Who will be the next Peter Jackson?
Lowell Dean
The director of Wolfcop (2014) and Another Wolfcop (2017) has two flicks coming out in 2024. Lowell Dean’s werewolf duology is about a smalltown cop who becomes a werewolf, and if that isn’t enough to pique your interest check out this transformation which should make most men cringe. He also directed Eerie (2013) about forensic students on an island where prisoners were illegally tested on and still “alive”; and Supergrid (2018) about two brothers who travel to pick up a package in the post-apocalypse.
We covered Dean in Director Roundup April 2020, about a month into the Pandemic which is probably why he has two films for 2024. His Deadlands was in preproduction at the time and probably turned into Die Alone, which is about an amnesiac looking for his girlfriend during a zombie outbreak and starring big timer Carrie-Anne Moss, Frank Grillo, and Douglas Smith. His other 2024 release is Dark Match–okay, hold onto your hearts my friends–wrestlers versus a cult, starring Steven Ogg, Sara Canning, and Michael Eklund. This guy is someone to watch out for. That’s six films, four of which he wrote himself, including these two coming out.
Jason Lei Howden
We also covered Jason Lei Howden in Director Roundup April 2020 and here we are again. Deathgasm (2015) was an amazing surprise: a metal band fights the demon they inadvertently summon through a song. He followed that up with Daniel Radcliffe and two guns bolted to his hands in Guns Akimbo (2019). If anything, Howden thinks up some great titles. Radcliffe in Akimbo is forced to fight in a kind of real-life video game, also starring the incredible Samara Weaving.
When he’s not directing, he’s working just as hard as Kostanski. He started off as a visual effects artist for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. He performed compositor work on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), and three episodes of Legion (2017) the TV series. He did rotoscope work on The Avengers (2012) and Prometheus (2012). And he created visual effects for War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
Howden is batting pretty high, and he’s written all three of his directorial efforts. His next film is a must-watch for me, a Deathgasm sequel. Deathgasm II: Goremageddon is in post-production with a lot of returns, including Milo Cawthorne, James Joshua Blake, Kimberly Crossman, Sam Berkley, and Daniel Cresswell.
Steven Kostanski
Astron-6 member Steven Kostanski directed Manborg (2011), Leprechaun Returns (2018), and what I call the pandemic sensation, Psycho Goreman (2020). He also co-wrote and co-directed Father’s Day (2011) with fellow Astron-6 members, Conor Sweeney, Mathew Kennedy, Jeremy Gillespie, and Adam Brooks.
Kostanski directed and Gillespie wrote the “W is for Wish” segment of ABCs of Death 2 (2014), and with Gillespie, he co-wrote and co-directed The Void (2016). Kostanski even directed “The Veggie Masher” commercial for Chloe Okuno’s “Storm Drain” segment of V/H/S/94 (2021).
Kostanski is a hard-working son of a gun, having done prosthetic work, makeup effects, and the like since at least 2005 on Capote, and including not only Astron-6 projects, his team-ups with Gillespie, and his solo directorial projects, but also three episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, twelve episodes of the TV show Hannibal, and the recent hit In a Violent Nature (2024). That’s how you start a filmmaking career.
The man just doesn’t stop. I totally missed any news about Frankie Freako (2024). Kostanksi wrote and directed this horror comedy about regular guy Conor who calls a 1-900 number–sorry, not that kind of 1-900 number, more of the party-line variety. It is set in the 1980s, so I guess anything set in the years of my youth is now a period piece. The titular character and his pint-sized puppet buddies invade Conor’s world, and they also take him to their world, a nice take on the gang-of-short-monsters-attacking-humans subgenre. Astron-6 members are involved as well. Kennedy provides the voice of Frankie Freako, while Adam Brooks seems to be playing Conor’s boss, Mr. Buechler, and Conor Sweeney leads the cast as … Conor.
Remember Jim Wynorski’s Munchie (1992), produced, among others, by Roger Corman? The president in Frankie Freako’s world is named Munch. That could be an allusion to Munchie or maybe I’m making a terrible segue.
Speaking of Corman, Kostanski is also in line to reboot the Deathstalker series, and the evolution of this project gets better and better. In October of 2023 came the news of a Deathstalker graphic novel from Vault Comics, Shout! Studios, and Raven Banner Entertainment, the latter of which is one of the producers for Frankie Freako and then some. Tim (Hack/Slash) Seeley was set to write with Jim Terry doing the art.
Not only that, but the production company involved is BerserkerGang and the owner of this company is Slash, like the Guns ‘N’ Roses Slash. So Vault Comics created a Kickstarter campaign for the graphic novel and more than doubled their goal of $25,000 with an estimated delivery of September 2024. Hey, that’s now. Then an account named Deathstalker also ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to shoot the film, raising nearly $96,000 of a $75,000 goal. Kostanski promises monsters and a well-deserved Daniel Bernhardt is set to star.
Scott Schirmer
Scott Schirmer directed Found (2012), about a boy who finds a severed head in his brother’s room, an amazing coming of age story that just gets darker and darker and we’re there for the ride. But don’t let Found define Schirmer’s tone. He also directed Plank Face (2016) about a man taken in by a feral family and The Bad Man (2018) about a clown who kidnaps two people for sex slaves. It’s his incredible film Harvest Lake (2016) that seems to be closer to the path he’s taking tone-wise for his upcoming film titled, Gush.
Harvest Lake seems like a typical Scooby Gang horror movie at first, but it gradually transitions into something else, as an otherworldly entity influences the characters sexually. Harvest Lake is a decidedly unique film along the same lines as Gush. According to Schirmer Gush is “the story of a traumatized author who finds inspiration in a seductive spirit who haunts her during a secluded writing retreat. Lust turns to love and trust turns to fear, as the author’s reality unravels at the hands of her muse, a creature far more deadly than the author ever dreamed.”
Gush starts shooting in October 2024–that’s almost now–and features Viktoria Evans and Schirmer regulars Ellie Church, Alyss Winkler, and Jason Crowe. Church also stars in the Found spinoff Headless (2015) directed by Found‘s special effects artist and Schirmer regular Arthur Cullipher; and Church, Winkler, and Crowe star in Space Babes from Outer Space (2017) and Church and Winkler starred in Jessie’s Super Normal Regular Average Day (2019) directed by Schirmer regular and all-around guy Brian K. Williams. Williams is also returning for Gush probably as producer and cinematographer per usual, as well as some other titles, I’m sure.
Church, Winkler, and Crowe are hard working humans though, and their credits go far beyond Schirmer’s work. Crowe, for example, has worked several times with Donald Farmer in Hooker with a Hacksaw (2017) and Cannibal Cop (2017), and Church starred in Albert Pyun’s Interstellar Civil War: Shadows of the Empire (2017).
I know that was a lot of info, and that I could’ve just said they’re all hard workers, but that wouldn’t be enough. That’s a hell of a team in the Schirmer camp.
Viktoria Evans is the dark horse in this drama. Who is she? One hell of a horse! Her web page describes her as a journalist, a visual artist, and co-founder of Murder Pop, an online magazine focusing on hardcore researched pieces about true crime with a correlating podcast, Murder Talk Radio. Her YouTube page includes, among other items, her full-length documentary on serial killer Israel Keyes, Life in Detail. We’re just touching the surface of her work. The “dark” in dark horse isn’t always so literal.
Want to support independent cinema, Scott Schirmer, Gush, and the crew? In Schirmer’s own words: “We’re doing a Blu-ray preorder crowdfunder after the movie is complete, but anyone who wishes to donate now can send their donation via Paypal to info@banditmotionpictures.com. All donors will get special thanks credit in the movie’s end titles.”
And if you really want to show your support? “If you’re interested in making a large donation, contact [Scott Schirmer] privately about Associate or Executive Producer credit!” Schirmer is mostly active on his Facebook account.
It’s been a hell of a roundup this round.