Shady Dawn Pictures is currently filming its next feature film “Where Demons Dwell”, a haunted house story about a family targeted by a host of malevolent spirits. In between “The Girl in the Cornfield” and “Where Demons Dwell”, Ryan Callaway took the time to write and produce a short film titled “The Watchers: The Beginning of Sorrows”.
Madeline Tanner’s little sister Briana vanished from her bedroom over six months ago. With no viable leads and no evidence, everyone gave up hope – except for Madeline. Convinced of a supernatural cause for her sister’s predicament, she continued the search until her own disappearance. Her former best friend Laura Leeds decides to track down Madeline despite the very real risk of suffering the same fate.
In an interview with Steve Wollett of NerdRageNews.com Ryan announced his intention to remake his first feature film, The Watchers, in 2017. The Watchers was a horror film dealing with supernatural events and alternate dimensions.
Ryan Callaway: ” The first movie had a great story, concept, and some really cool visuals – but we shot it in 2011, and I was nowhere near as competent a filmmaker as I am now. In regard to casting and more importantly, directing actors, and even telling a story visually. I still think there’s a lot to like about the original but there are more stories I want to tell within that world, and we need a ‘launching pad’ that’s good enough to get audiences interested in that. The original, I don’t think, was – so I want to give it another shot with what I’ve learned in the last five years.”
Not wanting to wait until 2017, and with another feature film already in pre-production (at the time), Ryan, Amy, and co-producer Sabine put together a short film that is serving as a prequel and re-introduction to The Watchers.
Sabine: “We thought Ryan was insane, he wanted to shoot it before ‘Where Demons Dwell’ despite only having about 6 weeks from conception to completion. Mind you, we were very busy with pre-production – the feature film is going to be a 27 day shoot. Literally the last day of shooting ‘Beginning of Sorrows’ was the first day of production on ‘Where Demons Dwell’. I still think he’s crazy, but we pulled it off. He had the story in his head for a while so he wrote it in 2-3 days, we cast with actors Ryan had worked with before and some new faces from the auditions for ‘Where Demons Dwell’. Sometimes you love an actor but they’re just not quite right for the part. However, if they’re really good we’ll almost always work with them eventually. I was especially excited we found a great place for Rachelle Bieber, who plays Briana Tanner. She’s an incredibly talented young actress. I’m proud to say we had an all around great cast. And it’s a really unique story with a lot of underlying themes and enough creepiness to keep you on your toes.”
The Watchers: The Beginning of Sorrows will be released this Fall on Amazon Video (free with Prime) and other platforms and websites to be announced. The Running Time is 50 minutes.
Trailer:
Website:
https://www.facebook.com/Watchersmovie/
Submitted By:
Norah D.
