A Queensland-shot fantasy horror from Tristan Barr will be launched for sales at this month’s European Film Market after being boarded by SC Films International.
Adapted from a novella within Vasilios Bouzas’s The Deathkeeper series, Dusk stars Charles Cottier as Luke, a near-immortal angel who stands on the side of good and lives with a curse that means he only ages when he saves lives and can only become young once again by taking a life.
He is stalked through time by the charismatic but deadly Malagor (George Pullar), a disguised demon who wants his powers. A series of murders ensues whilst Malagor amasses an Army of the dead. Aided by a love interest (Isabella Procida), a troubled cop (Peter Thurnwald), a local priest (Matt Caffoe), and a mysterious wanderer (Shuang Hu), Luke must defeat Malagor in a battle of good vs evil while protecting the innocent.
Barr wrote the screenplay with Sandra Sciberras and Caleb Scott, and also produced with David Gim for Continuance Pictures alongside Sciberras for Sandy Pictures.
Executive producers are Kolperi Filmmaking’s Ashley Burgess, Michael Mace, Griffith Film School, Shannon Van Bael, Gregory Dolgopolov, Mashed Films Matt Caffoe, as well as Michael Cottier, Charlotte Cottier, Vasilios Bouzas, Sheema Pasha Bouzas, Hu, and Thurnwald.
Filming took place over four weeks across November and December last year in the town of Marburg, just outside of Ipswich, with a crew including cinematographer Julian Panetta and gaffer Nicholas Curthoy.
Barr, who is completing post-production on the film, told IF the project offered a localised perspective on the broad subject matter, such as heaven and hell.
“The novella goes into these really big worlds and obviously we focused on something we could do locally that took the essence of all the characters,” he said.
He said the process of getting the film to production was “quite quick”, after receiving support from SC Films and raising finance.
“All of the actors are really just local Queenslanders, even though they work in Sydney and LA,” he said.
“I’ve known them for years so it was just a matter of calling up a whole bunch of friends that I wanted to work with again.”
Barr’s previous feature, Melbourne-shot horror Subject, was released in North America last year as an original title on VOD service Screambox after being acquired by Cineverse/Cinedigm.
In comments published on Deadline, SC Films International CEO Simon Crowe said he had been keen to work with Barr for some time.
“The early footage [of Dusk] looks terrific, and I am delighted to bring this to the market at Berlinale,” he said.
Barr is aiming to have the film premiere at a festival later in the year.