KILLIN' KEVIN
Short Summary
Hello everyone, we're CATS ON THE MOON PRODUCTIONS. We're a team of filmmakers that all met during our time at the Toronto Film School. Recently graduated and experienced in film production, we have banded together to develop our own take on the slasher genre with our new short film, KILLIN' KEVIN.
This horror comedy follows the story of an axe swinging slasher named, "Killin' Kevin". After tracking down a group of college kids to an old cottage, Kevin ends up falling love with the last girl he's supposed to kill.
Thematically, it's a story of love, deep affection, connection, hardship...and murder :)
Being avid enthusiasts of film and video games, we have all found that the horror genre holds a special place in our hearts, with stories like Friday the 13th (especially Jason Lives), Halloween, The Evil Dead (a personal favourite of the director), Scream, Alien, Child's Play, Darkstalkers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Resident Evil 7, Manhunt, Splatterhouse, and Ti West's X trilogy. We are very excited to bring our own unique style to the genre. With a project co-written and directed by Ryan Stella, produced by Nicholas Monteiro, Co-Written by Andrew “Azow” Herendeen, Co-Written and 1st AD work by Xander Kennedy, and cinematography by Vivian Chifor.
Any help we would receive will help us achieve our dreams, since we were all young kids watching these films, come true. Words cannot express the magnitude of what making this film means to a lot of us, and what we could do with YOUR help.
What We Need & What You Get
We are confident that we can make this film happen with a budget of $2,500 CAD with dream budget of $3,500 CAD which would allow us to make this film the best it can possibly be.
The funds we are asking for will be broken down into a few main categories:
- Locations (being our largest expense)
- Special Effects (SPFX) Makeup
- Props
- Food for our crew
- permits
- transportation
- and luckily our lowest expense will be equipment
If you choose to help fund us, we have some fun perks including but not limited to:
- The film on DVD
- Cineplex Gift Card give away for Canadian patrons
- The film on Blu-Ray with special features
- The script of the film signed by the director and producer
- A poster of the film signed by the director and producer
- The film's original soundtrack composed by Josh Aguas on CD
- A personalized thank you video
- AND an Associate producer credit
The Impact
The primary goal of this film is to make everyone scared and laugh at the same time. We seek to have the first half of the film to feel like a true slasher film with lots of slasher horror violence, blood, and gore and at the centre of it all is this "monster" who's an unstoppable force of nature that does his dirty work with a fireaxe. Then the second half comes around and becomes a romantic comedy...plus the jokes really wrote themselves.
The Key Team
Our producer, Nicholas Monteiro (a graduate from Toronto Film School and producer of Last Summer and Melancholia), has already had experience with IndieGoGo before but this is most ambitious film we've done. Despite that, we are confident in our skills through our experience and learned lessons.
Our director, Ryan Stella, previous experience as a director includes directing the short film, Guitar Down - A Story of Perseverance, which was entered into the 48 Film Festival and premiered on the big screen at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Killin' Kevin marks the beginning of a potential anthology series of short films directed and written by Ryan, and produced by Nicholas Monteiro with each short film being it's own story unrelated to the last.
Our composer, Josh Aguas, is a firm believer that a great soundtrack can make or break a film, Josh brings in his unique, energetic flair to all of his projects to create a sound that will have audiences hooked by the first note. From a young age, he grew up having an intense passion for music; from childhood dreams of becoming a rockstar, to currently striving to make an impact in the Canadian film industry as a composer. He cites composers such as Ludwig Gorranson, Michael Giacchino, and Hans Zimmer as influences; drawn by their “energetic” and “attention-grabbing” scores. Josh has achieved his Bachelor’s of Music at Humber College, one of Canada’s most prestigious music programs, and studied under some of Canada’s industry-leading professionals. Discovering a passion for film music, he then furthered his education at Sheridan College in the Music Scoring for Screen and Stage program, learning composition for all forms of media, to which he then joined the Screen Composer’s Guild of Canada Mentorship Program where he mentored under the tutelage of renowned composer Erica Procunier. A firm believer that a great soundtrack can make or break a film, Josh brings in his unique, energetic flair to all of his projects to create a sound that will have audiences hooked by the first note.
Risks & Challenges
Filmmaking is always a challenge, a huge part of it is simply problem solving and learning from mistakes. Every production we've been on has been a learning experience and we will continue to learn new things the more films we work on. That being said this is not our first song and dance, as a team, we believe we are qualified to handle these challenges as the entire crew have all experienced working of film/television before and we are confident that we can overcome every hurdle with the support of the amazing people that are backing this campaign.
Our main hurdle is simply the location we have it locked down, we just need to wait for the days that it is available.
Director's Statement (written by Ryan)
About a year ago, this movie was just a joke between Xander and I, we came up with the concept of a love-driven slasher to make each other laugh...but then we made it a script.
Killin' Kevin is a story of mad love. It's complex, intense, and the film explores themes of love, obsession, and the destructive power of emotions. Will Kevin get the girl by the end of the movie? Will she turn it down because he's a murderer who smells like s**t? Will Kevin's lust for murder end their relationship before it even begins? We shall see. You can see Killin' Kevin as a simple horror comedy or a profound exploration of the complexity of love and its deafening effects on the human psyche. I like to see this short film as kind of a mix between Shaun of the Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Friday the 13th: Part 6 - Jason Lives.
Other Ways You Can Help
Even $1 helps but if some of you are unable to contribute, but that doesn't mean you CAN'T help:
Spread the word of Killin' Kevin's craving for love (and murder).