The latest French genre director to make the jump to an English-language horror feature went HOME SWEET HOME to do it, and we’ve got exclusive words with his co-producer and news on the film’s U.S. release.

David Morlet (a.k.a. David Morley), who directed and co-wrote the undead-apocalypse film MUTANTS, scripted and helmed HOME SWEET HOME and was also one of the producers, along with Jordan Barker, who directed the 2007 ghost story THE MARSH. “What’s really interesting is that this movie was actually born at the Berlin Film Festival at the Berlinale Market,” Barker tells Fango. “We decided that we wanted to make a feature together, and from script development to funding, production and post, this film came together in only about four or five months.”

Screen Media Films gave us the scoop that it has picked up U.S. rights to HOME SWEET HOME, with a release planned for the second quarter of 2013 (most likely June). Special features for the disc release are still to be finalized, but will likely include a director’s commentary, interviews and a still gallery (keep your eyes here for final details). The movie’s story, according to Barker, “involves a young couple who have recently moved to the country; their home is invaded by an intruder, and they must survive the night. While that sounds potentially like a very basic retelling of a lot of other home-invasion stories, David has done an excellent job of turning it on its head and elevating it. I don’t want to give away too much, but I think he’s really given us something a little different, something special.

“Being a Canada/France co-production,” he continues, “we took advantage of the great union actors at work up in Toronto. We found great people: Meghan Heffern, who was in Atom Egoyan’s CHLOE, and Adam MacDonald, who’s well known in Canada from his TV series, are our two leads, and Shaun Benson is our killer—really great talent.”

Shooting in Canada also helped when it came to Morlet making the transition to directing in English for the first time.” “He took to it with great enthusiasm,” Barker says. “We certainly knew there would be challenges, but Canada being a bilingual country, most of the actors understood French as well, and David’s English is pretty good. I think he was a little nervous, a little shy about the nuances, but he was surrounded by a great crew of English-speaking people, and I have a directing background as well, so we were there to help him out whenever there was an issue about something they misunderstood—but there really weren’t any. And he brought a European sensibility to the film, so all the actors and crew were very excited to be working with that.”

Look for more at this site on HOME SWEET HOME and its release as its debut date draws closer.

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