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From HouseofHorrors.com Interviews Andrew had just seen the first rough cut of the entire film just the night before, so I caught him at a great moment - with his Headspace DVD coming out September 12th, and The Girl Next Door movie fresh in his mind - we sat down down and had a hell of a conversation covering both, and more.
HEADSPACE ~ Its one of those movies too that I wanted to make - that if you're one of those guys that likes to go out and get drunk and stoned and end up watchin a movie - Headspace is THE movie for you to watch! House of Horrors: Before we get into Headspace - I recently saw it listed in the torrents, and it was being traded pretty vigorously. I thought to myself, this is good and bad. Good because it means the film is popular and being well received - bad because, of course, you want to sell and rent the DVD. What are your thoughts on that? Andrew van den Houten: I don't know... On one hand, I'm like, hopefully if they like the film that much then they'll buy the DVD on September 12th when it comes out. But on the same note, you know.... they're pirating the movie. For us - hopefully if that many people are downloading it then maybe that many people will buy it. You know what I mean? There are a lot of people that don't illegally download shit. Its just part of the population, its not everyone. House of Horrors: I think the silver lining of it is that its good exposure. During that Napster era, people were getting their hands on music they wouldn't normally buy at the store. Now its being legitimized, and some particular bands have picked up new fanbases as a result. House of Horrors: That's awesome. Andrew van den Houten: Mmm hmm. (Takes a sip of water) - Are we recording yet? House of Horrors: Yeah I hit it a couple minutes ago. Might as well get it while I'm here right? Andrew van den Houten: Oh OK, yeah. Yeah, I um... (laughs) - We're just talkin, too - that's great! House of Horrors: (laughs) That cool? Andrew van den Houten: Yeah! No, that's the best way to do it. I like it a less formal, more of a conversation thing, that's good... So yeah - its cool - its coming out in 22 countries... And I think the investors will make their money back. The DVD is coming out September 12th., so we'll wait til about 6 months after that and we'll see. Thousands and thousands of units have been ordered by Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Target, BestBuy, Movie Gallery, NetFlix, so... its cool, yeah... I mean, Walmart bought a ridiculous amount of units, so... Its awesome. I think its the kind of movie that people will want to watch again and again and again because of all the people in the movie - their roles are so memorable. House of Horrors: I wont BS ya - I get a lot of screeners and things to watch and I probably have put Headspace back into the DVD player for a go more than any of em in the last year. I mean - Udo Kier. Mark Margolis. Those are two of my favorite character actors, and to have them in the same film was somethin I enjoyed. Andrew van den Houten: Thank you. Yeah... Its one of those movies too that I wanted to make - that if you're one of those guys that likes to go out and get drunk and stoned and end up watchin a movie - Headspace is the movie for you to watch. Because - House of Horrors: (laughs) Andrew van den Houten: It really is! Its got so many different kinda things goin on there on a cerebral level - and also its one of those movies that if you watch it again you catch different things each time you see it. House of Horrors: Are you the sequel type? Andrew van den Houten: Bill (William M. Miller/writer-producer for Headspace and VP of production at ModernCine) and I have been in talks right now for doin a sequel. We have a script. But I think it comes down to how well it does on DVD. House of Horrors: Any ideas on it you'd be willing to share - what kind of an angle the sequel would take? Andrew van den Houten: Lets just say that Alex Borden survives, and, you know - some revenge would be pretty cool. House of Horrors: Revenge... Andrew van den Houten: Yeah gotta see him at some point start doin SOMETHIN. I mean... And - we're actually going to be doing a movie of his - Christopher Denham, the guy who plays Alex Borden in Headspace. He wrote a screenplay called Home Movie that we're gonna shoot this November. THE GIRL NEXT DOOR ~ New Jersey was ready to shut us down when they read the screenplay. They thought that they we were gonna have a naked 13 year old being tortured in the basement! House of Horrors: Anyone from Headspace in The Girl Next Door? House of Horrors: I just read the book [by Jack Ketchum] about a month ago... Andrew van den Houten: Yeah I read your review. It was very good actually. House of Horrors: Thanks man. Wow somebody reads this shit? (laughs) No - the book - it was a different kind of horror story for me. The thing that I thought of after reading the novel... What gave The Girl Next Door its teeth, so to speak, was this in your face rape of innocence that takes place, that you would never seek out as a form of entertainment on purpose. I physically dreaded opening the book each time I went back to it because I didn't want to be a part of it - I didn't want to bring it to life by reading it, the heartfelt abuse that takes place in that basement, to Meg. One moment you're in the 50's, and the next its like Hostel for preteens and you're being forced to witness. Andrew van den Houten: Right. House of Horrors: I guess my question is - how in the world do you faithfully transfer the power of the novel's "horror" to film without attaining an NC17 or X rating? Andrew van den Houten: That's good - that's an excellent question. One of MY challenges right now in post production - we're doing test screenings the next month - is really to find a way to tell the story without being exploitative. Yet on the same note to keep it edgy and keep it as real as possible. The director Greg Wilson had a way of shooting the film, like it was a puzzle, so all these pieces are coming together. And when you watch the movie, I think audiences are going to see, it does go to that edge, and at the same time, this is a much more wide audience appeal than the book is. House of Horrors: How's that. House of Horrors: - In everyday life. Andrew van den Houten: In everyday life... That's what The Girl Next Door is. The director Greg Wilson (Home Invaders) - when myself and Bill Miller hired him - we hired him to direct that movie because he saw a much bigger vision for the project than I think a lot of us were looking at. I always knew I wanted to do the movie because I thought the story needed to be told in a certain way that was true to the book. Because I think the book takes what originally happened between Gertrude Baniszewski and Sylvia Marie Likens [the true story took place in 1958 - you can read about it HERE] and what the book does is it takes the whole story and places it in an Americana fabric which you can't hide and run away from - which is this 1950's essence of absolute homogenous perfection. And what you find - the timing of which the actual story happened, it was the 60's - with the post Kennedy assassination, the innocence has been lost already. The impact and power of the story, although still telling and shocking and very, very horrific - its much more poignant and much more meaningful - commenting towards us a society - speaking much more to who we are as Americans when you place that type of movie in the 50's - which is exactly what Jack Ketchum did. House of Horrors: Right. Andrew van den Houten: So by finding a director who can take the Ketchum project with the screenplay, and really delve into it from a serious dramatic element - that perspective as opposed to an exploitative, horrific, over-the-top gorefest - and Ill tell you, we've got those moments. No fucking question, we've got those moments, but what we've done is we've opened it up. We found actors and actresses that you really care about. The kids - you fall in love with as you do in the book - you really care about them. Even when they're doing bad things, you're like, "God. I feel horrible for these kids." You grow to like the characters in the film. That's whats gonna work. I tell ya, had Cindi Rush the casting director not found such an amazing group of young actors, I think the movie would just be, you know - a flop. It wouldn't be something that does justice A: to the story in the book or B: the people who have been abused, children that get victimized - whether it be the abusers or the abusees. You have to consider the gang mentality - they're doing it so I should do it too - is it OK? You really feel the emotional impact of it. Credit to the director Greg Wilson. House of Horrors: Did you come across the screenplay - is that what brought all this to your attention or did you know further back, perhaps as a fan of the book, that this is something that you'd want to do? Andrew van den Houten: You know, its funny. I finished Headspace and I said to Bill, "What are we gonna do when we get Headspace done?" I said, "We gotta do something edgy and -" And he says, "Did you ever read this book?" So I was in Peru, actually with my mother on vacation and I'm puking by brains out in the middle of the fucking Peruvian jungle, totally sick off my ass. I had this book The Girl Next Door with me, and I remember... House of Horrors: You started reading it in a fever state... Andrew van den Houten: I started reading it in a fever state. Exactly. And I'm like, "Am I really fucking ... am I hallucinating or is this for real?" Half way through I'm ready to throw this book out this little wood hut that I'm sleeping in, sweatin my balls off - and I'm ready to throw the book out because I'm so angry about - you know - whats goin on in the book! House of Horrors: I found myself pretty pissed off too. Andrew van den Houten: But I had to finish it because I needed to see how it resulted. By the end of the book I was like, "We gotta make this movie!" Although I was sick off my ass and had 102-103 fever, I said, "THIS is the movie to make." So I got back to Dallas and Jack Ketchum says to me, "You gotta use my screenplay if you do this." So I said, "Who wrote your screenplay?" And he says, "My best friend Philip Nutman and his partner Daniel Farrands," - he wrote Halloween 6. So I read the screenplay and as Jack said, it really does justice to his book. So that's kinda how it all evolved. House of Horrors: Can you talk about anything specific that fans of the novel might find different in the film? Andrew van den Houten: Sure - I think when you read it, the book definitely has - you know, when you're turning those pages and you're going through the experiential element of the young David character, David Moran - there's a lot more time that's taken in the book. With the movie, what we were limited with is we have around an hour and a half to tell the same story that the book, which is 300 pages long, does. So it think if there's any changes, its the breaking it down to its elements. What are the key elements in the book? The basement torture scenes are very elemental and important - obviously you can't have the movie without those. You need to know David Moran lives on, when he's an older guy - that he survives - he's a survivor. You need to know that the older David has feelings and that this issue changed his whole life. And just get into the story and what it captures in the screenplay, which is - capture the children in the 50's and show that period. There was a lot of free time in the 50's. It was a slower life. House of Horrors: I remember even in the 70's - kids played soccer at the bus stop before school and played baseball or football or some sport every single day when we got home - and I look around and see nothing anymore. Nothing. Everyone stays indoors. Andrew van den Houten: People stay in cause of the WIFI, and the goddamn, you know, Xbox. The internet. Keeps people inside. Everyone's a vampire now. Can ya blame them? (laughs) But I think the key thing is that the writers captured the elements of all these young characters. Even the local kid Eddie, ya know. House of Horrors: Oh - the bully. Andrew van den Houten: The bully. He's in there too. And I gotta tell ya, the kid who plays him is fantastic. Mike Zegan is great. He plays Dennis Leary's nephew in Rescue Me. House of Horrors: Who's playing Meg? House of Horrors: With kid characters and the material at hand - did you run into any problems regarding the material - be it drama moms or whathaveyou? Andrew van den Houten: The only problems we had - we shot in New Jersey. New Jersey thought that we were shooting an under 18 - they thought that we were using like a 13 year old to play Meg [who in the novel is raped and brutally tortured]. They were ready to shut us down when they read the screenplay. They thought that they we were gonna have a naked 13 year old being tortured in the basement. We certainly pushed the envelope, but we didn't have a 13 year old naked and tortured. House of Horrors: This story seems to have two extreme ways it could have gone. One is the psychological aspect - the innocence you feel from Meg, the fury you feel at Davey, and whats done and not done. Then there's the hardcore shock horror that, in a world without morals, could be adapted so exact as to show a naked 13 year old being raped and tortured. I was wondering if while considering your vision for the film in its early stages - do the MPAA ratings board ever conflict with or alter, say, exactly what you want to see come from a film like this? Andrew van den Houten: No. Just to speak to what you were talking about. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Davey wants to tell his parents, and he goes to wake his mother up at night to tell her whats been going on. That moment is in the film and its such an important and awesome moment. I watched the movie for the first time last night, in a very rough assembly cut, and that moment - it hit me. Then you see him crying after that moment and its like, god fuckin dammit... You get it. You see the pain. You feel the pressure and the societal kinda implications of "if you tell you're fucked". So you live with the pain and suffering and you deal with it. And he caught it - its a great moment. But do I feel swayed by ratings? House of Horrors: For instance, there are many moments that this could have turned into a "Hostel with kids", certainly in at least one scene. Did you feel restricted at any point about what you could put in the film? Andrew van den Houten: That's the hardest challenge right now. We have footage that isn't held back. Our footage is way beyond an R rating. (We both smirk like two sick horror loving bastards) What we have to do now is get that R rating. My job is to kinda be a purveyor, as a producer, not as a director - be the purveyor of how far to try and push the envelope. Ultimately, I'm submitting a hard cut to the MPAA, and they suggest what we omit in order to get an R rating. But my job is to make sure that we deliver to them, the most hardcore, roughest, clearest director's cut possible. Let them come back and comment. So in the end what you'll see is everything you can get out of an R rating, horror wise. House of Horrors: Will there be a more uncut/unrated version down the line on DVD or released overseas? Andrew van den Houten: I'd like to think so. I really would. I certainly know we can provide that footage, because we have it. House of Horrors: What I'm drawn to about this story as a horror fan is that it plays to both sides - the psychological side of things, which is what I think made Headspace so good - because it really tickled your mind. This story is capable of pulling that off, plus you also have a much more hardcore shock facet to explore for the other half of the audience. Andrew van den Houten: Absofuckinlutely. That's the thing. The weird thing is, when you watch The Girl Next Door - the dialogue is so well written and the characters are so real - you just feel disarmed. The environment and atmosphere feels so safe and familiar, that even though it keeps going further and further and further, you don't walk away. You cant get your eyes off of it. Its like watching a train wreck. Its crazy. So - the ratings? I'm a little nervous. That can be the most detrimental thing to any filmmaker, as far as having people coming around saying, "You cant do this because its not gonna get a certain rating." So I'm pushing the envelope and I'm nervous - I am - because I think this movie deserves to be as edgy as possible. If it goes according to schedule we should be getting our cut to the rating board by the end of September. It'll be a fast process. House of Horrors: So you're already in post production? Andrew van den Houten: Yeah. House of Horrors: When do you see a release? Andrew van den Houten: I think this'll definitely be released next year, no question about it. I'm thinking this will probably premiere at one of the bigger film festivals. My goal is to try and get it into a larger film festival like Sundance, Tribeca, or SXSW. Id like to see it there, and then Id like to see some distributors who haven't come to the table already to step it up, and put their money where their mouth is. We have a lot of offers already for foreign distribution, and some for domestic, before the movie is even done which is pretty incredible - I know Headspace certainly had a lot of interest before we finished it, but until we actually had a film to show people there were no offers. We're in a different position now with this movie. I think its the kind of project that the fans are there for, and they deserve this project to be out there as soon as possible. We have a lotta movies we want to make and this one is one of the most important ones we've done to date. So, Id like to see it get out there quickly, and I'm pushing to see it out there by next year. PICKING BRAINS WITH A SHARP METAL OBJECT ~ You know whats wonderful? When you can have a guy take a shit in the middle of a horror movie and make people laugh. House of Horrors: Do you prefer one over the other - directing or producing? Andrew van den Houten: After directing Headspace its been such a pleasure to step back and just produce a movie for a director who I believe in who has such a solid vision. For me, when I'm producing, I can really focus on helping a director get very, very specific and push the envelope as much as possible. Whether we have a low, low budget like we did, or not. It doesn't matter - cause I can come to the front for the director every day - whereas when I'm directing and producing its much more difficult to separate the elements. I'm a natural born producer. I started as an actor, so Ive always had an affinity for performance. I'm obsessed with working with actors, and as a producer I get to do that - but I really get to do that more intimately when I direct - I love directing and taking ideas that are represented in the screenplay and find different ways to present them. We know of course how important it is in the horror genre to be surprising and push the envelope. I think that's what is so much fun - showing up every day as a director. For me its kinda like being a kid in a candy shop. If I'm blowing Sean Young's head off one day - or I get to have a fuckin creature rip its claws through Bill Atherton's torso the next day - that'll keep me happy. House of Horrors: Any plans to direct again in the immediate future? Andrew van den Houten: Yes! Yes. Very anxiously waiting to get behind the cameras and direct again. As you can imagine. I'm producing Christopher Denham's directorial debut in November. That's the date that's slated to start shooting but it may get pushed back to February or March, but I don't like to push things back and wait. We have a lot of movies we want to be making - and it seems that a lot of people are responding to our first movie Headspace enough that we can jump things up a little bit quicker, which is great. Next summer I'm going to direct a film. I haven't decided what film yet. Probably start shooting in August next year. Not quite sure yet. There's a couple of different scripts I'm lookin at. But - very anxious to direct something again. Its all about finding the right project - I don't wanna do any disservice to the people who pay to watch these movies - and I certainly don't want to do any disservice to myself and the people inside our company. Including the other directors we work with. Definitely excited, though, and looking forward to it. House of Horrors: Last but not least - anything you've watched as a horror fan in the past year that you personally liked? Andrew van den Houten: I watched with Mick Garris - I was out in Brussels at the BIFFF - the Brussels International Film Festival Fantasy - uh and Fantastic - House of Horrors: fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh Andrew van den Houten: (laughs) fuckin fant- uh... When I was there, Mick Garris and I became friends. He showed me Miike's uncut version of Masters of Horror - Imprint. And goddamn - what beautiful cinematography. House of Horrors: It was. It was almost visually perfect if there is such a thing. I loved Imprint, even though I didn't understand the ending. I left messages on Asian message boards left and right asking for an explanation and its funny because I got back zip. Andrew van den Houten: I tried to give a little bit more to people at the ending of Headspace, as opposed to the ending of Imprint. At least I hope I did - although I read a few message boards that ask the same question I suppose. But the reality of it is, you've got the guy who's got the style of a Cronenberg, but the edge of a fuckin Carpenter. And on the same note - he pushes the envelope so much further. You see Three Extremes and you watch Dumplings. What a sick, twisted, wonderful little horror yarn! But you get into a Miike project like Imprint - it just - you're eyes just can't move from the imagery. It so powerful, and the characterizations are so strong within that imagery. Its like - starting it off with the canoe - when the canoe hits that body at the very beginning - its like, wow... House of Horrors: Like he's sailing into a realm of death - like crossing the river Styx into Hell... Its almost dreamlike, Imprint - psychedelic. Andrew van den Houten: Completely! Totally! Miike has the sense of an Akira Kourasawa. I think it also has a lot to do with the world he is shooting in. It seems so small when you get down to the action between the characters. Then you come to these large establishing shots - you've got these large green canyons and these rivers coming through - its great production value. I'm definitely moved by the visual style of Miike and also he's definitely one of the more sick and twisted directors out there in terms of how he can really just make you wanna puke. If you can move people that much, that's pretty powerful stuff. House of Horrors: Any others besides Imprint? House of Horrors: Monster Mondays? Andrew van den Houten: Yeah yeah - in November. This is a film that I watched and said, this is a filmmaker that I want to see more from. So, he was an interesting find on the more blatantly forefront of horror movies. I didn't see The Hills Have Eyes - I'm gonna see it in the next week. Saw The Amityville Horror remake earlier this year - that didn't really do too much for me. House of Horrors: When they're finding a reason for the ghost to stick its arms up out of the tub - its in the window its in the closet. It got retarded after a while. I preferred the original. Andrew van den Houten: I'm not a huge fan of either one I guess. House of Horrors: The priest was over the top - he's what made the film for me - him and the subtle way the evil was presented, as opposed to the arrogant way it was presented in the remake. Andrew van den Houten: The priest was fucked up. And you feel less safe in the original. One movie I saw this year was Slither. I saw that, and I appreciate James Gunn's ability to comment on the genre - but I thought the movie wasn't really.... As a horror fan it was fun, but beyond that it really didn't do much for me. I thought Gunn's remake of Dawn of the Dead, as an action horror flick, was fuckin amazing! House of Horrors: Romero's Dawn is probably my favorite film of all time - and as you can see my head is shaped like the head on the original movie poster... Andrew van den Houten: You're right, no shit - it is... (laughs) House of Horrors: I agree - he nailed the remake. I was looking around the theater in the first 15 minutes when it broke out and people had lumps in their throats and tears welling in their eyes and I thought - man this is great! Andrew van den Houten: He's an amazing writer. James Gunn - I met him out in LA last spring with Bill Atherton. And yeah - dude's a smart cat. He knows his shit. No pretention about him - he's very real - he's a fan of the genre and a good guy - so I'm excited to see what he's up to. Whatever Gunn is doin, I'm down. As long as its not Slither. House of Horrors: So its safe to assume then that you'll be following a path of horror in your filmmaking future? Andrew van den Houten: If somebody gave me a fuckin awesome script - a totally off the hook action movie or a crazy ass dark comedy, I would do it. But the one thing that attracts me to the horror genre as opposed to the other genres is that we're always delving into a much more naturalistic and real element to the animalistic nature of people and humanity. If you look at the society we're living in right now, is it exploitative to go out and make movies or promote or just expose that darker side of things - maybe it is a little exploitative but on the same note, how are people going to stop doing that shit if they don't understand the psychosis behind it. Look at Natural Born Killers - what a sick, twisted, disgusting movie, but at the same time it comments on our society so well. If you look at Rabid - its another movie that does the same thing. That's the thing that triggers me. I'm always interested in how normalcy can suddenly become surreal and totally off the other end of the world that we live in. When it becomes a world that we really don't have rules for. And those rules are totally created by us the filmmaker. That's whats so powerful about the horror genre. You really get to just jump in there and get a much larger canvas to paint on than if you were to do a romantic comedy - oh my god - romantic comedies... (laughs) They're stuck. Where are you gonna go with that? You look at something like Napoleon Dynamite - that's a rare thing - that's a diamond in the rough - about one in a million films gets this cult following, and that was one of them. The guy went out and directed Nacho Libre - and I watched it. I thought Jack Black was funny in it, you know what I'm sayin? I did stand up comedy for four years - I think comedy is great. But you know whats wonderful? When you can have a guy take a shit in the middle of a horror movie and make people laugh. Like in Headspace. House of Horrors: You're right. Horror has much more of a no-rules platform - you can have sadness, glee, relief, anger, pain, love - its a platform for all of it. Andrew van den Houten: You can comedy in a horror film... Its like Shakespeare. House of Horrors: Its also an excellent range for actors and actresses to show what they're capable of. With that, sometimes its like horror films sell themselves short, filling it with CGI, T&A, instant low-calorie gratifications that don't often stand the test of time as it would included into a good story. Andrew van den Houten: Well the great thing about tits and ass is - you can put tits and ass in any movie, and people are gonna pay attention. You put tits and ass in a horror movie - look at Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law in eXistenZ. What a hot fuckin pair of people in that movie! And its a Cronenberg film. Its just sexy - they're plugging game pods into each other's spines - there's actually something really erotic about that. One of the most beautiful things about the horror genre is, when you're smart about it, and you're a good filmmaker and storyteller, you can put sexuality into the genre, and it heightens and elevates everything that's going on like an accent as you were implying, as opposed to the legs it stands on. I don't mind a gratuitous sex scene in a horror movie - but in the movies that I'm making - I want to make sure the sexuality really, really gets you horny. If its just gratuitous you end up laughing at it most of the time. I wanna feel like I want to jump into that screen and start fucking the shit outa who I'm watching. (laughs) That's how I wanna feel if there's sex in a movie. You know - a porno? Doesn't really do it for me. I want it to feel real. I want to feel like I'm there with these people, and then if it happens, I'm a voyeur and I'm peeping. I wanna understand why this guy is so involved with the emotions he's going through - or why is this woman so hot and excited and titillated when she's about to be murdered three seconds later. Does she know she's gonna be killed? I'm fascinated by the whole femininity issue in horror movies too. So many women in horror movies are empowered... until they have sex! House of Horrors: Then they're dead! Andrew van den Houten: Then they're dead! So yeah... empowerment. Jennifer Jason Leigh in eXistenZ or Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. House of Horrors: Ah yes. Jamie... Andrew van den Houten: She's a bad ass bitch - I wouldn't fuck with her. No doubt. Houten is in a position to deliver us quality horror films - original, fresh, daring, and viscious. If you've been griping about remakes and what Hollywood has to offer as of late, look to this director to shatter the mold. In his early 20's, his knowledge and experience surpass almost all others on his playing field. Thanks go out to Andrew for sitting with House of Horrors and providing the exclusive opportunity to sit and talk about these great films.
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