Ah, the holidays, with their cold, winter days, festive parties, and shows and movies that give you that warm, fuzzy feeling. Then there’s 13 Slays Till X-Mas, an anthology of 13 horror stories promising to terrify and/or gross the dickens out of you.
Tales in the one-hour, 46-minute collection include “It’s a Wonderful Death,” “Don’t Kill Santa on Christmas,” “Santa Claws,” “Jingle Bellz” and more, featuring just about everything the horror genre can put on the big screen.
Owensboro filmmaker P.J. Starks came up with the movie’s concept in 2017 but shelved it to focus on other projects with Blood Moon Pictures, a production company he co-owns with fellow Owensboro native Eric Huskisson. “Eric and I were hard at work trying to get financing for the final installment of the Volumes of Blood trilogy titled Devil’s Knight,” Starks said. “After spending an exhausting two and a half years without much progress, we decided to put that project on hold and pull 13 Slays off the shelf. I reached out to a laundry list of local and regional directors I wanted to work with. Once selected, we gave them creative control over their segments with the caveat of following technical guidelines to keep the look of the film cohesive.
“We knew this was a film we could get made with little to no capital and would ultimately become a fun, easy throwaway project. We were wrong in several of those respects.”
Filming began in February 2020. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Three of the 13 sequences had been filmed when the shutdowns happened, and the project went into hiatus,” Starks said. “We, along with all the other filmmakers, wanted to keep our cast and crews as safe as possible. I honestly thought the film was done at that point, but none of us gave up.”
Huskisson said production resumed once the country began to slowly open back up, but it wasn’t without headaches. “It was a very stressful experience,” he said. “We never knew from one weekend to the next if our shoot would be postponed due to COVID. Not only were we dealing with federal guidelines but state guidelines as well. Even if we were able to film here, one or more of the other nine directors from outside Kentucky couldn’t film because of their state’s protocols. We also had to deal with actors or crew being quarantined due to possible exposure.”
Despite the hurdles, shooting wrapped up in October 2020, and the filmmakers had a fully edited film the following month.
“Everyone handled the situation with great poise and professionalism to ensure 13 Slays would hit its deadline,” Huskisson said. “It was pretty amazing to witness!”
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Jackson native Jeffrey Reddick, a noted writer, producer and actor known for the Final Destination film franchise, portrays a reporter in the “A Christmas to Dismember” segment of 13 Slays. Reddick said working with Starks on the movie was a great experience, albeit atypical due to the pandemic.
“But I’ve found that adversity can be turned into an advantage,” Reddick said. “P.J. was able to bring together filmmakers from around the country to contribute to the film. So, that allowed this movie to have a bunch of different voices and artists work on it … I was really impressed with the talented and passionate team P.J. assembled, and I think that passion is reflected in the film.”
Starks said the anthology has been well received among critics and reviewed by “all the major horror sites in a favorable way.”
Joseph Perry with gruesomemagazine.com described it as a “super effort that is certain to find itself on heavy rotation each December and whenever the Christmas mood strikes.”
A review on themovieelite.com described the film as “a lot of fun with several enjoyable stories that aren’t afraid to get rather messed up and dark.”
Normally, an independently made movie such as this would have runs at several festivals. But COVID-19 axed those plans during 2020. It wasn’t until 2021 that 13 Slays was screened at several conventions, including OMG!con this past Halloween in Owensboro, which is the base of operations for Blood Moon Pictures.
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Brandon Scott Hanks
Why horror? Starks said it’s the most versatile of all the genres. “It’s the only genre I know that can combine comedy, drama, suspense, romance, action, thriller, musical, adventure and more into a single narrative and still work,” he said. “Plus, it’s universal. What’s scary here is typically scary somewhere else. Not to mention fear is probably the most relatable human emotion and, therefore, makes the viewing experience more visceral, fun and, in some cases, cathartic.”
In addition to the Owensboro screening, 13 Slays Till X-Mas had its first theatrical release on Oct. 23, 2021, at Lexington’s ScareFest Horror & Paranormal Convention.
“ScareFest was an absolute blast,” Starks said. “I thought any chances of seeing our film in a theatrical setting were dead due to COVID. Seeing the film in a theater with a nearly sold-out room was nothing short of amazing. Hearing the audiences laugh and groan in disgust at certain kills was awesome. It made up for all the headaches.”
So, if Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t your cup of hot cocoa, you can now stream 13 Slays Till X-Mas on Amazon Prime. Blood Moon Pictures also has inked a deal with Comcast for streaming on several other yet-to-be named services. The film is available for purchase on Blu-ray at screamteamreleasing.com.