The horror-movie-shoot-gone-bad and cannibals-in-the-woods subgenres collide, vérité-style, in THE LOCALS (no relation to the recent New Zealand chiller of the same title), which is getting ready to shoot in Los Angeles for WetWork Media and Clearwater Productions.

Written and directed by Eric Anthony Pereira (who has crewed on CLOVERFIELD and PIRANHA 3D) and produced by Danny Lopes (pictured below left, an onscreen regular in the films of Dante Tomaselli) and Brandon Cottrell, THE LOCALS stars Lopes, Devanny Pinn (pictured below right), Angelina Armani, Angie Savage, actor/filmmaker Brandon Slagle (with whom Pereira and Pinn are also set to collaborate on NEBULUS and SCREAM 4 YOUR LIFE, which we previously reported on here), Tawny Amber Young, Ryan L. Gilmore, JESSICKA RABID’s Elske McCain, Erik Preston, Asia Schneider (niece of Rob Schneider), Bree Essrig, Matthew Evilsizor, Greg Duke and Caroline Posada. The synopsis is as follows: “August 19, 1993: Police raid the cabin home of a Mr. Abel Honeycutt based on a 911 call placed by a hysterical woman who had managed to escape from what she describes as a ‘house of horrors.’ When police arrive at the cabin, what they discover on the property defies comprehension. Bones, blood, cannibalized bodies…Abel, and his now-missing children, had spent decades feeding on hikers, passersby and vacationers who wandered near his property. Perhaps even more telling and damaging than the bodies they found was the evidence retrieved in the Honeycutt basement: three worn and damaged VHS tapes belonging to a Mr. Paul Muldowney, a filmmaker who had gone missing in 1987 along with seven other people. The tapes have recently been made public record.

“November 9, 1987: Two years after the success of his shot-on-video gorefest SORORITY SLAUGHTERHOUSE, schlock film director Paul Muldowney takes to the woods to film his latest low-budget epic, SPLATTER MOUNTAIN. He comes armed with two VHS camcorders, his girlfriend/cinematographer Laura, special effects man Rip, horror-movie lover and overburdened PA Carrie, pretentious Juilliard-trained actor Blaine and two starlets who have been brought in by the distributor for added nudity to sell the film overseas: the lovably ditzy ’80s porn queen Bambi and bitter, coke-addled former centerfold Taryn. They’re joined by Darryl, a writer for a top horror-movie magazine, who has been sent to cover the production.

“The eight soon hop into a van to begin filming and head out to a notorious section of Trencher Mountain, disregarding the tales and warnings about those who have vanished in the woods there. Once filming begins, the group quickly find themselves systematically targeted and stalked by the cannibalistic family of mountain men who have lived in the woods for decades. The eight will soon be seven, then six, then five…as one by one they are systematically crippled, butchered and devoured. As the survivors are forced to resort to human nature in its bleakest and ugliest form to fight back, they slowly begin to realize that the worst is yet to come.”

The filmmakers are aiming for a summer premiere of THE LOCALS in Los Angeles, followed by festival play and video release. An official website will open soon here, and the movie’s Facebook page can be seen here.

 

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