Moreover, when I began researching the idea, it became clear that this had to be like a nightmare from the past-an inherited nightmare, or as I’ve said, a Puritan nightmare. I had an idea as a kid that those surroundings were haunted, and a strong sense of their mythic past, so I wanted to make an archetypal New England horror story that would bring people into the mindset that I had as a kid. I lived on a dirt road in the middle of the woods, with dilapidated colonial farmhouses down the lane, and that area’s history has always been part of my childhood consciousness. I grew up in New England, and if you’ve been to a rural town there, you can’t escape New England’s past. What led to your decision to make a period film about witches and paranoia that is not about the Salem witch trials themselves? Eggers, who has won several other festival prizes for The Witch, came to his feature scripting/directing debut after a couple of short films (including an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”) and production and costume design work on a number of movies, among them the acclaimed, similarly slow-burning Yellowbrickroad. Mistrust and terror take over the lives of the parents and children, and Eggers gradually builds an atmosphere of suspicious dread, and ultimately deep supernatural terror. After they set up a small farm at the edge of foreboding woods, strange incidents befall them that seem to be centered on teenaged daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). Instead, it focuses on a family who are cast out of their small community due to the progressive religious beliefs of their patriarch, William (Ralph Ineson). Winner of a Best Director award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, The Witch is set in New England in the 1600s, but does not concern the infamous witchhunts in Salem, MA. Writer/director Robert Eggers reveals how it came to be in this exclusive FANGORIA interview. Ī decade and a half ago, The Blair Witch Project emerged from nowhere to become a Sundance Film Festival and box-office hit, and now The Witch is on the path to becoming a similar indie horror breakout.
It's the story of a young suburban couple disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but that is most active in the middle of the night. "Blair Witch Project" showed that less can be more when it comes to scaring audiences for fun and profit.Īnd while its unwise to judge a film by its trailer "Paranormal Activity"" looks to be in that tradition.Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on February 15, 2016, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files. When I signed up I was the 222nd person to do so. "Paranormal Activity" plays Friday at midnight at the Eastgate Cinemas in Madison and in about a dozen other college towns. Supposedly, the only way to bring it to your hometown is to demand it on the film's website. DreamWorks has acquired the rights to film a more expensive remake. Executives "liked the picture but were terrified by the budget which seemed too low to justify a studio release," the story said. The horror film "Parnormal Activity" has such a low budget studios are scared of it.Īccording to a story in the New York Times the film, written and directed by Oren Peli, cost $10,000.
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