V/H/S Halloween directors open up about the biggest challenges of filming an anthology series found footage film during Fantastic Fest interview.
Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., is the perfect place to celebrate all things horror, and this year, it brought us a special treat: V/H/S Halloween. The latest installment in the popular found footage anthology series, this film delivers six terrifying tales of Halloween horror.
Mama’s Geeky sit down with the directors behind the unsettling segments to discuss the challenges and thrills of working in this unique format. They reveal the secrets of creating a compelling found footage film. From working while being in the dark about the other shorts to the unexpected difficulties of shooting during the wrong season, the directors share their experiences on everything that went into making this frightful flick.
Who Directed Which Short In V/H/S Halloween?
Paco Plaza: I’m Paco Plaza, and my short film is called UT SUPRA SIC INFRA.
Casper Kelly: Casper Kelly, Fun Size.
Bryan M. Ferguson: Bryan M. Ferguson, Diet Phantasma.
Anna Zlokovic: Anna Zlokovic, Coochie Coochie Coo.
Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman: Micheline Pitt-Norman and R.H. Norman. And we did Home Haunt.
Alex Ross Perry: Alex Ross-Perry, Kid Print.
Filming V/H/S Halloween While In The Dark About The Other Shorts
Mama’s Geeky: One thing I always wonder with V/H/S is, how much do you guys know about what the other shorts are?
Paco Plaza: In my case, nothing at all. I think zero information.
Micheline Pitt-Norman: I feel like the LA crew, we got to visit each other and see each other because we were all working, and then Casper kind of came in when we were doing stuff too. So we did get to see bits and pieces of each other’s, but we didn’t have a full understanding of everything.
Anna Zlokovic: I got to visit Casper’s set for like two hours, and then I was like, “Oh, cool.” But still, I mean, you guys sent me the script, so I kind of had an idea. We shared scripts back and forth. But again, I made new friends. That’s my favorite thing.
Alex Ross Perry: I knew nothing. The only thing I ever asked was, “What is the wraparound?” because we were at one point debating, “Do we open this way or that way?” I said, “Does the wraparound ease you in?” and I was told like, “No, every piece of the wraparound ends with an insane kill.” And I was like, okay, so we need to start less rather than more. That was the only thing I ever was like, “I need to know what the 30 seconds before our start is.”
Mama’s Geeky: What would you guys say is the biggest challenge working on a short for V/H/S Halloween?
Paco Plaza: I think the most challenging thing was being in the dark with the other stories, like trying to fill in a hole of something you don’t know what it is.
Casper Kelly: There were so many challenges. Everything can go wrong. But yeah, those darn conveyor belts, which people had to pull. It was a bear.
Bryan M. Ferguson: Biggest challenge? Three days, limited resources, and 100 practical effects and camera. So pretty much all of it. But yeah, we got there. And I think everybody’s gonna be the same where it’s just, it’s hard as fuck to make a film.
Anna Zlokovic: Yeah, everything is hard. I’m still tired. For me, I had never done long takes like that before. I usually do a lot of coverage. But it was really cool. There were a lot of practical effects and VFX and blocking changes and camera blocking. That was really crazy, and that was hard. But it was fun.
R.H. Norman: We just were really ambitious, and we were building sets and striking sets the same day that we were shooting. And we had like a week to make everything and do it. I don’t know how we did it.
Micheline Pitt-Norman: I would second everything she said, it was very difficult. The other thing that was very difficult for us was tone, really establishing tone. We wanted to do these kind of like dark, messed-up Amblin kind of things, and you can either veer too quickly into comedy or be too self-serious while massacring 15 kids. We really struggled to strike the right balance of tone where it’s playful and tongue in cheek but also not a complete joke.
Alex Ross Perry: I guess like, no one’s mentioning the obvious, which is, if you want to make a Halloween movie, you could do it. There’s five weeks of the year, you could do it with zero production design budget, and it would look great. And we did not shoot in those five weeks. Also, every member of your crew and your cast, you’re introducing them to a visual language of filmmaking that is probably something they don’t know. From a technical and an acting standpoint, half of the people are like, “I don’t know the rules of the genre we are making.” And you are constantly instructing performers to look at the lens and act in a way that is antithetical to everything they’ve ever tried to do.
Why Fans Love Found Footage & The V/H/S Films
Mama’s Geeky: What do you guys think it is about found footage stuff that really makes people love it as a genre?
Paco Plaza: It’s an experience in some ways closer to video games in which you feel you are there. There is some people tend to attach this kind of filmmaking to reality shows. So the sense of reality in a way increases just by the way you’re shooting. You can’t help but think there’s some sense of truth in what you are watching.
Anna Zlokovic: Yeah, I think it activates the mirror neurons of like, what you’re saying, you feel like it’s you. So it really puts you in the film.
R.H. Norman: Just to reiterate that, this is the POV. So it puts the audience member in the film. You’re seeing it from like your own perspective of what’s going on. I think that’s sort of the core audience for this. They want to be in it, they want to be involved. And it’s just scarier if they feel like they’re actually in it.
Alex Ross Perry: I get like, to me, what’s one of the most fun moments in any horror movie when a character goes either upstairs or downstairs, right? And the audience is like, “Don’t do that.” That’s the best. And to me, found footage, from its beginnings, every minute of a found footage movie, when done well, can be “Don’t do that.” It makes you an active participant in the character’s choices. It’s subjective filmmaking. It’s become this language of subjectivity, where you are in the movie.
Everyone Was Impressed By The Wrap Around Segments
Mama’s Geeky: Besides your own, which one did you find the most interesting?
R.H. Norman: Can I give a good honest answer about this? I don’t think that question makes sense for this installment. I think everyone contributed something that’s so unique and so a thing unto itself that it doesn’t even make sense to compare. But one person I would like to give a lot of credit to because I think this is the hardest thing is Bryan’s. Wrap arounds are very difficult. I feel like he nailed the assignment, and I feel like he understood that he came in from a really like, “I also have to give support to the rest of the things.” He picked everything back up every time. And it was just really, I think that he was the glue that held us all together.
