Exclusives
[Interview] Chris Kentis And Laura Lau Talk Building ‘Silent House’!
Open Road Films and Liddell Entertainment’s Silent House opens this week in wide release. The pic, which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, was co-directed by filmmaking duo Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, who initially made a splash back in 2004 with Open Water. The screenplay was written by Laura Lau and based on the Uruguayan film La Casa Muda, written by Oscar Estevez.
I recently sat down with the team to discuss the creation of the appearance of an uninterrupted take for an entire movie, along with crafting the story to fit that conceit. They definitely seemed energized by the restrictions of the film’s structure and elaborated on the challenges creating in-camera the kind of suspense beats that are normally fine-tuned in editing.
The film “ is a uniquely unsettling horror thriller starring Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah, a young woman who finds herself sealed inside her family’s secluded lake house. With no contact to the outside world, and no way out, panic turns to terror as events become increasingly ominous in and around the house.”
The film opens March 9th. Hit the jump to check the interview!
Out today in select theaters and on digital platforms is heartfelt and playful documentary Mockbuster, which sees a director cold call a studio and ask to helm a lost-world dinosaur epic.
Inexplicably, they say yes.
Our exclusive clip below highlights both the comedic nature of this bizarre scenario as well as the pressures of shooting dino feature The Land That Time Forgot in a mere six days, with no real feature experience.
A dino attack scene causes friction on set in this scene.
In the documentary, “A struggling filmmaker’s opportunity collides with chaos and compromise when Sharknado’s notorious studio, The Asylum, invites him to direct a ‘mockbuster.’ With six days, a micro budget, and mounting pressure, Mockbuster is a comedic, behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the balance between low-budget filmmaking and creative ambition.”
More than just an inside look at filmmaking via low-budget film studio The Asylum, it doubles as one man’s pursuit of his dreams to charming, humorous effect.
“Mockbuster is a documentary about my own journey, but it’s also a love letter to one of the last grindhouses still functioning in Hollywood. We get to meet the characters and creators of some of the most infamous (and most hated) B-movies of the last few decades. People who make movies purely for profit – no pretension, no artistry, just monsters, C-listers, and chaos. A film that both genre fans and cinephiles can enjoy. But Mockbuster isn’t just about filmmaking, it’s about losing sight of your dreams, and reclaiming them in your own twisted way,” Director Anthony Frith said in a statement.
From Executive Producer and famed documentarian David Farrier, Mockbuster opens in select theaters and on digital platforms beginning July 10.