Let’s say you have a “Blair Witch”-style project on your hands. How do you get the shaky camera work to the top of the box office?
Thanks to the clever marketing of “Paranormal Activity” — Paramount made audiences petition for the film to come to their cities — it’s now grossed $62.5 million. Not a bad pay day, considering it cost $15,000 to make.
The days are shorter, the air is crisper, and the chilly breeze smells increasingly of chocolate and peanut butter: Time to get a move on this weekend’s costume. But while you scramble to assemble the most original Halloween getup, Hollywood took it easy. From innocent babysitters to age-old antichrists, this year’s horror films feature the usual suspects. So how do they keep it creepy? We asked the experts.
Go retro and disconnect
Campy horror darling Ti West took complete advantage of his throwback early ’80s setting when freaking out the babysitter in “House of the Devil.” “Pre-Internet, pre-cell phone makes storytelling more interesting,” he says. “When people are less accessible, it’s scarier.”
Make a complex villain
Torture-fest “Saw” is back for round six, and while we’re grossed out, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. “He’s like a Rubik’s cube,” says “Saw VI” star Tanedra Howard of the films’ villain, Jigsaw. “People want to figure him out, but there’s always an open ending.”
Let them wait for it
Even when it comes to techniques, there’s no need to reinvent the “Saw” wheel. “The old tricks about getting very quiet and then hitting the audience all at once — these things have worked for 100 years,” says “Saw VI” director Kevin Greutert. “They still work.”
Fact is always stranger
Upcoming E.T. flick “The Fourth Kind” claims to be “based on the actual case studies,” and the evil forces at work in “Antichrist” have been around for a good 2,000 years, but this only adds to their power. At least according to Dacre Stoker, who took a cue from his great granduncle Bram when writing his new book, “Dracula The Un-Dead.” “Dracula’s always sort of been there — he was part of folklore from all over the world,” says Dacre of the most famous vampire (sorry, Edward).
“When you pull a real person out of history, a historical figure on steroids, it’s scarier.”
After 26 years, horror film staple Freddy Krueger is back this spring in the remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Why can’t we get enough? Robert Englund, who played the original Krueger, has a theory: “He never quite goes all the way to hell, he knows your worst fears, he can kill you in your sleep: It’s such a great hook,” says the actor, who just released a memoir, “Hollywood Monster.”
Englund is also starring in FEARnet’s new series, “Fear Clinic,” with Kane Hodder (aka Jason Voorhees) and a cast he adores, unfortunately: “They’re all such wonderful kids. But I feel bad, because I have to kill them all.”