Ben Arvin admits he watches almost exclusively horror films.
His experience with the genre helped Arvin to write, direct, produce and star in his first movie. “Hills and Hollers” premieres at 7 p.m. Saturday at the IU Fine Arts Theater.
Arvin describes the film as “a turn on the typical tropes and formulas of modern day horror movies and an expression of the frustration of the prevailing cultural portrayal of middle America.”
“Hills and Hollers” is about an expecting couple struggling with the economic woes of the rural, Midwestern Rustbelt, a topic Arvin said is often overlooked by Hollywood and the film industry.
“It’s kind of a turn,” Arvin said. “Obviously I can’t give it away, but I kind of tried to mess with your typical horror movie tropes.”
Arvin has been fascinated by movies since he was young. A native of Bedford, Indiana, he graduated from IU with a telecommunications degree in 2004.
He then moved to Austin, Texas, where he worked as a DJ and musician, among other jobs, before moving back to Bloomington.
Arvin came up with the idea for “Hills and Hollers” about 10 years ago.
While in Austin, he searched for the resources to begin making the film, but didn’t have the chance to start it until he returned to southern Indiana.
“Hills and Hollers” was shot during October 2015 and took a little more than a year to complete.
Outside of southern Indiana, the cast and crew is from Austin, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Arvin said inspiration for the film came from some of his favorite horror movies — Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Exorcist,” which he also considers some of the best horror films ever made.
“I just tried to look at the way they were shooting things and the music and tried not to borrow too much but absorb what about those movies work so well,” Arvin said.
There will be a Q&A segment after the screening, followed by an after party at Serendipity, where Arvin will DJ.
The film will also be available for download and on DVD from Amazon soon.
Arvin said he hopes to screen the film at other venues in the future. He’s also using this as a launching pad for his worker-owned media production company and think tank, Arvin Ingenuity Inc.
“That’s also something that’s important to me and a big part of this,” he said.
