Horror stars Bill Moseley and Lin Shaye get “Scared to Death!”
After getting under our skin in “The Devil’s Rejects” and “Insidious,” Bill Moseley and Lin Shaye are teaming up in the new horror comedy “Scared to Death!” From writer/director Paul Boyd, the film is about a horror film crew who wind up channeling the dead in a haunted house (which, of course, Shaye and Moseley are no strangers to).
From the synopsis:
Jasper, a young opportunistic filmmaker/intern in Hollywood, seizes his chance to be a “real” director when he presents to his indie-maverick director boss the free use of an old haunted house and a professional medium to run a séance. The crew and actors descend upon the old mansion, an abandoned childrenʼs shelter that has been closed for 70 years, since the mysterious murder of five children in 1942 who were found scared to death. Once the séance begins, the crew find themselves trapped inside the house and scared to death one by one. Jasper must solve the puzzle of the murdered children, free their souls, and find a way out of the house before the night ends, with his footage intact.
Here’s what Boyd had to say about the making of the film: Years ago, I purchased an old house in Hollywood, somewhere with lots of space to raise my kids. After the sale, the former owner informed me that the house was in fact haunted. Being a non-believer, I never experienced anything supernatural in the house. I would walk around at night, in the dark, looking over my shoulder and into mirrors, waiting to be caught off guard. To see a ghost. It never happened. But … my wife and kids, on the other hand, that’s a different story. They had multiple terrifying experiences which to them felt absolutely real. This paradigm inspired me to make a film about “believing is seeing” and that’s where the story started.
My producer, Eric Barrett, helped me focus the creative, and we decided to put a group of non-believers, filmmakers like us, in a haunted house where they get forced to confront their fears and beliefs. I made the story a genre parody to feel the humor and the ridiculousness of the situation, to be silly. Where adults act like children, which is what we do when scared. The production kicked into gear when I met actor/musician Kurt Deimer, who I cast as The Grog, a brand-new horror character we created to add to the genre’s rich pantheon. Kurt had a strong vision for the role and believed in the film enough to finance production. It was a win-win when his music and naturalistic performance delivered the laughs and added to the story. Kurt and I knew when casting the great Lin Shaye that she would translate the energy required to play the worst boss in history, someone who has all the characters “Scared to Death.”
Production Assistants have done a LOT worse to try to move up the on-set hierarchy, but never with creature effects from Legacy FX. Legacy is known for “Godzilla X Kong,” “Avatar: The Shape of Water” and the upcoming “Alien: Romulus!” Check out the trailer for the film, which also stars Rae Dawn Chong and rising heavy metal performer Kurt Deimer.
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