A janitor and a roll of toilet paper.
Those were the character and prop over 30 amateur filmmaking teams were required to include in their horror short film submissions for this year’s 48 Hour Horror Film Project.
Those things… and the line, “Something just touched my leg.”
The short films will premiere Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 at Fleur Cinema in Des Moines. The best of those qualifying films, selected by a panel of judges, will be shown Oct. 31, Halloween night.
The 48 Hour Horror Film Project is a spin-off of the annual 48 Hour Film Project, which celebrated its 20th year in Des Moines this summer. Like the summer project, the horror filmmakers are assigned a required character, prop and line of dialogue that they must include for their submissions to qualify.
Each team is also given a unique genre of film to replicate. For the horror project, filmmakers selected from options like "found footage,” “body horror,” and even “musical horror" at a kickoff event at Fleur Cinema & Cafe.
Team BOY BRAINS selected “comedy horror.” The group has been entering both 48 Hour competitions for years.
They spent the weekend converting a two-story house into a film set, where they shot a humorous, often Scooby-Doo-esque short, My Friend’s Mom’s Necronomicon, that employed smoke machines, a homemade monster costume and lots of fake, splattered blood.
@iowapublicradio The 48 Hour Horror Film Project is a spin-off of the annual 48 Hour Film Project, which celebrated its 20th year in Des Moines this summer. Like the summer project, the horror filmmakers are assigned a required character, prop and line of dialogue that they must include for their submissions to qualify. Each team is also given a unique genre of film to replicate. The horror film project is City Producer Samuel Pace-Tuomi’s favorite 48 Hour offering, and this year is special for him. After 15 years serving off and on, this will be his final project as Des Moines’ city producer. That also means it could be the final year, at least for a while, that the horror project will be offered in Des Moines, as it’s usually only made available to seasoned producers in select cities. You can catch all of the films on Oct. 14 & 15 at the premiere screenings at Fleur Cinema. The final selections will play at the Best Of Horror Screening & Costume Contest on Halloween. #ipr #iowapublicradio #npr #horrorfilm #filmtok #48hourfilmproject #iowa ♬ original sound - Iowa Public Radio
“It's a huge litmus test for stress,” director Jack Jochum said the day before the project. “I get about as little sleep as humanly possible… but when you're up for that long, every emotion is exponential.”
About a dozen crew members — siblings, friends and friends-of-friends — took over the house over the next two days, building sets, steadying cameras, editing scripts and making emergency dashes to the store to grab more supplies. The house was noticeably dotted with caffeinated and sugary drinks, sitting half-drunk on every surface and stocked full in the fridge.
Emotions were high when a series of technical difficulties in the final minutes of the competition caused the team to miss the submission deadline, but their film will still screen and be eligible for an audience award on Oct. 15.
48 Hour Film Project City Producer Samuel Pace-Tuomi said the rules are strict. Films can be disqualified for numerous reasons, including, most commonly, not delivering the required line of dialogue verbatim. But, ineligible films can still be entered in other film festivals and receive feedback at the screenings.
The horror film project is Pace-Tuomi’s favorite 48 Hour offering, and this year is special for him. After over 15 years serving off-and-on, this will be his final project as Des Moines’ city producer.
"It's been wild, and it's really been a big part of my life," he said.
"It's been wild, and it's really been a big part of my life."Samuel, Pace-Tuomi, city producer for the 48 Hour Film Project
That also means it could be the final year, at least for a while, that the horror project will be offered in Des Moines, as it’s usually only made available to seasoned producers in select cities.
As for this year’s submissions, Pace-Tuomi says he hopes teams "really go for it."
“I hope they're bloody,” he added.
You can catch all of the films Oct. 14 and 15 at the premiere screenings at Fleur Cinema & Cafe. The final selections will play at the Best Of Horror Screening & Costume Contest on Halloween.
