‘Wounds’ Brings SFX Obsession to Screamfest With Paris Jackson and Jack Kilmer
The pursuit of the perfect practical effect takes a disturbing turn in Wounds, a new psychological horror thriller starring Jack Kilmer and Paris Jackson that will make its world premiere at Screamfest on Oct. 8.
Written and directed by Ron Krauss, Wounds will screen at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles as part of this year’s Screamfest lineup. The film explores the increasingly dangerous intersection between artistic ambition, obsession and morality through the world of special effects makeup.
Kilmer stars as Caleb Castle, a horror-obsessed special effects makeup artist attempting to establish himself while working at a struggling horror studio. With the company approaching collapse, Caleb lands work on a low-budget vampire movie and meets Ginny Brown, a fellow makeup artist played by Jackson.
Caleb’s determination to prove his abilities takes a much darker turn after he witnesses a brutal murder. Rather than simply recoiling from what he has seen, the experience begins influencing his work, pushing him toward increasingly extreme methods in his pursuit of disturbingly realistic special effects.
The premise places practical effects themselves at the center of the horror, using an artist’s desire for authenticity as the foundation for a story about what can happen when creative ambition loses its moral boundaries.
Krauss describes the film as an examination of how creativity can simultaneously inspire and consume an artist, with Caleb’s fixation gradually blurring the boundary between creating convincing horror and participating in something genuinely horrific.
Wounds was shot entirely on 35mm film, an aesthetic choice that complements the production’s stated intention of creating a love letter to independent horror. The filmmakers cite Brian De Palma, David Cronenberg and John Carpenter among the auteur influences informing the movie’s approach.
Alongside Kilmer, whose credits include Palo Alto and The Nice Guys, and Jackson, who has appeared in American Horror Stories and One Spoon of Chocolate, the cast includes Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight), Lambert Houston (Resurrection Factor), Renata Notni (Zorro), Richie Radichi (My Best Friend’s Dead) and Rufus Dorsey (Ali).
The screenplay was written by Ryan Leeder, Joshua Courtade and Krauss. Krauss and Ira Houston produced the film, with Chung Dick, Thomas Carroll, Sam Shen and Jason Sun serving as executive producers. Marvin Cheng serves as co-producer.
For a film centered on the craft of manufacturing gruesome images, Wounds arrives at Screamfest with a premise particularly suited to a genre audience: an effects artist so desperate to make fictional violence look real that the distinction between the two begins to disappear.
Wounds makes its world premiere Oct. 8 at the TCL Chinese Theatre as part of Screamfest in Los Angeles.
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