A lifelong love of horror movies has inspired Sudburian Daniel Brousseau to create his first featurette film, shot entirely in the Sudbury area. It will not only be an homage to the classic over-the-top 1980s horror style, Brousseau told Sudbury.com, but one that will feature local actors, crew, and more than a little gore.
It’s that so-gory-it’s-funny style of the ’80s that Brousseau hopes to emulate.
“Extremely over-the-top gore, just silly and fun to watch,” he said. “That's something I'm trying to strive for, nothing too serious — it's just something fun to enjoy. I want to make a horror movie that people are gonna enjoy watching and just have a good time with their friends.”
Brousseau said he didn’t go to film school, but has instead learned from fandom, and experience.
“I own about 1,500 horror movies,” he said. “So my film school is watching all these movies and learning different styles based on what I see.”
And based on what he saw and enjoyed, the inspiration for Brousseau’s new film, Chemical Imbalance, comes from some of the older films in his collection; notable names like Return of the Living Dead and Dead Alive.
“There's a scene in Return of the Living Dead where something like this chemical pipe smoke thing is split and a zombie emerges and he's oozing and gross-looking,” Brousseau said. “And there's a scene in my movie where there's a chemical that spills and the smoke comes out, and it ends up transforming one of the characters.”
“Dead Alive” is also a zombie movie of sorts, and infamously known for it’s over-the-top fake blood. “It's like, ‘why is there so much blood?’ This makes no sense. And it's just something fun to enjoy, not to take too seriously.”
The film will be about 50 minutes long, just shy of a standard feature film’s 70 minutes, and will be the longest project Brousseau has completed so far. He is still putting the finishing touches on the script, but so far, the plot revolves around a protagonist who is in an accident and is transformed. But that transformation involves him seeking revenge on those that may have harmed him.
“He seeks revenge on the people that he feels betrayed him, which caused the accident,” said Brousseau. “Now, you don't know if he's still a good guy, or if he's a bad guy, because he's just killing people. But it's kind of justified that he's killing the people. So is he still a good guy?”
Several wooded scenes will be filmed in the Hagar area, on family property, and some will be filmed “guerilla-style,” he said. Other scenes will be shot at the Gory Hole, a horror-themed store in downtown Sudbury. You can find out more about the store in Sudbury.com’s feature, found here.
The Gory Hole will also be selling prints of Brousseau’s artwork, which he is producing as a fundraiser. Those prints will be custom, similar to those Brousseau is now selling at Canadian Red Dragon Tattoo Studio.
Brousseau describes his work as “digital, mostly photo manipulation, adult dark art horror style,” and said in addition to the artwork, t-shirts with the logo of his film company, Nickel City Slashers, will be on offer soon.
When the script is finalized, he’ll begin crowdfunding. The film’s budget is entirely out of Brousseau’s pocket, and everything raised will go directly to the production.
He hopes to begin filming in February, and those who wish to follow his progress and help him raise funds can follow the Nickel City Slashers on their Facebook page, found here.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com. She covers the diverse communities of Sudbury, especially the vulnerable or marginalized, including the Black, Indigenous, newcomer and Francophone communities, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ and issues of the downtown core.
