‘Now stand just like that. Great. Now I can finally get some sleep.’
Upon visiting SlasherStudios.com, you’d notice that the site’s founders Kevin Sommerfield and Steve Goltz are a tad enthusiastic about the horror sub-genre. I mean, duh. It’s in the name. It’s also in the blog posts, reviews, and webcasts, where Sommerfield and Goltz dissect the crap out of movies, both slasher and some of that other stuff.
The Appleton-based horror company also goes the extra mile, beyond writing and analyzing horror movies: they make their own. Earlier this week, they released a teaser trailer for their upcoming film, Don’t Go To The Reunion, which you can watch here. If you’re not already excited for it, here are three reasons you should be:
1. The teaser shows us nothing
It’s only a teaser, but one thing mainstream horror seems to share with comedies is their marketing departments: they give far too much away. Not Don’t Go To The Reunion, though. That writer Kevin Sommerfield and director Steve Goltz have virtually given nothing away is an encouraging sign that the best is yet to come.
Besides, there’s enough intrigue and technique in the teaser to keep us interested anyway, and Slasher Studios seems to get that. The slow foot-level push with the camera looks appropriately ominous. And what’s not to love about the violently abrupt changes in color? Not to mention the smash cut of the title card is appropriately awesome. In less than two minutes, Slasher Studios shows they have an effective command of visuals, music and dialogue, and at the same time show us nothing.
2. The track record shows us a lot
When it comes to horror, Sommerfield and Goltz know what they’re talking about. Their horror short, Popularity Killer, follows a group of high school students who discover that a girl’s mysterious murderer is still on the prowl, hunting down their school’s popular kids. The co-creators bring in a library of horror knowledge by tackling a bevy of character cliches and incorporating dark satire into a tongue-in-cheek premise. Don’t Go To The Reunion looks to continue that tradition.
There’s a self-awareness that seems afoot this time around, and that goes beyond the rhyming tagline: “There’s gore in store for the class of 2004.” Sommerfield and Goltz seem keen on promoting Don’t Go To The Reunion as a bloody love letter to 80’s horror, and that seems like a real possibility with a central character who’s also a horror junkie. Considering its own creators were practically raised on Friday the 13th movies, it’s safe to expect there will be at least a few in-references when all is said and done, and we might be all the better for it.
3. The runtime promises us more
In February 2011, Sommerfield and Goltz finished their first horror short, Teddy, and subsequently received a string of praise. Teddy went on to earn nominations from the Peculiar Film Festival and Horror Society and even won “Audience Favorite” at the Chicago Fear Fest. Yet as brutal as Teddy is as a short film, I found myself wanting more out of it. It has more than a few unforgiving moments, not to mention a disturbing take on its killer, one that invokes all kinds of messed up adolescent implications. At the very least, I could have watched Mike Goltz’s hilariously oafish take on the testosterone-fueled tough guy for a full 90 minutes.
Funded through a Kickstarter project over the course of 60 days, Don’t Go To The Reunion is a big deal for Slash Studios because it’s also their first feature-length film, and it’s that kind of narrative freedom that has me so excited for it. A longer runtime and a bigger budget will hopefully give Sommerfield and Goltz the chance to expand their ideas further. And maybe include a few more deaths-by-fire-iron, but that’s an in-reference.
- Don’t Go To The Reunion comes out August 15. You can find more details over at Slasher Studios’ website.