By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The surreal forthcoming feature mixes live action and animation.
Filmmaker Allan Piper of the award-winning EVIL SUBLET gave us the first look at sketches by acclaimed cult animator Bill Plympton (HAIR HIGH, MUTANT ALIENS) for Piper’s next movie, HIGHWAY GOTHIC. The movie, set to roll in August, will be directed by Piper and Elizabeth Mei-Ling Yng-Wong from Piper’s script, and combine live action with animated material, much of it by Plympton. Piper will co-star with EVIL SUBLET’s Jennifer Leigh Houston (who’s producing with Yng-Wong and Beth Ann Mastromarino) and Sally Struthers (who cameo’d in SUBLET), as well as Lauren Richardson. Coney Island Sideshow performers such as Nati Amos and Faux Pas le Fae, who holds the Guinness record for suspending weights from her facial piercings, will also appear. According to the PR, the title is derived from “the typeface approved for traffic signs by the Federal Highway Administration in 1948. It was chosen for its clarity, so it would be easy to see what’s coming from a mile away. In that sense, it is the opposite of the movie, where you will never see the next twist coming.”
The synopsis: “Traveling with family can be stressful under the best conditions. Dottie [Struthers], her daughter Bonnie [Houston] and her son-in-law Connor [Piper] are facing the worst conditions. It’s the night before Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year. Dottie and her daughter already have a strained relationship, and now they’re stuck together (with Connor) in a rental car in motionless gridlock with no end in sight.
“On top of that, it’s beginning to seem like there’s something wrong with the car, and not the sort of thing a mechanic can fix—more like what you’d call an exorcist for. The car makes strange noises. It swerves on its own toward danger. Disturbing images appear in the mirrors. It makes them wonder if a car can be haunted. But what’s outside might be worse, as they learn when they rescue Frankie [Richardson], an injured woman on the run from the dreaded Babyface Killer. Is he called that because he’s a handsome devil? Nope! It’s because he wears a mask made from a severed baby’s face!” That mask is being created by prosthetics veteran Gabe Bartalos (the LEPRECHAUN films, DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS), with Stella Sensel (QUEENS OF THE DEAD) and Konstantin Kohl handling the gore and makeup effects.
“I love that HIGHWAY GOTHIC is not only giving me the chance to work with heroes I admire as much as Sally Struthers, Bill Plympton and Gabe Bartalos, but it’s giving each of them a chance to do something they’ve never gotten to do before,” Piper tells RUE MORGUE. “None of them have worked with each other before. Sally’s never been the star of a horror movie. Bill and Gabe have never created a character that lives in both animation and live-action. We’re making something that will feel different from anything anyone’s seen before. Right now, horror is pretty much the only cinema that’s pushing boundaries and giving people something new, and I’m excited for HIGHWAY GOTHIC to be part of that.”
“Doing THE GETAWAY in 1972, directed by Sam Peckinpah, was certainly participating in a ‘horror film’ of sorts—a plethora of violence and slow-motion bloodshed,” Struthers (pictured above) tells us. “However, I could never honestly say that I had been cast in a horror film. That is until Allan Piper and Jen Houston came into my life. True friends, ever since our first meeting. Their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the genre eventually wore me down. And in spite of the world pandemic that paralyzed planet Earth, Allan and Jen went boldly where few chose to go during that period and somehow completed EVIL SUBLET. So I threw all caution to the wind, flew to New York and played my cameo role for them. It was thrilling to subsequently see how well this film did at all the festivals. Lots of awards. Heady stuff. And I sat back, feeling grateful that I done my first and last horror film.
“Then a while back, Allan and Jen called me to say that Allan had written his second horror film and he wanted me to play one of the four lead characters. My reaction? Whoopity-doo! We’re going to be shooting this fall in Massachusetts, and I am straining at the bit to tackle this new challenge. I’m a lucky old gal, aren’t I?!”
The filmmakers have raised most of their budget and are currently crowdfunding the remainder, with rewards including sketches by Plympton, personal video messages from Struthers and a virtual set visit. That page launches today at Highwaygothicmovie.com.
