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Riding to Hell in Domonic Smith’s “Van”

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Writers and directors in independent short horror films are literally looking everywhere for inspiration.  It might come from a sign, a snippet of overheard conversation, or a headline in a newspaper, but when that lightning strikes they’re ready to move on it.  Such was the case with Domonic Smith’s short film, “Van” which all started on an app called Hooked which features stories entirely told by text and instant messaging.

“I just kind of stumble on the app,”  Smith explained.  “I would go on there every day and read through the stories, and I found one called “Waiting for You”.  I kept thinking about how much I really liked the story and I wasn’t sure how it would translate over to film but I really want to try.”

Smith contacted the author of the story and asked for permission to adapt it.  He explained that there would be things that he had to change, but that it would, at the core, still be the author’s story.  When he received a resounding “Yes!” from both the author and then the owner of the app, he was ready to start adapting.

In “Van”, we open on a young woman, Laura, nodding off while she is driving.  Suddenly, she’s sitting at a crossroads and her friend, Julia, is calling her on video chat.  The friend is obviously in distress and is begging to be picked up.  Laura notices blood on Julia’s neck and assumes Julia’s boyfriend has abused her in some way.  She agrees to pick up her friend and asks for the address, but when she receives it, she realizes she’s less than one hundred feet from the location.

Enter the ominous, titular van.

“There’s a lot of old folklore about a Devil’s carriage that carries souls to hell,” he pointed out.  “So I was thinking what would be the modern equivalent of this creepy carriage?  What’s the creepiest vehicle today?  And the idea of a van came to me.  It’s the creepy van that carries souls to hell.”

The van in question is indeed creepy.  A catering van with a creepy devil in its logo (who would order from them?!), it seems to sit and stare Laura down as she approaches it all the while madly texting her friend to find out where she is.  This van is really a character itself.  It exudes menace and instills dread no matter the angle of filming.

The director came up with a brilliant plan for drawing his audience into the film by using several split screens that allow the audience to not only see Laura’s face, but also to see her phone’s screen as she texts Julia.

“When I’m texting someone and the conversation is intense, I get really nervous when I see those ellipses that show that they’re typing.  You don’t know what they’re going to say next.  I wanted people to feel like this is a situation they could find themselves in,” he says.  “So I don’t want to just shoot a wide shot of someone texting.  I want you to see what they’re texting.  I want you to see how fast they’re texting.  How anxious they are.  It replicates what you do in life.”

The choice is effective and I found myself holding my breath as Laura approaches the van and Julia insists that there is no van where she is.  I don’t want to give away too much more to avoid spoilers, but the whole scene plays beautifully with an exacting amount of tension.  It’s really no wonder at all that the film was a finalist in the iHorror Awards this last season.

You could tell Smith really loves the form of the short film and we talked about his great love for anthology films that went hand in hand with his love of short stories like the ones in Stories to Tell in the Dark which he read when he was growing up.

“I enjoy giving people a taste of fear,”  Smith said.  “I’ve been doing short films for so long that it’s actually harder for me to do a feature.  But if you give me three minutes, five minutes, or even ten minutes, it’s easier for me to tell my story.  It has to be tight; the minutes have to be filled, but I love leaving that audience with that cliffhanger.  Always leave them wanting more!”

The young director, who just signed on to create content for Crypt TV, has a whole host of short films in the works as well as a feature he hopes to begin shooting at the end of the year.  If they’re as creative and fresh as “Van”, I’m sure we’re in for many more spectacular thrills and kills from Domonic Smith.

Check out “Van” below!

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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