Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies, Shudder | Tagged: House of Eden, rlje films, shudder

House on Eden Stars on Found Footage Horror, 'Blair Witch' & More

House on Eden stars Kris Collins, Celina Myers & Jason-Christopher Mayer spoke to Bleeding Cool about their found footage horror film.

When writer, director and star Kris Collins conceived of House on Eden for RLJE Films and Shudder, it was an opportunity to expand on something she was already working with her friends Celina Myers and Jason-Christopher Mayer as a found footage horror film, especially as a fan of the 1999 classic The Blair Witch Project, which became a franchise in and of itself. House on Eden follows paranormal investigators Kris (Collins), Celina (Myers), and their videographer Jay (Mayer) as they expect the usual scares when they set out on their latest case. But after being mysteriously rerouted to an abandoned house deep in the woods, they find themselves facing a force unlike anything they've encountered before. As the night spirals into chaos, missing crew members and eerie phenomena hint at an ancient, malevolent presence watching their every move. The trio spoke to Bleeding Cool about Collins's inspiration, scouting for locations, script versus improv, and whether any scenes were cut.

House on Eden Stars Kris Collins, Celina Myers, and Jason-Christopher Mayer on Their Found Footage Journey

What's the inspiration behind 'House of Eden?'

Collins: From two years ago, I always wanted to do something in paranormal space, because we make paranormal videos together. I wanted to control the narrative, because sometimes we're sitting around for like four hours and nothing happens, so I thought it'd be fun to make a found footage film specifically, because I love 'Blair Witch' (1999), and I feel like that gritty, crappy looking horror film is missing in the space, so we mixed both those elements and that's how it was born.

Yeah, I got those vibes when I saw this, so what went into picking the locations?

Myers: What was cool was Kris had a vision of what she wanted, and it was difficult to find the location when it came to the house. The cool thing is a lot of the country, woods, and dirt roads were near my house, which was cool, but she had a particular idea. I remember driving around and talking to people who had abandoned houses on their property, talking to people like coping.

I'm like, "Your house is cool. What's it like inside?" Then I remembered a friend had brought up a place they wanted us to investigate ghosts at, and it was called the "House of Seven Gables" in Tillsonburg (CA), and I asked them like, "Could I come take a look for this purpose?" And they're like, "Yeah, come on in." I remembered walking in and knowing it was what Kris would want, and I sent her pictures. She was like, "That's literally my vision!" It was great. It was on such a busy road, though, which was funny for filming, but it was nice.

When it came to conceiving the idea, how much of it was scripted, and how much did you tap into improv?

Collins: Yeah, so I wrote a detailed beat sheet, and we went over it a few times, but I knew that I didn't want a hard script. It's also kind of a 'Blair Witch' style and like 'Creep' (2014), also, because we do improv so well. Also, because we're not seasoned actors. I thought it would make it easier for all of us if we could have an A and a B, so we could fill it in by ourselves. Most of the scenes are like that, except towards the end, it becomes a lot more choreographed. obviously, I'd say the movie's first half is mostly improv, which was cool.

Did you guys grow up as horror fans in general, or was the found footage genre what appealed to you?

Collins: This movie was definitely for our audience. We didn't know if it would ever get picked up, let alone go to theaters. It was certainly for our audience, and we thought it'd be really fun to start like any of our other paranormal videos and then segue into something they'd never expect. I mean, it still works for the found footage subgenre in every way I feel like. People who don't know us can still have a lot of fun watching the movie. Both, I guess, but it was originally for our audience.

What were some of the more difficult scenes to film? Does any one of them end up on the cutting room floor?

Myers: Yeah, one of the ones that was pretty difficult is the scene that we did with cat balls, because they're something that must be physically manipulated, because there were so many practical effects in this movie. Lining that all up, getting all the timing on that correct, that was something that took source.

Collins: There was nothing we filmed, or rather, a scene we filmed and didn't use. If anything, we had to do pickups of a couple of scenes that needed extra stuff. I'd say one of the hardest scenes for me specifically was the bathtub scene, because I had to hold my breath for an obscene amount of time to let the water settle, and then still let more time go on. I was genuinely hyperventilating when I came up [laughs], like I almost died. That was hard, but also worth it. It was fun seeing, I feel like.

House on Eden is exclusively in theaters.

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