Massachusetts, 1678. Two years after King Philip's War devastated New England, a pair of witchfinders are dispatched to the frontier town of Sudbury to investigate rumors of devil worship. Their search leads them away from the safety of the settlement and deep into a labyrinthine, untamed wilderness. There, a bizarre and terrifying source of Satanic magic will irrevocably transform these men of God, and force them to confront their own grievous sins.

~~~

Hey all, I'm Andrew Rakich, an independent filmmaker from Wayland, Massachusetts – a small town that nearly 400 years ago was known as Sudbury Plantation. Some of you may know me as the creator of Atun-Shei Films, a YouTube channel with a focus on historical education. This spring, my co-director Eduardo Urueña and I are making a weird historical supernatural thriller film called The Sudbury Devil ... and to do it right, we need your help.

The Devil baptizes a male witch. Compendium Maleficarum, 1610

What We Need & What You'll Get

We're attempting to raise $6,000, the lion's share of the budget, to make a ninety-minute feature length film. Your contributions will go toward costumes, props, makeup, travel expenses, food, and all the other expenses involved in production.

We plan to shoot in the beautiful hills of western Massachusetts during the second and third weeks of May 2020, with the cast and crew staying in a farmhouse at the edge of a vast, dark wood. Though we will have some modern conveniences, the location is extremely remote – we will essentially be living together in the 17th century for the better part of two weeks.

Our main location, December 2019

The script is simple, the locations are limited, and the cast is small. Over the course of our careers as independent filmmakers, we've learned how to accomplish a great deal using very few resources, and while we can't promise a masterpiece, we're very confident we can deliver an entertaining, unique, and authentic historical movie.

Making do with what we had on the set of our first feature film, ALIEN, BABY!

The rewards of this crowdfunding campaign, starting at just $5, will allow you to follow the production every step of the way, and with higher pledges you can even take on an active role in the project.

Join our email list and receive regular production updates and details about the history that inspired the story.

Be part of our focus group, and view a near-complete version of the film, with a chance to influence the final cut.

Gain exclusive access to an in-depth documentary about the making of the film and a visual encyclopedia breaking down the characters, their weird Puritan beliefs, and the world of the story.

Receive a copy of the script in the mail, personalized with a note handwritten in quill and ink.

Get your name prominently displayed at the start of the end credits, along with the directors and key crew members!

Most importantly, you'll get a movie – an hour and a half of creepy, suspenseful, and often quite bizarre entertainment that a dedicated team of hardworking, talented people will have poured their hearts and souls into.

Witches presenting wax dolls to the Devil. The History of Witches and Wizards, 1720

Getting the History Right

While no movie can ever be 100% historically accurate, it's extremely important to us that The Sudbury Devil be as authentic to late 17th century New England as possible.

To that end, the dialogue is entirely in Early Modern English, without a single anachronistic word or phrase. Because I'm a huge nerd and a little bit obsessive, even all the "thou"s and "you"s are used correctly (thou, thy and thee were informal ways to address someone, as you would a close friend. You was used in formal situations, such as when speaking to a person of higher social status).

Period texts informed all the dialogue, namely Shakespeare's plays, the King James Bible, that same King James' dialectic witch hunting text Demonologie, primary Puritan texts about King Philip's War such as William Hubbard's Narrative of the Indian Wars, and the treatises of renowned Bostonian theologians Cotton and Increase Mather.

I told you I was a nerd.

But authentic dialogue is only half the battle. It's also important we get the accent of our characters correct. I'm very excited to say that our actors will be speaking in OP, or Original Early Modern English Pronunciation, a historical accent reconstructed by linguist David Crystal. In recent years, OP has become popular among Shakespearean actors who wish to learn the accent in which the Bard's plays were originally performed.

It's about as solid an approximation as we can get of the accent spoken in southeast England during the 17th century. My YouTube viewers know it as the accent of the Witchfinder General, who is himself a comical exaggeration of Josiah Cutting, one of the characters in this film.

The Witchfinder General explains why Christmas is an abomination

I'm currently teaching the accent to our actors. As far as I know, The Sudbury Devil will be the first feature film spoken in OP ever made. 

The costumes will be just as important to get right. Most of this film takes place in an uninhabited forest, so the costumes are essentially the sets. Right from the get-go, we knew that they would need an incredible attention to detail in order to sell our setting – Pilgrim outfits from the Halloween store would simply not do. Currently, costumes account for over half our budgetary expenses.

There isn't much of a 17th century reenacting scene compared to other periods like the Viking Age and the Civil War, so it proved nearly impossible to find the very specific kinds of clothing we needed – but thankfully, after a global search, I stumbled upon Cathy and Sally of The Old Curiosity Costume Company based in Devonshire, England. They're a mother-daughter team of tailors who specialize in historical clothing, and could make the exact doublets, waistcoats and breeches we were looking for.

They're currently hard at work making a good number of our costumes by hand using fabrics correct to the period. I couldn't be more excited!

A spec image of men's doublets for THE SUDBURY DEVIL

Cathy and Sally hard at work on our costumes

A Dream Come True

Back in high school, I made several historical "epics" with my friends in the woods near my parents' house in Wayland, Massachusetts. The more serious about filmmaking I became, the more I realized how impractical making a period piece with a small budget was. I naturally gravitated toward other, more achievable projects – but the dream of making a gritty, painstakingly authentic historical drama never left me.

From the set of TEARS OF GOD, a cringey conquistador film I made in high school

Over the past ten years, I've been making movies with my stalwart co-director and cinematographer Eduardo Urueña. It's been said Eduardo and I are one brain in two bodies, and we've developed quite a shorthand between us. One of our actors still likes to tell a story about how we once arrived at a decision on set by communicating only in sound effects and hand gestures. Our division of labor as co-directors is pretty simple – Eduardo operates the camera and defines the look of a film, while I work with the actors and craft the performances.

In film school, we produced countless shorts together, and in 2017 we completed our first feature film, the Pythonesque sci-fi spoof Alien, Baby! which is currently available to stream free with Prime.