The first trailer for director Adam Wingard‘s horror film You’re Next is now online.  The story centers on a family reunion that turns deadly when the family becomes targeted by masked murderers.  Their only hope is Erin (Sharni Vinson), a girlfriend of one of the family members. I really dug the flick when I saw it at TIFF 2011, and I’m excited that it’s finally coming out.  The trailer feels a tad on the generic side, but it doesn’t give away too much, and I like the use of Lou Reed‘s “Perfect Day”.

Written by Simon Barrett, You’re Next also stars Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Barbara Crampton, Wendy Glenn, Margaret Laney, Rob Moran, and Nicholas Tucci, and Ti West.  The film opens August 23rd.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

V/H/S is the latest release to capitalize on the found-footage craze.  The anthology film is structured around a group of criminals who are hired to break in to a desolate house and retrieve a mysterious videotape.  When they arrive at the house they find the owner dead in his recliner, facing a stack of TVs and a massive pile of videotapes.  In order to locate the correct video they begin watching the tapes one by one, each being a segment in the film.  These shorts include new interpretations on a monster, a masked stalker, a killer in the woods, a ghost story and some good ol’ Satanists; effectively providing a snapshot of the horror genre.  V/H/S is directed by Adam Wingard, Ti West, David Bruckner, Joe Swanberg, Glenn McQuaid and newcomers Radio Silence.

During the press conference for the film, I was able to sit down for a one on one phone interview with David Bruckner, writer/director of the segment “Amateur Night”.  During the interview we discussed the inspiration behind the creature in the film, what affect the found footage format has on audiences, and the challenges attached to working in that format.  In addition, we also talked about what we could expect from a sequel to The Signal, how digital has shaped him as a filmmaker, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for the full interview.

Magnolia followed up on the red band trailer for the horror anthology V/H/S with a green band trailer that is theoretically approved for all audiences.  Even with the friendlier green color, it is still too scary for me.  I can never see this, but based on our reviews from Sundance and SXSW, V/H/S is worth seeking out if you are more comfortable with the horror genre.

Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, David Bruckner, Adam Wingard, and Glenn McQuaid teamed up to direct V/H/S. The movie premieres on VOD August 31 before it hits theaters on October 5.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

Magnolia has released a red band trailer for the horror anthology V/H/S.  The premise centers on a group of petty criminals who find a cache of VHS tapes: “As they search for the right one, they are treated to a seemingly endless number of horrifying videos, each stranger than the last.”  I had weeks of nightmares based on the videotape footage in The Ring, so this looks terrifying.  I cannot see this.  Based on our reviews from Sundance and SXSW, V/H/S is worth a watch if you can handle it.

Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, David Bruckner, Adam Wingard, and Glenn McQuaid teamed up to direct V/H/S. The movie premieres on VOD August 31 before it hits theaters on October 5.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

Back when V/H/S (which, for brevity and sanity’s sake, we’re going to call VHS from here on out) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the word on the street was that directors Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, David Bruckner, Adam Wingard, and Glenn McQuaid had crafted one helluva found-footage horror anthology:  reports had audience members vomiting in their seats, people fainting out of sheer terror, massive rounds of applause when the credits rolled, and so on.  And so, it was with great anticipation that I decided to check out one of the film’s midnight screenings during this year’s SXSW Film Festival.  Did the film live up to the hype?  Find out after the jump.

While Ti West is not yet a household name he is a strong brand and a seal of quality. Beginning with the ultra-low budget The Roost before moving on to Trigger Man, House of the Devil and the troubled Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, West has spent the last decade producing a string of high quality creepers that recall Edgar Allen Poe and The Dulpass Brothers in equal measure.

Hitting theaters tomorrow after a VOD run is his new film, The Innkeepers, which West acutely describes as, “A charming ghost story.” Like most of West’s previous films, it is an understated and moody horror yarn that focuses more on characters than it does on blood, guts and jump scares. It’s a real gem if you’re willing to step outside the expected genre conventions.  Recently, I sat down with West and his star Sara Paxton to discuss the film. During the interview we talked about the movie’s indie stylings, meta jump scares, what it’s like to work with a director who also acts, West’s role in the upcoming (and also exceptional) slasher You’re Next and much, much more.  Hit the jump to watch.

I’ve written before about how anthology movies get on my nerves, and how they trample my nerves when the overarching narrative relies on coincidence to bring the characters together.  However, I’m not opposed to having a consistent theme running throughout (provided the subtext isn’t “we’re all connected”; I’m looking at you, 360).  The horror anthology V/H/S doesn’t bother with narrative or themes beyond “girls are not to be trusted”, “guys have way too much testosterone”, and “videotaping fun gatherings will inevitably lead to a gruesome death.”  Even the truly shared aspect—that all of the shorts look like they were shot on VHS—is undermined by not doing anything more than cast all of the stories in the found-footage mold.  Despite its lack of depth, the film is a standard mixed bag anthology, but most of the items in V/H/S‘ bag are pretty fun.

Going into the final three days of Sundance 2012, a horror title had yet to be acquired. All that changed with the Magnolia Pictures pick up of domestic rights to V/H/S for $1 million plus. Other gets included the Rough House Pictures presentation of The Comedy and National Geographic’s documentary acquisition for TV, Chasing Ice. Check out the details here:

• V/H/S is a found footage horror anthology about petty thugs tasked with searching a ramshackle house for a VHS tape which holds horrific recordings. V/H/S will have a pre-theatrical on-demand release on Magnolia’s Ultra VOD, with the theatrical release to follow after 30 days.
• The Comedy, directed by Rick Alverson and starring Tim Heidecker, will be presented by Danny McBride’s Rough House Pictures. The dark comedy follows Swanson (Heidecker) after he inherits his father’s estate and stumbles into reckless situations in hopes of freeing him from his desensitization.
• Climate-change documentary Chasing Ice by Jeff Orlowski follows photographer James Balog as he sets up time-lapse cameras on glaciers to document Earth’s melting ice. Film is also from Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, the award-winning producer of The Cove.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Writer-director Ti West (The Innkeepers) has found the star of his next project. Deadline reports that Liv Tyler will star in the psychological sci-fi thriller The Side Effect. The horror story centers on “a woman who spends several months alone in space as an experimental subject for a global pharmaceutical company, and finds herself inexplicably pregnant.” So it’s kind of like Moon, but with the added terrors of ghost reproduction. Though the film is still in the horror genre, West insists that it’s fairly different from his previous films as it focuses more on the psychological.

I’d expect a title change on The Side Effect, as Steven Soderbergh is gearing up to shoot a film called The Side Effects. West will be at Sundance next week to debut the found-footage horror film V/H/S which he co-directed. If you’re unfamiliar, his earlier works include The House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Tyler will also be in attendance at Sundance with her latest effort Robot and Frank.

Two years ago writer/director Ti West established himself as one of the premiere voices in American horror with the tantalizing satanic tease of The House Of The Devil. Now he returns with another slowburn horror tale in the haunted hotel flick The Innkeepers. His latest effort incorporates quirky humor into his methodically paced style with mixed results. West is adept at writing subtly comedic characters and building tension, but something about the combination of the two techniques feels awkward in this outing. Tension is often killed by the comedy and the delicate mundane world of the characters clashes with the film’s supernatural shenanigans at times. It’s an undeniably flawed effort, but still an unconventional spin on the genre from a uniquely personal filmmaker that deserves to be seen, even if lowered expectations apply. Collider got an early peak at the film last week at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, so hit the jump for all the ghostly details.

Adam Wingard’s You’re Next is the home invasion horror sub-genre played to near-perfection.  Through a terrific blend of setting, characters, pacing, and creative kills, Wingard delivers a horror film that even non-horror fans can enjoy.  The film falters slightly when it offers more information than necessary, but you’ll suspend your disbelief for the fun, thrills, and excitement you’ll get in return.

Drafthouse Films is teaming with Timpson Films, Magnet Releasing, and 26 filmmakers to produce the horror anthology The ABCs of Death.  Each director will be assigned one letter of the alphabet to turn into a short film.  Some of the more notable talent involved Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun), Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes), Ti West (The House of the Devil), and Srdjan Sapsojevic (A Serbian Film).  The remaining confirmed are Angela Bettis, Ben Wheatley, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Bruno Forzani and Héléne Cattet, Gadi Harel, Thomas Malling, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Simon Rumley, Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura, Marcel Sarmiento, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Jake West and Adam Wingard.  The plan is to fill one slot with the winner of a worldwide contest, reminiscent of how Eisener got his start as an amateur filmmaker who landed Hobo With a Shotgun in the fake trailers section of Grindhouse.

Production is scheduled for this June.  The plan is to complete filming exactly 6 months, 6 weeks, and 6 days later in January 2012.  Read quotes from the producers after the jump.

Sara Paxton (Last House on the Left) will be joining the cast of Ti West’s (The House of the Devil) newest horror film The Innkeepers.  Paxton will be playing the lead in the film.  Pat Healy (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Kelly McGillis (Top Gun) and George Riddle have also joined the cast.

In the film Paxton and Healy play the last two clerks in a hundred-year-old haunted hotel in the last days before its closure as a few final strange guests come to stay. The shoot is taking place at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a real New England hotel long suspected of actually being haunted. (via THR)

The film will be produced by Derek Curl, Peter Phok, Larry Fessenden and Ti West at Dark Sky Films.  The film begins shooting this week in Connecticut.  There is no current release date.

The slow burn is a technique that’s been all but abandoned in American horror films. While some movies can boast to have slow openings before they get to the goods, it’s a truly rare thing for the best feature of a film to be the slow, suspenseful build-up of tension as the audience begins to realize, along with the characters, that for lack of a better phrase, shit’s about to get real. This is part of what makes Ti West’s 1980′s horror tribute, House of the Devil, so special, and even more rare for a horror film, so scary. Hit the jump for my full review, and make sure not to read it alone…

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is both a surprisingly good movie, and every bit as bad as you would expect.

The film, directed by Ti West – who has since disowned it – takes the gimmicks, gore, and bad taste humor of the original and ups the ante ten fold. I don’t get squeamish very easily, but this film marks the second time this year I have almost vomited while watching an American movie.

Picking up the plot thread left at the end of the original film, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever details what happens when the Down Home Water Co. delivers a case of infected water to a high school on the eve of prom. Before long, the virus is spreading in the school. Everyone’s getting it. Whether it’s from bloody urine in the punch bowl or blowjobs in the bathroom, rarely have I seen a dead teenager movie where the teens were more doomed.  More after the jump: