Director Vaughn Stein Explores “Dark Fairy Tale” Elements of ‘Cellar Door’

Filmmaker Vaughn Stein’s previous movies “Inheritance” and “Every Breath You Take” explore different facets of the suspense thriller. He returns to the genre once again with “Cellar Door,” finding a new creative element to explore. All of these movies feature cinematographer Michael Merriman, and in the past four years the pair have crafted standout thrillers. Stein talked to Deepest Dream about his approach to “Cellar Door” and why he saw it as a “dark fairy tale.”

Although Vaughn Stein and cinematographer Michael Merriman did have a beautiful house and premise to play with, they did not pepper the narrative with showy visual sequences. Thanks to the locked in performances of Jordana Brewster and Scott Speedman, sometimes the most important visual is to the close-up. So expect, as Stein recounts, a variety of push-ins as we follow each of these character’s often nightmarish journeys.

“They are completely honest,” said Vaughn Stein. “They’re wonderfully talented and world class actors. The way that we chose to cover them was a reflection of how brilliant their performances were. (Brewster and Speedman) bounced off each other so well.”

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The story centers on a couple named Sera and John (Jordana Brewster, Scott Speedman) who find their dream house thanks to a generous offer from the mysterious owner (Laurence Fishburne). They can keep the mansion as long as they don’t open the cellar door. Living in multi-million dollar domicile may seem like an almost perfect set up, but their attachment to the cellar door may be their undoing. The feature co-stars Addison Timlin as a co-worker of John who holds a secret that could damage the couple’s relationship.

“‘Cellar Door’ has has this sort of dark fairy tale element, this sort of folkloric quality,” added Stein. “It was kind of all about looking at the edges of the Gothic. We talked about Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley. We talked about early Hitchcock. There is the reclusive man in the haunted house on a hill to play with as a trope. So we leaned into that. That was a big aesthetic inspiration for us.”

Full interview with Vaughn Stein:

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