>> A harmless,
good-natured man...
>> If you could look below
the surface...
( child reciting nursery rhyme )
>> His body is divided
into three parts...
>> Child: That married
the man...
>> Complete metamorphosis...
>> There's something here
that's evil...
? ?
>> Bacteria infect and start
a new life cycle.
>> Child: He kissed his wife.
He could not...
>> But while the creature
changes...
>> Child: He hoped and prayed.
Night, day, and morn...
>> Ahh!
Happy Halloween!
This is a special spooky edition
of Director's Cut.
I'm Charles Monroe-Kane.
That was a clip from the film,
"The House that Jack Built,"
which is a perfect flick
for this holiday, a film that
director William J. Meyer calls
a "fairy tale horror romance."
Happy Halloween.
Welcome.
>> Hi, Happy Halloween.
>> What is a "fairy tale
horror romance"?
I've never heard of that genre
before.
>> Well, as it applies to
the "House That Jack Built,"
just working from the back
forward, the romance is
because Jack and Liz
are getting engaged in the film.
And they have
a history together,
which comes out
in the course of the film.
And the horror is
the more visceral aspect
of this disease that begins
to grow on his hand
and spreads to his arm.
And you see that develop.
And the fairy tale aspect is,
what I like about fairy tales
is, it's basically one step
to the left of reality.
You just look askance and
there's something in the closet,
there's something in the woods.
>> Ah!
>> And you know, fairy tales,
I think, often are a lot darker
than what we recall,
or what we see in parody.
>> If we're even willing
to let them go there.
I have little kids,
and sometimes I don't end
the fairytale, if I have
the original ones.
I'm not going to go there.
But the kids are eaten in those.
>> Right.
>> That's good, though,
you went there.
We know that association.
But no blood and guts.
This is a horror film.
No blood and guts.
I would assume that's
the way to go in horror genres,
blood and guts.
There's no slasher stuff
in this at all.
Why did you choose to do that?
>> Well, what connects with me
for horror, and I'm not
the biggest horror aficionado,
but for me, you know,
I'm never going to be
trapped in a cabin in the woods
with a bunch of zombies
surrounding me.
I'm not going to be bitten
by a vampire.
But the horror that I at least
tried to elucidate in this film
is Jack's self-loathing,
really, to get down to it.
I mean, you could look at
the whole disease thing as this
metaphoric externalization
of his interior fears that,
"if she knows the real me,
my wife will leave me."
>> Oh, you're getting into
real horror now!
That's real horror!
Not afraid of the guy
under the bed, but being afraid
of your wife leaving you!
But that makes more sense
for the viewer, right?
>> Well, yeah.
>> For a more mature viewer.
>> Sure.
>> But no use of
the blood and guts.
So how do you feel like you're
able to then scare people.
What scares you?
What's the biggest thing
that scares you
when you watch a film?
Like that's something that, wow,
that's going to affect me
for five or ten more minutes.
>> Loss of control, I think.
To me, the scariest moment
in cinema that I've seen,
honestly, is when Mookie
throws the garbage can
through the window
in "Do the Right Thing."
I mean, my god!
That just...
>> 'Cause he's out of control
in the situation.
>> Yeah, and it's just
a mushroom cloud of emotion.
>> That's interesting.
Well, one thing we haven't
talked about, and I want to show
a clip from this,
is that a lot of this film,
there are certainly parts
of this film that are animated.
And I want to show a clip.
Then we're going to come back
and talk about that.
Because I thought
the animation was super.
Talk about
to the left of reality.
I found that animation
really helped me go to the left
of reality and watch the film.
So here's a clip.
Can you set it up for us?
This is where he goes through
that tunnel in the woods.
>> Yeah, so right before this,
Jack has been gardening.
And his wedding band is stolen.
By this thing.
And he chases it into the woods
to reclaim his wedding band.
I believe that's what
we're seeing here.
He's going through the glens
beside their home.
>> To get back the wedding ring.
>> Right.
>> All right, let's check out
a clip from
"The House That Jack Built."
>> My name is Jack.
I can't tell her.
She'd leave me.
( creature laughs )
I'll fight it.
>> I need to work on
my horror laugh.
I love that.
That's a great clip from
"The House That Jack Built."
Animation.
Tell me about it.
You did all that yourself,
right?
>> Yeah.
First, the story came.
I developed it with
Jeff and Georgia Lyon,
the producers of the film.
After I wrote the script,
then I said, okay,
how am I going to achieve this.
A lot of it came to just
incorporating PhotoShop
and After Effects,
and other off the shelf
software on my computer.
And developing the effects
through various techniques
that I learned.
>> How long did it take you?
You're a novice doing this,
in a sense.
>> Yeah, well, post-production,
including editing, picture,
sound, doing the ADR recording,
and the visual effects, was
a year and a half or something.
>> Why?
( Jeff laughs )
Why would you dedicate,
I mean, it's a great film.
But you're not going to make
a million dollars off it.
Why did you do it?
>> You know, when you begin,
you have this story to tell.
And you have this entity
that's inside of you, like
the chest burster in "Alien."
>> Sure.
>> And it has to get out there.
And you know, coming home
from work, and sitting down
in front of the machine
and just putting in the time.
It was like a part-time job,
I guess.
You know, the creative freedom
is peerless.
>> I want to talk about
some other things.
The animation is fantastic.
I really liked it.
But there are some other things
in the film that in some sense,
are fairly simple.
The film starts
with a dollhouse.
There's this great dollhouse.
And then there's this use
of an old photograph.
There's also the use
of nursery rhymes.
There's use of some other really
set images like that,
that to me, really got me
scared, really set me on edge
a little bit.
And I wanted to ask
about those images.
What do you think those images
do to a viewer?
When someone sees a dollhouse
in a field,
or someone hears a little girl
doing a nursery rhyme.
Where do you think that takes
the viewer?
>> You know, I guess
I'm a little surprised at
some of the things that people
come up to me that have seen it
and say things like that.
Another friend of mine mentioned
the dollhouse in the field,
where it's a solitary image,
as putting him ill at ease.
I guess I was a little myopic
in the sense that, you know,
I just approached it as the way
that Jack proposes to Liz.
>> His proposal is to put
a dollhouse in a field,
and have little dolls, and have
their pictures on the dolls.
>> Yeah.
>> It was totally creepy.
I'm like, oh, my god.
That was the creepiest thing
in the film.
I love it.
You're just like, that's
just how you told the story.
>> Well, I guess lucky for us,
Liz did not think it was creepy.
>> Thank god,
she would have left him
and you'd have no story.
That wouldn't be good.
Well, and on top of that,
in the film where you have an
old black and white horror film
that's being played,
which actually,
you re-created, right?
>> Right.
>> And why that?
What were you trying to do for
the viewer, to show that
in the background?
>> Just to lay it out there,
I was totally inspired by
Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant."
There's a sequence where
the boy is watching
an old Sci-Fi film.
And you can do this really
interesting edit, where you edit
between the old-school
and what you're doing.
And you can create this
relationship with juxtaposing
this unreal situation
with your situation,
which is supposedly real.
So Jack is watching this old
Sci-fi film that we also shot,
edited and treated
to make it look old.
And it has this metamorphic
transfiguration thing
that's sort of paralleling
his experience
and what's happening to him,
but in a more light hearted way.
So hopefully, there's some
laughter in there, as well.
>> Well, I want to show a clip.
I want to go back
to the dollhouse.
I want to show a clip because,
we'll leave it up to the viewers
here watching to decide.
You just do this as
a piece of romance.
I find it the scariest part
of the film.
So let's show the clip.
We'll let people decide.
This is the famous
either romance clip
or I think horror clip.
This is the dollhouse scene from
"The House That Jack Built."
( car door closes )
>> Hey, look at that.
? ?
Let's go check it out.
>> No.
>> Come on!
>> I'm not going out there.
>> Fine.
? ?
>> Oh, that just gives me warm,
huggy, romance feelings
all over.
It's so romantic.
So romantic.
I love it.
It's not scary at all.
So, how did you get
so passionate about filmmaking?
Where did your love
for the cinema start?
>> I just want to take a quick
shout out to Matt Knutson,
Theresa Cheney
and Christopher Carbeaux,
the actors in the film.
>> Shout out.
>> It would not exist
without them.
I don't remember what year
it was, but Akira Kurosawa
was getting a lifetime
achievement award at the Oscars.
And I believe
it was Coppola and Lucas
that were giving it to him.
And I hadn't heard
of Akira Kurosawa.
Living in the Midwest,
I wasn't really exposed
to foreign films at that point.
And they showed clips
from his movies, and it just
completely captivated me.
In particular, they showed a
clip from "Throne of Blood,"
which was his version
of MacBeth.
And Toshiro Mifune, the great
Japanese actor, is being impaled
with innumerable arrows.
And to find out later
that they actually shot arrows
at him off-camera.
"Hold still Mifune, we've got
a couple more coming at you.
Stop moving so much."
Just the ba-ba-ba-ba-boom.
And just the stark imagery.
It was a fantastic
black and white film.
They showed clips from "Ran,"
his color masterpiece, just,
it was just epic beyond epic.
Just fell in love,
and started to find out
who makes these films,
where do they come from.
>> There you go.
Well, thank you very much
for joining us,
I love your films,
and please make more animation,
come back on, I would love it.
I showed a bunch of my friends
the film, they loved it.
Thank you very much.
And thank you all very much
for joining us today.
You know, Halloween films
can come in a variety of genres,
from the suspenseful,
from the slasher,
even to the funny.
Here's a previous interview
we did with filmmakers
Ben Wydeven and Doug Gordon,
who take a very different take
on what horror means.
>> It's funny, you're talking
about horror and talking about
atmosphere.
Your film, not to give too much
away, but there's no gore.
There's no blood and guts in
this.
And I think about the way horror
has gone, you know,
from "Friday the 13,"
and "Halloween."
"Halloween" was all build-up,
the whole film.
To now, the soft films, which is
just completely blood and guts
and no build-up.
You don't do any of that.
You don't pull any of the blood
and guts punches.
Why do you not do that?
>> Well, I didn't really grow up
with the slasher films.
I watched a lot of Alfred
Hitchcock films.
When I was younger, my mom
started this thing with our
family.
Every Sunday night, we'd watch a
movie.
And for a long time, we were on
an Alfred Hitchcock streak.
That was pretty cool.
We'd watch like almost all the
mainstream Alfred Hitchcock
movies.
>> Was there a moment you're
sitting with your family on a
Sunday night, and you're ten or
twelve, and you say to yourself,
oh, man, I want to do that.
>> Not immediately, I don't
think.
I've always been really
interested in making films.
But like when I was younger,
I didn't really know which genre
I wanted to do.
When I was in college, I was
doing a lot of comedy, because
that's what my friends wanted to
do.
It's easier to do comedy,
because like I sai you get the
immediate feedback.
With horror, I didn't realize I
could do horror until when I did
another movie and then I
realized it scared the crap out
of people.
My friends got goosebumps and so
I realized, okay.
>> So you were sold.
You'd rather give goosebumps
than make people laugh.
So would you go back to comedy,
or is this it?
Is this the genre you like?
>> Comedy is fun, but I mean,
it's not really the movie I want
to see on a Friday night.
In 2004, I saw Michael Moore.
And one of the things he said in
the press conference was that he
tells filmmaking students to
make the movie you want to see
on a Friday night.
And after I heard that,
a couple years later,
I made "The Medium."
And I started to think about it.
I do like the darker,
suspenseful films.
And we really, in the last ten
years, there haven't been a
whole lot of really good
suspense films.
>> Yeah, I agree.
Speaking of "The Medium," let's
see another clip from the film.
Why don't you set this next clip
up.
This is the one with the needle
in it.
I love this scene.
>> The needle.
They are in the hallway, and
Raymond is touching the wall.
He's trying to figure out what's
going on in the building.
And the tall guy with the meter
isn't really telling him
what's going on.
He's kind of in denial about it.
And so, Raymond's kind of
walking around trying to figure
it out on his own.
>> Well, let's see a clip from
that film.
This is a clip from
"The Medium."
>> If the needle jumps,
let me know.
>> Where are you going?
>> Not far.
I know the spirit's present.
>> What?!
>> Shut up!
Come on, spirit.
I mean no harm.
I'm only here to help.
>> (spirit): Raymond...
>> Ahh!
( door creaks )
>> Get out!
>> Ah!
>> Hey, the needle's moving!
( knocking echoes )
>> I want to talk--!
>> What the hell are you
talking about?
>> Who is she?
>> Who?
>> The woman who haunts you.
She wears a white dress
and has long red hair.
>> She's here?
>> Yes. Tom, who is she?
>> I don't know.
I thought you did.
>> No.
>> Now, another part of that
clip that I think really shows,
and this film shows,
is sound design.
Because sound, you know,
you have setting in that
you have a super creepy setting,
and that's perfect.
But I think the other thing
that's very important
for a horror film is music.
I've got to have the creepy
music.
"Jaws" without the music
would just be a terrible film.
So tell me a little bit about
the sound design.
Did you do it?
>> I did the sound design.
The music was done
by two friends of mine,
Corey and Jason,
of the band Planet of Nine.
They did the music for it.
For the audio, a lot of the
stuff I did, I was living in an
old house at the time.
And there was this metal shower.
And I got my boots on and I set
up my microphone above it, over
the shower.
And I just stood in there and I
would pound on the walls.
I would breathe in and out
heavily.
And there was this echo to it.
I would deepen it up in post
production.
I'd throw that in there every
once and a while.
And it sounds, you can't even
tell that it's my breathing.
It just sounds like a rumble.
>> Do you add, I'm curious,
not to get too geeky here.
But do you add the music and the
sounds after the film, or do you
have these sounds and then you
kind of incorporate them in?
Or do you say the film's done
and then you sit there and add
the soundtrack?
How do you put the sound in?
>> It's kind of an evolution.
Once I've cut it together, I
kind of see how it looks and
then I can add the sounds where
it's appropriate.
>> It's super creepy, and very
appropriate.
I think that's a big part of the
goosepimples that you get from
watching a film that way.
We're going to see one last
clip.
But before we do, we're also
going to be joined by another
filmmaker, Doug Gordon, that you
edited for, for his film,
"Zombeatles."
Before we get to that,
we're going to see one more clip
from "The Medium."
Then we'll invite Doug up and
we'll move forward on that.
Let's see one more clip
from "The Medium."
( grunting and coughing )
>> Mother--
She's your mother!
Ahh!
What about your mother?
>> I know how she died.
>> I killed her!
>> I'm talking to the man
who killed her.
I'm talking to his son.
>> You cannot have him.
>> Him?!
I have a son?!
I want to see him.
( indistinct )
>> Need to resist him.
I need you to resist him!
( screaming and grunting )
Ahh!
>> What happened to my mother?
( woman gasps )
>> Your mother was killed.
Strangled to death
by your father.
He wanted to see you,
but your mother gave you up
for adoption to protect you.
>> That child is mine,
and I want it.
>> You cannot have him.
>> Him?!
I have a son?!
I want to see him.
>> Your mother died
protecting you.
( indistinct )
>> She was murdered.
And dumped down here.
Just like you're going to do
with me.
>> Welcome back.
We are now joined by Doug
Gordon, the director of the film
the "Zombeatles."
It was edited by Ben Wydeven.
Let me see if I can describe
this film for you.
"Zombeatles" is the name.
It's a mockumentary about the
Beatles, as well as zombies.
It's full of brain-eating
zombies, Beatles, all narrated
by a kilt-wearing zombie
journalist.
Doug, how did I do?
Did I describe it?
>> That's very good.
That's pretty much bang on.
>> What about you?
You walk into somebody, they're
in the elevator for one minute,
like, so you made a film.
What's your film about, what's
the "Zombeatles" about?
>> I like to describe it as
"Night of the Living Dead"
meets "This is Spinal Tap"
meets "All You Need is Cash,"
a Beatles parody.
We really went to school
on that a lot.
>> What a great description!
You know, what I want to do, and
I don't normally do this
quickly, but I think a picture
is worth a thousand words.
So what we're going to do is
we're going to show a clip from
this over-the-top film.
Then we're going to come back
and talk more about it.
What we're going to do right now
is we're going to show a clip
from Doug Gordon's
the "Zombeatles."
>> Paul and I were in art school
together.
>> Oh, we were dead
and very hungry.
>> We were bitten
by some skiffle zombies.
( low, guttural grumbling )
In Pool of Liver,
and after that...
>> We ate
Bobby and the Bouncers.
And they were very tasty.
>> We were never the same.
? ?
? OOh, I need your love ?
? Babe ?
? Yes, you know it's true... ?
? -- ?
? While I'm eating you ?
>> You do not see that
every day.
That was a clip from
Doug Gordon's film,
the "Zombeatles."
I don't even know where to
start.
First, it's a mockumentary.
Why a mockumentary?
>> A mockumentary, Charles,
because that's something that
you can do fairly easily without
a budget.
And just this idea came
together, because my character,
my Scottish comedian, zombie
comedian character, Angus
MacAbre, Scotland's funniest
zombie comedian, I performed a
few years ago at a Halloween
Bash at the High Noon.
And I performed live and undead.
I did some undead pan comedy
stylings.
And also on that same bill,
the Fab Gore, the "Zombeatles,"
which is a side project
of the Gomers, they performed
at that same event.
Then, several months later,
I thought, I just woke up one
morning with this idea, hey, why
not combine the two and put it
into this mockumentary.
This sort of takes the zombie
idea into a whole new direction
by developing what I like to
call a zombie verse.
Zombies have evolved.
You know, they started by eating
the stupid people.
Because obviously the stupid
people are the easiest to catch.
So then, they run out of stupid
people.
You've got to put more effort
into tracking down the smart
people.
As you eat the smart people, you
absorb their smarts, their
brains.
And that allows you to evolve
in a Darwinian fashion.
And the zombies are now creative
conscious, intelligent creatures
with their own arts,
entertainment pop culture scene,
of which the Fab Gore and Angus
MacAbre are a part.
>> You know, I've seen a lot of
independent films, and some of
them are kind of weird ideas.
I have absolutely never seen
a film like this in my life,
not even close.
Did you sit down, so obviously,
there was a meeting of the
brains, no pun intended.
You have the Gomers and they're
a rock band.
These guys are doing
this Zombeatles idea,
the zombies and Beatles.
You have the stand-up comic idea
guy who's also a zombie.
So, hey, this is like
the perfect idea.
You put them together and you
want to make the film.
Was unique your goal?
Like you sat down and said,
okay, I want to be as unique
as possible.
I want this to be as over the
top as possible?
Or was your goal just to be pure
to the form of the documentary?
>> A combination.
But for me, the key is to be
unique.
Like the founder of Sun Records
says, if you're not doing
something different, you're not
doing anything.
And I really believe that.
Whenever I'm doing something
creative, I try to think, what
hasn't been done before.
>> Well, let's see the Satan
scene from "The Zombeatles."
>> I said what I said, and
people take it the wrong way.
Now you have all this.
>> And what was the prince of
darkness' response to Jaw
Lennon's provocative comment?
>> Was I upset when I heard what
they said about, you know,
being bigger than Satan?
No, come on!
I love those guys.
You know, it's show business.
It's not show friendship.
Am I right?
I mean, come on.
I've got to tell you, betrayal
on that level, I felt as though,
you know, they picked that up
from me maybe, a little
something, I don't know.
You know, but you know,
you gotta respect them.
They--
( happy cell phone ringtone )
I gotta take this.
It's Tom Cruise.
Tom.
Tom, slow down.
Listen, I know, I heard.
My people are on it.
I know.
We're fixing it.
It's all right,
everything's good.
Tom, I gotta go.
I'm doing--
Tom, listen--
I'll see you in hell.
Okay, bye-bye.
But no, they were fine.
Me and the Zombeatles,
we're fine.
>> Wasn't that revealing?
>> Thank you very much
for watching this Halloween
edition of Director's Cut.
For more information on
"The House that Jack Built"
please go to:
wpt.org/directorscut
And while you're there,
send us an email,
we'd love to hear from you.
Stay tuned.
Up next on
Director's Cut Presents,
you see all three films
we just talked about,
including a short by filmmakers
Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan,
titled "The Life and Death
of a Pumpkin."
Thank you very much,
I'm your host
Charles Monroe-Kane,
and for everyone here
at Director's cut, everyone,
thank you for joining us.
Check the gate.