Images
Australian Haunter ‘The School’ Begins Filming
Australia-based Bronte Pictures has started principal photography this week on supernatural horror thriller The School, directed by award-winning Australian writer/director Storm Ashwood, Bloody Disgusting learned.
The School follows Amy, an attractive, successful surgeon, who struggles to cope with her emergency room duties and those of a young mother looking after her hospitalized son who has fallen into a coma. After being reprimanded by her boss, Dr. Wang, for obsessively believing her son will wake up, she becomes trapped in a coma/purgatory of her own – The School – where children from her past emerge to taunt and test her to her core, putting in doubt whether Amy will be able to save her son and leave The School.
The School is being filmed at the Gladesville Mental Asylum, which was founded in the late 1830’s, making it the oldest asylum in Australia. Unfortunately, cruel and unusual punishment of its patients was a normality there, including the use of electric shock therapy and both patient and employee deaths were common. There are 1,228 unmarked patient graves on-site providing an unsettling location to capture the supernatural horror elements in the film.
Megan Drury, Nicholas Hope, and Jack Ruwald star.
Blake Northfield and Jim Robison are producers on The School, and Phil Hunt and Compton Ross at Headgear Films (Black Mass) are executive producers. Earlier this year, international sales company Cinema Management Group (CMG) acquired worldwide sales rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand.
We have an exclusive first look at A Man in the Woods With an Axe, a blood-soaked, genre-twisting homage to 1980s slasher films.
Spanning four decades, A Man in the Woods With an Axe begins in the summer of 1987 before pushing into the modern era, weaving together timelines and perspectives in a way that builds both dread and intrigue.
Drawing inspiration from genre standouts like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Hatchet, and The Cabin in the Woods, the film blends visceral horror with moments of dark humor, creating a uniquely balanced experience that honors tradition while carving its own identity.
Writer-director Dillon Brown (Primal Darkness) aims to deliver everything fans crave from a slasher while boldly subverting expectations with a mid-film twist that redefines the story.
“This is an unapologetic love letter to the films that made me fall in love with horror,” Brown tells Bloody Disgusting. “But I didn’t just want to recreate that feeling; I wanted to challenge it. About halfway through, the film takes a turn that completely changes how you view not only this story, but the genre itself.”
Brown describes the vintage-inspired production as “far and away the bloodiest film I’ve ever made,” with practical effects helmed by Cody Ruch (The Mill, Pig Hill), an instructor at Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program.
From Horror Dadz Productions, A Man in the Woods With an Axe is currently in production and targeting an early 2027 release.
You must be logged in to post a comment.