Fans of House of Wax should be excited for July 24th as Dark Castle and Warner Bros. Pictures' will release the psycho-child thriller Orphan, which was also directed by Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra. This past weekend we had the chance to talk one-on-one with Jaume who talks about the big twist ending (no spoilers) and also explains that as of right now we won't be seeing a sequel to House of Wax (boo!). Read on for the skinny
Jaume Collet-Serra got his start in the feature film business with a slasher remake by the name of HOUSE OF WAX, now he’s heading into the psychological thriller category.
“This is a thriller, with some elements of horror to it,” he tells Bloody-Disgusting in an exclusive interview. “The subgenre of an evil kid movie. It’s different,” but couldn’t elaborate much because of the sensitive nature of the surprise ending. “I cannot go into the details of what makes it special, but the performances are better than the average horror film. It starts out being a thriller, more of a psychological enemy being inside your home type of horror. [There’s] psychological manipulation [as] new elements coming into the house and disturb the family dynamics…break things apart and going further from there.” He explains that the trailer doesn’t do the story justice, one again trying to keep the secrets safe. “It’s very convention, there’s a lot more to it, we just couldn’t show it in the trailer.”
Since the very beginning Jaume was tight-lipped about what he could say, but he does confirm that there is a shocker finale.
“It’s hard [to talk about]…the movie has a twist. The whole trailer and campaign are designed to tell people this is not your typical kid movie and there is something else to it. But that’s as far as I can go. There is more to it, there is a twist, anything else I would be giving you clues,” he jokes.
As for the blood and guts of this thriller, Jaume rates it out of 10. “You know, I don’t know what the right answer is, but from 1-10 I’d say a good 8 or so. It has its moments of blood and violence…. [especially] at the beginning.”
Written by David Leslie Johnson from a story by Alex Mace, Jaume came in and fleshed it out into what he wanted to see on the big screen.
“Yes [I hand a hand in the script, just] not in the original development. The script was very, very good,” he explains. “It was way above the normal horror script, you know? It had some issues that I worked on with the original writer. It was long, [we] had to develop the characters a bit more. I always tried to push the movie towards the thriller concept. The original was a bit more horror from the beginning. My intention was make a great script and to attract good actors that would give the movie an… elevation and make [it] more believable and heartfelt.”
The lead in the film is Esther, played by a young Isabelle Fuhrman. Being that she’s the one causing the chaos, Jaume thought it might be difficult to work with kids, only found it was a great experience.
“When you work with kids the hardest thing is finding the time,” he tells us, explaining that kids have different rules than adults. When it comes to filmmaking “They have to go to school, they can only work on set for 4 hours or so. You have to be very smart with how you schedule you your day and you have to schedule your day around them. That’s the hardest part working with kids… other that that, it was an absolute pleasure. They want to play, and making a movie is ultimately play. They have a lot of fun and we have a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be tougher than it actually was.”
Franchises and sequels seem to be the big thing around Hollywood, but Jaume says there are no plans on taking ORPHAN, or his first film HOUSE OF WAX back to theaters.
“There was always the understanding…and Joel’s philosophy is that with Dark Castle movies there will be no sequels – I know he did RETURN TO HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL – but after HOUSE OF WAX everyone said ‘sequel, there’s gonna be a sequel,’ but I said ‘NO!’” He continues explaining that if there were a sequel in development he’d know about it, “ There isn’t one…I think I would know.”
Up next Jaume is once again reteaming with Joel Silver’s Dark Castle for UNKNOWN WHITE MALE, which centers on a doctor who, when visiting Berlin with his wife, gets into a car accident that leaves him in a coma; he then awakens to find out that someone has taken his place, leading him on a frantic quest to discover the truth. “I’m talking and developing with Joel. Hopefully we’ll get to it soon,” he continues, “I cant talk about it until it’s signed up.”
ORPHAN hits theaters July 24th from Warner Bros. Pictures.
ah but if they staggered the releases of similar movies they couldn't have their pissing contest while crying "but MY body-swapping movie's better than yours!"
How can anyone not look at that picture at the bottom of this article and not crack up? Seriously, folks, the horror genre deserves so much better than this cheesy, unoriginal rip-off . . .
You're on a site that extensively covers remakes and sequels. "Cheesy" or "unoriginal" will be found in most of these articles. But I'm not complaining!
I bet she is either the devil, or a zombie. What else can she be LOL.... Oh dudes best twist ending ever it's BUSH that would be the fuckin funniest fuckin endin ever. If that ever happened I would fine the director and the writer and give them both cookies.
I know the twist, I read the script a while back and while the twist is ORIGINAL, I have to give it credit for trying something new. Overall the script was ok but I think what made it worth it was the twist at the end, its going to be pretty exciting to watch in theatres.
The first Vincent Price "House of Wax" remake of "Mystery in the Wax Museum" was an absolute classic.
But Collet-Serra's worthless pile of SHIT was nothing but a kick in the face to the name of wax and the genre. Jaume Collet-Serra I mean this with my deepest sincerity. FUCK YOU!!! You talentless hack-job.
Totally off topic, I love that you have the worm from Labyrinth.
This is true, who in the hell wants to see another House of Wax.
This movie looks okay... but then Again so did The Good Son, Joshua, The Bad Seed, The Omen... the list goes on and on. I guess this is really what Hollywood means by I want something the same but different.
God, I would kill to see a movie like Demons in theaters again.
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