The rent is high — but the body count is higher!
A psychedelic slasher set in Bushwick will scare the skinny jeans off of audiences at the inaugural Brooklyn Horror Film Festival next weekend. The creators of “Psychotic! A Brooklyn Slasher,” screening on Oct. 15, say that the hipster nabe is the ideal locale for murder and mayhem.
“Bushwick is just filled with so many outlandish characters, it’s a fun place that attracts a lot of extreme personalities,” said Maxwell Frey, who wrote and directed the film with fellow Bushwickian Derek Gibbons. “There’s also a big party scene there and it’s hard to keep track of who’s putting up a front and is messed up. Anyone could be a killer.”
The flick follows two struggling artists, played by the creators of the film, as their weekend dive into the Bushwick party scene is derailed by the rampages of the masked “Bushwick Party Killer.” As the death toll rises, the pair must discover who is killing the life of the parties.
“It’s supposed to be a wild weekend gone wrong,” said Frey. “You only live once.”
The bloody flick was inspired by ’80s American slashers such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th,” but also takes stylistic cues from ’70s Italian horror films, using a harsh color pallete of reds and greens to give the scenes an eerie ambiance.
The aesthetics may be international, but the creators drew on their life in Brooklyn when writing the murder scenes.
“When we first started the writing we challenged ourselves to come up with some cool murder scenes and we realized they’re very New York-centric,” said Gibbons. “There’s one death where someone gets trapped in a lobby because the person doesn’t get buzzed all the way into the building.”
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival will offer 14 feature films and 25 shorts during its three-day run. In addition to gory murder-fests, the films include psychological thrillers, paranormal adventures, and black comedies. The films were chosen to showcase the diversity of the horror scene, according to the festival’s director.
“When your average person thinks of horror movies, they think of a crappy slasher, but meanwhile there are people making these really interesting stories,” said Justin Timms. “Since it’s the first year we wanted to make a statement with the kind of films we’re showing, putting a spotlight on stories you might not get a chance to see elsewhere.”
The fest will also feature several parties, a horror trivia drinking game event, a spoken-word ghost story, and showcase of short films by Brooklyn artists.
“Psychotic” at Thrones Watches (41-43 Wythe Ave. between N. 13th and N. 14th streets in Williamsburg, www.brook
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Oct. 14-16 at various times and locations in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick (www.brook
