Blumhouse Productions is set the date for its next horror offering, The Deep House, a genre-defying film that delivers classic haunted house scares in an underwater setting while adopting a found footage format. Blending claustrophobia and traditional jump scares with a race-against-time scenario, The Deep House is everything a horror aficionado craves. It’s almost as if the filmmakers decided to mash up all types of horror sub-genres to create something uniquely original that will scare just about everyone. Sounds too good to be true, but luckily, it is happening for real with The Deep House.
Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, best known for helming French new wave horror, Inside (2007), wrote and directed The Deep House. Camille Rowe and James Jagger star in the lead roles. The film premiered in France earlier this summer to mostly positive reviews and was subsequently picked up by Blumhouse Productions for distribution in North America. The Deep House will be released on Epix this November. Here is the official plot synopsis for the Blumhouse film.
“Deep below the surface of a seemingly tranquil remote lake lies a perfectly preserved family home. When a young influencer couple sets out to explore the submerged house to capture uncharted content for their social media followers, their dive turns into a nightmare as they discover a sinister presence. With limited oxygen supply and time running against them, the couple must find a way to escape the underwater house of horrors before it’s too late.”
Those not already sold on the movie can check out the trailer below.
A short and measured trailer that didn’t give away the entire plot- a rare offering these days, but wholly welcome. The trailer opens with a couple heading to an inaccessible lake out in the French backwoods. The pair dive in to find a well-preserved house at the bottom of the lake but end up getting more than they bargained for. Shot almost entirely underwater, the filmmakers had to overcome several technical challenges while shooting The Deep House. Difficulty placing cables and antennas in water, actors couldn’t be wired fully for safety, a custom-built house that couldn’t be fully submerged lest it ruin the decor, and the pandemic all proved to be hindrances during filming. But the filmmakers employed many unorthodox methods to overcome the hurdles and credit their director of photography, Jacques Ballard’s underwater filming expertise as a big help.
In an interview with Variety, Alexandre Bustillo said, “Shooting a film underwater is like making a movie for the first time. All the technical aspects had to be done differently there, and it forced us to reinvent the mise en scene process and the way shots are organized.” Julien Maury added, “Every sequence under water takes three times longer to shoot than a sequence above it – even a shot reverse shot takes a long time to set up.” He further said, “The whole process was crazy, and we owe it to Jacques Ballard, who is a master of underwater filming. Ballard notably created Beyonce’s aquatic music video ‘Runnin.'” Since The Deep House only consists of two actors, choosing the right ones and directing them with their faces covered by diving masks was another challenge. “We needed the actors to be able to let strong emotions be reflected in their eyes, which we found with Camille Rowe and James Jagger,” said Maury.
Hopefully, all the effort has been worth it. The Deep House will be available to buy on digital and streaming on Epix from November 05, 2021.
Source: movieweb.com