If there’s anyone who knows how to break into horror these days, it’s Ti West, the 30-year-old writer/director whose feature films The Roost, Trigger Man, The House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (which he disowned after extensive re-editing by the producers) have made him a well-known name and respected auteur in the scare community. After showing his latest movie The Innkeepers at the Los Angeles Film Festival last week, Movieline asked the filmmaker to share his pro tips for breaking into the horror genre.
1. Take advantage of the free tools, and don’t be afraid of video.
“I think now our culture accepts video as an acceptable medium after seeing so much reality TV. Five or six years ago, audiences might have said, ‘This looks too low budget’ but now people are comfortable watching a movie on video so you can get away with making it cheaply. […] I think one of the keys to me being kind of successful is that I’ve developed my own kind of mini brand so people recognize, ‘Oh that’s a movie from that guy.’ People can do that really cheaply now — not just make a movie but establish their own kind of brand.”
2. Don’t settle on an idea that is not worth two and a half years of your life.
“I don’t make horror movies to see people get killed. That is not my intention behind it. I just don’t think I could have an idea like that — not that I am opposed to it, maybe one day I will have one — but at this moment, I would not spend two and a half years of my life on a project where I spend 40…
Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell Jennifer Scholle Jennifer Sky Jenny McCarthy
