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Ghostpuncher: a supernatural horror comedy

By ✉ webmaster@lesbellesaffiches.com

Ghostpuncher is the quirky new brainchild of Jordan McCloskey (creator, co-writer) and Trevor Cornish (co-writer, director). While we can't give you much information about the plot as yet, let's just say it involves a single father, his son, a haunted house, and help from an unexpected source. This "supernatural horror comedy" is being produced by the experienced Gabriel Napora, whose credits include such works as Tetra Vaal (Neil Bloomkamp), a short film which served as the inspiration for Chappie, starring Hugh Jackman. Other films on which Napora has worked include Juarez 2045 (Danny Trejo) and Badge of Honor (Martin Sheen). Although the film itself is still very much under wraps, the posters are well and truly out, and we love them. Designer Pietro Gagliano's artwork is something of a throwback to the 1980s VHS rental era, when one's choice of Saturday evening entertainment depended heavily on how exciting the box cover made the film look. While those days have been and gone, we should not forget that the good old VCR played a pivotal role in launching the career of many a famous director. In honour of our teenage years, we decided to do a few « remember whens ». Find out more by clicking here: director Trevor Cornish, producer Gabriel Napora & creator Jordan Mc Closkey

Remember those nights sitting in front of the TV set, munching on mum's cakes and watching rented movies? If you saved up enough pocket money, you could just about afford an entry-level camcorder to re-enact all your favourite teenager-vs-monster scenes. So what was so special about those Coca-Cola fuelled hours on the sofa? Well, those who lived through that epic period can proudly say that they remember Steven Spielberg's group of kids searching for lost treasure, or the first installment of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series. And let's not forget Ivan Reitman's cult classic Ghostbusters, Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys, the world's best gory horror film, Dead Alive (Peter Jackson), and Joe Dante with his masterpiece The Howling - the first truly successful Werewolf-themed movie. Of course, no such cult listing would be complete without mentioning actor Corey Feldman, who starred in The Goonies, Stand by Me, and The Lost Boys. Remember when video games came on cartidges?

The Ghostpuncher power glove immediately conjures up images of the old-fashioned Nintendo style game controller. Remember sitting in your bedroom hammering the hell out of some 2D-rendered ghoul or other? The 8-bit synthetic music only served to enhance the retro feel of the whole experience. Your buddies usually turned up at about 2pm on a Saturday afternoon, which generally led to a sleepover punctuated by Sam Raimi-Wes Craven horror films where zombies climbed out of tombs and threatened to come through the screen. The stop-motion animations made the experience all the more nail-biting. The really hardcore gluttons for horror would stay up even later to catch Tales from the Crypt. While the mother of many a sleep-deprived teenager would struggle to thank them for it, many directors owe their success to skills honed during this period. Remember when a torrent just meant turning on the tape? In the days before Pirate Bay and pocket technology, choosing what film you were going to watch meant going to the video store. The trip down there would be punctuated by questions like "what shall we watch?", "what's your favourite film?", to which you might answer "I want to see some guys get carved up with a chainsaw!". You knew you were in a video store just by the sights and sounds. As you perused the aisles under the watchful eye of the bearded pervert in the corner, the floorboards would creak under your feet. Of course, you couldn't just pick up the tape, you had to take the cover to the desk, and when the guy had finished scraping potato chips off his beard, he would go out back and get it for you. Of course, you never knew whether he would come back with a copy of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or a chainsaw of his own. While the internet has caused the downfall of almost every traditional video store, never forget the role these places played in your life! Remember when you thought your creepy neighbour kept corpses in his fridge? When you were dreaming up the weird and wonderful stories you were going to shoot on your camcorder, they were always set in places you found frightening, like the cellar of that neighbour you were always convinced was a serial killer. Houses play a key role in classic horror films. Neutral and unassuming in the beginning, they serve as an arena for all manner of nastiness. Night-vision lens in hand, you would prowl around the neighbourhood after dark, trying to find the best spot. This generally involved an old abandoned shed, or a quiet corner of a cemetery. You would jump over the fence, film frantically, and get out of there as quick as possible. But the best was yet to come: hours spent painstakingly cutting the different sequences. Sometimes the victim of your nocturnal trespassing would call the police, or, worse, your parents. Whatever punishment you received, you undoubtedly look back on your 14-year-old high jinks with fondness. With Ghostpuncher, the creatures of yesterday hiding in your basement are making a comeback. There might still be a use for that old camcorder you never got round to throwing away. Ghosts to remember Otis Redding once sang "I got dreams to remember". Thanks to Ghostpuncher, those spectres who punctuated our teenage years will stay with us just a little bit longer. If your adolescence was filled with trips to Blockbuster, pop tarts, and bald men with pins sticking out of their head, then you're probably more into Reagan and her remarkably flexible neck than Casper the friendly ghost. However, all these hours spent watching gore on late-night TV were not wasted. At least the next time you come face to face with evil you'll know what to do!

Don't be fooled by his innocent appearance. This man is responsible for re-awakening your childhood nightmares. This world-famous, award winning Canadian designer is responsible for all of Ghostpuncher's artwork. Pietro took time out from his busy schedule at Secret Location Studios to explain the creative process behind these posters.

"The inspiration of the GhostPuncher poster is very much in line with 80's horror meeting 80's pop art / neon, but we tried to do this in a modern way. I'm very inspired by the retro feel. To me, it's fun to make a design as an adult that would have inspired me as a kid growing up in the 1980s. If I was 8 years old and saw this movie poster in the video store, I would have asked my parents if we could rent it! I made a few posters over the course of Jordan's awesome script developments. The Nintendo power glove punching through a skull most definitely started as a sketch. From there, I did a layout of it in photoshop, and passed that along to a 3D modeller. He then created the powerglove and the shattered skull according to my design, and I brought those back into photoshop to adjust the placement and colour for the final. In terms of guidelines, there weren't really any for this particular project. I'm used to work under very strict guidelines normally, so I suppose I created some simple ones for myself in order to get the job done. When Jordan first showed me the GhostPuncher script, I was blown away by it's potential. So essentially my goal was to reflect the intensity and humour from the script in a eye-catching, memorable visual."