By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The independent slasher film is currently wrapping up postproduction.
Charybdis Pictures passed on the exclusive poster and pics seen above and below from A CORPSE IN KENSINGTON, featuring the late Michael Madsen in one of his last roles. Brian Patrick Butler wrote and directed, and produced the film with Justin Burquist, and the cast also includes Derrick Acosta, Savannah Porter, Alex Chernow, Kimberly Weinberger, Vinny Curran, Ryan Bollman and Sutheshna Mani. The synopsis: “The story follows a loner who reunites with his crush and her boyfriend several years after graduating high school. A suspicious series of killings in the area cause tension among them as they try to figure out who the killer is.”
“A CORPSE IN KENSINGTON is a film about the past: living in the past, idealizing the past and obsessing over it,” Butler says. “It’s a psychological slasher romcom that takes place on Halloween 2010 in the neighborhood of Kensington, San Diego. I remember feeling nostalgic back in 2010, and it’s strange to look back and see how much the world has already changed since then. This movie is about a young guy caught up in romantic problems, but to me it also explores the dying of eras—a mark that cannot be felt by something until it is gone forever.”
Madsen originally had just a voice role, which he recorded in early 2024, but a crowdfund raised enough money to give him an onscreen role. “Michael Madsen filmed his scenes in June 2024,” Butler says. “A year later, he would be gone. We worked together briefly, but his kindness and humor made an impression that left me devastated when I heard the news of his passing. The subject matter of this film meant a lot to him, and I think the film itself has a more profoundly tragic quality now that he is gone.”
