A new female-centric werewolf movie–Bloodthirsty–from Canadian director Amelia Moses will debut at the first-ever Cannes virtual film market.
Moses–who is helming her second feature with Bloodthirsty–said she wanted to slowly build the dread and terror in this film, rather than going for the jump-out-of-your-seat scenes prevalent in many horror movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m looking for something more visceral,” she said, “that slowly gets under your skin. And for me–as a horror fan and an audience member–those are the films that I enjoy more.”
This different take on werewolf stories stars Lauren Beatty as Grey, a vegan singer whose anti-psychotic drugs don’t stop her from dreaming about becoming a wolf. Dreams that eventually come true in horrific fashion.
The always-anticipated transformation scene in this indie film–written by co-producer Wendy Hill-Tout and songwriter Lowell–is achieved mainly through prosthetics applied to Beatty’s face. “We have a hybrid–a mix of a human and a wolf,” Moses said of her work with veteran makeup artist and prosthetics maker Dave Trainor.
“It’s a bit more gruesome, a bit weirder,” she added, “and we still get the emotion of the main character, even when she’s a werewolf.”
Describing how she approached those crucial scenes, Moses said she likes those “tight, intimate shots where you’re almost so close you don’t quite know what you’re seeing, and it becomes much more about the feeling, and I really worked with Lauren to make sure we feel the actual physical pain of your body changing.”
The film–which also stars Michael Ironside, Grey Bryk and Katherine King So–is co-produced by Michael Peterson. David Bond serves as executive producer.
Keep reading Horror News Network for updates on the “bloodthirsty” future of this latest addition to cinematic werewolf lore.
