Given the tenous state of financing these days, young directors are eager to pile their plates with as many options as possible, and “House of the Devil” director Ti West is no exception. Having told us at SXSW back in March that his next film may be the pharmaceutical testing/space film “The Side Effects,” West gave an update on the progress of that project to the crowd gathered in London for Film 4’s Fright Fest.
According to HeyUGuys, West revealed that while funding is halfway there for his ambitious sounding sci-fi picture, he also has a werewolf film in the pipeline. While one of our staffers found West’s “The Innkeepers” to be a little too “Scooby Doo” for his liking, this writer found “House of the Devil” to be one of the most inspired horror films of the past decade, and one that proved West could produce horror that is clearly a cut above typical genre fare.
While a werewolf film wouldn’t be outside his comfort zone, it is certainly an interesting prospect since West’s debut film “The Roost” was a spooky but flawed trek into the killer bat subgenre, and another shot at horror folklore could produce some interesting results. While “The Side Effects” would certainly be a welcome break from the norm for West — borne out of a difficult battle he had with an insurance company — we can’t help but wonder what sort of scares he’d provide if he dove into lycanthropy. Either direction is one we’d be excited to see him go in, but those projects will have to wait for just a moment.
Next up on his very busy plate, West will tackle the secretive horror anthology “The ABCs Of Death” for Drafthouse Films along with 25 other genre directors including Jason Eisener, Ben Wheatley, Xavier Gens, Nacho Vigalondo and many, many more. This high-concept horror flick will find each director taking a letter of the alphabet as inspiration for a single word about death that will serve as the basis for their film. It will certainly give West something to do, but let’s hope the financing comes into place so at least one of these features can get off the ground.
