Interview: Ti West (Dead & Lonely, House of the Devil) Pt. 2
By Alex Langley - October 28, 2009
Justin Rice in Dead & Lonely episode 2, "Making Contact"
Previous posts:
Review: Dead & Lonely on IFC.com
Interview: Ti West (Dead & Lonely, Cabin Fever II) Pt. 1
Spoilers! If you’ve been watching the IFC web series Dead & Lonely, then you’ve seen episode one end with a view of the red haired girl Lee’s fangs identifying her to us as the vampire and episode two end with her removing her shoes and abruptly taking flight, on her way to her impromptu date. My favorite moment so far has been when the guy calls his buddy and says he thinks he accidentally ordered a hooker.
And now back to our interview…
Llama: Now you’re taking a traditional approach with the kind of vampire – basic vampire rules and abilities and so forth. What do you think about all these other stories which have vampires walking around in the daytime and glittering and dating in regular relationships.
West: I only saw Twilight recently and I didn’t mind that. I thought it was pretty good. I’m not the audience for that, but I think they did a good job with it. You know, with Dead & Lonely specifically, I looked at it as almost this satirical, ironic comedy but very subtle. So the vampire lore stuff was just to contrast the very modern and now post-modern era. I like the idea of the very mythic, powerful vampire like Dracula, embodied in this girl who’s stuck in her apartment and is lonely because she can’t have friends and she can’t go out during the day, and how that relates to the way that someone lives who has just broken with a girlfriend. It’s not that much different. So that’s interesting to me for the situational comedy of it all and just using the vampire elements for a social commentary, I suppose.
Llama: You mentioned Dracula. That reminded me of something that crossed my mind: Is Lee named after Christopher Lee?
West: It is a nod to that, yes.
Llama: Now, we’re getting a lot of undead in movies and TV lately. Are you a fan of the zombie entertainment?
West: Yeah. If it’s good, sure. If there was an interesting take on the genre of zombies, if it was done well and was a serious movie, yeah, I think I would be into it. I mean I saw Zombieland and it was really entertaining and really funny. I don’t think it introduces that much new necessary, but it was a super entertaining movie.
Llama: Which direction do you see yourself going next with what you want to create? What’s your next project?
West: I’ve got two things. I’m attached to this sort-of-big-budget haunted house movie and that’s certainly more of the same, but what’s interesting to me about that movie is the family dynamic that it’s about – a husband and wife and their new house and so. And I’ve been circling this other thing that’s not set in stone yet that’s not a horror movie that I’m a little afraid to jinx right now, but hopefully that will go through. It’s a comedy-drama.
Llama: I did enjoy Dead & Lonely. I do want to mention that.
West: Thank you.
Llama: You’ve done good things with the little shocker at the end of each – and overall, really entertaining.
West: Yeah, I wanted to do these episodes that build toward cliffhangers, so that was my experimental goal with the whole thing.
Llama: Are you familiar with The Guild, Felicia Day’s online series? That’s a very popular online series.
West: No, I’ll have to check that out.
Paige Stark, not Christopher Lee. Not Felicia Day either.
I asked him that last question because I thought the actress playing the vampire resembled Miss Day, and so I’d wondered if that might have influenced casting decisions. Of course, since I didn’t ask if he had full control over casting, I don’t really know that answer, do it?
Watch Dead & Lonely at IFC.com. You might also check out Ti’s film The House of the Devil starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, and Dee Wallace. It comes out October 30, just in time for Halloween.
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