With its world premiere at this years edition of The Fantasia Film Festival
Play Dead is the filmed version of the off-Broadway magic and stage show dedicated to the tradition of Grand Guignol, that is to say, putting
a lot of blood and gore (and showmanship) up on stage. Co-written and directed for the stage by the consummate illusionist Teller (the 'silent' half of Penn & Teller) and starring Coney Island showman Todd Robbins, frequently blood-splattered, the filmed version of the show was shot live with an audience by Shade Rupe (who penned that massive tome of horror icon interviews, "Dark Stars Rising") in Manhattan where the show has been enjoying a successful run since late 2010."Play Dead" is inspired by the American spook show, an underground entertainment that thrived from the 1930s to the 1970s. Expect brutal onstage beatings, nubile nudity, and chunks of the show performed in absolute darkness (specially augmented for the filmed version with some night-vision cinematography).