A movie described as a "hell-bent hybrid of horror, black comedy and heavy metal" has won this year's Make My Horror Movie competition and will go into production this year.
Congratulations to Deathgasm, by Weta Digital's Jason Lei Howden, which beat five other entries in the finals to take out the $200,000 prize. Shooting will begin in eight-10 weeks and the movie will be finished by the end of the year.
The film is about two teen boys who "unwittingly summon an ancient evil entity known as The Blind One" by delving into black magic while trying to escape their mundane lives.
"With some of the most inventive and shocking gore ever captured, Deathgasm will gush bodily fluids, rain limbs and tickle your funny bone, before tearing it out and giving you a stiff beating with it," the film's winning pitch said.
Producer Andrew Beattie, who will oversee the film's creation, said Deathgasm screamed "make me".
"It's truly original, it knows its genre back-to-front, and, most of all, it's genuinely fun to read. This is a hugely ambitious project but one that excites the hell out me," he said.
"I'm really looking forward to working with Jason and Sarah to pull this splat-fest off. It's going to get messy."
Executive Producer Ant Timpson said the quality of the entrants was "tremendous".
"Deathgasm was an early front runner in many people’s eyes but it was the sheer enthusiasm and utter commitment shown by Jason and his team that I think helped push the project to pole position."
Make My Horror Movie is the second round of the movie-making competition, and is a collaboration between Make My Movie, the New Zealand Film Commission, MPI Media USA and nzherald.co.nz. More than 400 entries were received, which were whittled down to a top 12 before Deathgasm was chosen as the winner.
The first Make My Movie resulted in the "peeping tom rom-com" film How to Meet Girls From a Distance, which went on to screen in cinemas nationwide and won the le Grand Prix du Jury (Best Film) at the Antipodes Festival in Saint Tropez.
More info: www.makemymovie.co.nz
(material as published by nzherald.co.nz)