STACK #161 Mar 2018

DVD & BD FEATURE

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“Kids right now are smarter than they ever have been in history, but there’s also a larger gap between their knowledge and their emotional intelligence, and that was a big inspiration for the film.” Originally titled Safe Neighbourhood , the director credits a savvy marketing guy for suggesting a title change more befitting a festive-themed horror film. “He said, ‘ Safe Neighbourhood is a fine home invasion title, but you have a Christmas horror movie, and if you’re not going to play up the Christmas angle of your film, you’re insane,’” Peckover recalls. “So we had a vote and it was unanimous that he was right. I’m so glad we made the switch.” Setting the film primarily inside a suburban home created what Peckover calls a “snow globe effect” – a device also used to striking effect in the recent Krampus . “It’s a heightened world,” he explains. “These are not normal parents; the kids are larger than life. It’s this idyllic, colorful,

Writer-director Chris Peckover brings the spirit of Christmas and John Hughes movies to his pitch-black horror-comedy, Better Watch Out . Words Scott Hocking

H ome Alone immediately springs to mind when discussing the festive- themed home invasion film Better Watch Out . So it’s no surprise when writer-director Chris Peckover reveals the films of John Hughes were a major inspiration for this macabre yuletide offering. “[They were] honest, awkward, and showed what it’s really like growing up – a particular eighties thing that never really continued,” he says. “I didn’t really see

movies like that in the nineties or ‘00s, so we wanted to ask, ‘What would John Hughes say today?’ because the landscape of being a 12-year-old is pretty different

C H R I S P E C K O V E R

now. There are kids hitting puberty now that have never had life without a screen, and they have instant access to whatever their curious or messed up minds can think of, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that. We wanted to look at how that affects the playing field.

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