In today's Horror Highlights, we have the Zoom Cloud Hack short film for you to watch, along with first details on Do Not Disturb, a Q&A with the composer of Followed, and updates from the Cannibal Comedian team:
Watch Zoom Cloud Hack - #91784 - The Tribe Murders: "In these trying times of Coronavirus, we wanted to stay creative and get weird. But not weird just for weird’s sake — weird as in The X-Files, The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. The good kinda weird. And right now, there’s a platform that we believe to be rich in these stories: Zoom.
Matt and I were social distance talking at the beginning of the pandemic and realized that human beings are completely dependent upon technology as a means of communicating. More now than ever. And logically, we realized that even more crime would be moving over to... Zoom. In fact, we think it’s safe to say that Zoom is the place to be for all the dregs of society — it’s where they transact drug deals, carry out espionage plots, execute blackmail and murder-for-hire schemes, solicit exotic encounters and produce snuff films.
But surely it would become more sinister... Zoom is also where people are dabbling in occult practices like manifesting paranormal activity, performing seances, and summoning evil entities from beyond. Zoom’s where all the good stuff happens these days.
Which is why it’s crazy to think that all Zoom meetings are recorded and stored in their “secure” cloud storage... Considering the explosively popular video conferencing app has become our current global collective unconscious, that seems awfully risky, doesn’t it?
Well what if we told you Zoom’s “secure” cloud storage was quietly hacked just last week? And what if we also told you we have access to that data — to all of the videos recorded from across the globe since Coronavirus halted the global economy and sent our flourishing occult community into the realm of video conferencing? Videos that prove once and for all that the supernatural exists, and that the sins of man may be the scariest thing of all.
Because we do. We have them. Each and every one.
Zoom Cloud Hack - #91784 - The Tribe Murders is only the beginning.
Matt and I thought who better to inadvertently invoke a demon on a work catch up call and die violently than a group of advertising executives? No one. Hence was born The Tribe Murders.
This was one of those projects where everything went right. The cast was AMAZING and collaborative. Rehearsals and shooting (from LA to Florida) was a dream. This was helped when editorial and post-production genius, Chris ‘Bingo’ Meagher, came on board and over delivered in typical fashion. Last but in no way least was producer Sean Deveraux. His script insights were invaluable, as were his extensive talents as a VFX Supervisor and his key relationship with Brian Drewes, owner of Zero VFX. Those elements and the talented team at ZERO allowed us to dream up shots that would otherwise be impossible. The true bonus came in the demon design, when legendary special FX artist, Gabe Bartalos of Atlantic West Effects, came on to design and build our demon. Dream come true!
With this cast and crew, Matt and I literally could not ask for more - in a pandemic no less! Sometimes everything goes right with a project. This was that time. Knock on wood."
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First Look at DO NOT DISTURB: "The Komack Company announced today that Brendan Hines, Kevin Daniels and Tatjana Marjanovic have joined the cast of the upcoming thriller DO NOT DISTURB, written & directed by Christopher Beyrooty and Connor Martin. Rounding out the cast are Jey Reynolds & Ola Kaminska. The film will be produced by The Komack Company’s Jonathon Komack Martin and executive produced by Jason Chang, Brendan Hines, Blake Goza, and Hana Dahl. Shooting is underway in Hollywood, CA.
"Because we had to take a germ of an idea from conception through production at the speed of light, we embraced a fully collaborative effort and leaned on each other as artists to accomplish the seemingly impossible,” mentioned Beyrooty and Martin, "while our small, technical, and highly resourceful team gave us the flexibility to craft memorable and intimate moments with the talent on set, the real hero of our film so far has been late-night food truck Chorizo that is fueling most of our creative decisions. I’m sure down the road the making of this film will be one of our fondest memories and we are truly grateful to contribute our story during an unimaginable historical moment."
In DO NOT DISTURB, a global pandemic limits the possibility of travel causing a honeymooning couple to get stranded at an historic Hollywood Hotel where a skeleton staff of two employees tend to them. When tensions escalate amidst a forced lockdown, it becomes apparent there is more to fear at the storied hotel than just cabin fever.
"Shooting at this iconic location, amidst a global pandemic, certainly feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity. There continues to be unparalleled scrap and fearlessness demonstrated by our amazing cast & crew, the likes of which I’ve never before witnessed — what an odyssey!” said Jonathon Komack Martin.
Daniels just completed a seasons long arc on NBC’s family drama "Council of Dads." Indie film lovers can catch Kevin in the two newly iTunes streaming films "A Typical Wednesday," and "Poor Greg Drowning." Other notable Film and Television credits include: Sirens, Modern Family, Atypical, Why Women Kill, Coop and Cami Ask The World, The Orville, Law and Order, Ladder 49, AJ And The Queen, One Christmas Eve, The Island, Hollywood Homicide and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Kevin got his start in the Lincoln Center production of Twelfth Night, starring Helen Hunt, Kyra Sedgwick and Paul Rudd. Kevin later returned to broadway to play the title role of Magic Johnson in Magic/Bird directed by Tommy Kail. Kevin is a graduate of The Juilliard Drama Division and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Hines is an American actor and singer-songwriter. He has had a number of television roles, including as part of the main cast of Lie to Me as well as recurring roles in Scandal, Betrayal, Suits, Scorpion, Sec
Marjanovic is an Australian actress of Serbian descent. Growing up in Singapore, Tatjana started her television career on the popular children’s show 'I Not Stupid.' Her success continued after moving back to Australia with a lead role in two seasons of the ABC drama series, ‘SYD2030’, for which she was nominated for a Webby Award and won a Telly Award. Since moving to LA, Tatjana made her feature film debut in the psychological thriller ‘Monsters of Man’. This was followed by roles in Universal’s upcoming
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Composer Jason Soudah Discusses His High Intensity FOLLOWED Score: "A social media influencer and his video crew encounter visit one of the most haunted hotels in America, what could possibly go wrong? Antoine Le’s found footage horror feature, Followed can currently be seen at drive-in theaters across the U.S. To learn more about the making of Followed, we spoke with film’s composer Jason Soudah about his process for creating the “glitchy” score, as he describes it.
-In a previous interview you have described your score for Followed as “glitchy”. Can you elaborate on that?
Sure! What I mean is that some of the sounds are a bit crackly (as if you were listening on vinyl and there was dust on the surface…) and imperfect – I really like such texture that you can feel on the front of your ear, giving even the plainest sounds a bit more dimension.
-How into horror are you? Do you enjoy watching horror films or do they scare the crap out of you?
I would say I am more into psychological thrillers than all-out gore/blood-bath murder-fests. I am into horror films that get into your head and are disturbing, especially when they feel like they could be real! That’s one of the things that shocked me about Followed, that a lot of it is based on true events! I am drawn to and avoid scary movies at the same time - I am so easily freaked out!!
-We read that Nightmare on Elm Street really impacted you when you were growing up. Why was that?
I think because I was only 7 or 8 years old – I am not sure how old the target audience of that movie was supposed to be, but I imagine it was not aimed a kid THAT young!!
-You gave the hotel basement a feeling of uneasiness, what instruments or techniques did you use to accomplish this?
A lot of this was done with super low bass sounds with close harmonies, as in, notes right next to each other, which creates a rumbling and shaking! A lot of what made the hotel basement super creepy was the sound design by the sound design team from figure8sound – Pyata Penedo and Christopher Thomas – I believe our Producer and Picture Editor Matthew Ryan Brewbaker was also responsible for a lot of that sound design, as he was the first one to get sounds in there, a lot of which I believe stayed through to the final version of the film.
-You are friends with the writer of Followed, Todd Klick. Do you know how long it took him to write the script?
Todd tells me that it took about two months to complete the first draft of the script.
-At what point did you step in with Todd and the director, Antoine Le and start talking about the score? After the film was already shot?
Yes, it was after the film was already shot, and they had a rough cut they were working on. Once I had seen the rough cut, I wrote a “suite” which included my main theme idea for the movie, and presented it to Todd, Antoine and also Producer/Editor Matt (Matthew Ryan Brewbaker), and they were really into the vibe of what I was creating musically from the very beginning. We talked at length about how we wanted to use music to make Followed feel more cinematic than your typical found-footage movie.
-There is a big chase sequence in the film. What was the most challenging thing about creating music for that scene?
The most challenging thing was for the music to make you feel out of breath along with the characters, to feel the relentlessness of the chase, and the building panic. I wanted the scene to feel unbearably intense by the end! It was also a challenge to make the music work with the sound effects, and so it was great to have such ongoing and open communication with the sound designers and re-recording mixers Pyata and Chris from figure8sound, especially on this scene.
-How is scoring a documentary, such as Paradise Reef, different from scoring a film in the horror genre?
I would say, for a documentary, the music is definitely more background. There are scenes without dialogue where the music can be more flourishing, but for the most part, the music’s purpose is to keep pace under the dialogue without distracting from it, and to help the film evolve, to chapter it. In the horror genre, sure there are scenes where the music is supporting dialogue but, at least in Followed, the music is also creating and enhancing the general atmosphere of the scenes, and sometimes pre-empting scares, misdirecting, or sometimes it is extremely full-on! The role of actually writing the music feels different as well. I can’t help but absorb the emotions of whatever I am working on, in order to connect the music to the story, and this can be overwhelming on a more intense scene. I am very lucky that when that happens, my brilliant studio dogs usually come over and usher me to take them out for a walk to regroup!
-Have you seen any horror films recently that you really enjoyed?
It’s going back a while now, but “GET OUT” was groundbreaking and terrifying!!"
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New CANNIBAL COMEDIAN Website and Images:
Synopsis: A psychopathic cannibal, fed up with his lack of ambition, tries his hand at stand-up comedy in an attempt to satisfy his appetite for normalcy. Cannibal Comedian is a horror epic with an undertone of dark comedy. Set in modern day Western USA, the film will allow us to explore the intertwining of over- the-top humor and rampaging horror at full throttle. It will combine the pure terror of hearing Leatherface’s chainsaw with the gut-busting laughs of a classic Jim Carrey film. Littered with scary, grotesque and wildly energetic characters, Cannibal Comedian is a love letter to horror and “stand-up” comedy.
"We are currently finishing up in post-production, we will have a premiere this year and already have some distribution companies chomping at the bit to see this film!
We are excited to have the website for the film, CANNIBALCOMEDIAN.COM which has BTS with Cast, mailing list, trailers & really cool first printed MERCH, (t- shirts,Masks,promo poster) also website includes links to our FB,IMDB,TWITTER,IG (follow us) We will be doing live feeds through social media soon.
I wanted the shirt to look cool for horror people and stand up comics! You don’t even need to know the film yet to get the shirt, you can just be a fan of stand up & horror!"
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