Director Wechter discusses his desktop based thriller.
Dark Cuts Pictures releases Jeremy Wechter’s e-Demon in US theatres and On Demand September 14th (with New York’s Cinema Village playing it from September 21st).
The pic, produced by Wechter, Michael Gonzalez, PJ Starks and Emily Pojman, tells of an escaped demon on a dark and twisted mission that manipulates a group of friends hanging out on a video-chat. The film is craftily structured - it takes place completely on a computer screen via the webcams being shown.
Kendra, AJ, Mar and Dwayne are old college friends who find themselves growing apart. Attempting to hang on to their good old Ohio State days, the gang gets together online for a night of stories, pranks and drinking via web-cam. As the evening progresses, they unknowingly release a deviously clever demon that had been trapped for centuries in Salem, Massachusetts. Since the demon can possess multiple people at once, the group of friends must determine who they can still trust in order to survive the demon’s dark and twisted mission.
Wechter, voted best director at the New York Horror Film Festival, tells us about his film.
Horror still seems to be selling - and then some. What appeals to you the most about this genre?
Horror is such an amazing genre. It allows us to explore our deepest fears at any given point in time. And currently, what's on the mind of a lot of people is the idea that an evil force is manipulating us through technology and turning members of society against each other.
And the horror community is amazing. They’re so supportive and open minded when it comes to giving new projects a chance. It doesn't matter if you have well known actors and directors. What matters is the inventiveness of the story, execution, and performances. e-Demon has all of that and more!
How did the idea for e-demon pop up?
Watching American Horror Story got me into a horror state of mind. I reverse engineered the idea based on what I was able to produce in terms of resources, location, equipment, cast, and crew. And then I really loved the idea that emerged: A supernatural being from the past who is released into the present and uses technology to control us.
What kind of research is required before starting on a script involving real-world technology?
The real challenge of designing the script was keeping it in real-time with so many different locations on screen at once. And the real research challenge involved the historical elements including the Salem Witch trials. The great, great, great, great, grandmother of the Mar character was killed for being a Salem witch, but prior to her death she was able to trap the e-Demon in a trunk. Centuries later, her careless descendent released the e-Demon during a prank on a recorded web chat. And you can watch what happened that infamous night by watching e-Demon.
How long did it take you to finish the film from start to end?
Let’s put it this way, it took several years to get the movie made. And for the record, I wrote the script before Unfriended came out.
It premiered at a film festival, right? How did it go?
It went beautifully. I won Best Director at the New York City Horror Film Festival. The audience was engaged for the entire rollercoaster ride from the humorous moments to the quiet dread of suspense to the visceral shock as the e-Demon possesses more and more people.
How did you settle on Dark Cuts?
I did a lot of research on distributors. I received eight different offers from various distributors. Since the guys at Dark Cuts are also filmmakers, they are able to understand the process from a filmmaker’s perspective and offered a collaborative vibe to ensure that I would have a voice in the process. In addition, they ensured that e-Demon would have a theatrical release along with being available on DVD and on a bunch of digital streaming platforms like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play etc.