Twitch sat down with WE ARE STILL HERE cast members Barbara Crampton, Fessenden, Lisa Marie, and Andrew Sensenig, and they talked about everything from the gore in the movie to the possibility of sequels!

Read on for all the gory details from Twitch!

[Photo above, L-R: Andrew Sensenig, Ted Geoghegan, Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Travis Stevens, Lisa Marie, Karim Hussain. Set photos by Stacy Buchanan / Wicked Bird Media.]

We Are Still Here has been garnering enthusiastic reviews from its premiere at SXSW and subsequent screenings at Boston Underground Film Festival and the Stanley Film Festival, with other festival screenings to come. The film is currently playing a limited theatre run, and will be available on VOD on June 5th. You can read Peter Martin’s original SXSW review here. If you’ve missed the trailer, you can watch it below.

I was able to visit the set in freezing upstate New York in February 2014 and speak to cast members Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, and Andrew Sensenig.

TwitchFilm: Larry, how did you get involved with We Are Still Here?

Larry Fessenden: Ted (Geoghegan, director/writer) just asked me very casually at the bar if I would do it. Of course, I knew the executive producer, Greg Newman. I was excited tha Ted had gotten the green light, because I’ve known him for some time, and I said sure. Scheduling was a little more dicey, so I came in late to the shoot, but as a result, it was fun to see everyone already comfortable with each other and walk onto set get right into mayhem. We shot out of order, so the first stuff we did was the absolute craziest because we shot out of the house.

There’s lots of gore in the story.

Barbara Crampton: Very gory, yeah. I came into the picture last summer; Ted and I have been friends since he did the publicity on You’re Next. He sent me the script to ask my opinions on it, and I read it and thought it was great. He said he wanted to to be very gory and almost like a monster movie, like the films I’ve done with Stuart Gordon. I agreed that it fit, and that his vision was really good. He said, “Well, I actually have you in mind for one of the parts!” And I didn’t know that, which was probably better, because actors tend to grab onto things and go “ooh, make this happen! I want those lines!” He said, “I’d really love for you to play the part of Anne and I think I might actually get this movie produced!” A few months later, he called me again and said, “I have the money, Barbara, and we’re gonna do the movie!” I said, “That’s great! Who’s going to direct?” (Because he’s been a writer all this time.) He said that he was going to direct, and I was really excited for him. It came together pretty quickly after that, and it’s really nice to make a film with someone who’s become a friend. It’s very comfortable on set. A lot of people know one another in this small horror universe. It feels like we’re sitting in our living room making a movie; really cozy and comfortable.

My character lost her son in an accident, and she and her husband Paul come to this new house to try to start a new life. It doesn’t really go very well for them. Bad things happen, from their son potentially haunting them to crazy people in town to something lurking in the basement. The movie becomes a wild ride and brings everything together at the end.

Andrew Sensenig: I would comment on that here in Palmyra, we’ve had some remarkably cold days. The first day we started, the wind was blowing sideways and the wind chill was negative 20 degrees. Barbara and I are filming in the car, and there’s no heat in the car. But it fit the film perfectly, the snow, the way the house looks. It even snowed on the right days. We all just pushed through.

Lisa Marie: It’s been like a dream for me, since the moment I arrived. Since I arrived, people were coming to my door to introduce themselves and I jumped right in. It’s been nonstop for my character. I really love her because she’s a hyper-sensitive art child. She’s etheral and she feels and sees things. The costumes have been great and I love working with Karim (Hussain, cinematographer/filmmaker), who’s incredible. He notices details and the film is really lucky to have him.

I heard there may be a possibility of a prequel or a sequel.

Crampton: That’s a rumor I started!

Sensenig: There could absolutely be a sequel and a prequel. I don’t want to spoil the film but the way the story is written, it could happen.

Crampton: Right, the way the town is, there could be something pertaining to the house that could be ongoing.

One thing I love about this film is the return to a character-driven story among practical special effects.

Sensenig: The effects team is unreal, with Marcus Koch and Cat Bernier… What you’ll see happen and what they did is scary. It’s scary when we’re watching it, and we know it’s fake.

Larry, I saw your head on a table yesterday.

Fessenden: There are a lot of people who want my head!

Crampton: I saw the fake Larry head and I stared at it on the monitor, and then I looked over at him, and said, “Is that… Larry?!”

Fessenden: He’s really let himself go!

Crampton: It looked so good! It looked just like you — it was amazing! There have been some really wonderful effects in this film.

Fessenden: I was here for 15 minutes, then they had me in the chair. 

Sensenig: You’ll see some new gags that have not graced the horror screen before. 

As actors, I imagine it’s easier for you to work with practical effects rather than CGI.

Fessenden: Oh yeah. I once had my eye put out by a CGI ice pick. All you’re doing is (holds up hands and feigns fright) going, “No, no, no!” It’s so much better getting a facial. To have something in front of you so you can react. There are a lot of times where we’re wielding weapons and we’re wielding real weapons, and I love it. When you pick up a fire axe, you feel that real weight. There’s nothing worse than picking up a weapon that feels like a feather and waving it around — you don’t feel the danger. We did a scene where we all felt a little dangerous, and that’s my favorite kind of filmmaking style.

Crampton: I did one little stunt—

Sensenig: It’s a BIG stunt!

Fessenden: But anything can go wrong. On a bigger set, they switch you out, but you’re not engaged in the same way, which is why I prefer this way…

Crampton: A big set would have never allowed Larry to do what he did.

Fessenden: Let’s just say I was in such a heightened moment. 

Were you possessed by an evil spirit?

Fessenden: We’re not telling! That was just a party night.

Crampton: The film really is rooted in a lot of character development and story, how we’re feeling internally. It makes all the practical effects around us feel so visceral and real, honest and true.

Sensenig: The four characters are all so different, that I can think the audience will be able to relate. You know someone like Jacob, like May, Paul, and Anne. I think folks will want to cheer for some and not cheer for others.

Fessenden: I think it’s fun. In a lot of the scenes, you play them as you would in a dramatic sequence; you’re thinking about “how do I help my wife?” Or how to egg on this guy or offer him support. When characters are established well early on, it gives you reason to care about what happens.

Sensenig: And we’re old folks, it’s cool. This is about people, not a teenage remake of Texas Chainsaw. And that’s not bad, but we’ve seen that so many times. 

Being older that what we usually see onscreen these days, you all bring a gravitas to the film. You’re not idiots on the CW. 

Sensenig: You’re absolutely right — that makes it heightened. Teenagers will watch and think, “They’re like my parents. How horrible would it be if they were in that situation? I might argue with my parents, but I don’t want them to go through that.”

As of this writing, WE ARE STILL HERE, featuring Fessenden, Barbara Crampton, and Andrew Sensenig, and directed by GEP-pal Ted Geoghegan, is getting tons of critical love! With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% fresh, it’s clear that WE ARE STILL HERE ain’t your average spook-show.

We’re finally getting a look at some awesome box covers for the Fessenden/Graham Reznick scripted PS4 Game, UNTIL DAWN, set to release August 25th. 

As reported by WCCF Tech:

Sony has revealed the European box art for the standard edition, the Extended Edition and the Steelbook Edition, and the North American box art for PS4 exclusive Until Dawn.

The Steelbook Edition and the Extended Edition have been announced only for Europe so far.

Being one of the few exclusives that we know of, to be releasing for the PS4 this year, Until Dawn shouldn’t be missed by fans of the horror genre.

Until Dawn will be launching on August 25 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. With the recent delays of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Ratchet & Clank to 2016, PS4 owners don’t have much else in exclusive titles, so Until Dawn could prove to be the game to fill the need for a unique experience.

Until Dawn features performances from a Hollywood cast including Hayden Panettiere and Peter Stormare. Players’ actions alone decide the outcome of who survives Until Dawn. With an unpredictable and dynamically adaptive story, crafted in consultation with Until Dawn scriptwriters and indie horror authors Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, eight friends come together at a remote mountain getaway and embark upon a night of unexpected terror.

Featuring innovative choice mechanics and the Butterfly-Effect Interface, gives players the chance to see the path of their story amid the thousands that are possible. Seemingly insignificant choices as well as huge moral dilemmas that will question your sense of fairness, good and evil, can have major unforeseen consequences.

Using the power of the superior rendering capability of the Killzone Shadowfall Engine, and the power of the PlayStation 4 together with proprietary major enhancements in lighting, camera, and animation systems, Until Dawn brings emotional and credible performances of a talented Hollywood cast to life in its realistically terrifying environments.

E3 2015 is just around the corner though and Sony is said to have a killer line-up of game announcements and reveals, some of which are likely to release within the year.

We will bring you any new information on Until Dawn, E3 2015 and Sony as soon as it becomes available.

source

Fangoria just posted an awesome interview with Fessenden about Ted Geoghegan’s “neo-fulci fright flick” WE ARE STILL HERE.

From Fangoria:

For fans of independent horror, the name “Larry Fessenden” should be very familiar. The creator of the NY-based production house Glass Eye Pix, which turns 30 later this year, Fessenden has proven himself as performer, producer and director in the independent horror world, shepherding talents like Ti West, Jim Mickle and Glenn McQuaid while helming fright fare such as WENDIGO, THE LAST WINTER and 2013’s killer fish movie BENEATH. However, Fessenden has been just as busy on-camera as he has been off, appearing in recent projects such as YOU’RE NEXT, HELLBENDERS, LATE PHASES, JUG FACE, I SELL THE DEAD, THE STRAIN and, most recently, Ted Geoghegan’s WE ARE STILL HERE.

Recently, the neo-Fulci chiller played at the incredible Stanley Film Festival, where Fessenden also represented his own TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE LIVE as well as his appearance in Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s BODY. FANGORIA caught up with Fessenden shortly after the Festival to talk about his multi-faceted macabre role in Geoghegan’s demonic directorial debut…

FANGORIA: Director Ted Geoghegan has been working in various capacities in the NY film world for a while now. How did Ted first approach you for WE ARE STILL HERE?

LARRY FESSENDEN: Well, I’ve known Ted on-and-off for almost ten years; he’s worked with my friend, Glenn McQuaid, and WE ARE STILL HERE was funded by MPI, whom I’ve worked with long enough to know that it was a real deal. That’s the thing I love about MPI: when they say they’re going to make a movie, they do. So I thought it was cool, and Ted asked me if I wanted the role and I said, “Absolutely, whatever it is. It’s so sweet of you to think of me.”

As it turns out, WE ARE STILL HERE was a period piece that took place in the ‘70s; I think ‘79 was what was decided. I really enjoyed the script and loved the character, and I liked that Ted would trust me to have a slightly more substantial role. Normally, I come on to get killed in a film; in WE ARE STILL HERE, I come on, hang out for a while and then get killed in the film. [laughs]

FANGORIA: You sort of get to play two different versions of the character as your character uncovers some of the supernatural elements. What was that experience like to jump from one type of performance to the next?

FESSENDEN: Dude, I’ve gotta be honest: it’s a dream come true. I’m a completely hammy person, and everyone who knows me knows I do voices. I’ll gladly be evil or become possessed or be a werewolf or play a mad scientist; I’ll do whatever you need. So to have that shift in the script gave me a great opportunity. I took it seriously as to how the role would work, but the basic opportunity was just great. What could be better than to be in that situation?

Actually, the early transition in those scenes were complicated, as I had to act like everything’s fine and then… there’s… something… wrong! It’s great, and it’s like playing a piece of music in that you have to calibrate what is going on and then you have to track that stuff. I go from friendly guy to something else entirely, and that’s craft. I’m not saying I’m a craftsman but that’s the assignment.

FANGORIA: Having studied up so much on the Wendigo and having been in the genre so long, did you know anything about real-life occult stuff going into WE ARE STILL HERE or was there anything that inspired your psychic-esque character?

FESSENDEN: With any character, I always base it off the script because a script is a very specific thing. There’s a lot of clues in a script as to what is going on, and then you do some research to see if something like this had happened on such-and-such of an occasion. But for my character, he’s kind of a ‘70s guy, so I thought about my brother and having grown up in the ‘70s with the perspectives on weed, being a hippie and having uptight friends.

So I had this orientation as to how this character is as a person, and then you can imagine the grievance that the demons have, which is honestly the kind of work that I do in terms of thinking of the story and how the demons would intersect with this hippie character. So it wasn’t like I was doing deep research on the Salem Witch Trials. [laughs] You can go to De Niro for that kind of performance! I’m not getting paid enough for that shit! [laughs]

FANGORIA: Those later scenes are much more intense than many of the eccentric roles you’ve gotten in horror as of late. How do you put yourself in the shoes of someone in that type of situation?

FESSENDEN: Oh, dude, I’m ready any time. I never get these types of roles because I don’t get the right calls! It’s funny because I always play characters who walk on and get killed, and doing the types of scenes I did in WE ARE STILL HERE were no problem at all. It’s like an untapped resource!

I’ve always wanted to play evil people and conniving villains, but I never get those jobs, whether it’s because I’m actually silly or that people just want to kill me as fast as possible. But honestly, that is what I loved about Ted; he gave me this opportunity and I’m pleased that it seemed scary. And I’ve got more of that type of role in me since all of that evil, nasty stuff seems very appealing to me.

FANGORIA: The Fulci inspiration is pretty apparent in Ted’s direction. As a filmmaker yourself who is well-versed in horror, did you pick up on those cues at all?

FESSENDEN: I’m a Fulci fan and I love Stuart Gordon as well, who also inspired the film. But no, I didn’t pick up on anything like that because when I’m acting, I’m trying to pick up on the character’s true nature. I don’t feel like constructing anything, and though there may be a lot of artifice in the other side of my performance, that even comes from how that version of him is outraged about the town’s betrayal.

That’s the emotion I played, and it reminded me of how I casted WENDIGO when I hired John Speredakos. He did not play a villain in WENDIGO; he played a jilted country guy who had resentments, and that’s why I cast him. It was an absolutely true and personal emotion that anyone could relate to, and if you’re just playing a villain as if he’s a nasty guy, it’s false. I would never direct with that.

One time, I was working on a TV show playing a simpleton, and the director told me, “That’s good, just do it a little more RAIN MAN.” That is not how you direct someone! First of all, you don’t reference anything else, and second of all, you don’t say, “Play RAIN MAIN!” You have to tell the actor, “You’re having trouble relating here,” or something like that. You don’t direct from the outside in because an actor’s choice in how they do their work is their business.

You need to find your voice first, and I know I can play a villain because I know evil thoughts. I know what it’s like to want to rule the world and I know what it’s like to want to destroy other lives, and that’s because I know how to make the work personal.

FANGORIA: What was it like working with the cast of WE ARE STILL HERE?

FESSENDEN: Of course, Barbara is Barbara, and she is a legend of her type. But one of the best things about being an actor is when you get onto a set, no matter who you work with, even if I’m working opposite Jodie Foster or Bill Murray, you’re all equal on the set. You’re there to do the job unless there’s a very distorted thing going on, but you’re all there, so you have to deal with the camera, schedule, lines, concentration, and trusting each other.

So acting is really a bonding experience from the top down; even with producer Travis Stevens or Ted or our DP Karim Hussain, everyone just bonded on the set. Andrew Sensenig and the other actors in the movie were a part of a warm group of people who connected in doing our best work and trying to take care of each other as well as celebrate each other.

Andrew was very sweet and when it came time to do our big scene, he’d always say, “Oh wow, Larry, you’re amazing!” It would make me feel great, and I’d go, “Well Andrew, it’s funny that you mention it! You’re amazing too!” So we would just get into a really great vibe.

Barbara was very earnest, and that’s the thing about her. She’s an actor and she was there to act. It wasn’t like she’s ever saying, “Well, I’m in a genre movie, so I’m going to give it half of my all.” She was fully committed in a difficult role; she had to play a grieving mother, and that’s serious stuff. If the movie can get laughs and it feels like a good time for the horror audiences, the reality was that we believed in what we were doing and that’s why it works.

FANGORIA: Do you have any other acting roles coming up that you’d like to touch upon?

FESSENDEN: One experience I’d love to talk about was working with Joe Begos, who was absolutely awesome. I think Joe, Josh [Ethier] and all the actors they assembled for THE MIND’S EYE is going to make for a really fun movie. I’m only in it for a moment, and I don’t get to play anything like WE ARE STILL HERE; I get to play a relatively nice guy, which is fine because I feel like I’m a nice guy at times.

But that was a great set to be on as well, and I’m a big fan of these low-budget, upstart “do-it-yourself” films. That’s what I’ve been trying to do with Glass Eye Pix and I love walking on to those sets. That’s the role that comes to mind; I’m actually in a lot of crap and that’s the one I’ll mention. [laughs]

WE ARE STILL HERE will be playing at Denver’s SIE FilmCenter starting Friday, May 29th before releasing on VOD and select theaters on June 5th from Dark Sky Films; tickets are available here. Make sure to look out for more from Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix on FANGORIA.com soon.

UNTIL DAWN, the PS4 horror/thriller written in collaboration with Fessenden and Graham Reznick, hits shelves on August 25th!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyPrFI8gpno

As Polygon Reports:

Until Dawn, the narrative-focused horror game from Supermassive Games, will be released Aug. 25 on PlayStation 4, the studio announced today.

Supermassive also announced a new cast member: Peter Stormare, the distinctive Swedish actor best known for his role in the 1996 film Fargo and the television series Prison Break. Stormare isn’t new to video games, having lent his voice to titles such as Destiny and The Elder Scrolls Online.

“[Stormare] gave some incredibly powerful performances in the motion capture studio and you can tell from the end result in the game that he had some fun with the character,” said Pete Samuels, executive producer at Supermassive, in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

Until Dawn stars Heroes’ Hayden Panettiere and others in addition to Stormare. The actors’ likenesses appear in the game along with their voices. Players control the fates of eight friends in an adventure game that’s inspired by slasher flicks and other horror genres. Until Dawn was originally in development for PlayStation 3 as a PlayStation Move title; on PS4, players use the DualShock 4 controller’s tilt functionality to make choices.

For more on Until Dawn, check out our thoughts on the PlayStation Experience demo, and watch the new trailer above.

Today: Tune in to Entertainment Weekly Radio for Clark Collis’s episode dedicated to the Stanley Film Festival, including a chat with the GEP team about the festival’s TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE live show! Also hear convos with Elijah Wood, Leigh Whannell, Barbara Crampton, Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, and more! 

1-3pm EST on SirusXM 105

GEP Pal and WE ARE STILL HERE director Ted Geoghegan talked about how The Shining influenced his feature debut for EW. Read on for his thoughts on the horror classic, working in the shadow of such a masterpiece, and working with Fessenden on such a reminiscent piece.

From Entertainment Weekly:

My first exposure to Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece of horror, The Shining, came in 1993 at the impressionable age of 13 years old. By that time, amongst my classmates, the title of the movie was already spoken in reverently hushed tones. Even without seeing it, I knew the major beats via schoolyard chatter: there was a lonely, haunted mountaintop hotel; an impossibly endless tidal wave of blood rushing from its elevators; and a seemingly-possessed, ax-wielding Jack Nicholson shouting “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” as he hunted down his terrified wife and son. Just the salacious, sensational descriptions of “the scariest movie ever made” were enough to raise my heart into my teenage throat.

While the accounts of my classmates were vivid enough to give me nightmares long before I’d even watched the actual film, I was still wholly unprepared to experience it. To this day, The Shining stands alone as the only piece of horror cinema that surpassed my brain’s own pre-conceived horrific imagery and delivers a moviegoing experience that, from my first VHS viewing through the many screenings that have threatened to wear out my special edition Blu-ray, continues to paralyze with its outright dread. And while anything I can say about Kubrick’s chef-d’œuvre has already been said a million times over, I still find excuses to wax poetic over The Shining’s brilliance and how the film shaped our love of not just genre cinema—but movies, in general.

My love for The Shining runs so deeply that when writing and directing my debut feature, We Are Still Here, I had to step back from the project and decide just how much of the film’s influence we could allow onscreen. My film, which is set in the late 1970s and features a haunted, snowbound location that slowly traps its unwitting inhabitants, couldn’t simply rehash the beats of a masterpiece—but we knew we’d be doing our project a disservice to willfully ignore how perfectly Kubrick balanced his scares and teeth-gnashing tension. While the stylized nooks and corners of We Are Still Here’s New England homestead were a far cry from the labyrinthine halls of the Overlook Hotel, the mounting snowdrifts and desolate locale had created an environment too similar for our cast and crew to ignore. While many people have noted that horror director and We Are Still Here cast member Larry Fessenden bears a striking resemblance to Shining-era Nicholson, never had it been more clear to me than when trudging through the snow with him by my side, costumed in garb from 1979. Why, even our film’s supernatural antagonists, the ghostly Dagmar family, conjured up memories of the dreamlike ghouls that inhabit Kubrick’s hotel: strange, physical beings, somehow conjured up from the spirit world to terrify (and possibly warn) the living.

But by the end of our 21-day shoot (blissfully shy of Kubrick’s reported 230), I began to question whether it was the details of The Shining that had influenced me, or if the film was just so damn perfect that one couldn’t help but want to be associated with something similar. Being able to capture even the tiniest iota of the movie’s dark allure and spectacle seems to have become the dream of every genre director since it was opened May 23, 1980. There is, after all, a reason why both filmmakers and fans hold it in such high regard—because The Shining still engages, horrifies, and enchants like absolutely no other piece of cinema.

Great news, lycan-thusiasts! LATE PHASES is now available to stream on Netflix!

Directed by Adrián García Bogliano, and starring Nick Damici, Ethan Embry, Lance Guest and more, LATE PHASES follows a blind Vietnam War Vet (Damici) in a fight to save himself and his community.

Check it out now on Netflix!

Fangoria checked out the latest TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, which just premiered live at the 2015 Stanley Film Fest. Stanley Edition: Parlor Tricks included “Cold Reading” by Glenn McQuaid and April Snellings, and “No Signal” by Fessenden. Performing live in front of an audience at the eerie Stanley, the radio-style plays included acting from Barbara Crampton, Leon Vitali, Martha Harmon Pardee, Clay Macleod Chapman, Roxanne Benjamin and Shock Till You Drop Managing Editor Sam Zimmerman.

As Ken W. Hanley wrote for Fangoria:

As an entire experience, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE LIVE definitely lived up to the hype, providing a one-of-a-kind stage performance that was as gripping as it was disturbing. By relying on the audience to use their imagination to fill in the visual gaps, the show executed the audio and vocal elements expertly, and the writing went to unexpected places in order to frighten and entertain. And from the incredible crowd response, there seemed to be more than a few TALES converts, and even more crossing their shivering fingers for more live TALES at Stanley in the future.

For those who were unable to attend, fret not; the live Stanley performance will be available in the third season of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE later this year, and you can catch up with previous episodes at their official site here.