Talking Horror Movies With Ethan Hawke

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Admitting fear can be a guy’s worst nightmare, and Ethan Hawke totallyunderstands why. “It’s an emotion people aren’t comfortable with,”says Hawke. “It doesn’t make them look cool.” The actor, who has been aconsistent face for decades in both Hollywood and the indie scene, acknowledges thatshrieking during a horror movie isfor the ladies, while guys are forced to man up. “The thing that I wouldlove about going to a horror movie is that it makes the girl I’m with thinkI’m really brave, because I sit there stoically,” says Hawke. “The truthis I’m absolutely petrified. I just silently shriek.” But thistime, it’s Hawke’s turn to make grown men squeal. His latest movie,Sinister, which opens on the 12th, is an exceptionally witty and diabolicallittle horror film that leaves audiences trembling at the knees and tickled to boot. Hawke stars as Ellison, a true-crime novelist whose best days are behind him.Eager to find material for his next big novel, Ellison moves his wife and kids into a homewhere the previous owners were mysteriously killed and the only suspect is an ominouslooking tree. That is until Ellison discovers a box of 8mm film in the attic that suggestsa much more “sinister” presence. Hawke is a “totalneophyte” to the horror genre. He has avoided taking on such roles, and with goodreason. “There are so many bad ones,” he laments. He also notes that even thesuccessful horror movies don’t rely on good performances, which isn’t exactlyappealing to a serious actor. There are exceptions, of course, and he name drops a few ofthose actors who managed to shine in grim movies: Sissy Spacek in Carrie, MiaFarrow in Rosemary’s Baby and Jack Nicholson inThe Shining, which Sinister pays homage to in more than a few instances.Hawke admits that expressing fear is a challenge for actors, not to mentionany guy. “To give a decent performance, you have to risk looking like anidiot,” he says. Like the girls who have a guy’s arm to clutch onto beforediving into horror movies, Hawke wrested his nerves on another man: director ScottDerrickson. “You have to believe in your director,” says Hawke, who has alsoworked as a director on numerous occasions. “If you don’t believe in yourdirector, making a movie is incredibly difficult. If that relationship isn’t onethat is encouraging, if you guys don’t mutually believe in each other, it’svery difficult to do anything good. Really, your only net is your director. I just trustedScott. [He] is a really smart guy and knows a lot about this genre.” Derrickson, who also co-wrote Sinister, certainly proves that he knows his wayaround the genre. First and foremost, the director understands that in order to sellscares, you have to invest in characters and in a situation that audiences can identifywith. Hawke points to the film’s more naturalistic family scenes, the maincharacter’s real-world financial dilemmas and the way the movie transplants thehaunted house into a contemporary setting, where foreclosures make real estate aterrifying ordeal. “These surreal story points, like the demon, arebelievable because it just arrived in a world we’re so familiar with,” saysHawke. “We have all these other real things that are going on along with the horrorfilm aspect of it.” As much as Sinister is a solid horror movie, it’salso a sly comment on horror movies. For starters, the movie riffs on the recent foundfootage trend, which Hawke agrees became gimmicky pretty fast. “It’s about theguy who finds the footage,” the actor adds, noting how the movie eventually becomesabout the act of watching horror movies. “There’s something really subversiveat work. It’s a movie about how watching movies lets a demon into your life.”But what’s astonishing about Sinister is that while itsatirizes horror movie conventions with some laugh-out-loud humor along the way, itdoesn’t sacrifice the scares in the way that, say, Cabin in the Woodsdid. The movie may make a lot of references to the genre, but that doesn’t mean youhave to be a film nerd to enjoy. “Scott would say a lot of people willmiss the nuances of Sinister,” Hawke recalls, “but if we do the movieright, it should still work as a flat-out horror film. If it’s not scary andit’s all tongue-in-cheek cinema winks, it won’t work. If you go see a comedy,you want it to be funny. If you go see a horror movie, you want it to be scary.” Sinister rides that fine line and comes out the other side with all itslimbs in tact, achieving a balance of horror and satire that we haven’t seen sinceScream. So guys can take their girls by the arm and look forward to a movie thatis -- as Ethan Hawke puts it -- “genuinely funny and genuinely scary.” Continue Reading

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Anymore it seems like whatever horror movie they put out is a huge disappointment. I haven't been truly entertained by one in a long time. The same people that did this movie also did Insidious, which looked great in the trailer, was a let down....we shall see

I'm a horror fanatic. The movies they come out with now days are pretty disappointing when it comes to "scary". It's like all the modern day special effects take away from the freaky feel of the movie. I read a lot and it's mostly horror novels. My imagination is a lot scarier than anything hollywood could come up with any day, so I get a lot of my horror fix through books.