When everyone’s favorite legally safe knock off of an 80’s horror character with miniature swords for fingers instead of knives finds himself on the wrong side of a trademark infringement lawsuit, options seem bleak as Scary Terry fights to justify his livelihood in the lawsuit of the century.
A WORD FROM CHRIS NOTARILE
This idea is absurd. From the moment I came up with the concept, to the exact moment I clicked UPLOAD LIVE VIDEO to Youtube, I knew this idea was absurd. And I love it! Scary Terry getting sued by Freddy Krueger over the legalities of trademarking the word “bitch.” How the hell are you not laughing?
I knew going into this, that I wanted to take a documentary approach. For some reason, I felt that was just funnier. And as most Rick and Morty characters go, Scary Terry is an incredibly complex and sympathetic character. He has a wife, a home, a mortgage, daily stresses, bills. The dude is a frickin’ dream demon and even he gets anxiety. It’s as absurd as it is funny.
Another thing I had little shame about with this project is the production value. I wanted this to look as cheap as possible. The crappier, the better. Because again, the whole thing is just absurd.
Aaron Toft played a hilariously emotional Scary Terry, combining the classic monster-schtick with serious real life problems. And the fact that he was able to keep a straight face while delivering any of his lines was a damn miracle as even I was cracking up half the time.
Santana Maynard played Terry’s wife, Melissa. With Melissa we wanted her to be 100% supportive, lovable and adoring of her husband. When you combine that disposition for the character with her cartoonishly goofy look, it just makes everything funnier.
The entire short was filmed in one day. Makeup for Terry and Melissa took about a combined 4 hours to do. I wanted to begin with the cliche 80’s bimbo getting stalked and hunted by Terry, and then undercut the whole thing with him getting served, leading to a complete tonal shift. It’s all too easy to make a generic slasher parody and slapping Scary Terry’s name on it, but when you specifically make it about his life, and switch from genre/parody to mockumentary, then you got something really fun to work with.
