Horror Favourites – Alex T. Hwang
In the tradition of THE ENTITY and THE CONJURING comes the sexy horror ride Paranormal Attraction which was written by Richard J. Aguirre and directed by Alex T. Hwang, and produced by Kathleen W. Hwang, Pat Kusnadi, and Thomas Haley. We had the opportunity to talk to Alex about the movie and much more.
Starring Brooklyn Haley from the upcoming films Bearry, Desert Moon, it tells the dark and sinister tale of a young woman, Sara Myer (Brooklyn Haley), who moves into an abandoned house with a tragic and mysterious past. As Sarah begins to purge the house of the previous owner’s belongings, she begins to uncover its deadly secrets. Rookie police officer Evelyn Bennett (Nicole Cinaglia) helps her investigate the mysterious happenings and captures Sara’s heart. Will they learn the secrets of the house or will the house claim Sara’s soul? It also features Eden Shea Beck (Boy Genius, The House, the Hulu original series Halloween) and Hunter Johnson (Verotika, Crossbreed).
“I have loved movies since I was a kid growing up in Korea” says director’s Alex T. Hwan “I remember my mom taking me to see American movies like Star Wars and Superman in theaters. When my family moved to the United States, I found a group of friends who were as passionate about movies as I was. I made my first short film on Super 8 and 16mm camera when I was 16 with my brothers and friends, and it fueled my passion for film making even more. Classic horror films like, Jaws, Psycho, The Exorcist and The Shinning, have driven me to make horror films.
My wife, Katie, encouraged me to pursue my dreams and make the films that I love. I’ve always admired directors like Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, Sergio Leone, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg. They are masters at what they do, and they can manipulate an audience’s emotions and take them to another place for a couple of hours. I hope I have achieved that with Paranormal Attraction. Paranormal Attraction is the third feature film I have directed and produced. I had the vision for Paranormal Attraction for a while and was so happy that I had a great script to work with. The cast was able to embrace their roles and give life to the words written on the page. I am grateful to everyone who played a part in helping to complete this film. I hope to entertain and scare all horror film fans but I believe that even if you don’t like horror films you will certainly enjoy Paranormal Attraction.
My favourite horror movie? It’s hard to just pick one, because there are so many fantastic horror movies out there that I love, The Shinning, Psycho, Poltergeist, The Thing, The Omen, the Exorcist… I can go on forever.
If I have to pick one that I’ve seen millions of times, it still entertains me each time, and it is still fascinating. Some people might not think it’s a horror movie but it scared the hell out of me when I saw it in the theatre.
The movie, JAWS was released in US in summer of 1975, but didn’t hit the theater in South Korea until 1978. I was 10 and my mother took me to see the movie with her. At that time, I didn’t understand the movie well because the dialogue was in English and I couldn’t keep up with the subtitles. But all I knew was that JAWS scared the hell out of me.
Since I’ve moved to US, I’ve seen Jaws more times than I can count and to this date, I think it’s a perfect shark movie, as matter of fact it’s a perfect horror movie in my opinion. The director Steven Spielberg masterfully put the movie together, scaring the audience without the gore and tons of blood, without even seeing the shark. The shark does not appear until 81 minutes into the movie, yet the audience knows what this creature looks like.
Steven Spielberg has stated that the movie was a success due to the fact that the mechanical shark didn’t work 80% of the time. He believes it might have been a different movie if the mechanical shark actually worked. Nevertheless I know many people who are actually afraid to go to the beach after seeing Jaws. That’s very strong impression a movie has left in many people’s psyche.
From the opening sequence to very last sequence, it builds tension, by just showing the POV shot of a shark, beach goers reaction and the intense music by John Williams. From brilliant blocking to awesome oners, it’s just masterful.
It’s especially scary because it can be real and happened to any beach goers, if you think about it. It’s not a made up monster, it’s not a person who just kills and never dies no matter what. But it’s one of best forms of good verses evil, man against a nature. Sharks are real, it’s not a made up creature that’s terrorizing a beach town but a true freak of nature, an overgrown fish that chomps down on people.
JAWS is the true form of horror and a truly beautifully made movie.”
Paranormal Attraction is an official selection of the AOF (Action on Film) Film Festival and will be premiering at AOF Film Festival on Sept 5, 2020 @ 4PM in Las Vegas.
