A SHOW OF FEET

The upcoming horror film “100 Feet” was partially influenced by Japanese cinema and Martha Stewart, according to its writer and director. Filmmaker Eric Red admitted to admiring J-horror and taking inspiration from the Queen of homemaking during a panel discussion, which also featured Michael Paré, at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror in Los Angeles.

“I’m a huge fan of ‘Ju-on’ and ‘Ringu,’” Red said. “I think the sense of reality and believability of those pictures makes those the best horror films of the last 10 to 15 years. I always wanted to try one. Then when Martha Stewart was put under house arrest, (I thought) the whole idea of somebody with an ankle bracelet that can only go 100 feet would be a great problem for a ghost story. It evolved from there.”

Famke Janssen (“House on Haunted Hill,” “The Faculty,” “X-Men,” “Hide and Seek”) plays the role of Martha Stewart. Well, not exactly. Janssen actually plays a woman named Marnie Watson, who isn’t much like Stewart besides being under house arrest, in Red’s contemporary ghost story set in Brooklyn, New York.

Marnie was married to wife-abusing police officer Mike Watson, played by Paré (“BloodRayne,” “Postal,” “The Philadelphia Experiment,” “Streets of Fire,” “Eddie and the Cruisers.”) The film, which takes place mostly inside a brownstone, centers around Marnie killing Mike in self defense, being put under house areest then haunted by his ghost.

“The ghost tries to drive her mad any way it can,” Red said. “It’s got her there. She can’t leave. If she leaves and breaks house arrest, she’ll go back to jail. She can’t move more than 100 feet so the ghost is going to get his licks in.”

“The idea was to do a film that involved a psychological, as well as a physical haunting,” Red continued. “As opposed to having a film that had a huge body count, this film has only one death. It was really about creating a sense of the psychology.”

Red said the film is “very realistically handled” and uses a mix of prosthetic effects and digital effects for the ghost. The clip shown at Fangoria gave the impression the film has a slow-building suspenseful vibe with good character development to go along with its scares.

Though the exteriors were actually filmed in New York, the bulk of the movie was shot in Budapest. The interiors were done on a breakaway set, which was “built better than most houses in California,” Paré said.

Aside from Janssen and Paré, the cast was made up of Bobby Cannavale (“Snakes on a Plane”), Ed Westwick (“Son of Rambow”), John “Arrow In The Head” Fallon (“Deaden”) and Patricia Charbonneau, who has more than 40 movie and television appearances. But Janssen is who really carries the film.

“She was really exceptional,” Red said. “She was incredibly prepared and disciplined. Her character is in every scene and almost every shot in the movie. It’s a performance that the whole film had to rest on her shoulders. She was one or two takes every time.”

She is also quite tough, according to Paré. “When I first met Famke over in Hungary, I said, ‘Listen if you just keep your fucking mouth shut everything will be fine,’” Paré joked. “And she reacted just like she does in the movie where she kicks me in the stomach.”

“100 Feet” marks the second collaboration of Red and Paré. They teamed up previously in 1996 with “Bad Moon,” which Red wrote and directed based on a novel by Wayne Smith.

“The part of the ghost, I actually wrote for Michael,” Red said. “One of his real skills is to play a role without dialogue - just physically and emotionally with expressions. So for a character that doesn’t speak much like this ghost, I knew he could do it.”

Paré, who’s been acting for 28 years, said he was excited to play the role because it challenged him. “Eric and I went to Canada to do the molds for the prosthetics and stuff and it was almost like doing mime work,” Paré said. “But mimes are always like stuck in a box or something and this was working on very deep emotions. The silent movies must have been really challenging to work on because you have nothing to work with, but your heart.”

While Red is a fan of “Ju-on” and “Ringu,” he probably hasn’t seen the American versions and definitely won’t be signing up to direct any remakes of any Asian scary movies. Red isn’t a fan of remakes. “Honestly, I could care less,” Red said. His best known screenplay “The Hitcher,” which was directed by Robert Harmon in 1986, was remade last year. There have also been rumors of a “Near Dark” do over. Red penned that 1987 script with its director Kathryn Bigelow, who also collaborated with him on “Blue Steel” (1990) and “Undertow” (1996).

“Remakes are being made for commercial reasons, not for any particular creative reason,” Red said. “If you are going to remake a film, then give it a unique spin. ‘The Hitcher’ remake script, I got lead writing credit without writing a word just because they didn’t change the script enough. If you are going to redo a movie, then re-envision it.”

“100 Feet” is currently is discussions with distributors. Red hopes it will be released some time in late 2008.

With “100 Feet” completed, Red has now done vampires, werewolves, psychos and ghosts. No matter which subgenre he takes on next, one thing is for certain, Red will do what he can to make it interesting.

“The fun thing about horror movies is trying to find a way to do things different than they’ve been done before,” Red said. “It’s a lot of fun making an audience jump.”

POLLY’S NOTE BOOK

* Eric Red on “Blue Steel” star Jamie Lee Curtis: “I think she is one of the best actresses in the world.”

* Red said “Blue Steel” was essentially “The Hitcher” with a chick.

* The Doors song “Riders on the Storm” inspired Red to write “The Hitcher.” “I just thought that would make a great opening for a movie,” Red said. “I just started with that and went from there.”

DUMB QUESTIONS

They say there is no such thing as a dumb question, but I disagree. Below are three examples of some of the fine questions asked by the audience during the “100 Feet” panel and the responses they evoked.

EXAMPLE #1 for Michael Paré
Q: “Eddie and the Cruisers” one and two, which one did you enjoy doing more?
MP : I liked doing one. “Eddie and the Cruisers” one was like my first movie.

EXAMPLE #2 for Eric Red
Q: I noticed in “Near Dark” no one ever says the word vampire, was that intentional?
ER : You bet. We thought if you couldn’t get it, we weren’t doing our job.

EXAMPLE #3 for Michael Paré
Q: Ugh, yes. I remember you on the film “Philadelphia Experiment.” You were so cool. Is there anything being... made with you as the action hero... you could be or are?
MP : You mean in the future?
Q: Yeah.
MP : Nobody’s called me, but I’m taking all calls.
Q: Dude, you rock! I want to see more of you as the action hero, man. Action hero, dude, it’s you!

Check out the film’s official blog here.

- CCF, May 2008