Movies
David Cronenberg Explains Why He Probably Won’t Be Making Another Horror Movie
With a string of horror hits early on in his career – including Rabid, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone and The Fly – David Cronenberg established himself as a master of horror throughout the ’70s and ’80s, but he has mostly left the genre behind in recent years with films like A History of Violence, Eastern Promises and Maps to the Stars.
You could say that Cronenberg has reinvented himself as a filmmaker, and he tells Entertainment Weekly this week that he has no current plans on ever going back to horror.
“I’ve never really resisted that. I’ve been offered many projects and so on, and they just seemed to be a repetition basically of what I’d done already, so that’s not interesting,” Cronenberg told the site, promoting Beyond Fest’s upcoming retrospective of his career. “I think the reason that I started to evolve away from straight horror was just because, instead of being liberating, which it was in the beginning – and it’s a genre that really is capable of delivering a lot more than just scares if it’s done by really talented people – but I think I found that [horror] was becoming restrictive rather than liberating.”
He added, “So I think in all my films there is still the texture of that underneath everything, but I don’t really see myself going back to that. But you never know, you never know.”
Movies
‘Boorman and the Devil’ Documentary Trailer Chronicles Complicated Relationship with ‘Exorcist II’
Critically acclaimed documentary Boorman and the Devil chronicles how one of the world’s greatest filmmakers made one of the most hated movies ever: Exorcist II: The Heretic. A new trailer highlighting some of the troubled production woes has arrived.
Boorman and the Devil opens at The Quad in NYC on August 28 before opening wider in various cities on September 4, including: Los Angeles, Columbus, Houston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle and more.
After the success of Point Blank and Deliverance, Warner Brothers offered John Boorman the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to direct a sequel to their smash hit, The Exorcist. The result was one of the biggest disasters in movie history. A critical and financial failure that not only changed how Hollywood did business, but nearly ended Boorman’s filmmaking career… but to be an artist is to be a risk-taker.
Now, John Boorman, Linda Blair, Louise Fletcher, Karyn Kusama, Joe Dante, Mike Flanagan, and more reflect back on the ambition of the film, the artistry and craft, and the value of big creative swings.
“I am beyond thrilled that Yellow Veil has come on board to help us share this story with a larger audience,” said director David Kittredge. “Like myself and the rest of our team, they’re huge cinema-lovers. It’s so exciting that a film which is not only a love letter to John Boorman, but also to ambitious filmmaking, will be handled by people who share the same passions that our team shares.”
“I first saw the film at an early festival screening and the post-screening buzz was just electric. Everyone was loving Boorman and the Devil,” added Yellow Veil co-founder Justin Timms. “To be able to team up with David and the filmmaking team on this release is incredibly exciting, and we can’t wait to spread that post-screening electricity with audiences across the country.”
Boorman and the Devil is produced by Kittredge’s Triple Fire Productions, Travis Stevens (Jodorowsky’s Dune, Starry Eyes) of Snowfort Pictures, and Jim Fall (The Lizzie McGuire Movie), with Alan Koenigsberg of Milton Ventures Media serving as co-producer.
Daniel Kurland wrote in his review, “Boorman and the Devil goes above and beyond to be the definitive text on Exorcist II. This documentary will delight horror and Exorcist fans alike, but it also provides incredible insight for anyone who is just marginally interested in film production.”