"In the Closet" has been on the festival circuit since July, picking up an award for Best Religious Film at the 2009 San Diego Black Film Festival. (Photo courtesy Biblical films)
Story Published:
Oct 30, 2009 at 5:41 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Oct 30, 2009 at 5:48 PM PDT
There are no bankable stars, the special effects are of the experimental variety and it will be going up against indie horror hit “Paranormal Activity” as well as the latest installment of the “Saw” franchise.
But the filmmakers behind what’s being billed as a unique Black Christian horror film hope to get on the radar of horror film fans this weekend.
“In the Closet,” is a low-budget, futuristic, horror/serial-murder mystery that mixes blood and gore with interpretive biblical storytelling of fire and damnation.
The movie, made for about $30,000 over a 10-year period, is a collaboration between the Coleman family, an African-American owned theater arts company (COLSAC) and two White actors turned producers, Colin Stewart and Kathy Krantz, of Biblical Films.
“In the Closet” is actually intended to mark the beginning of a trilogy of films telling of a “Godfather”-like family saga about a religious, patriarchal figure or “Governor,” whose decision to turn his back on his family and his God will have dire, future consequences.
The movie has been on the festival circuit since July, picking up an award for Best Religious Film at the 2009 San Diego Black Film Festival and is due for a limited roll-out release in selected theaters at the end of the month.
Not surprisingly, the cast does not readily trip off the tongue, although it does star UFC freestyle fighter Kimo Leopoldo as a bloody demon.
The filmmakers recently screened it for an invited crowd at the Scientology-owned ‘Celebrity Center’ located on Franklin and Bronson avenues, where it pretty much went over a secular reporter’s head.
By their vary nature, low budget films have a raw look to them and “In the Closet” is no exception, but that hasn’t dulled the passion of Lamont Coleman and Denver Dowridge, alternately actor-co-writer-director and actor-co-writer-producer.
“We’ve submitted it to over 50 film festivals and that’s just locally and have gotten a couple of honorable mentions,” said Coleman, who cited the success of indie horror hit “Paranormal Activity,” a film made for $15,000 that has so far grossed over $60 million.
“We’ve had to go out and really push it and I think people have been impressed with what we’re trying to do. If people want to see it we urge them to go to our film site and demand their local theater show it.”
Dowridge revealed that they had come up against the same concerns Tyler Perry faced when he was first trying to get his films off the ground — that Black people don’t go to movies and only bootleg them.
“We want to show the distributors that it’s not the case and that our folks, especially those familiar with the religious aspect of horror, will see it and get it,” he said.
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