‘Krazy House’ Director Steffen Haars’ Says He Wanted to ‘F—k’ Up the ‘Safe World’ of American Sitcoms | Video

The idea behind directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil’s upcoming horror comedy “Krazy House” came from them wanting to shake up the traditional format and cadence of American sitcoms.

Haar’s opened up about the origin of the film’s concept during a panel discussion for “Krazy House” in TheWrap’s Sundance Portrait and Interview Studio presented by NFP. The director was joined by his cast members Alicia Silverstone, Gaite Jansen and Walk Klink.

“Growing up watching American sitcoms back in Holland, there was not much on television. Lots of reruns of all the classic sitcoms ‘Full House,’ ‘Who’s the Boss?’, that kind of stuff,” Haars told TheWrap’s Executive Editor Adam Chitwood, who mentioned that the film was inspired by the sitcom “Married With Children. “I always noticed that it was such a safe world, and it was funny in a way. The idea that if something goes terribly wrong interested us for a long time. That was the start, to make ’90s sitcom and just f—k things up.”

The story is set in the 1990s and “follows religious homemaker Bernie and his sitcom family. When Russian workers in Bernie’s house turn out to be wanted criminals, Bernie has to man up and save his imprisoned family, while slowly going crazy.”

The cast’s decision to join the production was based on their previous knowledge of Haars and Van der Kuil’s unique work, with Klink saying he didn’t even care about the script and merely just wanted to be part of the creatives next cinematic piece.

“I was a really big fan of Steffen and Flip since I was a teenager, because they made the best movies and I love that. I really wanted that. That was honestly the reason. I couldn’t care less about the script. The script was really, really, really good [though],” Klink said. ” I was also a really big fan of Nick. So I was just a fanboy, that was the biggest reason. And shooting was just fun.”

Speaking of shooting, Silverstone reflected on some of the explosive days on set and how she and the cast wondered how much bloodier it could get.

“I’m thinking of so many things. I remember, crouched down with these two, and explosives were going off all around us, and it feels really dangerous,” she said. “Then I’m thinking of Nick getting shot in the eye with blood, poor thing. And then it happened to Jan [Bijovet].”

“We come to set because we’re on the same crazy set every day and it keeps evolving because everything’s falling apart, further and further. Just when you think everyone’s been murdered and everything is destroyed, [we’re thinking] ‘Why do we have more days to shoot? Aren’t we done?'” she continued. “But when you see it in the film it doesn’t feel gratuitous in any way, shape, or form. It feels earned.”

Watch the full interview above.

“Krazy House” is a sales title at Sundance.

Check out all our Sundance coverage here.

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