Fantastic Fest 2009

DIRECTOR SEAN HOGAN WILL BE LIVE IN PERSON AND CONDUCT A Q&A AFTER THE SCREENING.

U.S. Premiere

It seemed like the kind of house where no one asked you any questions. It was old and rambling, in need of a little renovation, certainly. But quiet. Somewhere to begin again. But from the moment he moved in, it didn't feel right to John. He'd been through a lot recently. And there were those that said there had always been something a little strange about him. It's true, he'd always suffered from nightmares... but these were different. Besides, those noises outside his door were definitely real... or seemed to be. The mad old woman next door had told him to leave, but he hadn't listened. Now it might be too late. The dreams were getting worse, and the doors didn't seem to lead where they should anymore. His new home had a hold on him now, and the other tenants were ready to introduce themselves.

Lie Stil, the debut feature of Sean Hogan, is a refreshing update of the ghost house picture that might be low on budget and gore, but is high on intensity and mounting paranoid dread. Hogan really knows how to create and build a mood. He prefers to suggest instead of actually showing the horrors, leaving the work to our own imaginations. Starring Stuart Laing (The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, Nine Songs) as John, Nina Sosanya (Code 46, Manderlay ) as his ex-girlfriend Veronica and Robert Blythe (The Englishman Who Went Up A Hil But Came Down A Mountai n) as the peculiar landlord Mr. Stone.

“One of the more promising movies on offer was Sean Hogan’s Lie Stil that premiered at Fantasporto to a packed house. It’s a genuinely unnerving movie where a man with a troubled background moves into a shared house where nobody asks questions and keeps to themselves. He soon suffers from nightmares, discovers a grave in the garden and “sees” dead people on his television – we’re in Polanski country. Is he losing his sanity or is there something far more sinister about the house and its tenants? Kudos to Hogan for lensing an old-fashioned creepy horror that is familiar in mood to the “Hammer House of Horror” television series of the early 1980s. It is fitting that Hogan worked with cPeter Sinclair as his director of photography: Sinclair was cult horror director Pete Walker’s DP on House of Whipcord, Frightmare and Schizo.” - Jay Slater (Film Threat)