Set on Halloween night in a sleepy college town, we meet Deputy Hancock (Amoia) as she takes out a wounded piece of almost roadkill. Things get weird when she investigates a mysterious call from a house in town where she finds dead bodies and a seemingly possessed naked woman. Back at the station isn't any quieter as a random traffic stop has netted Sheriff Pete (Kulich) custody of two of America's most wanted, Mr. Eleven (Ricker) and Twelve (Carter) with a trunk full of money and guns. The naked chick is brought in and brings evil with her, infecting near everyone with their worst fears. Visions of dead fathers, serial killers and more invade the usually calm crew and they set out to figure out what is going on. The two fugitives were retrieving some artifacts for a buyer that has unleashed the supernatural forces on "f*cking Halloween". From there we get zombies, machine guns, bazookas, exorcism chants, shotguns, licking whiskey off a table, shooting locals and much more. Kirschenbaum's script is funny while he gives it a stamp of his own as the film unfolds partially in black and white with visual flourishes of blood, eyes and floating evil stuff. There's plenty of laughs throughout as Deputy Eric (Nash) gets to play scared/dumb, the fugitives bicker and instigate and the college Dean tries to make sense of the situation. The cast all gel quite well and bounce off one another with Kulich getting to play angry, crazy and distraught while Amoia is the calming force among all of the chaos. Tony Todd shows up late in the game as a smoking and drinking preacher while the synth tinged score keeps things going in a John Carpenter way.
After the film I brought up our huge panel to talk the film:
- Nearly everyone made comment on liking the script.
- Long haired in the film, Ricker and Carter showed up with short cuts and weren't recognized by their co-stars. Had originally gone up for other roles.
- Richey had worked with Kirschenbaum on another film.
- Another actress was cast as Hancock but wasn't providing the physicality the director wanted. Amoia got the call, showed she could throw punches, was on a plane by the weekend and shooting Monday.
- Amoia loved being the central female characters in a cast of tall guys as it was never dull.
- Film was shot in Raleigh, North Carolina over several cold weeks, mostly at night.
- Kulich and Richey spent a lot of time tasting the local bourbon and barbecue.
- We're used to seeing Kulich as a bearded viking, this time he's a bearded Sheriff with a shotgun, Kulich was excited to play an American and turned him into a bit of a good ol' boy.
- Lots of guns in the movie but using each one meant the armorer had to painstakingly inspect and test each one for safety reasons which took up a lot of time.
- This was the first film for Adam Flores who had a great time and is thinking of giving acting a go.
- Cast all loved Kirschenbaum's script and would love to see him given a proper budget.
