In Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s The Guest, their genre-blending follow-up to 2013’s You’re Next,  Dan Stevens plays an ex-soldier who ingratiates himself into the family of one of his fallen comrades. With his good looks and Southern charm, he’s got everyone under his spell; when he begins to intervene in the family’s personal affairs–sometimes with fatal results–daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) begins to suspect the new family friend has darker motives than he’s letting on.

In a quick conversation with Monroe, we talk about working with Stevens, Wingard, and Barrett; how Stevens’ performance inspired her to be a badass herself; choosing the right roles in her young career; defining Anna’s strength; and more. The Guest is out in theaters now. Check out our review, here.

Dan has such an icy stare in the movie. What’s it like to be on the other side of it?
Maika: I know who Dan really is–he’s not anything like his character. It was fun acting with him and trying to take him seriously, but I knew that once they called “cut” he’d go back to being goofy Dan. It really wasn’t as scary as it is for the audience [laughs]

Adam and Simon have a lot of fun playing with genre tropes, like the scene where you catch Dan coming out of the shower. We’ve seen this stuff a million times, but the way it’s done in this film stands out.
Maika: I think Adam has a specific style that’s so different from your typical horror movie. It’s such a mix of scariness, thrills, ’80s throwbacks, and comedy. An actor like Dan, who [you wouldn’t think would] necessarily fit into the role, blows everyone away, and it all creates something different than everyone expects.

There’s a very particular kind of humor to Adam and Simon’s movies that I can’t really put my finger on. Can you define what their brand of comedy is?
Maika: Oh my gosh, I have no idea! [laughs] Have you talked to both of them?

I have.
Maika: They have their own sense of humor. They’re hysterical, but I really don’t know what it is! It’s really nice on set because Adam’s very hands-on. He’s right there. I really like that in a director.

Much like Dan, you career is still very young. Your track record is great so far. Talk about choosing these projects and defining your legacy as you go.
Maika: I love my job. I don’t ever want to be doing something for no reason. As far as reading scripts goes, I really look at the character and make sure it’s something I want to do. You’re Next was amazing. Really different. I like pushing myself and exploring new ground, and I’d really never done anything like [The Guest] before. After meeting Adam and Simon I thought, “I definitely have to do this.”

Sharni Vinson’s character in You’re Next was such a strong female protagonist, and Anna is strong too, but in a different way. How would you describe Anna’s strength?
Maika: She kind of gets stronger and stronger throughout the film. By the end, she’s going against her family, going against everyone, as people are telling her she’s crazy. She sticks with her gut. You see her grow, and it’s cool to see an arc in a character like that.

You’ve worked with Dan on The Guest, and now you’re working on The Fifth Wave, in which you play a badass yourself. Do you find yourself looking at his performance as inspiration?
Maika: Oh, definitely. He just absolutely killed it. Coming from Downton Abbey, he couldn’t be more opposite from his character. How he carries himself in the film, his presence…yeah, I totally [take inspiration] from that. He’s incredible.

When you watch the film with different crowds, do you find each audience reacts differently to the film? Laugh here, gasp there…do you notice that stuff?
Maika: I don’t really notice. I’ve seen the film with a crowd about three times. Adam and Simon probably notice that. I have a really hard time watching myself. It’s hard to watch the film as a whole. I learn a lot from watching myself, but I can only watch it so many times before I start totally tearing myself apart. [laughs] I try to keep it to a minimum.

That’s interesting! You don’t get any enjoyment from watching yourself?
Maika: Oh god no! [laughs] It’s so hard! The first time I saw The Guest I saw it with an audience, and Dan and I were scared shitless.

The film’s marketing campaign is really cool. I love the poster of you standing behind Dan.
Maika: It’s so weird! Seeing double-decker buses go by with Dan and I on it is pretty cool, pretty badass.

And the poster’s pink!
Maika: I know! It’s really cool. Perfect for the film, too.

Absolutely. The part in the film where we see the most color is in the finale, in that haunted maze.
Maika: Part of the maze was built for the movie, but most of it was a real maze. This family in New Mexico makes this haunted maze every year, and it’s scary. They told us not to go off on our own because it’s massive. There were clowns, and I hate, hate hate clowns! The room with clowns was actually really scary.

If you’re familiar with Dan Stevens, it’s probably with his work on Downton Abbey as the kind-hearted English gentleman Matthew Crawley. Other than that, his career is largely a blank slate, with most of us having no preconceived notions about him as an actor. This absence of expectation is a key ingredient in Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s The Guest, the director-writer duo’s evocative, comic-thriller follow-up to their new-gen horror romp You’re Next, in which Stevens plays a blue-eyed mystery man who we can’t quite pin down. He’s a handsome, polite Kentucky boy with enough charm to make you weak in the knees, but there’s also an intensity, a menace lurking deep inside those unblinking baby blues that’ll make your knees buckle from fright. Try as you might, you can’t unglue your eyes from his, and whether he uses his good looks or his bare hands, one thing’s for sure: he’s a killer.

Things get set in motion in typical horror movie fashion–the ring of a doorbell. Standing at the door is David (Stevens), a freshly-discharged war veteran who’s come to the home of Laura Peterson (Sheila Kelley) to fulfill an oath he made to her dead son Caleb, his former comrade, to tell the family how much Caleb loved them. He speaks to her tenderly, and she’s overwhelmed when she sees David standing next to her son in a photo of their brigade. David only means to pass through their small New Mexico town on his way to Florida, but Laura insists he stay with them for a couple days in Caleb’s old room. With Southern humility and a kind smile, he accepts the offer. “Thank you, ma’am.”

Less trusting of their new guest is Laura’s family. Her husband, Spencer (Leland Orser), fears David may have PTSD. Their introverted teenage son, Luke (Brendan Meyer), feels uncomfortable around him (as he does most people), and their daughter, Anna (Maika Monroe), is the most skeptical of all, dismissing David’s story of how he knew her brother with a laugh.

Despite starting off on shaky ground with the Petersons, David slowly begins to ingratiate himself into their world: He shares late night beers with Spencer, beats up bullies for Luke, and uses his, um….pectoral assets…to get Anna swooning so hard she makes him a mix tape. But as the audience, we have a slightly better sense of David’s true character. Whenever he’s alone, sitting on his fallen comrade’s bed with the lights off, moonlight streaming through the window, he looks soulless, sitting so still, for so long, it’s bone-chilling.

Wingard and Barrett never give us the slightest peek into what’s going on inside David’s head, a brilliant choice that makes the film devilishly fun as we try to decipher what his true intentions are. Many of his actions indicate he’s genuinely here to help the Petersons, but as gruesome acts of violence start popping up around town (the victim’s of which are all tied to the family), we wonder what David’s angle really is.

What’s unique about The Guest is how chameleonic and nimble it is in terms of tone and genre. It’ll make you laugh to tears (Stevens’ bone-dry comedic timing is on-point, holding his icy stare hilariously longer than you expect), and it’ll then slip gracefully into horror/thriller mode, overwhelming you with nerve-racking suspense. It’s an action movie, a parable on PTSD and government neglect of veterans, a Hitchcockian character study (look up Hitch’s first major film, The Lodger), and a loving throwback to ’80s horror (the synths used in the score are the same ones Carpenter used in the Halloween series). This isn’t a mere pastiche, though–it’s more cohesive and well-crafted than that, turning genre conventions upside-down and toying with our expectations.

Who else, I wonder, could have played the seductive, cyborg-like David as well as Stevens? This is the perfect time in the Brit’s career to be playing this particular role. Had someone like, say, Ryan Gosling been cast as David, the mystery would be lost. Gosling has the ability and good looks to play the part no question, but we know the guy too well. We know the type of roles he gravitates to, and his face is too linked with his celebrity to achieve the sense of mystery the role of David requires. Stevens, on the other hand, has never, ever been seen on screen in a role like this. His chiseled physique is intimidating and alluring (he was a tad fluffier on Downton), and from those deadly eyes there is no escape. This is new ground for him, new ground for us, and we can see him as nothing but a wildcard, a monster we’ll never know.

You’re Next was a playful, muscly riff on home invasion horror, as is The Guest. But with their new film, Wingard and Barrett add layers upon layers of flavor to the recipe, whipping homages to The Terminator, Halloween, and The Stepfather together into a deliciously pulpy 99-minute thrill ride. There’s nothing quite like it, and as a great man once said, hold on to your butts: This prolific writer-director dream team has got plenty more in store for us in the coming years. I’m sweating in anticipation.

The Guest trailer

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.

A teaser trailer and still images are now available for consumption from director Adam Wingard’s (You’re Next) throwback thriller The Guest. Collaborators Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett continue their streak of blending genres together with The Guest, mashing the badass action from The Terminator with the creepy thrills of Halloween. The film is about an odd soldier (Dan Stevens) who befriends a family after claiming to be a friend of their son who died from the war. As soon as he is welcomed into their home, the mayhem begins. I had a chance to see the film earlier this year and it ended up being one of my favorites from the SXSW film festival.

Official teaser trailer for The Guest

Image Stills from The Guest

Frank

An aspiring keyboardist named Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) stumbles into an impeccable opportunity when he walks passed a band that just so happens to need a keyboardist after theirs recently tried to drown himself in the ocean. The best part about this band is that the lead singer, Frank (played by Michael Fassbender), wears a giant papier mache head at all times—even while sleeping and eating, making those situations hysterical. When Jon asks the band member how Frank is able to brush his teeth, he is given the perfect reply, “You’re going to just have to go with it.” It’s this kind of tongue-in-cheek attitude that makes Frank so entertaining to watch.

Unfortunately, Frank doesn’t always bother to follow its own rules. Inside of the third act, the film felt obligated to explain too much of its self, disrupting the go with the flow mentality that came before it. That being said, Frank is still an absurdist comedy about discovering inner creativity that is worth seeking out–especially at SXSW since the festival makes an appearance in the film.

RATING: 7.3

The Guest

Perhaps the most exciting collaboration in the horror genre as of late is director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett. Together the duo has previously worked on the V/H/S series and more recently in the horror/comedy You’re Next. Continuing with their trend of genre mashing, their latest effort in The Guest takes the action and badassery of The Terminator and mixes it with the style and sound of Halloween.

A solider (Dan Stevens) shows up at a door claiming to know the owners son before he passed away in the war. He is a charming man with hypnotic blue eyes and is handsomely built. The family accepts him into the house after he plays his cards right, radiating more cool than even Ryan Gosling could exude. Eventually one of the family members begins to grow suspicious of him after showing signs of trying to hide his true identity.

Using the same equipment used on the soundtrack of John Carpenter’s Halloween 3, the energetic synth soundtrack in The Guest superbly produces the pacing for the mayhem that unfolds. Even though the main character is clearly the villain, I found myself still rooting for him at times—like when he helps one of the family members from being bullied at school. The Guest is like an atmospheric 80s action thriller that is intentionally overacted and exaggerated. The story is not very elaborate, but that doesn’t matter when you’re having this much fun.

RATING: 8.2

Unlike his mainstream-ish crossover Drinking Buddies, Joe Swanberg returns to his less refined style in 24 Exposures, a film that is reminiscent of his earlier work by featuring girls in various stages of undress, non-professional actors, low-budget production values, improvisation, a personal cameo, and relationship struggles at the heart of the story. In this indie crime thriller, Swanberg explores the dark fetishes of voyeurism and obsession with some bold self-aware concepts. However, the director and his alumni crew have more fun presenting these concepts than actually making them effective, which makes the results of 24 Exposures far too underwhelming to make a lasting impression.

Right off the bat, Swanberg begins by playing with genre conventions. With sinister music playing in the background, the camera pans over a lake slowly revealing a pale woman lying lifeless and unclothed on the shore. Then a voice is heard, “Alright we got it,” and the woman stands up and the camera pulls overhead to expose the crew working on this photo shoot. Because the main character Billy (Adam Wingard) is a photographer who creates erotic murder scenes, it is often difficult to tell if what is happening on screen is real or just another prop for his scene. 24 Exposures keeps the audience on their toes by establishing early on that things are not quite what they seem.

Billy comes off as kind of a sketchy dude. Though considering he is a fetish photographer who is surrounded by naked women and fake crime scenes, it is understandable that he is slightly peculiar. In a scene near the beginning of the film, Billy nonchalantly has a threesome with his girlfriend and her attractive friend. Yet in the very next scene, the three of them are at a restaurant where he not-so-subtly takes interest in the waitress. The fact he has an eye for beauty is plausible given that he works with scantily clad models for a living, but the film presents him as someone who might be too devoted to his line of work.

This kind of misdirection comes pretty standard with murder mysteries, but Swanberg has fun tweaking the formula to contain an element of self-awareness which results in a plot twist ending. While these twists give a little depth to the otherwise simplistic plot, the payoff is not as compelling as it could have been. This ineffectiveness likely stems from a combination of unconvincing performances and the film’s straight-to-the-point runtime allowance (a brisk 77 minutes).

However, Swanberg succeeds in what he normally gets right, relationship dynamics. In 24 Exposures, the director explores relationship conflicts that most people can relate to, despite the main character being a nude photographer. Sexual insecurities arise when Billy’s girlfriend finds out he may be taking advantage of his work privileges and also when a jealous boyfriend suspects his partner of cheating on him. These relatable relationship quarrels help give that naturalistic quality which is typically found in Swanberg’s work.

24 Exposures has some fun with the murder mystery genre, but the film ultimately feels more like a proof of concept experiment than a fully fleshed out production. There are some nice ideas and flourishes added to standard fare, yet the film lacks the necessary substance in order to make an impactful conclusion. At the very least, Swanberg demonstrates some creative interpretation of how a low-budget erotic crime thriller can be more than just a bunch of girls taking off their tops—though the film has plenty of that as well.

24 Exposures trailer

New York independent film and music distributor Factory 25 has acquired rights to mumblecore god Joe Swanberg‘s (Drinking Buddies) All the Light in the Sky, starring Jane Adams (Hung.) Adams plays Marie, a middle-aged actress living in Malibu who’s struggling to find work in the twilight of her career. When her young niece (Sophia Takal) comes to visit her waterfront home, Marie feels compelled to confront her midlife insecurities, mostly involving trust issues with men.

All the Light in the Sky was one of our favorite films from SF Indiefest earlier this year, and we’re very glad it got picked up. The film also stars several Swanberg regulars including Simon Barrett, Kent Osborne, Larry Fassenden, Ti West, and more.

Factory 25 will release the film on VOD and iTunes on December 3rd, with a theatrical run in New York following shortly thereafter on December 20th.

Watch the trailer for All the Light in the Sky:

It’s no wonder Adam Wingard’s indie horror flick You’re Next is so damn good—with fellow indie powerhouse filmmakers like Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, and Ti West walking around the blood-splattered set, Wingard was in good company. But take no credit away; he demonstrates he’s got a long and successful directorial career ahead of him. The film—which you can drop in the home invasion column of the horror genre—is 100% organic, pulpy, fresh-squeezed terror in a bottle. It’s an overwhelming rush of pure, insanely violent, visceral horror cinema executed with impeccable style. You’re Next is a straight-up shot of blood and guts with no chaser.

The setup is pretty straightforward—the Davison family gathers for a reunion at their gigantic forested mansion estate. It’s a comfortable cage for the unwitting prey. The knit-sweater-wearing, millionaire patriarch, Paul (Rob Moran), and his jumpy, medicated wife Aubrey (Barbara Crampton) are joined by their four adult children—Crispian (AJ Bowen), a college professor, Drake (Swanberg), an instigative bonehead, Aimee (Seimetz), a dumb, walking squeak toy, and Felix, an immature brat.

Each whiny, spoiled-rotten sibling has brought along a significant other, and at dinner, meathead Drake prods Paul about how “unprofessional” it is to be dating his former student, Erin (Sharni Vinson, who just sits and listens uncomfortably.) The argument heats up and Aimee’s boyfriend, Tariq (West) removes himself from the table, walks to a window, and WHAM! Arrow in the face! We have our first kill, just like that, and from there Wingard keeps his foot heavy on the gas pedal.

You’re Next embraces and celebrates the quick, nasty kill. The deaths are to-the-point, brutal and streamlined—no convoluted Rube Goldberg machine kills here, people. Wingard sticks to good ol’ machetes, knives, and other sharp objects being shoved into skulls. The film’s pace is unrelenting, maintaining a high level of urgency throughout. Wingard gives you no time to breathe, which makes the experience purely sensory and reactionary. There’s really nothing special or inventive about the plot’s many twists and turns, but the film’s breakneck speed makes you far less prepared for them when they come. It’s like riding a kiddie roller coaster at 200 MPH. In the immortal words of Harvey Keitel’s “The Wolf”, this film is “fast, fast, fast.”

A pleasant surprise is that the characters aren’t just lambs lining up for the slaughter—they’re interesting people and their dialogue is punchy and often hilarious. If you’re an indie film geek, Wingard throws more than a few in-jokes for you to chew on. For instance, at the dinner table before his William Tell demise, West (one of the best horror directors working) shares that he’s an independent filmmaker who screens his movies at “underground” film festivals. Swanberg (god of the mumblecore scene) snidely inquires if the festivals are literally held underground, and sarcastically proposes that TV commercials are a more sophisticated art form. Hell, the simple fact that he’s cast Swanberg as an uncultured dummy and Seimetz (known for arthouse gems like Upstream Color) as a grating airhead is funny in itself.

The killers picking off the Davison clan—a sort of animal-mask-wearing S.W.A.T. team—aren’t the most original scary movie villains you’ll find, but their imposing, violent physicality and Wingard’s excellent camerawork makes them feel formidable and frightening.

What is original, however, is Vinson, whose character unexpectedly disrupts what would otherwise be a fairly one-sided killing spree. You see, she’s just as, if not more, deadly and gifted at killing than the masked murderers. For reasons revealed halfway through the film, she’s well-versed at armed and unarmed combat and has a MacGyver/Kevin McCallister-like encyclopedic knowledge of trap-setting (a nail and a foot come to mind.) What results is an even match-up between trained predators, a thrilling turning of the tables that makes for some epic moments of delightful bad-assery. At my press screening there were multiple rounds of applause for Vinson, and one impassioned audience member even screamed “I love you!” at the screen as she repeatedly walloped of one of the invaders in the head with a meat tenderizer. It’s really, really fun to root for her, and it’s nice to have a horror movie protagonist that outshines the villains for once. She’s one to watch.

The film’s score is key in cultivating the film’s inescapable tension. It’s comprised of ominous electronic drones and synths that contrast nicely with the gritty on-screen action, and the sound design is equally effective. Wingard and DP Andrew Droz Palermo keep things visually interesting throughout. Everything, from the constantly shifting, evocative lighting, to the careful camera placement, to the neat technical tricks (most involving blurry reflections), contribute to creating a deep sense of dread.

What Wingard’s made is a horror movie for horror movie geeks. You’re Next even pays homage (intentionally or not) to classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Rear Window (in a sequence that will jolt your senses), and even Home Alone. You’re Next is an absolute beast of a horror picture that’s so fierce, barbaric, and terrifying that the guy sitting next to me in the theater started to convulse from fright and leaped over his chair and bolted out of the theater. Plus, it’s got a brain and a stellar heroine to boot. See it with friends—you’ll gasp, scream, jump, and squirm in unison, the sign of a true horror masterpiece. It’s gonna be hard to top this one.

You’re Next trailer:

It comes as no surprise that a sequel has already come out less than a year later after the success of V/H/S. The quick turnaround is also not a surprise considering the low budget and format of the anthology itself (in fact, this movie was ready to go before the first one officially hit theatres). People discover a pile of VHS tapes and put them on one by one, with each piece of found footage on the videos making up a short. The predecessor’s lazy appropriation of found footage aesthetics are still here, but the conceptual insanity of the tapes have been upped considerably. The trade-off between committing to the format and maximizing entertainment value works enough to make V/H/S/2 an improvement over V/H/S, even if it’s only a marginal one.

Simon Barrett handles directing duties for “Tape 49,” the wraparound segment which is just as forgettable as V/H/S’ “Tape 56.” This time the poor souls discovering the tapes are two private investigators who break into a house and find a pile of videos waiting for them. There are some vague pieces of information in this short that expand the series’ mythology, but none of it is particularly interesting or memorable. Its only purpose is to act as a palate cleanser between segments, a job it does well even if it’s not for the right reasons.

Adam Wingard, who directed “Tape 56” in the last film, is first up with “Phase I Clinical Trials.” This short is the most derivative one, as it feels like The Pang Brothers’ The Eye ported into the found footage genre. After getting an eye transplant that uses a camera to help regain vision, a man (Wingard) begins seeing ghosts as the transplant picks up on the same frequencies the undead exist on. The segment, filmed entirely from the eye-cam, feels like a leftover from the first film. It’s lazy, filled with bad jump scares and eye-roll worthy excuses for exposition and nudity.

The next tape is the first one by a new director in the series. Eduardo Sanchez, the co-director of The Blair Witch Project, tries his hand at a zombie film with “A Ride in the Park.” The main selling point on this tape is its unique gimmick, where a biker with a helmet cam gets bitten by a zombie and turns into one. The POV zombie twist is definitely original, but that doesn’t mean it’s especially good. The segment’s ending, a surprising attempt at making the zombie protagonist human, doesn’t work due to the truncated nature of the storyline.

The third short, which functions as a centerpiece of the entire film, is Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto’s “Safe Haven.” Since V/H/S/2 premiered this has been the one thing everyone’s been talking about, and it more than lives up to the hype. A documentary crew profiles a cult leader and, while visiting his compound for an interview, get caught up in the middle of something far worse than anyone could imagine. This is not only the series’ highpoint by a country mile, it’s also the best horror film of the year (even if it’s only 30 minutes). Evans, who wowed people with The Raid: Redemption last year, once again seems heavily influenced by John Carpenter with his slow building of dread before unleashing pure apocalyptic insanity. It won’t be a surprise if people end up buying V/H/S/2 on video only so they can get their hands on this segment.

Unfortunately for Jason Eisener, he has to follow Evans and Tjahjanto’s gonzo horror masterpiece with “Alien Abduction Slumber Party.” Thankfully it’s a good closing short for the film, and the only one that feels committed to the found footage format. The self-explanatory title sums up the story, as a group of young kids partying while their parents are away get attacked by aliens. The footage comes from a camera that was mounted on their pet dog, which makes most of the segment incompressible, but it’s largely the point. There are only hints of the insanity going on in “Slumber Party,” and the frantic nature makes it a more exciting watch.

By simply reducing the number of tapes in this film by one, V/H/S/2 is a leaner and meaner sequel. It continues in the first film’s tradition of adapting old horror subgenres (ghosts, zombies, apocalyptic horror and aliens, respectively) into the found footage format while ramping up the absurdity. It’s a predictable direction for the series to go, but a welcome one nonetheless. Only time will tell if a second sequel will provide diminishing returns for the series, but as of now V/H/S/2 is enough of an improvement to suggest there’s still a reason to keep making these films.

Well Horror fans, we finally got a trailer for V/H/S. Premiering yesterday on Yahoo Movies, the trailer promises to be filled with kills, chills and blood spills. Bringing together some of the hottest young blood in the horror genre, the film is a POV found footage flick that is actually an anthology film. The premise involves a few people brought together by a mysterious party to ransack a house in search of peculiar VHS tape. By the looks of it they end up finding hell.

Some of the directors whose work is on display here is Adam Wingard (A Horrible Way to Die). Wingard also directed You’re Next, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and still has no release date. David Bruckner who made the horror/comedy/drama hybrid The Signal a few years back actually wrote two of the vignettes. Also contributing is Ti West (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), who I think is the best American filmmaker working in Horror today. The film premieres on Video on Demand August 31st while a theatrical release isn’t until October 5th.

So sit back and enjoy the red band trailer that is DEFINITELY not safe for work.

Watch V/H/S official trailer: