Rosemary’s Baby-esque Brazilian horror
When writer-director Jeff Buhler describes the latest project he has in the fire as, “Evil…totally f**kin’ evil!” you expect the laughter that comes out of his mouth to be accompanied by storm clouds and lightning bolts striking down from the sky. The man is obviously stoked about The Hell Within, a film he’s pulling together with Brazil’s renegade “one to watch” Dennison Ramalho.
“Dennison did a short called ‘Love from Mother Only’ [which appeared on Synapse Films’ ‘Small Gauge Trauma’ disc] – he’s a f**kin’ brilliant director,” exclaims Buhler, who speaks to Shock while in post-production on Screen Gems’ Insanitarium. It’s a good year for him. In May, he’ll see his adaptation of Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train (directed by Ryuhei Kitamura) hit the screen. “[Dennison and I] met on another studio remake project that never wound up going forward and just became friends.”
Their consistent communication yielded an idea that was too good not to pass up. “Dennison had an idea for a script that is best described as ‘Rosemary’s Baby’-ish about a New York woman and her husband who are trying to have a kid. Then they start getting these creepy phone calls from this young girl.” The female protagonist learns the calls are coming from Brazil and believes the girl may be in trouble, so, with husband in tow, she ventures down to South America. “She becomes obsessed with this girl, this missing child, and sort’ve takes on this mission as a surrogate for her lack of being able to have a child of her own. While down there, she ends up uncovering this whole world down there that’s totally ‘Dennison Ramalho.'”
And if you’ve seen Ramalho’s “Mother” short, you’ll understand what Buhler means. E-V-I-L.
The Hell Within is being produced by the Swiss production outfit Barry Films. Buhler says the film is currently in a holding pattern until the WGA strike lifts, then a search for financiers can begin.
More to come from Buhler on “Meat Train” and Insanitarium.
Source: Ryan Rotten
