Larry Fessenden—founder of the downtown production outfit Glass Eye Pix, and the city’s reigning maestro of uncompromising, fiercely independent genre fare—returns to Scary Movies for a 25th anniversary celebration of the landmark 2001 chiller that might be his most influential work to date. Erik Per Sullivan stars as Miles, the watchful 10-year-old son of photographer George (Jake Weber) and therapist Kim (Patricia Clarkson), whose life is irrevocably altered in the course of a snowbound upstate vacation. Driving through icy woods to a borrowed cabin, the close-knit family of Manhattanites are rattled when their car hits and injures a deer, attracting the ire of three local hunters who’d been tracking it for sport and profit. As his parents struggle to establish a fragile peace with their disgruntled neighbors, young Miles takes an interest in the story of the Wendigo, a voracious shapeshifter from Native American mythology. This sequence of events sets the stage for a formative encounter with vengeful nature and the elemental—yet indelibly human—mechanics of violence, unfolding across a wintry Catskills landscape that Fessenden’s 16mm camerawork infuses with an otherworldly glow. An IFC Films release. 4K restoration from the original 16mm camera negative by Vinegar Syndrome. Anniversary screening co-presented by Hollywood Entertainment.
I have always had a thing for maritime spookiness (see: Trawler), and I’d wanted for some time to write a pandemic-set piece about open-water swimming. Swimming was one of the things that got me through lockdown. On a small rocky beach in Howth, I would swim out to the buoy and rap my knuckles against it, in memory of loved ones now gone.
Three Raps on the Buoy grew out of those swims, but also out of my friendship and ongoing collaboration with Declan Reynolds (The Restoration at Grayson Manor). On the cover of the script, we say that the Tale is dedicated to the memory of our fathers, Patsy and Charlie, who were both taken from us too early and in tragic circumstances. That became increasingly important to us as the piece developed. Beneath the darkness, this is really a story about grief, and about the shapes it can take when we carry it for too long. So this one is for the Dads, and those that miss them.
The production also became something of a reunion for me. I got to work with my I Sell the Dead pal Ron Perlman again, and to reunite with sound designer John Moros, who absolutely kills it here. John has thrown himself into this Tale with an extraordinary amount of care and invention. He has followed the direction on the page to a T, while constantly finding ways to make the world richer, and more tactile. John has given it everything, right down to having me in his pool splashing about to capture the water we needed.
And, of course, I got to work with Declan, this time as both story collaborator and performer. Larry suggested bringing Ashley Bell into the mix, which was a wonderful idea. Ashley came aboard as Lauren and brought a warmth to the role that gave us an emotional dimension that I hadn’t quite anticipated.
Working with actors, and playing alongside them, is the best job in the world. There is something so genuinely good about a group of people committing themselves to the same imagined world and seeing where it takes us.
Ron, Declan and Ashley, thanks for swimming in this ocean with me, where the waters were never the same twice. “Always in flux.”
A big thank you my Pale Brother Larry Fessenden for steering the ship along with Jordan Gass-Poore’ and Rigo Garay, and to Lee Nussbaum, who lent a hand at every step of the journey, from the earliest days of the piece right through to the finish line. His support, patience and good instincts are woven into this one too.
Glenn McQuaid
Top: John Moros records McQuaid • Middle: Perlman, Reynolds, Bell • Bottom: McQuaid at Monkeyland
Two open-water swimmers meet at a buoy, where hopes and secrets rise to the surface.
Written and Directed by Glenn McQuaid Story by Declan Reynolds & Glenn McQuaid Cast: Ron Perlman, Declan Reynolds and Ashley Bell Sound Design, Foley and Edit by John Moros Original Soundtrack by Glenn McQuaid Recorded at Monkeyland Audio, Los Angeles, and The Man Cave, County Kildare. Sound Recordist Jacob Ortiz Produced by Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid along with Rigo Garay & Jordan Gass-Poré Special Thanks to Adrienne Greenhalgh, Lee Nussbaum and Dan Siron at Red Kite Talent. Poster by Trevor Denham
THR: Ojai Playhouse Launches ‘Left Turn,’ a Free Indie Film Showcase Featuring ‘Our Hero, Balthazar,’ ‘Crumb Catcher’ and More
‘$Positions,’ ‘Our Hero, Balthazar,’ ‘Fucktoys,’ ‘Situations’ and ‘The Napa Boys’ are among the movies on the lineup, which will be followed by live Q&As with participating filmmakers.
Following the recent success of independent films like Obsession and Backrooms, Ojai Playhouse is launching Left Turn, a new programming series aimed at spotlighting emerging independent filmmakers, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal.
The inaugural event, set for Aug. 8, is a free one-day showcase featuring screenings of independent releases followed by live Q&As with participating filmmakers. It will take place at Ojai Playhouse, one of California’s oldest independent theaters. Built in 1914, the venue is among the state’s first single-screen cinemas.
The lineup includes $Positions, Our Hero, Balthazar, Fucktoys, Situations, The Napa Boys and Crumb Catcher, the latter of which earned a spot on THR’s list of the best horror movies of 2024. Making their Ojai debuts are Crumb Catcher, Situations and Our Hero, Balthazar. Journalist Daniel Spielberger (NBC News, Esquire) will moderate each filmmaker discussion.
“Thrilled to host this eclectic lineup and welcome the filmmakers and fans of indie cinema to the Ojai Playhouse,” theater owner and programmer David Berger said in a statement.
Creative branding consultant and designer Harrison Neef, added: “The visual direction for Left Turn was heavily inspired by drive-in movie nights and the feeling of community around sharing cinema as a culture and pastime. Playing on bright colors and DIY-collage style image compositions, we’ve pulled from the nostalgia of yesterday to highlight the films of tomorrow.”
Faith can be a dangerous thing in the new movie by ALONE WITH YOU’s Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks.
Dark Sky Films has announced that it will release BLOOD SHINE to theaters and on digital platforms August 21. Written and directed by Bennett, who also stars, and Brooks, it also features David Call (DEPRAVED), Brendan Sexton III, genre filmmaker/mogul Larry Fessenden (who discusses the film here), Toby Poser (MOTHER OF FLIES, HELLBENDER), Kyle Minshew and Maurice P. Kerry. The synopsis: “Set in a desolate expanse of upstate New York, BLOOD SHINE centers around Clara [Bennett], a religious zealot who worships light in lonely, sacred rituals. When problematic horror director Brighton West [Call] travels upstate to finish the screenplay for his next film, a chance encounter with Clara leads him into a hallucinatory web of faith, flesh, and the sublime.”
Depraved ending explained reveals why Adam leaves Alex’s necklace for Lucy, how Alex survives within him, and who the film’s truly depraved characters are
Depraved ends with Adam leaving Alex’s necklace for Lucy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before disappearing. The gift confirms that Alex’s memories and attachment to Lucy remain inside Henry’s reconstructed man, but Adam develops a separate identity through trauma and his own accelerated education.
Written, directed, edited, and produced by Larry Fessenden, the 2019 horror film updates Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through a Brooklyn experiment involving war trauma and pharmaceutical greed. Alex Breaux plays Adam, while David Call portrays Henry and Joshua Leonard plays Polidori.
Chloë Levine appears as Lucy and Owen Campbell plays Alex. In Depraved, Adam returns the necklace as a farewell rather than an attempt to restart Alex’s relationship. He knows the police are hunting him and that approaching Lucy could endanger her. The gesture also contradicts his claim that he will learn not to care, proving that his creators have not erased his capacity for affection.
Why does Adam return Alex’s necklace to Lucy after escaping Polidori’s mansion?
The final scene of Depraved completes a chain that begins before Adam exists. Lucy gives Alex the necklace during their argument about commitment and children. Alex remarked, “You keep setting me up to be a disappointment.” He leaves before they reconcile, and Polidori has him stabbed because Henry needs a fresh brain. Henry places Alex’s brain inside a body assembled from corpses and names the revived man Adam.
Adam learns language, music, anatomy, and table tennis under Henry’s supervision. However, images of Lucy enter his dreams. Polidori tests those memories by taking him to the Met gift shop where she works. Adam does not consciously recognize Lucy, but he scratches his head exactly as Alex did. The gesture establishes that habits and memories have survived the transplant.
Henry gives Adam the necklace and explains that it proves he was loved. Adam searches Henry’s recordings and discovers that Polidori murdered Alex and supplied his brain. He finds Alex’s wallet, sees Lucy’s photograph, and calls her. However, he cannot explain who he has become.
After the mansion bloodshed, Adam understands that returning to Lucy as Alex is impossible. He has Alex’s brain, but his reconstructed body, new education, crimes, and suffering have created another person. Leaving the necklace tells Lucy that Alex did not willingly abandon her. Adam gives her closure without demanding recognition or a place in her life.
Fessenden and Breaux tracked Adam’s movement, emotions, vowels, and consonants to show a child learning inside an adult body. Depraved was shot in 24 days, inside a Gowanus walk-up. Its flashes of branching light were influenced by phosphenes and research into how the brain forms perception and memory.
How does Alex’s stolen brain turn Henry’s experiment into a violent reckoning?
Depraved presents Henry as a former field medic trying to overcome the soldiers he could not save. His motive comes from guilt, but he ignores where Polidori obtains body parts. Polidori supplies the Rap-X medication and sees Adam as a pharmaceutical product.
At the museum, Polidori teaches Adam that civilization repeatedly chooses violence. He later introduces him to alcohol, cocaine, and se*ual desire while secretly telling him to continue Rap-X. Henry stops the drug, while Liz gives Adam intimacy he cannot understand.
Adam later meets Shelley, misreads her rejection, and accidentally strangles her. He carries her body to Henry and demands that she be revived. Henry refuses, incapacitates Adam, and buries him beside Shelley with Liz’s help. Adam survives because Henry’s procedure and medication have made his body resistant to death.
Adam returns to Polidori’s property and kills Liz. Polidori then shoots Georgina, murders Henry, and prepares to blame Adam. Henry had taught Adam, “Gravity is your friend.” Adam repeats the lesson before throwing Polidori to his death.
What do Adam’s final words reveal about the truly depraved characters?
The ending of Depraved shows how Henry and Polidori shaped a confused being who depended on them for moral guidance. Henry cares for Adam but abandons that responsibility when the experiment becomes dangerous. Polidori encourages appetite, rivalry, and violence because profit matters more than Adam’s welfare.
Adam stated, “I will hide and disappear and learn not to care. This is what they have taught me.” Yet the necklace disproves his claim. His final action serves Lucy rather than himself.
The title Depraved therefore applies to the human system surrounding Adam. Polidori murders for money, investors reduce life to ownership, and Henry accepts crimes to complete his work. Adam becomes violent, but he begins as a dependent child. Leaving the necklace proves that Alex’s love survives within him, even when Alex’s former life cannot be recovered.
Glass Eye Pix is the fierce independent NYC-based production outfit headed by award-winning art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. Read more...
