By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The company that has resurrected countless past fright films is unleashing its first original production.
EIGHT EYES, produced by Vinegar Syndrome Pictures and Not the Funeral Home, is now available on special-edition Blu-ray following a lengthy, award-winning festival run. Directed by Austin Jennings from a script he wrote with Matt Frink, it was produced by Justin Martell and Matt Manjourides and shot on location in Serbia and Macedonia on 16mm film. Emily Sweet, Bradford Thomas and Bruno Veljanovski star; the synopsis: “American tourists Cass [Sweet] and Gav [Thomas] are backpacking their way across the Balkans. Shortly after crashing a wedding, they run into a mysterious Slav who goes by “Saint Peter” [Veljanovski]. Offering to give them an authentic tour of the region, the young couple take him up on the proposal, but soon fall prey to Saint Peter’s increasingly strange and manipulative behaviors, culminating with Gav’s sudden disappearance. Desperate to find him, and confident that Saint Peter is somehow connected to his vanishing, Cass is pulled deeper and deeper into a sinister web of violence as she comes to realize Saint Peter’s terrifying true intentions.”
The region-free Blu-ray is now available for pre-order, with a special limited-edition (3,000 units) side-loading slipcase, at the Vinegar Syndrome website. Special features are:
- Commentary track with co-writer/director/editor Austin Jennings, Producer Justin Martell and co-writer/animator/sound recordist Matt Frink
- “So Much to Love” (15 min.): An interview with actress Emily Sweet
- “It’s an Experience” (14 min.): An interview with actor Bradford Thomas
- “Answering Honestly” (12 min.): An interview with actor Bruno Veljanovski
- “A Piece of History” (16 min.): An interview with co-producer Seager Dixon
- “Doing Cowboy Shit” (19 min.): An interview with cinematographer Sean Dahlberg
- “Idea Man” (12 min.): An interview with co-writer/animator/sound recordist Matt Frink
- A group discussion with co-writer/director/editor Austin Jennings, cinematographer Sean Dahlberg and co-producer Seager Dixon (52 min.)
- “Production Diary” (18 min.): A collection of behind-the-scenes footage
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
