Kimberly Seilhamer’s own dance with dying inspired her to make a horror film franchise based on the mystery of what transpires as we pass from this lifestyle into the unidentified.
Through her newest enterprise, the 44-year-old Temecula screenwriter and director arrived up together with her very own remedy.
Meet “Jack the Reaper,” a random, knife-wielding “Friday the 13th” Jason blended with the Angel of Dying. Seilhamer’s villain, “Railroad Jack,” kills in cold blood, but he does so mainly because his victims’ time has come.
“Jack the Reaper,” the indie film market’s newest Hitchcockian nightmare, snagged the very best Horror/Sci-Fi Movie at the Cannes Independent Movie Festival in May perhaps. Just like the film by itself, the fame has been unreal for Seilhamer, who wrote the script and —- for the very first time —- directed.
Seilhamer has long been composing indie films for extra than a decade, with horror as her specialty. The genre assists carry fictional lifestyle to subjects —- fear and dying —- that have been central to her specialist and personal experiences.
She put in a number of ages volunteering using the local Trauma Intervention Plan, an business recognized as Suggestion that provides instant, on-the-scene counseling for individuals who happen to be in traumatic occasions ranging from gruesome auto crashes to grisly crimes.
“I noticed a good deal of dying,” she stated. “It produced me think about what we perceive as ‘The Reaper.’ Are there these reapers on the market, just waiting around for individuals to die? In this (movie) I make an effort to accessibility the unfairness of everyday living.”
Her individual existence also assisted plant the seed for “Jack the Reaper.”
Now fighting a uncommon form of cancer soon after a bout of thyroid cancer in 2003, together with a spinal cord damage in 2004, she has needed to take into consideration death. Cancer, she says, is often frightening.
With her trauma counseling and cancer fight refreshing in her thoughts, she wrote the film’s script in about 7 days in 2009, initially dubbing the teen horror flick “One by 1: Death’s Door” below her Temecula manufacturing organization, Mad Crapper Films Ltd.
Filming took spot above thirteen days within the Mojave Desert.
Seilhamer, who made Hollywood connections by composing indie horror movies “Inside Irvin” (2004) and “The Keyman” (2002), caught the interest of some larger names in the small business. Tony Todd, recognized because the eerie central figure within the contemporary horror classic “Candyman,” plays a haunting function in “Jack the Reaper.”
Also including glimmer for the credits are Academy Award-winning makeup artist Barney Burnam, whose function includes “Star Trek” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Douglas Tait, an actor who played Jason in “Freddy vs. Jason,” was forged as “Railroad Jack.”
As Seilhamer’s grotesque edition from the Grim Reaper —- the black-cloaked, scythe-carrying figure who symbolizes imminent death —- Railroad Jack runs around having a scythe, appearing and disappearing, offing the prototypical teen characters —- feel John Hughes’ classic “The Breakfast Club” —- one by 1.
The finish, even so, capabilities a twist, leaving viewers to question what is genuine and what’s imagined when lives come to some tragic shut. Most of the 90-minute film will take location inside a brightly lit, however abandoned carnival within the middle in the desert, including to the mystery.
Seilhamer is preparing a collection of as many as 6 Reaper-esque movies as part of a franchise and is currently working for the sequel, with one more placing and a different Reaper.
Incorporated in her smaller cast of Hollywood veterans are mysterious actors whom Seilhamer observed as talented. 1 of them, David Walton, is usually a buddy from Temecula who was forged inside a modest role as a father who is obviously molesting his teenage daughter.
Walton, a gray-haired retiree who toyed with acting in his 20s, auditioned in Hollywood. Though he had only a couple of lines within the movie, he said he had a blast working with Seilhamer.
“I’m thrilled to become a portion of this,” he stated.
Walton is set to play a larger function within the sequel, which is now in early advancement.
As for “Jack the Reaper,” it’s but to become released into theaters or on DVD. Seilhamer is hoping for any Halloween release.
“I am hoping this will be my huge break,” she said. “You know how they say ‘overnight achievement?’ Nicely, it actually takes place like that. You function tough for a long time and a long time, and then finally, you generate a name for yourself.”
