Welcome Home: Returning to Last House

Welcome Home: Returning to Last House

Flash forward 30-plus years. Intrigued by the astonishing success of such horror remakes as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Craven’s own The Hills Have Eyes, the producing partners pondered revisiting The Last House on the Left. Craven offers: “Because the original had been produced on such a minuscule budget, there were many aspects of the story I simply couldn’t afford to explore. Fortunately, the new version has a much bigger budget, so we were able to greatly expand the production’s scope and take more time and care in shooting.”

In order to reintroduce this classic to contemporary audiences, Craven and team began to look for a rising young director to bring a new perspective for the story told 37 years later. It would require a visual innovator— someone with not only a dark imagination but also a talent capable of revisiting the action, gallows humor and terror of the landmark film. Better yet, he needed to integrate the elements into a distinct, new experience. Over the course of a year, the team and Rogue Pictures considered nearly 100 different directors for the position. The project’s co-producer Cody Zwieg was impressed after he saw Greek director Dennis Iliadis’ film Hardcore, the controversial story of four teenage prostitutes in modern-day Athens. After viewing the film, he encouraged Cunningham, Craven and Craven’s longtime producing partner Marianne Maddalena to see it. His producers were equally impressed by Hardcore and its provocative, fresh approach to the world’s oldest profession. “We all agreed it was brilliant,” says Maddalena.

Paige (MARTHA MACISAAC) screams for help. Hardcore top-lined Variety’s Critics’ Choice awards as one of the best films by new European directors for 2005, and the film also won the prestigious German Independence Award. Moreover, the independently produced, low-budget film had exemplary production values, showing that Iliadis was a savvy filmmaker who could be highly creative within budgetary constraints. “We knew the remake would only work if we could find someone who could create strong characters while handling the more extreme moments,” explains Zwieg. “Hardcore wasn’t a genre or a horror film but showed completely believable characters in horrific, realistic situations. Many directors could handle the surface elements, the blood and shock moments of Last House, but Dennis proved that he could do it all without exploiting his characters and their situations.”

Iliadis jumped at the chance to work with Craven on Last House and make the movie his American debut. “I’ve seen all of Wes’ films and loved them,” he states. “This film is based on a very archetypal story and primal story, which is a great foundation. I wanted to keep all the shock value and the power of Wes’ film and develop the story in my own way.” With Hardcore, Iliadis had elicited performances of depth and beauty, while working with mostly nonprofessional actors for a long rehearsal. He would bring those learned lessons to Last House. “You must discover the characters with the actors,” says the director. “We rehearsed for a month-and-a-half on my first film. We got to a place where we could shoot very difficult scenes very quickly, because we had developed the characters in rehearsal. All the extreme scenes came out naturally after that.”

Using Craven’s original screenplay as the template, the production team assigned writer Adam Alleca and then Carl Ellsworth with the task of updating and fine-tuning Last House. Ellsworth, who worked with Craven on Red Eye, relished the opportunity to revisit his director’s inaugural property. “This is a classic good-triumphingover- evil movie. I wanted to thriller-ize it. At the end of the day, it’s about normal everyday people in extraordinary circumstances, and it doesn’t get anymore extreme than this.” Iliadis welcomed the challenge of interweaving visceral thrills with complex characters. “I want this to be a film that grabs you and never lets you go,” he says. “At the same time, it should make us think a bit about human nature. Who is civilized, who is uncivilized? Who is violent, who is normal? Our film grabs you by the throat and tells us some things about human nature. We are an interesting species.”

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Friday the 13th: A Re-imagining…

A dynamic force on the set of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” director Marcus Nispel has a unique creative process that “really worked the first time,” recalls Fuller. “Marcus has a great sense of style and by re-teaming with cinematographer Daniel Pearl, we all felt that the movie was going to have a unique, beautiful, rich look.”

Fuller continues, “Marcus completely understands the timing of the scare, probably better than anyone else today. It may not seem like a complex thing, but it’s like a comedy director who knows exactly where to put the joke. He also infuses the film with frenetic energy.”

“I said to them, ‘Whatever you do, bring the fun back and find a way to incorporate an underground system for Jason to operate from,’” explains Nispel. “I liked that idea because I don’t think summer camps in general are particularly scary in this day and age—you needed something more.”

“Friday the 13th” is the producing team’s seventh title to date and, with all the horror genre success under their banner, Fuller and Form felt it was critical to find writers who were really connected to the franchise.

“We were very lucky that writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who had written ‘Freddy vs. Jason,’ were excited to take the ride,” says Fuller. “We knew they cared as much about Jason and his legacy as we did and were confident that they would deliver a script that took all of the best elements of the first few films and combined them with some fresh, inventive stuff. They really nailed it.”

“When the script came in, I loved it,” comments Nispel. “It’s still the same terrifying Jason, only they reveal aspects that hadn’t been shown so far.”

For screenwriters Shannon and Swift, revamping one of the most recognizable horror villains ever meant going back to the franchise’s roots. “We felt it was important to go back to the basics and put Jason back in the woods again,” reveals Swift.

“Our idea was to make the story much grittier than in recent years, with a fast and loose Jason like never seen before,” adds Shannon. “We wanted to make him someone who was actually in the woods surviving off the land like a real human being would.”
“We wanted the character to be territorial, like a hunter,” injects Shannon. “It’s not like he’s just going around killing people randomly. If you invade his territory, he’s going to protect his turf and you’re going to pay an awful price.”

Nispel appreciated the writers’ respectful take. “They would never refer to Jason as the monster or the villain. He is the anti-hero. And that is what draws me to these kinds of characters. I’m not generally that interested in supernatural characters. What’s scary for me is that somebody like Leatherface or Jason could be my neighbor.”

For Shannon and Swift, as well as the filmmakers, one of the biggest challenges in writing and developing the screenplay was deciding where to start the film and what to include from the 11 previous films.

“It’s a lot of pressure to re-launch a franchise like this because you really have two different audiences to please.” says Fuller. “There are the fans who already know the stories and are going to come to see it because of the curiosity factor. Then you have to try to also capture those who weren’t necessarily fans of the title, but who love a good horror film. We felt that a way to serve both those audiences was to give them something they haven’t seen before, but also tie it in with iconic moments from the original films.”

Posted in Damian Shannon, Friday the 13th, Marcus Nispel, Mark Swift, Swift, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, classic horror film | No Comments »

We all grew up with the ‘Friday the 13th’ films

“Somebody go missin’ round here, they gone for good.”

“What you do when you make a movie like this is ask yourself, ‘What is it about the mythology that makes people want to watch it over and over again?’” says director Marcus Nispel. “Then you make sure you give them what they want, but not exactly what they expect. That’s what makes it fun.”

“Jason Voorhees, Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger… there are a few villains that just stick with you,” states star Jared Padalecki. “You’re interested in what they’ll do next, what other havoc can they wreak. Even if you haven’t seen the movies, you’ve heard of them, you’ve heard of ‘Friday the 13th.’ It’s all about Jason.”

After the success of 2003’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Platinum Dunes producers Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller reunited with Nispel to bring a new “Friday the 13th” to the screen.

“Because ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was so successful,” notes Fuller, “Michael and Drew and I sat down and said, ‘Are there any other titles that we loved when we were growing up?’ That’s when ‘Friday the 13th’ came into our minds.”

“We all felt it would be great to take the character of Jason Voorhees and bring him back to the screen,” adds Form.

“We are horror fans first and producers second and we all grew up with and loved the ‘Friday the 13th’ films,” informs Fuller. “They were fantastic and a lot of fun in their own way. They really created a subgenre within the horror genre that struck a cord with audiences. So when you are presented with the opportunity to make a movie like this, it’s impossible to say no if you truly are a fan.”

Fuller expounds, “The greatest thing about the films was the experience of sitting in a theater with other people and being scared out of my mind. I went to a summer camp in Maine and one of the big reasons most people get so scared watching the films is because so many of us have had a summer camp experience or have gone camping.”

Posted in Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees, Marcus Nispel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, horror fans | No Comments »

Re-imagining of the classic horror film Friday the 13th

Welcome back to Crystal Lake in a chilling re-imagining of the classic horror film “Friday the 13th.”

Searching for his missing sister, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) heads up to the eerie woods of legendary Crystal Lake, where he stumbles on the creaky remains of rotting old cabins behind moss-covered trees.

And that’s not the only thing lying in wait under the brush.

Against the advice of police and cautions from the locals, Clay pursues what few leads he has in the search for his missing sister, Whitney (Amanda Righetti), with the help of Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), a young woman he meets among a group of college kids up for an all-thrills weekend. But they are all about to find much more than they bargained for.

Little do they know, they’ve entered the domain of one of the most terrifying specters in American film history—the infamous killer who haunts Crystal Lake, armed with a razor-sharp machete… Jason Voorhees.

“Friday the 13th” is directed by Marcus Nispel and stars Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, and Derek Mears as Jason.
The movie is produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, who together produced “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Amityville Horror,” and original “Friday the 13th” producer/director Sean Cunningham.

Nispel directed the film from a screenplay by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift, based on a story by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift and Mark Wheaton. Walter Hamada, Guy Stodel and Brian Witten served as executive producers, with Alma Kuttruff co-producing.
The behind the scenes creative team was led by director of photography Daniel C. Pearl, production designer Jeremy Conway and editor Ken Blackwell, with music by Steve Jablonsky.

New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures present, in association with Michael Bay, a Platinum Dunes production, “Friday the 13th.” The film will be released in theaters domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and internationally by Paramount Pictures.

Posted in Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Danielle Panabaker, Friday the 13th, Jared Padalecki, Michael Bay, The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Travis Van Winkle, classic horror film, horror film | No Comments »