Ti West is a multifaceted genre filmmaker. He’s a writer, a director, an editor, a producer — a jack-of-all-cinematic-trades whose deft and consistent use of film homage has led to a rich and illustrious body of feature films. Cherry-picked, Xeroxed, and mashed together like a mad scientist reanimating a corpse built of disparate parts, West wears his influences proudly and loudly while never sacrificing his integrity, personality, or unique singularity. An indie movie darling whose crossover appeal and insatiable knack for horror has made him a hot commodity within the industry.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
He’s lent his talents to episodes of MTV’s Scream: The Series, Amazon’s Them, and Fox’s Wayward Pines — a seasoned auteur with a penchant for horror whose youthful exuberance and creative experimentation rarely disappoints. Something old. Something new. Something borrowed but entirely original and covered in fake red blood, here are all of Ti West’s movies ranked from least great to absolutely sublime.
10 ‘Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever’ (2009)
Starring Rider Strong, Noah Segan and Giuseppe Andrews
Image via Lionsgate
There’s a raunchy John Hughes Bizarro World-like quality to Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Noah Segan’s John is the stereotypical geek akin to a Cameron Fry in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles. You can see the natural progression from The Roost, as the story structure is essentially the same, just with a slightly bigger budget and marginally better actors (Segan and Giuseppe Andrews are notable standouts).
The film’s costume, set, and production designs reference horror classics like Prom Night, The Evil Dead, Carrie, and even Saturday Night Fever. But after extensive reshoots and re-edits by the sequel’s producers, West requested to have his name removed and replaced with the famous pseudonym Alan Smithee (an official title used by directors to disown a film). Still, despite his protests, the producers denied his request because he wasn’t a member of the DGA, and his name remains on a finished project he ultimately abhors.
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever
Release Date August 11, 2009
Director Ti West
Cast Rider Strong , Noah Segan , Alexander Isaiah Thomas , Giuseppe Andrews , Alexi Wasser , Regan Deal
Runtime 87
Main Genre Horror
Writers Joshua Malkin , Randy Pearlstein , Ti West
Tagline This time it’s spreading.
9 ‘The Roost’ (2005)
West’s first feature film opens on fictional television show Frightmare Theatre, a grainy black and white 1970s B-movie telecast similar to a horror movie-of-the-week style program similar to Elvira’s Movie Macabre. The Horror Host (played by Tom Noonan) welcomes audiences before introducing a college thesis-esque flick reminiscent of 90s cult horror classic Tales From the Crypt or an unaired episode of Are You Afraid of The Dark? deemed too adult for a Y7 audience. A 240p creature-of-the-week melodrama that’s still rather impressive and oddly holds up when stacked against the director’s more modern and polished cinematic efforts. For a low-budget feature of any genre–the shots and frames of cinematographer Eric Robbins are beautifully constructed with scenes composed of harsh mood lighting juxtaposed with grim shadows and stark darkness, giving the film a tangibly wicked sense of tone and place.
Even by today’s HD standards, the now-blurry standard-def quality of The Roost adds a layer of accidental brilliance to a production that is undeniably appealing in a random video store rental sort of way. With a lean runtime of a little over an hour, The Roost’s plot is thin and conceptual at best, but its most significant appeal is in the film’s self-serious “acting class” performances that are borderline comedic. The plot follows four friends marooned on a farm on their way to a wedding when they are suddenly attacked by a series of supernatural creatures. The Roost’s dated aesthetic might be an acquired taste for casual filmgoers looking for deep-pocketed production value and high-end scares. Still, for any Ti West completionist, it’s essential viewing. You can learn a lot from a director’s first feature.
Buy on Amazon
8 “Second Honeymoon” from ‘V/H/S’ (2012)
Starring Joe Swanberg, Sophia Takal, and Kate Lyn Shiel
Image via Magnet Releasing
West’s unsettling chapter in horror anthology film V/H/S is a non-essential entry for some but a surefire must-watch for any found-footage horror aficionado. The film’s frame narrative follows a gang of criminals who break into a house to recover a mysterious video cassette for an unknown employer and get way more than bargained for in this 2012 found-footage horror classic. V/H/S/ was directed in collaboration with other indie directors like Godzilla vs. Kong’s Adam Wingard and Joe Swanberg, the creator Netflix romantic comedy drama Easy, but West’s meticulous direction instantaneously sucks you in, surrounding viewers with a palpably foreboding ambiance. West gutters the CG and paranormal elements in favor of an eerie stranger than fiction true-crime tale, grounding an otherwise messy collection of genre tropes and thrills in this sinister reinvention of the phenomenon first originated in the 1999 psychological horror classic The Blair Witch Project.
Rather than homage specific movies, West synthesizes time-honored campfire tales and establishes a tone that exploits audience expectations with “real life” fears. The mumblecore-esque performances are incredibly believable from start to finish, but “Second Honeymoon” ends sooner than anticipated in a movie that’s essentially a Paranormal Activity softcore adult film, but West’s self-assured analog vision deserves a humble note of recognition. With expert use of subtle foreshadowing, “Second Honeymoon” will linger with you long after the chapter ends and make you rethink your next romantic getaway.
V/H/S
When a group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
Release Date July 28, 2012
Cast Calvin Reeder , Lane Hughes , Adam Wingard , Hannah Fierman , Mike Donlan , Joe Sykes
Runtime 93
Main Genre Horror
7 ‘The Sacrament’ (2013)
Starring Joe Swanberg, Gene Jones, and Amy Seimetz
Image Via Magnolia Pictures
West returned to found-footage horror in this biting satire on the abrasive investigative practices of Vice journalism against the grim reality of doomsday cults. After receiving a letter from his sister, a photographer accompanied by a small news team travels to Eden Parish—a remote utopia whose idyllic sensibilities hide sinister motives. The Sacrament was West’s first true found-footage horror feature in this Jonestown Massacre parable.
Veteran character actor Gene Jones plays Father, a Jim Jones-like religious leader whose joyous demeanor masks a pious sinisterness–and the less you know, the better. Like all of West’s films, audiences should go into this particular film as cold as a morgue. Trading in the paranormal for real-life, ripped from the headlines, scares is a surprisingly refreshing choice, The Sacrament stands as one of the better pictures in the found-footage pantheon of horror.
The Sacrament
Release Date September 2, 2013
Director Ti West
Runtime 95
Main Genre Horror
Writers Ti West
Tagline Documented for the first time witness the untold story of the tragedy at Eden Parish
6 ‘In a Valley of Violence’ (2016)
Starring Ethan Hawke, John Travolta, and Taissa Farmiga
Image via Focus World
Set in the Old West, Ethan Hawke stars as Paul, a high plainsdrifter traveling to Mexico who wanders into the town of Denton and runs afoul of the wicked riff-raff that plague the forgotten mining town. A film that blurs the murderous vengeance of the John Wick franchise with the quirky melodrama of a pulpy Western novelette, Red Dead Redemption and the movies of Quentin Tarantino — absurdist, campy, and darkly comedic, In a Valley of Violence is a loving homage to the grim Italo-Westerns of the 60s and 70s.
Shot on 35mm and produced in conjunction with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, West wrote the part with Hawke in mind after seeing him in a New York stage production of Macbeth. Beautiful acting and obtusely intriguing – In a Valley of Violence is a refreshing departure from a director who spent most of his career directing violently nostalgic horror homages. Satisfying, weird, and assuredly acquired — In a Valley of Violence mines well-worn cowhide boots of the western genre and spins into a timeless yarn that’s equal parts gonzo and pathos.
In a Valley of Violence
Release Date October 21, 2016
Director Ti West
Runtime 104
Main Genre Western
Writers Ti West
Studio Focus World
5 ‘Trigger Man (2007)
Starring Ray Sullivan, Reggie Cunningham, and Sean Reid
Made over seven days, comprised of minimal dialogue, and costing approximately $10,000, West’s second feature film was a concerted push into a new and uncharted homage territory. A backwoods psychological thriller likened to The Blair Witch Project meets The Deer Hunter or Deliverance, in this brutal survival horror picture from 2007. Relentless, claustrophobic, and unrelenting, Trigger Man’s low-budget shaky-cam aesthetic adds a nuanced layer of realism rarely seen in modern blockbuster thrillers. Still, like The Roost, its standard-def presentation might hinder the casual moviegoer from finishing.
The film’s plot follows three friends on a deer hunting trip in Delaware when a mysterious sniper starts picking them off, ending in an explosively taught third-person shooter-esque, Duel-like climax. Like an alien-less Predator, Trigger Man was West’s first step into a more self-assured thematic direction. Though simplistic, the plot rivals some of West’s more complex and compelling narratives to date. Roughly under an hour and thirty minutes, West’s second prominent feature starts as a mundane character study that abruptly devolves into a bloodcurdling tale of survival and paranoia. It’s a faithful prototype for the found-footage horror and genre-bending techniques that would continue to follow the director in subsequent films.
Rent on Amazon
4 ‘The Innkeepers’ (2011)
Starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis
Image Via Magnet Releasing
Sarah Paulson (who famously replaced Kimberly J. Brown in the maligned Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown 4: Return to Halloweentown) stars as Charlie, an asthmatic who spends her days and nights searching for paranormal activity with her partner in crime and fellow ghost hunting enthusiasts Luke (Pat Healy), but like all of Ti West’s characters, they get way more than bargained. Set in present day New England, the film follows two lowly employees of the once lavish Yankee Pedlar Inn, but when they decide to investigate stories of ghost sightings they accidentally awaken an evil presence from beyond the grave.
A frighteningly slow-moving ghost story that will reward patient viewers with its terrifying second half, The Innkeepers is a modern revival of the haunted hotel horror subgenre that burns unhurriedly and relentlessly.The Innkeepers hits all the nostalgic beats of 80s-era Amblin classic Poltergeist with the modern bite of James Wan’s The Conjuring. Some may anguish under its laborious runtime or lack of consistent scares, but keen-eyed viewers who stick with it will reap the rewards of its fear-inducing climax.
The Innkeepers
Release Date August 18, 2011
Director Ti West
Runtime 100
Main Genre Horror
Writers Ti West
Studio Dark Sky Films
Tagline Some guests never check out.
3 The House of the Devil (2009)
Starring Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, and Tom Noonan
Image via Magnet Releasing
In the vein of John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Amityville Horror (1979), and When a Stranger Calls (1979), and brimming with enough fear to shroud a fog-filled haunted house. West’s third feature, The House of the Devil is a spooky and nostalgic homage to the slasher and haunted house subgenres of the 70s and 80s. A critical darling that failed at the box office but has since earned its keep amongst the most well-regarded horror films of the last two decades.
Set in 1980 during the “satanic panic,” the film follows Jocelin Donahue’s broke college student Samantha Hughes who’s hired as a babysitter at an isolated home on the outskirts of town, but soon realizes that her life is in grave danger. West shot The House of the Devil entirely on 16mm film to mimic the decade, giving the picture its retro grain and fuzzy glow. Eliot Rockett’s cinematography employs many of the methods and techniques utilized by the directors of the time, including camera zooms (instead of dolly shots) and an opening credit sequence that uses a bold yellow font and accompanying freeze-frame. A crowning achievement in period-piece production design and film homage in this creepy occult masterpiece from 2009, a production that secured the indie director as a cinematic voice on the rise and worthy of the audience’s attention.
The House of the Devil
In The House of the Devil, a cash-strapped college student takes a babysitting job at a remote mansion, only to discover there’s no child to care for—just an eerie, empty house. As the night unfolds, she finds herself entangled in a horrifying cult ritual that thrusts her into a fight for survival, uncovering sinister secrets hidden within the home’s walls.
Release Date October 30, 2009
Director Ti West
Runtime 95 Minutes
Main Genre Horror
Writers Ti West
Studio Magnet Releasing
Tagline Talk on the phone. Finish your homework. Watch TV. Die.
2 ‘Pearl’ (2023)
Starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, and Tandi Wright
Image Via A24
A horror movie, technically even a slasher movie, but most of all a damn good, well-acted drama (so good Martin Scorsese famously sang its praises), Pearl is as perfect a successor to X as it was an unexpected one. The WWI-era prequel could have taken an easy route and still turned out well enough, but West (it’s safe to just call him an auteur at this point, any kind of praise is on the table) instead gave us an entertaining, humanistic descent into the violence of the mind, the aesthetics surgically homaging classic Hollywood in the way X homaged ’70s grindhouse.
Goth’s performance (well, her dual performance) in X had everyone talking; what she’s done here exceeded all expectations. Ti West has long trusted the power of good acting to help carry a film; Goth’s infamous long take in act three might be the high point of his entire canon so far. Simply put, Pearl is everything Scorsese said it was: pure cinema. It’s edgy, dazzling, inspired (sometimes in a way that’s explicitly paying tribute to great art of the past) craftsmanship that’s all in service of saying something about the human condition. Cinema.
Pearl
In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents’ farm.
Director Ti West
Cast Mia Goth , David Corenswet , Tandi Wright , Matthew Sunderland
Runtime 103 minutes
1 ‘X’ (2022)
Starring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega and Brittany Snow
Image via A24
West’s best film appears like a rote horror homage, but oddly it’s his most profound, intricately appointed, and expertly crafted work to date. A picture that utilizes De Palma-esque split-screens and evokes the brutal violence of TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre, X is an ingeniously funny and gruesome commentary on the counter-culture, auteur-driven cinema of the 1970s. West flips the script on classic horror genre tropes, especially its ideas on female sexuality, often seen as something to be condemned or punishable by death, is eradicated in favor of a modern, sex-positive, feminist re-imagining of the outdated traditionalism at the center of most classic horror productions.
Beautifully shot and eerily sexy, West forces us to recontextualize the harmful gender stereotypes often depicted in horror films but in glorious bloody fashion. X is the culmination of nearly two decades worth of hard work from West, who has since ripened into a confident director whose expert command of film homage doesn’t outshine his voice. The first in a confirmed trilogy from producer A24, X’s follow-up, Pearl was filmed back-to-back in secret, and continued to cement Ti West as a trustworthy voice and worthy successor to the horror throne (Goth’s Maxine Minx returns this summer in MaXXXine). Witty, provocative, and confidently demented, X is his most outstanding cinematic achievement to date, with a mainstream crossover appeal that’ll surely amplify his career for decades to come.
X (2022)
In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.
Release Date March 18, 2022
Director Ti West
Runtime 105 minutes
Writers Ti West
Studio A24