PopWrapped Impossible Horror Review says “Impossible Horror Sticks In Your Mind.”
Review by Matt Mitchell – Read original at PopWrapped
Have you ever lived in an apartment and heard a scream from somewhere nearby? I have. It makes you wonder if someone was just having a little too much fun partying or was someone just robbed, attacked, or murdered? That is the easiest way I can describe what Impossible Horror is about, yet it doesn’t begin to cover all the things you’ll watch. When Lily and Hannah hear a scream every night in their neighborhood, they start investigating where they are coming from. Finding strange objects and even stranger people, they try to piece together what is happening.
By Emily Milling
You may know Nate Wilson – Writer Producer from such films as Fuck Buddies, or Bonfire, which premieres tonight at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Nate’s a filmmaker with a strong creative vision and the determination to get things done. On Impossible Horror, Nate wrote along with director Justin Decloux, and produced along with me, to help make the film as creative and original as it is. Check out Bonfire at 4:00 p.m. at the Scotiabank Theatre on Sunday, October 15 (playing before Rabbit) and follow it up with Impossible Horror on Monday at 9:30 p.m. on October 16!
E: Hey Nate!
N: Hel-
E: GROOVY! So let’s talk about Impossible Horror, your first feature film as a writer/producer. What was it about this project that drew you in?
N: I guess I had just finished writing and directing two thingies one after the other and thought the momentum would be great carrying over to a feature. The dream of making a super uninhibited low-budget horror movie has been the most prominent one in my life, and that’s not me being facetious or anything. So one day shortly after you and Justin started the Indiegogo we started talking like we often do. Then, as the Indiegogo continued, Justin and I began to write the script in the Toronto Reference Library. The moment presented itself and we all took it.
E: You worked very closely with Justin Decloux (writer/director) to develop the characters Lily and Hannah. Do you think your working dynamic is reflected in theirs? How so? If not, why?
N: I don’t think we intended for the working dynamic to be similar to us, but there’s probably something there. I think Justin and I were reflecting our worst creative selves from past projects to write Lily, and even then it was really easy for us both to become that person again. Lily and Hannah embody two opposing approaches to productivity that are hard to balance with each other. Neither way is wrong really, I hope we didn’t finish the movie too much as one or the other.
E: Impossible Horror deals with a lot of paranormal entities, can you talk a bit about creating the mythology behind the hoodies, and what the numbers mean on the objects that Lily and Hannah find?
N: The numbers are the order in which the objects were found, from object #1 to whatever the last one is. The order Hannah has is probably all wonky though. Justin and I figured out the mythology going from scene #1 to whatever the last one is, and that order’s probably wonky too.
E: Creative blocks are a running theme throughout the film. Eventually, Lily starts to get over her creative block by hunting the scream and developing a story for a film. What methods do you use to get over your creative blocks? Do you see any similarities between you and Lily in your methods?
N: I like to read, and walk around, and watch movies. I find I’ll get hit with stuff when I start doing something else. I definitely don’t like to stressturbate as much as Lily does, but maybe when I was younger.
E: What was the most difficult part of writing Impossible Horror, and how did you work through it?
N: When we had to rewrite the movie in two days and then I ate a convenience store roti and got so sick I was shitting and puking all night with the computer in the bathtub next to me. I think I took some pepto.
E: What did you enjoy most about working with the tight-knit cast and crew over the two weeks of midnight shoots?
N: Uhhhhhhhh. I mean don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the whole thing, but I can’t really remember any details. Sometimes I would go to work in the day and we would start shooting at 7:00 p.m. every night and go till dawn. We all got super used to the smell of each other’s coffee farts and took our fair share of involuntary naps, and what can I say – a lot of us started getting pretty green by the end. But seriously, don’t get the wrong idea here, it was a total dream and everyone was a beautiful angel and I’ve never worked on a funner set with more professional people. I’d replicate the model in a heartbeat.
E: When the film started coming off the page, into life, what scene was the most exciting for you to watch as a writer?
N: I’m not sure what single scene. Watching the whole thing come together in the last couple months in editing has been a beautiful, beautiful experience. Every scene was out of context for so long that you forget these things were written to fit together. I don’t know when it was, but when you make a movie there is a moment when everything goes vertical, and it clicks in your brain, and it never really catches you by surprise cause you’ve been working on it for so long but it’s really nice. Sound design really does it usually, because your movie can be stick figures who barely move but when we hear a rich sound design it turns real. It’s such a magic trick.
E: Why should people come out to see Impossible Horror?
N: It’s heartfelt, and inventive, and relentless. It has great sound design. It’s the real deal!
E: Thanks Nate! Have a superb day!
N: Thanks Emily. We didn’t have to do this but we did, and we worked real hard and I think it was so worthwhile! I’m gonna go do my laundry.
TORONTO INDIE FILM IMPOSSIBLE HORROR TO HAVE WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL
Two women search for the source of a sinister scream each night while challenging creative demons in this original horror story.
Toronto, October 3, 2017 – Independent filmmaker and Toronto resident Justin Decloux (Teddy Bomb, 2014) will be premiering his second feature film, Impossible Horror, at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on October 16, 2017, 9:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank Theatre in downtown Toronto. The screening will include a Q&A with cast and crew of the film, which was produced and shot in Toronto.
In Impossible Horror, Lily (Haley Walker), an insomniac filmmaker who is facing a crippling creative block, begins to hear a sinister scream outside her window every night. Convinced that she must find a way to help the person that is screaming, Lily heads into the darkness of her neighborhood and meets Hannah (Creedance Wright), a veteran scream hunter, obsessed with putting a stop to the nightly occurrence. The women join forces to solve the bloodcurdling mystery and quickly discover that its true source may be an otherworldly threat that is driving its victims into madness – and Lily and Hannah are next.
Original and inventive, Decloux explores the pain and frustrations of creative blocks in this horror allegory. Through Lily and Hannah’s pursuit of answers and inspiration in a world where creative resources are scarce, this story invites us to imagine the monsters we conjure ourselves, coming to life.
“The need to create gnaws at me, forces me to put pen to paper – I wanted to make a film about that struggle,” says Decloux. “But what if the passion was stoked by something external, something unknowable, something that could drive you insane? Something you had to catch.”
Impossible Horror is Justin Decloux’s second feature film as a Writer/Director and the first under his production company CANMAKE Productions which produces independent genre films in Toronto, co-founded by Producer/Composer Emily Milling.
“To have the opportunity to work on a story that reflects my own experiences as a creative person told through the lens of female characters, legitimizes my creative ambitions,” says Emily Milling, Producer. “My goal for this film was not just to help tell a great and original story, but also to empower other creative women with on-screen examples of ingenuity and problem solving uninhibited by any need to have the characters rely on male intervention, and I think we achieved that.”
Impossible Horror was Written by Justin Decloux and Nate Wilson, Directed by Justin Decloux and Produced by Emily Milling and Nate Wilson. Cast includes Haley Walker, Creedance Wright, April Etmanski, Alex Chung, Adelina Pipher and Aleks Vujosevic. Director of Photography is Aidan Tanner, Editor is Justin Decloux and Composer is Emily Milling. Produced through CANMAKE Productions. Executive Producers Lindsey Boehme and Brooklyn Boehme.
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Contact:
Emily Milling/Justin Decloux
Media Contact
647-394-6411
[email protected]/[email protected]
About CANMAKE Productions
CANMAKE Productions is an independent film production company in Toronto, Ontario. Focusing on genre narrative films, the company tells stories that are original, unique and character driven.
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