Making a guy in a mask scary again…
Robert Hall, of Almost Human FX, makes a living getting blood on his hands. When he stepped away from the latex fumes, out of the shop and into the director’s chair for Lightning Bug, starring Bret Harrison and That ’70s Show‘s Laura Prepon, what poured out of him was more “drama” than “horror.” That all changes in Laid to Rest, Hall’s sophomore directorial effort.
“If I was to be taken seriously [as a director], I just didn’t want to come from the FX world and do a monster movie first,” Hall says during a phone chat with ShockTillYouDrop.com. “Lightning Bug was a story that meant a lot to me and was something I had to get out, getting something under my belt that I was proud of – that showed I could work with actors and something that was cohesive.”
Rest is Hall’s balls-to-the-wall foray into horror starring Bobbi Sue Luther (Killer Pad), Nick Principe, horror vet Richard Lynch, Kevin Gage (Heat), Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs) and The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker. “The movie takes place in one night and the story begins with a girl [Luther] trapped in a coffin in a funeral home, she’s confused, can’t remember anything and once she gets out it becomes this very simple story about a guy in a mask [Principe] chasing this girl,” Hall explains from his shop, fresh yet weary from Rest‘s 24-day nocturnal principal photography schedule in Maryland.
Like Bug, Rest was personally financed, a result of once again becoming frustrated with the norms of finding funding in Hollywood. Post-Bug, Hall attempted to get another project off the ground: Old Scratch, a picture with Rob Schneider still attached to star. “That’s one I couldn’t do cheaply,” Hall admits. “‘Scratch’ I’ll do when it gets financed.” Knowing this, he questioned, “What can I do with a simple premise?”
“I was itching really bad to do a feature again, I definitely got bit by the directing bug when I did Lightning Bug,” he continues with a laugh. “This felt like the right time to do it and a lot of it was motivated by the writers strike, breaking from [FX work on] ‘Sarah Connor’ – everybody was on hiatus and I was just motivated to finish this so I wound up doing more writing during the writers strike than I ever have in my life.”
Horror fans should dismiss any notion of Rest containing a self-referential wink to the audience or a lick of “torture porn.” Hall calls his latest a straight-up ’80s-style slasher movie. “I believe we’ve finally made a guy in a mask scary again. He’s unique which is awesome, he’s a slasher and has a very cool design to his outfit. He’s pretty bad-ass. I’ve been designing him for months and months and months. And it’s not supernatural at all. He’s just a guy who has seen all of those movies we’ve seen and knows how to do it.”
And naturally, if this so-called bad-ass was schooled in horror, then he knows full well he’ll have to come back for a sequel. Hall thinks that’s a possibility. “If there was ever anything that could be franchisable, this is definitely something because the possibilities are endless with this guy. He’s a very mysterious character, too. I think we drop hints at what his background is all about, he really makes you want to know more about him.”
Post-production has begun immediately on Laid to Rest. More on the film to come!
Source: Ryan Rotten
