Blood, Gore, And SXSW

Robert Rodriguez, Ruben Flieischer and Matt Reeves at SXSW (Photo by John Anderson)

There was a simple way to introduce the film-makers on the SXSW Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts panel: By the name of their bloodiest movies.

So moderator Scott Weinberg of Cinematical name-checked Neil Marshall of The Descent, Cloverfield creator Matt Reeves, Ruben "Zombieland" Fleischer, Ti West (who opened the doors to his splendid House of the Devil at Fantastic Fest last fall) and, of course, Robert Rodriguez (he of From Dusk 'Til Dawn.)

Yup, the eagle-eyed will have noticed that Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth both dropped out late. "I've written 45 minutes of material to fill in for Quentin," Weinberg joked, but there was no need to break out the impression. Instead, there was a free-ranging discussion of the perils and difficulties of horror film making. Here's some quick hits:

Weinberg on remakes: "If we outlawed remakes, we wouldn't have The Thing or The Fly."

Reeves on remakes: "The original will always be there."

Rodriguez on the changing mood of the MPAA: "Violence today, good. Nudity, bad."

Fleischer on CGI gore: "We went with practical effects for the zombies because I think you have to, and a film like I am Legend proves that.""

Rodriguez on changing tastes: "I was talking to one of my kids and asked him, 'What are you playing?' and he said, 'AVP. Respect the classics, man.'"

And there were two pieces of advice about getting the blood you want. One, make the scene so long and gory that when the studio makes the inevitable cuts, they pull out stuff you didn't want in the first place. Two, de-saturate the blood on the studio print. They'll never notice when the release print looks like an abattoir.