Horror Movie Blog recently sat down with Joe Bandelli. The producer/writer/director of many works, but probably most well known for his work on the Hell House LLC franchise. We discussed everything from early horror influences to what’s inspiring him today. And of course, we had to ask what his favorite found footage movies are because why not?
Horror Movie Blog: So what first piqued your interest in the horror genre?
Joe Bandelli: I kind of always been interested in horror since I was a kid. I think I’ve said this a bunch of times, but there’s kind of a few different moments in my life that directed me in the horror world. The first one and the probably earliest one that I could think of is when I was a little kid. I remember the first cartoon that I ever really remember vividly was Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It stuck with me from like year after year I would watch it on Halloween. It’s the last thing I watch every Halloween.
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When I was a teenager I found out that Sleepy Hollow actually exists. I eventually wound up living in Sleepy Hollow. But then there’s a couple other little things that are sprinkled throughout my life. And like one, my mom dated when I was a kid. She dated a guy in the army and she was putting herself back to college, because she never graduated. So she was putting herself through school. And he would watch my brother and I. I remember he had that like “boys need to be men, like tough”. When we were like four and six or five and eight, he held us both down and forced us to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street. It was terrifying. Of course, my mom didn’t know about this because she obviously would have broken up with him. She’s a great mama bear.
But when I was like twelve, I wanted to understand why I was so scared when I was a kid. And so one summer a good friend of mine, he was afraid of Jason and I was afraid of Freddy. So we said, let’s go watch these things. And our moms rented us anything we wanted from Blockbuster. We just kind of breezed through every single franchise and kind of got caught up on it. That’s kind of where the love was born for horror.
HMB: Going back to the stories and movies that you’ve grown up on or enjoyed watching, what has made you say that these are the kind of stories you want to create versus these are the kinds of stories and movies that you want to consume?
JB: I was having this conversation with a friend recently. I think a lot of filmmakers will say this, but like if you ask what’s the best thing someone has ever done, if you ask me what’s the best thing I’ve ever done, my answers are gonna be the next thing. It’s never gonna be something I’ve done because anything that I’ve done in the past, whether I’ve written it, directed it, or produced it, I see it as like you guys will see it as the final product. I’ll see it as a bunch of puzzle pieces and I can see where all the pieces were put together. So I don’t think I’ll ever be able to consume it the same way someone like you would be able to consume it. And for me that makes it not as much of an enjoyable experience.
It’s an enjoyable experience making the product, but once it’s finished, I’m not the type of person to sit there and go back and watch and watch and watch and watch. Cause like I’m trying to move on to the next thing and the next thing. But I have a background in sketch comedy and I have a background in writing sketches and doing skits. So I think for me I’ve always geared myself.
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Like one of the movies that really stuck with me as I got a little bit older was Shaun of the Dead. People always say that comedy is really difficult to do, and I think the people who say that comedy is really difficult to do are people who aren’t funny. I actually think comedy is very similar and that’s why it usually works well in horror movies, because the same way you would set up a joke and deliver a punchline is the same way you would set up a scare and have a final kill or something like that. So a lot of the things and a lot of the beats that you hit are very similar, which is again why you see a lot of filmmakers who have comedy backgrounds do really well with horror.
Chris Landon’s a perfect example. He’s always done horror comedy and he’s always been able to do things that are pretty scary. My past has been consuming more horror comedy and more horror spoof and consuming more of that, and making more serious horror. And I think the older I get, I kinda wanna reverse that. I think I’m interested in making more things that are gonna make people laugh.
HMB: What are some of your favorite found footage movies?
JB: I think the mecca of all found footage movies is by far Paranormal Activity. I think Paranormal Activity is just, so I always say that Wes Craven did for slashers with A Nightmare in Elm Street what Oren Peli did for found footage. I think in slashers in the early 80s, all these people were coming up with different slasher stories. It takes place at a college, takes place in the woods, takes place in this random place that, like, if you go there, your life is threatened. But if you don’t go there, in your home everything will be okay. And then Wes Craven created this whole thing about a guy that kills you in your dreams, and everyone has to sleep, and you can’t escape sleeping. And I think Oren Peli did the same thing.
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Whereas Blair Witch was really terrifying, but you’re not in Maryland, you’re not going and looking for this witch, you’re in the comfort of your own home. He took that and brought it into what would be in your house when you’re going to sleep at night. And I think that was genius. It’s so great. If you guys haven’t seen the documentary (Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity), I really highly recommend it because Oren wasn’t even a filmmaker. He was just the guy that worked in computer software and didn’t want to do his job anymore. And it’s really interesting to see how someone can come up with an idea.
You don’t have to be a genius filmmaker. Like you can come up with an idea and just figure out a way to get it made. And then Matt obviously launched a $1 billion franchise. But Paranormal Activity will always stand at the top for me. I love Deadstream. Deadstream makes me laugh a lot, and I feel like it’s a good blend of horror comedy. Grave Encounters was always good for me. V/H/S is kind of all over the place. I feel like there’s certainly like, I think every group that comes out, there’s always like one really good one in there. But it’s kind of hard. The original was really good.
HMB: What are you finding most exciting about the horror genre right now?
JB: I think the exciting thing that we’re seeing from those movies by the YouTube creators is I think we’re seeing that the stereotypical way of making movies isn’t how movies need to be made. I think Mark Duplass said it, and a lot of people are saying it in the indie world, go make your movies. Just go make your movies, go figure it out and make your movies. I think we’re entering this world where people are making movies, but Hollywood is looking for the hottest new thing. And I have a really good example of that.
So at South by Southwest, which I believe you were at this year. So when it comes to the midnight section of all the horror movies in there, we had a movie that we did that I produced called Imposters. But there were two movies in the midnight section that really popped out to me. Obsession was one of them, and then there was a movie called Never After Dark. It’s a Japanese horror movie, and the cinematographer and the director are the only Americans, but they shot it in Japan. It’s so incredibly good. And I walked away from South by Southwest saying those two movies were the two best movies that I saw.
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It’s interesting to me because literally the day after South by Southwest, Never After Dark won the Audience Award. And the director signed a deal with Paramount. Then flash forward months later, we hear all this stuff about Obsession and everyone’s like, “Who’s the next Curry Barker?” Let’s find another 26-year-old or a 20-year-old, like who’s the next person? I’m looking at this filmmaker who’s in his 40s who made a really terrifying movie. I wanna make movies like that guy. Like I wanna be on that path. He did an incredible job.
And so I think, you know, what gets publicized and what gets put in the trade is the hot young new thing. But I think there’s so many different routes in terms of making movies. And I think that the best movie is the movie that you were gonna tell and that you were gonna bring your unique voice to. So I think we’re now in a world where everyone has a phone, everyone has a camera, everyone has the capability of doing something.
You really just gotta bet on yourself and take chances. And there’s infinite ways to do it. Because I think, you know, a lot of people will look at people like Parker Finn from the Smile franchise or Curry Barker and say, “I wanna make my movie and be that person”. And it’s like, in reality, that person is like 0.003% that have that track where they make their first feature and it blows up and then everyone wants them and they’re getting all this IP and they’re doing all their other things.
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A lot of tracks are people who work in the industry for a really long time and then hit it really big with a really scary movie or something like that, you know what I mean? So I think there’s many avenues. The overall consensus is it doesn’t matter what that avenue is that’s going to bring you whatever form of success you want. You just have to make the movies. You have to go and figure out how to make the movies.
And no one is going to come and knock on your door and be like, listen, you’re great. Here’s all the money. Make everything that you want to make the way you want to make it. Like that rarely happens. and when it does, it happens for one person out of thousands. So you gotta just keep continuing to make your stuff.
That’s a perfect example, that’s what we did with the Hell House franchise. And, you know, my partner on the Hell House franchise, Stephen Cognetti, he’s actually getting a shot to make a bigger budget movie that he’s working on this fall. It took us ten years and six movies, five Hell House movies and one other movie, for someone to be like, “Hey, I like your work”.
So it’s happening on many different platforms. I’m excited to see what a lot of new filmmakers are gonna do. Whether they’re in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, it doesn’t matter. Just as long as they’re making what makes them scared or what sticks to them. I think that’s the important thing.
HMB: Thank you so much, Joe Bandelli. Tell everyone how they can find you online.
JB: You can find me on Instagram. I have the movie Impostors which will be coming out early next year. Probably January of 2027. And I have two other ones in the works.
Head to The Gory Details Podcast to listen to Alma and Dalia’s interview with Joe Bandelli in its entirety.
