Newbie Looking for Advice on the Direction of Indie Horror

dar

dar

Hi all--

I'm new to the boards, and almost as new to indie horror. I've been doing a lot of viewing, watching every indie horror film I can get my hands on (and it's not easy to get your hands on some!), but my knowledge still lacks coherence.

Who would you say are the most promising indie horror directors out there today, and what themes/direction do you think indie horror is taking?

I promise to make a viewing list and do my homework!

TIA,

Dar

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Dar Silver
www.channel-kdk12.com
 
Welcome to Indietalk, Dar!

I cannot give you an adequate opinion on the 'most promising horror director' out there, today, but we do have some board members who mine this genre and can offer their advice. I'm sure they will see your thread and give their two cents.
 
Trends/themes/direction are audience driven, so that is more of a demographic/marketing question. Despite the corporate Hollywood decision-making process audiences are always looking for something fresh; but not too fresh. Mostly they want a new spin on something familiar, or maybe something completely different presented in familiar way. You see? It's all a bunch of crap.

No matter what genre you shoot - horror is not my thing BTW - you still have to follow the basic precepts of filmmaking. That is where you should start. There are a lot of great books out there. Here's a list of IndieTalk faves:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=24048&highlight=books

Watch the "biggies" of the genre and try to understand why they are so popular. It will be mostly what makes any film in any genre a hit; they look great, they sound great, the story is great, the acting is great. But mostly the audience cares about what happens to the character(s).

I'm sure that others will chime in. Oh, and here's my best piece of advice. Always remember -

Opinions are like a$$holes; everybody has one and they all stink!
 
Thanks, I will check out those books.

I should probably have mentioned that I'm not a filmmaker, but run a site devoted to horror films. I and a lot of other people are getting sick of the remake/sequel craze that has taken over Hollywood, and we're looking to the indie world to get our fix.

So, I am trying to learn what makes a good film so that I can be a better critic and commentator; I find that my vocabulary for analysis and critique is pitifully small--I see something special, but I can't describe it sufficiently. That's where the books will help.

And I'm also hoping to bring the best of the indie world to horror fans through my site, and it seems like asking those who make films is one way to do that.

I've learned a lot already, just lurking here, so thank you all for that!

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dar silver
www.channel-kdk12.com
 
dar said:
I should probably have mentioned that I'm not a filmmaker, but run a site devoted to horror films. I and a lot of other people are getting sick of the remake/sequel craze that has taken over Hollywood, and we're looking to the indie world to get our fix.
Click to expand...

Well why didn't you say so in the first place? :D

Maybe you should be the one(s) to review all of those indie horror films. You and five buds get together and review five every week - that would be 250 a year! You each give a (severed) thumb up or down, or one to ten pints of blood (or whatever). Invite guest reviewers; do a weekly video review blog. Then next year hold your own horror film festival.
 
Yeah, that's what we're trying to do. Without the thumbs and stars; more critique and less judgement, I hope. We've got about 160 movies in our wiki, about 1/4 are indie, and when we started, I thought that was ok.

But now I'm seeing a bigger need to get information out about indie horror, so I've been shifting that way. We'll still include all the really good mainstream horror, but I don't want to spend all our time talking about why Saw 3D should never have been made. I'd rather talk about the first one, ignore the rest, and spend that extra time on six new indie movies that should get attention.

That's the idea, anyhoo. We're running about 850 unique visitors so far this month, so we're pretty small, but growing at a nice pace.

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dar silver
www.channel-kdk12.com
 
Check out the films shown it indie horror festivals. There are quite a few festivals, and the films shown over the last five years or so would give you a place to start.
 
That's good advice. The one sticky point is that it's hard to get your hands on those films. Screeners are hard to get, I understand they're an expensive thing to give out, and we're small, unproven. So, I think we need some people to take a chance on us.

The more interviews we do, and the bigger our wiki becomes, I think the more likely people will be to take a chance on us. So, we'll keep growing and I will definitely keep track of the festivals!

Thanks, guys, I appreciate the support for a non-filmmaker!

PS: Oh, and I did order some of the recommended books, so I'll be reading up soon. That will really help--I need vocabulary and an understanding of what it takes to make movies to really critique movies effectively. So, thanks for that, too!
 
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