Producer/director Rod Blackhurt's post-apocalyptic zombie film HERE ALONE (pictured above) was a bit too long and too slow for my taste, so even though I thought it was interesting and emotionally effective, I ended up giving it a 6/10 review. After the release of that film, Blackhurst and producer Noah Lang formed the Witchcraft Motion Picture Company, and it sounds like they're going to be doing some cool things.
Witchcraft has an "underrepresented writer" mandate where they're aiming to produce one to three projects every year that have been written by writers who are from underrepresented communities, including the economically disadvantaged, and have been overlooked by the entertainment industry. There's a free online submission system in place, and this search for underrepresented writers has its first success story.
Witchcraft has optioned a psychological horror script called SHE CAME BACK and have put the project on the fast-track to production, with Blackhurst set to direct the film.
Written by Emily Renee Bennett, SHE CAME BACK is described as being like The Haunting of Hill House, if it was set at The Overlook Hotel from THE SHINING. The story centers on
a young woman haunted by the childhood murder of her young sister, and who, upon returning to her hometown, discovers that her sister might not be dead after all.
Blackhurst and Lang had this to say about the project:
SHE CAME BACK is a film about mental illness, addiction, guilt, and a strong and vulnerable woman’s struggle for identity. It represents the sort of elevated genre material that is attractive to audiences and is rich with thematic material to be mined and represented emotionally and visually alongside a strong lead actress – the kind of storytelling that is unfortunately rare in the genre space which we’re excited to empower and produce."
Blackhurst is also attached the direct a movie for Amblin called THE WHITE ROOM. Now we wait to see which one will be filmed first.