FEATURED FEARMAKER 2016 REWIND PART IV

This week we’ve been taking a look back at this year’s Featured FearMakers. Be sure to catch up with Parts II and III

October 3 – Chronix EFX

Born from a family affair with horror, Chronix EFX was founded by the father-daughter team of Rod and Nikki Vizcaina, and Nikki’s soon-to-be husband Chris Hicks. Life long horror fans, Rod was eleven when he sneaked onto a film set that was shooting near his home, which turned out to be Stephen King’s Christine. He ran home to his father and convinced him to buy the book and was hooked on horror ever since. Some of Rod’s favorite writers and filmmakers include King, Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allen Poe. But Rod’s attention turned towards make-up, following some of the greats like Tom Savini and Rick Baker, whose iconic works are enough to inspire anyone.

October 10 – Gustavo Genixo

Gustavo found himself behind the lens at a young age, running around with his old super-VHS camera shooting weird, fantastic horror shorts. Later on, when the technological advances of visual effects caught up, Genixo was able to create things never thought were achievable. “The best thing of filming horror is that you can have a low budget, but that’s not relevant sometimes to create fear on screen, and that is priceless.”

October 17 – Steven Shea

The film that Shea claims catapulted him into filmmaking was Wes Craven’s 1990’s satire film Scream. “It really pulled back the curtain and made me realize there was more to movies then justmagic.” Said Shea “How people could make a career or making movies, just blew my mind.” Scream has a lot of value to it as a stand alone film, but Craven’s ability to hold a mirror up to the horror genre enticed Shea, and sent him spiraling towards a career within horror.

October 24 – Percy Leon

Inspired by the work on Anne Rice’s vampire chronicles, Guillermo Del Toro, James Cameron and James Wan’s amazing visual storytelling, Percy Leon set out to be a filmmaker.  Percy studied film at Los Angeles City College, where he studied Cinema and Television Arts. There his love for film grew, as did his list of inspirators. Up and coming new independent filmmakers like David Mitchell, Fede Alvarez, and Andres Muschietti became names to look up to as well.

October 31 – Liam Banks

In 2009, Liam Banks started his own production company, Superfreak Media, that specializes in short horror/sci-fi tales with a quirky nostalgic twist. His films have been lucky enough to screen around the world, including the famous TCL Chinese Theaters in Los Angeles. in 2015, Liam’s short film Mr. Creak placed fifth nationally out of over 850 entries on a televised competition called The Fear on the BBC.

November 7 – Luke Asa Guidici

Luke’s films combine all of his appreciations and inspirations. His latest, Time To Eat, was featured were on We Are Indie Horrornot too long ago. He is currently working on a commentary track for the four-minute short, as well as a slew of new projects, including a post-zombie buddy film, a kid’s cartoon about monsters, and some sci-fi TV show ideas all in various stages of development.

November 14 – Christopher MacGillivray

From that first time sitting in the dark theater watching Sigourney Weaver battle the evil xenomorph, Christopher became an instant horror fan. Watching any and every horror film he could, he quickly became a horror authority, knowing everything there is to know about the genre.

Working in horror wasn’t something that was available to Christopher MacGillivray when he went to college. His studies landed him a job as a manufacturing engineer, a solid career which was able to support him, along with his wife and three kids. While working hard and supporting his family is essential, Christopher felt his life was lacking something, but what could it be?

November 21 – Jimmy Dempster

Since moving to Georgia in early 2016, Jimmy Dempster has been working almost non-stop. He has had co-starring roles on television shows like Swamp Murders and Devious Maids. Jimmy has received praise for his powerful performances such as his portrayal of real life Killer John Barrett on the Swamp Murders series and his role in The Last One playing the father of the Cannibal Family who interestingly co-starred alongside his real-life wife Cherie and oldest daughter Audrey. He has also proved to be a leading man as well for his role of Rob in the feature film One Night Of Fear showing range as an actor as he plays a man just trying to do the right thing to protect his friends and girlfriend.

November 28 – Jeff Deck

Jeff Deck is an author based in Maine with his wife, Jane, and their silly dog, Burleigh. Growing up on  Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Saul, Jeff had always held a fascination for the horror genre. “I was that weird kid bringing a battered copy of  It into seventh-grade study hall,” said Deck. He later grew an appreciation for H.P. Lovecraft, whose cosmic horror notion that King had echoed: secret gates to weird and terrible places, god-like monsters lurking beyond the veil of space and time (or under the sea). He loved to read fantasy and science fiction as well, but when it came time to write his own work, he almost always aimed towards horror.

December 5 – Shawn Coss

Shawn is one of the few souls lucky enough to find a job that allows him to exercise his creative talents. Creating is a team sport, no matter how big or small the project is. When Coss was approached to create character designs and backgrounds for Cyanide & Happiness, he took the job running. He currently creates C&H merch too, as well as running his own clothing line, Any Means Necessary clothing.

Shawn Coss has always been a fan of the Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark trilogy, particularly the disturbing creations of artist Stephen Gammell “His [Gammell] horrific shading and pencil style really made the stories jump out.” Said Coss in his Kickstarter video for his new book, KinderGarten: A Collection of Creepy Stories

December 13 – Dekker Dreyer

Dekker spent most of his life on the East Coast, with a majority of time spent in Florida, he currently lives in Los Angeles, a city in which he has fallen for. He has written books, comics, and has written and directed several documentaries and series. He currently works as head of creative at Clever Fox, a virtual reality production company. Clever Fox has been gaining steam since their inception in 2015 and have been featured on Nerdist, LA Times, Variety, and have made projects for titans like Fox and Disney.

December 19 – Katrina Rennells

It was an easy decision for Katrina to create horror, her lifelong passion. “ I love horror because it is so subjective. It’s fascinating to me what scares certain people and what doesn’t, and that as an entire genre, so many people can’t even sit through it.” Her biggest influence is her husband, horror writer/producer Zak Olkewicz. Her career has been short but packed with projects, clocking in four projects in 2016 alone as a writer, director, producer, and actor, mostly a mix of them all. Her latest project, A Knock On The Door, a short film she co-wrote and co-directed with Wendie Weldon is currently circulating the festival circuit.