We Have a Premiere Date!

By Torey Haas

It's official: Invasion of the Undead will have its WORLD PREMIERE at Atlanta's historic Plaza Theatre on February 10, 2015, and it will be available digitally just a few weeks later on March 3rd! Signing the contract for the screening at the Plaza Theatre was one of the most satisfying moments of my life; all these years of hard work (and many more of just dreaming about it) will finally come to a culmination and I couldn't be more stoked!

As you know we were planning to release this month, but despite our best efforts (and multiple sleepless nights) we still need more time to finish the numerous visual effects in the movie, and this is the reason we pushed back to February. I'm a chronic underestimater of not only the time it takes to create effects but also the time I actually have to do so in between my work schedule, and this is something I'm trying to get a better handle on in the future. I wholeheartedly apologize to anyone reading this who is disappointed by the shift in the release date, but I assure you it's only for the best; we want Invasion to be the most awesome movie it can be, and the February release date will allow us to do so. Plus it will give us more time to market the film, which is an entirely new challenge for us.

Belle is a combination stop motion and live action creature- all of her shots take several hours to animate and composite, even if they're less than a second long.

We are SO close to finishing movie- I estimate it's about 85-90% complete, and if you've been following our Facebook page you know that we only have eight scenes remaining that need VFX. I've shown the current cut of the movie to a few friends and colleagues, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, which after all these months of post-production work is extremely gratifying to say the least. The most exciting feedback so far has been the response to the story and characters- I know you've read my numerous blog posts about all of Invasion's visual effects, but I never intended for it to be an 'effects' film. I got into filmmaking because I love the stories movies tell, and I'm very glad that people are responding so well to Invasion's story because it was something I definitely put a lot of effort into during the writing phase. That said though, we really crammed a lot of awesome visuals into our $17,000 film... I can't think of any other movie with our budget that features stop motion undead monsters, voodoo zombies, a magic-wielding mummy, a period flashback sequence, a kickass sword fight, and a final boss battle with a fireball-throwing demon inside of an alternate dimension.

We tinted our flashback sequence sepia in homage to The Beyond

Getting back to the release, here's some more info on what we currently have planned:

Theatrical: In addition to our premiere at the Plaza, I'm really hoping to bring Invasion to a few more theaters throughout the country. This is entirely dependent though on how much interest we can generate over the next few months... one of the coolest thing I learned from the MonsterBuster Film Festival back in 2011 is that you can rent independently-owned theaters and hold your own screenings, but the trick is to make sure that you get enough people to show up to cover the (not insignificant) rental cost. What this means is that while Invasion won't be playing at your local AMC or Regal, it may be playing at the nearest Landmark Theater. If you're reading this and you'd like to see Invasion on the big screen near you, send me an email- seriously!

Digital: Vimeo On Demand will almost certainly be our main streaming outlet on March 3rd; they're really filmmaker-friendly and they only take 10% of the revenue, which is significantly less than most other video on demand (VOD) services (for example iTunes takes 30% and Amazon takes 50%). We're likely to use a few other VOD sites as well, and I'll of course mention them on this blog and our Facebook page when we do so.

Blu-Ray/DVD: This is a huge project in of itself, and I can't say for certain when it will be released. The main special feature will be a making-of documentary that will likely be longer than Invasion itself, and since this is essentially the equivalent of another feature film it's going to take a bit of time. It's most definitely happening though, and it will be our top priority once Invasion is finished. To any Indiegogo backers reading this, you will still receive your copy as soon as it's made!

Just a few of the cast and crew members we've interviewed for the documentary so far!

The Video Game: Invasion is as much influenced by classic video games as it is by eighties horror films (that fight with a fireball-throwing demon in an alternate dimension that I mentioned earlier? Totally video game-inspired), so it only makes sense to make an Invasion video game. As seen in our official trailer, the  game will debut alongside Invasion's digital release on March 3rd. It will be free to play inside of a web browser, and gameplay will consist of guiding Desmond, Jake or Allison through the mansion to a boss battle with Belle. The beta I played is really fun and challenging, but just so everyone knows it's not a full game (hey, we're creating it simultaneously with a feature-length movie that itself is already much more work than anticipated). Being a huge gamer I want to develop more film/video game tie-ins in the future, so this will hopefully be only the first of many.

Cool shot of Bonnie Harris as one of the voodoo zombies in Allison's basement.

Thank you for reading as always, but more importantly thank you for following this movie for so long... it's really awesome that we FINALLY have a release date, and I can't wait for you all to see this movie. Stay tuned to this blog and our Facebook page for more updates!