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Aug
07
2008

BLAIR WITCH Co-Creator Eduardo Sanchez Returns With SEVENTH MOON

Posted by Todd Brown at 11:00am.

Posted in Trailer Alerts , Horror, USA & Canada, Fantastic Fest 2008.

Writer-director Eduardo Sanchez created a sensation right out of the gate as one of the co-creators of The Blair Witch Project, the film that launched the first person horror trend that is still going strong today.  If he’s been fairly quiet since, well, it’s hard not to blame him.  After all, how do you follow up something as huge as Blair Witch?  Well, Sanchez is back now with his third feature, a stranger-in-a-strange land horror film titled Seventh Moon.  Since it’s just been confirmed that the film will have it’s world premiere at the 2008 edition of Fantastic Fest, I’ll quote from festival director Tim League’s notes on the film:

Seventh Moon opens with Melissa (Amy Smart, STARSHIP TROOPERS, BUTTERFLY EFFECT, MIRRORS) and Yul (Tim Chiou) enjoying the first days of their Honeymoon on vacation in China. Yul is an American of Chinese descent, but only has a marginal grasp of the language and culture. He convinced Melissa, however, to forego the tropics for a more adventurous honeymoon: a guided tour of China during the Seventh Moon ghost festival. By the looks on their faces, they made the right choice. Good food, good shopping and a fantastic celebration of Chinese culture replete with music, dancing, drinking and elaborate parades and ceremonial offerings. If you look beyond their happy faces to the corners of the frame, however, you notice that perhaps the Americans are not as welcome as they feel. They are a bit too loud and tipsy for what is clearly a sacred event. Disrespect at a shrine ends in angry glances. An inappropriate loud joke results in a harsh barking rebuke. The tone of unease is subtle but undeniable.

Intoxicated and exhausted, the newlyweds climb into their chartered taxi and drift off to sleep en route to Yul’s grandmother’s house in rural Axian. When they awake, their driver has abandoned them in the middle of nowhere and very strange stirrings are audible in the fields near the road.

Shot on location in China with its characters stranded in a culture they don’t really understand this looks to be a disorienting, unsettling bit of work.  Don’t believe me?  Well, we’ve got the very first look at the film’s first trailer, which you can find below the break in the Twitch Player.

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Reader Comments

  1. Collin Armstrong 08/07/2008 @ 11:04am

    Highly recommend Sanchez’s ALTERED.  Very underrated sci-fi / suspense hybrid.

    Looking forward to this, based on the trailer.

  2. sarkoffagus 08/07/2008 @ 11:59am

    I didn’t like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, but I second Collin’s recommendation of ALTERED.

  3. Jahsoldier 08/07/2008 @ 12:12pm

    I quite enjoyed Blair Witch at the time (I was the only one in the cinema) and this looks like another pretty interesting film. Great trailer too. It actually hides the story and doesn’t show you the whole film for a change.

    Think I will go check out Altered right now due to the above recommendations :D

  4. studboi69 08/07/2008 @ 2:18pm

    Looks pretty interesting. BTW, am I the only one surprised to see a Asian-male-white-female couple portrayed in the film?

  5. The Visitor 08/07/2008 @ 7:40pm

    1. the ghosts are rather western-looking, aren’t they, despite this being in China and during the Hungry Ghost Festival?

    2. actually, when the full moon arrives, the Hungry Ghost Fest is already over and the Lantern/Mooncake festival begins.

    looks like some cultural faux pas there.

  6. Todd Brown 08/07/2008 @ 8:01pm

    Mmm. I wish I was having a cake festival right now.

  7. The Visitor 08/07/2008 @ 8:53pm

    Cake Throwing festival would be more fun.

  8. ChevalierAguila 08/08/2008 @ 12:49am

    Meh…

  9. Ard Vijn 08/08/2008 @ 1:50am

    Frankly, with this trailer and this synopsis I actually DO think I’ve been shown the whole movie!

    I might be wrong of course…

    And as for cake: I’ve tried those moon cakes, and you need a BIG stomach to finish one. They also put odd stuff in the middle of them, some of it nice, others… less nice.
    Were those beans I found in one?

  10. can-D 08/08/2008 @ 3:40am

    Yes indeed Altered was a not bad at all, very interesting. Suspensful and even funny.

  11. Jahsoldier 08/08/2008 @ 4:44am

    Well I was only talking about the trailer. Together they create the complete picture but I was only focusing on the trailer alone.

  12. Ard Vijn 08/08/2008 @ 8:16am

    In that case I agree with you. The trailer might as well be “Pulse 3” or “Brainstorm 2”.

  13. ChevalierAguila 08/08/2008 @ 2:11pm

    You can bet that movie is going to have some stupid twist.

  14. Koroshiya Keefu 08/10/2008 @ 10:40pm

    Not a fan of these rapid edit trailers… Seems as if it’s been done to hide the low budget seams. Although the last shot of the large group of white ‘ghosts’ running after them looks rather interesting!

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