SXSW 2012 Panels: FEARnet and the 3 R's of Horror

Beloved Fantastic Fest directors Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) and Joe Lynch (Knights of Badassdom, Wrong Turn 2) appeared on a SXSW Film panel on Sunday, presenting their new TV show Holliston for FEARnet. This graphic, chaotic sitcom will be making its premiere on April 3.

The show is produced like many other sitcoms on broadcast television, including a laugh track, three-camera set-up and even shot on a soundstage (the same soundstage used for Seinfeld's first few episodes). Although shot like a sitcom, it does not feel like your traditional sitcom whatsoever. During a sizzle reel, we were hit smack in the face with some very obscene (yet still funny) humor. The length of the show does vary though, with some episodes going over 35 minutes. But given their first season is fairly short (six episodes), more is better.

If you've ever seen any of Lynch's or Green's movie work, you can expect some of that same attitude to come through the tube. The show is filled with several references but not the typical Star Wars or Lord of the Rings references that you'd see in shows today. Their jokes show their diversity in taste, ranging from Cannonball Run to Cannibal Holocaust. The film geek ratio of their jokes is very high and its actually a big relief to not see a joke coming from a hundred miles away. The casting of Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) and Oderus Urungus (GWAR) really shows that FEARnet is giving these directors full control of their work and it'll be refreshing to see that.

"3 R's of Horror: Remakes, Reboots and Rediscoveries" was next so I followed Adam Green over to another room where he joined Daniel Farrands (Never Sleep Again), Mark Ward (Image Entertainment), and writer Scott Weinberg (FEARnet, Fandango). Not every subject got its due as the panel discussed the problems of piracy for some time, but reboots and remakes were examined.

In this day and age, the remake is inevitable. It's just a viable form of income with the cheap productions. But, they're not all bad. Mark Ward brought up that when the Dawn of the Dead remake came out, the original's DVD sales went up incrementally. Even though the remake of Dawn of the Dead is terrific, it still brought new fans to see the original for what it is. Adam Green counterpointed that many young kids are preferring Rob Zombie's Halloween over John Carpenter's classic because the original is "slow."

Given that remakes are here to stay, the panelists were asked what they would remake if they could. Pete's Dragon and Death Ship were amongst the answers -- films not well known by general audiences that could benefit by a remake, rather than classic films just banking on a title.

The panel also took some time out to appreciate the work that Daniel Farrands has done in the home video market by creating some of the best film documentaries of all time. Farrands is the man responsible for His Name is Jason, Never Sleep Again and other documentaries about horror franchises. He's currently working on doing a new Amityville Horror movie, although this one isn't so much a remake as it is a different approach to the series. The film will be found footage, aka Cloverfield. At the end of the panel, Farrands showed a trailer for the film he's currently working on, Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes.

Now it's time to get out there and see some of this SXSW horror!

Austin Culp is the Interim Artist Servies Manager at the Austin Film Society.