Ivan Kander
Feeling like a long lost Tales from the Crypt episode, Ryan Spindell’s The Root of the Problem tackles one of the most horrific settings imaginable—the dentist’s office. Trading haunted houses for local anesthesia and large needles, The Root of the Problem is a delightfully old-school scare, preying on an innate fear of getting one’s teeth checked in order to get under the viewer’s skin.
Though I could have done without the opening credits, Root is a sterling example of a solid genre short. It’s very effective at what it does—crafting a simple, well-constructed horror story bolstered by stunning production design and impressive special-fx work. But, beyond the high-end technical aspects, the film really sings because of its delightfully gleeful tone. Spindell may be trying to creep out his audience, but it’s all too apparent that he’s having a lot of fun in the process. There’s a certain joy present here—a nostalgic callback to when horror movies were as fun as they were terrifying. Hollywood has seemed to have gotten away from this style of filmmaking as of late, but Spindell—as evidenced by this and his other work— is really aiming to bring it back to the forefront. He’s a director bread on late night viewings of Raimi and too many Goosebumps novels.
I highly encourage you to check out our detailed Q+A with Ryan. It’s quite the resource for all indie filmmakers (not just horror directors) and provides a lot of detail on the creation of Root as well as newer projects.
It really shouldn’t be that surprising that Root feels like a segment of some sort of old school horror anthology. Spindell is a huge fan of this specialized genre and he’s currently working feverishly on a massive feature-length anthology piece entitled the Mortuary Collection, which he financed through Kickstarter last year. Like Root, that film aims to be a loveletter to a time when horror films felt more tangible and “gooey.” Moreover, they were just plain fun—not exercises in festishtic torture porn. Much like Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat from back in 2007, he’s aiming to make an anthology film that creeps you out as much as it makes you smile.
If you’re interested, check out this short documentary by Spindell and his Trapdoor Pictures crew that documents the “horror anthology genre.” And, of course, keep up to date with all Spindell’s creepy happenings by visiting www.TrapdoorPictures.com. Spindell is fresh off winning best short film (both audience and jury) at the Stanley film festival with his first entry of the Mortuary Collection, a film entitled The Babysitter Murders. Keep eyes on Mr. Spindell—looks like he has lots more screams in store for us.