A Blood-Soaked Past

Scotchworthy Productions, Inc. (S.P.I.) was founded in 2005 by independent filmmaker Tony Wash. Filled with the desire to see movies that possessed the excitement and “magic” that was abound in the classics of the 70s and 80s, Mr. Wash decided to take his artistic passion and revered dedication to create movies that cater to the cravings of the fans. “My friends and I were sick of leaving the theater disappointed asking ourselves, ‘Why didn’t they do this or what the heck was the point of that?’ Instead of waiting for another director to satisfy my palette, I decided to tackle the task of creating a feature length movie myself.”

The name Scotchworthy Productions spawns from a bet between friends Tony Wash and Cinematographer Bill Balek. “Bill and I worked for a sales company the summer before our senior year of college and during one of the large sales pushes, two competing district managers bet a $1500 bottle of scotch on whose reps would sell the most product.” Soon after, Mr. Balek and Mr. Wash bet a bottle of scotch on the quality of movies they were seeing in theaters. “There were a lot of crappy movies, especially in the horror genre that were coming out in the early part of the 21^st century” said Mr. Wash. “I bet Bill a bottle of scotch that we wouldn’t see a good horror film until we made one ourselves.” Laughing, Tony states, “Though our bet was for a bottle much cheaper than $1500, the principle of the wager is what caused me to give the company its name.”

After a stint in the “real world” as a marketing manager for an architectural firm, Mr. Wash told himself that he would never be truly happy unless he were to pursue his passion of filmmaking. “I’ve loved movies since I was a kid and ever since I worked at a video store in high school, I realized that filmmaking was the only occupation that I could truly enjoy.” With that mind set, Tony picked up and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he spent the next 16 months attending Tom Savini’s Special FX School. “I went to the school mainly for its networking potential, but also because I’ve always enjoyed and been amazed by the physical FX that make films so much more believable.”

In the summer of 2005 the creation of Scotchworthy Productions was the result of the completion of two feature length scripts, Contained/Lot #449 (working title) and It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To. “There was a guy who went to school with me who was renting an old funeral parlor to live in. My friend Nathan told me to bring my camera over and explore the house with him as a potential location for a movie.

After touring the place I knew it was too good of a set to ignore.” Both Nathan and Tony decided to work on separate stories using the location as a basis and Scotchworthy Productions was born. “I realized that it would take too much money to create Contained the way it deserved to look so I sat down and threw together Party in a month or so.” With the help of fellow Savini Special FX School student, Christopher Patrick, Tony put together the stories that led to both scripts and began the tedious process of bringing his first feature length movie to fruition. The development of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To began with lighting and camera tests followed by auditions and the search for a perfect crew. “The school allowed me to use one of the classrooms to hold auditions and after six days, I found my cast.” Though a majority of the supporting cast were fellow special FX school students, It’s My Party’s three main actresses were from a nearby college. “Adrienne, Darcy and Danielle all came in on the last day after I’d already picked out a cast that I was happy with, but not ecstatic. I figured that it couldn’t hurt to let them try out and I got really lucky. It was as if I had written each of the characters off of these girls’ personalities." Next, Mr. Wash held meetings to find his crew. "We went through a lot of people who said they wanted to help and then never showed up. But as things began rolling, a handful of dedicated crew members emerged and stuck with the project until the final 'cut' was called."

Though Mr. Wash credits his time on the set of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To  as some of the best in his life, it wasn’t all fun and games. “First off, we were shooting in February and the house had no heat. I bought a bunch of space heaters, but unfortunately the house had poor wiring so we were constantly blowing fuses. We had to ration the use of heaters so that we could run the lights while shooting. The rooms were also too large to heat so we had one room with the heaters going non-stop and the rest of the house was freezing cold. There also wasn’t any running water in the house. When the actresses had to use the restroom, we had to drive them down the street and we had to bring in bottled water for the make-up and such.” Climate and the poor conditions of the location weren't the only problems to plague the set of It’s My Party. “There were constant scheduling conflicts because everyone still had class or work. We really had to scrounge together on most aspects of the production because time and money were at a minimum. Regardless of how many negatives were shoved down our throats on a daily basis, we managed to muscle our way through the difficulties and finished shooting a feature length horror film. I honestly cannot thank the friends who believed in the project and stuck with it until the end. The cast and crew of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To are my family and will be invited to work with me on every production I create from this point forth.”

In April of 2006 It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To wrapped on its principal photography and Mr. Wash moved back to Illinois. “I’d just spent my life savings making a movie and had to dedicate a lot of time into editing it so I had to move back home.” Mr. Wash spent the next year and a half editing the movie as well as putting together other Scotchworthy projects. “We decided to do a series of pick up shots first in January of 2007 and then again in late June.” A tremendous addition to the project through these pick up shots was the inclusion of genre veteran Tom Savini (From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Grindhouse: Planet Terror.) “I contacted Tom and asked if he’d be willing to help us with the movie. It really helps your chances of distribution if there is a well known actor in your cast.” When asked what it was like to work with such a major name in the genre for his first production, Mr. Wash said, “It was really great! Personally, I’ve watched movies that this man has had direct influence on since I was a child and now he’s listening to my directions and for the cast and crew it was a great learning experience for us all. Tom came on set and really dug into the excitement that has fueled our project from day one. We all had smiles on our faces while he was on set.”

Click HERE to check out more on It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To.

Other landmark occurrences throughout 2007 include the incorporation of Scotchworthy Productions in February, as well as the introduction of both Mitch Martinez and Rhodrick Magsino to the Scotchworthy team. “Rhodrick is the younger brother of a friend of mine from high school. We ran into one another and he mentioned that his brother was doing sound design in college. He contacted me and agreed to help give It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To a professionally polished soundtrack and I was all for the assistance.” Mr. Martinez lent a hand with the pick up shots on It’s My Party and has since become an important part of the Scotchworthy Productions family. “Mitch and I talked about him shooting another feature, Sweet Dreams for me. When we postponed Dreams, I mentioned that we would be doing pick up shots for It’s My Party and that I’d really like his help if he were willing.” Without ever having met Tony or his crew, Mitch drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to spend a week making It’s My Party look as good as it possibly could. “I will always appreciate the faith Mitch had in me and this project. Not only did he take my vision and put it on tape, but he managed to organize and create a professional DVD as well.” 

It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To has screened in close to twenty film festivals nationwide and has been nominated for over a dozen awards. It’s My Party’s crowning achievement came at the Full Moon Film Festival in Little Rock, AR where it received the award for Best Feature. The news was a tremendous victory for the Scotchworthy team that had spent so much time, effort and passion to create It’s My Party. “I absolutely couldn’t believe it. Charles Band (President of Full Moon Pictures) and Stuart Gordon (Director, Re-Animator) had chosen our movie over all the competition to win the grand prize!” To date, It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To has taken home over a half dozen film festival awards including two for Best Feature, Audience Choice, Best Special FX, and Best Screenplay. Party’s success did not stop at the festival level however. It’s My Party also garnered rave reviews from critics and fans across the globe. The folks at Night of the Living Podcast said that, “It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To is the best movie we’ve watched on our show since day 1!” and one reviewer even went so far as to rate Party in her “Top 10 Best Horror Films of 2008” list. After a year of self promotion at film festivals and horror conventions, It’s My Party was picked up for worldwide distribution through Brain Damage Films and has since been made available for viewing on AT&T U-Verse On Demand, through Netflix, Best Buy, and Amazon.com.

Perhaps the most defining characteristic of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To and quite possibly the main source of its initial success was in the uniqueness of the movie’s special features. “I knew that we needed to set our movie apart from other low budget indie flicks. It needed to have an edge.” Tony said. “And despite having top notch special FX and a cool throwback storyline, I still knew the movie had be to more than just a typical ‘movie’. I’d always been a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid and with the advent of DVD technology I knew that we could feasibly create a movie that allowed the viewer to change the direction of the characters in the story.” Tony wrote what he calls “tangents” to the normal story of Party and shot these extra scenes at the same time as the regular film. “No one understood what the Hell I was doing, but I knew that it would be a cool idea if I could just pull it off.” As a result, Party was released on DVD with two ways of watching the movie, either as a feature length movie from start to finish or as a Choose Your Own Adventure interactive movie experience. “At certain points in the movie, the scene turns into a comic book panel and the viewer is able to choose between two or three options, enabling the character to go down different paths. It worked out great and gave us the chance to change things around and pull off more death scenes in the movie.” (Click HERE to view the trailer of It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To.)

With It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To’s successes backing them up, Scotchworthy Productions decided to move forward and begin work on a handful of new projects. Things That Go Bump in the Night, a five-minute short film was Christopher Patrick’s answer to the Chiller TV channel’s Dare to Direct short film contest. “The top winners of the contest would get their short films played on national television on Halloween night so I got a hold of Tony and told him that we should make a movie and enter it.” Things That Go Bump was shot and edited in less than two weeks with Mr. Patrick and Mr. Wash maintaining control over all of the major aspects of the production. “Chris wrote, produced and directed the short as well as created all the special FX and I shot, edited and composed the music” said Mr. Wash. Things That Go Bump in the Night was one of the top fifteen finalists out of over 300 short films to be selected to be shown on Chiller TV on Halloween night. “We were so freakin’ excited! First It’s My Party was receiving acclaim and now our short film was going to be on national television!” Though Things That Go Bump in the Night was never shown in its entirety, clips of the movie were shown in all three commercial spots advertising the Halloween special and a clip was featured in the opening sequence of the show itself. When asked about his reaction to the contest’s results, Chris said, “I was really disappointed to find that it was all a popularity contest, but we still got our work on national television which was really great to see.”

2008 also brought Scotchworthy an opportunity to showcase their special FX talents in the Fearmakers production Dismal. Set deep in the Georgia swamps, Dismal pits a handful of college coeds against a cannibalistic family of psychopaths. With Dismal, Scotchworthy’s FX team traveled to Georgia for three weeks and had a blast disposing of the actors by way of dismemberment, bear traps, spike pits, and more. (Click HERE to see pictures from Dismal.)

Between 2008 and 2010 Scotchworthy busied itself with the production of four more short films as well as the ever-popular Scotchworthy Girls Calendar. Tony Wash decided to follow up Chris Patrick’s Things That Go Bump with his own entry in Chiller TV’s Dare to Direct contest. Hopscotch was produced in the summer of 2008 and went on to become one of the top fifteen finalists that aired on national television. “It was pretty great to see that both of our short films made it to the finals two years in a row!” Hopscotch is about a teenage boy who decides to take justice into his own hands when children in his neighborhood start turning up dead. In the end, Hopscotch received the 3^rd place award for Best Special FX and has gained its own audience of dedicated fans, many of whom have demanded a feature length version of the story. After Chiller’s contest, Hopscotch was entered in an online short film contest and won entry to the second tier of judging which forced Scotchworthy to enter a second short film. As Tony recalled the experience, “We had to come up with a second short film and basically had a week to complete and submit it!” Tony and crew answered with Submerged, which tells the story of a young girl plagued by nightmares whose origins may be more malevolent than her doctor believes.

In 2009, Scotchworthy Productions made the upgrade to High Definition by purchasing the Sony EX1 camera and everyone was anxious to put it to the test. Chris and Tony got together and spent two weeks in Pittsburgh shooting two short films. Chris took the reigns on Paid Vacation, which gives us a glimpse into the life of a serial killer who takes the body of his most recent victim on a cross-country road trip ending in Niagara Falls. Next, Tony directed Open House, a short film about a real estate agent who discovers more than trash in the basement of an old house she is cleaning up to sell. Though some of these short films have been shown in film festivals and are available online, Scotchworthy’s intention is to compile all of their short films onto a DVD entitled Skeletons in The Closet , which we are looking to make available in 2016.  (Click HERE to watch some of our short films.)

2009 also brought with it an entirely separate venture for the Scotchworthy clan. Tony said, “I wanted to turn Scotchworthy into a brand name for indie horror so I began thinking of marketing and merchandising plans. The Scotchworthy Girls were so popular with fans at the horror conventions that I thought it’d be great to showcase them in a unique way.” Tony had the idea to recreate famous horror film posters with the girls and then producer Josh Martin mentioned the idea of doing a calendar. Combining the talents of designer/photographer Carlson Benjamin and makeup artist Aleah Kraft, Tony set out to produce 13 photo shoots, recreating iconic horror film posters from the 50s to the 80s. “The calendar turned out really great. We did Poltergeist, It, April Fool’s Day, Re-Animator and they were sexy as Hell!” The coolest aspect of the Scotchworthy Girls Calendar was the addition of scream queen Tiffany Shepis. “Tiffany really dug the idea of the calendar so she came out for a day and shot two sets with us. We made her Dr. Herbert West in the Re-Animator photo shoot and she graced the cover of the calendar towering over a cityscape in our recreation of The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.” The Attack of the Scotchworthy Girls Calendar was released in 2010 and took the girls to a new level of popularity with the horror crowd. (Click HERE to check out the girls!)

In 2010, Scotchworthy Productions reinforced the quality of its reputation by producing the award-winning Nazi zombie film, A Chance in Hell.  Begun by a phone conversation between Mitch Martinez and Tony Wash, A Chance in Hell answered Mitch’s desire to shoot something “creative”. “Mitch wanted to come to Chicago and do something that wasn’t a commercial or industrial video. I guess he was getting tired of shooting stuff like that at the time.” Co-writers Johnny 5 and Tony Wash enjoyed spending free time playing the Call of Duty: Nazi Zombie levels on the Playstation video game and they decided that a Nazi zombie movie would be a lot of fun. Tony commented on the idea, “As a huge horror fan myself, the Nazi zombie subgenre has always been intriguing to me. The problem I have with it, however, is that every NZ movie takes place in present time. Like these damn zombies have been hiding in a cave for 70 years waiting for the perfect time to strike and attack some college coeds on vacation! I wanted to make a NZ movie that utilized the stark and gritty atmosphere of the war and the unrelenting evil of the Nazi history.” Fortunately for Wash and crew, one of Tony’s bar guests at the restaurant where he worked was an avid collector of World War II weapons, equipment, and uniforms. “He had everything we needed to make the movie look like it takes place during the war.” Location also played an important part in setting the mood of the movie. A 100 year-old factory in Elgin, IL provided Scotchworthy with the perfect set and plenty of space for production offices. The brilliant look of the film was achieved with the implementation of two RED cameras and the expertise of master photographer, Mitch Martinez.  Shot over eight days in February of 2010, A Chance in Hell was edited and completed for an August premiere. On August 18^th, 2010, A Chance in Hell premiered to an eager crowd of over 650 people at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL and has been a fan favorite ever since. A Chance in Hell screened at the Chicago Horror Film Festival in 2011 where it received the Best Short Film award.  The movie has won two other Best Short Film awards and has screened in dozens of festivals around the world and online.   A Chance in Hell  is currently available on DVD in the Scotchworthy store as well as on Scotchworthy's Vimeo On Demand page.

Click HERE to check out more about A Chance in Hell.

2012 brought a number of projects and growth to Scotchworthy Productions.  The year started off with the shoot of a spec piece for a science fiction/horror film called The Storm, which introduced cinematographer Robert Patrick Stern and his crew to the Scotchworthy family.  "Robert is easily one of the most gifted cinematographers in the Midwest.  He not only brings creative style to the table, but he matches it with some of the best work ethic I've ever seen." says Wash.  The spec piece was shot over two days and became the first project with FX guru Jason Kain helming the gore.  Jason, who had been introduced to Scotchworthy as one of the FX artists on A Chance in Hell coincidentally lived in the Chicago area, making it convenient to be a part of the family.  Though The Storm has yet to be shot, the project brought together a group of incredibly talented individuals who have continued to collaborate on every Scotchworthy project since.

Early 2012 also introduced Scotchworthy to Wisconsin filmmaker Ben Lewandowski. "Ben contacted me about being a part of an anthology he was putting together that included other Midwestern horror filmmakers." says Wash.  The project was to include four or five short films, each from a different director.  Scotchworthy shot their short film first, bringing Tony Wash's script for Grandma O'Malley's Pantry to life over Memorial Day weekend.  "Grandma O's is probably the script I'm most proud of." said Wash.  "I always thought it was thoroughly developed with cool characters, some genuine scares, and a great twist that no one will see coming."  Grandma O'Malley's Pantry takes place in the 1980s and tells the story of Kacey, a young girl who is forced to stay with her estranged grandmother while her mother goes away on a business trip.  Grandma's strict demeanor and terrible cooking only scratches the surface to what horrors await Kacey as the weekend creeps along.  Equal parts House, Fright Night, and The Goonies, Grandma O'Malley's Pantry brings viewers back to the monster films of the 80s.  Be prepared to keep the nightlight on tonight!  Scotchworthy hopes to help the anthology's coproducers complete the film by 2016 for a self-distribution release.

HIGH ON THE HOG

CHOP SHOP WRAP AROUND

“The inception of The Muck has to be one of my favorite stories.” recalls Wash.   “We were working on Hog and the anthology, trying to get both projects finished up.  The ABCs of Death 2 compilation was holding a contest for indie filmmakers to submit a short horror film to fill the letter "M" spot in the compilation so a lot of my filmmaking friends were putting together shorts to submit.  Everyone kept asking if I was going to shoot one as well and I really didn’t want to.  I did not want to waste the time and money of my crew and myself for a short film.  At this point I had two features under my belt and was really excited about Hog’s potential.  I didn’t feel like I needed to add a short film to my plate.  Not to mention we were a month or so into the contest and there were well over 300 submissions already.  And a lot of the movies looked really awesome!  But then I happened to have an idea one day that I couldn’t get out of my head.  I thought it’d be fun to do a Creepshow 2 Raft remake with a boy fishing in the pond behind our house.  After his line keeps getting pulled in violently, he peers into the murky water and a wave comes up and pulls him in.  I figured I’d call it The Murk  and it wouldn’t be too difficult to shoot in a day or two.  I was still hesitant though.  It wasn’t until I mentioned the idea to my co-producer and roommate, Jim Petersen that we decided to move forward with the project.  Jim basically said that if we didn’t win the contest we would just put out a compilation of short films ourselves.”

Five short days later, day one of shooting commenced.  “We had to complete it by Halloween and it was already early October.  So we spent five days prepping the movie and shot for two.”  The first change was shifting the story indoors to the bathroom and altering the name to The Muck.  “Jim’s house is still decorated in an 80s style, complete with shag carpet!”  So production designer Sarah Sharp and Tony thought it’d be great to accent the story, which already had an 80s theme, with an old design and aesthetic.  The set design and appearance of the character coupled with Rob’s old-school cinematography and DC McAuliffe’s 80s synth soundtrack paved the way for what would quickly become Scotchworthy’s calling card.  “The movie really turned out great.  I’m incredibly proud of it.” says Stern. 

The pride continued well past the ABC's contest.  “As good as we felt The Muck – then titled M is for Muck – turned out, it did not place as a finalist in the contest.  As a result, we began working on our own compilation, World of Death.”  Tony and Rob added an additional three minutes of footage to The Muck, renamed it The Muck, and began using it as the foundation for their collection.  Wash and fellow WOD’er Rhiann Owen began contacting every short horror film director they could to be a part of World of Death.  In the end, over 600 filmmakers from around the world had been contacted, and more than 200 films from 23 countries were acquired.  Owen proudly states, “World of Death is a pretty unique experience for indie filmmakers.  It benefits all of us in two ways; your short film is receiving exposure across the globe as part of the collection, and each filmmaker is now a part of a community of people with similar stories and struggles so the networking potential has been tremendous.”

Aside from the attention World of Death began drumming up for Scotchworthy, The Muck proved to be quite the workhorse as well.  “I really liked The Muck a lot.” said Wash.  “As much as I knew it was just a five minute short film, I felt like it showcased a lot of our potential as a team so I submitted it into a few film festivals.  I’ve never been a big fan of festivals; they cost too much to submit to, most are a popularity contest, and the exposure may not always justify the cost.”  Luckily, The Muck became the exception to this theory.  The initial celebration came when the team was notified that The Muck  was to have its world premiere at SXSW in 2014.  “South by Southwest is the festival for the newest and coolest indie flicks!  We were ecstatic.” boasted Rob Stern with a huge smile on his face.  SXSW was quickly followed up by a barrage of screenings at over 20 festivals around the world.  Other notable screenings included The Stanley Film Festival in Estes Park, Colorado, Screamfest in Los Angeles, California, and The Chicago International Film Festival.  “Looking back, I still can’t believe The Muck almost didn’t exist.”  Wash recalls.  “The short film has done so much for Scotchworthy, I’m just glad I listened to Jim when he suggested we shoot the movie.”  World of Death is set for a October 2015 release.

To check out more on The Muck, click HERE.

To learn more about World of Death, click HERE.

Much of 2014 was spent traveling the country with The Muck and World of Death.  Scotchworthy went to Austin, Texas for SXSW, spent some time in Colorado at the Stanley Film Festival, hung out in Los Angeles for Screamfest, and was treated to a week in Wilmington, NC courtesy of the nice folks at the Cucalorous Film Festival.  Concurrently,  the team was setting up their next project, a feature length version of The Muck.  “We wanted to continue the story from the short film, basically making the six minute short the opening of the feature.”  Johnny 5 was brought back to work on the script with Tony while everyone else began fleshing out the details for their respective departments.  The feature would take place in the summer of 1985 and contains a ton of great practical FX work.  “There’s melting people, Jaws-inspired kills, and lots and lots of gore!”

As much as the team was excited about getting The Muck feature underway, they ultimately felt it was best to hold off on the production and take the time to finalize the other Scotchworthy projects currently on the plate.  “Between World of Death, the anthology, my short film DVD collection, and a couple other projects we are associated with, we didn’t want The Muck  to suffer from that.  This movie will need as much time dedicated to it as possible.”  Postponing The Muck feature may have been the best thing the Scotchworthy team could have done moving into 2015.  “We organized a lot of the other stuff on our plates and were able to get the right things delegated to the right people.  It was an essential step toward what will ultimately be productive a 2015 and 2016.” says Wash.

Now that the team had everything cleaned up so they could move on, a new project came up almost out-of-the-blue and got everyone incredibly excited.  “I was antsy.” relates Wash.  “When you make movies, being on set is addicting.  I’d much rather be creating with the cast and crew than sitting in the editing room or waiting to get stuff back from post production people.  I was hanging out with Jason Kain one night.  We were talking about cool ideas for horror films and started discussing a story that instantly had me intrigued.  I talked with Rob about it the next day and it just snowballed from there!”  Though specific details can’t be given at this time, Scotchworthy went into production on Tony Wash’s third feature in late March of 2015.  Being called a “psychological thriller sandwiched in a creature film”, Wash believes that horror fans are going to be extremely happy with this one.  “The movie is a lot more mature than my other works to date.  The characters are well developed, the story is solid, and the atmosphere we created is damn scary!”  Scotchworthy is working through post currently and hopes to have the film in festivals in early 2016.

- Norville Rogers, Esq.