.” High Priest Peter Gilmore explains the quote:

“Rosemary’s Baby as both a novel and film got people to think about Satanism existing in the current world, rather than it being some weird part of the past. Even though real Satanists are not trying to summon up the Prince of Darkness to impregnate women – willing or not – that this film and book showed Satanists as a wide range of human types, from eccentrics to wealthy businessmen and even the folks next door, was revolutionary for the time and has not been equaled or surpassed since.” Even though the framework is essentially devil worship, there are certain Satanic aspects in the film, as well as some of the others in this article.

V

“The usual parade of daffy devil worship is something that we ignore for the most part, whether it be spewed by anti-Christian metal bands or ends up in comics or films,” says High Priest Peter Gilmore. “It would take some bravery for a film maker to depict Satanism as it really is, showing the life-loving Satanist as a self-realized egoist who would be looked to for support by other characters in the film, while the bad guy could easily be a fanatical member of a Christian or Muslim sect, bombing abortion clinics, molesting children, or committing any of the numerous crimes against civilization that have been documented as really being perpetrated by these “godly” folks. The spiritual religions are ones that people should be afraid of since criminal acts by their adherents consistent with their beliefs are well-documented.”

“In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) we see Gene Wilder as a very devilish figure who dispenses justice – another one of our principles. The kids and parents in that film get precisely what they deserve. It concludes with an essential Satanic concept: ‘Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted – he lived happily ever after’. That encapsulates our perspective of guilt-free existence. Idiocracy (2006) used mockery, another Satanic trait, to show what our society could become and what already is happening – so funny, but so true. Our misanthropic view of the human species is reflected quite well in that movie.

VI

As seen in this past Sherlock Holmes Satanism in film isn’t gone, as Ti West’s House of the Devil hits Blu-ray and DVD soon, and whatever misinterpretation of the religion filmmakers will use next, horror isn’t the champion one would initially think of the religion. “We look to more essentially diabolical recent films such as There Will Be Blood (2007), which explores the potency of ambition and the evil of breaking one’s pride which comes from Christianity, or WALL.E (2008), which showed how humans could likely devolve following current consumer-culture trends and required a jump-start from a self-evolved robot who came to possess consciousness and passion that had been lost by people. Some of our own members working in the film industry may very well break new ground in the near future, and then Satanists the world over will have an accurate depiction of themselves to point towards.”

Feel free to leave comments below or email the author.

Zombieland

Who thought another zombie-comedy would rock? This film was a blast. ‘Nuff said! (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Buy

Planet Hulk

The Marvel Animation team continues their upward trend of making better films. Based on the successful storyline that happened around the Civil War story, Hulk is in his most interesting battle yet. We’ll have interviews with the creative team here as well. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Buy

House of the Devil

Ti West’s awesome recreation of the European 1980′s VHS horror days can finally get the audience it needs. Look for interviews soon! (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD/VHS) Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Buy

Adam

Championed as a great romantic comedy, I found it to be too confused. It’s still enjoyable, but incorrectly touted. (Formats: DVD only)   Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

Wolfman: Legacy Series

Just in time for the upcoming remake, the 1941 classic gets the spiffy special edition that it deserves. Judging from the previous Legacy Series titles, this should be a great release. (Formats: DVD only)  Jon says:  Buy   Donny says: Buy

Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Van Damme teams up with Dolph Lundgren again? Sold! I’m a huge JCVD fan, so expect me to buy this asap! (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Rent

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning

Tony Jaa is simply the best working martial artist today. The time shift back to primitive Thailand gives the film scope, and even if the ending is confusing, appetites are whet for Ong Bak 3. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Rent

New York, I Love You

It wasn’t as good as it should have been, although there’s a few fun and sweet segments, I wanted a truer portrait of NYC, that this film shied away from. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

Amelia

Due to the pedigree in front and behind the camera, this film came and went, quickly all of the Oscar talk died. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

New to Blu

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

Godfather Collection

Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior

Million Dollar Baby

Mystic River

What a week! Tell me Wednesday how your wallet is doing, but until then keep it here for the reviews of these discs and more, only on Killer Film!

With The House of the Devil, Dead and Lonely web series, and the upcoming Cabin Fever 2, Ti West is offering us horror fans a triple threat of horror. But what is he watching this Halloween? Ti West offers Killer Film his Halloween Watch List!

“None of these are really groundbreaking though,” says Ti West, “but all of these films helped make horror, they have their specific styles, and that’s all I can think of off the top of my head, the top five films for me during Halloween:”

The Shining

The Exorcist

Rosemary’s Baby

The Changeling

Halloween (1978)

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!