There’s a monstrous femme fatale on the loose in LIFEFORM, the latest creature feature from East Coast indie filmmaker Brian Schiavo, and Fango nabbed the exclusive first pics from the low-budget production. See below the jump for scoop and images.

“The plot revolves around a scientist who brings his wife back from a vegetative state by injecting her with experimental transgenic stem cells,” says writer/director Schiavo, whose previous monster flick, THE SHRIVEN, debuted on DVD from Shriek Show earlier this year. “She is healed, but the cells transform her into a shape-changing creature driven by the instinct to survive. The scientist struggles to find a cure before her identity is completely subsumed by her animal nature.”

The cast of the New York-based film, produced under Schiavo’s two-year-old Strangewerks Films banner, includes Virginia Logan, Peter Alexandrou, Kate Britton, Ken Driesslein, Ree Merrill, Adam Cerny and Joe Amato. “I play the only good guy in the film,” says local actor Driesslein, who memorably played an evil ice cream man in the New Politics video “Dignity” (see here).

To orchestrate LIFEFORM’s FX, Schiavo and company turned to the past. “In a departure from many modern horror films, we wanted to have as many practical monster effects as possible,” he says. “With that goal in mind, we created numerous latex and silicone prosthetics for LIFEFORM, including a creature suit, full-sized prop monster legs, a 4-foot-stunt tentacle, tentacle hands and a special effect head that cracks open to reveal a giant monster tongue inside. The effects team included Anthony Jones, Christine Russo, Ciara Rose Griffin and myself.”

“I did all of the main actors’ face casting, made molds of the full-size sculptures, head, chest, creatures legs, ran silicone appliance and sculpted/molded and cast the full-size creature tentacle,” says Jones, who worked on Schiavo’s THE SHRIVEN and has also supplied FX to such films as PREDATOR ISLAND, SCHISM and THE KILLING OF JACOB MARR.

With director of photography David Frey onboard, shooting on LIFEFORM began this summer in and around New York City, including Long Island. Schiavo predicts the film will be completed in early 2012. Meanwhile, more beasties wait in the wings at Strangewerks. “We love monsters, as exemplified in films such as THE THING, THE FLY and ALIENS,” Schiavo says. “Our goal is to become one of the primary NYC-based producers of films in the genre--films that feature creatures created ‘old school’ fashion, and CG is used to enhance what’s already there. We plan on creating two-to-three pictures a year for fans like us--people who take their horror seriously.”

You can find out more about LIFEFORM and Schiavo’s company here www.strangewerksfilms.com.

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