Call Me Crazy (2013)
The romantic-comedy gets twisted when a cannibal and a vampire fall in love inside an insane asylum.
This first started as an assignment for my college screenwriting course. We were supposed to write a script based on a true story, preferably something from our own lives.
Not thinking anything in my life would be remotely interesting enough to base a screenplay on, I started Googling for weird news stories, and came across something I thought would work.
Dubbed “Sweden’s Most Evil Couple,” a cannibal and a Satan-worshipping vampire were married while locked inside a secure mental facility in 2012.
The perfect scenario for my romantic comedy.
Months passed before my frequent film collaborator, Adam Orton, asked what screenplays I had laying around. First I sent him the first act of a zombie noir set in the 1940’s. Then I sent him the screenplay for a twisted rom-com, then titled “Just Like The Notebook, but for Cannibals.” Pre-production started almost immediately.
Our first step was creating an Indiegogo. There was a some filmmaking gear we needed to acquire, not to mention props, costuming, plus food and gas for the cast and crew.
And lots of fake blood.
So donating to the film, we offered whatever we could that would cost us any money. Things like having your name in the credits, digital screeners, and producer credits.
We were hoping to raise $1,500. We raised $1,542.
Any money that wasn’t spent during production went to film festival submissions.
Principal photography began in November of 2012. We were lucky enough to get a church basement to dress as our insane asylum.
But probably the most creative spot was our solitary confinement cell, which was really just the creatively-shot corner of a stairwell.
Movie magic, people.
Call Me Crazy was cut together by Izaak Levison-Share, a Chicago-based video editor and graduate from Columbia College.
Adam created all the original music.
The short film made it’s official premiere at the 2013 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival followed by screenings at:
- Salty Horror International Film Festival (Salt Lake City)
- Winner – Juror Award
- Scared Stiff Halloween Horror Film Festival (Three Rivers, MA)
- Runner-Up – Best Short Film
- Muscatine Independent Film Festival (Muscatine, IA)
- Halloweenapalooza Film Festival (Ottumwa, IA)
- Rendezvous Independent Film Festival (Amelia Island, FL)
- Nevermore Film Festival (Durham, NC)
- Horror-On-Sea Salty Shorts (Essex, UK)
- Freak Show Horror Film Festival (Orlando, FL)
- Knoxville Horror Film Fest
- Flint Film Festival
- South Texas Underground Film Festival (Corpus Christi, TX)
- New Orleans Horror Film Festival
- Macabre Faire Film Festival (Bethlehem, PA)
- Indie Social Podcast Halloween Film Festival
- Winner – Best Film
