Hot cannibal summer _{by Isabella Smith}

Born out of a micro-budget, DIY energy, and collaboration between friends, the crew of the highly anticipated film Weed Eaters are taking their cannibalistic horror-comedy on a Big Forking Tour before its official release on the 30^th of April. In advance of their stopover in Pōneke, screening on the 14^th and 15^th of April at Massey Cinema and Penthouse Cinema, I caught up with director and producer Callum Devlin, also a member of Wellington’s favourite indie-pop band Hans Pucket.

How did the idea of hot cannibal summer come about?

I had a bad habit of getting too stoned and going to see horror films, having in-cinema panic attacks, and having to leave quite dramatically. I became obsessed with figuring out a way to make a film that was both a scary horror and stoner comedy.

The idea and the title came at once. It was so funny to me, that weed could give you the munchies so bad that you ate people. It seemed so obvious. I was worried if we didn't make the film straight away, I’d see a terrible, big budget Netflix version come out.

Can you describe the process of making it?

We were a group of four friends all with a sheer desire to make a movie. We had a feeling that if we gave ourselves the time, we could make something really good.

We crowdfunded enough to cover flights, food, and pay everyone enough to not get kicked out of their flats. We had free accommodation and called in favours to borrow cameras and lights. That was basically it. It was like summer camp, all of us living on location in rural Canterbury, waking up every day and going out and making a film. It was so much fun.

We had a few Hans Pucket members on the film. Drummer and saxophonist Callum Passells played all the instruments in the score. My brother Ollie came along as the sound recorder and boom operator; by the end of the first day he was promoted to assistant director because we realised we needed someone who can keep an eye on the time and handle the schedule.

We sent a sizzle to Causeway Films in Australia, who are this amazing production company who made The Babadook, the scariest film I’ve ever seen. They saw this rough cut and thought it had legs. They gave us the financing that allowed us to finish the score, license a bunch of amazing New Zealand music, cut and grade the film professionally, and give a proper cinema release.

And what about the tour?

It's been two and a half years, and I could never have pictured this. The best-case scenario was let’s make this movie, cut it together, then get in a van and drive it around the country. To still be able to do that ahead of a proper cinema release is a dream come true. There’s no other way to say it.