PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’m stoked to share with you all some great news about an upcoming horror anthology that looks utterly fantastic called Shevenge. It is being described as Tales from the Crypt meets Death Wish with a feminine twist. So much talented wrapped up in this one!
The anthology is produced by horror guru Staci Layne Wilson and is made up of several existing short films directed by women. Shevenge will also spotlight an all-new bite-sized horror flick plus bookends hosted by Vanessa Gomez.
Producer Staci Layne Wilson says,
“I came up with the idea to make a compilation of kickass horror shorts directed by women after a couple of my own films had run the festival circuit and really had nowhere to go after that. I realized that my own sensibility seems to run to the revenge genre and so I decided to keep submissions for the feature to that theme.”
The glue that will hold the short segments together are hosted bookends – think The Cryptkeeper meets Elvira with a poetic twist – starring Vanessa Gomez. Gomez and Wilson once hosted a horror talk show called Dread Central Live at TheStream.tv where they interviewed the likes of John Carpenter (Halloween) and Michael Biehn (Aliens). “I couldn’t be more excited about working with Vanessa again,” says Wilson. “She’s an incredibly talented woman, and a great collaborator.”
Shevenge is made up of 12 different flicks ranging from subtle psychological scares to all-out gore. Sociopaths, serial killers, spirits, and avenging angels abound. The never-before-seen Karma is a Bitch (written and directed by Wilson) is inspired by the notorious Michelle Carter, who was convicted in 2017 in her boyfriend’s texting-suicide murder case… but of course, there’s a twist. Other shorts include For A Good Time, Call… directed by Izzy Lee and starring Tristan Risk (American Mary), and The Fetch directed by Cheryl Isaacson and starring Kathleen Wilhoite (Witchboard).
“It’s not every day that you make necrotic genitalia,” says filmmaker Izzy Lee. And it’s not every day one reads a statement like that! Lee, whose haunting thriller For A Good Time, Call… appears in the upcoming Shevenge anthology, adds that she created those practical effects herself. “I did the special effects after taking a class. It was quite fun to create a very intimate piece for placement on Tristan Risk’s chest. She was happy that I was the one applying the homemade prosthetic.”
While Shevenge may be all fun and games until someone loses an eye, there’s also a socially-aware element to it. Wilson explains,
“Around the time I decided to pull the trigger on this project, I had a couple female friends who were going through some tough times in relation to sexual harassment and assault, which made me think of the old adage: Living well is the best revenge. In order to help some ladies get that type of retribution, it came to me that it would be great to donate the net profits from this anthology to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
Elaine Xia, a filmmaker from Hong Kong, wrote and directed another of the shorts, Metamorphosis. It’s got a cannibalistic theme and the story was borne of idle curiosity.
“My mum told me this original story when I was still a kid because I asked her, ‘Chicken tastes like chicken and beef tastes like beef, so what does human taste like?’ I know it is kind of dark but this story just stuck in my mind. After I graduated from film school, I was tired of just editing other people’s work. I wanted to create my own film, this story popped out again and I decided to make it.”
I personally can’t wait to check this one out. I’m a fan of all the women involved and I love all things revenge. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing justice play out right before your eyes. Shevenge will be streaming via Amazon Prime and available via limited edition DVD in September 2019.
