Believe it or not, he'd never done it before.

In David Koepp’s new thriller You Should Have Left, Amanda Seyfried plays Susanna, a young actress who, just before filming a big part in England, escapes to the Welsh countryside with her older husband Theo (Kevin Bacon). While inside the starkly modernist house (it could easily sit next to The Invisible Man’s spartan abode), secrets from their past start to show themselves in startling, sometimes phantasmagoric ways. It’s the rare haunted house movie where the characters are just as haunted. And it’s the rare Hollywood movie to address the significant age difference between the two leads. …

Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried take on a haunted house in filmmaker David Koepp's surprising and solidly scary horror-thriller You Should Have Left.

David Koepp is one of the most prolific and successful writers in Hollywood history, having penned a huge list of box office hits, including Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Panic Room and War of the Worlds. As a writer-director, Koepp chooses smaller, but equally thrilling movies like The Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes, Secret Window and Ghost Town. His latest film as a writer-director, You Should Have Left, is a spooky haunted house thriller starring his Stir of Echoes leading man Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as a couple who rents an ultra-modern, very spooky house …

It's been more than 20 years since Dave Koepp and Kevin Bacon worked together. The first time around, their collaboration yielded 1999's Stir of Echoes. Now, in 2020, they're serving up You Should Have Left, an extremely serviceable horror-thriller which offers more of intriguing premise than it does satisfying conclusion. [caption id="attachment_904510" align="alignright" width="360"] Image via Universal Pictures[/caption] Adapted from the 2017 novel written by German author Daniel Kehlmann, You Should Have Left introduces us to Theo Conroy (Bacon), a retired banker who has done very well himself and now lives in …

What are the elements needed for a successful thriller? You Should Have Left writer-director David Koepp weighs in on what he believes are the key ingredients to make such a psychological thriller work.

A new movie for a new time.

Kevin Bacon is back in his horror movie sweet spot with the upcoming thriller chiller You Should Have Left. Ahead of the movie's on demand wide release later this week, Universal Pictures has dropped a sweet teaser into our laps to preview what spooky goodness awaits. [caption id="attachment_903737" align="alignright" width="360"] Image via Universal Pictures[/caption] This teaser is barely two minutes long, but there is plenty of information jam-packed into its runtime. You know you're in for something good when a video kicks off with Bacon telling you, "I love scary movies." From there, …

David Koepp, one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood history, is returning with a low-budget thriller he wrote and directed for Blumhouse Productions called You Should Have Left. And – surprise! – it’s on VOD next week. You can even watch the trailer right now. [caption id="attachment_901915" align="alignright" width="360"] Image via Blumhouse/Universal[/caption] Koepp, whose resume includes blockbusters like Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Mission: Impossible, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has more esoteric choices when it comes to the projects that he both writes and directs, veering from Stephen King …

Buckle up.