Exclusives
Katee Sackhoff from Space to Terror in ‘Growl’
The first rule of new werewolf screamer Growl, is you do not talk about Growl. Unless, that is, you’re the film’s star and you’re talking exclusively to us.
“Battlestar Galactica” alumni Katee Sackhoff gave Bloody Disgusting the first details on the gory horror flick and said “it’s like ‘An American Werewolf In Paris’ meets ‘Fight Club.’ ” You had us at werewolf.
Sackhoff, speaking from the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Australia, said she plays Camden, the fight promoter for a traveling fight club who arrive in a ghost town tucked away in the Colorado Rockies. The only residents in town are the Maxilla family, who buy their way on to the fight card and soon reveal they’re packing more than a mean right hook. They’re werewolves and the fate of the fight club members varies between being eaten, killed or recruited to the family. Hell yes.
Sackhoff’s co-writer on her Versus comic, Sxy’leithan Essex, is the writer, director and production designer behind Growl and she said he was one of the main reasons she was attracted to the project.
“He’s a friend of mine, my writing partner and as soon as he told me about it I thought it sounded fantastic,” she said.
“I’m so grateful that I get to work with him.”
So far the only peek we’ve had at Growl is a teaser poster and a few official stills from pre-production, which look about as stylish and gory as Essex’s previous efforts Bled and A Darker Reality. Although the shoot isn’t set to start in Canada until July, Sackhoff said already she expects the film to be “amazing.”
“It’s very stylized, that’s the way it’s going to be shot and Scully (Sxy’leithan Essex) has an amazing eye for detail and a brilliant way of creating worlds, it’s so exciting.
“It’s also, like, the opposite of my last film, Haunting In Georgia; it’s massively, massively gory.
“I mean, violently gory.
“It’s like what horror films used to be in the 80s with the slasher films, very similar.
“(Hardcore) horror fans are going to love it.”
Fans of Sackhoff’s tough-girl characters like Starbuck from “Battlestar” will be disappointed to hear she won’t be getting down and dirty in any fight scenes in Growl.
“I’m like the only one who doesn’t have a fight in the whole thing,” she said.
Exclusives
‘The Haunting of Pennhurst’ Exclusive Clip Trains Scare Actors For Historic Haunt in Tribeca Doc
The past and present collide in haunting, poignant ways in the genre documentary The Haunting of Pennhurst, which sees a Halloween haunt serve as a reclamation of true historic horrors.
Ahead of its world premiere at the 25th Tribeca Film Festival, we have an exclusive clip that sees scare actors in training for the Halloween season. The catch? This haunt is opening at the historic Pennhurst State School & Hospital site, a facility that caused immense harm to its disabled patients over decades of its operation.
In the documentary, “For over seventy years, Pennhurst State School & Hospital was called a place of care. What happened inside killed over half its population. It closed in 1987, leaving behind unmarked graves and an unresolved history. Today, on those same grounds, disabled performers – many living with the same conditions that once sent people to Pennhurst – put on their makeup, pull on their costumes, and prepare to scare people for a living.
“Through grit, compassion, and buckets of blood, the eclectic performers of the Pennhurst Asylum haunted attraction are wrestling with a space that is at once a lucrative business and a gravesite.”
The upcoming documentary hails from directing trio Nathan Stenberg, Mike Attie, and Katarina Poljak, who explore their socially-relevant subject through archival footage, first-hand accounts, and an immersive verité.
“Pennhurst has haunted us since we first passed through its dragon-tooth gates; the horrors of the institution echo through the site today. We are so grateful to bring this film to the Tribeca Festival, particularly the Escape from Tribeca section, which feels right for a story where past and present bleed together. We hope audiences leave unnerved and asking the same uncomfortable questions we did,” Attie, Stenberg, and Poljak said in a statement.
Watch the clip below that sees disabled and neurodivergent scare actors learning the ropes of a Halloween haunt, reclaiming the site’s grim history in the process.
Tribeca Screenings:
- Public 1 (Premiere) Screening – Friday, June 5 at 9:15PM at Village East by Angelika
- Public 2 Screening – Sunday, June 7 at 3:15PM at Village East by Angelika
- Public 3 Screening – Tuesday, June 9 at 6:15PM at Village East by Angelika