Production has begun in New Zealand on the new horror feature GRAFTED, the first project for the freshly formed horror and genre label (Yet) Another Monster Company. The production represents the directorial feature debut for Sasha Rainbow (pictured, below) and stars Joyena Sun, Jared Turner, Jess Hong, Eden Hart and Sepiutaruth To’a.
Shot across Tāmaki Makaurau – Auckland, the film tells the story of a Chinese student who travels to New Zealand to complete the scientific work of her deceased father, only to find a new way of achieving popularity, one bloody body at a time.
A partnership between Grant Hardie’s ANZ horror distribution specialists Monster Pictures and Phil Hunt's (Yet) Another Distribution Company, (Yet) Another Monster Company incorporates an investment partnership with Head Gear Films with further support from Ginette McDonald and Mark Mitchinson. (Pictured, right; lead actress Joyena Sun)
Sasha Rainbow put the industry on notice as director of the short film KAMALI, which was nominated for a BAFTA and long-listed for an Oscar. “When I first read the script, I knew I had to be involved,” said Rainbow. “I am incredibly excited about playing in the body-horror space for such an incredible, surprising, female-lead-project like GRAFTED. I can't wait to unleash it to audiences around the world.”
GRAFTED is produced by Murray Francis of Propaganda, and Leela Menon and Fraser Brown of FluroBlack and is written by Mia Maramara & Hweiling Ow, and Lee Murray. Monster Pictures previously handled the Australia-New Zealand release for James Ashcroft’s COMING HOME IN THE DARK. (Pictured, left; co-star Jared Turner)
"We are genuinely thrilled to launch in New Zealand with the announcement of GRAFTED. It is the perfect film for us to be attached to, a completely over-the-top body horror,” says Co-Head of Acquisitions and Development Grant Hardie. “We fully expect that GRAFTED will join an impressive list of world-class modern horror films from New Zealand and make a huge splash on release".
The film is made with investment from The New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Grant, Traus Holdings, Department of Post and with GAP financing from Head Gear Films. The film will be distributed in New Zealand and Australia by (Yet) Another Monster Company.
The premier German showcase for horror films directed and produced by women and non-binary filmmakers will return for its 6th edition in 2021, marking its first iteration as an online event. The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival will run from February 4-7 and present a digital line-up consisting of five features, five short blocks, and sidebar events that include panel talks, a screenwriting workshop and special podcast episodes.
Listed as one of MovieMaker Magazine’s Top 50 Genre Festivals in the World and named among Dread Central's Best Horror Festivals, Final Girls Berlin has firmly established itself as a leading international destination for genre fans and filmmakers alike. In 2021, festival co-directors Eli Lewy and Sara Neidorf have curated works that reflect the new world in which we find ourselves.
“[The] program includes a number of films about loneliness, technological reliance, and confinement that reflect our present-day reality in chilling ways,” says Lewy. For Neidorf, staging a festival in a global pandemic simply presented fresh challenges. “These times are grim, but they bring an opportunity to virtually connect with an international feminist horror community that otherwise couldn’t normally make it to Berlin,” she says, “so we hope more folks will come join us!“
Three features will have their German premieres at Final Girls Berlin. Italian filmmaker Emanuela Rosi’s Buio (Darkness), featuring Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival Best Actress winner Denise Tantucci (pictured, right), presents a chilling spin on patriarchy and female empowerment set against a dystopic future world; US indie The Stylist expands upon the psychotic mindset of hairdresser Claire (a terrific Najarra Townsend; pictured, top) that director Jill Gevargizian initially explored in her acclaimed 2016 short film; and, Brea Grant’s bloody, blackly hilarious 12 Hour Shift, in which a strung-out nurse (genre favourite Angela Bettis) trading in black-market organs struggles for balance as her life spins out of control.
Screening in the German capital for the first time will be local filmmaker Sandra Mertens’ ‘70s-set dramatic thriller Fellwechselzeit (Time of Moulting), an atmospheric study in oppressive and repressed family dynamics, and Laura Casabé’s Los Que Vuelven (The Returned), an Argentinian creature feature steeped in the horrors of still birth and resurrection.
Australia’s single representative at Final Girls Berlin will be Kodie Bedford, whose short film Scout will screen in the strand ‘An Eye for An Eye’ alongside works from Spain (Carlotta Pereda’s There Will be Monsters; Amy Farjado’s The Hunt); Norway (Marja Bål Nango & Ingir Bål’s The Tongues); Indonesia (Indira Iman’s Rong); and, France (Kelsey Bollig’s The Fourth Wall). They are just a few of the huge selection of global short films on offer, with a whopping 36 works available to the global online audience (features are to be geo-blocked to German territories).
Also streaming to international audiences will be the 2021 panel strands. These include:
WRITING YOUR FIRST HORROR SCREENPLAY: Hosted by Alison Peirse, Author and Film Academic, Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre. An interactive and supportive workshop focussing on creating horror films led by women and nonbinary characters.
IF ROSEMARY COULD RUN: WOULD YOU KNOW IF YOU WERE IN A CULT?: Hosted by Seriina Covarrubias (pictured, right) & Susie Kahlich. An exploration of cults in horror narratives and in real life, how they actually work, and how to know if you're in one (and what to do about it).
GHOULS TO THE FRONT: RETHINKING WOMEN’S HORROR FILMMAKING: Hosted by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author and Film Critic, 1000 Women in Horror. Rather than presenting a singular alternate history of women’s horror filmmaking, Heller-Nicholas seeks to deconstruct the way we think about this subject, reassessing the history of horror to be more inclusive, more representative, and more fun.
GIRLS GONE WILD: AUTONOMY, SEXUALITY, AND RESISTANCE IN REPRESENTATIONS OF YOUNG WOMEN IN HORROR FILMS: Hosted by Dr. Kate Robertson, Author and Academic, Devil’s Advocates: Trouble Every Day. An exploration of women-led horror films featuring young women who take active roles in their stories, maintaining control of their bodies, choices, and lives.
HER HUNGER: THE LESBIAN VAMPIRE AND QUEER IMMORTALITY, SUICIDALITY, AND CODEPENDENCY: Hosted by Annie Rose Malamet. The voice of the popular podcast Girls, Guts & Giallo traces the history of the lesbian vampire in film.
In online audio content, The Gaylords of Darkness podcast will present THE NECRONOMOLOGUE, with hosts Stacie Ponder and Anthony Hudson naming their top ten Final Girls in this first-ever animated countdown video from your favorite queer feminist horror podcast. And 'the Spinsters of Horror' from the popular I Spit on Your Podcast presents SATANIC FEMINISM: EMBRACING THE DARKNESS, an exploration of the representation and importance of Satan as the image of an anti-patriarchal idol and source of empowerment for women with specific reference to the films Don't Deliver Us From Evil (1971), Alucarda (1977), Jennifer’s Body (2009), and The Witch (2016).
For full program and streaming details visit the event’s official website.
A fresh-faced environmentalist new to the frontline crusade against Tasmania’s ruthless logging practices has her inner beast unleashed in Devil Woman, an Aussie short-film riff on the werewolf legend that has had global festival crowds screaming in terrified delight. It is the brainchild of writer/director Heidi Lee Douglas, founder of Dark Lake Productions and one of Australia’s most socially aware filmmakers. Her work to date – the thriller Little Lamb (2014), documentary project Defendant 5 (2015) and striking music video Wish (2018) – offers rich insight and artistry in their exploration of gender identity, violence and environmental concerns. One of the sector's most pro-active advocates for diversity and equality, Douglas also presides as Co-Chair of the Australian chapter of Film Fatales, a global community of women feature film and television directors.
Ahead of the Australian Premiere of Devil Woman at Monster Fest VII, Douglas (pictured, above; with actor Peter Healy) spoke with SCREEN-SPACE about her film's origins, aims and place amongst the all-too-rarely explored genre of female-focussed transformative eco-horror…
SCREEN-SPACE: Devil Woman is a modern spin on classic werewolf mythology. What other influences and inspirations helped gel the concept in your mind?
DOUGLAS: I got the original idea back in 2007, when I was involved with the Tasmanian forest campaigns as a documentary filmmaker [at the time] the Tasmanian Devil facial tumour outbreak was discovered. It’s a horrifying, fatal disease; brutal in the way its cancerous ulcerations are transmitted via biting. I was travelling regularly through backwater logging towns that had a very ‘gothic frontier’ nature and almost post-apocalyptic blockade-style camps, and would witness violent confrontations between loggers and activists. 28 Days Later was the biggest stylistic influence to the original concept, and then I discovered Night of The Living Dead and Dawn of The Dead, which have the tradition of a zombie/contagion film with social issues as subtext. The werewolf/ transformation narrative was originally inspired by the analysis of folk tales in Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With The Wolves. Women transforming into animals to discover their true animalistic strength and power - I love that type of mythic storytelling. (pictured, above; actress Marigold Pazar as 'Eddy')
SCREEN-SPACE: Like all great horror films, Devil Woman tackles bigger issues as well as delivering the frights. You explore toxic masculinity, wide-eyed conservationists, and gender stereotypes across both sexes. Did you go with an attack plan?
DOUGLAS: I wanted to show the tough-as-nails women at blockade camps, which I had never seen represented on screen. Their isolation when up against these burly, angry loggers in real life is very scary and very loaded. The lead character ‘Eddy’ is a fish-out-of-water science student based on my own experience turning up to my first blockade as a student filmmaker, at Timbarra Gold Mine back in 1999. The film’s coda hints that we need to look beyond gender or any other political divides, because if we continue on a path of environmental destruction an apocalypse won’t discriminate. I’m thinking of the 1000 people still missing in the Californian wildfires right now. That is real life horror, real tragedy. Yet President Trump still denies climate change. (Pictured, above; Peter Healy as 'Reilly')
SCREEN-SPACE: The film is both a down’n’dirty bushland yarn and an extremely polished piece of filmmaking – shot in widescreen, against beautiful locations. Tell me about crafting the film’s aesthetic.
DOUGLAS: I looked at the way 28 Days Later and Children of Men were shot, to create that immediate, visceral, documentary-like experience of being in the world with the characters. I used scale in the frame to emphasis power, and colour palette to underlie transformation. Because my background is in documentary and editing I think in terms of coverage and how it will cut together, whilst Director of Photography Meg White (pictured, right) ensured it was also cinematic. We looked at Australian colonial art to think about representation of the forest in daylight, and what makes the Australian forest landscapes unique and scary. We used smoke haze on set in the camp to create texture. For the colour grade I was inspired by Deliverance to subtly reinforce humans as animals within the wilderness. The score was inspired by Dead Man using sparing rawness to imbue an isolated frontier feeling. The location is a main character in the story, so getting that right was very important. I couldn’t shoot it in Tasmania so I had to find a suitable location in regional NSW. Nerissa Davis and Alice Cregan, who brought first hand experience in logging blockades in Tasmania, ran the Art Department. They nailed the production design, which was important for authenticity.
SCREEN-SPACE: It’s an intrinsically Australian film, yet it’s travelling well, finding favour with festival programmers worldwide, having played London's FrightFest and Fantasia in Montreal, to name just two. The terrifically staged horror sequences aside, what are the elements that are resonating?
DOUGLAS: The thought provoking themes, the gritty score by my brother Ben Douglas, Meg White’s superb cinematography, the twists and turns in the plot. Audiences come away wanting a feature version, which is encouraging. There are some amazing films in the eco-horror sub genre such as The Birds, Godzilla, The Thing and Jaws. I reckon it’s a sub genre that’s ripe for modern exploration, and the reaction from audiences, film programmers and the film industry to Devil Woman suggests I’m right.
DEVIL WOMAN will screen Friday November 23 at Monster Fest VII at Carlton’s Cinema Nova. Full ticket and session details are at the festival’s official website.
As festival programmer of the 2014 A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet Film Festival, Dr Dean Bertram highlights an emerging trend amongst the modern horror narrative – the strong female protagonist. The days of the screeching ‘final girl’, destined to survive because of her virtuous nature and moral fortitude, are fading into the anachronistic ether if the films of the 2014 event are any indication. Bertram’s favoured female horror lead could be the Devil’s descendant, an avenging rape victim or a mysterious young newlywed; even the ‘final girl’ archetypes that populate his programme travel unfamiliar and frightening fresh paths. SCREEN-SPACE profiles a selection of the women who carry the torch (and knife and gun and axe…) for their gender in Bertram's modern horror compendium, which starts tonight in Sydney's inner city…
ROSE LESLIE as BEA in HONEYMOON The casting of Scottish actress Rose Leslie (pictured, above) suggested that Bea, the effervescent new wife of Harry Treadaway’s Paul in Leigh Janiak’s tummy-tightening study in paranoia and sexual politics, was going to be no damsel-in-distress. Having established her ballsy, take-no-crap acting credentials as ‘Ygritte’ in Game of Thrones, her transformation in this ‘Stepford Wives-meets-Body Snatchers’ shocker is subtle and disturbing; working from a smarter-than-usual script, she deconstructs gender expectations as they exist in both the real world and the traditional ‘cabin-in-the-woods’ setting of Janiak’s shattering debut. “Her talent and charisma are so natural and authentic,” the director told Under the Radar. “We really walked through every little bit of the script tracing where Bea is, internally, every beat along the way.” HONEYMOON screens Saturday, November 29. Tickets available here.
PAULIE ROJAS as JORDYN in ANOTHER When asked how the striking Paulie Rojas (pictured, right) was cast in his fever-dream demonic possession opus Another, multi-hyphenate auteur Jason Bognacki told Grolsch Film Works, “We were looking for someone who looked fragile to the touch but who could transform into a forceful, demonic presence.” Nailed it. As the part-time pharmacy employee whose hellish lineage awakens a potent evil within, Jordyns’ tormented physical and emotional arc makes the sort of acting demands only the horror genre can. Bognacki manipulates his leading lady’s doe-eyed beauty into a fierce, brutal weapon of force; Rojas gives a fearless, forceful rendering of power and passion. ANOTHER screens Saturday, November 22. Tickets available here.
ASHLEY C WILLIAMS as JULIA in JULIA As the ‘middle part’ of the original Human Centipede, Ashley C Williams didn’t have much scope to create a meaningful female character. The imbalance is redressed in Matthew A Brown’s brutal revenge odyssey, in which Williams’ titular victim emerges from her milquetoast dental hygenist cocoon and carves her way through the douche-bag attackers that drugged and raped her. The director cites Takashi Miike’s Audition as an influence; the Japanese great’s eye for modern noir imagery and niche sexual taboos courses through the veins of his gruesome vision. Not-so-subtle undertones of Sapphic sisterhood are exploited, with Williams locking Australian Tahyna Tozzi in several dark embraces. JULIA screens Wednesday, November 26. Tickets available here.
SARAH JEAVONS as SAM in INNER DEMON Australian-based Canadian director Ursula Dabrowsky plucked first-time actress Sarah Jeavons (pictured, right) from obscurity to play Sam Durelle, a protagonist who morphs from the traditional shrieking ‘final girl’ victim into a fearlessly malevolent force of her own. “She had the look I wanted and I had a gut feeling about her, but I needed to know if she could act,” the director told Festivals’ Launch Pad webpage. “It’s always exciting for a director to cast an unknown and then see them blossom in front of your very eyes.” Jeavon’s bloody, bold Sam embodies the ‘New Feminine Hero’ perhaps better than any other; a pretty, petite blond destined for the meatgrinder in a more conventional work, the actress explodes in a third-act fury of defiance that defines Dabrowsky’s non-conformist take on women in horror. INNER DEMON screens Friday, November 21. Tickets available here.
ALYSA KING as KYLIE in BERKSHIRE COUNTY Granted, Audrey Cumming’s feature debut is positively dripping in overplayed horror tropes – the surly babysitter finding her inner warrior while fending off home invaders in a remote mansion (see last years’ You’re Next, for example). But the film has hit big with festival audiences who have responded to Alysa King’s portrayal of the put-upon au pair Kylie, the actress (pictured, right) finding deeper layers and more recognisably human traits in her character just as the film begins to ramp up the tension. King has that ‘everygirl’ essence which has made memorable the great slasher film babysitters of generations past – Carol Kane in When a Stranger Calls; Jocelin Donahue in The House of the Devil; and, of course, Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. BERKSHIRE COUNTY screens Thursday, November 27. Tickets available here.
Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 10:38AM 
A partnership between Grant Hardie’s ANZ horror distribution specialists Monster Pictures and Phil Hunt's (Yet) Another Distribution Company, (Yet) Another Monster Company incorporates an investment partnership with Head Gear Films with further support from Ginette McDonald and Mark Mitchinson. (Pictured, right; lead actress Joyena Sun)
GRAFTED is produced by Murray Francis of Propaganda, and Leela Menon and Fraser Brown of FluroBlack and is written by Mia Maramara & Hweiling Ow, and Lee Murray. Monster Pictures previously handled the Australia-New Zealand release for James Ashcroft’s COMING HOME IN THE DARK. (Pictured, left; co-star Jared Turner) 
