EXCLUSIVE: Tara Subkoff Talks Real ‘#Horror’ and Cyber-bullying

I really love horror as a genre. Growing up, me and my brother were not allowed to watch horror movies, making it forbidden fruit. I grew up loving early Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes, The People Under The Stairs) and rare Italian, Japanese and Korean horror. I believe that through horror you can tell the best stories, show the deepest parts of human nature, and go further into the human experience than you can with any other genre.

The events that inspired ‘#Horror’ were not a single event, but I was inspired to write the film watching one of my friend’s daughters go through a terrible bout of cyber bullying. I Think that (Cyberbullying) is a huge problem in our society, and I have seen the terrible effects that it can have on the children of multiple friends. I truly believe that cyberbullying is a true horror in this world, and I sought to shine a light on it.

It definitely did. Being a first time director and having experience in a fast paced environment, like fashion, where you have to know what you want and make split second decisions really helped in making this film. Having started in acting and worked for many first time directors who don’t have this experience, I saw firsthand the amount of time and money wasted when you don’t know what you want. I felt that this was a very difficult shoot, especially with the weather.  During our time on set, we saw some of the effects of climate change in our world.  At night we would have a snow blizzard, but the next day it would melt away.

Not really, no. I grew up in Connecticut, but I was more like Sam and embarrassed of my mom’s car and not sure where I fit in. I felt that showing people who were the top 1% of the 1% and that money doesn’t always buy happiness was important. I wanted the audience to see that all of the extravagance and privilege that money can bring you may end up causing more problems than it solves. Even the richest people in the world still fall victim to the trials of life that we all do.

I think that with all the advances in technology and our dependence on them – we are really missing a lot of the world around us. In the past it was considered rude to take a phone call during a meal, but now people will go out to restaurants and barely put the phone down to eat. Instead of talking to each other and learning about the world around us – we’re stuck glued to our technology and missing out on everything. People walking down the street are distracted and unobservant. It has taken away some of our stewardship of the planet because we no longer notice it.

I just wanted to make people think. The point of having so many facets to the people in the story was to show that even with what some people would consider “everything”, a lot of problems still exist. The father in the films is a collector of art. You know, in order to be a collector of things there has to be a level of obsession and weirdness to the person. I grew up with a father who was an antique dealer, and definitely showed those bouts of obsession. I want people to leave thinking about all the different parts of a person’s life that make up who they are, and the fact that we’re becoming a culture of “seeming” and not “being”.  We spend a majority of our time and money trying to portray who we want the world to think we are – instead of just being who we really are.  I want people to leave the movie thinking about our dependence on technology, and ponder over what we’re giving up of ourselves in order to have the modern conveniences of technology. I also want to SCARE you!!

Definitely. I love horror, and I’m currently working on another genre film.