Twisted Horror Movie Short — THE VISITANT with Doug Jones and Amy Smart
I’ve got a fantastic horror short film for you to watch today called The Visitant, which was screened at the FilmQuest Film Festival last year. Not only is the film great, but there’s a lot of solid talent surrounding it. The Visitant was written and directed by Nick Peterson, and produced by Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite). This is the same team that brought us the short film Drained, which you can watch here. The Visitant stars Amy Smart (The Butterfly Effect, Crank) and Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy).
The story centers on a mother who faces down a demon that is lurking in her daughter's bedroom. I absolutely loved the creature design in this thing, and the intensity is awesome. There was an unexpected twist that I didn’t see coming, and I loved the nightmarish nature of it. On top of all that, it was beautifully shot.
The film was funded on Kickstarter, and the director talked with us exclusively about the movie. You can read the brief interview below the embed.
What was your inspiration behind the film? What were some films or stories that influenced you?
"Being a parent my biggest fear is something happening to my kids. And one night after putting my daughter to bed I thought 'what if there was a demon lurking in the shadows waiting for me to leave'…soon after that I thought about making this film."
Is there a background story behind the creature that was created for the film, if so can you tell us what it is?
"Yes, there’s actually a really large backstory that I wrote up to drive the design of the creature. We don’t get into it very much in the short and a lot of that is shown in the feature. I always think it’s a good idea to build a rich backstory even for a short film, this helps create the whole environment."
How long did it take to apply the make up on Doug Jones?
"I think it took Steve Wang and his team about 6-7 hours to do the makeup." (See behind the scenes photos below.)
Is this a story that you would like to adapt into a feature film?
"Yes! We have an awesome feature film script which is influenced by the short film and gets into the much deeper mythology of who this demon is, where did he come from and a whole other world."
Are you currently working on another film project? If so, can you tell us anything about it?
"Lately I’ve been swamped directing commercials and music videos…I’ve got a few things in development for few horror projects and something way out there is this Action/Terror film called “Final Ascent” we’re pitching around…you can watch the heart-racing, palm sweating teaser here:"
