The crowdfunding campaign for Bonehill Road, a “fun, scary old school style monster flick” from Todd Sheets, has a week to go and it’s 429% funded.
Bonehill Road is my newest film. It is an homage to classic monster films like The Howling and An American Werewolf In London. In some ways, it is a throwback to the films we grew up with… the real horror movies that we all love so much, and in another way it is a modern horror flick that uses old school techniques, including Practical Monster Effects. NO CGI at all here. Our goal is to make an exciting, scary monster movie with some really cool werewolves. Every dime will be put into the monsters. This whole campaign is ALL about the werewolves. We have our base Budget and distribution is already in place, we just need extra funds for our creature effects. If we are lucky enough to go OVER the budget listed here, we will use every dime for more effects and production costs. No salaries are ever taken by me, the director. EVERY dime will be put on screen, so the more money we have, the better. This budget listed was our BARE MINIMUM for extra creature stuff. But if we go OVER what was listed, that is simply amazing and it will mean MORE Monsters, MORE special effects, MORE stunts… a bigger and better movie!!!!!
This project has generated a lot of interest from Werewolf News readers and grindhouse horror fans in general. I can definitely see the appeal of practical creature effects, and there’s no doubt that Sheets has made his bones in the world of low-budget monster movies, but I don’t know if this project is for me.
They’re leaning heavily into the practical effects, which the campaign updates say are being handled by GDS-Fx. The GDS-Fx Facebook page has lots of photos showing the two masks that have been created so far, and they look appropriately grotesque. Curiously, the campaign also shows (uncredited) photos of pre-made werewolf suits, including a $1,700 Midnight Studios FX werewolf suit with the caption “this is one of the Werewolf suits we will be getting with YOUR help!!!” They obviously want as many werewolves as possible in the film, which, hell yeah, but it seems strange to have them all look so different.
Then there’s the fact that they’re leading off with unlicensed Narnia concept art, there’s no plot summary or story cues mentioned anywhere, and they’re making a character’s non-humanity (“a very cool TRANSFORMATION scene of a WOMAN into a Werewolf!!!”) a stretch goal. The whole concept seems a little… unfinished.
Nevertheless, I’m all for more werewolf movies, and I wish Sheets and his crew all the best.