A couple years ago, Alabama-based independent filmmaker Jay Burleson received some attention from the horror community for a fan film short he made called HALLOWEEN: HARVEST OF SOULS, which was presented as if it were the only remaining trace of a lost HALLOWEEN sequel made in the mid-1980s, a trailer from a battered old VHS tape.
Burleson has carried that VHS aesthetic over into his new feature, THE NOBODIES, a movie with quite an original and ambitious concept:
In 1993, Alabama based amateur filmmaker Warren Werner shot his first feature film, Pumpkin, on VHS. With a budget of only $600, a cast of friends, family, and unknown talent, the movie premiered at the local civic center and generated an immediate backlash from the community. Rumors that Warren and his girlfriend Samantha Dixon engaged in Satanic rituals began to spread throughout town. In the months following the premiere, Warren and Samantha committed suicide.
The following year, another group of filmmakers began shooting a documentary about the deaths of Warren and Samantha. The documentary project was never completed, and Pumpkin was never released.
The Nobodies is Warren Werner's Pumpkin, in it's entirety, cut together with the remaining documentary footage of the director's life and death.
Burleson took inspiration from the works of Lloyd Kaufman, John Waters, and PARADISE LOST documentarians Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky in the making of the film, which was shot on a mixture of VHS, expired 16mm film, and digital video that was then transferred to VHS.
So here we have a director who makes an over-the-top '90s-style SOV horror movie, then makes a PARADISE LOST-esque documentary about the tragic story of the fictional director of that horror movie, and cuts those two things together to make his feature. It's certainly a unique project.
Starring Adam Wingard regular Lane Hughes (YOU'RE NEXT, V/H/S, A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, the underrated POP SKULL), Bill Pacer, Henry Gilliland, Hannah Hughes, Bart Hyatt, Aly Sutton, Ashtyn Wallace, LaDonna Allison, and Danny Vinson, THE NOBODIES will soon be making the festival rounds ahead of a 2016 DVD/VHS/VOD release through Sleep Creature Releasing.
To get a glimpse of the insanity, check out the trailer below, but be warned that it does include some NSFW elements.