Dir: Jessica Cameron
Star: Ellie Church, Tristan Risk
Mel (Church) and Brooke (Risk) are lesbian lovers, the latter unstable to the point of lethality, Left to her own devices one day, and unable to contact Mel, Brooke murders an innocent bystander. When Mel comes home, to be greeted with an impromptu butcher’s shop, she opts to make a run for it with Brooke, and thus begins a cross-country cavalcade of carnage…
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Director statement: As a child I would go on road trips with my parents every summer, they loved the open road and the fact that we could drive anywhere. It is these childhood memories that has driven my passion for road trips films. I always felt that an open road was a wonderful setting for a horror film, and this was the core inspiration for what would become Mania. At the core of this film it’s a love story, how far would you go for the one that you felt was your soulmate. What would you do? What horrible things would you cover up?
Mania explores the depths of mental illnesses taken to the darkest aspects of humanity, turning a happy couple into a train-wreck mess as they fight to survive their own issues and each other. Nudity is utilized within the film to further intensify the descent into madness and separation from reality. As a horror fan I want to create films that I want to watch. Films with great characters and interesting plot points that I feel are missing in the world of horror today. There are still fresh and original ideas out there and it’s my hope to continue to bring original content to the world.
This film has been the most challenging film I have worked on in my career thus far. The nature of the shoot, filming two narrative feature films while traveling across the country and filming the process for the docu-reality series Kill The PA was a challenge on its best day and a nightmare on the worst. However I am very pleased with the end result, all the hard work paid off in the end. Stay tuned for Kill The PA, which will give an honest and intense look at the real world of independent film-making.
Cameron’s cult enriched film is a cataclysm of a downward spiral of events between two souls whose only ending is impending doom. Filled with American independent essence, Mania is a prism of relentless open road terror that smells of yesteryear. — HorrorMoviesUncut.com
Mania is an example of the type of film where story, character and performance transcend the limitations of its production. I’m not going to say you can’t tell that it’s a shoestring budget guerrilla indie, but you can tell that these filmmakers know what they’re doing with a shoestring guerrilla indie. — NerdReport.com