Bernard got plastered while trying on costumes this week, so CJ’s taking the wheel as he hosts this very special Halloween edition of the Way To Indiecast. Joining them is director H.P. Mendoza, who’s here to talk about his inventively spooky movie I Am A Ghost and share his favorite ghostly horror movies. Plus, as always, our Indie Picks of the Week! Happy Halloween, movie lovers!

For more of H.P.’s work, visit hpmendoza.com

Topics

• Indie Picks (2:16)
• I Am A Ghost (9:55)
• Favorite Ghostly Horror Movies (24:21)

Articles Referenced

H.P. Mendoza Interview
I Am A Ghost Review
The Look of Silence Review
Joshua Oppenheimer Indiecast
Tokyo Tribe Review
Tangerine Review

Subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Subscribe on Stitcher

There’s no translation needed for a scream. And when someone’s being attacked with a ridiculously large knife, their nationality doesn’t make the situation any less terrifying. Not to mention other countries seem to understand that real horror isn’t about the jump-scares or extreme gore (something we’re finally seeing a little less of in recent films like Goodnight Mommy, The Babadook, and It Follows). So we had no trouble curating this list of the best foreign horror films, except maybe in limiting ourselves to only ten. This Halloween, if you thought subtitles might distract from suspense, check out any of these titles and find yourself spookily proven wrong.

10 Must Watch Foreign Horror Films For Halloween

#10. Nosferatu (1922 – Germany)

F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu floods the mind with inky, dreamlike visions that never release their grip. The film haunts me to this day because the monster at its center isn’t treated as a movie monster at all, but a demon that lurks and stalks us from the shadows of our world. He’s embodied by German actor Max Schreck, whose performance is freaky as hell, not operatic and sexy (don’t call him Dracula). Our hero, Hutter (Alexander Granach), uncovers pieces of vampire lore via mysterious letters and occult symbols and barely evades the gangly Nosferatu himself as a wave of doom and dread rolls over us. The film’s most famous scene, involving a shocking coffin reveal, is as chilling as ever. Murnau’s film is now nearly 100 years old but is scary in a way that modern films can’t reproduce—with the absence of sound, Nosferatu‘s onscreen horrors appear all the more nightmarish, leaving a sonic vacuum in the air meant to be filled with our blood-curdling screams. [Bernard]

#9. Ringu (1998 – Japan)

Based on a novel by Kôji Suzuki (Japan’s answer to Stephen King), Ringu, from director Hideo Nakata, is a chilling film made effective by its own simplicity, both in construct and in execution. The premise, in the form of an urban legend propagated by teens, is simple: watch a certain VHS tape, die seven days later. That’s it. This simplicity of fate is what makes the tale so effective. Unlike most “something is coming for you” horror films (think everything from classics like Halloween to indie sensations like It Follows), there is no boogeyman to run away from, no executioner to plead to for mercy, no chance of dodging demise—nobody can hide from time. When the reporter (Nanako Matsushima) investigating the legend watches the tape herself, the story shifts from “What will happen next?” to “Something will happen soon,” adding to the film’s already great tension. Then, the story doubles-down in the form of the reporter’s young son happening across the tape, thus starting his own clock, that tension exponentially increases. This is what makes the film work so well. Ringu is more terror than horror, like an old-time ghost story that relies very little on visual scares, instead captivating viewers with great suspense, overwhelming atmosphere, and unsettling anticipation. [Michael]

#8. [REC] (2007 – Spain)

Before Paranormal Activity kicked off a found footage trend that we’re still going through, directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza cooked up this fun and chaotic zombie film (or is it?). Plucky reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is following a group of firemen working the night shift for a TV show when there’s a call about a situation at an apartment building. Angela and her cameraman follow the firemen inside, only to discover that some sort of virus is spreading through the building, turning people into crazed cannibals (similar the rage virus from 28 Days Later). By the time they realize something’s wrong the government shows up to quarantine everyone inside the building, and from there it’s a battle for survival as each tenant either gets devoured or succumbs to the disease. Balaguero and Plaza waste no time getting to the good stuff; exposition is minimal, and within 15 minutes the blood starts flowing. The cramped setting of the building, combined with the fact that the protagonists are actually trapped (and it’s worth mentioning that [REC] gets bonus points for providing a legitimate reason why the camera needs to keep rolling), makes [REC] a nail biter, and the film is brilliantly structured in the way it escalates the tension at an exponential rate. And the finale, a shocking sequence that plays out in night vision, wouldn’t feel out of place in a list of the scariest scenes of all-time. [C.J.]

#7. Kwaidan (1964 – Japan)

There’s something to be said about the power of folktales. Unlike the bulk of modern horror that draws on certain influences, but ultimately strives for a wholly new mythology, the act of bringing ancient stories to the big screen carries the potential for a far more affecting experience. It’s about sharing lessons, fears and cautionary narratives that have endured for hundreds of years and if done right, the result can be deeply resonant. Kwaidan is just such a film. Masaki Kobayashi’s three-hour anthology tells four tales from Japanese folklore united by the common thread of ghostly encounters. A poor young swordsman makes an ill-fated bid for higher social status, a woodcutter holds a promise of dubious consequences to a wintry spirit, the ghosts of a royal family request the talents of a blind musician and a writer sees a grinning face in a cup of tea. All four stories unravel at an appropriately deliberate pace set against a background of vibrant artificial scenery and highly expressive sets. Rather than being a horror film fueled by big scares, Kwaidan impresses with its subtly chilling atmosphere and its evocative rendering of a delusive, spiritually rich world. [Byron]

#6. Eyes Without A Face (1960 – France)

If ever there was any doubt that Georges Franju’s 1960 bastion of plastic surgery was a legitimate horror film, just think of the title it premiered with in the States in 1962: The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. Of course, it’s only today’s audience who’d look at a horror cult classic like Eyes Without A Face and question its legitimacy for scares. Never forget how desensitized we’ve become over the years, but even if the film doesn’t scare us today as it surely did audiences back in the ’60s, the creeps it exudes still raise hairs on the back of the neck. Pierre Brasseur plays the mad doctor who attempts to re-create the physical beauty of his once-beautiful daughter, Charlotte (Edith Scob, mostly covered in the iconic white mask but piercing with emotions through eyes you’ll drop into and a voice that’ll break the fall). A sickly atmosphere that festers in the imagination. The triptych of psychological, emotional, and physical terror. Overarching gothic overtones. Alida Valli’s cold-blooded assistant (the Igor to Brasseur’s Dr. Frankenstein), all exterior beauty and interior grotesquerie. All these elements conspire with Franju’s taut direction and Eugen Schüfftan’s vivid cinematography to make for, arguably, the most poetic (but no less haunting) of all horror films. In my opinion, the heterograft scene stands as one of the genre’s defining moments. [Nik]

#5. I Saw The Devil (2010 – South Korea)

One of the greatest serial killer films ever made, Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil is a bonafide masterpiece. Mirroring what would happen if James Bond set his sights on Hannibal Lector, the film is a fast-paced epic that is filled with emotion and satisfying payoffs. Excellent performances from Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun keep tensions high from start to finish, and some absolutely barbaric sequences of action and suspense raise the stakes in an honest and believable fashion. It’s the revenge element, though, is what truly propels I Saw the Devil to the next level. Soo-hyun (Byung-hun) is so personally invested in avenging the death of his murdered fiancée, who was killed by Kyung-chul (Min-sik), that the vengeance becomes his only motivation in life. Jee-woon and screenwriter Park Hoon-jung study the psyches of both the hero and the villain with equal interest, which makes I Saw the Devil one of the most character-driven tales of revenge ever made. [Blair]

#4. The Devil’s Backbone (2001 – Spain)

Like a little history and a whole lot of atmosphere to go with your horror? There’s no greater director more masterful at combining all of the above than Guillermo del Toro. Set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, The Devil’s Backbone follows a group of orphaned boys at a home in the country. One new boy, Carlos, starts to see the ghost of a boy in the orphanages dark stone passageways and does his best to uncover what the dead boy’s story is. Like many of del Toro’s best films (Pan’s Labyrinth being another great example), the supernatural elements of this world are almost never as scary as the ill intentions of the living. Carlos and his companions must face the war-torn reality of their world while finding a way to reconcile the last wishes of the dead. Del Toro’s signature attention to eery detail—not to mention his penchant for lingering on his creepy creations allowing each horrifying detail to sink in—and his ability to craft unrelentingly evil characters are what make The Devil’s Backbone a mood-filled and satisfying ghost story. [Ananda]

#3. Diabolique (1955- France)

Diabolique is a classic of the horror genre which deserves its place alongside the likes of Psycho and The Exorcist. Gorgeously shot and incredibly tense throughout, Henri-Georges Clouzot crafts a horror film that is sure to sit with you for days. Following the story of a murder gone wrong, Christina (Vera Clouzot) and her husband’s mistress (Simone Signoret) conspire together to kill an abusive husband (Paul Meurisse), but once they do nothing is as it seems. Saying anything more about the story would spoil some of the most thrilling sequences ever put to film. It’s been said that Alfred Hitchcock lost out on the film rights to Diabolique by just a few hours, still it’s hard to imagine anyone, even the Master of Suspense himself, outdoing Clouzot here. [Ryan]

#2. Audition (1999 – Japan)

Prolific Japanese filmmaker, Takashi Miike, who is known for his transgressive social commentaries and cartoonish violence, released in 1999 what might be the most graphic and frightening film about romantic relationships ever committed to celluloid. The plot of Audition focuses on a widow by the name of Shigeharu Aoyama who, with the help of a fellow film producer, arranges a faux-audition for a non-existent movie in order to find himself a prospective bride. Unfortunately, his gaze falls upon the wrong woman. Asami Yamazaki, the seemingly harmless apple of his eye, is (to say the least) not at all who she appears to be. With Audition, Miike shows more directorial restraint than usual, which might be the film’s most commendable attribute. The majority of the runtime is spent exploring the growing intimacy between Shigeharu and Asami, interspersed with abrupt and very brief sequences hinting at something sinister developing within Asami’s psyche. It isn’t until the latter half of the third act that the film shifts gears completely and erupts into a state of unexpectedly extreme mayhem. But in order to find out the specifics of what transpires, you’ll have to experience the film for yourself—just don’t say you weren’t warned. [Eli]

#1. Let The Right One In (2008 – Sweden)

In the same year that obnoxiously popular teen vampire series kicked off (we won’t even mention its name), came a small film out of Sweden that turned the overplayed genre on its head. Beautifully shot, with a tender story and one hell of a mean streak, Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In is a special film. By creating its monster in the form of a little girl, the film is able to cleverly play with many of the most traditional vampire myths—especially the role of the human servant, which is the most tragic theme of the film. Alfredson is an incredibly patient filmmaker (something that works extraordinarily well in moody horror films), knowing just how much information, thematic and visual, to show the audience. His craft shows particularly well in the breathtaking final scene, one of the best staged horror sequences of all-time. While that mainstream vampire series was capturing young audiences with sparkly skin and sexual repression, Let the Right One In showed that vampires could still be cool while actually having a complex and resonant dramatic story. And it’s actually scary. Let the Right One In also has the distinction of inspiring an above-average American remake (which can’t be said for too many other films on this list), Let Me In from Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves. [Aaron]

Halloween is right around the corner, and some of us at Way Too Indie are super excited about it. On this episode of the Way Too Indiecast site writers C.J. Prince, Ananda Dillon and Blake Ginithan talk about the scariest things we’ve ever seen. To start things off, we get into our favorite horror movies of all-time, a list that includes ghosts, vampires, and crazy Italian witches. After that we discuss some of the most terrifying scenes we’ve watched in our lifetime (Ananda still can’t get over her horrifying experience watching a certain horror movie when she was 11-years-old!). Finally, we list some horror villains that didn’t make the cut in our 10 Scariest Horror Movie Villains feature.

Topics

• Synopsis Scramble (2:00)
• Favorite Scary Movies (9:30)
• Scariest Scenes (33:16)
• Best Villains (47:00)

Want to know what scares us? Listen to the episode to find out, and be sure to leave a comment letting us know what scenes and movies give you the creeps. And check out our other Halloween features on the site, including What Scares us the Most in Movies along with our list of 20 Great Horror Films You Haven’t Seen.

If you enjoyed our conversation, please subscribe to the Way Too Indiecast on iTunes and give us a rating!

‘Tis the season, when our minds entertain darker thoughts and our eyes linger on the shadows a bit longer than usual. The summer brings us heroes (and superheroes) to stand behind, the fall brings us villains to cower in front of. Anyone can make a screamer with a bit of blood, eerie noises, and a pop-up scare tactic. The films that still have all of us grown-ass adults at Way Too Indie checking our closets at night are the ones featuring bona fide agents of evil. Here’s our list of the best of those figures of horror that continue to haunt us.

Leatherface – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Forget the stupid sequels. There’s no genre that gets so abused, used, and milked until it’s dehydrated of any originality than horror. Almost to the point that you forget how truly frightening the original was. The Exorcist is one of these examples. It was so scary when I first saw it as a kid that I almost became a devout Christian, but the effect wasn’t the same when I saw it as an adult and found myself more impressed with William Friedkin’s direction than scared by the possessed Regan. Not so with Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. When I first saw it, I was maybe 14-15 and it was by far the scariest thing I’d ever seen up until that point. OK, it didn’t help that it was on a VHS tape, which made it look like it was shot in my neighbor’s backyard and thus that much more horrifying. Every scene featuring Leatherface (most especially, the moment he puts a girl on a meat hook, and, of course, the final chase) literally gave me nightmares for days on end. I saw the original again a few years ago, and (unlike Regan) that crazy motherfucker with the chainsaw and a face made of skin from his victims still scares me right down to the bone. Now, I can appreciate the film as one of the greatest horror films ever made, and Leatherface as a litmus test for every serial killer in every horror film. And I still can’t look at a chainsaw without getting a chill down my spine. Thanks for all those sleepless nights, Tobe Hooper. [Nik]

Hannibal Lecter – The Silence of the Lambs

It’s the juxtaposition within horror films that often decide how scary they truly are. The beautiful placed jarringly next to the ugly, the innocent preyed on by the deranged, and so on. And then there is the next level of that, where the juxtaposition lies entirely within one character. Dr. Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs is just such a character. At all times poised and classy, Dr. Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, is called upon by the young and inexperienced FBI agent Clarice Starling to aid in a serial killing case. Her naiveté and scared tension are obvious next to Dr. Lecter’s lilting sophisticated accent, slicked back hair, and constant gaze. His elegant demeanor is a perfect (and truly horrifying) disguise, but when he wiles his way out of his prison cell and flays the body of a police officer, displaying it like a sordid piece of art, the true confines of his mind are exposed and his insanity made clear. The more potent action of the film is between Starling and her prey, Buffalo Bill, but there’s few endings less settling — and yet entirely satisfying — as Silence of the Lamb’s phone call from Dr. Lecter to Clarice on her graduation day from the academy. Imagining such a man free in the world is frightening, and yet it’s impossible not to be secretly glad for his freedom, he’s just that charming. [Ananda]

Oil Slick in “The Raft” – Creepshow 2

I was 7 or 8 when I stayed over at my aunt and uncle’s place for a weekend with my sister. We were home alone for the day, and decided to see what was on TV. UPN was playing a horror marathon, starting with Leprechaun followed by Creepshow 2. We laughed a lot at Leprechaun of course, but Creepshow 2 was another story for me. One of the stories in this anthology film is “The Raft,” a tale about four friends going for a swim in a lake, not noticing the signs to stay out of the water. Once they swim to the raft in the middle of the lake, a strange blob looking like an oil slick surrounds the raft. They think it’s harmless, until it yanks one of them in and digests them, their dissolving body periodically popping back up to scream in anguish as they’re slowly consumed. Watching this strange, undefined creature trap these people on a raft and devour them one by one scared the crap out of me. Other details, like the way the thing immediately started dissolving the moment it touched flesh, or the loud, painful screams of its victims, helped make it look like the most painful way to die. I didn’t go swimming for a while after watching it, afraid that some weird thing might be lurking underneath the water ready to pull me down. Watching “The Raft” now, it’s funny to see how terrified I was by such a silly B-movie premise. But even watching clips today (which I did in order to write this), I can’t help but still get a little unnerved when I watch one of those characters meet such a grisly-looking fate. [CJ]

The Monster – It Follows

It Follows is the newest movie to make this list (it won’t even see a full theatrical release until 2015) but it has stuck in my mind since its Midnight Madness screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. While the film itself has both strengths and weaknesses, one of the unquestionable strengths is the film’s unsettling, unnamed monster. A bloodied, fetishized shape-shifter that assumes the role of friends, parents, or strangers, the It Follows monster’s unpredictable appearance leaves the film’s characters on constant edge, unsure of when their next threat will arrive. The haunting is passed from victim to victim liked a paranormal STD, only to end up following 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe). Compound that with the central hook of the film, that this evil force has one discernible disadvantage: it cannot run, it does not even move briskly, but rather it simply walks and follows its target relentlessly. This leaves those afflicted with It Follows no choice but to run and continually look over their shoulders. It’s easy enough to avoid the monster, but you can never really escape. Walking back from that midnight screening at TIFF, I couldn’t help but feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand with each audible footstep from a pedestrian only paces behind me. Should I have looked back to find my mother bloodied and in a state of undress, I would have ran. I’m not chancing a run-in with the It Follows shape-shifter. [Zachary]

Pinhead and the Cenobites – Hellraiser

One of my earliest and formative film-watching memories is sitting on the couch with good ol’ mom and dad when I was three or four years old, cozied up for a late-night viewing of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. Even as they made sure to cover my eyes at the scary bits, I was immediately fascinated and terrified by the film’s iconic monsters. At the time, my fear was fairly superficial, focused on the amazingly dark character designs. Pinhead, in particular, with the wonderful scowl, full leather attire and needled face is immediately striking. Without question, Pinhead is among the greatest achievements in character design. As I’ve grown older, though, the terrors of the film have only grown — an atypical experience for most horror films that become cheesier or less shocking to a more cultured viewer. Once you get past the look of Pinhead and his cronies and can comprehend the deeply dark themes of Hellraiser, the characters become much more unsettling. Hellraiser was my first awareness of masochism and sadism (it may have also been my first awareness of anything sexual, and that creates a whole other set of neuroses). I may not have immediately understood these concepts, but they become seeded — becoming so fascinated by Pinhead even though he was a scary thing is a testament to this. With all forms of non-mainstream sexuality, they challenge our tastes, make us look at ourselves to think about how they affect us and perhaps consider why they tantalize us. Pinhead and the Cenobites are hideous and disturbing, but also appealing. This makes them even more terrifying. [Aaron]

The Killer – M

For me, the most horrifying moment in a horror film is the second it dawns on me that, god help me, I see a little bit of myself in the villain. This has only happened a handful of times—Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter—but it’s the most disturbing, bone-chilling feeling to find yourself relating to a murderer on any level. Fritz Lang’s haunting 1931 paranoia piece, M, gave me one such experience, via its unforgettable, child-murdering villain, who whistles “In the Hall of the Mountain King” to lure in his victims. If you haven’t seen M, stop here to avoid spoilers. We see little of the shadowy predator, played by a young Peter Lorre, until the end of the film, when in front of a large congregation he’s caught and confesses his sins, explaining what in his head lead him to such evil. We look at his round face and frantic eyes, and we understand him, no matter how hard we fight it. He’s one of us; he has a heart. Coming to terms with that is absolutely terrifying. [Bernard]

Michael Myers – Halloween

This may be an obvious choice, but also a necessary one. Michael Myers began freaking out audiences back in the ’70s when John Carpenter’s legendary slasher franchise Halloween was born. Now over 30 years later, the image of Michael Myers still haunts us and the sound of John Carpenter’s instantly recognizable theme song makes us quiver. There’s something incredibly creepy about a monster that we know little about. We’re first introduced to Michael as a six-year-old boy who suddenly kills his own sister for no apparent reason. No further explanations are given as to why he’s motivated to kill off his entire family (a bold decision that Rob Zombie’s remake modified), he’s just a “pure evil” beast lurking around with a large butcher knife in hand. And let’s not forget that creepy white mask which hides his true identity and all emotions. The sound of his heavy breathing behind the mask reminds us Michael is human, making the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. The mystery surrounding Michael makes him so ominous, but it’s the fact he can’t be stopped that’s downright terrifying. Throughout the Halloween franchise Michael miraculously survives multiple bullet wounds and falls from multi-story buildings, as well as stabbings, electrocution, and even being burned. Yet somehow he mysteriously disappears into the night with little more than a limp. For these reasons, Michael Myers managed to scare the hell out of us way more than Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger ever did, and remains one of the scariest horror movie characters of all time. [Dustin]

Samara – The Ring

This is about the demon-ghost-girl-creature-thing from the American version, as I’ve never seen Ringu, the original Japanese horror film that was remade stateside into The Ring by director Gore Verbinski. But that’s fine, I don’t have to see Ringu. In fact, I’ll go out of my way to make sure I never see it because the experience of watching The Ring was more than enough, thank you very much. I don’t consider myself a big horror buff, but from time to time I crave the kind of adrenaline rush you can only get from hair-raising, heart-palpitating, bloodcurdling horror. The Conjuring is the most recent great example, the original [REC] is another contemporary one, but a new standard of hellish fright was set for me in 2002, when I saw The Ring in theaters (I was 17 years old). When I first laid eyes on Samara, face covered by greasy blackness, crawling out of that television set, and towards the audience (scratch that, towards me!), in that insanely creepy way of hers, something in me changed and I vowed off horror for quite some time. My mind goes into a type of defense mode when I think about The Ring, so a lot of the scariest instances are blocked out, but I know there’s a moment when Naomi Watts or someone opens a closet and Samara is hiding there. I’ve probably never been so scared in a theatre in my life. No wonder Verbinksi sailed off into the safe world of silly Disney pirates after this adaptation. [Nik]

The Alien – The Thing

When it comes to monsters within the Horror genre, the characters we root for usually know what they are up against. A Sasquatch. A werewolf. Dracula. But when it comes to John Carpenter’s Science-Fiction/Horror hybrid masterpiece The Thing, the protagonists have no clue what their nemesis looks like. That’s because it’s a shape shifting alien from a distant galaxy that invades and takes over the body of any living being it comes in contact with. The film takes place at a remote research base in Antarctica. Kurt Russell (an ’80s Carpenter regular) stars as helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, our hero who spearheads the fight against the abominable being. His fight becomes all the more arduous as crew members start losing trust in one another after realizing that anyone of them could be an alien.

This leads to one of the best tension filled scenes ever filmed. Russell, armed with a blow torch, ties up everyone who is left to couches and chairs while he samples their blood with flame. Whoever’s blood sample reacts to the fire is an alien. The way the scene plays out and the way Carpenter handles it is faultless. Carpenter’s film was released in 1982, just as the AIDS virus was coming into full view of the world. People synonymized the idea in the film of an unknown entity inside someone you would recognize on a daily basis with a real life killer-virus that was undetectable to the naked eye. Therefore, Carpenter’s alien, aided by magnificent FX, is one of the best villains in the horror genre. [Blake]

Jack Torrance/The Overlook Hotel – The Shining

I’ve watched horror films from an early age — probably too early of an age for my parents’ tastes — and the majority of them back then were ones that had a slight sense of safety: a monster too ridiculous to take seriously (like Troll, or the infinitely more cultish Troll 2), visual effects that were laughable (Children of the Corn’s ending, yeesh), or simply an ending that wraps things up nice and neat and allowed a kid like myself to sleep peacefully (like The Exorcist, I mean seriously how are there even sequels to this one?). I first watched The Shining at 13 years old, in the basement of my best friend’s house, and I realized very quickly this film was beyond what I had previously seen. This one seemed like a film not a movie. It was no ordinary haunted hotel story, or simply a tale of possession — this film was not “safe.” As Jack Torrance, Jack Nicholson embodied the evil contained within the Overlook Hotel. His murderous fury was somehow more scary as it was based in his own self-inadequacy and anger issues, fueled by the maliciousness of the hotel’s malevolent energy. Whether he is staring with a perfect demented bemusement out the window of the hotel, dedicatedly axing down a bathroom door, or doggedly chasing through the snow to kill his own child, Jack Torrance (as psychotic representative of the Overlook Hotel) is easily one of the scariest figures to command the screen of any film, horror or otherwise. [Ananda]

The team of director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett made what was one of my favorite films of last year, the stylish, playful, home-invasion thrill ride You’re Next. 2014 is another year, and another home run for the duo as their new film, The Guest, starring Dan Stevens, toys with genre conventions even further, pulling inspiration from films like The Terminator and Halloween and fusing elements from those films with their modern perspective to make something that feels both entirely new and deliciously nostalgic.

Stevens plays a soldier who visits the home of the mourning family of his fallen comrade, befriending them to the point that he’s invited to stay. As random acts of violence begin to pop up around town, the family’s daughter (Maika Monroe) begins to suspect their handsome new guest may be the culprit.

As a big fan, it was a pleasure for me to talk with Adam and Simon about the film’s origins, the key to avoiding genre parody, the challenges and opportunities modern audiences present, Stevens’ attributes as an actor, whether press interviews help them understand their films better or not, and much more.

Simon, correct me if I’m wrong, but did the project start as a more serious, straightforward story?
Simon: It’s hard to say that the project started that way. It was an earlier attempt at the screenplay. I had met Adam and we were friends when I was working on it, but we hadn’t started working together yet. It was a script I’d started on my own, and it wasn’t too long after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, so it was a little more self-serious. I just kind of abandoned it because it didn’t feel right. It felt like I was commenting on a bunch of things that I didn’t have any real personal understanding of, which was kind of a bummer. But it did at its core have a cool idea of this mysterious soldier visiting this family and insinuating himself into their lives. I liked that idea, but I didn’t know how to tell that story. I stopped at about page 30 and kind of forgot about it completely. In late 2012 when we first started talking about this film and Adam was talking about the ’80s genre films that inspired us both to become filmmakers, I realized that that concept combined with that style worked surprisingly well. All of the things that were turning out too serious in that draft would be different if it they were less specific and more entertainment-oriented.

The Guest is a nostalgia film, and movies with similar aims either end up being imitations of the genres they reference or insert themselves as a legitimate entry into the genre. Talk about riding that line and what it takes to avoid being a copycat.
Adam: We were very aware that we didn’t want the film to fall into any kind of parody. I think the secret to achieving that starts with Simon’s screenplay and the emphasis on the characters. The movie’s plot is moved forward by the consistent actions the characters take once they’re established. I feel like another thing we do is take certain elements from things that are clearly cinematic ideas and concepts, some of which you’ve seen before. As a matter of fact, I think most of the things in The Guest, in one way or another, you’ve seen a version of them. But by collecting them and adding a unique perspective to it, I think that’s what creates this new, cohesive atmosphere. It always starts with the characters, but a lot of it has to do with picking what you show and don’t show. If this movie had chosen to show more of David’s background and had a more Hollywood approach to it, suddenly it would be one of those movies, more on-the-nose. We purposefully don’t give you all the information, and we also never let you know what David’s thinking at any point. It allows the audience to fill in those blanks. A lot of the time, giving audiences that space is what creates better movies. Hopefully people will think we’ve done that.

Simon: For me, I think the answer to your question was contained within your question. I’m not interested in pure homage or making pastiche pieces. It’s more about looking at what those films did and figuring out what the current version of that is. It’s looking at the effect they had on me when I first saw them and figuring out something that’s unique but would create that same feeling.

Adam: If you look at filmmakers in their early stages, when they’re in film school or high school, making movies in their backyard, a lot of the first things people do are just straight imitations, you know what I mean? I can’t even count how many people in our generation made Blair Witch knockoffs. That’s worth avoiding because, when you think about it, that’s always the starting point anyway. It’s not necessarily a mature outlook. But if you can find a way to take these tried-and-true methods and integrate it into a new perspective, suddenly you’ve got something.

In your style of filmmaking, you’re playing with audiences’ expectations. Modern audiences carry with them more expectations and have been exposed to more conventions and clichés than any before. Do you view this as a creative opportunity, a big challenge, or both?
Simon: In a way both, but I think one thing that unites Adam and me is that we try to never talk down to our audience. We try to imagine our audience is smarter than us and has seen way more films than we have. We’re trying to really surprise those people. I do think it’s a challenge. I think the internet has made people a lot more aware of clichés and genre conventions because it provides an immediate platform for having those conversations, even though the level of dialogue on the internet isn’t always overly academic. Nonetheless, people are communicating in an intellectual manner about films in an immediate way that was not possible 15 years ago, really. That’s the challenge, but I think the opportunity is for filmmakers like us to try to never repeat ourselves. We didn’t just grow up watching Steven Spielberg movies; we also grew up watching Shin’ya Tsukamoto films and John Woo films and Dario Argento films, and we know what innovations have occurred. We’ve taken our inspiration from a variety of sources.

Adam: I think some of the expectations we’re dealing with in The Guest beyond cinematic tropes are the expectations the audiences feel based on the character of David himself. Once we’ve established the guy is a weird, off-the-wall character and we don’t know what he’s going to do next, the movie kind of plays with that excitement and that expectation you build by putting him in different scenarios. The first time I watched the film in its entirety was the first time I had that kind of realization that the movie becomes almost a series of vignettes of, now that we’ve established this character, let’s see what happens when we put him in these different scenarios. What happens when David goes to a party? What happens when David goes to the high school? I think those are the expectations built based upon the character of David himself.

I think one of the major strengths of the casting of Dan is that people know very little of him aside from his work in Downton Abbey, which was a totally different role for him.
Adam: That’s exactly why we wanted Dan. We wanted the audience to have that opposite expectation when this guy shows up to the door.

Simon: I’ve enjoyed Jason Statham movies intermittently, but imagine how boring The Guest would be if Jason Statham showed up on the doorstep and chomped on a cigar. You’d know exactly where it was headed. It’s more about finding an actor who got the movie’s sensibilities, and Dan had the remarkable talent to transform himself into this role.

Adam: It was always about treading the line of hero and villain. We wanted to take those notions and throw them out the door. To do that, you have to create a charming, likable character, and that takes an intelligent actor to pull that off, and someone who’s really likable as himself. It’s almost a shorthand to the audience whenever he shows up. Clearly there’s something off about him–the film’s called The Guest–but the whole idea is, how far are we going to take that? We wanted to keep you guessing the whole way through.

Dan’s funny as well, and the whole film’s funny. Timing, not just in the humor, but in every aspect of your filmmaking is great; the comedic timing, the scares, holding shots for longer than we think you would, and even the editing. The opening shot of the film and how abruptly you cut to the title card is funny, in a way.
Adam: All of those things have their own reasoning behind them. The close-ups of Dan where we hold on his face the whole time are mostly based on the idea that the audience never knows what Dan’s thinking. It was important to me to give people a chance to project their own thoughts onto it, so that everybody can have their own, subjective experience. Sometimes I hate it when directors cop out when they say, “It’s up to the audience to interpret, blah blah blah.” In this case, it really is true. We don’t know who this guy is even by the end of the film, but we’re not asking you to know who he is. We’re just asking you to enjoy what he’s doing. [laughs]

In the opening itself, we wanted to start the movie in a different context, that maybe this could be a drama about a mourning family. We wanted to play that up. But at the same time, that title with the burst of Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween emphasizer was kind of saying, there’s definitely something else going on here. Don’t get too antsy for the first 15 minutes if this isn’t your bag, because something’s going to happen. That took a little bit of a process. It wasn’t something that was cooked in from the beginning. Once we edited the film, we looked at it as a team and said, “How do we make sure this movie start as a ‘slow burn’?” as a lack of better phrasing. We wanted to make sure to tell the audience to stick around because things are about to happen.

The film’s soundtrack and score are great. Steve Moore does a fantastic job. A lot of movies that employ ’80s music just kind of go, “Hey guys! Remember this?!” I think your score embraces what’s effective about ’80s soundtracks and scores.
Adam: That’s exactly why we hired Steve Moore to begin with. He’s not using software programs to imitate these sounds; all of his equipment is vintage. As a matter of fact, the first conversation we had was about the soundtrack to Halloween 3, which has some of the best synth textures I’ve ever heard. It turns out, he had a version of the soundtrack, and in the liner notes it had a list of the equipment that John Carpenter and Alan Howarth used, and Steve had tracked down all that equipment. I was like, “Perfect.” It was a metaphor for what we wanted to achieve with the film in general. Like you said, we weren’t trying to parody the genre or do something totally tongue-in-cheek and cute. We wanted something that lived in the vibe of the ’80s. By using all these real instruments, it allowed us to create modern compositions based on the old, and that’s what this movie is. It’s a modern film using all the influences that have come since the ’80s as well, while at the same time achieving this vibe that’s elusive, but it’s there.

I’ve seen and read a few interviews with you guys, and you’re both very thoughtful and passionate about your projects. Through this process that we’re going through right now, the press process in which you’re talking about every aspect of the film and revisiting these thoughts over and over, do you acquire a new perspective on your own work?
Simon: That’s a great question, and we’ve never been asked that before. The answer is absolutely “yes”. The other night, we had our Canadian premiere, which was at the Midnight Madness section at TIFF. Watching that movie with that audience, as soon as it was over I turned to Adam and said, “I think I understand our movie better now!” [laughs] He was like, “Yeah, me too!” But it wasn’t just that we watched with that audience, it’s that we’d just done 12 hours of interviews. We were thinking very analytically, and I noticed all these ideas that I half-had and was never able to fully articulate kind of coalesced. When you were talking to Adam a few minutes ago, I was thinking about how the movie has kind of a slow start so that it can set up that character reality to do absurd things within that. I was wondering, “What if we did that quicker or differently?” I think it was organic to the story and I was having thoughts about that that I hadn’t had before. I never intentionally sat down and said, “The first part of this movie needs to be a drama so that when we shift tone, everyone understands what the reality is.” But when I heard you guys talking, I though that that was something I probably did unconsciously.

Adam: I feel like you never really understand your films until you start seeing them with an audience. You understand your intentions or lack thereof a lot more. Honestly, going in the more entertaining direction we’re going with You’re Next and The Guest as opposed to A Horrible Way to Die, which is more of a straightforward, bummer of a movie, it was in making something more depressing that we started questioning our intentions as filmmakers. It was like, “What are we really getting out of this? Are we saying that we have some sort of insight on being depressed or the futility of existence or whatever?” Ultimately, we realized that our roots come from this place of this love for cinema. We understand movies in a way that’s very passionate, and we wanted to make movies as kids because we enjoyed them. Getting back to those roots is what it’s about. We made You’re Next and The Guest specifically with the idea of, let’s not try to sit in a quiet theater and figure out what the audience is thinking through some sort of psychic means. Let’s actually get a rise out of them while we’re there and let them tell us what they’re thinking during the movie, whether they’re laughing or whatever. We don’t want to stagnate and say, “We just do genre mash-ups.” But that’s where we are now.