“Dead Eyes Behind the Painted Smile,” the latest horror offering from local filmmaker Joe Sherlock will hold its world premiere at Darkside Cinema on Halloween, October 31 at 7 pm. Tickets are $8 and all proceeds go to support the theater. What makes the screening even more exciting is that a good chunk of the movie was shot in and around Darkside Cinema itself.
“I was hired by a frequent producer of mine to make a ‘killer clown’ movie,” explains Sherlock,” and I came up with the image of a creepy clown sitting alone in a movie theater. I made the main character a theater worker and the story unfolded from there.” Having shown many of his productions on these local screens in the past, Sherlock reached out to theater manager Joey Bauer, who got on board with the idea.
“We shot there on two different days, “Sherlock continues, “in the lobby, hallway, stairwell, elevator, theater one, and even some areas not open to the public.” In addition, scenes were shot in front of the Whiteside Theater, on the streets and alleys downtown and a few other Corvallis locations.
All of the actors were local to the Pacific Northwest with one exception. Sherlock wrote a cameo sequence for Hollywood actress Kelli Maroney, known for Night of the Comet, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and her role as Kimberly Harris in over 300 episodes of the soap opera Ryan’s Hope. Maroney was making an appearance at a Portland event and managed to squeeze in an early morning shoot with Sherlock before she had to rush to the airport.
“I met Kelli a few years back and we hit it off,” Sherlock explains, “I was thrilled that we were able to work this shoot out. I wrote the part with her in mind and she did a terrific job pulling off the role of Dr. Clifton.”
Okay, not a spoiler, but here’s the plot: A twisted serial killer aims to satisfy his murderous bloodlust, donning a clown mask and pursuing a young theater worker and her friends. As the slasher slices and hacks his way through innocent victims, will Jenna survive the night?
Throughout this latest work, award-winning cult horror filmmaker Joe Sherlock brings his relentless genre love to the killer clown world with grindhouse gore, eccentric characters and a throwback synthesizer score.
Sherlock, some will recall, received the Best Feature Film award last year at the Seattle Crypticon Film Festival for “The Haunting of Heather Black.” Sherlock is currently celebrating his 30th year of making independent features, mostly in the horror genre but with some comedy and thrillers thrown in.
For more about Sherlock and his locally-made features, visit skullfaceastronaut.com
Trailer for Dead Eyes Behind the Painted Smile: https://vimeo.com/1101360138
Tickets on sale at https://darksidecinema.com
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com