Dir: Michael Paul
Star: Anne Paul, Ben Hopkins, Cynthia Cain, Mac Deville
World Premiere!
Hopelessly naïve, Fern (Anne Paul) is a psychic who specializes in communicating with the dead. She finds herself homeless in a small town where people mysteriously keep going missing, and she’s desperate for a way out. When Fern accepts a job from the town’s amiable auto shop owner, Denny (Ben Hopkins), and his controlling wife Cherry (Cynthia Cain), family drama turns into a fight for survival. Taken hostage and surrounded by the disgruntled dead, Fern must wage war or die.
We’re delighted to welcome back the Pauls and their twisted world to FearCON. For they walked away with the ‘Audience Favorite’ prize at the 2010 FearCON for Roman’s Bride
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Director’s statement: Our goal as a company with Dead Weeds Pictures is to empower unique female characters. The idea behind Psycho Magnet was to give a very unlikely heroine a voice that would resonate in a genre plagued with stereotypes. My first film, Roman’s Bride, focused on the quirky yet psychologically disturbed Lily, and forced the audience to sympathize with someone dark that they wouldn’t normally connect with. However in Psycho Magnet, I wanted Fern to take viewers on a thrilling ride and hopefully her growth leaves the audience feeling empowered afterwards.
Fun facts
- A former video game designer, Michael Paul, met his wife/producer Anne, on a green screen shoot for one of his games.
- Anne Paul performs all her own stunts and there were at least 17 takes of her colliding with the lockers in her fight with Denny (Hopkins).
- Composer Dan Forden, is best known for his music work on the Mortal Kombat video game franchise plus his recurring appearance as the guy that pops out of the side of the screen and says “Toasty!” during the game.
- The chair scene with Fern (Paul), Denny (Hopkins) and Cherry (Cain) was almost all improvised.
More information:
- Twitter: @deadweedsdotcom
Bonus!
Preceding the main feature, we’ll be showing Redhead, a short film by Joe Zerull which also features Anne Paul, the star of Psycho Magnet. Or, at least, her head, which accompanies her killer around town after he tries, unsuccessfully, to dispose of it. Things go from bad to worse for him from there…
