IFC to present Inner Demons at 2014 NY Film Festival!!!!

 

PRESENTS

 

 

INNER DEMONS

 

AT THE

 

2014 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

 

SYNOPSIS:
The terrifying supernatural thriller INNER DEMONS follows an 'Intervention'-style reality show crew that films an episode about a sixteen-year old girl, a former A-student, who is fighting addiction but may in fact be suffering from something even more destructive: demonic possession. The movie is an inquiry into the truth about her - with symptoms that straddle the disturbing and scary intersection between insanity, addiction and true possession.

 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – SETH GROSSMAN  I worked as a field producer for the A&E series Intervention in 2011--‐2012, directing eight episodes whose subjects ranged from heroin addicts living in the streets of Portland, OR to alcoholics in West Virginia. It was one of the most challenging and fulfilling jobs I’ve ever had, and served as a master class in the psychology of addiction and the family dynamics that surround it. 

The relationship between the documentary crew and the addicts who were our subjects was complex: on the one hand, we felt satisfied in the knowledge that the production provided addicts with the best possible treatment and the best shot at long-term recovery; on the other hand, telling TV--‐worthy stories that explained why a person became an addict required our subjects to expose their secrets and describe past traumas on camera. Sometimes eliciting those stories felt heroic; sometimes it felt like exploitation. 

Inner Demons pushes that dynamic to its limit. The dramatic crux of Inner Demons is the crew’s determination to find out why the teenage heroin addict Carson is using – is it childhood trauma, is it peer pressure, or is it, as she insists, something more sinister? Jason, the low--‐man on the crew’s totem pole, develops a dangerous sympathy with Carson that threatens the objectivity of the documentary crew.  With Inner Demons , I wanted to make a horror movie that was deeply grounded in interpersonal and familial relationships. I was less interested in blood and guts than I was in the psychological horrors of addiction, abuse, and mental illness. Through a thorough casting and rehearsal process, overseen by a production team of astonishing creative insight, I found amazing, mostly unknown actors. The risks they took and the commitment they brought to their work were incredible, and made this movie about pain and trauma a real joy to direct.

 

 

 

REPORTED BY BUCKY