Back to the writing board

So, House on the Witchpit.

I've been messing around with the screenplay since about 2002, and it has changed a lot. The first draft was a fairly cheerful horror comedy; heavy on the sexy witches angle and up to the eyeballs in debt to Warlock in terms of structure. That first draft is pretty close to TrashHouse in terms of tone, and if I'd have shot it when I intended to (around 2005) it would probably have fit reasonably nicely into my output.

Times change, things move on. House on the Witchpit is no longer a frothy horror comedy; the only function of the screenplay is to scare the living shit out of the viewer, and it skews pretty goddamn dark. Then again, I like to think I've come a fair way since TrashHouse too. I hope my movies are getting more interesting and less easy to categorise, and the new-look HotWP fits into my later stuff pretty well.

Writing about bleak situations is a strange sensation for me. I'm a generally pretty upbeat kind of guy, and I feel somewhat detached from the jet-black sentiments that I seem to be capable of pouring onto paper (and then transferring onto the screen from there). I can't work out if I feel better or worse to 'let them out' or whether they end up tainting my day; hanging around after me like an evil cloud. Either way, the words seem to want to hit the paper, so I let them. But how dark do I seriously want to let this go? People who ultimately plonk their arses down in front of House on the Witchpit will be expecting a horror movie. They're watching it to be disturbed or creeped out, at least to some extent. But how serious are they about that?

In other words, just how dark do horror movie viewers want their horrors to get?

I'm intrigued to check out von Trier's AntiChrist, which seems to have taken the idea of how far to push and really run with it. I've heard all sorts of mixed opinions, from those who consider it the most effective horror of the last decade through to those who find it utterly laughable. Now matter how far I take HotWP, I can't see myself going to the visual extremes that von Trier has gone. But emotionally? How far is too far?

And, ultimately, am I willing to let go of the part of me that ultimately just wants my viewers to have fun? Because if you're going to deny them fun, you'd better have a damn good reason for it.

Decisions, decisions. I'm extremely proud of the script, though, and hope I make the right choices.

TDM DVD, Christmas approaches..

First things first, my advance copy of Lono Entertainment's US release of The Devil's Music turned up this week. It's out in the US on December 22nd. Chucking my copy at my Xbox 360 seems to suggest that the disc hasn't actually been region locked, which is rather great news for those in the UK who have checked out the movie via IndieMoviesOnline..

(cue blatant plug..)


Watch The Devil’s Music online free



..and are eager for a special edition DVD. For those in the US, the DVD will be your first chance to check the movie out, and I really really hope that you dig it. Lono have done a fantastic job; the special features are great, (including two terrific Easter Eggs for those who enjoy hunting things down!) and give a whole different perspective on the flick. So here's the link.. (Aw, come on, you KNEW another plug was coming..)

THE SPECIAL EDITION DVD!! ORDER FROM AMAZON NOW!!

Right, that should have sorted out all of your Devil's Music needs for the festive season. What else do I have to tell you wonderful cats about?

(This is possibly a diversionary tactic, as Pip is currently out buying a Christmas tree, and I really should be getting all the other decorations down from the loft. But I don't fancy doing that just yet, so I thought I'd chat to you lot instead)

Bordello Death Tales inches ever closer to being actually seen by people. It really won't be long now, I promise. And it's well worth the wait.

Went to see New Moon during the week, and probably shouldn't discuss my feelings about it for fear of alienating a whole bunch of Twilight fans. I also really hate pouring scorn on things that make people happy But then again I don't really think that Twilight fans are my particular demographic anyway, so hell with it.

New Moon is a terrible film. Terrible in a way that few films manage, and certainly one that makes the first movie in the series look like a masterpiece. From the CGI pantomime bears who pass for werewolves through to the frankly jaw-dropping Council of Vampire Stereotypes, this is a rotten flick. But the thing that makes it stand out from the pack, the thing that truly raises it (or sinks it) to a new level of terrible is its total lack of any sort of humour. There is, if memory serves, a grand total of one line which is meant to be funny in some way, and even that is a sort of quasi-funny line (it's a 'put the dog out' riff in reference to the werewolf). The audience at the screening I was at fell upon that line as if it were some kind of life raft; they hooted, laughed and howled, because the rest of the flick hadn't given them any chance at all to do so. At least not deliberately. You can laugh at the movie, but you can't laugh with it because it contains no sense of humour whatsoever.

Having said that, I emerged from the screening in a great mood. Films as entertainingly bad as New Moon don't come along very often, and I didn't feel shortchanged of my cash.

Elsewhere in sequelville, I checked out American Pie presents The Book of Love, which is number seven for those of us counting. It's much what you'd expect, but it also contains a sequence which cheerfully wanders out of 'gross out' territory and into 'massively disturbing'. It plays like something from a Takashi Miike movie, and the happy music over the top makes it worse. Pip had fallen asleep by this point in the movie, and I briefly wondered whether I had, too, and was actually dreaming. You'll know it when you see it.

Oh, and for anyone who's not yet following me on Twitter, you can do so over here

Right, better go get that stuff out of the loft.

Rock on,
Pat

If you're in the UK..

Go and watch The Devil's Music!

Now!

And spread the word by any means necessary! Twitter, Facebook, IMDB, whatever.. Our movie is in your hands.

http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/news/the-devils-music-premiere-301009

(If you're in the US, don't worry.. The rather awesome DVD will be along on December 22nd!)

Paranormal Activity: You Do The Math

So, is it a good thing or a bad thing for those of us on the tiny-budget side of the Hollywood wall that Paranormal Activity just took the number one box office slot in the US, beating the likes of Saw VI? Given that PA allegedly cost $15,000, mightn't this reignite interest in micro-budget movies that have more to offer in the way of plot, scares and so on than their big-budget counterparts?

Haven't got a clue. My gut tells me that various executives will be scrabbling around looking for other movies to pick up that are exactly like PA. My gut feeling expands on this notion to suggest that, once there are no more micro-budget flicks to pick up that are exactly like PA, they'll pick up a bunch of other stuff and simply market it to look exactly like PA. Then they'll note that the numbers are dropping, conclude that people aren't interested in micro-budget chillers any more, shrug their shoulders and go off and make Saw VII.

The great, grand point of course is that the public didn't flock to PA because it was cheap. They went despite the fact it was cheap. Because it appeared to offer something a bit new. Something a bit different. Something that hadn't been focus-grouped.

I haven't actually seen Paranormal Activity at this point, I hasten to add. I hate making sweeping statements in a blog and then later finding out that I hate the movie in question. I'm assuming I'll like this one. It looks stripped down, lean, scary.. Everything that I very much doubt that Saw VI will be (wouldn't know.. I gave up at IV, which I think showed remarkable staying power all things considered).

Oh, and before I forget, everyone in the UK should point their browsers towards http://www.indiemoviesonline.com next Friday. Hopefully, you all know why.

Rock on,
Pat

Streaming Zeroes and Ones

I'm typing this blog entry listening to Marilyn Manson's The High End of Low on Spotify. I never bothered to pick up the CD when it came out because I'd been underwhelmed by his previous one, plus it happened to come out at the same time as a load of other incredibly good music. But then this evening, I suddenly remembered it. I tapped a few keys, and within seconds I'm listening to it on Spotify. The whole album. Free. In the hour before, I'd been listening to the wonderful new album from The Mountain Goats. Also on Spotify, and also free. OK, so there are short ads every few tracks, but they're only about 10 seconds long and pretty unintrusive.

Is this the way the music industry is likely to go? Or is it just one more means of distribution? There are already murmurings that the Spotify business model leaves artists out of pocket, or that the free version might be unsustainable, but right now it's certainly something that works for me. I won't be abandoning CDs or paid MP3s from Amazon just yet, but Spotify's a pretty cool new way of checking stuff out that I'm curious about.

Naturally, this is a subject close to might heart right now. The Devil's Music will be available, free, in HD, across the UK only for online screenings starting on Friday, thanks to the amazing folks at http://www.indiemoviesonline.com. This is our first venture into these brave new distribution methods, and I'm ridiculously excited. IMO have been fantastic with the launch of the flick.. Hopefully by now you've seen the full page ad on the inside back cover of this month's Total Film, and there are more ads to follow in other publications. They've given the flick a great big marketing push and hopefully thousands upon thousands of people will see the movie over the coming weeks.

Is this the future of film distribution? Time will tell, but it sure looks promising. In the meantime, hope you all enjoy the film. Be sure to let us know.

The Daily Mail & Howard the Duck

So, Jan Moir spouts a bunch of homophobic garbage and people final notice that the Daily Mail is a foul, grubby little paper which spreads hatred via innuendo. Everybody goes to the PCC to register their dissaproval, then suddenly notices that the PCC's chairman is actually Paul Dacre who (drumroll) is also the editor of the foul, grubby little paper in the first place. People really haven't been paying attention, but it's nice that they're finally joining the party.

I got to the party early. I was setting out dips and drinks before everyone else arrived. Because I got a crash-course in how the Daily Mail operates at the tender age of 12, when the wretched paper in question gave my parents the impression that I was interested in bestiality. Yes, it's the second rant about newspaper fact-checking this year, and with apologies to EE Cummings; here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called pure dark hatred of the Daily Mail.

I wasn't the coolest 12 year old going. I was vaguely awkward and vaguely weird, but I was just beginning to fashion myself an identity all of my very own. That identity, unsurprisingly, was based on movies. I loved 'em, and I realised early on that by going out on a limb and loving the movies that nobody else loved, by paying attention to those poor, confused, malformed little flicks that everyone else seemed determined to kick into the gutter I could stand out from the crowd at school. Whilst they sung the praises of whatever flick had just hit the local Odeon, I'd sing the praises on a straight-to-VHS Charles Band movie that I'd rented. And people would listen, and laugh, and I'd be the Movies Guy, which was a damn sight better than just being the guy who was always picked three-from-last for every sports team going.

One afternoon after school, I went to see Howard The Duck with my mate Dan Rice. HTD had been a horrible flop at the US box office, to the degree that it was retitled on these shores as Howard:A New Breed of Hero and the advertising campaign (rather brilliantly) went to absurd lengths to conceal that the hero was a duck. We saw the late afternoon showing at a fantastic cinema in Westcliff called the Classic (which was knocked down and turned into a fucking Halfords some years later) and there were only two other people watching the movie. Evidently, Howard was repeating the egg he'd laid Stateside. I loved the movie. It was horribly misjudged and hugely embarrassing, so I naturally told everyone who cared to lend an ear how wonderful I thought it was.

That Saturday morning, I awoke to hear my parents discussing something in hushed tones. When I entered the room they fell silent. Then, very cautiously, my Mum started to ask me about 'that duck film'. I sensed that something was horribly amiss, and my eyes fell onto the copy of the Daily Mail that lay on my Mum's bedside table. Apparently, a schoolteacher had taken a class of 6 year-olds to see Howard, and had marched them all out at 'bedroom scene'. She had then written to her favourite shitrag vocalising her disgust, and the Mail had responded by detailing various events from HTD with all traces of humour or context carefully removed. So my parents now thought that the film that I had been championing all week was, not to put too fine a point on it, a duck-fucking movie. No matter how much I protested that it 'wasn't like that', the mud stuck.

That time, as a 12-year old, I crumbled. I took back my support for the movie and felt an odd shame every time the title was mentioned. The Mail took something I'd loved and turned it into a source of embarrassment, something that made me feel awkward and sad. For years, I persuaded myself that Howard The Duck didn't exist; if it didn't exist, I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

Weird the way these experiences shape a man. The whole Howard The Duck incident taught me a lot of things. It taught me that context is all-important. It taught me that just because it's okay for Lea Thompson to want to fuck her son in Back To The Future, that apparently doesn't mean it's okay for her to want to fuck a duck in Howard The Duck (Seriously, what was her agent thinking? Fear of typecasting?). But most of all, it taught me that the Daily Mail has a special mirror of lies which can turn whatever it reflects into something foul and ugly.

There, i made it through the whole blog without mentioning the whole 'they supported the nazis' thing.

Dammit.

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