From Bloody Disgusting

By Alex DiVincenzo

The Larry Fessenden cinematic universe takes shape in Trauma Or, Monsters All, which crosses over three of the indie horror icon’s creature features: the 1995 vampire cult classic Habit, the 2019 Frankenstein riff Depraved, and the 2023 werewolf movie Blackout.

Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive first look at the poster and a batch of stills from the film, in which Fessenden blends social commentary with archetypes of horror into a reflection of our times through a gothic lens.

Trauma Or, Monsters All follows Cassandra, an aspiring author who travels to the small upstate town of Talbot Falls to write a book while working a day job at the local library alongside Agnes.

The new friends’ lives change when Cassandra writes an article for the local paper exposing the dark history of the town: are there monsters among them?

Speculation bubbles into conflict as a werewolf, a vampire, and a Frankenstein creation emerge into the light, revealing deep suppressed trauma in the inhabitants of the town.

Laëtitia Hollard (“The Pitt”), Aitana Doyle, Addison Timlin (Depraved, Odd Thomas), Alex Hurt(Blackout), Alex Breaux (Blackout, “Stranger Things”), and Fessenden (Habit) star.

Genre favorites Barbara Crampton (Blackout, Re-Animator), Joshua Leonard (Depraved, The Blair Witch Project), and James Le Gros (Blackout, Phantasm II) also make appearances.

The ensemble is rounded out by John Speredakos (Blackout), Cody Kostro (Blackout, “Mare of Easttown”), Marc Senter (Blackout, Cabin Fever 2), Micheál Neeson (Cold Pursuit), Joseph Castillo-Midyett (Blackout), and Rigo Garay (Blackout).

Fessenden writes, directs, edits, and produces via his Glass Eye Pix. Gaby Leyner, James Felix McKenney (Blackout), and Tilson Allen-Merry also produce.

Trauma Or, Monsters All will have its world premiere this weekend at the Overlook Film Festival, which will also feature repertory screenings of Habit, Depraved, and Blackout.

LINK TO TICKET PURCHASES HERE

It feels like since 2008, the global economy has never been more than a nickel’s throw from ruin. At the same time, consumerism and consumption through physical or online goods have never been higher. It’s a delicate balance, walking a tightrope teetering over a likely collapse, and one that is explored masterfully and musically in James Siewert’s continuously revolving music video for Tender, the first single from Just Desserts’ fourth studio album, Curtains. Returning to Directors Notes, a few years since we last spoke to him, this new animated music video illustrates through stop motion the creation of our society as we know it today and how perilously – or inevitably – close it is to falling down around us. Watch Tender below, after which Siewert talks to us about the building of his own rotating Tower of Babel, collaborating with musician/actor/filmmaker Larry Fessenden to bring his song to the screen, how real-life fire and stop motion animation do not make happy bedfellows, and his hopes of hypnotising his audience.

Congratulations on the release of Tender. What was the thematic inspiration for the imagery that would accompany the song by Larry Fessenden?

When Larry sent me the song, I think I had already started envisioning a Babel-like construction on the rotating platform, being inspired by my printmaking professor Lothar Osterburg’s series of prints reinterpreting Bruegel’s Babel. Tender, with its themes of accumulation, consumption and decay, seemed like the perfect opportunity. Larry Fessenden – an indie horror auteur, here moonlighting as a musician – told me that the single’s leading image was in fact the Tower of Babel, and it felt like we had to do it.

You previously created an animation built on a rotating platform. What is it about that storytelling base that appeals to you?

I was interested in the dynamic between the growing sculptural form of accumulating frames and the more two-dimensional experience of the interior animation. The sculpture becomes the carcass of the film’s expired animated life, and by reconciling the needs of the sculpture with the needs of the animation, both end up taking on unexpected organic qualities, suggesting further growth.

The stop-motion animation reminded me of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer music video, also with lovely visual cues on each lyric. What are the references and influences that inform your filmmaking style?

That’s great. I love that video – and it does have a great sense of play. You can tell that even though all the animation is very much of a piece, it wasn’t workshopped and mood-boarded to death, but they were kind of making their way through the song playfully. And that song is an absolute blast. I mean, of course, I don’t know exactly how that video was made, but there’s a sense of discovery in it. There are ads and music videos that ape that style but you can tell the frames have been picked apart by the agency and it doesn’t feel surprising – they feel ‘fun’ in scare quotes but you can tell that the artists weren’t actually let off the leash and allowed to have very much fun.

Read Full interview at Director’s Notes

TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL
Laëtitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle
Addison Timlin, Alex Hurt, Alex Breaux, Larry Fessenden
John Speredakos, Cody Kostro, Marc Senter, Micheál Neeson,
Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Rigo Garay
Barbara Crampton, Joshua Leonard, James Le Gros

Fri, Apr 10th, 7:00 PM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place B
Sun, Apr 12th, 8:10 PM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place D

SUNDAY APRIL 12: FESSENDEN MONSTERVERSE MARATHON

HABIT
Sun, Apr 12th, 11:30 AM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place D

DEPRAVED
Sun, Apr 12th, 2:30 PM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place D

BLACKOUT
Sun, Apr 12th, 5:20 PM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place D

TRAUMA
Sun, Apr 12th, 8:10 PM @ Prytania Theatres at Canal Place D

Fessenden and select cast in attendance

7:30 Doors
8:00 BMT (Bob Bert, Mark Morgan, Tim Dahl)
9:00 Wharton Tiers Ensemble
10:00 King Missile (Dog Fly Religion)
$15

On his last night before being beheaded, a graverobber recounts
his supernatural encounters with evil ghosts, vengeful zombies, vampires and ghouls.

directed by: Glenn McQuaid
starring: Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden
2008 / 85 min / 2.35:1 / English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Cover art by Chris Barnes aka BRUTAL Posters

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• New audio commentary with writer/director Glenn McQuaid and producer/actor Larry Fessenden
• New audio commentary with film critic Simon Abrams
• Video intro to the film by Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden
• New video interview with actor Ron Perlman
• Grimes and Blake Pitch Reel
• Tales from Beyond The Pale: TRAWLER Episode
• Archival audio commentary with actor Dominic Monaghan and Larry Fessenden
• Archival audio commentary with Glenn McQuaid
• The Making of I Sell the Dead – an archival, hour long, documentary
• The Visual Effects of I Sell the Dead – an archival featurette about the film’s special effects
• Theatrical trailer
• Booklet featuring new writing by film critic Isaac Feldberg
• English SDH subtitles

PRE-ORDER NOW

TOMORROW! Saturday Mar 28, 7PM
at Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, NY.

With co-writer Clay McLeod Chapman in attendance.

Boyd Grayson is an Irish playboy who delights in bringing men home to his sprawling family estate for sex, just to spite his legacy-obsessed mother, reminding her she’ll never get the grandchildren she craves. When an accident leaves him incapacitated, Boyd finds himself handless, helpless, and at the mercy of her care.

Luckily for Boyd, his mother’s familial wealth has given him the opportunity to be the first person in the history of the world to pilot an experimental technology: mechanical hands controlled entirely by his subconscious. Soon, however, the hands begin to move on their own… even when they’re not attached to Boyd’s body.

Chris Colfer playing Irish, Alice Krige playing a matriarch trying to rebuild her son at any cost. Add to the mix disembodied hands that come to life, a crumbling estate full of barbed arguments, and a gallery of characters as despicable as they are magnetic. Colfer and Krige are delicious as cinema’s most twisted mother-son duo you can’t help but adore, and Declan Reynolds as Lee will become the new horror heartthrob of your gay dreams.

Director Glenn McQuaid embraces the melodrama with a sharp eye and fearless sincerity, grounding the film’s outrageous premise in real emotion.

GET YOUR TIX HERE!
HURRY! They’re sellin’ fast!

James Siewert’s music video for Just Desserts’ TENDER
from the album CURTAINS now available on Youtube.

Just Desserts continues the rollout of the new album CURTAINS
with airplay on old-fashioned platforms like the radio,
charting on top 200 for 6 weeks running, including

WXAV, Chicago, IL. WHFR (Detroit market)
WTJU (Charlottesville, NC – Core)
FAI DJ at KOCF (Veneta, OR)
RMR Top 50 Albums Charts for Folk: #29 (#35 LW)
Alternative Folk: #8 (#12 LW) and New York: #20 (#22 LW)
etc… 

Have a listen to CURTAINS on youtube!

Looking forward to playing out this Spring.
Meanwhile, check us out at
JustDesserts.nyc

Laëtitia Hollard talks being on HBO’s THE PITT,
being cast in Fessenden’s TRAUMA and drops the World Premiere
news of TRAUMA at Overlook Film Festival!