Silver Screamers

Wanted: senior citizens who aren’t afraid to scream! In a project financed by the same New Horizons grant that funds VIFF’s Talking Pictures series, director Sean Cisterna had the crazy idea to enlist a group of retirees to make a horror film. Initially he met with some skepticism — not to mention insurance issues. But as this funny and surprisingly touching “making of” documentary shows, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Pairing the old folks with younger mentors, Cisterna “cast” his crew as well as his actors, finding the right skill set for each on-set role. And of course he needed actors too — that’s where the screaming comes in. The results (the film within the film is called “The Rug”) are not too scary, truth be told, but they might just inspire you to take up moviemaking yourself.

A fun, fascinating, and engrossing look at how the movies, and even via the process through which we create them, bring us all together… In the end, Silver Screamers shows us the exquisiteness of life and the cinema, and how the two can come together to create a movie about a flesh-eating rug. In a word, wonderful.

Kent Hill, Film Threat