HUNTERS OF THE DARK (2011)
CAST
Linden Chiles...The First Hunter
Luke Hollman...The Infected
Kevin Shayer...The Space Bender
Mihran Konanyan...The Monster Hunter
Mayra Gonzalez...The New Believer
CREW
Written and Directed by Ansel Faraj
Inspired by the Writings of H.P. Lovecraft
Produced by Ansel Faraj
Executive Producer Rosa Taylor-Faraj
Music by Firuz Yumul
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1964785/
A dark Lovecraftian thriller in which a series of events building up to an invasion of the Earth by beings from another astral plane, and Earth's reaction to it.
WATCH THE TEASER: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=1930311101836&oid=115997882655&comments
WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150436827192656.445897.115997882655&saved#!/video/video.php?v=2017181073531
Linden Chiles...The First Hunter
Luke Hollman...The Infected
Kevin Shayer...The Space Bender
Mihran Konanyan...The Monster Hunter
Mayra Gonzalez...The New Believer
CREW
Written and Directed by Ansel Faraj
Inspired by the Writings of H.P. Lovecraft
Produced by Ansel Faraj
Executive Producer Rosa Taylor-Faraj
Music by Firuz Yumul
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1964785/
A dark Lovecraftian thriller in which a series of events building up to an invasion of the Earth by beings from another astral plane, and Earth's reaction to it.
WATCH THE TEASER: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=1930311101836&oid=115997882655&comments
WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150436827192656.445897.115997882655&saved#!/video/video.php?v=2017181073531
AN ESSAY ON THE FILM - BY ANSEL FARAJ
HUNTERS OF THE DARK started originally for me with an image of a man floating dormant in black space (an image, which evolved into the character of the Space Bender). I knew that he was probably going to be an alien, and I knew that the film – whatever it turned out to become – would have a strange green tinge to it. Other than that, I knew nothing. I had always wanted to do something like ALIEN, a dark hardcore R rated sci fi thriller, but I just had to wait for the right story to enter my mind. Around the same time, I had been yearning to do an unconventional western. I wanted to make a film about the standard ‘stranger in a western town’ – very Leone, but I wanted him to be a monster hunter, who would destroy some creature from beyond that was locked up in an attic. I kept those thoughts in the back of my mind. I was deep in production of a psychological thriller – THE BURNING WITHIN, and these thoughts of aliens and monsters would have to wait. Like the Old Ones in the film (and in the writings of sci-fi maestro H.P. Lovecraft, whose work is a massive inspiration on the film), they would have to wait till the time was right for them to officially come to life.
Around the end of June, it became apparent that there would need to be a break in the schedule for THE BURNING WITHIN, due to some principal cast members’ other commitments. We would resume in early August, leaving me with a month in which to comb through my shot footage, do any rewrites, and basically plan for the resuming August shoot. The monsters in the back of my mind saw an opportunity and instantly began thrashing themselves against my skull, begging to be let out and captured by a camera. I became a slave to their wishes, my mind filling to the brim with various scenarios and images that would correspond to my sci-fi opus, and I began asking my cast from THE BURNING WITHIN if they had any objections to doing another film, each a single day’s work of filming, and to my relief, quite a few made themselves available. I then began mapping out a basic story arc, allowing myself room for additional ‘on-set’ ideas and improvisation. And on July 7th, I began filming scenes for what would eventually become HUNTERS OF THE DARK.
I wanted to homage different styles of film within HUNTERS – a sci-fi film like Andrei Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS; a western like that of Sergio Leone; a 70’s low budget horror film, like those of AIP and Roger Corman; a war film (to which I allowed myself room to create my own style); and ultimately a futuristic noir inspired by Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER. A life long fan of the works of Lovecraft, I used his ideas, and elements of stories to flesh out my basic idea of a series of monster hunters battling Lovecraft-like monsters from beyond another dimension throughout the years. Working with pretty much no budget and no real script, I assembled each segment as a one-actor showcase, and with the ability to film almost exclusively on blue screen I was able to take a character – the Space Bender (as played by Kevin Shayer) and thread him through the various plots and timezones, making him a tangible villain for the audience. Without having any true restrictions, I was given the freedom to experiment and create a visually interesting science fiction tale, each segment showing a different period in Earth’s timeline, and focusing on the singular person who appoints his or herself up to the task of facing the aliens on their own.
HUNTERS OF THE DARK is in the end, a strange but (I feel) beautiful film about the dynamic between human and alien life forms. While the aliens are a threatening presence in my film, I sympathize with them. An idea that I brought into the film is that Earth was their former home, and we have destroyed it with our modern technology. They only want to return to their home and make it as it once was, but in order to do so, they have to destroy the human race. The humans on the other hand want to protect their home and will go to any lengths to destroy the aliens. The stories I focused on in the film is not so much about a winning team and a loosing team, but about how each side is viewed by the other. The aliens feel that they are superior to any human, and the human’s feel that they are better than the aliens, even though each side in the film has their wins and losses. What is I feel the ultimate question of the film - after a triumph of a human character – a “Hunter of the Dark”, against an alien, is this – how can so powerful a being fall victim to just a mere man? What is its downfall? What will be the downfalls of each side? Or will they continue to hate each other and fight to the bitter end? In order to discover the answers to these questions, you’ll simply have to watch the film. On the surface HUNTERS OF THE DARK may appear to be another comic book style sci-fi actioner, but deeper within the film, in its most shadowy corners, there are presence’s that pose the question to everyone who sees it – how will you react when you must fight for what you feel is rightfully yours?
HUNTERS OF THE DARK started originally for me with an image of a man floating dormant in black space (an image, which evolved into the character of the Space Bender). I knew that he was probably going to be an alien, and I knew that the film – whatever it turned out to become – would have a strange green tinge to it. Other than that, I knew nothing. I had always wanted to do something like ALIEN, a dark hardcore R rated sci fi thriller, but I just had to wait for the right story to enter my mind. Around the same time, I had been yearning to do an unconventional western. I wanted to make a film about the standard ‘stranger in a western town’ – very Leone, but I wanted him to be a monster hunter, who would destroy some creature from beyond that was locked up in an attic. I kept those thoughts in the back of my mind. I was deep in production of a psychological thriller – THE BURNING WITHIN, and these thoughts of aliens and monsters would have to wait. Like the Old Ones in the film (and in the writings of sci-fi maestro H.P. Lovecraft, whose work is a massive inspiration on the film), they would have to wait till the time was right for them to officially come to life.
Around the end of June, it became apparent that there would need to be a break in the schedule for THE BURNING WITHIN, due to some principal cast members’ other commitments. We would resume in early August, leaving me with a month in which to comb through my shot footage, do any rewrites, and basically plan for the resuming August shoot. The monsters in the back of my mind saw an opportunity and instantly began thrashing themselves against my skull, begging to be let out and captured by a camera. I became a slave to their wishes, my mind filling to the brim with various scenarios and images that would correspond to my sci-fi opus, and I began asking my cast from THE BURNING WITHIN if they had any objections to doing another film, each a single day’s work of filming, and to my relief, quite a few made themselves available. I then began mapping out a basic story arc, allowing myself room for additional ‘on-set’ ideas and improvisation. And on July 7th, I began filming scenes for what would eventually become HUNTERS OF THE DARK.
I wanted to homage different styles of film within HUNTERS – a sci-fi film like Andrei Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS; a western like that of Sergio Leone; a 70’s low budget horror film, like those of AIP and Roger Corman; a war film (to which I allowed myself room to create my own style); and ultimately a futuristic noir inspired by Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER. A life long fan of the works of Lovecraft, I used his ideas, and elements of stories to flesh out my basic idea of a series of monster hunters battling Lovecraft-like monsters from beyond another dimension throughout the years. Working with pretty much no budget and no real script, I assembled each segment as a one-actor showcase, and with the ability to film almost exclusively on blue screen I was able to take a character – the Space Bender (as played by Kevin Shayer) and thread him through the various plots and timezones, making him a tangible villain for the audience. Without having any true restrictions, I was given the freedom to experiment and create a visually interesting science fiction tale, each segment showing a different period in Earth’s timeline, and focusing on the singular person who appoints his or herself up to the task of facing the aliens on their own.
HUNTERS OF THE DARK is in the end, a strange but (I feel) beautiful film about the dynamic between human and alien life forms. While the aliens are a threatening presence in my film, I sympathize with them. An idea that I brought into the film is that Earth was their former home, and we have destroyed it with our modern technology. They only want to return to their home and make it as it once was, but in order to do so, they have to destroy the human race. The humans on the other hand want to protect their home and will go to any lengths to destroy the aliens. The stories I focused on in the film is not so much about a winning team and a loosing team, but about how each side is viewed by the other. The aliens feel that they are superior to any human, and the human’s feel that they are better than the aliens, even though each side in the film has their wins and losses. What is I feel the ultimate question of the film - after a triumph of a human character – a “Hunter of the Dark”, against an alien, is this – how can so powerful a being fall victim to just a mere man? What is its downfall? What will be the downfalls of each side? Or will they continue to hate each other and fight to the bitter end? In order to discover the answers to these questions, you’ll simply have to watch the film. On the surface HUNTERS OF THE DARK may appear to be another comic book style sci-fi actioner, but deeper within the film, in its most shadowy corners, there are presence’s that pose the question to everyone who sees it – how will you react when you must fight for what you feel is rightfully yours?
IMAGES FROM THE FILM & BEHIND THE SCENES
