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29 days until the movie opens…
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Thursday, August 18, 2005
10:04:00 PM EDT
… And someone pointed out that I promised on Monday to make my next entry “sexier”
But then yesterday I gave you Seth... Sorry.
If only I had a sex life of my own to write about… Uh, different blog. What if I just post some pix of our attractive cast, that should suffice, right?
Anyway, of course I didn’t mean the blog would literally be “sexy,” merely more interesting. Although Cry_Wolf is sexy. And smart. But perhaps most of all, scary. (gotta cover the three s’s) I think the inherent sexiness of the movie is a definite crowd-pleaser, but that kind of came naturally thanks to the chemistry of our cast. And the smarts of the story is ultimately what will set this film apart from typical genre fare (we hope). But most of all, people will probably come see the movie to be scared. And that was something that took some work. So taking a page out of the Lindy Booth playbook, I think I might just answer a question I often get asked: “This genre has such a varied history – what were your influences?” Below, you’ll find me pontificating about the horror genre, as well as our influences in that arena…
While writing the script and making the movie, Jeff and I watched and re-watched every modern horror/thriller we could get our hands on (in fact I’m pretty sure I still owe some late fees at Blockbuster). The list included, but was not limited to the likes of Psycho, Jaws, Halloween - basically anything that scared us silly growing up… but we noticed that the genre had gone through certain cycles over the last decade or so.
Freddy and Jason movies (not Freddy vs. Jason, btw) gained then lost their audience, Scream reinvented the genre by adding self-awareness and deconstruction, but that soon turned into straight-up parody with Scary Movie, then the hardcore slasher made a comeback with the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre… so where does Cry_Wolf fall in that company? Well, ideally our film will be the next step in that evolution. There is zero campiness in the movie, no wink and no nod, and it plays it totally straight all the way. However, there is no doubt that these characters have also seen all of those movies.
There were certain things we liked about these genre touchstones, certain things we loved, and certain departures we wanted to take. So we basically laid out some ground rules:
Our scares were going to come from pervasive paranoia, tension, and from “boo moments"
In referencing the paranoia we talked a lot about 70s films like Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man – where there’s a strong lead the audience identifies with, who has no idea what’s going on, and the audience puts the pieces together at the same time the hero does. For the “boo moments,” I know Jeff studied the films of John Carpenter and Wes Craven a lot (as well as Alfred Hitchcock, of course), and worked really hard to ride the wave of the audience’s expectations… ie, a boo won’t mean as much if you see it coming, or if it comes too deep out of left field. The sweet spot for a good boo is a tricky thing… but I think we hit it quite a few times in Cry_Wolf.
We were going to be rooting for our characters, not against them.
Jeff often said he wanted this to be more like Jaws, not Jaws 2 (sorry I’m stealing all your best lines, Jeff. But that’s what you get for going out of town). The major difference to him was that in Jaws you’re rooting for the people, whereas in Jaws 2 you were rooting for the shark. Take House of Wax (the recent remake), for example… A fun film. I especially enjoyed the work of our good friend Jared Padalecki. But that’s a different movie than Cry_Wolf specifically because you went to see Paris die. Warner Bros. publicity even had “See Paris Die” t-shirts made up. You wanted her to be killed in as gruesome a manner as could possibly be conceived. And for the most part, the film delivered. But if you want our characters to die, then we haven’t done our jobs… We hope that you’ll like them, want to spend even more than 90 minutes with them, and it’ll be tragic (although inevitable) when bad things happen to them.
We needed an iconic killer.
In Scream, there’s a great homage to Nightmare on Elm Street… Henry Winkler looks in the hall for the killer, but all he sees is the janitor mopping the floor – wearing a red striped sweater. As soon as you see that sweater, you automatically think: Freddy Krueger. And from the very beginning, it’s been a goal of ours to create that kind of icon of fear. My personal dream is to walk into a Halloween party later this year, and see someone dressed in a camo jacket and orange ski mask, holding a hunting knife. So Jeff and I sat around and asked ourselves, Okay, what would scare us? First thing is something that covers his face – but anyone can buy. Then there’sa weapon… ice pick, fishing hook, chainsaw, blades for finger nails? … Nah, we’re trying to keep it grounded, so what’s something anyone could get their hands on? Well, what’s more frightening than a long serrated hunting knife? Very little. The mere thought of one of those things puncturing my skin gives me chills. And you’ll notice in the movie, when Owen and Dodger create The Wolf, they pretty much have the same conversation Jeff and I had while writing the script.
Anyway, I just realized I’ve been writing for a while, and I could go on forever about making this movie (because making this movie actually did take forever) but if you post some comments of your favorite scary movies, maybe Jeff will share his when he gets back.
Thanks for reading,
Beau
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10:04:00 PM EDT
29 days until the movie opens…
But then yesterday I gave you Seth... Sorry.
If only I had a sex life of my own to write about… Uh, different blog. What if I just post some pix of our attractive cast, that should suffice, right?
Anyway, of course I didn’t mean the blog would literally be “sexy,” merely more interesting. Although Cry_Wolf is sexy. And smart. But perhaps most of all, scary. (gotta cover the three s’s) I think the inherent sexiness of the movie is a definite crowd-pleaser, but that kind of came naturally thanks to the chemistry of our cast. And the smarts of the story is ultimately what will set this film apart from typical genre fare (we hope). But most of all, people will probably come see the movie to be scared. And that was something that took some work. So taking a page out of the Lindy Booth playbook, I think I might just answer a question I often get asked: “This genre has such a varied history – what were your influences?” Below, you’ll find me pontificating about the horror genre, as well as our influences in that arena…
While writing the script and making the movie, Jeff and I watched and re-watched every modern horror/thriller we could get our hands on (in fact I’m pretty sure I still owe some late fees at Blockbuster). The list included, but was not limited to the likes of Psycho, Jaws, Halloween - basically anything that scared us silly growing up… but we noticed that the genre had gone through certain cycles over the last decade or so.
Freddy and Jason movies (not Freddy vs. Jason, btw) gained then lost their audience, Scream reinvented the genre by adding self-awareness and deconstruction, but that soon turned into straight-up parody with Scary Movie, then the hardcore slasher made a comeback with the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre… so where does Cry_Wolf fall in that company? Well, ideally our film will be the next step in that evolution. There is zero campiness in the movie, no wink and no nod, and it plays it totally straight all the way. However, there is no doubt that these characters have also seen all of those movies.
There were certain things we liked about these genre touchstones, certain things we loved, and certain departures we wanted to take. So we basically laid out some ground rules:
Our scares were going to come from pervasive paranoia, tension, and from “boo moments"
In referencing the paranoia we talked a lot about 70s films like Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man – where there’s a strong lead the audience identifies with, who has no idea what’s going on, and the audience puts the pieces together at the same time the hero does. For the “boo moments,” I know Jeff studied the films of John Carpenter and Wes Craven a lot (as well as Alfred Hitchcock, of course), and worked really hard to ride the wave of the audience’s expectations… ie, a boo won’t mean as much if you see it coming, or if it comes too deep out of left field. The sweet spot for a good boo is a tricky thing… but I think we hit it quite a few times in Cry_Wolf.
We were going to be rooting for our characters, not against them.
Jeff often said he wanted this to be more like Jaws, not Jaws 2 (sorry I’m stealing all your best lines, Jeff. But that’s what you get for going out of town). The major difference to him was that in Jaws you’re rooting for the people, whereas in Jaws 2 you were rooting for the shark. Take House of Wax (the recent remake), for example… A fun film. I especially enjoyed the work of our good friend Jared Padalecki. But that’s a different movie than Cry_Wolf specifically because you went to see Paris die. Warner Bros. publicity even had “See Paris Die” t-shirts made up. You wanted her to be killed in as gruesome a manner as could possibly be conceived. And for the most part, the film delivered. But if you want our characters to die, then we haven’t done our jobs… We hope that you’ll like them, want to spend even more than 90 minutes with them, and it’ll be tragic (although inevitable) when bad things happen to them.
We needed an iconic killer.
In Scream, there’s a great homage to Nightmare on Elm Street… Henry Winkler looks in the hall for the killer, but all he sees is the janitor mopping the floor – wearing a red striped sweater. As soon as you see that sweater, you automatically think: Freddy Krueger. And from the very beginning, it’s been a goal of ours to create that kind of icon of fear. My personal dream is to walk into a Halloween party later this year, and see someone dressed in a camo jacket and orange ski mask, holding a hunting knife. So Jeff and I sat around and asked ourselves, Okay, what would scare us? First thing is something that covers his face – but anyone can buy. Then there’sa weapon… ice pick, fishing hook, chainsaw, blades for finger nails? … Nah, we’re trying to keep it grounded, so what’s something anyone could get their hands on? Well, what’s more frightening than a long serrated hunting knife? Very little. The mere thought of one of those things puncturing my skin gives me chills. And you’ll notice in the movie, when Owen and Dodger create The Wolf, they pretty much have the same conversation Jeff and I had while writing the script.
Anyway, I just realized I’ve been writing for a while, and I could go on forever about making this movie (because making this movie actually did take forever) but if you post some comments of your favorite scary movies, maybe Jeff will share his when he gets back.
Thanks for reading,
Beau
Written by wadlowwolf Blog about this entry |
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This entry has 6 comments: (Add your own)
-
OMG!!!! i saw the preview for the movie when i saw red eye 2 days ago...Your plot is ONE OF A KIND!!! I DESPRETLY WANT TO SEE IT!!!!
I love the horror/thriller genre!!!! I can tell that u have a big hit on your hands!!!
I'm gonna take ALL my friends to see it opening weekend!!!
<3<3 Lexie -
great blog. lots of good info and good incite. nice job.
I liked reading about how you gies came up with the killer. I'm really excited to see how it all comes together. -
hey! AWESOME entries. this one, especially, was very interesting to read. it is so cool to know that you guys researched the horror genre so thoroughly so you could really make an incredible horror flick such as this one. i am really looking forward to the big debut. anyway, i thought i would drop a line saying keep up the good work. a big "hello" for you and all the actors and crew behind Cry Wolf...give kristy wu a hug for me! :)
-- Shane
8/23/05 9:22 AM
PLEASE COMMENT ME!!!!
my email is highonpixistikz@yahoo.com
I'm sounding despret...aren't i...