Now due to receive a European premiere at Dead by Dawn 2001
Stygian is the story of Jamie and Melinda, an innocent young couple who find themselves the inadvertent victims in a chase to the death - and beyond it! Accidentally becoming the bearers of a mystical talisman sought after by the evil "Reaper brothers", the couple find themselves trapped in another world called "Exile", a "gutter-punk purgatory of the world's dead bad guys". Lost and alone, Jamie must seek out Melinda in his strange new world. But he soon discovers he is not alone... It's a spooky premise.
International Distribution is being sought for Stygian and all expressions of interest will be appreciated.
more Stygian pics this way...
(30 March - 1 April) in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Stygian is a genesis of themes, concepts and influences of the two co-directors Shannon Young and James Wan, who met while studying media arts at RMIT (Shannon had already produced two shock horror features on VHS during his VCE years).
The two discovered that they both had the same passion and desires to produce insanely large scale genre projects in an institution that advocated short films, so they decided to pool their talents, resources and finance towards a feature length project.
Stygian was shot on 16mm over an 18 month period and with a total budget of $12,000.
The project has left them with a degree with honours from "The Film School of Hard Knocks" after having to contend with disgruntled actors, foul weather, equipment failures, abusive farmers and aggro cops with big moustaches. One of the locations burned to the ground the night before they were finished filming in it. (The "gels" on the "Blondies" are getting hot James). But let's just say they encountered all of the usual problems associated with low budget guerilla filmmaking and they survived to do it again in the near future.
At the end of principal photography they had a mountain of footage to turn into their first
"Frontal Assault" on the Ultra-Conservative Government Funded Australian Film Industry,
a daunting task indeed.
The film was mastered to Betacam SP and first cut to 80 min. It was then screened with a working soundtrack in October 1998 as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, where some of the characters also made a memorable appearance in the Brunswick Street Parade. Including Shannon dressed cumbersomely as "Bombhead" with an enormous promotional sandwich board, walking barefoot and covered in BBQ sauce to promote the project (what won't you do for art ?).
Stygian was again trimmed and the soundtrack completely reworked for the screening at MUFF 2000 where it took out the award for "Best Use of the Guerilla Aesthetic", attributed to the film's effective use of locations, sound and dynamic editing, inventive and imaginative prop design by Wan, and for convincing actual police officers who arrived to investigate the shoot to appear in the film!
It must be said that the boys pulled in a few favours, special deals and freebies from many industry professionals along the way to get the project to completion and are very grateful for
the support that was given so willingly. In particular, they wish to acknowledge the post-production support and generous deals offered by "Edit Oz" and "Music & Effects",
"Film Armourer John Fox", independent Melbourne band "Discordia", and the consistent efforts of all members of the voluntary cast and crew who often worked under difficult and adverse conditions, and, of course, their parents.
Aside from winning at MUFF 2000, Stygian has received extensive coverage in the Australian media, including the ABC TV 's "Recovery" (where it was described as "Australia's answer to El Mariachi" ), Triple J and Triple R Radio stations, and in "People" and "Fatal Visions" magazines.
Recently the mainstream UK based movie magazine "Total Film" ran an article in their "Independents day" section describing Stygian as a film that started out as a bold, strange film that has become a fully focused feature.
Siren Entertainment have confirmed that they will be releasing Stygian in Australia and New Zealand early next year and the boys are hopeful of a screening of Stygian at the 2001 New York Underground Film Festival.
Interest has also been shown by the Scottish "Dead by Dawn" Horror Film Festival.