About The Malicious
synopsis
A couple in an unstable relationship become stalked by an unseen adversary who threatens the normalcy of their home life. As tensions and fears begin to escalate, the line becomes blurred on whether the true danger remains on the outside of their home, or on the inside.
BETH is a battered wife. She is stuck in an abusive marriage to ROBERT. Timid, unsure of herself but eager to please, she wears a fresh ugly scar that cuts just above her left eyebrow. When her and Robert's "date night" dinner is interrupted by a sudden assault of blinding and overbearing lights, which flood through their home over and over again, Beth knows that there will be more to fear than just her husband's volatile temper.
The unrelenting lights are accompanied by numerous voices and whispers that taunt the couple in what begins to look like a juvenile attempt at a home invasion. As Robert's patience begins to wear thin and Beth's worries only grow more cumbersome, the two find themselves the targets of an invisible cabal of assailants who's torment strangely begins to border on the supernaturally sinister. But deep down Beth knows that as this assault wears on, they will finally confront the Malicious face to face.
A Home Invasion
“The Malicious” is an interesting one. The base idea for the Short had been circulating around my head since the end of 2014 and over the years since then, there had been multiple drafts of at least three different incarnations of the script. Though each one explored contrasting story angles and different characters, they would have to remain true to the foundational sleight-of-hand which was the story's embryonic impetus. Thus, no draft had ever found a way to truly work.
Getting ready for a take
Fast forward to November 2017 and “I’m Sorry Mommy”, my collaboration with Director Sonja Steyn, had taken home the Audience Choice Award for Best Australian Short at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival. If you were to ask one of us, we’d tell you that our victory is solely credited to the hands of the talented Art Director for that film, Tanith du Plessis. She brought our demon to life and I wore the makeup. Needless to say, the unexpected win had fueled a fire in us and Tanith had enthusiastically mentioned that we should use her house for a future project. This began my wheels turning. I knew her place to be a perfect location interior with it’s spacious and traditional structures of family, home and hearth, and that became the aim of my next corruption.
Matthew R. Grego and Jacki Mison in The Malicious
I riffed ideas with her for about ten minutes when I suddenly began to see a connection to “The Malicious”, which at that point had rested in a pile of drafted embarrassments to be rediscovered at a later time. But as I nurtured the idea within the following days, the concepts of a battered wife and a supernaturally-tinged home invasion began to take hold… and the story had finally found the foundation that it was always missing. That coupled with Tanith’s eagerness to relinquish her home and take her Art Direction to the next level created the momentum we needed to begin making things happen.
I can’t chalk it up to kismet completely, but the whole project came together naturally from there. I found an Executive Producer in Felix Von Gellhorn who also consented to shaving off all of his body hair, non-begrudgingly, and sat through four hours of makeup applications to play one of our more menacing characters. I got Sam White to come on board as Co-Producer with Tanith and I, and he was able to reach out and secure Timothy Carr as our Cinematographer. This upped the Production level to much more than we had even conceived for ourselves, and because of that, we were able to put a wonderful team behind us, from our talented Cast to our driven Crew, who were subjected to breathing in copious amounts of haze-with-extra-haze during all hours of the Shoot.
And throughout all of this, I cannot be prouder and more thankful for the teamwork lent to the fledgeling hands of this first time Director. You never know what you’re capable of doing until you do it. And one thing I found was that I had a special knack to remain completely motivated while accidentally, and continually, damaging my partner, Ray's, Merc at several stages throughout the production: an element that only Tim and I vehicularly know firsthand as the malicious curse (an anomaly which only seems to affect HoDs with automobiles).
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Well curses back, and get behind us Satan, because at the end of the day, we all know that we fucked some serious shit up when we finally got to press record on May 1, 2018. That’s when every star aligned!
-Noel Vinson, 2018
Cast and Crew
as Beth
as Robert
as Dr. Williams
Producer, Writer, Director
Producer
Producer / Art Director
Cinematographer
Script Supervisor
About The Malicious
synopsis
A couple in an unstable relationship become stalked by an unseen adversary who threatens the normalcy of their home life. As tensions and fears begin to escalate, the line becomes blurred on whether the true danger remains on the outside of their home, or on the inside.
BETH is a battered wife. She is stuck in an abusive marriage to ROBERT. Timid, unsure of herself but eager to please, she wears a fresh ugly scar that cuts just above her left eyebrow. When her and Robert's "date night" dinner is interrupted by a sudden assault of blinding and overbearing lights, which flood through their home over and over again, Beth knows that there will be more to fear than just her husband's volatile temper.
The unrelenting lights are accompanied by numerous voices and whispers that taunt the couple in what begins to look like a juvenile attempt at a home invasion. As Robert's patience begins to wear thin and Beth's worries only grow more cumbersome, the two find themselves the targets of an invisible cabal of assailants who's torment strangely begins to border on the supernaturally sinister. But deep down Beth knows that as this assault wears on, they will finally confront the Malicious face to face.
A Home Invasion
“The Malicious” is an interesting one. The base idea for the Short had been circulating around my head since the end of 2014 and over the years since then, there had been multiple drafts of at least three different incarnations of the script. Though each one explored contrasting story angles and different characters, they would have to remain true to the foundational sleight-of-hand which was the story's embryonic impetus. Thus, no draft had ever found a way to truly work.
Getting ready for a take
Fast forward to November 2017 and “I’m Sorry Mommy”, my collaboration with Director Sonja Steyn, had taken home the Audience Choice Award for Best Australian Short at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival. If you were to ask one of us, we’d tell you that our victory was solely credited to the hands of the talented Art Director for that film, Tanith du Plessis. She brought our demon to life and I wore the makeup. Needless to say, the unexpected win had fueled a fire in us and Tanith had enthusiastically mentioned that we should use her house for a future project. This began my wheels turning. I knew her place to be a perfect location interior with it’s spacious and traditional structures of family, home and hearth, and that became the aim of my next corruption.
Matthew R. Grego and Jacki Mison in The Malicious
I riffed ideas with her for about ten minutes when I suddenly began to see a connection to “The Malicious”, which at that point had rested in a pile of drafted embarrassments to be rediscovered at a later time. But as I nurtured the idea within the following days, the concepts of a battered wife and a supernaturally-tinged home invasion began to take hold… and the story had finally found the foundation that it was always missing. That coupled with Tanith’s eagerness to relinquish her home and take her Art Direction to the next level created the momentum we needed to begin making things happen.
I can’t chalk it up to kismet completely, but the whole project came together naturally from there. I found an Executive Producer in Felix Von Gellhorn who also consented to shaving off all of his body hair, non-begrudgingly, and sat through four hours of makeup applications to play one of our more menacing characters. I got Sam White to come on board as Co-Producer with Tanith and I, and he was able to reach out and secure Timothy Carr as our Cinematographer. This upped the Production level to much more than we had even conceived for ourselves, and because of that, we were able to put a wonderful team behind us, from our talented Cast to our driven Crew, who were subjected to breathing in copious amounts of haze-with-extra-haze during all hours of the Shoot.
And throughout all of this, I cannot be prouder and more thankful for the teamwork lent to the fledgeling hands of this first time Director. You never know what you’re capable of doing until you do it. And one thing I found was that I had a special knack to remain completely motivated while accidentally, and continually, damaging my partner, Ray's, Merc at several stages throughout the production: an element that only Tim and I vehicularly know firsthand as the malicious curse (an anomaly which only seemed to affect HoDs with automobiles).
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Well curses back, and get behind us Satan, because at the end of the day, we all know that we fucked some serious shit up when we finally got to hit record on May 1, 2018. That’s when every star aligned and we were able to etch these moments in time.
-Noel Vinson, 2018
Cast and Crew
as Beth
as Robert
as Dr. Williams
Producer, Writer, Director
Producer / 1st AD
Producer / Art Director
Cinematographer
Script Supervisor
Assistant Camera
Gaffer
Grip
Sound Recordist
Production Assistant
Editor
© 2018 by Dissenter Stage Entertainment Sydney, Australia | noel@dissenterstage.com | +61 401 790 037