There’ll be no room for idle hands when production begins on Ursula Dabrowsky’s The Devil’s Work in South Australia.
The third film in her Demon Trilogy will be filmed across just five nights in December, as opposed to the two weeks it took to shoot predecessor Inner Demon in 2012 and the four-week schedule for 2009’s Family Demons.
Headlining the cast are two leads from the previous films, Cassandra Kane and Sarah Jeavons, who play feuding sisters in a story that chronicles a young couple’s weekend away at a remote cottage. What begins as a romantic escape soon turns into a harrowing fight for survival as they are terrorised by an unhinged, homicidal sibling.
They are joined by Mark Fantasia (The Tourist) who has returned to Adelaide after an eight-year stint in Los Angeles.
Written and directed by Dabrowsky, the project will also feature Maxx Corkindale as director of photography, Dominique Keeley as SFX makeup artist, Michael Taylor as composer, and Todd Telford as sound designer.
Ursula Dabrowksky is the pseudonym of Sue Brown, who is producing the film through Demon Girl Productions.
A two-month crowd-sourcing campaign has been set up to finance the low-budget feature, with more than $10,000 of the $20,000 raised in the first month.
Dabrowsky told IF the tighter shooting schedule was part of a new cinematic methodology that they were using, which was built around longer takes.
“This one is inspired by films that have been made using a production methodology whereby you are shooting in long takes and the idea is to give the illusion that the film has actually been shot in real time,” she said.
“I love films like that because you are really immersed in the main characters experience or whichever character is on screen.”
Dabrowsky was introduced to the world as a writer and director via Family Demons, a psychological horror film about an abused teenage girl who murders her alcoholic mother, only to discover her mother’s vengeful spirit returns to haunt her. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 A Night of Horror International Film Festival in Sydney, where she won Best Australian Director.
In 2010, the Canadian-born, South Australian filmmaker secured a production investment through the SAFC’s Film Lab Initiative to make her next film, Inner Demon, which tells the tale of a teenage girl who is abducted by a serial killer couple and manages to escape and find refuge in an isolated farmhouse, only to discover it is home to greater horrors and a malevolent spirit. The film was screened at several overseas film festivals during 2015, including Etheria Film Night in Los Angeles, London’s Film4 FrightFest Film Festival, and Sitges International Film Festival in Spain.
Terror Films acquired distribution rights and released the film worldwide in mid-2017 and successfully released Inner Demon on numerous streaming platforms in 2017 including Shudder, Amazon Prime, iTunes, and Vudu.
Dabrowsky said she was hoping to follow a similar path with the release of The Devil’s Work.
“I have a really good relationship with the company that picked up Inner Demon and they want to see this film when it’s finished,” she said.
“I don’t what’s happening with film festivals and online is just not the same at all, so I’m hoping by the time this is finished, we’ll be back to physical film festivals.”
Dabrowsky plans to continue working in horror following the conclusion of the Devil trilogy and is in the process of securing finance for her next project Ruby, Ruby, which will be produced alongside Antony I. Ginnane.