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In a Valley of Violence: Here’s What We Know About Ti West’s Next Movie

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There are certain filmmakers whose projects are going to be of interest to horror fans regardless of what genre they might fall into. John Carpenter comes to mind. Carpenter has often ventured into action territory, but we still consider him one of our own – one of our forefathers really. If John Carpenter makes a romantic comedy, you can bet that we’re still going to talk about it (he kind of has, by the way, and it was still awesome).

The point is, there are just some people that fans of the horror genre will always consider their kindred even if they venture into different territory. While he may have a ways to go to reach Carpenter-like status (though he’s gotten off to a pretty solid start), Ti West is one of those people from a more modern era. It’s hard not to associate West with horror after gems like The Roost, House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, and The Sacrament. Whether or not his film Trigger Man should be considered horror is debatable, I suppose, but either way, the man knows how to make a good horror movie.

If you disagree, carry on.

If you haven’t heard, West’s next film, In a Valley of Violence, is a western, and I for one, couldn’t be more excited about it. It may not be horror, but I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t whet our appetite for screen violence.

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/446042082142998528

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/521932848274477058

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s piece together what we know about this film, and get it moved up on our anticipation charts.

The film does include some genre vets, such as John Travolta (Carrie), Ethan Hawke (Sinister, The Purge), Karen Gillan (Oculus), Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story), and Larry Fessenden (more genre films than I care to count, but including Session 9, You’re Next and Stake Land). Other cast member include: Burn Gorman, James Ransone, Toby Huss, James Lane, K. Harrison Sweeney, Tommy Nohilly, and Jeff Bairstow.

Fessenden, by the way, has been involved in one way or another (usually producer) with most of West’s films.

Back in June, ProjectCasting shared some details about a casting call, which included a character named Dollar Bill, a one-armed man extra. The Dollar Bill role call was for someone described as “over 50, skinny, not bald, gaunt, and can play the role of an easily intimidated individual.”

The movie was filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 35mm, and wrapped in late July.

https://twitter.com/ti_west/status/492964152034349056

In a Valley of Violence is currently slated for a December 4, 2015 release.  It’s a Blumhouse Production. Producers include West himself, Peter Phok, Jason Blum, and Jacob Jaffke. Executive producers are Jeanette Brill, Phillip Dawe, and Alix Taylor. John Ward is credited as line producer.

The film has been said to be a “revenge western” set in the 1890s in which a drifter named Paul (Hawke) arrives in a small town, seeking revenge on thugs who murdered his friend. Sisters Mary Anne (Taissa Farmiga) and Ellen (Karen Gillan), who run the town’s hotel, help Paul in his quest for vengeance. Travolta reportedly plays a marshall. Ransone reportedly plays Gilly, the husband of Ellen and son of the marshall.

Here’s what Jason Blum had to say about it in an interview with Collider earlier this year:

And yesterday I was in Santa Fe on the set of a Western and never in a million years did I think I was going to produce a Western.  After Ethan [Hawke] and I did Sinister and The Purge he really really wanted to do a Western.  He said, “I think together we could make it.”  My barrier to entry is, of course, the price and he said “I really think we could do one inexpensively if we found the right script and found the right story.  There’s no reason it should be expensive to make.”  It took about a year to find In a Valley of Violence, which we’re shooting right now, which is Ti West’s movie.  But I was there with [Ethan] and John Travolta, they had guns on their hips shooting at each other in an old crazy western town and it would be impossible not to be excited about that.  I would not be – no human being should be in this business if you don’t get excited to be on a set with those two guys.  I took a picture and put it on my private little Instagram page.  I was like a little kid yesterday.

His [West’s] approach to filmmaking, I love.  He pitched me this idea and I thought it was really cool and I said, “I’m flying you to New York.  You’re going to go sit with Ethan and see if he likes the idea.”  He pitched Ethan the idea and Ethan called me and said, “This is our Western.”  We read about eight scripts, one of which we liked but couldn’t get our hands on, the other seven we didn’t really like.  He just said, “This is it.”  So I called up Ti and said, “Ti if we can have a script in six weeks-” And Ti said to me, this was November right before Christmas time I think, Ti said to me, “If you guarantee that I start this movie at the end of June, I will get you a finished script by January 15th.”  [Laughs] I said, “Well, if I like the script I guarantee we’ll make the movie, you have to write the script first, but if I like it I guarantee you we’ll do it.”  There are many of those deals made like that in Hollywood and they very rarely happen, but this one happened.

Following are some tweets and Instagram content from West from the time of production, which give us a little bit of a sense of his mindset during that time.

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/476030439799676929

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/482339849865662464

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/482700363514912768

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/483397685131501569

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/483817339646124032

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/484898178450219008

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/486352417605185537

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/489610832306012160

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/490180544609943552

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/490396708916846594

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/490913021527465985

https://twitter.com/Ti_West/status/491415813308416000

https://instagram.com/p/q05AbDCAYg/?modal=true

Caption: “Western Diamondback”

https://instagram.com/p/qroWnBCASs/?modal=true

Caption: “Leftover Explosives”

https://instagram.com/p/qp5wiLiAdW/?modal=true

Caption: “#Siouxelfie”

https://instagram.com/p/qXTZ-oCAVG/?modal=true

Caption: “This is the gist of what directing a western looks like.”

And here’s this one from Farmiga:

As we referenced in an article about Cabin Fever 2, West appeared on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast a few months ago. While the two talked about a variety of topics, the conversation eventually turned to In a Valley of Violence and West’s departure from horror. If you’re a fan, I’d recommend listening to the whole episode, but this part happens near the end.

“I’m definitely horrored out,” West told Ellis. “It’s been ten years of like a great time making horror movies and having a career because of horror movies because…I’m very fortunate because of it, and I’m very proud of all of the movies that I’ve made, but I don’t at this time know how to make another horror movie that doesn’t feel like a horror movie I’ve already made. And Sacrament, I think, doesn’t, and that was like the last one I could figure out like a new way to do it…[With] that movie, I was very interested in realism and trying to create some kind of confronting realism. Now I have zero interest in realism whatsoever. I couldn’t be more bored by realism. So what I realized that I’m now interested in, and probably will be for a while, is what I’ve always been interesed in, but that I got away from a little bit, which is just like pure cinema.”

“Pure cinema to me is to see some sort of visual art from a voice that is so unique, and it has nothing to do with realism, but it is just pure cinema in a way it is what it is,” he continued. “You know, like a movie like Beetlejuice is pure cinema, where I don’t know what this is, but this is kind of incredible to see from like all sorts of visual…and the writing is great…not that my movie is anything like Beetlejuice, but I was like, ‘I want to do that. I want to do pure…that’s what I want to get back to is just doing that.’ And I think from a filmmaker’s standpoint, the western genre is in a way pure cinema, but I wasn’t planning on doing that. I was planning on doing a weird romantic comedy, and that’s what I wanted to be doing, and then I met Ethan Hawke, and I knew he wanted to do a western, and I’m a fan of Ethan Hawke, and I pitched him a western that I never thought I would make, and he liked it. And because he liked it, he was like doing Macbeth in New York, and he had like three weeks left of Macbeth and I was like, ‘I’m going to go write this script, and the day you wrap Macbeth, I’ll send it to you, and if you like it let’s make it. And if you don’t like it, no hard feelings. I’ll take the risk to write a script, and I’ll put all my eggs in a basket, and if it happens, cool, and if it doesn’t, eh, I’ll live.'”

So West wrote the script, and Hawke liked it. That was enough to get Blum interested, and they got the other actors and set out to make the movie.

West noted that it wasn’t like he wanted to “get away from horror,” but he felt like he didn’t have anything left to say in horror, but he thought he had something to say in a western or in a romantic comedy.

“I don’t think of it as like stepping away from the genre,” he said. “I feel like I just happened to make a lot of horror movies in a row. It wasn’t really a plan. It just happened that way.”

If you ask me, the genre will miss West, because his films have been some of the better entries in recent memory, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make equally pleasing films going forward, and it doesn’t mean that he won’t return to horror down the road. In fact, he appears to be such a fan of the genre, it’s kind of hard to imagine that he wouldn’t. Even if he never returns to horror, he’s already made a significant contribution which fans will be grateful for for a long time.

Featured Image: Ti West (Instagram)

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New Poster Reveal For Nicolas Cage’s Survival Creature Feature ‘Arcadian’ [Trailer]

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Nicolas Cage Arcadian

In the latest cinematic venture featuring Nicolas Cage, Arcadian emerges as a compelling creature feature, teeming with suspense, horror, and emotional depth. RLJE Films has recently released a series of new images and a captivating poster, offering audiences a glimpse into the eerie and thrilling world of “Arcadian”. Scheduled to hit theaters on April 12, 2024, the film will later be available on Shudder and AMC+, ensuring a wide audience can experience its gripping narrative.

Arcadian Movie Trailer

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has given this film an “R” rating for its “bloody images,” hinting at the visceral and intense experience awaiting viewers. The film draws inspiration from acclaimed horror benchmarks like “A Quiet Place,” weaving a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and his two sons navigating a desolate world. Following a catastrophic event that depopulates the planet, the family faces the dual challenge of surviving their dystopian environment and eluding mysterious nocturnal creatures.

Joining Nicolas Cage in this harrowing journey are Jaeden Martell, known for his role in “IT” (2017), Maxwell Jenkins from “Lost in Space,” and Sadie Soverall, featured in “Fate: The Winx Saga.” Directed by Ben Brewer (“The Trust”) and penned by Mike Nilon (“Braven”), “Arcadian” promises a unique blend of poignant storytelling and electrifying survival horror.

Maxwell Jenkins, Nicolas Cage, and Jaeden Martell 

Critics have already begun to praise “Arcadian” for its imaginative monster designs and exhilarating action sequences, with one review from Bloody Disgusting highlighting the film’s balance between emotional coming-of-age elements and heart-pounding horror. Despite sharing thematic elements with similar genre films, “Arcadian” sets itself apart through its creative approach and action-driven plot, promising a cinematic experience filled with mystery, suspense, and relentless thrills.

Arcadian Official Movie Poster

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‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3’ Is a Go with Enhanced Budget and New Characters

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Winnie the Pooh 3

Wow, they’re churning things out fast! The upcoming sequel “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3” is officially moving forward, promising an expanded narrative with a larger budget and the introduction of beloved characters from A.A. Milne’s original tales. As confirmed by Variety, the third installment in the horror franchise will welcome Rabbit, the heffalumps, and the woozles into its dark and twisted narrative.

This sequel is a part of an ambitious cinematic universe that reimagines children’s stories as horror tales. Alongside “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” and its first sequel, the universe includes films such as “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare”, “Bambi: The Reckoning,” and “Pinocchio Unstrung”. These movies are set to converge in the crossover event “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,” slated for a 2025 release.

Winnie the Pooh Poohniverse

The creation of these films was made possible when A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh” entered the public domain last year, allowing filmmakers to explore these cherished characters in unprecedented ways. Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and producer Scott Jeffrey Chambers, of Jagged Edge Productions, have led the charge in this innovative endeavor.

The inclusion of Rabbit, heffalumps, and woozles in the upcoming sequel introduces a new layer to the franchise. In Milne’s original stories, heffalumps are imagined creatures resembling elephants, while woozles are known for their weasel-like characteristics and a penchant for stealing honey. Their roles in the narrative remain to be seen, but their addition promises to enrich the horror universe with deeper connections to the source material.

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How to Watch ‘Late Night with the Devil’ from Home: Dates and Platforms

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Late Night With The Devil

For fans eager to dive into one of this year’s most talked-about horror films from the comfort of their own home, “Late Night with the Devil” will be available for streaming exclusively on Shudder starting April 19, 2024. This announcement has been highly anticipated following the film’s successful theatrical release by IFC Films, which saw it earning rave reviews and a record-breaking opening weekend for the distributor.

“Late Night with the Devil” emerges as a standout horror film, captivating audiences and critics alike, with Stephen King himself offering high praise for the 1977-set film. Starring David Dastmalchian, the movie unfolds on Halloween night during a live late-night talk show broadcast that disastrously unleashes evil across the nation. This found footage-style film not only delivers scares but also authentically captures the aesthetic of the 1970s, drawing viewers into its nightmarish scenario.

David Dastmalchian in Late Night with the Devil

The film’s initial box office success, opening to $2.8 million in 1,034 theaters, underscores its wide appeal and marks the highest opening weekend for an IFC Films release. Critically acclaimed, “Late Night with the Devil” boasts a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 135 reviews, with the consensus praising it for rejuvenating the possession horror genre and showcasing David Dastmalchian’s exceptional performance.

Rotten Tomatoes score as of 3/28/2024

Simon Rother of iHorror.com encapsulates the film’s allure, emphasizing its immersive quality that transports viewers back to the 1970s, making them feel as if they are part of the eerie “Night Owls” Halloween broadcast. Rother lauds the film for its meticulously crafted script and the emotional and shocking journey it takes viewers on, stating, “This whole experience will have viewers of the Cairnes brothers’ film glued to their screen… The script, from beginning to end, is neatly sewn together with an ending that’ll have jaws on the floor.” You can read the full review here.

Rother further encourages audiences to watch the film, highlighting its multifaceted appeal: “Whenever it is made available to you, you must attempt to view the Cairnes Brothers’ latest project as it will make you laugh, it will creep you out, it will amaze you, and it might even strike an emotional cord.”

Set to stream on Shudder on April 19, 2024, “Late Night with the Devil” offers a compelling blend of horror, history, and heart. This film is not just a must-watch for horror aficionados but for anyone looking to be thoroughly entertained and moved by a cinematic experience that redefines the boundaries of its genre.

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