02/06/2008
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BANSHEE!!!
Continuing of our coverage of Synthetic Cinema’s forthcoming college-students-in-peril flick BANSHEE!!! (start tracking back through it here), Fango got ahold of producer Andrew Gernhard, who provided us with a first look at the titular beast (above) and a couple of shots of the movie’s bloody mayhem (below). “We have about six more weeks of postproduction,” Gernhard tells us. “We’re currently doing the sound mix and color correction, as well as completing 100-plus digital effects shots.”
BANSHEE!!! was filmed last summer in Connecticut under director Colin Theys, who also served as the flick’s FX artist. The staggering number of FX gags (for a low-budget flick) cited by the filmmaker are in this case imperative, as the film’s beast is being brought to life entirely within the digital realm. “Creating the creature has provided a really exciting level of flexibility,” Theys says. “It has been a technical challenge.”
Hoping to rise above the low-rent level of many digital critters on parade in similarly budgeted fare, the director adds that he’s “striving to provide a level of effects you don’t see in most of those films. Our monster doesn’t just float in the darkness, but interacts with the world—running through trees, swooping down from the sky to grab a person or ripping a man’s head apart from the mouth with its bare hands! We've been able to do more on this film—by leaps and bounds—than anything we've done before.” (Synthetic Cinema’s previous genre features include 2005’s PREDATOR ISLAND and last year’s BLOOD DESCENDANTS and WEREWOLF: THE DEVIL’S HOUND, formerly LYCAN).
Given the carnage on display in those stills and Theys’ promise of “over 18 onscreen kills,” BANSHEE!!! looks to be a potential bloodbath, and the director promises Fango readers an exclusive peek at the flick’s trailer in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes here.
—Sean Decker (Fangoria,com)
