The Killer of grassy ridge: reinventing expectations

Never judge a book by its cover, a saying we all know and yet seldom applies in the world of horror. horror movies with a twist are a dime a dozen, usually screaming from

the very start straight into your face "NOTICE ME AND MY NOT SO SUBTLE

CLUE!" but with The Killer of Grassy Ridge, we have a whole new beast. think back to the first time you watched the sixth sense, remember how you felt when the twist was revealed and you were left stunned as you pieced together each clue you felt so blind now for missing. the subtle nuances that on a second watch seem to stand out.

and the way it all just, made sense. it wasn't forced, tired, or played out. it wasn't the usual. it was new and fresh and man did we need it.

Sitting down to watch The killer of Grassy ridge the first thing that's immediately noticeable

is that for its runtime at all of 9 minutes, it looks beautiful. It's shot incredibly well and the camera angles, lighting, and excellent sound all contribute to the atmosphere this short builds. from the opening scene, we are left uneasy as we watch a man dig what looks to be, and likely is, a grave. to go too much into plot detail would do the readers of

this article a disservice, you need to experience this yourself, it's 100% a personal experience, but I will say that as the film continues so does the feeling of dread.

as were shaken out of the moment, brought to a peaceful lull, put on edge, and then pushed

right the fuck over, the film leaves a lasting impression that doesn't soon go away. I rarely

double up on my viewings but this one had me hit replay immediately, I wanted to see what I had missed, what clues there could have been to this jaw dropping ending. THAT

is in itself a sign of a good film. if your asking good questions, if you're discussing it after

if you remember it later, all of these things point you towards the sure signs of more great cinema to come.

if this project is anything to go by Kaotica films have a big future in horror or cinematography

in general. the apparent passion for their work shines through in the aforementioned

attention to detail and wonderful camera work and sound, the different cuts, and the ominous facial expressions of the dead eyed main character, it drips with insane amounts

of talent from everyone involved. I had a quick chat with Johhny K to talk about the film

and the process behind it. head below for the full interview and links! so many links!

Lily: Speaking about the short itself, was there any inspiration behind this, or was it entirely

from the mind?

Johhny K: Thanks! my biggest inspiration was that I just wanted to stop making excuses

that my equipment wasn't good enough to go make my first movie! I wanted to finish something I

started and gave myself two months to write it, shoot it and edit it, happy to say it was

finished in 62 days.

Lily: Make your own damn movie style, I like it.

Johhny K : Other inspiration was seeing a photo of Michael Stumbo, a friend of mine with basically

no acting experience, a picture of him made me want to take him out into the woods

cover him with dirt, give him an ax and film him doing anything because I knew it would look great

on camera, the story grew from there.

Lily: the film has a really cool ending! is there anything in particular that made you want to go that

route?

Johhny K: were entering spoiler territory here so if you've not seen

the film yet go watch it and come back to this in 10 minutes, I will say that I knew

mike Stumbo would have a lot of onscreen time, which would break the horror film rule of

the less you see the killer, the scarier they are, I also knew a movie from his pov just walking \

through the woods to kill someone would be very linear and boring so I needed something

at the films climax to shake it up and make it memorable, I honestly never thought the

the twist was all that original or clever and that people would see it coming a mile away, I'm

getting a lot of comments on how much people are loving it which definitely makes me happy!

to me the film was never about the twist, it was about conveying a spooky atmosphere

and a sense of dread, I wanted to work on suspense, tension, and pacing in the editing room

for me, the twist was just something mechanical that needed to happen for the story's sake

I never expected people to get as excited about it as they did! I also want to say that I knew

Heather stone could really pull off the full range of the character, she's not an actress and

this is her first time in a film but I knew right away that she could pull off all aspects of the

character.

Lily: everyone was great, she (Heather) was so innocent and he (Michael) was simply ominous as hell

Johhny K: I thought so too! there's definitely a reason he's all over the marketing and promotional material!

Lily: What was it like working on such a tight self-enforced schedule? would you do it again?

Johhny K: Ha! I would because that's honestly the only way ill actually get things done, as creators no matter

what art you're into we tend to perfect things to death and constantly tweak

things forever. I think part of being a productive artist is knowing when to

stop screwing with your wok, if I give myself an aggressive timeframe, there's a better chance

ill actually finish the project instead of letting it rot on my hard drive for the rest of my life

as I try to make it better.

I'd honestly rather make SOME good films now than the ONE perfect one 15 years from now.

Lily: Do you see yourself returning to this story?

Johhny K : I've actually been asked this by several people in the last few days. they all tell me that they think there is more story to be told but I'm not so convinced, I will say I've had some conversations with the actors about it, at the start of the film we learn that there

have already been four victims...who were they, what are there stories, what makes the killer

tick?

I'm proud of this film and the last thing I want to do is start tarnishing it with endless sequels and prequels. I don't EVER want to see "Killer of grassy ridge 7: return to the ridge"

or anything like that. I'm already writing my next project and it has nothing to do with

"killer" but, never say never right?

The killer of grassy ridge is the first film by Johnny K although it doesn't show, recently awarded Best thriller short and Best Debut short in India and quickly gaining steam online you DO NOT want to miss this one. to see the short film, follow Johhny K or

check out what else he has in the works check out the links below!

The Killer of Grassy Ridge:

https://youtu.be/zbcu2zDdQOc

IMDB:

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm11087436/

Johnny K on Twitter:

@ThatJohnnyKGuy

Kaotica Studios on Twitter:

@KaoticaStudios