A creature from the folklore of the Gullah Geechee culture is coming to the screen.
Jeremiah Kipp, whose previous SLAPFACE won wide acclaim (including ours), is currently directing THE BOO HAG on location in and around Savannah, GA–one of the most haunted cities in America. This project, which reunites him with SLAPFACE DP Dominick Sivilli, is set amongst the Gullah Geechee people–descendants of Africans brought to America as slaves–and focuses on one of their mythical demons. The Boo Hag is said to pose as a beautiful woman by day, then reveals her monstrous form by night to kill victims as they sleep. Jason Walter Short and executive producers J. Craig Gordon and Phoenix Higgins scripted; the synopsis: “After his mother is mysteriously killed, Asa and his wife, Leigh, relocate from Harlem to the plantation estate he grew up on near Savannah, GA. The moment they step off the ferry, Leigh feels uneasy and the story begins.”
“When I read the BOO HAG script for the first time, I felt not only the ratcheting tension and fear that you get from a scary movie, but I felt invited into a rich folklore within the Gullah region,” Kipp says. “Instead of wanting to impose, the story made me want to listen. THE BOO HAG honors this Lowcountry culture with a rich African influence; as the main character–an artist from Harlem–discovers this world, so do we. And the monster is a powerful metaphor for the pain and the desire of yearning for a sense of security and home.”
“We have a wonderful cast who ground the story in a day-to-day reality: a couple entering into the second phase of their marriage,” he continues. “It’s so great to be sharing a story about adults trying to make it work, dealing with issues of class structure and childbirth, sustaining a marriage and making it work in a new environment where our heroine is a fish out of water.” Stay tuned for further updates!
