Home Is Where the Horror Is: A Conversation With Douglas Buck

For some, Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude and togetherness; for others, it’s a stark reminder of hidden abuses, hypocrisy, and historic violence. We hope you’ll join us for a heaping helping of pre-holiday horror in this unique conversation with firebrand filmmaker Douglas Buck, where we’ll discuss his searing critiques of the American family unit. Buck’s harrowing anthology film FAMILY PORTRAITS: AN AMERICAN TRILOGY inspired standing ovations and outright fainting in festival audiences, and anyone who has seen it knows why.

In his other work, from the blackly comic short AFTER ALL, to his THEATER BIZARRE segment THE ACCIDENT, to his intimate reimagining of Brian DePalma’s SISTERS with Chloë Sevigny, Buck demonstrates a profound understanding of childhood alienation, family secrets, and the cyclical nature of abuse. In addition to his own filmography, this conversation will also reflect on Buck’s influences, from the lofty heights of Bergman and Polanski, to the gritty early work of George Romero and Tobe Hooper.

Long Island native Douglas Buck became an underground favorite for his confrontational attacks on smug American idealism, which caused one critic to call him “Todd Solondz on crack”. He has kept company with upstarts such as Abel Ferrara, Zoe Lund, and Gaspar Noe, and collaborated with genre stalwarts Tom Savini and Larry Fessenden. This event offers a unique opportunity to hear about his storied career, and his incisive acumen on kindred creators from Atom Egoyan to Ari Aster. We invite you to join us as we turn our focus on the family—just in time for the holidays.

Douglas Buck grew up on Long Island. Under the personal influence of Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund, he left his first career as an engineer to become a filmmaker. He is best known for his confrontational work on the darkness lurking in the heart of the suburban nuclear family unit, as seen in his anthology film FAMILY PORTRAITS: A TRILOGY OF AMERICA, and his contribution to the Severin anthology THE THEATRE BIZARRE. Buck also edited the latter film, in addition to the Jack Ketchum adaptation OFFSPRING, David Gregory’s mindbending documentary LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, and Gregory’s upcoming Bruceploitation documentary. His film criticism column “Buck a Review” is hosted at the long-running online journal Offscreen.

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Host or Publisher The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies