#Shawn Rasmussen

[rhettakins]

Crawl (2019)

Dir. Alexandre Aja

When a massive hurricane hits her Florida town, young Haley ignores the evacuation orders to search for her missing father, Dave. After finding him gravely injured in their family home, the two of them become trapped by the rapidly encroaching floodwaters. With the storm strengthening, Haley and Dave discover an even greater threat than the rising water level -- a relentless attack from a pack of gigantic alligators.

[brokehorrorfan]

Paramount Scares: Volume One will be released on October 24 via Paramount. The 4K Ultra HD box set collects Rosemary's Baby, Pet Sematary, Crawl, Smile, and a mystery fifth title making its 4K UHD debut.

1968's Rosemary's Baby is written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin’s 1967 novel. Mia Farrow stars with John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, and Ralph Bellamy.

1989's Pet Sematary is based on the 1983 novel by Stephen King, who also penned the script. Mary Lambert (Urban Legends: Bloody Mary) directs. Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, Brad Greenquist, and Miko Hughes star.

2019's Crawl is directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, High Tension) and written by Michael & Shawn Rasmussen (The Ward). Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper star. Sam Raimi produces.

2022's Smile marks the feature debut of writer-director Parker Finn, based on his 2020 short film Laura Hasn’t Slept. Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, and Rob Morgan star.

The limited edition set comes with an special issue of Fangoria magazine, Paramount Scares enamel pin, sticker sheet, and exclusive slipcovers for all five films. Special features are listed below.

Rosemary's Baby special features:

Rosemary’s Baby: A Retrospective

Mia and Roman

Theatrical trailer 50th anniversary trailer

Like most first-time mothers, Rosemary experiences confusion and fear. Her husband, an ambitious but unsuccessful actor, makes a pact with the devil that promises to send his career skyward.

Pet Sematary special features:

Audio commentary by director Mary Lambert

Interview with Mary Lambert

Fear and Remembrance

Stephen King Territory

The Characters

Filming the Horror

3 image galleries: storyboards (with introduction by Mary Lambert), behind the scenes, marketing

Dr. Louis Creed, having just moved to Maine with his wife and two children, is heartbroken when he finds that his daughter’s beloved cat has been hit by a truck and killed. Thankfully, a strange, elderly neighbor called Jud knows a secret that may spare the young girl’s tears. He takes the dead cat to an ancient Indian burial ground that lies hidden in the surrounding hilltops; and when he buries the feline there, it comes back to life a few days later. But Louis can’t be trusted with the secret, and, despite strong warnings that something horrible will happen, he uses the power of the burial ground to bring his son back from the dead.

Crawl special features:

Beneath Crawl featurette

Category 5 Gators: The VFX of Crawl featurette

Alligator Attacks

Alternate opening

Introduction to alternate opening

Deleted and extended scenes

As a category 5 hurricane tears through Florida, Haley rushes to find her father, who is injured and trapped in the crawl space of their home. The storm intensifies and water levels rise, just as the pair face an even more terrifying threat—alligators lurking below the surface, ready to chop.

Smile special features:

Audio commentary by writer-director Parker Finn

Laura Hasn’t Slept - Original short film with introduction by director Parker Finn

Something’s Wrong with Rose: Making Smile

Flies on the Wall: Inside the Score featurette

Deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Parker Finn

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.

Pre-order Paramount Scares: Volume One.

[ramascreen]

Official Trailer For Shudder's THE UNHEARD

Check out this official trailer for THE UNHEARD Streaming on Shudder on March 31st Directed by Jeffrey A. Brown (THE BEACH HOUSE) Written by Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen (CRAWL) Starring Lachlan Watson, Michele Hicks, Shunori Ramanathan, Brendan Meyer Synopsis After undergoing an experimental procedure to restore her damaged hearing, 20-year-old Chloe Grayden (Lachlan Watson,…

[goalhofer]

2024 Tampa Bay Rays Players By Nationality

American: 24 (Jason Adam, Tyler Alexander, Shawn Armstrong, Shane Baz, Taj Bradley, Aaron Civale, Garrett Cleavinger, Jonny DeLuca, Chris Devenski, Zach Eflin, Pete Fairbanks, Zach Littell, Brandon Lowe, Josh Lowe, Phil Maton III, Richie Palacios, Ryan Pepiot, Colin Poche, Drew Rasmussen, Ben Rortvedt, Austin Shenton, Jeffrey Springs, Jacob Waguespack & Davis Walls) Mexican: 3 (Jonathan Aranda, Randy Arozarena & Isaac Paredes) Dominican: 2 (Germán Rosario & José Siri) Australian: 1 (Curtis Mead) Colombian: 1 (Harold Ramírez) Cuban: 1 (Yandy Díaz) Panamanian: 1 (José Caballero) Venezuelan: 1 (René Pinto)

[greensparty]

TV Review: John Carpenter's Suburban Screams

Something I talk about quite frequently is when an artist has to live up to their own catalog. If you're Martin Scorsese or Neil Young, you're not just releasing some new film or album. What they release is being judged against masterpieces they have released in the past. Kind of unfair in a way because that new work might be pretty good on its own, just not nearly as good as something so near-perfect they released years earlier. I bring this up in relation to John Carpenter. I would not put him in the same category as Scorsese or Young, but as a filmmaker he has become a Master of Horror, i.e. Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, and They Live. Many fans feel he jumped the shark in the 90s after a string of high-bar scares he gave us in the 70s and 80s. His last film he directed was 2010's The Ward (written by pals Michael and Shawn Rasmussen). For the better part of the last decade he has been focused on music and composing with his son Cody Carpenter and his Godson Dave Davies.  I was lucky enough to see their Boston show performing film scores along with movie clips. I have also been lucky enough to review their albums including 2018's score to Halloween, 2021's Lost Themes III Alive After Death, 2021's Halloween Kills score, 2022's Firestarter score, and the score to Halloween Ends. But I digress. Carpenter has been keeping busy, but we've all been hoping he would return to directing soon. After more than a decade he has returned to the director's chair for the original Peacock limited series John Carpenter's Suburban Screams. In addition to having his name in the title Carpenter is the executive producer and has directed select episodes.

series poster

This anthology series examines true life tales that all took place in seemingly-perfect suburbia. Similar to the works of David Lynch and Tim Burton, who often show there is more to the quaint image of suburbia than we usually see.

one of the many mysterious homes in Suburban Screams

Like a lot of anthology series, some episodes are better than others here. Everything about this series reminded me of Unsolved Mysteries, where they use modern interviews and re-enactments to show, well obviously, unsolved mysteries. Here, it is a very similar approach to that series. But the biggest problem I have with this show isn't that it reminded me of another (better) show, or that Carpenter has done such horror masterpieces in the past or as I said, he has that problem of living up to this own filmography. The problem I have is that it just isn't scary. Forget about being as scary as Halloween, it'd be nice if it was just a percentage of that scary. This is disappointing, because there is something here: mysterious suburban tales with some big scares here and there. Instead it's lackluster. I just hope we don't have to wait another decade for Carpenter to return to directing!

For info on John Carpenter's Suburban Screams

2 out of 5 stars

[redrusty66]

Scream With Me : John Carpenter's The Ward (2010)

Discussing the 2010 Supernatural Horror Film : John Carpenter's The Ward

Starring : Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mika Boorem, Jared Harris Director : John Carpenter Writer : Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen

My Score 7.4/10

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1369706/ Trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfrKb...

My IMDB : https://www.imdb.com/user/ur48636572 My Letterboxed : https://letterboxd.com/Redrusty66/ My Poetry : https://allpoetry.com/Redrusty66

#horror #review #helterskelter #film #reaction #film

[saturdaynightmatinee]

CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 5 / 10

Título Original: Crawl

Año: 2019

Duración: 87 min

País: Estados Unidos

Dirección: Alexandre Aja

Guion: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen

Música: Max Aruj, Steffen Thum

Fotografía: Maxime Alexandre

Reparto: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark, Ross Anderson, George Somner, Anson Boon, Ami Metcalf, Annamaria Serda, Colin McFarlane, José Palma

Productora: Paramount Pictures, Raimi Productions. Productor: Sam Raimi

Género: Action ; Adventure; Horror

TRAILER:

[twins2994]

Tampa Bay Rays-Minnesota Twins Series Preview

6.10.22-Drew Rasmussen RHP (5-2) 3.02 ERA Vs. Devin Smeltzer LHP (2-0) 1.93 ERA 

6.11.22-Shane Baz RHP (0-0) 1.38 ERA (2022 AAA Stats) Vs. TBA

6.12.22-Jeff Springs LHP (2-2) 1.62 Vs. Cole Sands RHP (0-2) 8.49 ERA

The Rays At A Glance- The Rays have been playing solid baseball since we last saw them. They are (22-14) since May 1st and are seven games behind the Yankees for first place in the American League East. Wander Franco is out with a quad injury, Andrew Kittredge has been dealing with an elbow injury, JP Feyereisen has a sore shoulder, and JT Chargois will miss some time with an oblique injury. Shane Baz will be activated for Saturday’s game and will start his first game of the year. He had right elbow surgery and pitched in four rehab games for Durham. Manuel Margot has been one of the team’s better hitters when healthy. He is hitting .313 on the year with seven doubles. Ji-Man Choi has knocked in twenty-nine this year. The Rays offense averages 4.2 runs per game on the year. The Rays starting staff has a 3.31 ERA, which is fifth-best in MLB. The Twins will miss Shane McClanahan and Corey Kluber, who have been their better starters. The Tampa Bay bullpen is seventh-best in the Majors according to their ERA. Jason Adam has been a revelation with an 0.72 ERA in twenty-five innings. Colin Poche and Jalen Beeks are great from the left side. Matt Wisler, Phoenix Sanders, and Shawn Armstrong have been good from the right side for Kevin Cash. 

The Twins At A Glance- The Twins are starting to get guys back in the lineup after having tons of injuries and dealing with Covid. Carlos Correa and Gilberto Celestino have returned. Joe Ryan threw three shutout innings on 40 pitches in a rehab start. He is expected to be activated next week. Josh Winder will get the start tonight for the Saints and he’s expected to be back soon. Jorge Alcala paused his rehab assignment with Fort Myers due to a sore elbow. There isn’t too much concern and a few days off will be all. Sonny Gray will throw an extended bullpen session on Friday. Cody Stashak underwent season-ending shoulder surgery this week. Kyle Garlick is out with a hamstring injury and was put on the injured list on Tuesday. Luis Arraez is hitting .409 in the month of June. Byron Buxton is hitting .391 with four homers and seven RBI’s in June. Jovani Moran has been a bright spot out of the bullpen. He has allowed just one run in 8 1/3 innings of work. Jharel Cotton has given up two runs over 10 2/3 innings pitched. 

What To Watch For- The Twins took two out of three games from the Rays in St. Petersburg in late-April. The Twins also took two out of three games from the Rays in their last series at Target Field last August. The finale featured a Jorge Polanco walk-off sacrifice fly off Matt Wisler to win the game. Cole Sands made his Major League debut on May 1st against the Rays. He gave up two runs over two innings with two strikeouts. The Twins are going to have a bullpen game on Saturday, but don’t be surprised if Chi Chi Gonzalez gets called up again. He has an opt out of his minor league deal in a few days and the Twins can call him up then designate him for assignment if he doesn’t want to stay at St. Paul. The Rays bullpen is loaded with former Twins in Luke Bard, Ralph Garza, and Matt Wisler. Even Jason Adam was recieved from the Royals for Josh Willingham back in 2014. The Twins still don’t know if they’re for real. They have won two series against good teams in the Rays and Jays. They were swept by the Astros and Dodgers and lost two out of three to the Yankees. We’ll see how this weekend goes for the team. 

-Chris Kreibich-

[cinemgc]

Crawl (2019, US)

 • Dirección: Alexandre Aja

 • Guion: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen

 • Cinematografía: Maxime Alexandre

 • Cast: Kaya Scodelario

[justtheendoftheday]

Crawl (2019)

“It’s flooded. There’s alligators everywhere. Please send help.”

—————————————

While going to assist her father evacuate during a massive category 5 hurricane a woman winds up trapped by not only the storm, but also by a very ornery alligator that found its way into the basement.

—————————————

Fright: 2 / 5  Dangers of Climate Change

It’s much more of an action-thriller styled horror movie than a particularly frightening one. So it tends to trade more in building and releasing tension/excitement than in generating fright. Lots of jump scares though.

While it might have you gripping the edge of your seat at times, it probably won’t keep you up at night.

Although often the fear in a movie comes from you imagining what it would be like if those things were to happen to you. But since I am a dweller of the Midwest of the USA, I can honestly say that hurricanes and coming across an alligator in my basement are two things that I’ve never had to worry about.

BUT if you live somewhere where either of those things IS a possible concern, feel free to adjust my score accordingly.

Gore: 2.8 / 5  Gator Bites

As one might expect from a movie about gator attacks, you can expect to see some gator bites and a few randos being torn asunder. But honestly if it wasn’t for a couple of gory scenes involving a broken bone, I’d have given it a much lower score.

With that notable exception, the film is actually surprisingly light on gore and any of the handful of scenes involving heavier caliber gore are usually over pretty quickly.

Jump Scares: Frequent

This is one of those movies where if you suspect a scene is gearing up for a jump scare...you’re probably right.

Once things get rolling I’d say you can expect a jump scare every 10-12 minutes until you hit the credits.

—————————————

Review:

Crawl is a fun gator-filled hurricane romp with a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the action-thriller horror movie style. However, it frequently interrupts the thrill ride with its many attempts to shoehorn in some cliched sports/family drama.

Thoughts:

Does anyone else get secretly excited when they hear about an animal-attack horror movie that isn’t about sharks?

I’m just so tired of sharks!

What do all these filmmakers have against sharks anyway? (get a better mayor already, Amity Island!)

But alligators getting into your basement during an epic storm? Color me intrigued.

But for as jazzed as I was to see this one, I have to admit I left the theater with some mixed feelings. And judging from its other reviews, it would seem that I wasn’t the only one.

For me it boils down to this: Crawl is a film that absolutely nails the fundamentals of an enjoyable animal-attack action-thriller movie, yet tends to whiff on its attempts at delivering any sort higher drama. So while it isn’t as good as it could have been, it’s still pretty fun to see someone craft such a solid horror base.

I mean, there’s a lot to like here. The set up for the family drama is actually really well done. I thought Kaya Scodelario did a fantastic job as the leading lady. There are some wonderfully memorable moments and iconic shots that I love. And I just can’t help but be endeared to those big scaly babies of order Crocodilia.

But there I’d be, enjoying some quality Monkey Brain vs. Reptile Brain action, when the movie would suddenly hit the brakes in order to return to its shallow sports drama cliches. And it just always felt so forced.

Drama of any sort is a tricky little beast. You can’t half-ass it. If you want get into tangled web of interpersonal drama you gotta commit the time and energy to it. Gotta set that shit up, develop it, and let it grow into the story naturally. You can’t just play the usual cliché classics set list and then expect the audience to automatically feel something.

And to be fair, Crawl is far from the first movie to try to shoehorn some underdeveloped drama into their story. But because it’s an action-thriller, every forced father-daughter moment or over-dramatic Gotta give 110%!-sports cliche just wound up killing all their built up momentum.

(Also, this is nether here nor there, but I was also hoping that they would make some comments about climate change...and they never touched the topic directly.)

You know what? I’m actually struggling to thing of much to talk about with this one. It’s a pretty basic movie. You'll have to dive into the gritty details of it if you want to find the depth.

Which sounds like I’m ragging on it, but really I have no problem with a movie that first-and-foremost wants to be fun.

Crawl is just the type of movie where your first thoughts immediately go to its failures and it’s only when you allow yourself to past those failures, that you can appreciate all the wonderful things it did right.

Jeeez, that motivational speech? It was straight out of some sports movie! So awkward, amiright?…

Okay, but...but that part where the alligator ******** and so she **************?...that was friggin’ awesome.

—————————————

—————————————

Content warnings: An animal is killed (a croc) [but the dog remains unharmed!], there’s a bit where a broken bone is set.

After-credits scene?: None

—————————————

Directed by: Alexandre Aja

[The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Piranha 3D (2010), Horns (2013)]

Written by: Michael Rasmussen & Shawn Rasmussen

[The Ward (2010)]

Edited by: Elliot Greenberg

[Quarantine (2008), As Above, So Below (2014), Fantastic Four (2015)]

Cinematography by: Maxime Alexandre

[The Crazies (2010), The Voices (2014), The Nun (2018), Shazam! (2019)]

Country of Origin: USA

[with help from Serbia and Canada]

Language: English

Setting: Coral Lake, Florida, USA

[pretty sure Coral Lake isn’t a real town in Florida?]

If you enjoyed this you might also like: Lake Placid (1999), The Shallows (2016), Piranha 3D (2010)

“Apex predator all day!”

[rhettakins]

The Ward (2010)

No one believes the claims of a young woman (Amber Heard) that a dead patient is stalking the residents of the psychiatric facility.

[brokehorrorfan]

Crawl will be released on 4K Ultra HD (with Digital) on September 20 via Paramount. The 2019 alligator horror/thriller is produced by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead).

Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, High Tension) directs from a script written by Michael & Shawn Rasmussen (The Ward). Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper star.

Crawl is presented in 4K with HDR. Existing special features will be included; they’re listed below.

Special features:

Beneath Crawl featurette

Category 5 Gators: The VFX of Crawl featurette

Alligator Attacks

Alternate opening

Introduction to alternate opening

Deleted and extended scenes

As a category 5 hurricane tears through Florida, Haley rushes to find her father, who is injured and trapped in the crawl space of their home. The storm intensifies and water levels rise, just as the pair face an even more terrifying threat—alligators lurking below the surface, ready to chop.

Pre-order Crawl.

[guillotineman]

[goalhofer]

2024 Tampa Bay Rays Roster

Pitchers

#11 Shane Baz (Houston, Texas)

#14 Tyler Alexander (Southlake, Texas)*

#24 Zach Eflin (Oviedo, Florida)

#29 Pete Fairbanks (Webster Groves, Missouri)

#34 Aaron Civale (East Windsor, Connecticut)

#38 Colin Poche (Flower Mound, Texas)

#40 Jacob Waguespack (Ascencion Parish, Louisiana)*

#44 Ryan Pepiot (Westfield, Indiana)*

#45 Taj Bradley (Stone Mountain, Georgia)

#47 Jason Adam (Overland Park, Kansas)

#48 Chris Devenski (Cerritos, California)

#52 Zach Littell (Mebane, North Carolina)

#57 Drew Rasmussen (Spokane County, Washington)

#59 Jeffrey Springs (Belmont, North Carolina)

#60 Garrett Cleavinger (Lawrence, Kansas)

#64 Shawn Armstrong (Vanceboro, North Carolina)

#88 Phil Maton III (Chatham Township, Illinois)*

Catchers

#30 Ben Rortvedt (Verona, Wisconsin)*

#50 René Pinto (Maracay, Venezuela)

Infielders

#2 Yandy Díaz (Sagua La Grande, Cuba)

#6 Davis Walls (Cordele, Georgia)

#7 José Caballero (Ciudad Panama, Panama)*

#8 Brandon Lowe (Suffolk, Virginia)

#10 Germán Rosario (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)*

#17 Isaac Paredes (Hermosillo, Mexico)

#25 Curtis Mead (Adelaide, Australia)

#54 Austin Shenton (Bellingham, Washington)**

#62 Jonathan Aranda (Tijuana, Mexico)

Outfielders

#1 Richie Palacios (Brooklyn, New York)*

#15 Josh Lowe (Marietta, Georgia)

#21 Jonny DeLuca (Agoura Hills, California)*

#22 José Siri (Sabana Grande De Boyá, Dominican Republic)

#43 Harold Ramírez (Cartagena De Indias, Colombia)

#56 Randy Arozarena (Merida, Mexico)

Coaches

Manager Kevin Cash (Tampa, Florida)

Bench coach Rodney Linares (Brooklyn, New York)

Hitting coach Chad Mottola (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)

Assistant hitting coach Brady North (Lebanon, Tennessee)

Pitching coach Kyle Snyder (Sarasota, Florida)

Assistant pitching coach Rick Knapp (Baltimore, Maryland)

Bullpen coach Jorge Moncada (San Cristóbal, Venezuela)

1B coach Michael Johns (Fernandina Beach, Florida)

3B coach Brady Williams (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Field coordinator Tomas Francisco (Santiago De Los Caballeros, DR)

Assistant coach Mikael Dworken (Boca Raton, Florida)

Assistant coach Jonathan Erlichman (Toronto, Ontario)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Crawl (2019)

There are A LOT of shark movies so it’s nice to see things mixed up a bit. By swapping out the finned predators with alligators, Crawl brings some freshness to this survival horror creature-feature.

As everyone barricades their houses and packs their bags to escape an incoming hurricane, Haley (Kaya Scodelario) attempts to get a hold of her father, Dave (Barry Pepper). When she finds him, he’s just barely conscious enough to warn her of the large alligator hiding in the basement they’re now trapped in.

Movies like this one are fun. Every time the camera pans around, you make a mental checklist of any tools on the ground, any door that might be forced open, and any aspect of the surroundings you (or the heroes) might take advantage of. Ah, but if only it were as easy as finding the one thing required to escape! Just when father and daughter have stabilized their situation, you notice how much the water’s risen. With every second, the aquatic reptiles gain more of an advantage. You constantly have to re-evaluate the options.

To ensure you’re invested in the story beyond the obvious “they’re people and you wouldn’t want to see anyone eaten by alligators”, there’s a nice subplot detailing the pain Haley feels over her parents’ divorce - a falling out she blames on the time Dave spent training her to be a star swimmer. Considering we’ll be spending most of the movie exclusively with them - there are a couple of people who show up here and there but they’re not nearly as adept at dodging reptile bits as these two are - it’s a nice touch.

My one major criticism concerns the injuries sustained by Haley and her dad. It’s almost like a slasher movie where each limb is a person. As she edges her way through the mud as quietly as possible, you worry about her feet. When she has a hand outstretched forward to hold a flashlight, you wonder if teeth will suddenly gobble up her other arm. When teeth do penetrate flesh it’s delightfully yuck! But the injuries are too easily shaken off and it robs the film of some of its tension.

Crawl has some nice moments that’ll make you jump. The beasties being able to move through both water and land makes for a nice variety of danger-filled moments and the natural perils which accompany a hurricane make for a credible scenario that keeps you wondering “what’s next?”. You'll enjoy yourself, but I recommend you get out as soon as it ends. This is the second horror movie this year (the first being Pet Sematary) which ends on a high note and then gives you tonal whiplash by blasting a song which totally does not fit what you just saw as the credits start scrolling. Catchy tune though. (Theatrical version on the big screen, July 13, 2019)

[greensparty]

Talking with Michael and Shawn Rasmussen

A few weeks ago I attended the 2023 Boston Underground Film Festival and the Opening Night Film was Jeffrey A. Brown’s The Unheard, which just premiered on Shudder. What got my attention about this, was screenwriters / producers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. 

2023 Boston Underground Film Festival: Michael, Shawn and Jeffrey during the Q&A with BUFF Artistic Director Kevin Monahan 

The Brothers Rasmussen have become friends of mine over the last decade though the Boston film scene. 2005′s underrated Long Distance was co-written by them. Then they wrote 2010′s institution thriller The Ward, which was John Carpenter’s first movie he directed in about 10 years. Then they wrote and directed 2013′s Dark Feed, a horror movie about a movie crew filming in a scary location. They wrote and directed the indie horror film The Inhabitants (I was lucky enough to attend the private cast/crew/friends screening in 2015). Then they co-wrote Alexandre Aja’s Crawl (one of my 10 Best Movies of 2019). With The Unheard, Michael and Shawn have created a psychological horror film that was one of the highlights of this year’s BUFF. Plus it was filmed in Boston and Cape Cod. I recently got the chance to talk to Michael and Shawn while we both were attending BUFF.

movie poster

Me: I’ve hung out with you both many times over the years at BUFF, sat next to you at screenings, and hung out at festival parties. This year you had the Opening Night Film with The Unheard. What was that like for you guys?

Michael: It was pretty awesome. It was surreal.

Shawn: We’ve always wanted a movie at BUFF, but to have a movie as the Opening Night at the festival was unbelievable. It wasn’t something we expected to happen, it was just a huge surprise when our director [Jeffrey A. Brown] reached out and said “Hey guys, the film is going to be at BUFF and it’s going to open the festival” and we were just stoked.

Me: I’m sincerely happy for you guys. Something I’ve talked to you about with Crawl is that the house was like a character in and of itself. In The Unheard, there is something similar in that the house is like a character. Is that something intentional you were thinking about throughout the writing process?

Michael: Well, maybe less the house and more the Cape. We had stayed out on the Cape in the off season, especially in the Outer Cape (Wellfleet and Truro area), it’s kind of a spooky setting for a horror film. And the way sound travels out there. That time of year when no one’s around, it seems a little different, so we thought would be a great place for a horror film. So the Cape was something we were trying to make a character...in the script at least.

Shawn: We were always feeling it would be cool to shoot a film in Wellfleet in the off season. 

Michael and Shawn

Me: Looking at your filmography: you’ve written something for someone else to direct like The Ward, you’ve gotten the financing in order to direct your own micro-budget films like The Inhabitants, and developed a project with a director like Crawl. Do you guys like where you’re are at this time in your career where you can write and produce The Unheard, work closely with the director and film in Massachusetts for a Shudder production?

Shawn: Well, yeah on this one we are producers, but the way we like to put is we are kind of more creative producers. So it’s more in the development, working with the director in the pre-production. Whereas when we were directing stuff, we were on the ground doing the physical production. So where we are at is more focusing on the creative producing part of it and working with visionary directors like Jeffrey, who when we spoke to Jeff the first time we knew he had a vision for our story that was unique and that he was passionate about. We had seen The Beach House and said this is someone we’d love to work with and see what he would bring to one of our stories, because it’s a very collaborative medium.

Michael: Yeah, I think every time we’ve ever worked with a director they’ve always brought something to the project, whether it was Aja, Jeffrey or Carpenter - they kind of elevated what we already had on the page. We love working with great directors, it makes our job easier [laughs].

Me: Between 2007 and 2012, I worked at AMC Networks in their post and media services department. A few years after I left is when they launched Shudder. In the early years it was mostly streaming the horror and genre movies that they had, but then they actually got into producing some films, which is great for targeting that audience and knowing your film is going to reach the audience you want to see this. What’s it been like working with Shudder?

Michael: It’s awesome, I’m a subscriber. Shawn and I are. So it’s exciting to know when we go in to look at new releases on there, we’re going to see something that we wrote and produced. 

Shawn: They are really filmmaker-friendly. There’s a lot of filmmakers that we know that are doing original projects for Shudder and they are really supporting the filmmaker’s vision. I think Jeff felt that tremendously on The Unheard. They are very auteur-driven and very much supportive of whatever the filmmaker vision is of that project.

For info on Michael and Shawn Rasmussen: https://www.instagram.com/rasmussenbros/

For info on The Unheard: https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/the-unheard/ef08766525c1f63c