A reckless loner, desperate for human connection, sets out on a crime spree that she broadcasts on social media. Her reality quickly splinters into a surreal nightmare that escalates out of control and all in time for Christmas.
“Like Me is a bombastic feature debut for Robert Mockler, benefitting heavily from visual artistry and Addison Timlin’s strong performance.” -We Got This Covered
“a solid thriller with an edgy vision of millennial lunacy… delivers a wonderfully twisted antihero only possible in the 21st century.” -Indiewire
“The first-time feature director guides Like Me through its myriad of tonal shifts and stylistic flourishes with the grace of a seasoned filmmaker… likely to be the most exciting debut you’ll see this year. Or maybe any.” -CutPrintFilm
Blind Vietnam vet Ambrose McKinley (Nick Damici, Stakeland) moves into a retirement community where he hopes to live out his final days. The only problem: he’s living right down the street from a vicious, skin-shredding lycanthrope. Eating Ambrose’s beloved dog, Shadow, is the last mistake it’ll ever make. Now it’s finally pissed off the only human being as tough and as hard-to-kill as itself.
Creative camerawork and some fantastic prosthetic work combine for a fairly stunning sequence the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. Rob Hunter FILM SCHOOL REJECTS
Utterly unusual, totally fresh, and a really heartfelt meditation on aging that would make a perfect double bill with Bubba Ho-Tep Richard Whittaker AUSTIN CHRONICLE
“GOOD BOY is a Rousing Success That Defies Genre Expectations… applaudably innovative.” — Daily Dead
“a testament to the expert canine-handling skills of Leonberg and his wife, the film’s producer Kari Fischer, who find ingenious ways to get such a convincingly terrified performance out of their dog.” —The Hollywood Reporter
“With Larry Fessenden as the family patriarch, whose foreboding presence appears solely through distressed VHS tapes playing, Skinamarink-style, on outdated TVs, the house here becomes something of a liminal space, one in which the ghostly presences are unseen (again, that “dog barking at nothing”) and suddenly erupting in demonic spurts.” —Filmmaker Magazine
James Le Gros Spent Two Years Figuring Out His Severance Character
From VULTURE by By Roxana Hadadi
For decades, Le Gros’s rugged handsomeness and quirky accent work brought lived-in texture to a number of cult classics (Near Dark, Point Break, Drugstore Cowboy), critically acclaimed TV series (Ally McBeal, Mildred Pierce, Justified), and indie films (Support the Girls, Showing Up, Good One). In “Sweet Vitriol,” his Hampton is a gravelly voiced, ether-dealing diner owner who has a long history with Harmony — they worked in the factory together, still spark with romantic chemistry, and newly share a burn-it-all-down ideology when it comes to anything Lumon. Harmony is the most human she’s ever seemed around Hampton, and Le Gros, who has known Arquette since 1989, says their dynamic came from a fair amount of improvisation encouraged by director Ben Stiller, as well as an extra-long gap between shooting scenes for the episode. “This guy was in my head for almost two years,” Le Gros says of his character. “It’s like traveling with a ghost. It doesn’t ever leave you, because you know you’re going to be called to task at some point.”
How did Hampton come to you? Casting directorRachel Tenner has been very kind over the years. I auditioned for Ben for Escape at Dannemora. I didn’t get that job, but Ben wrote me a really nice note saying, “It didn’t work out, but I hope to work together in the future.” I’ve received several of these kinds of notes over the years. However, I’ve never been hired. [Laughs.] So it was somewhat of a surprise when this offer came to my agents. I got a text from Ben saying, “We got this part, we thought of you. Give it a read. Not sure if you know about the series.” I’d heard of the series, but I hadn’t seen it. I read the script and it was fantastic, then I binge-watched so I could be familiar with the world, and I said “yes,” of course.
Hampton is very antagonistic with Harmony in a way that speaks to a lot of history. I’ve known Patricia since 1989. I used to surf with this guy who was dating her at the time, and I had a pickup truck. He said, “I gotta move this stuff out of my girlfriend’s mom’s house.” That’s how we met. Patricia made us cookies. Patricia’s always had a very big, generous, giving heart.
… and of course, you can see James Le Gros in many Glass Eye Pix productions including THE LAST WINTER, BITTER FEAST, STRAY BULLETS, FOXHOLE, BLACKOUT, several Tales from Beyond the Pale…
Kelly Reichardt hosts sold out screening of WENDY AND LUCY on 35mm at the storied Paris Theater in New York City Friday 3/8/25. Seen here flanked by former students, Glass Eye Pix filmworkers and Fessenden.
Elric Kane on 20 Films That Inspired His Dating-App Horror Film The Dead Thing
BY TIM MOLLOY, MARCH 4, 2025
As someone who has been discussing and recommending films on my two podcasts (Fangoria‘s Colors of the Dark and the New Beverly Cinema’s Pure Cinema Podcast) for the last decade, I shouldn’t have been surprised that when I made my own movie, The Dead Thing (now on Shudder!) many folks would ask what some of my influences for it were.
When you’re actually in production on an indie film, you have no time to watch movies or even reflect too much on such things, so I decided to dig into what films were on my mind at various stages — from the writing process to post-production — and what specific impact they may have made.
Hopefully this can act as a double-edged list: If you’ve seen the film and are interested in some of the influences on it, this is for you. Or you’re simply looking for a list of eclectic or under-discussed films, I hope this leads you to some discoveries.
1. Habit, directed by Larry Fessenden (1995)
A true north star for the inception of our project. By focusing on character and emotion over FX and scares, Larry made one of the great down-and-dirty Indie horror films and was a major inspiration in our writing process.
Proving why she is one of the most highly-regarded auteurs of current cinema, Kelly Reichardt’s (Old Joy) subtle storytelling technique uses a formal minimalist style to weave together a unique emotional and political road film. Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and Lucy. Wendy and Lucy addresses issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of people’s duty to each other in tough times.
SXSW Hosts World Premiere of GOOD BOY: “In his feature directorial debut, filmmaker BEN LEONBERG directs his family pet through the performance of a lifetime, resulting in a frightening, innovative paranormal thriller from a visionary new writer-director. Shot over a period of three years and told from the perspective of INDY—a loyal, everyday dog thrust into extraordinary circumstances–and the only one who can see the forces that haunt us, GOOD BOY has its world premiere on Saturday, March 8th, at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin as part of SXSW’s Midnighter section.
“When we set out to make GOOD BOY, I wanted to create a haunted house movie from an entirely new perspective,” said Leonberg. “That meant inventing a new method of filmmaking: one that allowed us to capture a singular canine performance without the benefit of a hero who can speak. The entire story, physical production, set pieces, and all of the practical effects are built around Indy’s everyday behaviors, allowing us to create a movie that is simultaneously entertaining, moving, and terrifying; while still staying grounded in reality. Despite the paranormal events and horrifying scares, GOOD BOY looks real and feels relatable – what dog owner hasn’t wondered why their dog barks at ‘nothing’.”
Verve Ventures, Verve’s film financing and sales division, has boarded GOOD BOY to represent worldwide rights.
Amy Beecroft, Head of Verve Ventures: “GOOD BOY is a revolutionary supernatural thriller that redefines the haunted house genre. Visceral and terrifying, this film switches up the lens through which we view the familiar supernatural thriller setting into an experience unlike anything audiences have seen before. Ben absolutely blew us away with his directorial debut!”
Leonberg is known for directing fantastical stories grounded in real-world settings, anchored by naturalistic performances and utilizing practical, often hand-built effects. He has a talent for making the impossible practical: for his short film Bears Discover Fire, based on the Hugo-winning short story by Terry Bisson, Ben helped construct a one-of-a-kind photorealistic bear puppet. For GOOD BOY he spent over a year filming the most complex ten minutes of the film’s finale.
GOOD BOY was shot in a country home outside of New York City, where Leonberg and Kari Fischer, his wife and the film’s producer, moved with their dog, Indy. Based on a screenplay by Leonberg and co-writer Alex Cannon, they adapted the natural environment of the home and the surrounding terrain into a creepy haunted house setting for Indy to explore.
Indy is a family dog (not an actor) and Leonberg wanted to use that to his advantage. Drawing a realistic “performance” from Indy required constant invention, patience, and planning: capitalizing on his natural curiosity, eliciting specific expressions with silly noises, and building shots around his daily schedule. All shots with Indy were captured on closed sets with only Leonberg and Fischer joining him in front of the camera. This meant that the couple ended up standing in as many of the characters in the film, but that Indy’s genuine affection for his people comes through in his “performance”.
“From casting our own dog as the lead, to building rain machines in the backyard and waiting under beds for hours to get the perfect shot; our limitations on set ended up becoming the film’s greatest assets,” said Leonberg.
For his first feature, Leonberg also drew on his background working in immersive media to execute some of the most complex shots—leveraging “compositing” techniques he perfected in VR to remove himself and Fischer from shots where they coached Indy while on camera. Leonberg’s experience as an Eagle Scout and growing up on his family’s landscaping business directly contributed to several of the practical effects, building rain machines, and creating the spectral presence that haunts the film.
When it came time to recruit actors, Leonberg reached out to horror legends like Larry Fessenden (Blackout, Depraved, The Last Winter, Wendigo, and Habit) and Stuart Rudin (Silence of the Lambs) to lend the film some horror street cred, making it a perfect entry for this year’s Midnighter section.
Following its world premiere on March 8th, at Alamo Lamar, SXSW attendees can also watch GOOD BOY at 11:45am on Monday, March 10, at Alamo Lamar, and at 11:45am on Friday, March 14, at the Hyatt Regency. “
Glass Eye Pix is the fierce independent NYC-based production outfit headed by award-winning art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. Read more...
