Ti West
Tags: SXSW, Ti West, the innkeepers, the house of the devil, south by southwest, The los angeles film fesetival, Fantastic Fest, Sara Paxton, Pat Healy
Ti West is becoming a major name in horror movies. His 2009 film, The House of the Devil, harkened back to 1980s atmospheric horror, to the point where it was available on VHS in a big plastic shell case. He’s been invited to speak on numerous panels, such as the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival’s Directing the Dead one, where he joined Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer, and Cloverfield and Let Me In’s Matt Reeves, and memorably spoke about the awkward moment when you have to direct a woman to show her naked breasts.
His new film, The Innkeepers, premiered at this year’s SXSW. After continuing to play the festival circuit, it’ll finally creep into homes via VOD on December 30 (and will get a theatrical release on February 3, 2012).
The Innkeepers is a horror comedy about two clerks working at a soon-to-be defunct hotel during its last weekend in business. Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) pass the time by speculating about ghostly inhabitants and attempting to record EVP.
Claire’s slapstick bumbling and Luke’s sarcastic comments are a change in tone from the popular House of the Devil (a satanic cult movie that exploited the power of silence with nary a laugh). West has also directed The Roost and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, although he disowns the latter because it was taken away from him in editing. He also directed segments of the forthcoming films V/H/S and The ABCs of Death.
Midway through the SXSW festival in Austin, I caught up with West at a point when we didn’t have a full night’s sleep between us. I was going on three hours and he just barely had me beat. Those are the glorious moments when you just push through the exhaustion on pure adrenaline because you just have to keep up with the prevailing film geekery.
SuicideGirls: Last year on the “Directing the Dead” panel you said when you had to ask an actress to do nudity, it reminded you that that's a human being.
Ti West: Yeah. I do mean that but I don’t mean it in a “That’s a person, that’s offensive” kind of way because I don’t care about that. I mean it as in when you actually say it to someone, you realize you’ve just said that out loud and you’re like, “This is weird.” You just feel like a creep is what I’m getting at. It’s an odd situation to be in that when you’re not in it seems like oh, it’s just business as usual. Then when you’re actually there being like I have to tell her, it’s not even like because she knows she’s going to be naked, but I’ve got to tell her, “You’ve got to turn your boobs more to the camera,” you’re like oh man, this is weird.
SG:
I found it a compassionate point of view because it’s a staple of the genre we love. Should we feel a little guilty for enjoying naked boobies?
TW:
No, I don’t think so. I’m just saying it’s just awkward to do it. As the person doing it, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just when you actually say it out loud, and maybe this is just me being weird and insecure about it but the times that I’ve had to do it, it’s one of those I can’t believe I have to go up to this girl and be like, “You need to turn more this way because we can’t see.” They never care. Everyone’s always fine with it but it’s just you realize what you’re doing when you ask that.
SG:
My take was you were being compassionate.
TW:
I think that’s ultimately where I come from.
SG:
Of course we hear stories of bad producers forcing naive young actresses to do it, but I take a positive perspective that that’s a cool girl, she’s sharing her hot body with me on screen, so thank you, lady. Maybe it isn’t always like that.
TW:
It’s just weird because it’s people everywhere. The whole thing is just awkward. Whenever anyone says, “Sex scenes are so awkward to shoot,” it is. It’s just a weird thing to be doing. It’s part of it but it’s odd.
SG:
When you’re doing a horror movie set in a hotel, is that dangerous territory?
TW:
Well, I’ll tell you that the first time we put the camera on a steadicam and walked down the hallway, I was like, “Oh, shit.” Because you can’t not. As soon we did it, as soon as he walks down that hallway you’re like, “Oh man, The Shining.” What can you do? I tried to stay far away from that stuff. I think other than a few visual things like that you can’t avoid, I think we’re a standalone thing. But yes, that’s one of the greatest movies ever made. I’m uncomfortable making a movie that’s similar to a movie like that.
SG:
They still make exorcism movies though.
TW:
That’s true. I feel like movies, sometimes they use similar bell type sounds and you’re like dude, what are you doing? I don’t know. When there’s a movie that good, it’s best to just leave it be.
SG:
Did you want to use humor this time around?
TW:
Yes. House of the Devil was a movie about a girl that was just bummed. So I was just like I don’t want to make another bum out I don’t have any money kind of movie. My whole goal with this movie was to make something that was charming. I have had every kind of part time day job ever and I really like those relationships you have with people. They’re not your friends, they’re your coworkers but you spend eight hours a day with them and you develop these quasi-friendships with them and it’s usually snarky and there’s usually a lot of humor in there. That’s really where it came from is to really try to make a charming movie about these minimum wage jobs that turns into a horror movie.
SG:
Charming is a good word. I described it as campfire style. The scare is part of the fun.
TW:
I can see that. Certainly when she tells the ghost story especially but I like that hanging out, you’re just kind of making conversation because what else are you going to do? Then you kind of develop this rapport based on that. That’s what I thought these two characters having spent so much time just sitting at a desk together.
SG:
Even just as far as the joy of being scared, versus the intense disturbing horror movies.
TW:
Yeah, again, House of the Devil is a girl who’s bummed out and then it’s a Satanic cult and it’s violent. I’d just done that so I wanted to make something that was a little bit more kooky and mystical and go down that not really fantasy, but a little bit more abstract field and have humor and have kooky wacky like screwball comedy stuff, but still have it be scary, which is like an odd combination but I felt like the contrast of those two things would work well.
SG:
Speaking of mystical, several movies this year dealt with the interconnection human beings have with each other and the afterlife: Source Code, Insidious, the documentary I Am. What do you think makes so many filmmakers explore that metaphysical theme right now?
TW:
I think because even if you’re a skeptic, there’s some inkling that there might be some truth to that. Nobody really believes in vampires. Nobody really believes in werewolves. Nobody believes in zombies, but ghosts are something that’s like I don’t think I believe, but maybe. I think there’s something about that that audiences and filmmakers, your own mortality, there’s something you can’t help being sort of interested in that. That’s to me what’s always been interesting about ghost stories. That’s why I think those movies to me are always the scariest movies, because I don’t really believe they’re going to happen, but I’m not 100% sure that they won’t. I’m in the high 90s but there’s that little percent, whereas I have no fear of zombies breaking in here ever. So that’s just entertainment to me. It can be well done craft or social commentary but it stops there. Whereas the ghost thing I think hits everybody more personally. Also anyone that’s had anyone in their life die, that’s a really trying experience and that’s something you think a lot about, like what happens? It’s not even necessarily in a religious way. I guess like you said, in a metaphysical way.
SG:
Have you explored that deeper in real life, any reading?
TW:
I had a friend that used to listen to a lot of Deepak. Me having to always hear her tell me about Deepak, Ekhart Tolle, some of that made it into the Kelly McGillis character because I would hear all these things about consciousness and all this stuff. I cannibalized some of her ramblings to me and put them into there.
SG:
What are your favorite obscure horror comedies?
TW:
Ah, I don’t know because there’s not really that many that don’t go into the weird outrageously silly Troma territory. This isn’t totally a horror movie but Death Race 2000 is a great comedy dark movie. Eating Raoul is a great dark black comedy with horrific elements. But just straight up ones, there’s not too many. The Burbs is awesome. The Burbs is one of my favorites. It’s genius and it’s not straight up horror but it sort of is because it’s the creepy neighbors but The Burbs is probably the answer I’ll go with. Forget Evil Dead II. Let’s go with The Burbs.
SG:
Are you drawn more to horror movies as a movie viewer?
TW:
No, I have 1000 DVDs and the minority is horror movies but I do like provocative stuff. So I’m always going to respond more to that. I just feel when stuff is the same, another Transformers movie, another Fast and Furious, other than some effects, there’s nothing in that movie that’s going to be new to me. I’ve said this a bunch of times but Steven Soderbergh had a really good quote when they were like, “How come you’re taking some time off from making movies?” He said, “I just can’t get excited about another over the shoulder shot.” It’s like something else needs to excite me so I’m always looking for edgier more provocative movies that give you a visceral reaction because so much doesn’t anymore.
SG:
Do you have Blu-rays?
TW:
I don’t have a lot, I have maybe 10 to 20.
SG:
What movies are in your main rotation, DVD or Blu-ray?
TW:
Well, I did this interview for Criterion for the Hausu DVD and they gave me a stack of DVDs. So my beginning of Blu-ray was just all Criterion stuff. I was watching a lot of that, rewatching Videodrome and all that sort of stuff. I bought Scott Pilgrim which I like a lot. Because of Netflix I get everything on Blu-ray whenever it comes out and it’s a fantastic format. As far as DVD stuff, my purchase of DVD has slowed, much like everybody, has slowed down over the years.
SG:
We don’t need to own anymore. There are all sorts of sources of instant movies.
TW:
My Blu-ray player is a Playstation and I got it because of the Netflix Instant thing and that just blows my mind. I think that’s amazing. The more stuff that gets on Instant, I have this floor to ceiling thing of DVDs that I just look at like, “I don’t even need these.”
SG:
What are your perennials?
TW:
Golden Child, The Burbs, Karate Kid, Teen Wolf. Movies I grew up with. 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop I watch all the time. I think it’s great. There’s something about those movies, it was the last bit of not lowest common denominator. They weren’t attempting as much. It was before all the test screenings. 48 Hours is a comedy but also an action movie, but also really dark and also just really well written and really well shot by Walter Hill. How often do you get a really well known gritty director to do a Nick Nolte/Eddie Murphy buddy comedy racial tension action movie? It’s like whoa. That just doesn’t happen anymore. Those are the movies I grew up with and I really like that stuff.
SG:
What is on your stack to be viewed?
TW:
There’s a bunch of Criterion things that I haven’t seen. Friends of Eddie Coyle, I haven’t watched that yet. I might be pretty caught up. I don’t have a stack, I don’t think, of stuff to see. When I was in New York finishing all the sound for the movie, I was in a hotel so I would just sit and watch tons of stuff. I watched the whole Sopranos season so I caught up with that. I’d never seen that before. I got really into TV box sets because I like the long form of it.
SG:
Do you ever go through your collection and pull stuff out to get rid of?
TW:
No. The collector element in me, I hold onto it.
SG:
I’ve had Cabin Fever 2 on my stack for two years and I still haven't gotten to it. Should I watch it?
TW:
Uh, I guess. It’s not my movie. I’m sure there’s things in there that could be amusing. Yeah, I don’t know. It doesn’t bother me. I’m long passed it at this point but it’s a bummer, it’s a shame.
SG:
But you know how it goes, you might want to watch it to see what you're talking about, but then it just sits there.
TW:
Actually, you should watch it. Here’s why. The way that you brought that up knowing the history of it, it’s totally fine. If you didn’t know the history and you were like man, I loved your movie and now I’m going to check out this Cabin Fever one you made, I’d be like, “Don’t!” Because then it’s like you’re going in thinking this is going thinking this is going to be like those. Then you’re going to be like oh, what happened here? The fact that you are educated to know that there were problems and I tried to Alan Smithee it and all that stuff, then you can watch it as a sort of experiment I suppose.
SG:
I didn’t know that when I first got the DVD, but I've learned about the whole history of it as it's sat on my shelf.
TW:
But knowing that, I would encourage anyone to watch it because everyone in that movie, I don’t dislike any of those people. Good for them. It’s just even people who really like that movie, I don’t feel comfortable taking any credit for it. That movie, I was editing it, it was going well and then everything I did they deleted and someone else started from scratch and re-edited it. I just think they missed what it was. Some people say, “How different could it be? It’s the same footage.” It’s like Dane Cook telling Seinfeld jokes. The material’s fine but the delivery is all fucked up. He’s giving you all this energy and it’s not supposed to be done that way. The material’s still funny but no one’s laughing. That’s how I feel about Cabin Fever. It’s a local band covering a famous song where you’re like, “This is the same, it’s just not as exciting.” That’s how I feel about it.
SG:
The longer it gets the more I wonder why I haven’t just watched it yet.
TW:
It’ll pop up on Netflix Instant and you’ll see it like that. The Alan Smithee thing would’ve been cool because I would’ve been part of that club. I mean, it’s not a great club to be a part of but at least I could be like historically, I’m in the Alan Smithee club. It’s very hard to get that credit though.
SG:
They did a movie about that.
TW:
I know and I think that killed the Alan Smithee, it makes it almost impossible to get it now. It’s no one’s real fault. It wasn’t Lionsgate. A whole series of things happened that just didn’t work out.
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