By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Having written and directed intense fright films like PIG, BROKEN and THE DEVIL’S CHAIR, British filmmaker Adam Mason recently completed a horror short called EMPIRE OF DIRT, with an eye toward turning it into a feature. He gave us some exclusive words and pics from this new venture.
The project began when Mason was contacted a few years back by actor/writer Paul Sloan, whose credits include VIGILANTE DIARIES and the John Travolta thriller I AM WRATH. “He hunted me down, as he’d loved THE DEVIL’S CHAIR and wanted me to direct this crazy script he’d written called EMPIRE OF DIRT,” Mason tells RUE MORGUE. “Earlier this year, he had some of his Travolta cash, so decided to chuck his own money at us doing a little teaser for EMPIRE, with the aim to get some interest in us doing the feature version. No one’s ever offered me their own money to make something, so I was royally flattered and inspired by his faith and belief in me.”
The duo hired monster creator John Wrightson (son of comics legend Bernie) to help them realize a film Mason describes as “OLDBOY meets HELLRAISER. I was excited to dive into it, as it felt like a logical extension of something I started with THE DEVIL’S CHAIR 10 years ago. I’m a huge fan of ’80s creature movies and practical effects, so it was a real dream to dip my toe back into that playground. I’m really happy with how EMPIRE OF DIRT came out, and I’m hoping we get to expand upon it sometime soon. There’s talk about the short ending up on an anthology at the beginning of next year, although I can’t talk too much about that yet, and it’ll be doing the festival circuit. I’m pretty contactable, so if people want to reach out, they can!”
