About THE THETA GIRL
THE THETA GIRL is about a take-no-shit young woman, Gayce, who deals a hallucinogenic drug called "theta," facilitating an audience for her friends' all-girl rock band. When Gayce's friends are brutally murdered, she must solve the mystery behind the murders and protect herself from the killer. She discovers the connections between theta and the murders ... and learns a terrifying truth. That the world -- indeed her whole reality -- is not as it seems.
THE THETA GIRL is a psychedelic horror/action/sci-fi film in which all the good guys are women and (most of) the bad guys are men. It's an existential sex/drugs/rock'n'roll movie with buckets of blood, lots of writhing bodies and a completely insane soundtrack. It'll pass the Bechdel Test.
Who are we?
The film is written by David Axe, journalist and editor of the website War Is Boring. The film will be directed by Christopher Bickel, former Maximum RocknRoll writer and current staff writer at Dangerous Minds.
It all started in December of 2015 when David was telling Chris about some screenwriting he had been doing and his frustration with projects stalling out after initially good responses. Coming from the punk rock DIY school, Chris offered that if David wanted to see his work on screen, the surest way was just to go ahead and make the movie himself. Adding that he went to school, ostensibly, to be a filmmaker but ended up opening a record store instead, it had been Chris's life-long dream to make a totally whacked-out movie. David and Chris listed all the things they'd like to see in a movie. All their ideas about what makes certain low-budget films GREAT -- or, at the very least, entertaining -- went on the list and then, about a month later, David had written a script for THE THETA GIRL. Chris read it and instantly deemed it "a masterpiece."
Chris and David have put up $10,000 of their own money to make THE THETA GIRL and though that amount is a lot of money *TO THEM*, it's really kind of jack shit in terms of movie budgets. It's going to be an extremely tight budget for a film that has a lot of practical effects and a ton of stuff getting broken.
A team is in place to create THE THETA GIRL. The film is entirely cast and some excellent crewpeople are onboard. The lead roles will be played by Victoria Donofrio, Darelle Dove, Shane Silman, and Quinn Deogracias. To see the rest of the cast members, check the gallery on the Facebook page. The crew includes Jamie Clark and Brandon McIver handling special effects duties, Sessy and Leslie Minerd doing costuming/styling, Lucas Sams and Pedro Lopez De Victoria supervising art direction, and Paige Hunt and Elaine Jordan AD'ing. Matthew Akers, Slasher Film Festival Strategy, Anakrid and Ian Deaton are all onboard for scoring, plus other great music tracks being added by They Say The Wind Made Them Crazy, Debbie and the Newgenics, Hand Over Fist, Joe Buck Roberts, more.
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Victoria Donorio stars as "Gayce"
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Darelle Dove stars as "Derek"
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Quinn Deogracias, right, stars as "Yolanda"
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Shane Silman, right, stars as "Marcus"
Challenges
One of the initial challenges to producing THE THETA GIRL was finding creative and talented cast and crew members in Columbia, South Carolina who are as excited about the project as Axe and Bickel are -- and who are willing to lend their time and effort for very little money. That first goal has been met. A great team is in place to make the film a success.
THE THETA GIRL is getting made, one way or another. But your backing and support will help the filmmakers compensate everyone for their efforts and dramatically increase the production values.
Chris and David have never made a movie before. Ever. So they're treating this as a learning experience and a challenge -- to produce something meaningful and entertaining for under $20,000.
Proof
The creators are confident that the film will be a success. So confident, in fact, that they went ahead and made a trailer for their follow-up film, TEENAGE CALIGULA! In actuality, the trailer, which you can view on this page, was practice -- an opportunity to work with the gear, editing software and the cast and crew of THE THETA GIRL. All of the actors in the TEENAGE CALIGULA trailer will be in THE THETA GIRL. Chris and David shot it over two weeks. The budget was a paltry $150. Although the TEENAGE CALIGULA trailer is tonally a bit more light-hearted than THE THETA GIRL is, it should provide a good example of the filmmakers' work-ethic and dedication.
Trailer for TEENAGE CALIGULA
Goals and perks
We've set our minimum goal at $7,000. After doing some initial number-crunching, Chris and David decided this was a reasonable sum for minimally compensating our actors and crew. Anything they raise above this goal will go directly into the production, either further compensating the talent or increasing the quality of the special effects, sets, costumes, etc.
Please review the perks on this page. There are some fun ones . Chris and David are very much not fans of the "we're cool so you should give us money" attitude, so they've attempted to design all of the perks in such a way that THE THETA GIRL's backers are really getting something legitimate for their support of this project.
David and Chris will be adding more perks over the course of the campaign, so check back.
In the unlikely event that we do not reach our initial goal of $7,000, our backers can be assured that THE THETA GIRL will still get made -- one way or another.
