The Hell Within: Slash Teams with Great Director

Out of San Diego Comic-Con comes news that Slash’s next venture into horror will team the iconic guitarist with terrific director Dennison Ramalho, whose shorts Love for Mother Only and Ninjas speak to a frightening filmmaker to get excited about. 

Ramalho, who also penned the last Coffin Joe film Embodiment of Evil, will make his feature debut with The Hell Within, about “a woman from New York on a quest into the heart of the Brazilian jungle to save a missing girl, only to find herself in a desperate village of drug runners and lost souls.” This is a long-awaited first feature from Ramalho, and if you can see his aforementioned short films, do it. I once heard someone explain Love for Mother Only was one of the only films they felt real evil emanate from. 

The synopsis for The Hell Within expands:

MARIE and her husband DAVID live a charmed life in Manhattan.  He’s a successful environmental attorney and she’s built an international aid organization that helps families in need across South America. 

The only thing missing is a child. 

When they start receiving disturbing phone calls from TERESA, a young girl in Brazil pleading for help, Marie can’t shake the feeling these calls are connected to her charity.  She convinces David to travel with her to Rio to locate the missing girl and soon a series of strange events and a shocking suicide lead them into the heart of the jungle.

Marie and David find themselves isolated in Seringal, a village overrun with drug runners and lost souls, steeped in ritual and superstition.  And as David falls ill to a mysterious disease, Marie begins to realize that the missing child was only the beginning of “The Hell Within”.

“I love creepy, haunting stuff. I don’t go for psycho movies really,” Slash said. “But I love monsters. And scares that are more cerebral. I love practical effects that make those monsters seem more real onscreen. When I read the script for The Hell Within (by Midnight Meat Train‘s Jeff Buhler), I knew it was the right project for my taste.”

Slash produces The Hell Within under SlashFiction, alongside Benito Mueller and Wolfgang Mueller of Barry Films. They’ve taken the film to FanBacked, the crowdfunding platform Rob Zombie recently used for 31. For more, find the campaign video and early pre-production stills below.