Christopher Smith made his feature directorial debut with 2004's CREEP, about Franka Potente being stalked through the London Underground by a killer. Since then he has told several more dark stories – he made the horror/comedy SEVERANCE, put Melissa George in a time loop in TRIANGLE, killed Sean Bean (if you know Bean's career, that's not a spoiler) in the plague tale BLACK DEATH, and split reality in his most recent film, DETOUR. Smith is now set to work within the genre once again, as he is attached to direct the haunted house film THE BANISHING for The Fyzz Facility.
Written by Ronnie Thompson, Ray Bogdanovich, and Dean Lines, THE BANISHING follows
a young reverend, his wife and daughter, who move into a manor with a horrifying secret. When a demonic spirit possesses the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, the reverend is forced to confront his beliefs.
It's tough to make a haunted house story sound different from what we've seen before with a basic description. This will come down to the quality of the writing and the execution, and Smith has enough experience with horror that I trust he'll be able to do something interesting with that set-up.
THE BANISHING is being produced by Robert Jones, Wayne Marc Godfrey, James Harris, and Mark Lane of The Fyzz, with Jason Newmar. Harris said, "We think THE BANISHING has the ability to rival THE WOMAN IN BLACK as a great gothic horror film." That sounds good.
Filming on THE BANISHING will begin early next year. Smith is currently working on assembling his cast.
