Movies
‘Perkins’ 14′ Hits Theaters in January With Horrorfest
We learned this morning that After Dark Films’ Perkins’ 14 is currently in post productionin NYC. The film is the first feature film to be developed entirely over the Internet. Produced by After Dark Films, and Massify in association with FanLib, PERKINS’ 14 will be distributed in theatres nationwide (January 2009) as part of the third After Dark Horrorfest. Singer’s film “Dark Ride” was one of the more successful features released theatrically during year one of Horrorfest. Read on for more details.
Directed by award winning filmmaker Craig Singer (Dark Ride, Dead Dogs Lie, A Good Night to Die), with a screenplay by Lane Shadgett (Luna Park, All Lost Souls), PERKINS’ 14 was developed online at Ma ssify.com. Writers were invited to upload story pitches, and actors submitted audition videos. The site’s community members then voted on their favorite story and on which actors they thought deserved to be cast in the four main roles.
The winning idea, submitted by Jeremy Donaldson, follows Robert Perkins, who at age six, becomes mentally unstable when his parents are brutally murdered inside their home. His psychosis has him living the rest of his life convinced that the killers will return in the future to kill him as well. At age 34, Perkins kidnaps 14 people from his hometown of Stone Cove and brainwashes them, creating a unified team of psycho killers.
Shot on location in Romania, PERKINS’ 14 features Shayla Beesley, Katherine Pawlak (“Lonelygirl15”), Josh Davidson, and Trey Farley (Bend It Like Beckham). Former Misfits frontman Michale Graves’ song “Blackbird,” is featured in the film. Graves also acts in it, playing the love interest of lead actress Shayla Beesley’s character.
The film joins BUTTERFLY: REVELATION, FAITHLESS and THE BROKEN
In a recent interview, filmmaker Christopher Nolan explained that he’s always been interested in directing a bona fide horror movie, with the award-winning director going so far as to praise genre creators for their continued risk-taking on the big screen.
If you’ve seen Nolan’s recently released The Odyssey, you’re likely aware that a scary movie helmed by the legendary director could be a very good idea.
After all, Nolan insisted on making use of old-fashioned movie magic and in-camera practical effects when shooting his adaptation of Homer’s epic. This retro approach made Odysseus’ encounters with mythological beings such as the giant cyclops that much more terrifying. By now, fans are undoubtedly aware that the massive creature was partially brought to life by an enormous puppet enhanced with near-invisible CGI, but there were also plenty of forced perspective shots where actor Bill Irwin actually chomped on disturbingly realistic replicas of Ithican soldiers.
As you can see in the below behind-the-scenes test footage shared by the Los Angeles-based Hamer FX, Irwin was given an assortment of latex dolls filled with fake blood and breakable skeletons that he could tear apart on camera. The darkness of Polyphemus’ cave covers up most of the gore in the finished film, but the moment remains a terrifying highlight in a movie that has a lot to say about the horrors of war.
Nolan actually requested these tiny edible soldiers for the flick because his vision for the iconic cyclops encounter was partially inspired by Francisco Goya’s disturbing mural of Saturn Devouring His Son. This mysterious piece is actually one of the artist’s infamous “Black Paintings,” which were found painted directly onto the walls of his old house near Madrid before a French baron ordered that the collection be transferred to canvas and assigned names for public viewing.
Details like these are what make me think that Nolan could pull off a genuinely scary horror picture if he came across the right idea. That being said, between the Fear Gas sequences in Batman Begins and Circe using body horror magic to transform men into pigs in The Odyssey, one might argue that he’s been preparing for such a task throughout his entire career.
The Odyssey is currently playing in theaters everywhere, though it’s definitely worth seeking out an IMAX screening if you can find one near you.
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