BC Business
The creative team behind In These Very Woods is calling for community support.
On the heels of the Hollywood writers’ strike, a group of local writers and filmmakers are rallying to fundraise for a collaborative horror anthology called In These Very Woods.
“What we wanted to do with this production is give all these amazing filmmakers we know here a chance to tell our own stories,” says Ariel Hansen, co-founder of Bad Cookie Pictures. Hansen launched the Vancouver-based production company—which specializes in all things horror—with fellow writer, producer and director Topher Andrew Graham in 2016. “We’re trying to highlight both the beauty and fear that can be evoked by the [wilderness] of British Columbia,” she says of the project.
As Hansen puts it, the anthology film will revolve around a group of friends sharing spooky stories around a campfire—the tales are tied together by the phrase, “And it happened in these very woods.” Each story is bound to be wildly different as the creative team behind the production includes emerging writers and filmmakers from all walks of life.
The production is also going to follow a unique casting system: the same actors sharing stories around the fire in the forest will take on different roles in each other’s narratives. “I wanted to almost build a camp where everybody could create and work on each other’s films out in the woods,” says Graham, who was inspired by anthologies he grew up watching, like Are You Afraid of the Dark, Goosebumps and Tales from the Cryptkeeper. “I really wanted to give a platform to this massive talent that I’ve seen here on the West Coast to be able to tell those stories.”
The creative team is launching merch on July 10 to raise $200,000 for the project. With t-shirts and totes curated by local graphic designer Cassie Clay-Smith, the idea is to “foster a sense of community” among writers and filmmakers in the region. Hence the theme behind the fundraising campaign: “I believe in West Coast horror.”
Hansen contends that B.C.’s film industry is very much service-oriented, so the writers’ strike has left many local artists with ample time to create. “From Vancouver and Victoria to Seattle and Portland, we’ve met so many awesome filmmakers, and it feels like there’s something that unites us in a way, even across the borders,” she maintains. “So that’s why we really wanted to say, We believe in West Coast horror,’ and give those people the sense that we’re believing in you too—let’s all help each other.”