BradAnderson

Last time we heard anything about Paranormal Activity 2, it was the shocking news that filmmaker Kevin Greutert wouldn't be directing. Lionsgate and the Saw team worked their legal magic and not only pulled Greutert from the project, but basically forced him to take over Saw VII.

Since then, PA2 has been in the lurch. Parmaount needs to find a director (and soon) if they hope to have the film ready for the planned Halloween 2010 release date, but news on the search has been essentially nonexistent--until today. The LA Times takes a crack at figuring out who might land the gig of directing the sequel to one of the surprising box office success stories of all-time--and some of the names on the shortlist are shocking.

The most bizarre is easily Brian De Palma. Yes, the man who brought us Scarface, Carrie, and The Untouchables is reportedly being considered for Paranormal Activity 2. It's an odd choice, to say the least. De Palma makes big films with lengthy shoots and large budgets--which seems the antithesis of what Paramount would want for this project. I'm mixed on the director's body of work--and I can't see anything good coming out of a De Palma directed sequel to Oren Peli's original. It's too radical a departure from the first film for me.

Things get weirder when the Times uncovers the story that Akiva Goldsman was considered as well. Goldsman is a writer (he won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind) who's never directed a feature length film. According to the piece, Goldsman will not be directing PA2--but that he was even in the running should terrify anyone who loves horror.

Jump past the break for two more potential directors.

Session 9 is my favorite movie. I consider it to be the standard of psychological horror and what every horror filmmaker should strive to emulate when making a film. It is a perfect example of the slow burn, a crescendo of unbridled tension that focuses solely on the scariest thing imaginable: the frailty of the human condition.

Session 9 introduces us to the crew of a Hazmat team sent inside the walls of Danvers State Hospital, an old mental institution that harbors a sinister past. The dark history of the building resonates in a unique way with each member of the crew, and as tension among them begins to boil (including the disappearance of one crew member), things begin to take a sinister turn.

Much of the appreciation of this fate is contingent on having seen the film, so naturally spoilers dwell within.

Mania.com has revealed that writer/director Brad Anderson, who brought us the delightfully spooky Session 9 and the international thriller Transsiberian, will adapt the Robert Tinnell and Todd Livngston graphic novel, The Living and the Dead, for the big screen. Although details are sparse, this could signify a drastic shift in Anderson's modus operandi, whose prior films feature a predilection for slow, brooding tension as opposed to excessive gore and special effects.

The Living and the Dead, which almost began as a screenplay before becoming a graphic novel, tells the story of a "deviant psychopath" who lures victims into a Grand Guignol of flesh and blood. For those not in tune with early 20th century French theater, the Grand Guignol was a specialized Parisian theater that focused on horror shows. It was eventually shut down once the impossible horrors on the stage had become possible thanks to the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.

If anyone needs a second chance alongside the Bar None sock puppet dog, it's Hayden Christensen. Maybe he's a good actor, maybe he's middling, maybe he's bad (I forgot to see Jumper, and Virgin Territory still hovers in the middle of my Netflix queue), but he deserves a shot to prove himself one way or another. A good horror movie is as good a shot as any. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that's just what he's got, and will be starring in Brad Anderson's Vanishing on Seventh Street. Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo are in negotiations to join in the spookiness.

Penned by Anderson and Anthony Jaswinsky, Seventh Street takes place in the ghostly shell of a once-thriving city. Living residents inexplicably vanish once they come in contact with its new shadowy residents. Five individuals fight to stay alive, dodge these eerie threats, and grapple with the meaning of existence. Christensen will play a reporter, Newton a desperate nurse, and Leguizamo a subway operator; the other two characters have yet to be cast or named. Filming will kick off mid-October in Detroit. (Cue the stories of socio-economic parellels.)

I haven't gotten to see much of Anderson's work (I'm anxiously waiting for Scott Weinberg to assign The Horror Virgin a viewing of Session 9), but he certainly can deliver the moody, shivery atmosphere. There's a dash of A Long Day's Journey Into Night in the the Seventh Street story description, and I'm fascinated with anything that might dabble into ideas of Purgatory. Blood, guts, and slashers are certainly scary, but staring into the abyss of life, death, and existence? That's the stuff of true horror.

By Jenni Miller

It's understandable if you don't get a shiver down your spine when you hear the name Danvers unless you're a fan of abandoned insane asylums, horror movies, or H.P. Lovecraft. But if you've caught the criminally underseen Session 9, which was written and directed by Brad Anderson, you'll know an apartment at the newly renovated Avalon Advantage in Danvers is not the hottest property investment on the market.

Session 9 is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, and it boasts a fine performance from David Caruso as well, with nary a pair of sunglasses in sight. And, most pantswettingly, it was actually filmed on location in the Danvers State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Danvers, MA. (Anderson also wrote and directed the equally excellent and underseen Transsiberian.)