Feral is a 2016 American horror film directed by Mark H. Young (Tooth and Nail; Southern Gothic) from a screenplay co-written with Adam Frazier. It stars Scout Taylor-Compton, Olivia Luccardi and Lew Temple.
A wild animal attacks six medical students on a weekend hike in the woods. One by one, they become infected with a “feral disease”, turning them into rabid, bloodthirsty creatures, and the vacation becomes a nightmare as they fight to survive each other…
Background:
Mark H. Young has been making independent film for over ten years. “I write and direct my own stories, and am very genre agnostic. I love drama, horror, action and thrillers equally, as long as the story and characters are rich and compelling. My work is frequently described as ‘art house meets slaughterhouse’, and sometimes the genre lines are blurred. A drama becomes horror, or vise versa. That’s where the film is most interesting to me.”
Young met producer John Landolfi, who was looking to make an independent horror film. Young had just finished Wicked Blood, starring Sean Bean and Abigail Breslin, and was looking for something unusual. He was intrigued by the idea of taking a trite storyline and trying to breathe new life into it. “I don’t think there’s a more hackneyed concept than kids camping in the woods. But for me, that’s a great challenge, to come up with something fresh and new in a stale milieu.” He started by conceiving a new subgenre of horror: a creature that is neither zombie, werewolf, or vampire, but has some of the traits of them all.
But beyond the horror trappings, his primary focus was the characters. “If the audience doesn’t care about the characters, their fate is meaningless. My goal was to create real, flesh and blood people that the viewer would relate to and empathize with.” Viewers may also be surprised to find that the protagonists in Feral are female, not male. Many horror films utilize the “Final Girl”, where the the last character left alive must confront the killer. “I love strong female characters, so the notion of several smart girls desperately trying to survive in the woods was very appealing to me.”
Main cast:
Scout Taylor-Compton (Penance Lane; Ghost House; Halloween II), Olivia Luccardi (It Follows; Bleeding), Lew Temple (Stingy Jack; 31; Zombex), Renee Olstead, Brock Kelly, Landry Allbright, George Finn and Samantha Gangal.
Filming locations:
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
