CLIENT
Pepsi Cola Co.
PRODUCTION CO.
M-80, Santa Monica.
Tenney Fairchild, director/DP; Gregg Stern, executive producer; Gabrielle Yuro-Vickers, producer. Shot on location in Huntington Beach, Calif.
AGENCY
BBDO New York.
Ted Sann, chief creative officer; Michael Patti, senior executive creative director/copywriter; Don Schneider, senior creative director/art director; Chien Hwang and Johnny Tann, art directors; Maria Amato, producer; Rani Vaz, music producer.
EDITORIAL
Crew Cuts, New York.
Sabrina Huffman, editor; Jake Jacobson, assistant editor; Alexis Wiscomb, producer.
POST
Nice Shoes, New York.
Scott Burch, colorist; Russ Bigsby, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Quiet Man, New York.
Glen McQuaid, effects artist; Carey Gatyan, producer.
AUDIO POST
Buzz, New York.
Michael Marinelli, engineer.
THE SPOT
"The Claw" shows a boy futilely attempting to win at the popular carnival game. The :30 then points out that if one really want to win, just drink Pepsi and Mountain Dew and collect points in order to buy such items as CDs and video games at pepsistuff.com.
Spot broke Aug. 21.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More