GAYLETTER

I’ve been waiting for a gay horror movie for twenty two years. I’m twenty two years old. PYOTR495 is about to end that literal life-long wait. I got all sorts of excited just reading the film’s log-line, “Set one evening in present day Moscow, 16 year-old Pyotr is baited by an ultranationalist group known for their violent abductions and attacks bolstered by Russia’s LGBT propaganda law, but Pyotr has a dangerous secret his attackers could never have accounted for…”

Written and directed by an apparently burgeoning talent, Blake Mawson, POYTR495 is a reaction to the violence against the LGBTQI community in Russia. The film aims to spark discussion about the Russian government’s blind eye toward the torture, rape, and murder of anyone supporting or participating in the “gay lifestyle.” Mawson appears to have recruited a fully loaded crew to start those conversations; Catherine Lutes’ cinematography is f*cking gorgeous and Konrad Black’s music is ominously sexy.

The thing is, the movie isn’t quite finished yet. Mawson reached out to us to spread the word about their crowd-sourcing efforts to get the film through post-production. If you watch the trailer, it’s immediately obvious that this movie deserves to get made. Plus, we got the director to answer a few questions in exchange for our shout out. Because we always work it. Read the interview, watch the trailer, and check out the website. Let’s help raise the funds and shine a vengeful light on the disgusting ultranationalists who are making videos of our sisters dying.

Can you tell us about your previous experiences in horror films? I started acting during my teen years back in Vancouver, British Columbia and worked on a number of sci-fi and horror projects there during that time. Within that world, I’ve worked on stuff like Freddy VS Jason,  X-Men 2, Poison Ivy: Secret Society, Blade: The Series, and most recently The Strain. I’ve also appeared in a couple of corny indie slashers here and there too.

What made you want to become a Director? I guess at a certain point, acting was no longer all that fulfilling for me. I had ideas of my own, and wanted to start investing in my own ideas a bit. I was coaching actor friends for auditions and they were booking the parts and I thought, “I should just do this, I should take a hack at it.”

Why this topic? Are you gay? Are you a vocal LGBTQI ally? I started writing PYOTR495 in January of 2014. Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” bill had just being passed a month earlier, the Sochi Olympics were underway, and the media was was bombarded with images of targeted abductions and attacks against LGBT people, whether it be from via organized groups, friends whom the victims had come out to and faced rejection from, or even at the hands of police.

I feel very proud to be gay, and I feel as if I have been lucky enough to encounter a lot of great things in life as a result of it, so when I saw other gay people in these videos being made into victims or made to feel like lessers, it made me sad and angry. I wanted to sit down and write something that I felt might empower someone put in these seemingly hopeless and terribly unfortunate scenarios. PYOTR495 may be fiction, but I wanted to take those feelings I was having about this type of oppression and somehow have it manifest on screen in an explosive way.

I would definitely say that I am now a vocal LGBTQI ally (and card-carrying member). Most of my twenties were spent just enjoying life with my head in the clouds in Berlin, taking it easy. You kind of feel removed from the rest of the planet out there; it’s easy to tune out. I would end up spending my days riding my bike around in the sun and laying by the canal after I’d been out at Berghain for two days, letting my brain rot. But once I returned to Canada and began living in Toronto, I started hanging out with a group of friends that were very conscious and vocal about these various social issues.

Can you tell us about Pyotr’s ‘secret?’ Is there a super-natural element to the film? I’d prefer to keep Pyotr’s secret for the sake of the people checking out the film, but what I will say that it’s NOT the same secret that Angela had at the end of Sleepaway Camp! But yes — there is a definite supernatural element to PYOTR495, and we play heavily within the grounds of that.

Is this a revitalization of rape-revenge tropes? What’s different about PYOTR? No, I think that Pyotr is really just trying to go about his life, managing the hand he’s been dealt with, and him and his friends are trying to get by the best way they know how …until someone comes and forcefully disrupts that.

It looks like you’ve got an impressive crew. How did you find them? Yes, I was very lucky to work with an incredibly talented group of people on this. In terms of some of our creative team, I met my cinematographer Catherine Lutes in Vancouver over 10 years ago and I think we share very similar tastes in our film references which is always great and makes things easier. Our film’s composer Konrad Black I also have also been friends with for years, since my days back in Vancouver, but he was scooped to Berlin via Miss Kittin during the Electroclash era and became a successful techno act there, so we reconvened on this project. he is the perfect guy to bring darkness up from the depths of Hell to help score this film. Our practical special effects guy Matthew DeWilde has been working in the industry since back before I was born, and has created work for everything from Jacob’s Ladder to SAW II. Believe it or not — my hairdresser Margot connected us.

The trailer looks beautifully polished. What does the crowd-sourced funding go to? Thank you! As polished as that trailer may look, we have only just began the post-production stages and edit on the film and still have far to go before we have a finished product.

We still really need the public’s support in making this film happen! Donations to our Indiegogo campaign will go towards paying for these post-production costs and horror-specific sound design, additional ADR, clearance fees for the powerful TV imagery we plan to use within our film, music licensing, deferred payments, union fees, taxes, overtime, a poster, festival submission costs, and everything else until the film is in your inbox! Help us spread the word!

What types of discussions do you hope to spark with this film? The fact that these documented abductions and attacks against LGBT people in Russia could be the focus for the premise of a horror film says a lot in itself. We’ll look at some of the real and very present scenarios taking place for people who face adversity based on their sexuality or their gender around the world, and draw a parallel to how creatures like the Elephant Man or The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Frankenstein have been treated, chased by a mob of angry townspeople with burning torches in film for years.

What film did you watch the most growing up? I loved Disney’s Halloween Treat as a kid. I would watch it on TV every year. That talking pumpkin gave me life! As a teen, I loved SCREAM and basically anything with Rose McGowan in it. I loved Linnea Quigley, Vincent Price, and Elvira, and then really got into directors like Jess Franco and John Carpenter later on.

How gory is POYTR going to get? On a scale of 1 to 10? Probably a 13. I would say that if blood and gore makes you sick or queasy, then this really isn’t the film for you.

Will this be screened in Russia? How do you plan to reach that audience? I hope so. I’d love for PYOTR495 to screen in Russia – whether it’s viewed as a propaganda film or not! I assume there’s an audience there who might be interested in seeing something other than what’s fed to them. I mean, if someone made a horror film scrutinizing some of Stephen Harper’s policies right now, I’m sure Canada would welcome it with open arms.

What scares you? The resurgence of unsafe sex practices I often hear whispers of in the gay scene! I don’t know if it’s the new generation coming up, a lack of education or what, but take care of yourselves, folks — put a rubber on it!