Exclusives
SCREAM ’09: Drac Studio Talks `Monster Mutt’, Zack Ward Reveals `Last Stop’
We’ve got a pretty massive news break as on the red carpet arrivals for the 2009 Spike TV Scream Awards (airing Tuesday, October 27 at 10:00PM ET/PT) we caught up with Drac Studios Creative Director Harvey Lowry and Creative Director Todd Tucker, who revealed to us that they’ve signed on to work on The Mortician, while also spilling the beans on Monster Mutt, a 3-D children’s horror film recently completed. In addition, Monster Mutt star/producer Zack Ward, breaks the news on his next project, Last Stop, which he calls “Blair Witch meets Hitchcock.” Read on for the skinny!
We caught up with Drac Studios Creative Director Harvey Lowry and Creative Director Todd Tucker who revealed to Bloody Disgusting that they’ve signed on to work on a new horror film entitled THE MORTICIAN.
“We signed on a movie today called THE MORTICIAN,” says Lowry, “it’s shooting in New Orleans in about five weeks. It’s a 3-D thriller-horror film and is pretty graphic, but I don’t want to get into it too much yet.”
Gareth Maxwell Roberts (Kill Kill Faster Faster) is directing the movie from his own screenplay. The redemption tale in which kindness triumphs over cruelty falls within the urban noir, contemporary fairy tale and psychological thriller genres.
Here’s the plot crunch: The Mortician processes corpses with a steely regard. He is alienated and cold. He feels threatened by his new employee, Noah, who brings the notorious gangster, Carver, to the mortuary door. The Mortician’s attention is pricked by the tattoo of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ on the body of a murdered young woman, Jenny. A fleeting recognition triggers a sequence of haunting dreams from his childhood. He discovers a scared child, Kane, fleeing the morgue. Carver interrogates him about the whereabouts of the boy. The Mortician witnesses Noah drag Kane into the shadows of a derelict tenement. Forcing him to act, Kane sparks the Mortician’s emotional awakening. Emerging from his icy state, the Mortician and Kane become reluctant allies united in their struggle to escape the physical and emotional chains that threaten to imprison them.
In addition to THE MORTICIAN, the duo recently completed MONSTER MUTT, a family horror film.
Pictured: Todd Tucker, left, and Harvey Lowry
“We also just finished out first in house production, which is MONSTER MUTT,” Tucker tells Bloody Disgusting. “Harvey produced and I directed. We’re about a week away from having it done and were gonna have it sold and out next year. It’s a family fantasy PG film about a family dog that gets turned into a monster. Zak Ward is in it.” He goes into a bit more depth about the actual plot, “[It’s about] a family dog that gets kidnapped by an evil corporation and they use it for testing and accidently turn it into a monster mutt,” he continues, “it finds its way home and the kids try and hide it from the rest of the neighborhood.”
Zack Ward, who stars in and produced MONSTER MUTT, was also on hand to reveal his own project that he’s currently producing called LAST STOP.
“ The movie is called LAST STOP. It’s BLAIR WITCH meets Hitchcock,” he reveals. “I wouldn’t say it’s bloody disgusting, but there’s dread and it’s terrifying; it’s not about gore. I’m producing it and Travis Oates is directing it. He’s a screenwriter; he wrote the sequel to the OMEN and TO OZ, the sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ. We’re shooting in Roswell, New Mexico.”
Everything else was tight lipped. Check out more Scream 2009 coverage on the front page as it’s posted.
Pictured: Zack Ward
Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. An exclusive new clip gives a discomfiting closer look at the spider terror, and it’ll make you intensely afraid of all bathroom drains and fixtures.
Infested will induce a new wave of arachnophobia this week; the spider horror film arrives on Shudder on April 26, 2024.
If you’re brave enough to face your fears, watch the new clip below to get a feel for the unrelenting wave of spiders that the characters (and the audience) will face in the film.
In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.
“The story revolves around Kaleb, who’s about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend.
“Passionate about exotic animals, he comes home one day with a venomous spider and accidentally lets it slip away.”
Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko star.
Florent Bernard co-wrote the script.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, Bloody Disgusting’s Trace Thurman raved that Infested (aka Vermines) is “one of the best spider attack movies in years,” noting in his 4-star review that the creature feature uses practical spiders – REAL SPIDERS – as much as possible. Thurman also wrote that the spider horror movie is “full of moments that will get under your skin (I kicked my legs up more than a few times in my screening).”
The spiders will be everywhere in Infested, are you ready?
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