The Dionaea House

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The Dionaea House is a work by Eric Heisserer, originating in a series of linked internet pages about a man, Mark Condry, searching for answers about his old friend Andrew "Drew" Hughes and his cause to commit a double murder/suicide. The front page of the site also describes it as a memorial to some as-yet unspecified event, but only by reading the letters can the reader know what happened. The bulk of the main story is a series of letters between Mark and another friend, Eric Heisserer himself, chronicling his investigations and travels in trying to find the truth. The name of the story, and the house itself, come from an allusion Mark makes somewhere in the middle of the story comparing the house to a variety of venus' flytrap. An eerie foreshadowing is Mark's belief Andrew was extremely afraid of a house his step-father owned, and that he experienced an emotionally scarring event within it; Mark's description of Andrew after the event is vaguely reminiscent of a twisted version of Jim Carrey's character in The Cable Guy, unable to do anything except spout commercials and television shows with disturbing accuracy, as though he'd been emptied of himself and had sought to fill himself with anything he could come by. A collection of related blogs elaborate on the mystery of other, similar houses and other character's findings.

It had been optioned by Warner Brothers to be made into a film to be released sometime in 2007. For undisclosed reasons, Warner Brothers since pulled the plug on the project a few days into production. They are currently discussing funding from another party, which is rumored to be the Rogue Pictures division of Focus Features, the studio behind Shaun of the Dead, the remake of Assault on Precinct 13, and Jet Li's Fearless.

Due to budgetary concerns (and also so that the title itself is not a spoiler), the title of the movie based on this internet phenomenon had been renamed Sanctum. According to IMDb, the film project has again been renamed, and now has the title The Occupants. The film's IMDb page also now has the film's release listed as 2008, and states the film is "In active development. No start date set."

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