About the Project
Bad Moon Rising is an action/horror feature film currently in development.
Inspired by John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, Neil Marshall's DOG SOLDIERS, Ridley Scott's ALIEN, Scott's vision for the film is a gritty, scary, adrenaline-fuelled, popcorn flick which brings back werewolves as pure killing machines.
No tormented souls dealing with the curse. No underground societies of leather-clad werewolves. No teen-angst love stories. This is a lean, mean story of survival. About everyday people trapped in a terrifying, life-or-death situation where they have no choice but to fight their way out of.
Packed with nail-biting tension, genuine scares, brutal kills, and buckets of blood.
Logline
A botched bank robbery turned hostage situation devolves into a bloody night of survival for a group of criminals, hostages, and cops after they become trapped inside the building with a family of werewolves.
Synopsis
After a daring daylight robbery of a small town bank goes horribly wrong, a group of criminals take hostages and barricade themselves inside. With police on the scene the stage is set for a long standoff.
With the sun slowly sinking and nerves beginning to fray, the bank manager and his family plead with their captors to be released. But it is too late. A full moon has begun to rise and they suddenly transform into bloodthirsty werewolves. It is a massacre. The criminals’ guns prove useless and the bound hostages are like lambs to the slaughter.
Hearing screams and gunfire, the police storm the bank and join the fight. But the werewolves are too quick, too strong, and the policemen are torn to shreds.
Seeing a chance of escape, the survivors – a bloodied selection of criminals, police and hostages – rush to the entrance, only to have the power system overload and security doors engage before their eyes. They’re trapped.
The situation goes from bad to worse when a group of heavily armed werewolf hunters crash through the ceiling, take control of the situation and force the survivors to be bait in their deadly trap. But the werewolves are cunning and survive the hunters’ trap.
Now the only chance of survival for this handful of cops, crims and hostages is to outwit the hunters, fight their way to the vault, lock themselves inside and wait until morning.
Screenplay
The feature-length screenplay was voted WINNER of the 2015 Screencraft Horror Screenplay Contest. Described by jugdes as "Smart, grisly and cinematic..."
Short Film
A modified version of the feature film’s opening sequence was shot in order to act as a guide to the overall feel of the film, and to showcase Scott's work as a director in the horror genre. The intended vision is for an old-school style that also pays homage to the werewolf classics by predominantly utilising prosthetic make-up effects instead of CGI. This short was accomplished on an extremely limited budget and only shows a minimalistic look at the werewolf transformation effects (the final werewolf is not shown).
Screenings & Press
The short film howled its way onto the festival circuit premiering at the prestigious Screamfest Horror Film Festival. Following a sixty-six fesival run, including four Academy Award qualifiers, the film was released online where it quickly racked up over a million views, was higlighted in Rue Morge magazine's "Shorts that Shake the World" article, made Blumhouse.com's list of coolest werewolves, and the transformation sequence was featured in-part in William Shatner's "The UnXplained" (A&E History Channel).
"When Hamilton gets the feature version down, count me in."
- Mike McCutchen, AIN'T IT COOL NEWS
"I want this a feature, stat."
- Chris Savage, HORRORMOVIES.CA
"A gritty horror-crime hybrid, the short sank its teeth into the Screamfest audience, who in return demanded a feature version."
- Sean Decker, DREAD CENTRAL
"A superb production. An intimate and intense creature-crime short film."
- Christian Burgess, TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL
"In 7 minutes Hamilton & co. manage to put many past werewolf films to shame."
- Justin McConnell, RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE