INTERVIEW / JORDAN ASH

Northwest Arkansas filmmaker, Jacob Ransom, has a dark tale to tell, and he needs YOUR help in order to make it come to life. What Do You Do With a Red Right Hand?, is Jacob’s second short film, and it’s a devilish little thriller with a Hitchcockian vibe. I had a chance to catch up with Mr. Ransom and ask a few questions about his short, and about the Indiegogo page that you can visit and help donate to. If you want to support the art in Arkansas, this would be a start.

I think I speak for a lot of horror geeks, including myself, that this is a genre that changed the way I look at storytelling, especially at a young age when I first saw the cover art for these films at the video store. What movies influenced you to want to make horror movies?

JR: I’ve been a huge sci-fi/fantasy/horror nerd since watching 7th Voyage of Sinbad when I was six years old.  As far as horror films go, they were always forbidden when I was young so getting my hands on them became a near-fanatical obsession of mine.  I would find friends who had lax parents and access to VHS copies of films like Fright Night, The Thing, Poltergeist, Deep Red, American Werewolf in London, and, of course, the Alien trilogy.  I also lived on Hitchcock since my parents would actually let me watch his movies.

Scream came out when I was around thirteen and was really my first taste of modern horror.  It really opened the door to a whole new aspect of the genre for me: Horror as satire.  Which of course John Carpenter’s work always was.  I had just never looked at horror in that way before.  As an adult I have also been greatly influenced by filmmakers who take a more “philosophical” approach to horror.  Movies like Videodrome, The Exorcist, Cure, The Shining, and Werkmeister Harmonies are definitely favorites.

With the way that people view movies nowadays, such as online streaming, what can you tell us about your story, without giving any spoilers away, that is different then the others that seem to just get lost in the great big pool of B-Horror movies that are overlooked while flipping through them?

JR: The issue of over-saturation is a big stumbling block for independent filmmakers everywhere.  Making your work stand out is extremely difficult and I am not particularly adept at marketing or promotion so I am definitely behind the curve here.  In regards to our movie, I would stick with a simple synopsis:

“A young nurse returns to work in a psych ward after surviving a savage attack.  She is determined to confront the patient who took her eye and cure him of his delusions.  But will she survive another encounter with him?  And, is there something more sinister going on here than the ravings of one lone madman?”

Beyond that, I can promise you a great cast, a veteran crew, and a whip-smart script with a fantastic Hitchcockian twist.  I believe this is a winning combination and I am very excited to have the chance to show everyone what the Northwest Arkansas independent film scene is capable of producing.

Can you tell us about your goal for the Indiegogo page and what the next step is once your film is complete?

JR: Our goal with Indiegogo is to crowd-source $3000 in additional financing for our film.  We are fortunate to have a lot of our funding already in place.  Both myself and a private investor have contributed to cover the vital aspects of a bare-bones film production.  The additional funds we get through Indiegogo will be the fuel to propel this production to the next level!

To really sell this story right, we would love to add to the Wardrobe and the Set Design and include a couple nasty Practical Effects like the Nurse’s mangled eye socket and facial scarring.  We also would like to expand our on-set crew.  A couple extra eyes and hands at work would go a long way in helping us guarantee the superior quality of our craft. Obviously, the post-production phase has its own costs as well.  Editing and scoring, not to mention that final push to get this film out to festivals.

I would love to see this movie get some traction in the festival circuit.  Our last film, The Feeding Box did reasonably well, but we are always looking to take things to the next level.

But first we need to shoot this thing.  So let’s work together to make something that will go places, that can get into SXSW or Fantastic Fest or Sundance.  That is my pitch.

What do you think about most of the horror movies that are released to stores and online streaming? Do you look at some and think, ” How did this get financed?”

JR: I love anything inventive.  Limited budgets and questionable special effects don’t ruin a movie for me.  But uninspired knock-offs with lazy writing and plots that are tired retreads are fatally boring to me.  That’s what bothers me most about the horror genre.  The repetition and lack of genuine ingenuity in a lot of what is out there.

Don’t get me wrong.  There are a ton of great indie filmmakers producing bizarre and wildly imaginative tales of horror and science fiction.

They just get lost in the tidal wave of lazy Friday the 13th and Alien ripoffs.

Is there an idea you have for another story you want to share with the world after this?

JR: I write on a regular basis so I have more stories than I know what to do with.  I’ve been working (on and off) on two different comic books for the past couple years (one in the sci-fi crime genre, the other a contemporary dramedy).

I have also amassed a pile of scripts and short stories over the years.  One (The Dyson Experience) concerns a redneck who captures an extraterrestrial and travels around the countryside charging townsfolk for a gander, sort of a perverse underground freak-show.  Another (The Cuckoo’s Egg) is a horror-thriller about an impoverished mother who embeds herself and her son into the homes and lives of her son’s wealthier class-mates.

In addition to all that I recently completed a feature script (The Wives at Foxglove) I would love to make someday.  It’s a paranoid-thriller/satire about the husbands of a close-knit suburb who begin to suspect their wives may have formed a cult (or something even stranger).

VISIT: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/what-do-you-do-with-a-red-right-hand

 

 

 

 

 

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