Kevin Smith once said, “If you’re lucky, you go from being a movie fan to a movie maker.” So then how did I get here? From a fan of moving pictures to someone who’s fortunate enough to create visual storytelling? I’m not going to bore you step-by-step, but every tale has its Genesis. When I started independent filmmaking nearly twenty years ago, I was chasing Halloween. Now everyone is chasing Terrifier. What I mean by that is the act of catching lightning in a bottle. Every creative wants a single chance. A chance to leave that bloody mark on the genre we love so much. I’m still searching for that chance. You’ll have to excuse my unmedicated ADHD as I’m also getting ahead of myself.

Comedy was my original genre of choice. It’s where I started, despite my grandmother instilling a deep and unwavering love for Horror when I was around five years old. It’s a love which would later define my film “career”. Once again, I’m getting ahead of myself. Growing up I was a fat kid in school. The outlier. The weirdo. I wasn’t the most popular, strongest or the best looking, so that helped build what psychologists call “character”. I eventually found I had a penitent for comedic timing and seeing the flaws in others, when combined correctly these were a great weapon to use against my enemies. I found joy in making others laugh and at times even made the bully laugh, which I always found interesting. I even got myself out of an ass kicking once. By the time they stopped laughing, they’d forgotten why they hated me in the firsts place. Which I’m sure was a misplaced or pointless hate. It typically is.  What started as a weapon evolved into a coping mechanism and inevitably became an acute chunk of my personality. Nothing is better than a good dick and fart joke. I love comments so shocking facial expressions say it all. The audience’s mere disbelief becoming the actual punchline.

Enter Kevin Smith. When his films came into my life, I was hooked. I already knew I wanted to pursue filmmaking, but Clerks became the catalyst. The key film that made me realize there was a real chance to be a visual storyteller. Now you’re asking yourself, “I thought this chucklehead was a horror producer?” Well, a steady diet of Craven, Hooper, Cunningham, and, of course, Carpenter filled most of my screen time. My amorous bliss for horror never waned.

When Movie Making Is in Your Blood

Jump to 2021. I co-own Blood Moon Pictures with my producing partner and hetero life mate Eric Huskisson. We’re still reeling from the light success from our holiday anthology 13 Slays Till X-Mas, but we now want to do something else. I’ve found no matter how bad the headache gets while making a film, no matter how intense the stress level, and no matter how many times you say to yourself “I’ll never fucking do this again!” If making movies is in your DNA, you always do it again. One day while driving the title New Fears Eve pops into my head. A pretty kickass title that had no story, but it was a start. I’m a huge slasher fan. I’ve enjoyed lesser fare like The Nail Gun Massacre all the way up to more polished slice and dice flicks such as I Know What You Did Last Summer. Only horror fans will understand this, but when I’m stressed, I watch these films as a sort of comfort food. They relax me. Every night I’m falling asleep to Hell Night, Madman, The Prowler, The Beyond, The House by The Cemetery or Shock Waves. I say all of that to say, any film of mine you’ve seen you’ll almost always catch two things: a myriad of easter eggs, much to the behest of some and slasher influence.

As a writer most of my ideas start as Last House on the Left or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I tell myself, “This is my one concept that’s going to stick with people long after the screen goes black.” By the time I dive into the script, the concepts fall more in line with Ready or Not or Trick r’ Treat. Horror with a touch of comedy. Because of my immeasurable love for things that go bump in the night I write horror, but my need to make people chuckle always seep in. I find it impossible to be serious, even when the moment truly calls for it.

To put things into perspective Eric and I typically make anthologies – out of necessity. Producing films is more of our side hustle as we have day jobs so weeklong productions aren’t in the cards. Therefore, we’re reduced to shooting on weekends. But after the rigamarole of producing three anthologies, we knew our next outing needed to be a far cry from a portmanteau. Something that didn’t break the mold but was a fresh start for us. New Fears Eve became that fresh start.

Certified Fresh

I completely redesigned NFE’s concept to become a single narrative feature. This film had to be more serious with an amplified atmosphere and elevated tension. It needed to be the most macabre screenplay I’ve ever written, and it was going to be. That was… until I finally sat down to write it. Prior to writing the script I had gone through several years of horrible shit in my life albeit some rebirth and rediscovery. My grandmother passed away, which was devastating as Gi-Gi created my fondness for horror and was my scary movie buddy. I went through a nasty divorce, complicated by having children and trying to help them navigate their own emotions. My mom was diagnosed with double lung cancer. While I held onto the hope, she would get better, I ultimately sat around watching my mom, my biggest fan, gradually and painfully waste away. I also rekindled an old flame with my now wife Leslie, who I had never stopped having deep affection for. Strangest of all I finally opened myself up to what was always in front of me, found Christ and was saved which is truly the craziest part, especially for those who know me personally.

It took me three months to finally put pen to paper, but once I started writing the script for New Fears Eve I couldn’t stop. I had a lot to say. I had a lot of feelings to unpack. Out of any script of mine, this is the most personal. It tackles all the loss, the pain, the despair, the unrelenting terror of knowing you can’t always save the people you love. And I ended up doing it the only way I ultimately knew how. By taking all the terrible things and injecting a healthy dose of dicks and farts to make it more palatable. See what I mean? It started when I was a kid, and I cannot turn it off to save my life.

The next thing I know is that I’m handing over a script to Eric that barely resembled what I had planned to write. It was just as funny as it is scary. Of course, “scary” is objective. I don’t think anything we’ve done is actually scary and I’m sure there’s a plethora of haters who’d agree.  Regardless of Eric’s expectations, we’d been talking about making a comedy for years, so the script still worked with our intentions of “going in a different direction”. Once finishing the script Eric called me and the first words out of his mouth were, “I thought this was going to be a horror film?” It was at that moment that I knew things truly would be different.

From Script to Scream

The production for New Fears Eve was not without its setbacks, but regarding the film we wanted to make, it’s the truest adaptation as most indie films come with a substantial amount of compromise. The cast comprised a mix of newcomers and old guards. The latter being Jay Woolston, Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah and Alyssa Rhoads. They’re always a blast to work with and bring their own distinction to each character. Our leads Lily-Claire, Turner and Matthew were mostly silver screen virgins, each one bringing my words to life in exactly the way I’d intended. I can’t forget Jesse, who not only played a goofy idiot but also portrayed our red-eyed psychopath, giving him a nuanced personality that was as humorous as it was malevolence.

To say I’m a gore-hound would be an understatement. Eric is always having to reel me in and even then, it doesn’t always work because I want the blood to flow. The early drafts of NFE had nineteen death scenes. Once we opened the crowd funding campaign to “getting killed in the movie” the death toll rose to a staggering forty plus. It got so extreme we had to cut it off because I was running out of ideas on how to cinematically dispatch people in the goriest way possible. The other complication this rise-in-red caused was thinning our special effects budget. Now our effects crew, who did an incredible job under limited time and resources, were put to the test of figuring out how to tear people apart as gruesomely as they could with as little as possible. The kills I concocted and threw at Stephen, Isa, and Blaze were nothing short of elaborate. Between ingenuity and grit, they pulled off some fantastic eye gouging, throat slicing, face impaling, throat ripping, leg snapping, intestinal flushing… well, you get the point. They were the effects back bone that was ultimately ripped out and gorily displayed on screen. I wanted practically zero cut aways, and everything to be in the audience’s face. Nothing was left on the floor. Except for maybe a pile of intestines. You can really experience their work by watching the film with a crowd. The loud moans of disgust and sickened wincing make me smile every single time.

After two and a half years of production New Fears Eve went from script to screen. As intended it marked many first for us, most notably a chance to work with some industry names. Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Dave Sheridan (The Devil’s Rejects), Hannah Fierman (V/H/S/) as well as my good friend and Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick. Working with each of them became invaluable because they each brought their own temperament to the mix, both on screen and off. I’m grateful for Jeffrey’s involvement, not just because we became closer friends by working together, but because his support for this endeavor has been incredible. At this very moment he’s championing the film where he lives in Los Angeles, producing from afar to help the film land the best possible distribution deal. That part is still a work in progress. In the meantime, the film is on an award-winning festival tour. NFE is on its way to screen in Manhattan and then overseas in the UK. The accolades for NFE have been surreal as much as they are humbling. It’s gotten praise from The Blair Witch Project producer Gregg Hale and even more surprising was nominated for a Fangoria Chainsaw Award. We’re still reeling from that. I know it’s just a nomination, but we felt like we’d won an Oscar. I mean, that practically is a Horror Oscar.

Our Final Destination

Artists love to share wins. You almost never see us discuss our shortcomings, but it’s the failures that define our careers. Failure is what steers you to do something different, or bigger, or bolder. Eric and I believe in NFE more than any of our previous projects. Not because we weren’t proud of them, but the current project is always the best. We want it to be. Or at least I think you should. Because of that we submitted to more festivals than we ever have. Our film came out of the gate hot! We were selected by great festivals. NFE was winning awards. Then suddenly the tide turned. We began receiving more rejections than any of our previous films and as much as I wanted to pretend it didn’t sting. It fucking did!  We got twelve rejections. In a row!? Yes! I was despondent because most of them were bigger fests. Eric and I were sure our film was good enough. I mean it was, right? But for some reason these festivals didn’t see what we saw. Then you start questioning yourself. Does that mean it isn’t funny? Is it not scary? Is it not well written? Early on Dread Central had declared we created a “new horror icon”. What the fuck was happening? Then the thirteenth notification hit our email.

Dear Blood Moon Pictures,

Congratulations on your Selection to the SModcastle Film Festival.

In the next few days, we’ll be heading to New Jersey to screen New Fears Eve at Kevin Smith’s SModcastle Film Festival. If you can’t comprehend the importance of this then you’ve missed the entire point of the article. Incredible opportunities arise when you stay on the path. When you follow your passions regardless of what makes sense. Perseverance is an act I’m all too familiar with, but as annoying as it can be for those on the receiving end, it truly does open doors. Kevin is even having a 30^th anniversary screening of Clerks. The serendipitous nature of our film screening at this event cannot go unnoticed. I’m not sure if Kevin will even see New Fears Eve, but all the hard work, sleepless nights, planning, stressing, and creating over so many long years has led me to this moment in time and I’m going to enjoy every single moment. Snoogins!

If you’d like to find out more about Blood Moon Pictures visit bloodmoonpictures.com or check them out on Facebook. Producers P.J. Starks and Eric Huskisson are both accessible on FB. Their previous films can be found across various streaming platforms. New Fears Eve will be screening at SModcastle Cinemas on Saturday, October 26 at 9 PM, that same day it will be screening at the Ohio Theatre in Madison, IN starting at 7 PM. Next it will be screening at the NYC Horror Film Festival at the Look Dine-In Cinema’s on Saturday, December 6 starting at 7 PM.