Greetings! Evan here again, to say a few words about our fourth segment, Don’t Demonize Daniel! This was our attempt to tackle Satanic/cult horror, and to indulge in some 80s-influenced blood and gore stuff. This segment is the story of Daniel, a young devil worshipper experiencing a crisis of faith, looking to reestablish his personal relationship with Satan.
This segment was written and directed by Justin Bloch (who also co-wrote Rappaccini’s Formula), I was dp, and Jenn served as production designer and gaffer. In fact, Jenn basically served as production designer/art director for all of our segments, but Don’t Demonize Daniel! required a lot more to be developed from scratch. Using not much more than a few curtains, a lot of candles, and some carefully selected knock-knacks, Jenn was able to transform our spare bedroom into a suitably quirky and eerie dungeon.
Justin and I have been collaborating on projects for nearly 15 years, and Jenn and I knew that he’d be a perfect addition to the 5 Faces of Hell team; his sensibilities are close enough to ours that they would synch up well, but his voice would also add a different flavor. In particular, his personal relationship with organized religion obviously played a big role in shaping Don’t Demonize Daniel!
As I said above, we wanted to give the audience another dose of gross stuff in this segment, and to that end we were unbelievably fortunate in being directed towards make-up/effects artist Taylor Evans. The effects in this one are kind of painful for me to watch at times, and I mean that in the best possible way.
The role of Daniel went to Evan Marshall, who brought an introspective everyman quality, which helps us to stay invested in his search for meaning even as he does some pretty awful things along the way. For his mentor, Reverend Naglo, we cast Robyn Heller, with whom we’d previously worked on the horror short Unkempt (which Justin wrote, I directed, and Jenn dp’d). Robyn has a remarkable range, and gave Reverend Naglo an air of sincerity and honest concern that really adds an extra layer of irony as she guides Daniel down the path to Hell.
#horror #horrormovies #satanic #satanism #blacksabbath #rosemarysbaby #satanworshippers #gore #makeup #sfx #artists #hell #thepathtohell #organizedreligion #womeninfilm #womeninhorror #anthology #80s
