LAFF Report: "A Crime Story with Zombies" -- Interview with LAST RITES Filmmakers Duane Stinnett and
Posted by Peter Martin at 7:22pm.
Posted in Thriller, Horror, USA & Canada
Imagine that you’re blown away by a giant outdoor festival presentation of 28 Days Later, followed immediately by a dash across town to catch a late-night screening of Cabin Fever, with director Eli Roth running around with blood on his face, acting like a maniac.
Now imagine, barely a thousand days later, your first feature is debuting in the very same festival that inspired it.
That’s the experience of Last Rites director/producer Duane Stinnett and executive producer/featured actress Krissann Shipley. They colloborated on the script for a film that Stinnett describes as “a crime story with zombies.”
Set mostly in an isolated Los Angeles warehouse, Last Rites gathers together warring Latin and African-American gangs along with Caucasian cops and one very lost weatherman. While not without a sense of humor, the film spends most of its running time generating serious tension in the explosively claustrophobic setting. The zombies are just one more deadly element added to the mix; indeed, the humans pose as much threat as the zombies.
I sat down with Stinnett and Shipley a few days before the film’s World Premiere (midnight tonight at the Majestic Crest). Stinnett is tall and lanky while Shipley is trim and petite, but both share a great passion for horror movies—and for their film.
