UPDATE: Since, this article has been published, ticket price has dropped from $20 down to $10. The venue for the event has changed and it will now take place at Studio 35. The doors open at 9:00 p.m. and the movie starts at 9:30 p.m.
Kids enter a forest supposedly haunted by an ax-wielding killer and spend the night telling tales of murder. It’s a typical start for a horror movie.
“Break,” a new horror film from director Adam Whitton, lures the audience into a comfort zone, giving horror fans typical slasher plot and characters, until the movie throws the audience a twist that is sure to surprise and horrify.
Whitton directed the movie and is also the CEO and president of CutThroat Entertainment. He found working on the movie to be one of the more challenging experiences he has ever had.
The movie was filmed mostly at night. “Break” required long hours of filming and a large crew. It was also on a much larger scale than other movies he has been involved with, Whitton said.
Whitton began his directing career at an early age. Writing was something he loved to do, but what he didn’t love were the rules governing novels. Script writing was something that Whitton could do without having to follow novel rules. Soon enough, this desire for control “spawned into wanting control over the entire process,” he said.
Whitton emerged as a director and producer who worked on his craft all through high school and later created CutThroat Entertainment.
The horror genre was something that he grew up on, Whitton said. His grandmother would sit with him, and together they would watch classic horror films such as “Halloween” and “Jaws.”
CutThroat’s first film, “Directions to Hell,” was made in 2001 with a much smaller crew than “Break.”
Cutthroat Entertainment started to come together between October 2008 and January 2009, when the company was able to attract directors, public relations workers, writers and others from various disciplines. For Whitton, uniting people from different fields was the only way to get the industry’s attention.
Although classic films such as “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween” are seeing numerous sequels and remakes, Whitton sees the future of the horror film genre in independent filmmakers and studios such as CutThroat. This idea is quickly proving true with the startling success of “Paranormal Activity,” a movie with a budget of only $15,000 and no script, according to its Web site.
In the beginning, CutThroat was a small company of 10 to 12 crew members, but with “Break,” the company is hoping to truly break out into the industry.
“Break” will premiere Dec. 3 at the Park Street Patio in the Brewery District.
CutThroat is working on producing two feature-length films: “Villain” and “As Days Be Ridden.” “Villain” is “a superhero suspense thriller film hybrid,” Whitton said.
The company has Web episodes, as well. They include series such as “Von Heckman.”
“Von Heckman” is a “‘Spinal Tap’ for the new generation,” Whitton said.
News and Web episodes can be found at CutThroat Entertainment’s Web site, cutthroat-entertainment.com.
