Art of the Movie Poster #2: The House of the Devil

This month we welcome Art Director, Neil Kellerhouse, to discuss our featured poster for “The House of the Devil“. The man is no stranger to film graphics: His company, Kellerhouse Inc., has created stunning covers for Criterion Collection releases, and even developed logos for Pixar’s “Finding Nemo”, and “UP” (his website is well worth a look). This time around he creates his own inspired version of a 70’s/80’s horror poster that evokes its own kind of chills while tipping its hat to the likes of “Carrie”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, and “Black Christmas”. Read on as we shed some light on the design process, right down to the choice of the poster’s tag-line.

Gino Pagliuca: Clearly a lot of effort went into capturing the look of those 70’s posters. The Title font alone seems like it took some time to create. Was any of this done using old design techniques before moving onto the computer?
Kellerhouse: Yeah, well I usually work with reflective art. I’ll paint, use pencil or collage and then scan into the computer. For me, the computer is more of a tool, a very powerful tool, to assemble elements. However, with Wacom tablets, you do have a much broader range in terms of process. It can do a fairly good job of simulating all kinds of medium. I try to stick to the real thing. The logo is just that. I used a paintbrush and simple black Sumi ink, which is like india ink.
I usually end up with a few dozen versions and then scan it in. Or scan several in and mix and match until it looks good to me. On this poster I worked with Erik Buckham, another extraordinarily talented CalArts graduate, and he loves his Wacom tablet.

GP: Which poster(s) were direct influences to this one? I’m seeing some Mario Bava.
Kellerhouse: Oh sure, Mario Bava, yes. From the beginning, the director, Ti West and Matt Cowal at Magnolia gave us reference from 70/80’s. You can see a direct reference to an unseen poster version for a film called “The Boogey Man”. This poster is really a Pastiche, or cobbling together of various influences. Another reference was “Rosemary’s Baby” a beautifully designed poster by which I believe was designed by Steve Frankfurt and Phil Gips. He’s a truly exceptional talent. We wanted a strong recognizable influence from that vernacular, but we wanted it to be true to itself and a wholly original creation.

GP: This poster is far more subtle in its homage to those vintage posters than the Grindhouse posters were, especially in terms of how beaten up they looked. Was it a creative choice to limit the “aging” or a marketing “choice”?
Kellerhouse: Neither, it was just something that helped convey a genre or more specifically an era. To let the audience know that this film was informed, in part, by that visual experience.
Hopefully we took the good and left the bad. To me it feels more sophisticated in it’s execution.

GP: Speaking of subtle… the poster has a well balanced and has a peaceful/calm feel to it. It draws you in, and your eye travels across to find the tagline, with the word DIE in red to match the girl’s shirt. How long did it take to come to this version?
Kellerhouse: That was one of the first ones that was done and the missing pieces were the title treatment and the tag. We know from the beginning that this poster had to have a great tag-line. There’s a healthy sense of the absurd we were trying to get to. We went back and forth with some really ridiculous lines. “Strap on the Mom-Jeans, and Die”, “Satan Made a Baby”, “Having Satan’s Baby”, “I’d Rather Be Having Satan’s Baby”, “This Job’s to Die For”, “At $400 A Night, She’s Making a Killing”. Funny you mention the “Die” in Red, because that was the ONLY Change Matt and or Ti wanted changed on the poster. Everything else was exactly as originally presented in the first round.

GP: Was this always the intended direction for the poster, or were you considering more “current” designs at any point?
Kellerhouse: Yes, we did use vernacular as a way to help orientate the audience. But, yeah, we consider the poster to be “current” and absolutely original.

GP: A new crop of posters for the film appeared online recently, further capturing the essence of those 70’s posters. What is the intention from a marketing stand-point? Are those solely web-promos or are they going to be released as prints?
Kellerhouse: These were strictly web only. They were used to, again, orientate the audience and position them in a time a place.

Magnet Releasing releases Ti West’s The House of the Devil in theaters this Friday, October 30th. It premiered on Amazon, XBOX Live and VOD on October 1st.