As SHOOT went to press, New York-headquartered, publicly held Paradise Music & Entertainment announced that its bicoastal Shelter Films subsidiary has ceased all operations. The Paradise release read that discussions are underway with Shelter Films’ president Steve Shore to resolve outstanding issues in his employment agreement. According to Paradise, contributing to the decision to shut down Shelter was the weakness of the advertising market compounded by the effects of recent events on that market. As reported in this week’s lead story, Paradise’s other commercial production house, Straw Dogs, has also closed, with former Straw Dogs’ president Craig Rodgers filing a demand for arbitration that alleges improprieties on the part of Paradise….Ron Ames and Rob Le-gato have come aboard Santa Monica-based Steam as creative directors. Both are available to direct via Steam. Ames was most recently represented as a spot helmer via now defunct Crash Films. Legato is a noted visual effects supervisor spanning features and TV….Animation director Chris Prynoski has joined Hollywood-based Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials, a division of animation studio Klasky Csupo. He is perhaps best known as the creator and executive producer of the cable TV series MTV Downtown…. Lance Paull and David Corr have been named co-presidents/ executive creative directors of Publicis, New York. Paul last served as creative director/partner at Berlin Cameron & Partners, New York, and Corr was a group creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York…..John Lovelace has joined New York-headquartered design shop So! Animation as partner/executive producer/director of new business development….Sarah Mahoney has been named executive producer of West Los Angeles-based visual effects house Zero Mass, a newly formed division of edit house TNT Media Services. Mahoney and visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack head Zero Mass….Greg Stacy has joined Belief, a Santa Monica-based broadcast design and production studio, as its executive producer. He formerly served as senior producer for the weekly TV series Hot Rod Magazine TV, which airs on the Speedvision Network. Belief is headed by president/founder/executive creative director Mike Goedecke. Managing director/partner Steve Kazanjian recently exited Belief to pursue other, more interactive-centric opportunities….
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