Here is the official poster for my new short film, THE GUEST, made for the Toronto International Film Festival Emerging Filmmakers Competition. I was one of 18 filmmakers from around the world invited to compete this year! I hope you guys like it.
©2013 She Wolf Films
Skin Deep Tattoo Magazine editor Sion Smith invited me to write an introduction to his new book THE BEST HORROR TATTOOS, which is now available on stands and IN MY ONLINE STORE. There is also a feature on my work in film inside. The book itself is a treasure of terror tattoos and horror art from around the globe. I hope you guys like the foreword. It’s a bit of a think piece but would you expect any less from me?
by Jovanka Vuckovic
BIG NEWS! My first short film The Captured Bird is getting a THEATRICAL RELEASE across Canada!!
We’ve made a lot of exciting announcements in the last year, but this might be the most exciting one yet. We’ll be a part of Raven Banner Entertainment and Cineplex’s Sinister Cinema series, opening for the incredible American Mary by Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska. This ghoulish double bill will be playing one night only, on May 30th, in 25 cinemas from Vancouver to Montreal – full listings of participating theatres below:
Tickets are available now at participating theatre box offices and online at cineplex.com/events. The following is a complete list of participating theatres:
British Columbia
Odeon Victoria Cinemas – Victoria, BC
Galaxy Cinemas Nanaimo – Nanaimo, BC
Colossus Langley Cinemas – Langley, BC
Cineplex Odeon Park & Tilford Cinemas – North Vancouver, BC
Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas – Vancouver, BC
Alberta
Scotiabank Theatre Edmonton – Edmonton, AB
Scotiabank Theatre Chinook – Calgary, AB
Saskatchewan
Galaxy Cinemas Regina – Regina, SK
Galaxy Cinemas Saskatoon – Saskatoon, SK
Manitoba
SilverCity Polo Park Cinemas – Winnipeg, MB
Ontario
Cineplex Odeon Devonshire Mall Cinemas – Windsor, ON
SilverCity London Cinemas – London, ON
Galaxy Cinemas Waterloo – Waterloo, ON
Cineplex Odeon Winston Churchill Cinemas – Oakville, ON
SilverCity Hamilton Cinemas – Hamilton, ON
Cineplex Cinemas Mississauga – Mississauga, ON
Cineplex Odeon Queensway Cinemas – Toronto, ON
Colossus Vaughan Cinemas – Vaughan, ON
SilverCity Fairview Mall Cinemas – Toronto, ON
Cineplex Odeon Yonge & Dundas Square Cinemas – Toronto, ON
Cineplex Odeon Eglinton Town Centre Cinemas – Scarborough, ON
Coliseum Ottawa Cinemas – Ottawa, ON
SilverCity Gloucester Cinemas – Ottawa, ON
SilverCity Sudbury Cinemas – Sudbury, ON
Quebec
Cineplex Odeon Forum Cinemas – Montreal, QC
And, if you’re lucky enough to be in Toronto for the Yonge/Dundas screening, yours truly will be hosting the event! Come and see us on the giant screen!
I love short films. In fact, some of my favourite movies are shorts: Douglas Buck’s Cutting Moments, Nacho Cerda’s Aftermath and Genesis, Robert Morgan’s The Cat with Hands, Paul Solet’s Grace, Dennison Ramalho’s Love From Mother Only are all exemplary short films I find myself returning to over and over. Probably because I like fresh ideas that are unencumbered by the myriad creative restraints that govern feature films.
Recently I got an opportunity to make a new short film. I was selected to compete in the Toronto International Film Festival Emerging Filmmakers Competition. This high profile event is open only to the 25 filmmakers that were chosen to take part in the TIFF Talent Lab last year. We were given a tiny bursary from Royal Bank and two months to write, direct and complete a film no longer than five minutes in length on the subject of MEMORY. The winners will be showcased at the prestigious festival this September. Now, I’m not a fan of short deadline filmmaking challenges. It’s just not my thing. I like to meticulously plan, storyboard and shot list everything. I can’t help it, I like to come prepared. So for me, two months didn’t seem like a lot of time. And I’d also have to produce it. But I accepted the idea of being uncomfortable for a little while and started writing.
THE GUEST is what emerged two days later. If I had to describe it, I’d call it “existential horror.” It is inspired by the work of the great Shirley Jackson, Henry James and even has a touch of Kafka. I’ve always loved stories that feature unreliable sociopathic narrators. And some of my favourite feature films explore this conceit; Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, Session 9, Angel Heart and Repulsion all leave you feeling like you’ve just slipped into someone else’s fever dream. Nightmares of internal horror. In fact, writing THE GUEST has galvanized the direction I’d been going in with my first feature, which I’m also writing at the moment and very excited about.
Okay, I so had written a script. Now I had to make it. I called up my dear friend and filmmaking collaborator Jason Lapeyre and started crewing up. People often ask me how do I get people to help me make films and the short answer is, you just ask. And, much like my experience with The Captured Bird, almost everyone I asked said YES. And they in turn managed to help me get everything I needed to make the film of professional quality (I wasn’t up for shooting a DSLR film with no production value). I always love watching the crew buzzing around on the day, all working together toward a common purpose: to make the best film we can possibly make. It’s a kind of magical organized chaos. These are the real people who make movies happen: the crew. They’re there hours before the director is, doing all the thankless stuff that goes into filmmaking. For each and every one of you, I am eternally grateful.
We shot THE GUEST over two days in Toronto last week. Our production designer, Oscar-nominated Anastasia Masaro graciously let us shoot in her beautiful century home on Day One. And Day Two we built a set at the Toronto School of Make-Up, pretty much the only place in the city that was comfortable with us spilling many litres of blood all over the studio. We’ve only just finished the rough cut but the footage our DP Ian Anderson shot is absolutely gorgeous. It was a huge learning experience for me because in addition to writing and directing, my newly-minted production company SHE WOLF FILMS produced it. While I don’t have any desire to produce and direct my own film ever again, I’m glad I did it because it gave me new respect for producers. Good ones, anyway.
It’s a race to the finish line at this point. The film is due at TIFF by midnight on May 3rd. And there is still lots of post production ahead. Five finalists will be selected this summer. Either way, I’ve already won because I will always have this beautiful short film to remind me of what is possible when I step outside of my comfort zone. As a wise friend recently reminded me, ”Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
JV
Isabella Vuckovic in THE GUEST.
Jordan Gray in THE GUEST
Tara Elliott in THE GUEST
Over 50 film festivals and four Best Short Film Awards later, The Captured Bird is finally available to the public!
Available exclusively through jovankavuckovic.com, The Captured Bird DVD was lovingly made for the film’s crowd funding backers but is now available to you. Inside you will find the short film plus as many extras as we could fit on the disc. Low cost shipping available worldwide! Click BUY NOW and you will be directed to our distributor’s sales page where you can place your order.
SPECIAL FEATURES
CAPTURING THE BIRD: 30 minute making-of featurette
AUDIO COMMENTARY: featuring writer/director Jovanka Vuckovic, cinematographer Karim Hussain and producer Jason Lapeyre
THE YOUNG GIRL: Skyler Wexler’s audition video
DIRECTOR’S VIDEO DIARY: In-production confessions
HORROR FILM SCHOOL: Interviews with George Romero (Dawn of the Dead), Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) and more
BONUS: Self Portrait, a short film by Jovanka Vuckovic made for the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab 2012
DIRECTOR’S STORYBOARDS
PRODUCTION STILLS
CONCEPT ART GALLERY
OR
I VOTED IN THE RONDO AWARDS!
My first short film The Captured Bird has taken me on a wild ride over the last three years. As we approach the end of its film festival flight (we are about to release it to DVD and even have a distributor!), the movie has picked up another international Best Short Film award and, most recently, a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award nomination. I’m starting to see what people mean when they say that films take on lives of their own once you put them out there. But the Rondo nomination is special to me as it is the only organization that celebrates the efforts of people working in the horror genre (from all disciplines) - specifically those who have an appreciation for classic horror. I’ve won several Rondos for my journalistic achievements in the genre, but this is the first time I’ve been recognized by Rondo for my work as a filmmaker. My team and I worked so hard on this little film and it’s really gratifying to be acknowledged by the fans in my beloved genre.
To whoever nominated us for Best Short Film of 2012 – if you’re reading this, thanks. You’ve validated the hard work of over 50 people who made The Captured Bird with me.
As for the rest of you, if you’ve seen the film and feel like voting (yes it’s a public voting system!), I’d encourage you to fill in as much of the ballot as you can. There are a lot of great people nominated in other categories that deserve your vote.
Love and blood,
JV
Accepting my first Rondo Award at Wonderfest, Kentucky.
Here’s one way to jumpstart a film career: make a brilliant short that gets you noticed by a filmmaking giant in Hollywood. That’s exactly what happened to Spanish filmmaker Andres (“Andy”) Muschietti, whose three-minute short Mama (2008) caught the attention of Guillermo del Toro. While shooting Pacific Rim in Toronto, del Toro shepherded Muschietti on a feature length version of Mama, a supernatural thriller starring Zero Dark Thirty’s Jessica Chastain and Game of Thrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. We’ve also seen this career-making magic happen to Neill Blomkamp with District 9 and Fede Alvarez with his short Panic Attack! – a five-minute Youtube sensation that scored him a gig directing the upcoming remake of Evil Dead, produced by Sam Raimi. Like Blomkamp and Alvarez, Muscheitti had never made a feature film before, and now has one in wide release. In an interview conducted for Revolver Magazine, Muscheitti and I discuss the creative challenges in expanding a short into a feature, what it was like making a film next door to the Pacific Rim set and, most importantly, how to make ghosts scary in film.
I’ve seen the short film upon which your feature is based. One of its strongest aspects is ambiguity: not knowing whether “Mama” is actually their mother possessed, back from the grave, or perhaps even an entity that they have named “Mama.”
I totally agree with you on the ambiguity fact and of course it was an important matter when we first started developing the story. To some extent, there are a number of things you can get away in a short film that you just can’t do in a feature. In one aspect, Mama the movie is an ANSWER to Mama the short because the short film only raises questions. How do the girls have a mother like that? Why do they run away from her? What is the story behind this? If a feature film of two hours left you wondering the same things that the short did, it would be a huge disappointment for the audience. The challenge when we wrote the storyline was to actually set up a credible scenario where this situation would happen. So basically, in the movie, all the questions are answered as the story unfolds. Having said that, ambiguity is still a quality in the film. Tension builds up as the mystery of Mama grows bigger in the story. The plot that slowly illuminates the story of Mama only helps to build up suspense and lead you to a nightmarish resolution. You could say the irrational fear you feel in the short is replaced by a context-rich story that builds up tension in a more complex way, reaching the same levels of intensity than the short does. No, actually more.
Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Annabel (Jessica Chastain) get more than they bargained for when they take in their feral nieces.
In the short “Mama” herself is reminiscent of Japanese horror apparitions such as Ringu‘s raven-haired Sadako or even The Devil’s Backbone‘s Santi. And the feature feels thematically more like Truffaut’s L’enfant sauvage and Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. Were you at all inspired by these films?
The Ring and The Devil’s Backbone are two amazing genre movies I like. But I did not take either as a reference or influence – at least not in a conscious way, ha! My idea of what’s scary goes back in time further than these masterpieces. I instinctively stay away from things that have been made in film before. Also Mama from the movie looks different than Mama from the short. The problem in the short was we didn’t have enough money to post the creature the way I wanted it, so when I had the chance to make the feature, I designed the character in a way I knew we could achieve with VFX. My design for Mama was mainly based on a print of a Modigliani painting we had at home when I was a kid with my sister/producer barbara. It scared the crap out of me. The Innocents is a great classic ghost film I love, it was an obvious influence for Amenabar’s The Others, another movie I deeply admire.
The Innocents is a masterpiece.
Guillermo loves The Innocents too, and we would bring up the subject of its phenomenal camera work and choreographies more than once in the course of pre-production and even on the set. Guillermo would remind me in amazement: “and they did all that with a camera the size of a car!”
From the mythological Medea to Grimm’s Fairy Tales to Beowulf and Coraline, the the monstrous or cruel mother has been a recurring theme in the fantasy and horror genres. What is it about this motif that interests you specifically as a storyteller?
I was fascinated by the idea of imprint more than anything else: the fact that, in the absence of a mother, a small child could basically attach to anything that takes care of them, even an animal, in a strange survival instinct. In isolation, this child would start behaving like the creature that nurtures them. Following it, mimicking it, and eventually loving it. There are several real stories of lost children that became imprinted by animals, such as dogs, wolves and monkeys. In literature, Greystoke‘s Tarzan and The Jungle Book‘s Mowgli. Mama takes this idea of imprint and takes it to a darker, supernatural ground.
Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) in Mama.
In an time where moviegoers have seen everything, how does one make a ghost scary again?
There is so much to explore, believe me. I personally feel I have still much to give to this genre. And the good thing is now we have the technology to make anything happen. VFX are getting better and better, new codes are developed and now we can make things look more realistic than ever before. But of course, there is no use in having amazing VFX without original and fresh concepts for stories and for characters. I do agree that sometimes the genre seems to go stale. But that’s not a result of filmmakers lack of imagination as much as it is the prevalence of industrial products. Many of the genre films we see are no more than marketing products conceived from the start as that. Hopefully we can differentiate those from the other kind – the genuine, more authentic genre movies.
But how do you make a ghost scary?
Stick to your inner child. As we grow up, we rationalize things and tend to lose touch with our irrational fears and our ability to imagine things in the dark. If you keep your fears alive, you’ll be better at translating them onto screen. As we become older we learn more about storytelling and film techniques and so on, but if you are not scared of strange things in the dark yourself, the way a child is, how can you succeed in scaring others?
What was it like making your first feature at Pinewood, just a few floors below Guillermo, who was doing Pacific Rim?
Guillermo was actually next door, literally. He was shooting on the set next to ours. Actually we were surrounded by Pacific Rim sets! Guillermo had eight stages at Pinewood, we were using only one. We were Pacific Rim‘s poor little children. But it was like a dream. In the mornings Guillermo would come to visit our set an hour before shooting and we would go through the storyboards and scenes. I would sometimes sneak out at lunch time and visit Guillermo’s shoot. His sets were giant, breathtaking. On my last visit there was a real size ship hanging in the air.
Was there enormous pressure from the studio or were you given room to breathe creatively due to del Toro’s buffering presence?
I never felt any kind of pressure from the studio. We openly discussed notes and comments that came from their part, but creatively we felt very free to do the movie we wanted. Guillermo was very probably a buffering presence but in a good way. He would trust my instinct and the studio would trust Guillermo on his trust. I have no idea what this experience would be like without him being involved but we’re very happy he was on board. Without him we wouldn’t have been able to make Mama this big. On the other hand Guillermo would also be a very protective presence, recommending me as a director both creatively and strategically. He ‘s a very generous mentor and his knowledge of film and the industry is very impressive. He had all kind of experiences in moviemaking and he’s very willing to share it. Plus he’s one hell of a funny guy.
For more, read my horror column Splatter Matters in Revolver Magazine:
Take one part David Cronenberg, one part John Hughes, a dash of Alejandro Jodorowsky and you have Excision, one of the most demented coming of age black comedies ever made. Based on the short film of the same name, Excision stars AnnaLynne McCord (Nip/Tuck) as Pauline, a deranged high school student who’ll stop at nothing to win the affection of her mother (played by Traci Lords). In an interview conducted for Revolver Magazine #105, Director Richard Bates Jr. spilled his guts about my favourite horror film of 2012. Below is the full Q&A:
This film revels in its “femaleness” so much so that it makes me wonder if you grew up with women. Was that the case?
No, but I do wear very tight pants. And I used to be fat so I know what it feels like to have breasts.
Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) has some truly twisted fantasies.
I feel like at its heart Excision explores the complex relationship that sometimes emerges between mothers and daughters. What made you decide to write a film from this unique and largely unfamiliar vantage point?
Excision is most definitely an exploration of the relationship between parents and their children. The feature-length version is an expansion of a short film I made in college that had a pretty successful run on the independent film circuit (50 festivals, 24 awards). The only reason my lead character is a female is because the most talented thespian I knew in college happened to be a female. Originally, I wrote the film for her. Having said that, I put a lot of myself into the character of Pauline and I think it was good to have that barrier to be able to disassociate from the character. It helped me avoid being too self-indulgent with any of the more autobiographical stuff.
They say that screenwriters should “write what they know.” Is Pauline you to some degree?
There’s definitely a lot of me in Pauline… I think in a lot of ways she’s an exaggeration of a side of myself I spent a lot of time suppressing in high school in order to try and fit in. And in terms of the scenes inspired by my childhood; I grew up with cold sores, was made to attend Cotillion classes and my first sexual experience ended with my face being covered in menstrual blood.
One of Excision’s many bizarre, Jodorowsky-styled dream sequences.
Would you call Excision a “feminist” horror film?
No, I wouldn’t take it that far. It’s a character study of a high school outsider searching for the approval of her parents. I do have a real weakness for strong female characters though. Have you ever seen that movie, “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains”? Diane Lane’s character in that movie is my all time crush. I tried to channel a little bit of her into Pauline.
Your film is reminiscent of Welcome to the Dollhouse, Heathers, Nekromantik 2 and even Franju’s Eyes Without a Face – if only superficially. I can also feel the influence of Cronenberg, John Hughes obviously and I would even go so far as to say Alejandro Jodorowsky at times! Were any of these films and filmmakers an inspiration to you?
Holy Cow! All these films influenced Excision. I screened Welcome to the Dollhouse and Eyes Without a Face for the crew before we started shooting and Heathers is one of my all-time favorite movies! Holy Mountain (Jodorowsky) and Videodrome (Cronenberg) inspired a lot of the dream sequence imagery. The movie affectionately wears a lot of its influences on its sleeve. It’s a love letter to all the films and filmmakers that got me through growing up. I recently heard someone refer to Excision as a John Hughes movie directed by Dario Argento. For me, that’s just about the greatest compliment in the world.
The aspect I most admire about the film is that it presents a misanthropic girl who actually values her solitude and is in complete control of her situation. We’re used to seeing the picked on nerd, but we’re not used to seeing one that’s so comfortable in her rather unpleasant skin (in stark opposition to her mother who clearly hates herself). Was it your intention to always write a story with a strong female anti-hero?
Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) is not your average girl next door.
Yes, most definitely! I wanted to create a character that outsiders could relate with, and to a certain degree, live vicariously through. As a child growing up in the suburbs of Virginia, films not only acted as a gateway to the outside world but as an outlet for a lot of teenage angst. Without access to so many unique and provocative films by talented filmmakers from around the world I would have felt very alone with my own thoughts. My hope is that the themes resonate and that teenagers respond to the characters and ultimately feel more comfortable in their own skin.
Are you a horror fan? Do you see Excision as a horror movie?
I have been in love with horror films ever since I discovered an unmarked VHS tape of Hellraiser in my parent’s basement as a little kid. Before that, I used to get these horrible nightmares. I would literally wake my parents up at night and ask them to take me to the hospital to make them go away. But, when I discovered horror movies it was different. I could watch them over again, acclimate myself to the nightmarish realities they presented and confront my fears head on. Excision is a cross between a horror film and a pitch-black teen comedy… with a little bit of Greek tragedy mixed in for good measure.
Excision is available unrated on DVD from Anchor Bay Films.
The Spanish horror magazine El Buque Maldito features an all new interview with Jovanka on her transition to filmmaking with The Captured Bird.
EL BUQUE MALDITO #18
Now available the new issue of the fanzine El Buque Maldito.
Below all its contents: Reports of SITGES 2012–45 International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, XXIII Horror and Fantasy Film Festival of San Sebastián, Cryptshow Festival 2012, Cardoterror VII-Festival de Cinema de Cardedeu and FrightFest 2012.
INTERVIEWS:
Adrián García Bogliano: The Spanish filmmaker settled in Argentina will talk about his last work “Ahí va el Diablo”.
Alexandre Aja: After leaving his native country, France, and make professional career in USA, he will talk about the remake of “Maniac” as producer and scriptwriter.
César del Álamo: Giallo comes back to the European movie and Spain has already got its first example: “Buenas noches, dijo la Señorita Pájaro”.
Conor McMahon: “Stitches” guaranteed as the most naughty and gore movie of 2012! We will dissect it with his director.
Dante Tomaselli: The filmography of this American director continues in the way of confusion and fascination. “Torture Chamber”, his last work, is the central concept to know his mind, full of occultism and stigmas.
Federico Zampaglione: This Italian musician and director gets behind the camera again and offers us the giallo “Tulpa”
Jesús Franco, Antonio Mayans & Ferran Herranz: They join and build up “Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies”. The last eccentricity of Tío Jess.
Jovanka Vuckovic: After a period working in the Canadian magazine Rue Morgue she jumps to be a filmmaker with the short movie “The Captured Bird”. A dark childhood tale.
Noboru Iguchi: The most insane and spicy Japanese movies would not be the same without him. Dead Sushi!!!
Paul Hyett: Renowned in the field of make-up, his first step as a filmmaker will leave a mark… “The seasoning house” is, with out any doubt, the most atrocious and dark movie of 2012.
Ryan Haysom, Jon Britt & Antoni Maiovvi: Director, scriptwriter and music composer, respectively, will talk about their creature, the short movie “Yellow”. A New-Giallo that has become a key element after being in several festivals.
Scott Derrickson: After terrorizing everyone with “The exorcist of Emily Rose” now it’s the turn of “Sinister”. An experience in the horror genre as we have seldom seen.
Todd E. Freeman: “Cell count” one of the surprises of the year, halfway between “The Thing” and The New Flesh.
William Lustig: The renowned filmmaker, creator of the cult movie “Maniac”, talks about his company Blue Underground.
47 pages and written in Spanish. 3,50€.
In case you missed it, my list of the best horror films of 2012 is up at REVOLVER MAGAZINE:
Another year in fear has come to pass and it’s time to sit back and reflect on what initially appeared to be a low point in the cyclical history of horror. Some years the genre enjoys tremendous success in the mainstream, while others years it must be sought out in the trenches of the independent scene and in foreign markets. But it never goes away, and it never will. As long as we are able to make art that helps us know the unknowable, experience the unimaginable, and venture safely to oblivion and back, there will always be horror films. The trouble is finding the ones that are worth watching. That, intrepid cinematic travellers, is my responsibility to you here at Revolver.
At first it seemed an insurmountable task to find even 10 films I felt worthy of inclusion on this list. A cursory glance back at the year’s major releases yields a grim survey of unwatchable dreck: The Devil Inside, The Possession,ATM, Dark Shadows, The Apparition, Piranha 3DD, and The Chernobyl Diaries. Then there were the movies that had promise but just couldn’t quite rescue themselves from suffocating mediocrity and/or poor storytelling: Silent House, The Woman in Black, Sinister (a rip off of 2007’s The Poughkeepsie Tapes), The Pact, Rec3 (way to take that “scary” of that franchise, boys), and Ridley Scott’s gorgeous yet frustrating Prometheus.
Expectedly, things got brighter (or darker?) as I dug through the lesser-known titles, which tend to populate my list every year. And why not? Where’s the value in giving you the same list everyone else does? Do you really need another film journalist to tell you that Cabin in the Woods was “clever” or ParaNorman was “cute?” Respectfully, no.
To that end, I hereby present this year’s selection of truly original and exemplary horror films. Well, some of them can barely even be categorized as horror films but were still far more unnerving than Paranormal Activity 4. As always, I invite your unbridled outrage and endless nitpicking. I’ll even bring the popcorn.
Happy New Year!
