Burlco man has his horror-movie premiere
David Boorboor was 8 when he first became mesmerized by a movie's visceral power. "I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, and what it did to me - the way it made me feel - is what I want to give an audience."
David Boorboor was 8 when he first became mesmerized by a movie's visceral power.
"I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, and what it did to me - the way it made me feel - is what I want to give an audience."
Boorboor got a chance to do so Sunday when his horror film A Place in Hell premiered on the University of the Arts campus in Philadelphia.
A sellout crowd of about 350 applauded his skillfully scary (and wink-wink witty) creation; people cringed, laughed, and cheered "at all the right places," he said.
"When the audience erupted at certain lines, or at certain moments I envisioned when I was making the film, it meant more to me than anything," added Boorboor, the director, producer, screenwriter, and editor of A Place in Hell.
Something of an 86-minute homage to classic 1980s horror films Boorboor loves (he's a big fan of period dramas, too), A Place in Hell has blessedly less gore than I expected.
The film also features an African American female heroine - still a Hollywood rarity, alas. Even better, she's played by the terrific young actress Noree Victoria
A Place in Hell follows a cinema-smitten student film crew as it is stalked and sliced by a serial slasher, who in turn is being pursued, fitfully, by a drunken ex-detective (adroitly played by Lewis Smith of Django Unchained fame).
The story is fiction, but the killer - the imposing Philadelphia actor Atif Lanier - is loosely based on Harrison "Marty" Graham, the city's so-called "corpse collector" of the 1980s.
"Let's go into that farmhouse. I know it's not safe, but we have to get help!" says Victoria's been there/done that character, Nicole, after all hell has broken loose.
I abhor spoilers, but simply must mention that the students' cellphones all have disappeared and that going into the farmhouse does not turn out to be an award-winning plan.
The film itself seems to be on a happier trajectory, however.
"A Place in Hell is an official selection of the 2016 Philadelphia Independent Film Fest," said Ben Barnett, the director of the festival, which focuses on emerging artists and hosted the screening.
Boorboor, who grew up and still lives in Marlton, majored in film at Rowan University. He has been making music videos, commercials, documentaries, and promotional trailers pretty much since he graduated in 2002.
A Place in Hell is the biggest thing he's done. It is being released to theaters and other platforms by IndustryWork Pictures and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada in 2016, said Boorboor.
"This is a very happy day for me," he said, beaming as he stood in the front of Levitt Auditorium with about a dozen actors, crew members, and others involved in the production. "Thank you, everyone, for so much support for two years."
Set largely in South Jersey, the movie includes scenes shot on the Glassboro campus of Rowan (Pogue University in the film), Voorhees, and Mullica Hill, where the crew spent weeks at a "fright farm" called the Creamy Acres Night of Terror.
"We had so many challenges, just with the weather itself," said Victoria, who came down with pneumonia during production.
No wonder. On the day I visited the set in January 2014, the temperature was just north of zero, with snow and ice all over the place.
I learned to admire the plucky professionalism of the performers and the crew.
Making movies really is much more arduous than glamorous, particularly when the movie is being made for about $500,000, including a promotional budget heavy on social media.
"I'm proud of everyone involved. It was a team effort all the way," said associate producer Mark Elson, who lives in Pine Hill.
Team effort, indeed. Ed Cuffe, founder of CuffLink Productions, not only got A Place in Hell made, but stars in it, too. He's on-screen a lot as the tough-talking top cop, Capt. Links.
"He's me with a gun and a badge," Cuffe, a Bergen County contractor who began dabbling in movies six years ago, said with a laugh. "Exhilarating" was how he described the crowd's reaction to the film at Sunday's premiere.
"We make films for audiences, and it's finally getting an audience," Elson said. "It's a fun popcorn movie. And that's what we set out to do."
Said Boorboor, "People make films for lots of reasons, sometimes because they love movies so much. I make movies because of the feeling I got when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. Giving an audience that feeling is the greatest joy in the world."
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