How To Neuter A Horror Film

[JohnShaft]

It's been a while, huh?

I apologize to everyone. Things have been crazy here and I have not really had the chance to write for anyone I was previously committed to. Hopefully, it will change soon, but I've still got loads of things to go through on the homefront. I've already contacted the very patient John Shaft about this and he's working on getting some more people in here to spread things out while I still contribute where I can.

This story on Fango's website caught by interest precisely because it is exactly what I think is wrong with the making and marketing of horror films today. This is in no way a slam against the filmmakers, but look at all the hoops they have to jump through, all the testing, all to make the widest possible MAINSTREAM audience happy. It's really ridiculous. Behold an example of how making a horror film is like a soft drink taste test.

One of the more, for lack of a better word, troubled J-horror adaptations to reach the screen is PULSE, based on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s highly regarded chiller (a.k.a. KAIRO). And now that the film is locked in for an August 25 release (yes, kids, that marks yet another bump, from the previous Aug. 11 berth), director Jim Sonzero is opening up about his introduction to the project, its history of reshoots and ultimate PG-13 rating.

PULSE lists Wes Craven as a contributing screenwriter, even though the horror veteran was dismissed from the project and assigned to the ill-fated CURSED, and the script was deemed outdated and subsequently reworked by other writers and its new helmer. “He has a credit on it because of the appeal of his name, I guess,” Sonzero says. “At the time Craven was developing it, I was working on a few projects with the Weinsteins, including SHADOW MAN [based on the Dark Horse Comic and DEADER a script by Neal Marshall Stevens that was later turned into a HELLRAISER sequel. Those didn’t happen, so Bob Weinstein was really into getting me on a project. PULSE came up because Wes was pulled off it to work on CURSED. They asked me if I was interested and I said yes, so I watched the original. I thought the pace of it was…off for American audiences. It’s a little slow. I mean, I loved it and I was patient, but I thought it could be goosed and made a little more energetic.”

Starring VERONICA MARS stunner Kristen Bell, Ian (LOST) Somerhalder and singer Christina Milian, PULSE homes in on society’s current overreliance on wi-fi technology and a malevolent force that decides to take advantage of its convenience. Earlier this year, Sonzero went back behind the camera during postproduction to lens a number of new scenes, including one that called for the wild-eyed, paranoid assistance of genre fave Brad Dourif, whose character didn’t previously exist in the film. “What happened was that because of the schedule, and the fact that Bob fast-tracked the movie, we went into production with a script that wasn’t quite together,” Sonzero explains. “My strategy was to shoot what was on the page as well as several additions to the storyline we could follow through on later. When you approach a film like this, a director has to have enough foresight to create as many options for himself as possible, so I created several things that weren’t in the script that we could just choose to expand on regarding the characters and plot. When we got done with the first screening, it needed some support. So we shot some additional scenes, tested it again—and it tested better, so we dialed in a couple more new scenes and got the numbers where we wanted them.”

“The testing process is always helpful, because it’s a disaster check and brings you around to seeing things you might not have seen before,” he continues. “What needs to be guarded in the process is how the studio chooses to interpret the incoming data from these screenings, because everyone has an agenda and people can be vague and push it in the direction they want it.”

As for PULSE’s PG-13 rating, Sonzero says that was always in the cards, although he “always pushed for an R; I don’t think horror films should be PG-13. The studio mandate was that we get it down to that, and the MPAA censored us in their own way.” Lost to the cutting room floor, and to be seen on a forthcoming “uncut” DVD edition, is a recreation of the Kurosawa film’s “tower fall” shot—at this writing, you can still see a snippet of it (pre-impact) in the TV spots. “Seriously, the MPAA should get an editing credit,” Sonzero continues. “The biggest problem was the studio] wanted to get the VERONICA MARS audience into theaters; that was the bottom line. It was definitely hard to watch my film get its balls cut off, but the essence of the scenes are still there, and I was able to make it even scarier through the sound design.”

With PULSE behind him, Sonzero aims to reconnect with commercials directing (where he got his start) and decompress. In addition, he’s going to develop a big-screen adaptation of the John Shirley novel DEMONS, once again for the Weinstein Co.

So I'll be waiting for DVD on this one. Don't get me wrong, I hope the film is good and I have total respect for the filmmakers. But I'd prefer to see a film with its balls intact.

As a post-note, I would like to apologize to anyone who came to this site last week and saw a completely different kind of horror - namely, the horror of a loser with HTML experience and way too much time on his hands. Horror Express was hacked last week however briefly. It of course was not the work of Islamic terrorists as the hacker tried to appear but just another asshole who only gains pleasure by making everyone else's life more difficult. Sorry to the people that were inconvenienced by this.

- Scott W. Davis

[Juan Rayo]

Totally with Mr. Scott on this one, I recently saw "Kairo" and I think it´s a very good, slowly paced but well told story. It doens´t really "explain" anything and there is no need for it to do so, one can very much enjoy the ride without some bland explanation.

When I heard a remake was being made (of course), my first toughts were something like "why oh gods why" followed by "strike thy fury into the infidels souls, smite their hack ways into oblivion, free the land of the insult of their existence". So yeah, you can say I am not too kin on it.

yeah I know, dont judge the movie until you see it and all that. But for the little of it I have seen, it REALLY looks like they messed it up. "neutered" is a great way to describe it.

[JohnShaft]

I'm with agreement on you guys. But this shit has been going on years really, we're just not generally privy to it.

A couple of months ago I finished reading a book (FUTURE NOIR) on the making of Blade Runner. A movie I've always loved the bones of. It's a tale of the disastrous process of getting the movie made and on the screen.

One section details the way *it* was neutered by audience screening. Because of the reactions at these screenings (half loving, half hating) it ended up with a ridiculous tagged on "they all lived happily ever after, and look the world isn't really fucked up" ending. Not to mention the unimaginative and totally unnecessary voiceover, done by Ford, so the dumb people got it. Both bad moves, that damaged it as art. Both because large sections of the screening audience "didn't get it". Thankfully both of these changes were reversed for the Director's Cut.

In America in particular they seem to have an absolutel obsession with over explaining every last detail, which totally ruins the sublety and takes much of the mystery out of a movie. Case in point: THE RING.

I guess the money men don't want to alienate any of the audience (and therefore lose money) by being any less than slap-in-the-face-obvious. It's lowest common denominator movie making though. And let's face it, if I can get cynical for a while, there's plenty of not-too-smart-people-to-start-with who go to a movie with their brain switched off the entire time. These are not people you should be pandering too. Let's raise the intellect of the audience by making them think and figure things out, instead of cutting their food up for them and then feeding it to them.

So yeah, I'm not suprised by this. I'm just annoyed it not only seems to happen on a wide scale, but that it's getting even wider. Maybe one day it will change, and the artistic talent will take sole responsibility for how a movie turns out. I find it unlikely though, as the goal for those who make the decisions isn't "make the best movie we can", it's "make the most money we can".

In short, the tail is wagging the dog, not the tale.

[Unconscious]

As a post-note, I would like to apologize to anyone who came to this site last week and saw a completely different kind of horror - namely, the horror of a loser with HTML experience and way too much time on his hands. Horror Express was hacked last week however briefly. It of course was not the work of Islamic terrorists as the hacker tried to appear but just another asshole who only gains pleasure by making everyone else's life more difficult. Sorry to the people that were inconvenienced by this.

Website hacking has become a lot more common lately, several pages on or related to Doom 3 Unlimited have also been accessed and vandalised.

The most pathetic part of it all, is that it is completely unprovoked and anonymous.

Cheers.