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The Huluween Film Fest Winner: Justin Harding’s “Carved”!
All month long, Hulu celebrated our season with Huluween, a specially curated and packaged horror film extravaganza that includes a short film festival. Boasting eight impressive shorts, the filmmaker with the highest levels of viewer engagement and the highest scores from a panel of expert judges – including Friday the 13th’s “Jason Voorhees” actor Kane Hodder, season four winner of RuPaul’s “Drag Race” Sharon Needles and myself– will win $10,000 towards production of their feature length film.
We’ve been reviewing the shorts over the past few weeks and now, Hulu presents the winner:
CARVED
Directed & Written by: Justin Harding
Produced by: Kris Elsley, Dale Andrews, Rob Brunner & Jason Kennedy
“A boy’s choice of an ugly pumpkin results in an unusual Jack-O-Lantern.”
My thoughts: Probably the most crazed of the shorts, Carved goes full-on weird with an effects-fueled Halloween-themed story that unapologetically goes all the way to ten. This short was nuts.
Kane Hodder: Carved has interesting characters throughout a cleverly structured story. Acting was on point and I was particularly impressed with the special effects and the choices made by the DP and director of certain important shots in the film.
Sharon Needles: This is truly a slice of pumpkin pie. This beautifully shot gem has a gnarly twisted twist. It will have you blowing your top. Gutsy!
“We are shocked, thrilled and honoured to learn about winning the Huluween Film Fest!” said Harding.
He continues: “This amazing news has brought a fresh wave of creativity and inspiration to our team. We are beyond excited to invest the winnings into a terrifying new film project that will haunt audiences and quench their thirst for a fresh voice in the horror genre.”
As a multi-award winning Filmmaker and Television Showrunner, Justin Harding has worked as a director on a wide variety of television series and film projects in various genres. His passion for creating monsters earned his horror shorts over 40 awards in film festivals around the world. Justin writes, directs, edits and creates visual effects for his own films. In 2016, Justin co-founded the “Bokeh Collective”, a Toronto based production house with a focus on producing premium entertainment with clients interested in tell cutting edge stories with cinematic production value. Justin’s previous film credits include the TIFF selected “Latched”, the SXSW selected “Kookie”, and “Point of View” from the feature anthology “A Night of Horror”. Justin’s most recent projects include the short “Carved” produced by Fox Studios for Hulu’s 2018 “Huluween Film Festival” and his debut feature“Making Monsters” which Justin directed from his own script and is set to premiere in 2019.
The Huluween Film Fest resulted in over 2 million views between the 8 shorts, on Hulu and across Hulu’s social platforms.
To view all of the Huluween short films, visit www.youtube.com/hulu.
Podcasts
Stephen Graham Jones on Final Girls, Small Town Horror, and ‘The Angel of Indian Lake’ [Podcast Interview]
What does it mean to be a final girl? Can it really be as straightforward as staying alive until the sun rises? Picking up the knife, the machete, the abandoned gun and putting down the killer? Or is it something more? Could it mean stepping into a position of power and fighting for something larger than yourself? Or risking your life for the people you love? Could it be that anyone who bravely stands against an unstoppable force has final girl blood running through their veins?
Jennifer “Jade” Daniels has never seen herself as a final girl. When we first meet the teenage outcast in Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw, she’s lurking on the fringes of her her small town and educating her teachers about the slasher lore. She knows everything there is to know about this bloody subgenre, but it takes a deadly twist of fate to allow the hardened girl to see herself at the heart of the story. In Don’t Fear the Reaper, the weathered fighter returns to the small town of Proofrock, Idaho hoping to heal. But a stranger emerges from the surrounding woods to test her once again. The final chapter of this thrilling trilogy, The Angel of Indian Lake, reunites us with the beloved heroine as she wages war against the Lake Witch for the soul of the town. She’ll need all the strength her many scars can provide and the support of the loved ones she’s lost along the way.
Today, Shelby Novak of Scare You to Sleep and Jenn Adams of The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast sit down to chat with the award-winning author about the concluding chapter in his bestselling Indian Lake trilogy. Together they discuss the origins of Jade’s beloved nickname, life in a small town, complicated villains, and all those horror references that made the first two novels fan favorites. Jenn reveals how many times she cried while reading (spoiler: a lot), Shelby geeks out over the novel’s emotional structure, and all three weigh in on their favorite final girls and which entry is the best in the Final Destination franchise.
Stream the heartfelt conversation below pick up your copy of The Angel of Indian Lake, on bookshelves now. Bloody Disgusting‘s Meagan Navarro gives the novel four-and-a-half skulls and writes, “Proofrock has seen a copious amount of bloodshed over three novels, but thanks to Jade, an unprecedented number of final girls have risen to fight back in various ways. The way that The Angel of Indian Lake closes that loop is masterful, solidifying Jade Daniels’ poignant, profound legacy in the slasher realm.”
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