Enter The Dark

Ok folks, we have a winner...

If you haven't already... check out the opening scene of my new horror short, Enter The Dark. 

Final touches (color correction, sound mixing, end credits) are being made as we speak and festival submissions will start in a couple of weeks. Look for it playing in a festival near you!

Name my Movie!

Ok dear readers... time to get to work.

I've completed principal photography on my horror short movie that up to this point I've been calling Spook Hunt.
After finishing the first rough cut, it has become obvious that the title is not doing the movie justice.

I need another title.

Here is where you come in.

First, read the following synopsis of the movie, watch the new opening scene, and then look over the list of possible names.
Let me know what best matches the feel of the movie and also grabs your attention.

Spook Hunt is a short film that takes you into the dark recesses of a haunted house and the even darker fathoms of the human soul.

Charles has a problem.  There's something in his house scaring his family and it just won't leave them alone.  They've all heard voices, seen dark shapes moving in the shadows, felt that uneasy sensation of being watched.  Finally Charles captures something on his audio recorder that proves they're not all going crazy.  He decides to make a stand, enlisting the help of his long-time buddy, Rob Tupper, to delve into the mystery of his unwanted guest and hopefully send it on its way.  If they can somehow figure out what the entity is and what it wants, maybe they can all finally have some peace.

Rob's worried about his buddy.  He's been acting really strange lately ... well, even stranger than usual.  Rob knows that things have been rough for Charles - struggling to make ends meet in a down economy, dealing with the unexplained disappearance of his brother-in-law, Marcus, and now these claims of some ghost harassing his family.  Rob is skeptical that there's anything paranormal going on, but he agrees to help his friend out if only to find out the real nature of the problem.

With the lights out, they are led on an adventure of paranormal encounters: cold spots, an eerie talking children's book, unexplained apparitions and a final mystery that leads to an unforgettably disturbing ending.

Ok, now to the possible titles:

Elemental Fear
Primal Darkness
Up From the Dark
From the Darkness
Enter the Dark

Turn Out the Lights
Out Go the Lights
The Disembodied
 
Deliver
Deliver the Darkness
Among the Darkness

Among the Shadows

Alone in the Darkness
Don’t Fear the Darkness
Don’t Dread the Night

Dread the Night
Dread of Night
Into the Dead of Night
Into the Dark of Night
Whispers of Dread

Night of the Abyss
Abyss of Night
Into The Abyss
Repossessed
The Inhabitant

Alright, now get to work and VOTE!

Check Out the Updated Spook Hunt Website

We're in the homestretch of shooting Enter The Dark and it was time to give the website an update in preparation for the movie's premiere (hopefully at this year's Screamfest).

There will be more to come as I edit and post the trailer and add some more content throughout.

M. Night Shyamalan and the Career Arc of a Director

No, I haven't seen The Last Airbender yet.

And I'm not gonna.

Know why?  Two words - The Happening.

I loved Sixth Sense - liked Unbreakable - loved Signs - tried to like The Village - was totally unimpressed with Lady in the Water.

I figured I'd give M. Night one more chance with The Happening.  But do you know what happened at The Happening?...  He took my 10 bucks and spit in my face.

Really.

That movie is an affront to filmmaking - either one of the worst, most tone-deaf movies made in the last 30 years, or the most brilliant satiric self-immolation ever put to film.  I seriously thought he was trying to purposefully trash his career so he could get out of his current contract by making the worst movie ever.

Then he made The Last Airbender... and it's getting even worse reviews.  I don't need to see it.

How can this be possible?  How can the same guy who made Sixth Sense and Signs, two of my favorite movies of the last decade, slide steadily into absolute dreck? Has he totally lost his mind?  Does he not care anymore?  Did someone else write and direct his first three movies for him?

I wanted to see just how bad it really was, so I did what I always do...

I made a chart:

This chart shows the ratings (per Rotten Tomatoes) for every M. Night directed movie.  As you can see, it looks like a big ol' slide to wretchedness.

That got me thinking... What do other director's charts look like?

Daybreakers - The King of Teal and Orange!

Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner!!

 I just saw Daybreakers and it is by far the most extreme version of Teal and Orange ever!  It wins by way of knockout over the former title holder, Transformers 2.

Now, the interesting thing is that even though every single scene is drenched in shades of teal and orange (ok, and the occasional RED too), I can actually accept it for this movie because it makes sense within the context of the story - a world in which vampires are the norm and humans are an ever-dwindling endangered race.

(Ethan Hawke - Yawny McYawn)

As to the movie itself... well I wish they had spent as much budget on character development as they did on art direction.  The main problem is the characters, especially the lead, Ethan Hawke, are incredibly flat and boring.  You really don't care what happens to any of them - stay vampire, turn back human, die, blow up - I really couldn't be bothered.

(ok - Willem Dafoe isn't bad.  If the whole movie had a bunch of Dafoes running around, it wouldn't entirely suck)

Also, the story really isn't a horror film at all - it is more a corporate/political thriller that happens to be set in a world of vampires in business suits.

The vampire mythos is about sex, seduction and eternal life - not cornering the market on near-blood.

Yawn.

Actors I'd Most Like to Cast in My Next Movie

Not that it would ever actually happen, but if I could pick up a phone and attach any of these actors to my next project, I'd be a happy camper. 

Hey, I can dream can't I?!


Steve Buscemi











Don Cheadle











Toni Collete










Zooey Deschanel









 

Morgan Freeman









 

Paul Giamatti









 

Luis Guzman









 

Philip Seymour Hoffman









 

Holly Hunter









 

Jason Isaacs









 

Catherine Keener









 

Harvey Keitel









 

Laura Linney









 

William Macy









 

Frances McDormand









 

Ian McShane

The Host - A Monster Movie I Wish I Had Made

This is one of those movies that I heard about more than a year ago, so I put it in my queue where it just sat there in Netflix purgatory until I finally remembered why I wanted to see it. Hate when that happens.

I should have seen it immediately - this is a great film.

The Host (for the two or three of you who haven't seen it already) is a South Korean monster movie that centers around a mutated fish-frog beast, a deadly virus, an inept Korean government, a corrupt and exploitative American presence, and a sleepy-headed protagonist that no one will listen to.

What you might expect is a typical low-budget monster movie that at best achieves levels of entertaining camp. 

What you get however, is the best monster movie since... dang, since I don't know when.  It is surely better than Cloverfield, or that horrible Roland Emmerich Godzilla farce.  It is at times funny, scary, politically scathing and heart-wrenching.  It is also beautifully shot and masterfully directed from a script that focuses on (gasp) character development over blowing things up.

Interestingly enough, this was not some low-budget genre piece, this was a major blockbuster-type big-budget film (at least in South Korean terms - about $10 million), that still managed to hold onto its core vision.  You see, this is a monster movie that really isn't all that interested in the monster - this is very simply a story about a father who has lost his daughter and will do anything to get her back.  It is also a story about family - non-traditional family structures and the love that binds them.

 Just as Let The Right One In raised the bar for vampire movies by taking a more low-key and personal approach, The Host reboots the monster movie by focusing on the real effects on people's lives.  Yes, I know many movies try this approach (I actually thought Spielberg's War of The Worlds did a pretty good job), but most fail because their heart really isn't in it.  While they pay lip service to building their characters and relationships, they really just want to get to the money shots of big-ass monsters smashing shit up.


The Host presents us with a family that will fight for each other and die for each other.  When their government, police and military not only let them down but actively try to capture and torture them at every turn, they have only themselves to rely on - nothing but their dogged determination, a few molotov cocktails and a bow and arrow to fell the angry beast.

This is also a story of redemption - where every character gets a second chance to overcome their own personal demons - some fail and some succeed.  What more could one ask from a movie.