Silver Screamers: Horror Gig Takes Seniors From Care Home to Scare Home
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B+
A sweet and uplifting documentary twist on the horror genre, Silver Screamers is, as they say in Yiddish, a “mitzvah” on the part of director Sean Cisterna, and a gift that keeps on giving.
Frankly, enlisting nursing home residents and other seniors as crew for a gory, bargain-basement monster movie short, is the kind of idea one might come up with in a bar, and forget by morning. By light of day, it might occur to you that this would take a tremendous effort, given that you’d have to pay extra special care to what’s going on behind the camera as well as in front.
Sonny Lauzon gets the shot in Silver Screamers
But the trick to Silver Screamers is that this adorable bunch are the stars in front of his cameras while they tend to theirs. The movie opens with Cisterna visiting nursing homes and various residences in Aurora, Ontario, running past them the idea of working as crew on a horror movie.
Most shake their heads, but a few betray a gleam in their eye. Audrey Cameron, 96, recalls fondly the first film she saw as a child, the Charles Laughton version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
There’s even a bit of showbiz still simmering in those old bones, long-time piano players, choir members, erstwhile drama students and an upbeat, 78-year-old Philippines-born amateur videographer named Sonny Lauzon, who is a natural choice for camera-man.
But for my money, the real scene-stealer is a colourful, wisecracking old hippie named Anthony Garramone, whose favourite colours are loud, and whose t-shirts provide terrific reading material. Garramone, a born hoarder, is a natural choice for props master. And it falls to him to find the material star of the short film The Rug.
A possessed Persian-style carpet that develops a taste for human flesh, The Rug is a natural easy-to-fake monster movie, involving a certain amount of carpet puppetry, and as it becomes more mobile, the work of undercover children.
And blood. Let’s not forget blood.
And in front of the camera are some screen-familiar faces, including the legendary comic actress Jayne Eastwood as a woman facing eviction from her nasty landlord (Tony Nardi), who’s demanding rent, and will get what’s coming to him.
The real beauty of Silver Screamers, though, is watching the crew (who are accompanied by young “mentors”) dive into the job, greeting each day with a duty and, frankly, a reason to get out of bed or off the chair. If age is often a state of feeling one has nothing to contribute, the crew of The Rug are energized by their mission. The scenes of them adding to the soundtrack as human foley mixers (including munching sounds of the carnivorous carpet) are a joy to watch.
Silver Screamers has clearly struck a timely cord, playing festivals in North America and globally, winning the Audience Award at Toronto After Dark and Best Feature at the UK’s Celluloid Screams Horror Film Festival.
On Friday, April 3 at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, there’ll be a screening of Silver Screamers followed by The Rug, and a Q&A with Cisterna and some of the cast.
Afterward, the film’s six-month tour takes it as far as the Brussels International Film Festival, and as close as small venues in seemingly every town hall and venue across small-town Canada.
Silver Screamers. Directed by Sean Cisterna. Starring Jayne Eastwood, Sonny Lauzon, Audrey Cameron. Anthony Garramone and many more.