By YASMINA KETITA
Social media can be a promising tool for forging friendships with people you relate to. I was fortunate to form such a friendship with Andrew Bowser back in 2018 when his character Onyx the Fortuitous featured my podcast Witch Finger on his series Friday Faves. We quickly realized our mutual love for VHS and ’80s horror and thus, a connection was made. I’m delighted to see Bowser’s new feature film, ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS, receive wide success after knowing him these five years. As writer, director, editor and star, Bowser poured his soul into this film. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Andrew Bowser in Pasadena (where he showed me the infamous Michael Myers and Laurie Strode houses from the original Halloween) and speaking with him on all things Onyx.
ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS has an ‘80s vibe and features a trope ubiquitous in that decade’s horror – a group of friends going into a haunted house. Was there a particular movie you drew the most inspiration from when developing the concept?
I think the movie that comes to mind most often is Fright Night. I always liked the unlikely pairing. They go off on this adventure and pretty quickly, there’s no discrepancy between them as far as generationally speaking, and they’re linked and bonded by what they ultimately both wind up believing. They don’t all believe it right away, but I think Fright Night was always kicking around in there. There are not too many similarities other than just the spirit of it, but Ghostbusters is also a reference point. I think the spirit of going off on a fun, spooky adventure is there with Ghostbusters, but they’re very different comedies in terms of tone. Fright Night. is the one that I keep going back to because I think of Onyx going on his own Fright Night. style adventure and there are probably more Fright Night. easter eggs in the film than any other movie that we referenced. One of the characters’ last names is Dandridge and another character’s last name is Brewster, plus Tom Holland is one of my favorite directors.
You launched a Kickstarter to help finance ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS. Crowdfunding is a great tool for bringing filmmakers’ projects to fruition. How did Screambox get involved? And tell me a bit about Fortuitous Films.
The Kickstarter was the beginning of everything, and there was no name given to my production company at the time. We were going to just try raising $500,000 on Kickstarter to make the Onyx movie, and then, I used the $610,000 that was raised as seed money to attract further financing to find investors. I started paying the creature designer, specialty props and wardrobe out of that $610,000 to get the ball rolling, and their work was then utilized to find more financing. We could show people the creature work that was being done in Denver, and some investors thought, “Well, that looks really cool, I’m on board.” Then, the film was completed — still without any other production company. We formed Fortuitous Films as the LLC that we ran the production through. I named the company that for the purpose of covering the film. Then, I realized, well, I just liked that name. Moving forward, using “Fortuitous Films” because Onyx has given birth to more than I expected, is, in a very poetic sense, as going on this journey with him was rather fortuitous because it ultimately led to a proper feature film that premiered at Sundance, which is something I could have never predicted.
I’ve always thought of my filmmaker side as separate from my performer/Onyx side, but the film really brought the sides together and gave me this great gift of premiering at a lot of other wonderful festivals. It was from the Sundance premiere that we attracted Cineverse, Screambox and Bloody Disgusting, and they clearly became the best partners for us because they understand the horror community. There was no question in their mind that they would push to get us into theaters and would give us a physical Blu-ray release, and we’re gonna be able to do a VHS release as well.
Some of the ‘80s elements in ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS include the music composed by Matt Mahaffey, who also plays your co-worker, but I especially applauded the practical FX, animatronics and creature design. The demon in the box gave me Boglin vibes, and the ghouls’ faces remind me of the cover of Return of the Living Dead. All the artists and sculptors did a fantastic job. You clearly had a vision for the art and makeup effects departments. What was your process for building these teams?
I wanted to work with the creature designer Adam Dougherty. For many years, I had seen his work at horror conventions, and I knew he worked at different creature shops out here in L.A. When I would go to these conventions, he’d be selling his own creations, and oftentimes, he would take something cartoony and give it this grounded and realistic-world appearance. He did a Witch Hazel from Looney Tunes statue, and I was fascinated by that dichotomy of taking something absurd and bringing it into a grounded space. So, I reached out to Adam early on to do the beefy, bad boy puppet because I thought, only one of these creatures would be a puppet – everything else would be a makeup. Even the box demon, I thought, would have some puppet elements – but that it would be someone’s face in there with a makeup that blended them into the puppeteer around them. But when I sent Adam the script, he said, “Well, what if all of these creatures were puppets?” I thought, “Well, wait. You’re right!”
All of the movies that I’m inspired by that exist in Onyx’s world would have these creatures be puppets. As soon as he said that, I realized how important it is to pick the right department heads because I had a vision for it, and I gave notes along the way, but it’s Adam’s vision that cranked it up to an eleven, which is what it needed to be. Also, from a production standpoint, it’s a lot easier. Instead of waiting for an actor to go from human to ghoul, with a three-hour makeup change, they just take their costume and put it on a puppet. Visually, the demon outside of the fast food place is much more dynamic and wouldn’t be if it was a guy in a creature suit. There’s still some great makeups in the movie, but I think it was a matter of picking the right person whose vision aligned with my own and then, also went beyond my own. And that was across the board, even with music or DP.
Another aspect of ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS I appreciated was inclusivity. Having a diverse cast, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folk is so important in all art forms for a surplus of reasons. Representation in media tells those who struggle with their identity that they’re valid and not alone. Having a non-binary character and actor in ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS put a smile on my face, not only because of its value but because I’ve been a fan of Rivkah Reyes since School of Rock. How did you meet them, and how did they become part of the film?
When I sat down to write the script, I was very focused on it being Onyx’s big adventure, and I started writing this ensemble around him that was kind of disposable two-dimensional characters. I wrote some asshole jock that gets killed early on, and I just ran out of steam, but I thought the movie needed to be Onyx versus the Evil Dead. I thought he needed to be splattered in blood and go on this gory adventure. Then, the second I started replacing the ensemble with people that I was interested in and whose stories I think aligned with the message of Onyx, which is inclusivity and self-identifying… I mean, that’s what the whole movie is about. As Onyx says, you might think I’m Mark. I’m not. I’m Onyx the Fortuitous. Everybody has their own approach … it’s all about naming yourself. That really becomes, for me, the central theme of the movie. Once I hit on that, it really opened up to me, even just personally. Why was I writing this? It’s because Onyx has always been searching for friends and acceptance, and I wanted him to be surrounded by people who were also in need of acceptance and searching for their own found family.
So it was a very natural progression, but it took me listening to the character. I really feel like Onyx didn’t want to go on an adventure with two-dimensional people he’s just going to kill for the sake of having some good gore. I wanted him to find his friends, so that became the heart of the movie and shaped the entire thing. Finding Rivkah happened early on, as I was a fan of theirs on TikTok. At first, Rivkah wasn’t available. Then, we did a llve read of the script during the Kickstarter, and Rivkah said, “Actually, I’m available.” I felt like that was a good combo for Onyx, and [Reyes’ character] Mack has become a lot of people’s favorite character out of the film, too.
So yeah… Jeffrey Combs as a Bartok the Great. He is one of my all-time favorite actors. I love horror, but I grew up with Star Trek. I’m a Trekkie for life. Tell me everything about working with him.
I always knew Barbara Crampton would be in the film because we had made some shorts together. She’s very supportive [and] easy to talk to, and she’ll meet you for lunch just to hear about what you’re working on and give you advice. So, we met up to talk about the Onyx film, and I told her we had not found a Bartok. I was initially looking for a kind of looming, Hammer-Horror villain archetype like Christopher Lee, but who could we get now that’s like a Christopher Lee? Barbara said, “Well, what about Jeffrey?” And I said, “Well, I’ve thought about Jeffrey, in the context of I hope to work with him one day because I love him, but I didn’t think about him for Bartok … I hadn’t seen him often play the master manipulator kind of grand villain, and Barbara said, “I think you should see what he does now and with the experience he has and at the age he is. He’ll kill this.” I had one phone call with him, and I realized she was right. His intensity, his understanding of the tone, all of the questions he asked were the right questions. He wanted to know how we were going to shoot the puppets and how seriously we were going to take it – specifically, that it wasn’t a parody film, but that it was a comedy that happened to be pretty straight-faced as far as its consequences … I was like, “You’re exactly right. Everything you’re asking about is what I intend to do. So, he was on board after this one call. Watching him on set, I was so certain we had made the right decision because [in] the movies I had seen him in, he hadn’t played that role, but he was beyond capable of doing it and was intimidating and very big and boisterous. Towards the end of the film, he just becomes unhinged like something right out of From Beyond or Castle Freak.
And from a practical perspective, not every actor has the same set of tools or skillset for doing prosthetics or contact lenses or is willing to shave their head or wear a fake goatee and mustache every day of the shoot. Not everybody would be down. But Jeffrey was on board for all of that. I think that’s because a lot of his work on Star Trek was being in so many different prosthetics over the years and he has a tolerance for it, but I think he actually has fun with it, which is not the case for everyone.
I gotta say, the Meat Loaf part is so fucking funny, but on a serious note, you’re a great singer! Any previous vocal training? Have you played in bands in the past?
I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but I am a vocalist. I used to be in a band for years, so the reason that sequence exists is because I have a chip on my shoulder about never quite making it as a singer. I grew up in musical theatre and learned every song to audition. I would sing “Grow For Me” from Little Shop of Horrors. I auditioned for Les Misérables on Broadway, and I did a Broadway touring production of The Secret Garden, and that was probably the most training I received because I was touring and singing for nine months. I stopped doing musical theatre when I went into high school and started writing and working on film but then, joined a band. We opened for Circa Survive and Taking Back Sunday, and I really wanted to make it. And there was a year where we were one of the top-10 unsigned bands in Alternative Press, and I thought, “This is it.” We did get some financing for an EP, but at that point, everyone had kind of lost interest or splintered off. Everybody got a little more adult and needed a regular job. I want to sing every day of my life, so when it came to Onyx, I came up with the idea to do this Meat Loaf song. We got the rights to cover the song, then went into the studio, and the sound engineer was like, “You’re singing as Onyx like he’s not a great singer?” And I was like, “No. He’s a great singer.”
I remember watching the E3 video years ago and laughing my ass off! You’ve come a long way from the Arby’s and Satanic statue viral videos, the Welcome to the Shadow Zone mini-series and writing and directing shorts like Thrill Me! and Little Willie. ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS premiered at film festivals like Screamfest, Fantasia and Sundance. How exciting was it for you to be at Sitges?
There were three festivals that I’ve always wanted to play, and when I got the final art made, the three laurels that I included just for myself to be able to look at every day were Sundance, Fantasia and Sitges. The film is so much more comedy than horror, but the DNA of it is from a horror fans’ perspective, so I was worried the genre festivals might not care about us or accept us. So to play at Fantasia was really, really, honoring as a horror fan. Honestly, those three festivals were some of the best experiences. They’re so well-run and you feel very cared for. Even though we were this tiny movie at Sundance, everybody there was very welcoming, and we were always taken care of. The audiences at Sitges were just some of the best crowds, and it felt like they really responded to the humor, but then, they would quiet down just in time for the next scene. They were very respectful of the pace and the timing of everything. It was a completely different experience because it was all subtitled. So then, I worried if these jokes would translate well, and it ultimately became so satisfying because they did … They clapped the first time a creature appeared, which was so cool. And they love the effort, the work and the craftsmanship that goes into these films – especially the practical effects. Sitges was also the last festival that we played, so it was a very sweet kind of end to that experience and also just an absolutely beautiful fucking city. So, to end our festival run with a great receptive crowd in a beautiful city that had a zombie walk – you know, the whole city just like loves horror – it really felt like a poetic end for Onyx there.
I have one last question. I did some hard Googling and it yielded no results. Is there really a Lou Ferrigno Christmas album?
I never Googled it to find out, but I didn’t base it on any reality. There’s so much hyper-specificity to Onyx and his world that I base on reality, but then, for some reason, there’ll be some things where I just go, “Wow. This sounds funny.” These two words sound really funny together. And you can imagine there being a Lou Ferrigno Christmas album because he was of that era when celebrities did everything. Everybody had a cereal, a cartoon, a talk show and an album. I just threw that together in my head, and I think I maybe even meant to go back and change it and base it on something real, but it made me laugh, and sometimes, just the laugh wins out.
