Horror and Hot Rods: You Can Fund A Movie Made in Hell, Road Kill

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

It makes sense that since the dawn of motion pictures, filmmakers have been drawn to the motive action of automobiles. There have been so many theatrical movies made that have had cars as part of the plot that Hod Rod magazine was able to poll readers on the 40 best car movies ever produced. Another perennial favorite, even more popular than car movies are horror/monster/sci-fi (yeah, I know it’s kind of broad) movies. Both genres have spawned movies from cheesy exploitation flicks to high art. I suspect that the artistic sensibilities of the producers of a proposed independent film lean more towards the former than the latter because they have decided to join monsters and motors in Road Kill, a movie they describe as “The Exorcist meets American Graffitti on the Highway to Hell complicated by a three way romance.” They need $150,000 to start filming and you can get in on the ground floor by participating in their Indiegogo project with as little as a $25 investment. A variety of perks, including many hot rod related items are associated with the different funding levels.

The film is set in the small town of Hell, Michigan, an actual municipality about 50 miles west of Detroit, and it will be shot in Hell and at other locations in southeastern Michigan. The producers are billing the project as 100% Michigan Made, so local talent, trades, and special effects firms will be used. While I’m not personally much for monster movies, I have to give the Road Kill team kudos for creative financing. Not only are they using au courant crowdfunding to raise money, they set up a booth in Cobo’s basement at the Detroit Autorama to publicize the project and attract possible investors. It makes sense, the movie’s team are all car enthusiasts. The main character’s name, Lydia DeSoto, even has an automotive reference.

While the grassroots enthusiasts and rat rodders in the basement are Road Kill’s obvious audience, I hope that some of the owners of the Ridler Award level cars upstairs stopped by the Road Kill booth. To build a custom car at the level of competing for the Ridler generally costs multiples of the movie’s production budget. A well-heeled car owner like George Poteet or even a successful builder like Chip Foose, both of whom had cars in this year’s Autorama, could probably fund the movie by him or her self.

The film’s crew includes filmmaker Konstantinos (Dino) Kovas, metal fabricator and Speedcult principal Len Puch, animator and visual effects designer Dan Quarnstrom, rat rod fabricator and painter Shaggy LeBlanc, and Patrick Halpin, who will be handling special effects via his company, Dead Pretzel FX + Illustration.

A plot summary and some more video clips are below. You can follow their progress at the obligatory Facebook page.

In the small town of Hell, Michigan everyone knows the name “Andy Peterson”. He was a man obsessed with drilling oil, or so the story goes. An obsession that eventually drove him mad, killing his wife and daughter before finally turning the chainsaw on himself.

That’s the story the locals will tell you, but no one really knows what drove him mad.

Fast Forward 62 years…

Lydia DeSoto is coming home to Hell to plan the wedding to her fiance, Jay. However, her homecoming soon becomes horrifying when Jay ingests a killer parasite. Jay quickly loses control unleashing a killing spree on the town. Now Lydia must battle the one she loves to save the town.

Storyboard for the climactic car chase scene:

Test footage for the creature effects:

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS


Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

More by Ronnie Schreiber

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  • Whoever came up with the latest ORKIN commercials depicting pests running away in muscle cars is a genius. They need to make more. Roaches in a HELLCAT Charger. Spiders in a GT-R Mice is an Aventador... It's probably the most effective commercial I've seen in decades.

  • Johnhowington Johnhowington on Mar 09, 2015

    Zero Charisma did more with less on indegogo, be warned contributors.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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