Turbo Kid
The folks at RKSS are in the middle of post with editing and fx. They will be packing their bags and heading down to New Zealand soon to complete some of the post-production. Hopefully there will be some good news towards the end of the year.
They shared a behind-the-scenes clip with us. It gave a taste of the zaniness and the larger scale they have opened this story up to. Michael Ironside spoke kindly of them. Then we saw one of the collective, Yoann-Karl Whissell, get up close and personal with a blender. There will be plenty of fx gags and lots of blood.
We Are Still Here
Though Ted Geoghegan’s ghost story We Are Still Here was never an official project in the market, it still comes out of the friendships that form there. Geoghegan and his producer, Travis Stevens, gave a brief account of how the production came to be and a little recap of the production. I do not think either of them will ever do a production in upstate New York in the dead of winter ever again. They also praised cinematographer Karim Hussein and his box of lenses. And then they shared a clip.
When I hear "ghost story," I do not imagine that there would be a lot of blood in it. But Geoghegan is going to bring the blood. A young couple in the house come face to face with one of the spirits (?) and of course the results are not good for the couple. I just was not expecting blood. I expected the lead-ins. The shadow in the doorway. The door that pulls shut as the male reaches for it. Then. The creepy basement. And all hell broke loose. Excellent make up effects. Excellent gore. Totally unexpected. Me likey.
The production is currently in the editing stages.
Some Kind of Hate
This slasher flick was not even on my radar until yesterday but I will keep an eye out for it now! This take on the slasher flick takes place in a New Age reform school. The online site says that a bullied teen goes to this school and accidentally summons the spirit of a girl who was bullied herself. She then takes out revenge on his tormentors for him, in a way that it totally unique and in line with what at risk youth do. Disney star Sierra McCormick is the slasher and she is going to fuck up a lot of her fans with this role.
We were shown the teaser and some clips. The film has just gone through its first cut and some post vfx work still had to be done on the clips we saw. But this is going to be bloody and a lot of fun. And also terrifying, too, just thinking about one of the scenes where one person did not even know they were targeted then ... blammo! Fountain of blood. Oh yeah. It is on my radar now!
Why Horror?
I’ve know the subject of this documentary, Tal Zimmerman, for quite some time now. And I can testify to his love of horror and trust that he is the perfect subject for this documentary. The production is just heading into post.
We were shown the intro clip to the film, footage of Zimmerman participating in a zombie walk. We were shown another clip that I dub ‘The Inside Monster’ where authorities in horror speak philosophically about how we use horror as a gauge to measure how much of the monster is inside ourselves. With around 65 interviews conducted with legends and authorities from around the world, there will be a lot of opinions and wisdom expounded on screen.
Then the last clip follows Zimmerman to London where he looks at rare prints of William Hogarth’s The Four Stage of Cruelty. Zimmerman even manages to crack a subtle joke in the clip, hopefully a sign of more to come in the rest of the doc.
Plans include debuting the documentary on Superchannel here in Canada around Halloween.
June
The upcoming coming-of-rage story from Gustavo Cooper and sales partner Raven Banner has locked its edit and is now finishing up the vfx. Cooper shared a story about getting Casper Van Dien to look at the script while on the phone with Victoria Pratt, who was already committed to the production. This production has also had a very short lifespan from idea to production, and hopefully to release. While some projects take years to get up and going, the stars aligned for these guys and in a few short months we have a horror flick.
They shared their Cannes teaser with us, which has already made the rounds online. Then they shared a couple clips. In the first one - I will call it ‘doodle’ - we see June on her bed, coloring on some paper, but the spirit inside her gets her all whiggy. In the second clip, June is at her first day of school.
Needless to say she makes a bloody impression on the rest of her class.
Redeemer
Oh my. The latest Chilean project from Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and Marko Zaror certainly impresses. Kyle Franke from XYZ Films and Noah Segan were on hand to talk about the production. As you may know, Marko plays a former hit-man for the mob who becomes a vigilante to pay for his sins. Noah was invited on board after he and Zaror met at a festival last September. As far as Franke and Segan knew, the edit was locked and it has gone into post. I am sure our founder and editor, Todd Brown, knows all about that.
(Is this the part where we talk about him as a partner with XYZ Films?)
They shared two clips with us. The first clip features Noah as baddie Bradock and the cultural observation he makes about cool names some of these guys have been given. It is a funny clip for sure. But the real meat and potatoes comes in the second clip where Zaror and another guy duke it out for a couple minutes. Bliss! Absolute bliss. Espinoza frames the fight right. He moves the camera around and you can still see what is going on. And Zaror is fast. The choreography is hard and fast. You know I love my fighting movies and this clip is a prime example of how I like them done. Which I strongly feel is the right way to do them.
Spring
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead came to town to share some clips with us from their follow up to Resolution, the romantic sci-fi horror Spring. They came at us with a teaser and four clips. And everything looks awesome. In the first clip we meet our main character Evan back home in his friend’s bar. Resolution alumnus Vinny Curran and Jeremy Gardner, director of The Battery, make appearances. The clip must be at the beginning of the movie.
Then we started getting into the mystery of Evan’s trip to Italy. In the next clip there are beautiful overhead shots of orchards and the town by the sea. And a tree bearing strange fruit. Then things got weird with a clip I can only dub as ‘The Needle’ and we were given a taste of the practical effects the guys used in the film. They looked awesome! Everything will be practical effects with minor digital compositing.
And in a final clip I’ll call ‘The Town,’ it just shows the pair's command of the camera as it follows Evan as he enters this town for the first time. The camera pulls away to focus on some old men playing cards, the church bells as they ring and then a beautiful woman as she eats gelato by a fountain, all in one take.
Really good stuff. Plenty of mysterious stuff going on there. The less I know the better, I feel.
(Another point at which we say this was produced by XYZ Films, of which ScreenAnarchy founder and editor Todd Brown is a partner)