quietearth [Celluloid 05.22.09] movie news horror



Having interviewed Pearry for Dark Oz, we've been emailing since.. and he's hooked us up with an exclusive and other info on Necromentia which has already been pre-sold to a couple territories (without them even seeing it from what I hear) and will be on the market at Cannes. (Lucky for us we won't have to wait long because we should be getting a screener soon) What started out as a short film got turned into a feature after Bleiberg Entertainment saw it and backed it with financing and production. Here's the synopsis:

Necromentia tells the stories of 3 men whose lives have been turned over by the existence of a tattooed Ouija Board and the gateways they open with it. Hagen is a strange character who keeps the corpse of his lover in his house, believing that one day she will come back from the dead. But when he meets a mysterious man named Travis, he soon learns that maybe he could be the one who goes into hell and bring her back from the dead. Once Travis carves the Ouija Board from his back, there is no going back as Hagen comes face to face with the monstrosities of the creatures within hell. But does Travis really want to help Hagen, or does he have other plans?


I asked Pearry if there's any scenes in hell and he had this to say: "There's about 5 scenes in Hell... well, actually, it's a version of hell that Morbius (one of the characters) created. There are 6 other scenes that infer that we are in purgatory (more like holocaust purgatory) but since we only see them in a dream sequence, it's really wouldn't matter if the audience didn't pick up on it the first time round"

He edited the film base in his research of dementia defined as: the progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the body beyond what might be expected from normal aging. And he details this a bit more for us: "Thus, the film was edited in a progressive declined manner. What does this mean, very similar to Nolan's memento where everything is backwards, but not in a manner where it is the same. Rather, the three stories of our main characters in the movie that are being told in a manner where it is backwards. As we go back further into each live, we reveal a little bit more about the world, how certain characters became the way they become, and also how our demons became manifested. I would definitely say we avoided the cliche 'open the doors of hell' or 'used chantings and spells to summon a demon', rather... I feel that demons are created from the very dark nature of our own beings, from revenge, anger and a host of other negative emotions.

He further explains:
If one were to look carefully in the movie, I also do not mention what day of the week, month or year things take place. I choose to use '11 months ago' or references like that instead. And yes, while the movie may finish, we are really also beginning it when you sit down and think about it.

While the can be enjoyed in itself as a whole without too much complications, I think it might be an interesting tidbit to know that I specifically used Creutzfeldt-Jakob form of dementia to structure out the movie. Like the film has 3 stories that link and connect each other, it is similar to the CJD in the sense that CJD also has three types included. Sporadic, Variant and Familial which I used closely in plotting and structuring. It is a rapidly progressive dementia, leading to memory loss (first act of movie), personality changes (second act of movie) and hallucinations (third act of movie). The hallucinations part though started in act two and bled to act three, which is in some very strange way, how it began because I feel like hallucinations also could be a possible reason for personality changes.

You can watch the trailer here. Screener here I come!

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Anonymous (13 years ago) Reply

looks wicked.

Anonymous (13 years ago) Reply

This is the true face a horror!
I can't wait for the nightmares to begin!

allibat (13 years ago) Reply

Terror/horror/gore at its finest! This is the beauty that happens with a terrific writer, visually-genius director and a great cast!!

Pat (13 years ago) Reply

his theories on post modern film editing and narrative structure just blew my mind!

genius stuff.

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