This film is an homage to a sorely underrepresented style of horror story.  With a few notable exceptions, the world bending terror and suspense of films like "Hellraiser" and "Insidious"  is conspicuously absent from our cultural landscape.  The story of "Dearly Departed" is deeply rooted in the simple and universal fear of paying for one's sins.  In this film, that fear is made manifest.

It is a personal story that focuses on the weight of conscience and guilt associated with worldly appetites.  Corrine, our protagonist, is forced to face the consequences of her addiction prematurely.  When her heart stops, there is no more time for penance, no chance for forgiveness or redemption:  She must pay her tab, and settle her debts.

I've always been deeply attracted to this simple type of macabre morality tale.  We have all done things in our life that we thought were secret.  We have all been afraid that we might have to account for our misteps in a primordial way.  "Dearly Departed" takes that fear and makes it a part of our physical reality.  We will be shooting this film in a stark, high contrast, black and white style to emphasize that there are no moral grey areas.  Inspired by the aesthetics of the master work storytelling game "Wraith: The Oblivion" from Onyx Path and White Wolf Publishing, we will pushing the limits of this black and white approach.  

Devoid of the immersion breaking use of computer generated visual effects so common in today's films, we will be creating this world with the use of traditional practical elements.  Through the use of light and shadow, palpable tension will build until the final, carthartic release at the climax of the story.  

"Dearly Departed" is also an attempt to get the most out of the medium of short films.  The script was built from the ground up as a series of contrasting images; each propelling the story forward without a single wasted frame.  The final length of the film will sit between five and seven minutes; just enough time to tell our story without taxing the disbelief of our audience.  With short films, less is almost always more, and we believe we have found the perfect balance for delivering this nightmarish ride through the afterlife.  

Our final mission with this film is for it take on a life of its own, beyond its initial release.  To this end, we are publishing the script, the score, and the final cut of this film under a Creative Commons Attribution License.  This is the least restrictive form of copyright that we can apply to this work, and it will allow others the creative freedom to take the material and remix, re-edit, and even reshoot the film to their heart's content.  It is the closest step we can take to releasing this film in the public domain.  It's a direction that virtually no artist has been willing to take with their films in the past, but we believe in open source culture and this is our first step toward building it.

Join us in doing something revolutionary.