GROWING UP with his brothers in Oakland, Shawn Lewis loved watching a certain type of horror film.
“I’ve always been a fan of the ‘possessed doll’ subgenre, which includes everything from ‘Child’s Play’ to ‘Puppet Master’ to the old film ‘Magic,’” says the 39-year old, who now lives in Antioch.
The subgenre now includes “Black Devil Doll,” the feature-length debut of Lewis and his brother Jonathan, 25. Shawn wrote the story and script and Jonathan directed the film. (A third brother, Chris, contributed original songs to the production.)
The extremely violent comedy — which screens three times during the Another Hole in the Head film festival in San Francisco (see accompanying story) — tells the tale of a convicted murderer-rapist who is also a member of a radical black party. As he’s set to die for his crimes in the electric chair, the unrepentant killer manages to shift his soul into the body of a mannequin. The resulting “Black Devil Doll” proceeds to hunt down and murder a number of buxom ladies on the streets of Oakland (actually, Antioch), all the while living up to numerous ugly racial stereotypes.
The sexually explicit movie (which we’re told in the film was “rated X by an all-white jury”) features a cast found on Craigslist and consisting mainly of strippers from the Bay Area and Sacramento. Natasha Talonz, previously seen in the movie “The Horror Convention Massacre,” was an early pick, and she helped the brothers round up other equally striking participants.
Shot mainly on weekends over about 18 months, the production wrapped last year. Since then, the film quickly has risen to become a sensation among B-grade horror-movie fanatics, ones who “get” its controversial brand of humor.
The picture’s receiving midnight-movie screenings across the country and garnering sizable ink from trade publications such as Fangoria and receiving rave reviews from horror-movie Web sites. ChainsawMaffia.com raves that “‘Black Devil Doll’ hits every sleazy, offensive, exploitive note in a symphony of brutality and debauchery,” while HorrorFanatics.com trumpets the movie as “easily one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen.”
Not every viewer is enamored with the movie, though. The brothers say the Rev. Al Sharpton reportedly sent them a note blasting the it. So, of course, they posted a portion of his review on the film’s MySpace page (www.myspace.com/blackdevildolldvd).
“It’s a shame individuals in our society have regressed to such standards of racial lambasting in favor of lowest common denominator ‘entertainment’ for the mass public,” Sharpton wrote.
The Lewis brothers live by the motto “there is no such thing as bad publicity,” and they seem amused that their low-budget film has caused such an uproar.
“We wanted to make something that was fun,” Jonathan says. “And that’s what it is.”
All the attention is likely to help Shawn (a former student in San Francisco State University’s film department) and Jonathan (currently studying film in Los Angeles) move forward with their movie careers. Plus, word on “Black Devil Doll” — positive and negative — should continue to spread because the brothers inked major distribution deals for it in England, France, Germany and Japan during the recent Cannes Film Festival.
“It will be worldwide before the end of the year,” Shawn says. “That’s pretty cool for a film that cost $10,000 to make.
“Our next goal is to get somebody to invest in the sequel.”
Source - www.mercurynews.com
