Each Ti West Film, Ranked From Worst to Finest

Ti West is a multifaceted style filmmaker. He’s a author, a director, an editor, a producer — a jack-of-all-cinematic-trades whose deft and constant use of movie homage has led to a wealthy and illustrious physique of function movies. Cherry-picked, Xeroxed, and mashed collectively like a mad scientist reanimating a corpse constructed of disparate elements, West wears his influences proudly and loudly whereas by no means sacrificing his integrity, character, or distinctive singularity. An indie film darling whose crossover enchantment and insatiable knack for horror has made him a scorching commodity throughout the business.

He’s lent his skills to episodes of MTV’s Scream: The Sequence, Amazon’s Them, and Fox’s Wayward Pines — a seasoned auteur with a penchant for horror whose youthful exuberance and inventive experimentation hardly ever disappoints. One thing previous. One thing new. One thing borrowed however totally authentic and lined in pretend purple blood, listed here are all of Ti West’s motion pictures ranked from least nice to utterly elegant.

10 ‘Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever’ (2009)

Starring Rider Sturdy, Noah Segan and Giuseppe Andrews

There’s a raunchy John Hughes Bizarro World-like high 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 Corridor in Sixteen Candles. You possibly can see the pure development from The Roost, because the story construction is actually the identical, simply with a barely greater funds and marginally higher actors (Segan and Giuseppe Andrews are notable standouts).

The movie’s costume, set, and manufacturing designs reference horror classics like Promenade Evening, The Evil Useless, Carrie, and even Saturday Evening Fever. However after intensive reshoots and re-edits by the sequel’s producers, West requested to have his identify eliminated and changed with the well-known pseudonym Alan Smithee (an official title utilized by administrators to disown a movie). Nonetheless, regardless of his protests, the producers denied his request as a result of he wasn’t a member of the DGA, and his identify stays on a completed challenge he finally abhors.

9 ‘The Roost’ (2005)

West’s first function movie opens on fictional tv present Frightmare Theatre, a grainy black and white Seventies B-movie telecast just like a horror movie-of-the-week type program just like Elvira’s Film Macabre. The Horror Host (performed by Tom Noonan) welcomes audiences earlier than introducing a school thesis-esque flick paying homage to 90s cult horror basic Tales From the Crypt or an unaired episode of Are You Afraid of The Darkish? deemed too grownup for a Y7 viewers. A 240p creature-of-the-week melodrama that’s nonetheless reasonably spectacular and oddly holds up when stacked in opposition to the director’s extra trendy and polished cinematic efforts. For a low-budget function of any style–the pictures and frames of cinematographer Eric Robbins are fantastically constructed with scenes composed of harsh temper lighting juxtaposed with grim shadows and stark darkness, giving the movie a tangibly depraved sense of tone and place.

Even by in the present day’s HD requirements, the now-blurry standard-def high quality of The Roost provides a layer of unintentional brilliance to a manufacturing that’s undeniably interesting in a random video retailer rental form of method. With a lean runtime of slightly over an hour, The Roost’s plot is skinny and conceptual at finest, however its most important enchantment is within the movie’s self-serious “appearing class” performances which are borderline comedic. The plot follows 4 associates marooned on a farm on their method to a marriage when they’re all of a sudden attacked by a collection of supernatural creatures. The Roost’s dated aesthetic is likely to be an acquired style for informal filmgoers searching for deep-pocketed manufacturing worth and high-end scares. Nonetheless, for any Ti West completionist, it’s important viewing. You possibly can be taught loads from a director’s first function.

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8 “Second Honeymoon” from ‘V/H/S’ (2012)

Starring Joe Swanberg, Sophia Takal, and Kate Lyn Shiel

West’s unsettling chapter in horror anthology movie V/H/S is a non-essential entry for some however a surefire must-watch for any found-footage horror aficionado. The movie’s body narrative follows a gang of criminals who break right into a home to get better a mysterious video cassette for an unknown employer and get far more than bargained for on this 2012 found-footage horror basic. V/H/S/ was directed in collaboration with different indie administrators like Godzilla vs. Kong’s Adam Wingard and Joe Swanberg, the creator Netflix romantic comedy drama Simple, however West’s meticulous course instantaneously sucks you in, surrounding viewers with a palpably foreboding ambiance. West gutters the CG and paranormal components in favor of an eerie stranger than fiction true-crime story, grounding an in any other case messy assortment of style tropes and thrills on this sinister reinvention of the phenomenon first originated within the 1999 psychological horror basic The Blair Witch Challenge.

Quite than homage particular motion pictures, West synthesizes time-honored campfire tales and establishes a tone that exploits viewers expectations with “actual life” fears. The mumblecore-esque performances are extremely plausible from begin to end, however “Second Honeymoon” ends ahead of anticipated in a film that’s primarily a Paranormal Exercise softcore grownup movie, however West’s confident analog imaginative and prescient deserves a humble be aware of recognition. With knowledgeable use of delicate foreshadowing, “Second Honeymoon” will linger with you lengthy after the chapter ends and make you rethink your subsequent romantic getaway.

V/H/S

When a gaggle of misfits are employed by an unknown third social gathering to burglarize a desolate home and purchase a uncommon VHS tape, they uncover extra discovered footage than they bargained for.

Launch Date

July 28, 2012

Forged

Calvin Reeder , Lane Hughes , Adam Wingard , Hannah Fierman , Mike Donlan , Joe Sykes

Runtime

93

Important Style

Horror

7 ‘The Sacrament’ (2013)

Starring Joe Swanberg, Gene Jones, and Amy Seimetz

West returned to found-footage horror on this biting satire on the abrasive investigative practices of Vice journalism in opposition to the grim actuality of doomsday cults. After receiving a letter from his sister, a photographer accompanied by a small information group travels to Eden Parish—a distant utopia whose idyllic sensibilities cover sinister motives. The Sacrament was West’s first true found-footage horror function on this Jonestown Bloodbath parable.

Veteran character actor Gene Jones performs Father, a Jim Jones-like non secular chief whose joyous demeanor masks a pious sinisterness–and the much less you realize, the higher. Like all of West’s movies, audiences ought to go into this explicit movie as chilly as a morgue. Buying and selling within the paranormal for real-life, ripped from the headlines, scares is a surprisingly refreshing selection, The Sacrament stands as one of many higher photos within the found-footage pantheon of horror.

6 ‘In a Valley of Violence’ (2016)

Starring Ethan Hawke, John Travolta, and Taissa Farmiga

Set within the Outdated West, Ethan Hawke stars as Paul, a excessive plainsdrifter touring to Mexico who wanders into the city of Denton and runs afoul of the depraved riff-raff that plague the forgotten mining city. A movie that blurs the murderous vengeance of the John Wick franchise with the quirky melodrama of a pulpy Western novelette, Pink Useless Redemption and the films 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 along with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and Common Footage, West wrote the half with Hawke in thoughts after seeing him in a New York stage manufacturing of Macbeth. Lovely appearing and obtusely intriguing – In a Valley of Violence is a refreshing departure from a director who spent most of his profession directing violently nostalgic horror homages. Satisfying, bizarre, and assuredly acquired — In a Valley of Violence mines well-worn cowhide boots of the western style and spins right into a timeless yarn that’s equal elements gonzo and pathos.

In a Valley of Violence

Launch Date

October 21, 2016

Director

Ti West

Runtime

104

Important Style

Western

Writers

Ti West

Studio

Focus World

5 ‘Set off Man (2007)

Starring Ray Sullivan, Reggie Cunningham, and Sean Reid

Remodeled seven days, comprised of minimal dialogue, and costing roughly $10,000, West’s second function movie was a concerted push into a brand new and uncharted homage territory. A backwoods psychological thriller likened to The Blair Witch Challenge meets The Deer Hunter or Deliverance, on this brutal survival horror image from 2007. Relentless, claustrophobic, and unrelenting, Set off Man’s low-budget shaky-cam aesthetic provides a nuanced layer of realism hardly ever seen in trendy blockbuster thrillers. Nonetheless, like The Roost, its standard-def presentation may hinder the informal moviegoer from ending.

The movie’s plot follows three associates on a deer looking journey in Delaware when a mysterious sniper begins selecting them off, ending in an explosively taught third-person shooter-esque, Duel-like climax. Like an alien-less Predator, Set off Man was West’s first step right into a extra confident thematic course. Although simplistic, the plot rivals a few of West’s extra advanced and compelling narratives to this point. Roughly below an hour and thirty minutes, West’s second outstanding function begins as a secular character research that abruptly devolves right into a bloodcurdling story of survival and paranoia. It is a devoted prototype for the found-footage horror and genre-bending methods that will proceed to comply with the director in subsequent movies.

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4 ‘The Innkeepers’ (2011)

Starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis

Sarah Paulson (who famously changed Kimberly J. Brown within the maligned Disney Channel Authentic Film Halloweentown 4: Return to Halloweentown) stars as Charlie, an asthmatic who spends her days and nights trying to find paranormal exercise along with her companion in crime and fellow ghost looking fanatics Luke (Pat Healy), however like all of Ti West’s characters, they get far more than bargained. Set in current day New England, the movie follows two lowly workers of the as soon as lavish Yankee Pedlar Inn, however once they determine to analyze tales of ghost sightings they unintentionally awaken an evil presence from past the grave.

A frighteningly slow-moving ghost story that can reward affected person viewers with its terrifying second half, The Innkeepers is a contemporary revival of the haunted lodge horror subgenre that burns unhurriedly and relentlessly.The Innkeepers hits all of the nostalgic beats of 80s-era Amblin basic Poltergeist with the fashionable chew of James Wan’s The Conjuring. Some could anguish below its laborious runtime or lack of constant scares, however keen-eyed viewers who keep it up will reap the rewards of its fear-inducing climax.

3 The Home of the Satan (2009)

Starring Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, and Tom Noonan

Within the vein of John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Amityville Horror (1979), and When a Stranger Calls (1979), and brimming with sufficient worry to shroud a fog-filled haunted home. West’s third function, The Home of the Satan is a spooky and nostalgic homage to the slasher and haunted home subgenres of the 70s and 80s. A essential darling that failed on the field workplace however has since earned its preserve amongst probably the most well-regarded horror movies of the final 20 years.

Set in 1980 throughout the “satanic panic,” the movie follows Jocelin Donahue’s broke faculty scholar Samantha Hughes who’s employed as a babysitter at an remoted house on the outskirts of city, however quickly realizes that her life is in grave hazard. West shot The Home of the Satan totally on 16mm movie to imitate the last decade, giving the image its retro grain and fuzzy glow. Eliot Rockett’s cinematography employs lots of the strategies and methods utilized by the administrators of the time, together with digicam zooms (as a substitute of dolly pictures) and a gap credit score sequence that makes use of a daring yellow font and accompanying freeze-frame. A crowning achievement in period-piece manufacturing design and movie homage on this creepy occult masterpiece from 2009, a manufacturing that secured the indie director as a cinematic voice on the rise and worthy of the viewers’s consideration.

The Home of the Satan

In The Home of the Satan, a cash-strapped faculty scholar takes a babysitting job at a distant mansion, solely to find there is no little one to take care of—simply an eerie, empty home. Because the night time unfolds, she finds herself entangled in a horrifying cult ritual that thrusts her right into a struggle for survival, uncovering sinister secrets and techniques hidden throughout the house’s partitions.

Launch Date

October 30, 2009

Director

Ti West

Runtime

95 Minutes

Important Style

Horror

Writers

Ti West

Studio

Magnet Releasing

Tagline

Discuss on the cellphone. End your homework. Watch TV. Die.

2 ‘Pearl’ (2023)

Starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, and Tandi Wright

A horror film, technically even a slasher film, however most of all a rattling good, well-acted drama (so good Martin Scorsese famously sang its praises), Pearl is as excellent a successor to X because it was an sudden one. The WWI-era prequel may have taken a simple route and nonetheless turned out properly sufficient, however West (it is protected to only name him an auteur at this level, any form of reward is on the desk) as a substitute gave us an entertaining, humanistic descent into the violence of the thoughts, the aesthetics surgically homaging basic Hollywood in the way in which X homaged ’70s grindhouse.

Goth’s efficiency (properly, her twin efficiency) in X had everybody speaking; what she’s achieved right here exceeded all expectations. Ti West has lengthy trusted the ability of fine appearing to assist carry a movie; Goth’s notorious lengthy absorb act three is likely to be the excessive level of his whole canon up to now. Merely put, Pearl is every part Scorsese stated it was: pure cinema. It is edgy, dazzling, impressed (typically in a method that is explicitly paying tribute to nice artwork of the previous) craftsmanship that is all in service of claiming one thing in regards to the human situation. Cinema.

Pearl

In 1918, a younger girl getting ready to insanity pursues stardom in a determined try to flee the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her mother and father’ farm.

Director

Ti West

Forged

Mia Goth , David Corenswet , Tandi Wright , Matthew Sunderland

Runtime

103 minutes

1 ‘X’ (2022)

Starring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega and Brittany Snow

West’s finest movie seems like a rote horror homage, however oddly it’s his most profound, intricately appointed, and expertly crafted work to this point. An image that makes use of De Palma-esque split-screens and evokes the brutal violence of TheTexas Chainsaw Bloodbath, X is an ingeniously humorous and ugly commentary on the counter-culture, auteur-driven cinema of the Seventies. West flips the script on basic horror style tropes, particularly its concepts on feminine sexuality, usually seen as one thing to be condemned or punishable by demise, is eradicated in favor of a contemporary, sex-positive, feminist re-imagining of the outdated traditionalism on the heart of most basic horror productions.

Superbly shot and eerily attractive, West forces us to recontextualize the dangerous gender stereotypes usually depicted in horror movies however in superb bloody style. X is the fruits of practically 20 years value of exhausting work from West, who has since ripened right into a assured director whose knowledgeable command of movie homage doesn’t outshine his voice. The primary 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 reliable voice and worthy successor to the horror throne (Goth’s Maxine Minx returns this summer time in MaXXXine). Witty, provocative, and confidently demented, X is his most excellent cinematic achievement to this point, with a mainstream crossover enchantment that’ll absolutely amplify his profession for many years to return.

X (2022)

In 1979, a gaggle of younger filmmakers got down to make an grownup movie in rural Texas, however when their reclusive, aged hosts catch them within the act, the solid discover themselves combating for his or her lives.

Launch Date

March 18, 2022

Director

Ti West

Runtime

105 minutes

Writers

Ti West

Studio

A24