CON: Rogue

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

ROGUE PICTURES

25/8

It was a long Saturday night and after a few days of conducting interviews, I was ready to mellow out, go old school and check out a couple of panels on Sunday. Nothing settles a stomach like covering a couple horror movies, and there I was at the Rogue Pictures panel as moderator Ryan Rotten introduced the great Wes Craven.

I’m not going to break down Wes’ resume because it precedes him and even though I’m not a particularly big genre fan (although Scream is one of my favorite movies of all time), I was pretty damn thrilled to chill and watch the master of horror talk about his new flick 25/8.

To start off with, Wes explains that the title comes from a line from the movie that says, “The Devil works 24/7 and in order to beat the Devil, you have to work 25/8.” Or similarly, Eight Days a Week, as the Beatles sang. But then again they were talking about love, not killing the devil.

After a brief back and forth about the story, we were shown a clip. Open on an old bridge in what looks like a wooded area. It’s dark and foggy. From a distance we see someone walking on the bridge, then we switch views and now we’re following right behind him. He stops about midway on the bridge, rests his arms on the railing and looks out into the water. Then we see someone approaching the bridge. The kid (a teenager) doesn’t like the look of this, so he walks away, occasionally looking back. The kid starts picking up the pace, a light jog at first, which is mimicked by the stranger until the stranger breaks out into a full blown sprint. The kid’s screaming as the stranger catches him and proceeds to give him the business, which in this case is royally f*cking him up and dumping him over the railing and into the water below.

After the lights come up, it’s time for question and answer time. Here’s some info I gathered:

• Wes mentions this is the first time in 14 years that he’s directing something he’s written.
• Wes hates writing. He sums it up by using a quote from another writer who said, “I hate writing but I love having written.”
• He’s heard that there will be a Nightmare on Elm Street remake, but he hasn’t been contacted. People start booing.
• Filming has wrapped on the Last House on the Left remake and will be directed by Hardcore director Dennis Iliadis.
• The killer in 25/8 has a serious personality disorder where 1 of 7 personalities is the killer and wants the other personalities to keep it a secret. Sounds like my ex.
• Filming for 25/8 took 3 months at Martha’s Vineyard and will feature all new, young upcoming actors.
• Wes explains that the ideas for his films usually come to him at inopportune times. Such is the case with 25/8, it was the shower where he first had the idea.
• Filming has already wrapped on 25/8.
• Wes enjoys using teenagers in his movies because they are at the halfway point of being an adult and a kid. I’m 29 and still feel that way.

Wes then headed on out and that concluded his 25/8 portion of the Rogue Pictures panel.

THE UNBORN

A few months ago, I was to do a set visit for JoBlo.com for The Unborn in Chicago. Then for some reason, it fell through. Now, that I’ve seen the panel and teaser for it, I’m sooooo bummed it fell through.

Director and writer David Goyer comes out and introduces the cast of Odetta Yustman, Meagan Good (an appropriate name) and Cam Gigandet. Then we see a teaser that I absolutely love. Open on a babysitter talking to someone on the phone, then she hears some talking on the baby monitor. She walks up to the room and sees a boy leaning over a crib, talking intelligibly. As she approaches, the boy turns around and gives her a nice punch. Take that, ya silly babysitter. Then we see the babysitter going through what seems to be dementia. Or eye boogers. Her vision is blurred, but only on one side. When she’s at a club, half her field of vision is blurred, making people’s faces distorted, demonic looking. At the doctor, the color of one of her irises is changing. We find out from a conversation with her father that she had a twin that died in utero. Cut to a mental hospital, where an attempted exorcism is taking place. Cut to the creepy looking kid. Cut to a creepy, hunched over old man. Cut to the babysitter in an attic, approaching a person sitting in a chair in front of a window, cautiously. The person has their head down and as the babysitter gets closer she pulls the person’s head up to reveal a disfigured, dog faced version of herself with two mouths.

Maybe it was too much apple juice or the fact that the guy next to me was wearing make up, but I was officially creeped the f*ck out by the clip. In other words, I loved it! David Goyer then went on to explain that a lot of the effects that were in the clip weren’t fully done, though I personally hadn’t noticed.

• Goyer says this is the first original script he has written in 10 years.
• The climax of the film was filmed in an abandoned mental hospital that was so littered with raccoon shit, the health department had to routinely come in and inspect whether or not it was fully removed.
• During filming in Illinois, an earthquake hit. In Illinois.
• Filming wrapped about 8 weeks ago.
• Goyer lists “realistic horror” as the inspiration and wants to keep it grounded in that, despite the exorcism.
• The film will mix both practical and digital effects.
• Goyer let it be known to the actresses that the bugs that were to be crawling over them would be real and not an effect.
• The little boy in the movie had broken in his leg off set. So, for a big sequence in the movie, they brought in Deep Roy, the Oompa Loompa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to step in. Baby step in.
• Goyer says the inspiration for the story came from a 20/20 story about twins where, apparently, one often dies in utero. He also says that the idea that a twin you’d never knew existed and has never lived is haunting you is particularly terrifying.
• He started doing research on twins and often went back to Dr. Joseph Mangala’s experiments on twins for information.
• In response to a question posed to Odetta Yustman on working with Gary Oldman, she says that True Romance is her favorite movie of all time. I’m officially in love. Which has happened 24 times throughout Comic Con.