diff --git a/dwitter/dweet/views.py b/dwitter/dweet/views.py
index b114e630..73db0efe 100644
--- a/dwitter/dweet/views.py
+++ b/dwitter/dweet/views.py
@@ -1,14 +1,11 @@
 from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404, render
 from dwitter.models import Dweet
 from django.views.decorators.clickjacking import xframe_options_exempt
-from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
-from django.template import RequestContext
 from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page
 
 
 def handler404(request):
-    response = render_to_response('404_dweet.html', {},
-                                  context_instance=RequestContext(request))
+    response = render(request, '404_dweet.html')
     response.status_code = 404
     return response
 
diff --git a/dwitter/feed/views.py b/dwitter/feed/views.py
index d5f24edd..bf543873 100644
--- a/dwitter/feed/views.py
+++ b/dwitter/feed/views.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ def get_queryset(self):
             queryset
             .select_related('author')
             .select_related('reply_to')
-            .select_related('reply_to__author__username')
+            .select_related('reply_to__author')
             .prefetch_related('comments'))
 
         return queryset
diff --git a/dwitter/settings/base.py b/dwitter/settings/base.py
index f63d914f..f45c5870 100644
--- a/dwitter/settings/base.py
+++ b/dwitter/settings/base.py
@@ -29,14 +29,6 @@
 ALLOWED_HOSTS = []
 
 
-TEMPLATES = [
-        {
-            'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
-            'APP_DIRS': True,
-            },
-        ]
-
-
 # Application definition
 
 INSTALLED_APPS = [
@@ -62,15 +54,16 @@
     'corsheaders',
 ]
 
-DBBACKUP_STORAGE = 'dbbackup.storage.filesystem_storage'
+DBBACKUP_STORAGE = 'django.core.files.storage.FileSystemStorage'
 DBBACKUP_STORAGE_OPTIONS = {'location': 'backups'}
 
 REST_FRAMEWORK = {
     'DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS': 'rest_framework.pagination.LimitOffsetPagination',
-    'DEFAULT_FILTER_BACKENDS': ('rest_framework.filters.DjangoFilterBackend',),
+    'DEFAULT_FILTER_BACKENDS': ('django_filters.rest_framework.DjangoFilterBackend',),
     'PAGE_SIZE': 10,                   # Default to 10
     'MAX_PAGE_SIZE': 100,             # Maximum limit allowed when using `?page_size=xxx`.
     'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': ('rest_framework.renderers.JSONRenderer',),
+
 }
 
 # List of callables that know how to import templates from various sources.
@@ -80,7 +73,7 @@
 #            # 'django.template.loaders.eggs.Loader',
 #            )
 
-MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = [
+MIDDLEWARE = [
     'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
     'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
     'subdomains.middleware.SubdomainURLRoutingMiddleware',
@@ -113,7 +106,6 @@
                 'django.template.context_processors.request',
                 'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                 'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
-                'django.core.context_processors.request',
             ],
         },
     },
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 8e20c3a6..898732b7 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 boto==2.42
 django-anymail==4.3
-django-compressor==2.1
-django-dbbackup==2.5.0
+django-compressor==2.2
+django-dbbackup==3.0.2
 django-debug-toolbar==1.9.1
-django-filter==0.13
-django-registration-redux==1.2
+django-filter==1.1
+django-registration-redux==1.8
 django-storages-redux==1.3.2
 django-subdomains==2.1.0rc0
-django==1.8.14
-djangorestframework==3.3.3
+django==1.11.15
+djangorestframework==3.7.1
 flake8==2.6.2
 newrelic==4.2.0.100
 django-cors-headers==2.4.0