Exclusives
Genre Screenwriter Brings Monsters to ‘Dark Island’
Fans of Broken, The Devil’s Chair and Blood River get ready for more from screenwriter Simon Boyes as Bloody-Disgusting has learned that he’ll be taking a small break from working with Adam Mason to bring us Dak Island, a new horror film that continues shooting in Los Angeles next week. Beyond the break you can get the inside scoop on the movie, watch this spot for more as it comes in.
In Dark Island five members of a pseudo-militaristic scientific expedition were sent to a remote island for weapons testing, until the weapon got out of hand.
We got in touch with Simon who gives us some more depth into the project.
“The movie’s directed by Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski,” he tells us. “They’ve actually shot the bulk of the movie already up in Canada but they’re casting for a couple of new scenes that they’re shooting around LA.”
He continues, “I got involved because I saw a couple of movies these guys did while they were still at college and they were super ambitious ideas (one was an anime inspired movie about a giant monster attacking a city) and the movies were loads of fun and well put together. The effects work they did on those for the money was insane and really impressive. I think all they needed was someone to give them a shot with a bigger budget, and when Patrick Ewald at Epic Pictures decided to put up the money I was keen to get involved and work with them on a fun script, and really see what they could do with it.”
While Dark Island is a monster movie, it’s also very sci-fi.
“It’s a sci-fi infused, effects driven monster movie, the kind of genre people usually steer clear of when they make super low budget movies, but that’s what was so cool about the concept, the ambition to make a movie like this on a limited budget.” He continues talking about taking chances in the indie world of filmmaking, “I’ve been moaning for ages that in the low budget world no-one takes a chance on a different genre, and although this could definitely fall into the wider realms of horror, it’s really quite different from your usual low budget fare.”
Watch the trailer over at BDTV
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
You must be logged in to post a comment.