Joss Whedon Talks Horror Influences

While his famous creations "Angel" and "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" meander across the lines of dark fantasy and drama, director and writer Joss Whedon mentions a few of his definite horror influences in this recent interview from Fear.net here. In it, Whedon lists John Carpenter, George Romero, and the newish film "The Descent" as some of his favorites. Whedon has always shown talent in exploring direct horror on rare occasions, in both the Buffyverse and in his film "Alien: Resurrection."

The popular director also has a new horror and fantasy flick set for next year called "Goners." In an early synopsis, Whedon says:

"It's about a girl named Mia, people know that, who sort of sees in a mystical way the underbelly of the city and of human society, and goes through a kind of extraordinary hell, and we all have a lot of fun in the process. ...This is much more a story about -- literally about human connection and whether or not it's possible. ... But it's told on a very mystical scale and, in a way like everything I've tried to do including Buffy, it's an antidote to that very kind of film, the horror movie with the expendable human beings in it. Because I don't believe any human beings are."

It seems clear the upcoming film will maintain the core Whedon philosophy of strongly character-centric storytelling, but might still be Whedon's most interesting experiment to date with undisguised horror.

-Grim Blogger