Curtain

One of the benefits of Curtain getting into Fantastic Fest last year is how many other festivals then shoot you free submission invites to their own festivals.  One of those was the Florida Film Festival.  Now, getting invited for free doesn't mean you automatically get "accepted" into the fest.  There's still a screening process.  So I'm happy to report that Curtain made the cut and will be playing.  

Here are the two screening dates:

Saturday, April 14 at 12:00 MIDNIGHT at Enzian
Saturday, April 21 at 12:00 MIDNIGHT at Regal Winter Park Village

Curtain is in the Midnight Shorts program.  I like the sound of that.

Pretty sure none of this info is up on their site yet, but if you live nearby, keep an eye out for those dates.

http://www.floridafilmfestival.com/

With Fantastic Fest now over, I'm finally able to gather some of the media and praise that Curtain earned in its wake.  So here is a round-up of some of the best mentions we received:

"The undisputed best short of the collection was Curtain, which featured a succubus, a strap-on dildo, and the most hellish lease agreement ever committed to paper. If you somehow manage to get a chance to see Curtain, do so without reservation." - Collider.com

"The stand outs for me were Dennis Widmyer’s Curtain, a horror-comedy where a couple rents a new apartment with a bizarre shower curtain that is to not be removed lest they release a succubus. Clever, well shot, and filled with laughs, it’s worth tracking down." - Film Threat

"Fest regulars Dennis Widmyer and Justin Duprie, who hails from Corpus, wrote and produced the exceptional horror-comedy short Curtain, which makes The Exorcist look tame by comparison." - Slackerwood.com

"A lot of fun and some great demon effects. And definitely watch out for Mr. Pokeyman." - Professor Wagstaff

At long last, the poster for Curtain is here, and its a grisly affair, if I do say so myself.  Designed by long-time friend and talented Photoshop technician, Brad Choma, it showcases (what I hope) is an arresting-enough image to people to wanna see the damn thing!  And if that's not enough, I have some fun screenshots as well.  

That's it for today.  Lots more news coming down the pipe.  For now, spread this around, why don't ya?

More on Curtain here!

Today Fantastic Fest announced its schedule for their 2011 line-up.  As predicted, Curtain will be featured in a shorts block, but this year it seems FF is doing something new and cool with their shorts.  Besides the standard DRAWN AND QUARTERED: Animated Shorts and FANTASTIC SHORTS blocks, this year FF's SHORTFUSE block seems to be dedicated soley to horror films.  In past years, all live-action shorts were grouped together, which made for a long block, making it tough to predict when your film would screen.  So I definitely approve of this new scheduling idea.

Here are the dates/times for Curtain which will be playing twice at the festival:

• Saturday, Sep 24 at 3:15pm
• Monday, Sep 26 at 3:10pm

Curtain plays 6th in a line-up with nine other films (which all sound awesome, might I add).  You can see more over at the Fantastic Fest site.  They've also posted their full schedule.

If you're in Austin, TX around that time, I'd love to see ya there!

More on Curtain here!

Today Fantastic Fest announced their 2011 Shorts Line-Up, and my short horror comedy, Curtain, is included!  This is huge news for me.  Getting into Fantastic Fest, which has easily become the largest and best genre festival in North America, was one of my primary goals for 'Curtain.'  It's a festival I've attended the last two years as a fan, and one that I was attending this year whether my film got in or not.  But yes, getting in just makes the visit that much sweeter.  Also sweet is knowing that Fantastic Fest provides one of the best viewing experiences for the audience out of any theater I've ever been to.

No dates have been posted yet, but the festival itself runs from Sep 22-29th in Austin, TX at the world famous Alamo Drafthouse.  You can read more about the fest and the shorts line-up below, and be sure to keep an eye on this page for updates as we receive them.

http://www.fantasticfest.com/blog/2011/08/2011-shorts-programming-announced/

Big congrats to my whole cast and crew.  We did it, guys!

Please help show your love by joining our Curtain Facebook page.

Check out this article on Maria Olsen, the actress who played the Succubus in my short horror comedy Curtain.  Backstage interviewed me for this piece, so I've got a few quotes in here too.

To those outside the acting world, the work of an actor seems to be entirely what's done on stage or in front of the camera. But a big part of the work is in auditioning and submitting. Maria Olsen has embraced this aspect of her acting career. Even though she has an agent who has been finding her enough work to make any actor feel busy, she still logs on to Back Stage and submits herself to the smaller projects her agent might miss. "Every single day I look through Back Stage," Olsen says. "My agent obviously will look at the higher, full big-budget projects. But I look at the smaller projects because I believe in doing as much work as you possibly can, making connections, getting yourself out there. They're never going to submit me for a short film. But I will."

Read the full transcript st Backstage.com here!

As of Sunday night, production has wrapped on Curtain, a short film I wrote and directed.  The movie tells the tale of James, an unemployed burnout who discovers a succubus is inhabitating the bathtub of his girlfriend's apartment. 

Inspired by a series of mysterious details littering the new apartment my girlfriend and I moved into this past August, I came up with the storyline for Curtain.  The tone of the film gets away from the bleakness of some of my previous movies and instead, focuses more on fun, energy, sexiness, gross-out moments and of course, big scares.

I'll be talking a lot more about this film in the coming months, as post-production progresses, but for now, check out its official section here.  You can also view a ton of behind the scenes pics in its gallery.