SLIFF ’14: “The Interview that Was” with TREEHOUSE Director Michael Bartlett

Technical difficulties tend to intertwine with my work every once and awhile. One of those times is when I had a phone interview with director Michael Bartlett. Bartlett is coming into St. Louis to promote his latest film, Treehouse. I didn’t realize until a few hours prior to the interview that Bartlett was the co-director of The Zombie Diaries and Zombie Diaries 2. Prior to calling Bartlett, I did some research – as I usually do – and got my questions ready. Typically, when I do interviews, I try to be more conversational than just ask questions. It seems to flow better for both myself and the subject of the interview. I’m also always interested in what got said subject into creating something in the genre as well as their background with the genre.

After I prepped “guideline” questions, I called Bartlett and proceeded to have about an hour long conversation with him. My recording software on my phone automatically records once I make a phone call. I had used it before so I didn’t have any doubt that it was doing so at the time. When I sat down earlier in the week to transcribe the interview, to my horror, it recorded my voice through my headset and not Bartlett’s. Admittedly, I was upset because someone took time out of their schedule to have a conversation with me in hopes of promoting their film. I was also upset because Bartlett has a real knowledge of horror films and touched upon some material that rarely gets talked about among mainstream fans. We talked about deep cuts like Southern Comfort and Ghost Watch. I listened to the recording and could barely make out Bartlett’s voice. It was thin and tinny. I realized that the recording seemed to pick up what was recorded only on the microphone of my headset. However, I could make out some of what Bartlett was saying thanks to me having my headphone volume at full blast. Below is what I could salvage out of the inaudible conversation and what I remember we talked about.

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One of the most striking images from the trailer is the people hanging from the trees. Where did this image come from?

I based a lot of the scenes from the movie based off of films I have seen before. Instead of replicated the scenes from the films I have seen before, I wanted to replicate the feeling of those scenes. There’s a scene in the film Southern Comfort, where in the end of the film after some characters wake up after a night of terror. There’s a train that goes by on a train track and you think “Great, they made it back to civilization.” Then, next to them, in the sunlight,  is their friend hanging. I loved that because the antagonists show in this scene that they could have easily taken you out easily, but we chose not to

Were there any specific films that influenced you in making Treehouse?

When I sat down to rewrite the script, I thought of it as a siege film and decided to look at other siege films like Assault on Precinct 13, Tremors and Adam Green’s Frozen. So, I studied some of those films in how they were structured.

This is your fourth entry into the genre, yet your first feature film without your co-director Kevin Gates and your first feature film that doesn’t use the faux documentary atheistic. Did you have any challenges sticking to more of a classical narrative structure?

No, it was very freeing actually. I really tried hard not to make Zombie Diaries 2 and tried to make a time-travel film called Timeless, which had to deal with a hitman who becomes addicted to a drug that allows him to time travel. He has a desperation to undo all the wrong he has done in the past. Unfortunately, when Looper came out, it kind of killed our movie because it would always get compared to it. So I wanted to break away from the Cinéma vérité style and was fortunate to do it with Treehouse.

What’s your favorite horror film?

The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project

What has been some of your recent horror films that you enjoyed?

Gone Girl, The Divide, The Conjuring, Deliver Us From Evil and an unknown DVD movie titled State of Emergency – a film that had likable characters who worked together instead of bickering.

Is there Stateside distribution for Treehouse?

Yes, it will be coming out in February in a limited theatrical release. It is being pitched to Redbox and Walmart so if that takes, I would assume the DVD release will come out around that time.

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Again, not a lot of the conversation was audible so I apologize to Marla Stoker, who helped coordinate the scheduling of this interview, and to Michael Bartlett.

TREEHOUSE is playing the St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, November 16th at 8:30PM.
TICKETS AND MORE INFO CAN BE FOUND HERE.