Bath Salt Cannibal

 

by Kevin Hicks

My first official MonsterBuster release (and my Master's thesis project at Georgia State University) will be Bath Salt Cannibal. This dark comedy horror short follows Joey as he tries to make his own homebrew after watching a news show detailing its recipe. He drinks it and transforms into his own Mr. Hyde of sorts- he starts to hallucinate all sorts of funny things until the pizza delivery lady shows up at his door and blood is spilt.

Joey is played by actor Jerry Irwin. Jerry was a perfect fit for my character not only because he did an excellent job acting but also because he worked as a grip and helped with the lights from time to time. Joey's best friend is played by Dylan Schettina, one of the main players in the upcoming MonsterBuster feature Invasion of the Undead. The wonderful Emily Diamond was cast as Donna- this part required her to act as three different characters: a trashy pizza lady, a princess, and a witch. Jeffrey Zwartjes, the lead actor in my previous short Friday Night Blood Ritual, also makes a cameo in the form of a Punch and Judy puppet. Jeffrey built the puppet from scratch and it looks absolutely amazing.

Make-up on all of these actors was created by Ricky Hess- he enjoyed giving Jerry a beard because it made him an honorary member of the Wolf Pack. Quyen Tran was once again the resident sound ninja and had to fight off dogs, refrigerators, and cell phones.

Sidarth Kantmneni served as my Director of Photography and did an amazing job. His ideas and framing were always better than I could've asked for and his intuition was rarely challenged. Sid was also able to see several opportunities for motivated camera movement that I never would have thought of. He also brought along some green- and red-colored KinoFlo bulbs that we used throughout the film, most notably in a transformation scene styled after the famous one in Rouben Mamoulian's version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I'd like to thank everyone involved in the project- Jessica Hershatter, Michael Corrigan, Pat & David Hicks, Carla Garbett, Chris Creasy, Neil Gordon, John Holbrook, Zach Junquera, James Johnson, Jay Holloway, Jason Vigdor, Torey Haas, Tricia Gaulesky, BlackBoxATL and anyone who was called on to help grip. My biggest thanks goes out to my Assistant Director Katelyn Brammer; even though production was a blast it was also stressful at times and I could not have done it without her help. Now I've just got to start editing...

Thanks for reading,

Kevin

P.S.- I still have to film a lot of the content for the TV shows that appear in Bath Salt Cannibal. I will be releasing some really nice promo material from these so bookmark this blog and check back regularly.

P.P.S.- Friday Night Blood Ritual will also be out soon on the MonsterBuster Entertainment website and YouTube Channel.