Movies
Travis Betz Goes Horror-Musical with ‘The Dead Inside’
We’ve always been fans of filmmaker Travis Betz, who delivered the awesome Joshua, alongside the bizarre micro-budget demon love story Lo. Now, he’s switching gears once again with a horror-musical entitled The Dead Inside, which features music by Betz and Joel Van Vliet. You can get the full details on Drexel Box Productions’ latest project inside, along with first word from Betz. Sarah Lassez and Dustin Fasching star.
The Dead Inside is a story that explores the dark side of inspiration. Wes and Fi are lovers whose creative muses have all but vanished from their lives. When Fi begins to show signs of schizophrenia, Wes does everything in his power to help her get better…that is until Fi’s true affliction decides to introduce itself to both Wes and the world. Fighting against her possession, they rediscover inspiration in the grimmest corners of their situation. Their muse has returned, killing Fi from the inside and haunting Wes with each passing breath.
“My goal with THE DEAD INSIDE is to make a truly haunting, fun, scary, disturbing an beautiful musical about what it’s like to be dead both inside and outside of yourself,” Betz tells Bloody Disgusting.
The film will contain ten musical numbers composed by the brilliant Joel Van Vliet, and will star Sarah Lassez (Mad Cow Girl, Lo) and Dustin Fasching (Onsie, The Break Dance Kid). Shannon Hourigan (Bartokular, Black String Theory) is our all powerful cinematographer.
Filming begins late November.
Visit the filmmaker’s official website
Hollywood is serious about landing the next Backrooms. Hot on the heels of a Siren Head feature announcement, Deadline reports that a new movie based on viral YouTube series The Mandela Catalogue is in development.
It also has some Hollywood heavy hitters behind it.
Amblin Entertainment’s Steven Spielberg, United Artists’ Scott Stuber (Frankenstein), and Amazon MGM Studios are set to produce, emerging victorious after a highly competitive 11-studio bidding war.
Launched in 2021, the YouTube series is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin which is “invaded by shape-shifting, nearly immortal creatures called Alternates. The Alternates are led by a false depiction of the Archangel Gabriel and their aim is to wipe out the human race by psychologically torturing them to the point of suicide. The Alternates are known for manipulating AV media, TVs, computers and GPS systems.”
The movie will be directed by the series’ creator, Alex Kister, based on a screenplay he adapted with Tyler Clifton.
The Mandela Catalogue has racked up an impressive 100 million views across its official episodes alone, solidifying it as one of the largest original analog horror franchises on YouTube.
Spielberg and Holly Bario are producing for Amblin Entertainment alongside Aaron B. Koontz for Paper Street Pictures and Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for United Artists. Kister and Clifton are also producing. Annie McCreery will oversee the project for United Artists. Maria Fortese will oversee for Amblin.
Get acquainted with The Mangela Catalogue below while we wait to learn more.