House’s updates on Walking Distance & Caught Breathing
Texas based filmmaker Mel House is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the horror genre. After directing his indie debut Closet Space, he helmed the ambitious Walking Distance, followed that up by producing Chris Warren’s Imago (starring Lisa Wilcox and Debbie Rochon) and is prepping his next feature, currently untitled although going by the working title of Caught Breathing. We caught up with him to get the status on all of the above mentioned projects and he gave us a few exclusive images from Imago that you can check out at the bottom of this article.
First up, Imago follows a young woman’s dark journey on the path to find her missing brother. “Right now we’re just about finished with the first pass rough cut of Imago,” House tells us. “Chris Warren (the co-writer/director, also co-editor) got everything pieced together extremely quick, and it’s looking awesome even in this early form. Now we’re about to go through, tighten some things up, maybe do a weekend of incidental pickups, and then get going on the visual FX, sound design, and score.”
“This has been the quickest production process that I’ve ever been a part of,” confesses House. “The script didn’t even exist in March, and there’s a chance that the movie will be done before the end of the year. But…you know, nothing about it seems rushed. It’s a testament to the caliber of cast and crew I have backing me up on this one…especially Chris. Who knew that my race-winning horse would be a 24 year old kid from Baytown that I met while speaking to his college film class?”
Of note for genre fans is the inclusion of actress Lisa Wilcox in the cast of Imago. Although most recognized as Alice from A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, you’ll also be able to catch her in the upcoming FearNet webseries Fear Clinic. As a die-hard fellow genre fan, we asked House how it felt working with a horror favorite. “Oh man â working with Lisa was a dream come true (pun intended). Itâs no secret that I love the Nightmare series, and I still remember going to see each one of the “Dream Trilogy” films as if it were yesterday… so having Lisa be a part of one of my films is quite surreal.”
“She could not have been a nicer, sweeter person,” says House. “Sheâs so easygoing, and fit right into the “indie” ethos of the set. And her performance… holy crap. Talk about bringing your A-game. The scenes that Lisa has with Debbie Rochon are phenomenal. And to top it off, sheâs still as beautiful as she was when she handed Freddy his ass. Twice.”
Back in April, House previewed his latest directorial effort Walking Distance at the LA Fangoria Weekend of Horrors with stars Adrienne King (Friday The 13th), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Denton Blane Everett, Shannon Lark and James Lamarr. Walking Distance takes place in a self-sufficient enclave community where very strange – some would say nightmarish – things begin to happen.
We asked House for a status update on that film as well. “We are in the home stretch with Walking Distance â just basically getting the visual FX and sound design done,” explains House. “That doesnât sound like a lot, but due to the scope of the movie, itâs actually quite a bit of work. We want it to be perfect of course, so weâre being pretty meticulous about it. Dwayne Cathey and I are still hard at work on the score â which is shaping up to be a little Mogwai, a little Mono, a little Mansell. Itâs pretty guitar-oriented, and not really like anything Iâve heard on a genre film lately. The wait on Walking Distance should be over soon. Weâll probably unveil another nasty little clip towards the holidays to whet peopleâs appetites.”
Lastly, we caught wind of yet another project Mel was planning on tackling next titled Caught Breathing. When pressed for details, he told us, “Caught Breathing has actually become the Untitled Mel House Ghost Project. It’s the next thing I’m planning to direct, hopefully in the spring of 2010. I’m trying to get my final script passes done so that the people I want involved can check it out over the holidays. This project is intended to be an old-school ghost story like The Innocents, The Changeling, or The Legend Of Hell House. I’m challenging myself to make it more atmospheric and less gory. I think it will be fun to do things “the old fashioned way” – although I’m sure there will still be a fair amount of the red stuff. At any rate, on the casting side of things, I’m writing this one with specific people in mind… it’s nice to have built up a troupe of folks that I know I can depend on. Even nicer that some of them are relatively well known.”
We’ll keep you posted on all of the above projects when we hear more! Below are 4 exclusive images from Imago:
Source: Robert Galluzzo
