Cast and crew of Valley of Ditches, above.
Dances with Films continues with strong line-ups every day through the 12th.
Two horror/suspense films, Shortwave and Valley of Ditches captured our attention over the weekend.
Shortwave cast and crew above.
Shortwave made me scream and jump – the intense audio soundtrack, stunning camera moves, and sleek/modern contained interior setting brought chills and thrills.
Director/writer Ryan Gregory Phillips was “inspired by creepy sounds coming from the TV, and then the script was written in three days. We really wanted to do something like Ex Machina with our location. We wanted to make the setting real, but we wanted our characters trapped in the modernism, to create a real aura of claustrophobia,” he says.
One technique used was vasoline on the camera lens and diopter. “It allowed us to keep with the negative space, and create isolation in our shots.”
The New York state location is actually the director’s own home. “We built the lab in my garage in four days,” he relates.
He says the biggest challenge in the film was “having our characters express their loss, deal with the loss of their daughter in a meaningful way.” The story revolves around the sudden abduction of the daughter of a research scientist and his wife, aliens seeking contact, mysterious sounds on the shortwave radio, and the intensity of loss. “There’s a prequel and a sequel we’ve talked about,” Phillips says. “If this does well, you’ll see something even more screwed up than what was on screen this time.”
Juanita Ringeling as Isabel, the mom living with her loss day by day, gives an especially intense performance.
Cast and crew of Valley of Ditches, above.
Valley of Ditches served up a leaner take on horror than Shortwave, but an incredibly effective and beautifully intense one. Set in the desert of Joshua Tree, a girl and her boyfriend are abducted from their van, the boyfriend killed, the girl left for dead by the Bible-quoting madman who kidnapped her.
“Our logline,” director Christopher James Lang explains, “is a woman is left for dead and struggles to keep her sanity in a dark but accessible horror film. It’s an intensely personal struggle. We were trying to make a horror thriller that’s very accessible to general audiences.”
He and writer/star Amanda Todisco have succeeded, shooting over ten days using C300 digital. “It took us a year to edit. The film is having its world premiere at Dances with Films.”
Currently in talks with agents and distributors, the director should see good things ahead for this chilling, nail-biting film with a great third act twist.
“The project came about when Amanda and I were touring with our first feature, Our life in Make Believe, which is basically an uplifting road movie,” Lang states. “We decided that working together, looking for something darker would have more impact.”
The two worked on the script together, with Lang passing his outline to Todisco.
She says “People told us that with no-name leads it would be easier to sell horror. So James did the outline, the story line, and sent it to me. I added all the weird religious stuff. I wanted to give Sean, the murderer, a reason for what he did. We found a great quote from Kings 2 in the Bible, and built our idea around that.”
While shooting in the desert presented it’s challenges according to cinematographer Jack Yan Chen, who stabbed his hand on a cactus, the setting “shaped the performances. Dealing with the elements was a great challenge, but the desert itself was really another character.”
“It was an amazing setting,” Lang adds.
Pacing and editing are intensely perfect; this is a simply terrific film that will have you looking over your shoulder all the way home.
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