The panel, Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts, was made up of five directors with great success in the film genre of horror.  All of the directors talked very candidly about making their films, and how they approach new ones.  While each director had a different way of approaching their films, they all shared one thing in common…a passion for blood and guts.  Panelist included Ti West, Ruben Fleischer, Matt Reeves, Neil Marshall and Austin resident Robert Rodriguez.  The directors also gave advise to the audience, to make the movies you want to make, and don’t let other factors influence your vision (even if that means changing the saturation of the blood color to get past the ratings board). With horror films as Cloverfield, The Descent, Zombieland and Grind House, these guys know how to scare you and yet were very inspiring to hear.  While I am pretty sure the rating for the panel would be “R” (due to language, graphic description and gory conversation), its panels like this that make SxSW a huge success in film.

You can view footage of the  SxSW Directing the Dead panel at the YouTube channel: PepsiCoEvents