MUTANTVILLE PRODUCTIONS

Changing the face of independent horror.

G.H.O.S.T. Finale Ends With Whimpers And A Bang.

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Make-up FX Maestro Todd A. Britt brings another ghostly creation to life during the wee hours of the night.

Last night, Mutantville Productions wrapped principle photography on G.H.O.S.T. after a long fifteen hour shoot.  Kathy Sandvoss earned her final Scream Queen stripes and Super Diva status by battling her way through another challenging shoot.  Thanks to our good friend, couture designer, Luis Machicao for lending his tremendous talents in supervising the filming of his costume designs for the finale of the movie.  Lead actor Scott Thomas persevered another bloody and bruising shoot to bring our central ghost to life.  Clint Jones showed his horror heart by enduring several make-up sessions.  Dave Tunik gave his all in taking another bloody bite out of his role and a gelatin prop.  Jason Wheely gave a heartwrenching performance as a haunted young TV producer.  Jack Stecher pulled out all the stops to give a bravura performance as the crazy caretaker of the opera house.

Special thanks goes out to MVP’S own maestro of make-up FX – Todd A. Britt for bringing all of his Sith talents to bear in creating several macabre make-ups over the course of the fifteen hour marathon.  Additional thanks goes to Sylvia and Sierra for lending their talents to the make-up department by resurrecting our supernatural visitors once more.  Thanks again to Allan Whitley for toughing out another long night to lend a strong hand and keep our boomstick steady for another night.  Special thanks goes out MVP’S own Costume Diva, seamstress and assistant to Mr. Machicao, Angela Pritchett  who although unable to attend our final shoot due to schedule conflicts, put in many a long night on the set of G.H.O.S.T., lending her considerable costuming talents to help bring the production to life.  Thanks to John R. Sexton for putting on a layered performance as Grandfather last month.  Thank you to Kayli Tolleson and her mom Janna for lending their talent, energy and support to G.H.O.S.T. over the course of the shoot.  And last but not least a very special thanks goes to my mom, Momma Streebo, for being a beacon of strength and inspiration to me over the years and for dusting off her sewing machine to create Johnny Reb’s jacket in whole – mere days before the first shoot.  And to anyone that helped that I may have overlooked here, thank you for your help, we could not have done it without you all.  Thank you.

This project has been an amazing journey and I thank you all for sharing it with me.  Production may be complete – but post-production begins immediately as we will continue with editing, sound design and shooting final make-up FX shots of the movie.  Be sure to keep tuning in to Mutantville.com and Mutant TV for your up to the minute news on G.H.O.S.T., C for Chaos, and MVP.

~~Streebo

Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 7:44 pm.

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G.H.O.S.T. Still Lives!

GHOST-1A loss of power on the set last week set production on G.H.O.S.T. back by one week.  It will take more than that to keep a good G.H.O.S.T. down.  The Mutantville Players are rested, ready and assembled to get back on set tomorrow and finish what we started.  We can never thank you all enough for your hard work and dedication.  This has been an amazing project from beginning to the near end.  Thanks for coming on this amazing journey with us.  Please take a minute to check out the preliminary designs for the t-shirts and promos for G.H.O.S.T.  We have more on the way and you can only learn about it right here on Mutantville.com!

Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 7:42 pm.

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Dumb Dudes Die While Leading Ladies Live… Ah, the Sexism of Horror

From Horror Hacker:  When I mention the trite phrase that horror movies are horribly sexist, I bet some female readers of this column shout an instant, fist-pumping “Preach on!” When I clarify that horror movies are horribly sexist against men, that’s when those same ladies decide that this preacher actually spews misogynistic lies. The prevailing belief is that horror flicks are sexist and that the targets are women. But if you do the basic math, the sexism is against men.Let’s look at this from a scientific perspective, and by “scientific” I mean in light of the theories of that early legend of science, Charles Darwin. Maybe you’ve heard of him? He’s the guy who coined that pesky phrase “survival of the fittest.” If only the fittest survive, and most horror movies feature a “final girl,” then what does that say about the genre’s stance on men? Or let’s go at this issue another way: Do you actually think horror movies portray females as weak? Tell that to Halloween’s Laurie Strode. Tell that to Scream’s Sidney Prescott.The winner of any fight is the one left standing — no one cares how you survive, as long as you do. If that survival comes wrapped in screaming, crying, pleading, more crying, running, a little more screaming, tripping, not being able to put the car keys in the lock and then finally sticking a knife in a bad guy? Yeah, you still won. So I don’t care how “weak” a final girl may look, if she’s the one who walks away, she’s the survivor and therefore the fittest.
Read the rest at the link below:

via AMC – Blogs – Horror Hacker – Scott Sigler – Dumb Dudes Die While Leading Ladies Live… Ah, the Sexism of Horror.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 8:10 pm.

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Scary Halloween Horror Video Games!

Check out this video from Gamespot for a nice list of awesome video games for all platforms XBOX 360, Playstation, Wii, etc.  This is about as close to a greatest horror video games list that you will ever find. These games are guaranteed scary as hell and will make you crap your pants!  Depends pull up undergarments required in order to play. Doom. Resident Evil. Bioshock. System Shock 2. Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. The Thing. Alone in the Dark. Silent Hill 2. Dead Space. Clive Barker’s Jericho. Silent Hill Homecoming. Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 5. Cilve Barker’s Undying. Left 4 Dead. F.E.A.R. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Condemned. Condemned 2.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 2:11 pm.

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Icons of Fright: An Interview with Russ Streiner

night-of-the-living-deadfrom Icons of Fright:

Halloween is a week from now, and there’s one very special way to celebrate it in Evans City, Pennsylvania this year, at Gary Streiner’s 2nd Annual Living Dead Festival. Recently, I interviewed Gary about his role in the production of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Through Gary, I was able to interview another of the key people involved in the film: his brother, the producer and the actor who played Johnny, Russell Streiner.

Russ was an important part of the Latent Image, a commercial filmmaking company which he founded with George Romero. He’s since gone on to work on many films with another NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD collaborator, John Russo. Russ was gracious enough to take some time today and discuss the legacy of the zombie classic with me, for his fans at Icons of Fright.

Phil Fasso: How did you first get involved with George Romero?

Russ Streiner: I started off wanting to be an actor, which I pursued through high school. And after high school, I went to the Pittsburgh Playhouse School of the Theatre, and graduated from their two-year acting program. While I was there, I was working in stage shows at night, and at one of those, I was cast with another fellow. His name was Rudy Ricci, and we shared a dressing room. Rudy had been attending classes at Carnegie Mellon University (back then it was called Carnegie Tech). He was taking art classes there, and he met George Romero in an art class. George was transplanted, from the Bronx to Pittsburgh, to go to Carnegie Tech’s School of Painting and Design. Rudy brought George over to one of our shows one night, and that’s how I first got to meet him. Then, within maybe six or eight months, George called me and asked me if I would be willing to be an actor in a movie that he was putting together, called EXPOSTULATIONS. And I told him I would. I showed up for my very first day of production, and really became intrigued with the whole film production part of the business, which I knew nothing about. I stuck with EXPOSTULATIONS as an actor, and then also helped out on the crew. That’s how George and I first met. And we went on to set up a business and worked together for about 10 years.

PF: How did your experience in commercials and industrial films help you to put together a feature film?

RS: Any time you get a chance to practice your craft, whether it’s in short form like TV commercials or longer form like industrials, all of that goes to help you refine your craft. And that’s certainly how our whole group got helped out, all of which led up to 1967, when we did the actual filming of NOTLD.

Read the rest of this interview with a piece of Night of the Living Dead history click the link below.

via Icons of Fright News and Updates: An Interview with Russ Streiner.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 10:41 am.

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Kayli Wraps G.H.O.S.T.

kayli-at-opera-houseMutantville Productions is proud to announce that Kayli Tolleson (young Maya) has wrapped her role for G.H.O.S.T..   Kayli and her very supportive mother Janna joined us on the set of G.H.O.S.T. this week for her time in front of the camera.  Kayli put on a splendid performance as young Maya.  We are very happy with her and we are sure she will be proud of her work in the final movie.  Thank you for your help Kayli and Janna!  We’ll see you at the wrap party!

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 9:54 am.

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FEARnet’s Top 10 Horror Movies Inside Horror Movies.

From Fear.net: Making a horror movie can be a surreal experience. You spend long hours performing terrifying atrocities in front of the camera. Then the director yells “Cut!” and suddenly you’re headed over to the snack table to have a cup of coffee with the person you just disemboweled.

But sometimes, the line between making a realistic horror film and finding yourself knee-deep inside one gets a little too blurry and bloody for comfort. Here are ten of our favorite examples:

PEEPING TOM (1960). Here’s the good news: you get to star in your own movie. Here’s the bad news: the director likes to film his stars as he kills them, so he can capture their true expressions of fear. Talk about method acting. But hey, a gig’s a gig

DEMONS (1985).  This Lamberto Bava/Dario Argento production is an example of how even watching a horror movie can get you in trouble.  A late night crowd enters a cavernous Berlin movie theater to enjoy a special midnight screening of a new horror film. However, thanks to the presence of a cursed mask from the set of the movie, the monsters of the film come alive inside the theater itself, where they bypass the popcorn and start gnawing their way through the audience.
WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE (1994).  ”One, two, Freddy’s really coming for you!”  While filming the next installment of the lucrative “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, the actual actors and crew members (Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, director Wes Craven, etc. all playing themselves) discover they’re being stalked and killed by what appears to be a real life Freddy Krueger in Craven’s mind-bending twist on the creative process.
See the rest at the link below.

via FEARnet’s Top 10 Horror Movies Inside Horror Movies – FEARNet.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 7:22 am.

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FEARnet’s Top 10 Creepy Clowns

From Fear.net:  Some say that clowns get a bad rap. Theory being that a few bad apples have used the guise of the otherwise trustworthy buffoon for their own maniacal missions, trading in red noses and balloon animals for killer candy and deadly ice cream.

So what do you think? Are they misunderstood friends to children and favorites of circus-lovers everywhere or rainbow-clothed jesters of Satan? Check out our list of the most evil clowns around and you be the judge. But beware when they knock you dead, they really knock you dead.

Violator – Spawn

Short on height, but big on girth, this demon-turned clown wants nothing more than to enlist some souls into Satan’s army.

via FEARnet’s Top 10 Creepy Clowns – FEARNet.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 7:08 am.

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EXCL: Saw VI’s Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton Speak!

From ShockTillYouDrop.com:

How is this entry going to pick up the pieces five, frankly, left behind?

Patrick Melton: This is our third one out. With fourth and fifth film we were getting our footing on what the fans want. What makes a really good Saw movie, so I think with our third, we have a good grasp on that. It comes down to the “A” story. Not necessarily what John’s doing, or what Hoffman’s doing or what Amanda’s doing. It’s that “A” story that’s going to pull everyone together, the emotional hook. So there’s this new character and he’s going to bring us through to the end. With six, we put effort into it with Kevin to get a really good “A” story. It’s Peter Outerbridge, as William, and he has a connection with John and you’ll understand that early. You’ll understand the journey he has to take. When a trap starts, there’s a much more emotional connection and you’ll be rooting for this guy a bit more than you have rooted for anyone in the past.

Marcus Dustan: In terms of horror movies, Saw has been a nice introduction for four filmmakers so far. James Wan has hit it out of the park. Darren Bousman who is, right now, on Mother’s Day. Then, David Hackl is coming back and introducing a new format to these stories. Kevin Greutert, who has been a storyteller since day one, and he has crafted a tremendous visual story to go along with whatever we could have pounded out on the page. He’s a caring storyteller and he wants every audience member to feel the hit.

Melton: What he does well is, through the script process, he pays attention to the minutiae. That pays off. Especially in horror movies, there are the little things that get you. There are a bunch of little moments that set up the bigger moments.

Dunstan: It’s very emotional, too. For example the traditional Saw score didn’t quite fit this ending. It had to go in a new direction. If you were watching the endings of the previous entries, they have that Charlie Clouser score and on this, when we saw the first testing screening, Kevin was temporarily using other scores like [Requiem for a Dream]. It was building to a bigger moment emotionally. Clouser has busted his ass on this score and it’s aiming for the stands.

Read the rest of the interview at the link below.

via EXCL: Saw VI’s Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton- ShockTillYouDrop.com.

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 8:04 am.

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G.H.O.S.T. Puts Another Great Week Six Feet Deep!

gb-imminent-demins-ghost-10-17-2009The Mutantville Players converged upon the haunted opera house in Albemarle, North Carolina for another amazing night of filmmaking last night. We filmed another encounter with something from the other side last night!  I can’t tell you what happened or to whom – but I will say that you will be scared out of your pants – so be sure to wear two pairs when you watch this.

I ran out of ways to describe the talent and enthusiasm we have for this project and find myself resorting to simply telling you that we are doing some of our best work ever. The cast and crew continue to impress with their dedication and professionalism. Please enjoy your rest for the day. We have one more major scene to shoot next week, then we break for Halloween in order to prep for the major finale at the first of November. I continue to feel blessed and honored to work with you all. You inspire me to keep pressing hard working day in and day out to make G.H.O.S.T. the best short horror film of the year. Thank you all.

~~Streebo

Posted 2 years, 3 months ago at 9:51 am.

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