Everyone loves a scary movie, and a pretty good one premiered at the SXSW Film Festival this weekend. The Cellar is directed by Brendan Muldowney and stars Elisha Cuthbert and Eoin Macken as a couple who move to a remote house, only for their daughter to one day vanish mysteriously into the cavernous and creepy cellar. You can read our review soon, and stars Cuthbert, Macken and Muldowney sat down with us earlier this week to discuss the film. The interview itself will come out closer to the film’s release on Shudder April 15th, but in the meantime everyone involved shared some of their favourite horror movies with us, all of which partially influenced their decision to sign on to this creepy thriller.
“I will say the first horror film that really got me and kind of scarred me was Fire in the Sky,” said Elisha Cuthbert. “I was shattered from that. I think I was like 13. Yeah. I don’t know how I ended up getting to see that, but it was so beyond something I shouldn’t have been watching, but I’m fascinated by space, extra terrestrials aliens, anything like that. I just just gets me. I don’t know why, but yeah, that one, that one really is triggering.”
As for Eoin Macken, he went old-school by choosing F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. “I think I watched that when I was really young at my grandmother’s house in Wexford, and there was something about, about just those old horror movies that were so simplistic and all just dealt with stuff in the show. That always just kind of creeped me out so bad. That movie always just kind of like got on my bones and I think, cause also I watched it so young. I think it was on television at the time when I should not have been up.
Meanwhile, director Brendan Muldowney listed off a few movies. “I’m a big fan of the old Hammer movies,” he said, adding, “but I suppose if I was to give you three, I would say the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, maybe Psycho as well, I like Alfred Hitchcock a lot. He’s a big influence on me. And, of course, The Wicker Man (the 1973 version).”
Many of those movies are streaming on Shudder right now, so The Cellar will be joining them when it hits the service on April 15th in North America. Look out for our review of The Cellar soon!