Indie
‘The Plague’: Johannes Roberts Shares Horrifying Concept Short in Which Spiders Breed Inside of Humans [Exclusive]
Johannes Roberts has become one of my favorite up-and-coming filmmakers. After directing Storage 24, he’s gone on to helm The Other Side of the Door, 47 Meters Down, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and The Strangers: Prey at Night, not to mention he’s currently developing the forthcoming Resident Evil reboot.
Before Roberts dove deep into 47 Meters Down, he had planned to get behind the camera for an infection-themed horror film that would have made your skin crawl.
Bloody Disgusting is excited to exclusively share a short teaser for The Plague that was filmed as a proof-of-concept for a feature film.
The Plague is quite simply about spiders that breed inside of human beings. The short is shockingly relevant, showing a man grotesquely invading a woman’s space on a public train. The woman, played by Natalie Cox, is scrolling through photos on her phone as the man makes note of a nasty looking spider nest in the background of one. She coughs furiously, with each surely to cause your heart to skip a beat. But that’s all just tension building for what comes next… Cox coughs up an enormous spider. The man quickly squashes it on the bottom of his shoe, only to see thousands of baby spiders come spilling out. As someone who is arachnophobic, I found this short teaser to be absolutely horrifying.
“I had just come back from India after shooting The Other Side of the Door and I had this idea about spiders that breed inside the human body,” Roberts tells Bloody Disgusting. “I pitched it to James Harris (producer) and we decided to shoot a proof-of-concept piece to raise money for a feature.”
“It was shot on two freezing cold days about five years ago,” he continues. “The underground stuff was shot at the transport museum in East London and the hospital sequence in a Quaker Church in Croydon. Polly Morgan shot it and Outpost did the VFX. In the end, we never made the movie as James and I went off to do 47 Meters Down instead. I just came across the teaser again and thought it was great fun in a horrible icky kind of way and also just seemed ridiculously current – so I thought your readers might get a kick out of watching it.”
“Maybe one day we’ll go back to it,” Roberts adds. “I think we are long overdue a great spider movie!”
No shelter in place will stop these spiders from crawling under your door and into your house…
Her House of Horrors, the horror division of Independent Production House WOMXNOGRAPHY, has launched its Bite Size Short Grant Program, ahead of its film festival Dollhouse of Horror, which will take place in March 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.
The Bite Size Short Grant Program awards $2,000 film grants to female-identifying and queer horror filmmakers. Shorts must be able to be made for $2,000, with a minimum runtime of 8 minutes. Submissions are now open on Filmfreeway, and are being judged by a panel of horror lovers and content creators.
The 2024 Bite Size Short Grant Program judge lineup is as follows:
“James H. Carter II- A documentary director, film producer, podcaster, marketing specialist, and writer. James is the founder and co-owner of Creepy Kingdom. Creepy Kingdom was founded in 2011 and is a multimedia website, and production studio specializing in creepy content. Their primary focus lies at the intersection of childlike fantasy and the macabre, covering horror films, theme parks, haunts, and much more. Beyond their extensive media coverage, Creepy Kingdom hosts events, offers original merchandise, and engages in film production under the Creepy Kingdom Studios brand producing original films like “Foolish Mortals”, exploring Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” fan culture, and “Georgie”, featuring Tony Dakota from the original “It” miniseries.
“In addition to founding Creepy Kingdom, James has won awards for his documentary work, including the award-winning “Foolish Mortals,” which has earned him recognition. He has been featured on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween special.
“Ashleeta Beauchamp is the editor-in-chief of Peek-A-Boo! Magazine, a cheeky horror magazine created to uplift marginalized writers, artists, models and other creators within the horror community. She also runs The Halloween Coalition, a community group to provide support and marketing for horror and Halloween events around the Southern California area.
“Titeanya Rodríguez is a multi-hyphenate creative, and the founder and owner of HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, home of DOLLHOUSE OF HORROR and the horror division of WOMXNOGRAPHY. As a fellow storyteller and a self-proclaimed artivist, Titeanya’s mission is to create opportunities for women of color and queer women, across film, tv, sports, music, and beyond. She is also the creator of the BITE SIZE SHORT grant program.”
Winners will have a one-night theatrical screening at Regal Cinemas. Submissions Close April 8 at Midnight. Winners will be announced on May 27, 2024. Shorts must be shot and through post-production by June 30, 2024. The screening will take place on July 8, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.
WOMXNOGRAPHY, HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, and Rodriguez are represented by Azhar PR, Granderson Des Rochers, and Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir.
To submit your short to the Bite Size Short Grant Program, go to the FilmFreeway link here.
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