PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s always great to hear about new horror film, especially indie productions that were made through passion, talent and patience. So when I was introduced to Rachel Ward Heggen and Heidi Ervin’s (Death By Death 2010) backwater slasher, Black Holler, I knew I had to find out more. Let’s start with the trailer:
And now, the synopsis:
In 1989, street-smart Laquita Johnson is forced into a camping trip with a bunch of ridiculous white students on her first day at a new school. All the students make it to the woods, but very few of them make it out of Black Holler.
I’m definitely intrigued! Let’s talk about cast and crew. Jason Berg (Down That Road 2016) co-write the script, along with Heggen and Ervin. He also directed and served as the DoP. The two female filmmakers star in the film as well, along with J.R. Robles (Paternity Leave 2015), Tomiko Robinson Steele (The Dead Center 2017), Sarah VanArsdal (Chest 2020), Brad Edwards (Death By Death II 2010), Justin Tarrents (Blue Like Jazz 2012), Jesse Perry (Zombies vs Strippers 2012) and a ton of newcomers like Vivi Vendetta, Betty Williams, Nicholas Hadden and Bruce Ervin, who composed the score for the film. Chip Wilder (Not A Time Machine 2014) edited the final product and Lance Allen was in charge of special FX makeup.
To help you get to know the people behind Black Holler, here’s a message they sent to fans on their website:
Black Holler is the product of an amazing group effort from a bunch of talented people who love movies. In the beginning, ’80s slasher flick fans, Rachel Ward Heggen and Heidi Ervin, wanted to make a horror movie. They and nearly everyone involved with Black Holler are good-natured, silly people, so making the horror movie a horror comedy was an obvious choice.
Before Black Holler, Heggen and Ervin worked together in a small theater troupe called Storybook Heroin(e), and many of the people from that group are in Black Holler, including Tamiko Robinson Steele. They wrote a short version of Black Holler and pitched it to Jason Berg, who agreed to direct, co-write and serve as director of photography. With frequent collaborators Bruce Ervin (soundtrack and score) and Katie Gant (production design) also on board, it was time to find a cast & crew and raise some money.
In 2014, our $6,000 Kickstarter was funded, and in 2015, our $2000 IndieGoGo campaign was funded. We were so lucky to have over 100 sponsors believe in our project and patiently wait for its completion. We were even luckier to have passionate, talented, fun and unbelievably patient cast and crew members lend us their talents during our 70+ film shoots! We spent 2015 and 2016 filming during some brutally hot TN summer months. In 2016, Chip Wilder, our lead editor, and our post production team spent many, many hours pouring over footage and creating such a fun, well-paced movie of which we are all so proud!
We debuted Black Holler in 2017 at Nashville’s historic Belcourt Theatre to a sold-out house! Since then, we’ve screened at Full Moon Cineplex, Cobra Nashville, TWTP’s Women’s Work Festival and Women Texas Film Festival, and we have received awards and honors from International Horror Hotel Festival and Women in Cinema Screenplay Competition. None of this would have happened without an amazing and incredibly talented group of volunteers. We hope that none of them ever have to work for free again… unless its for Black Holler 2!
So, what do you think? Is Black Holler your kind of horror comedy? Give it a watch at the link below, and then, let us know what you thought in the comments!
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