In this new uncanny addition to the independent horror genre
Pillscher gives us a creepy take on the end of the honeymoon period. Taking a
trip to kick off their married life; Frieda and John Golden embark on an
amazing holiday to Scandinavia to celebrate their marriage in honeymoon style. They
are a happy and fun-loving couple; their life was perfect and they were
certainly content but the coming events work to change that.
Whilst visiting an old island Sea Fort just outside of Copenhagen,
Denmark; The Trekroner Søfort (Søfort means "Sea Fortress." Trekroner Søfort means "Three Crowns Sea
Fortress." to be exact; John becomes very ill and starts to deteriorate
further when they arrive home to the U.S. a few days later. Frieda becomes ever
more paranoid that they did not just bring some virus home; but something else
more sinister.
Their perfect life changes when they arrive home from their
honeymoon. The couple both start to experience bouts of illness further and
memory loss that is continually unexplained. Frieda keeps seeing someone in their
house but she can never catch them. John thinks she is hallucinating and makes
her feel silly; but John his having strange visionary dreams which are filled
with this sinister hooded figure. John will not admit his own encounters with
the strange to Frieda or even himself. So now they both seem to be hallucinating
a faceless hooded figure that is ever present in their marital home. Something
seems to have latched onto the couple; pushing its way into their life. But
what have they brought back with them?
The couple must struggle to find the truth of what they
brought back. Frieda is an architectural photographer so she decides to take
pictures throughout the house in the hope of finding something; anything that
could explain the strange happenings. John starts to research online about the
old island fort as he notices a mark on his body that is the same as a marking
he saw when they visited the old fort. So what exactly happened to them at Trekroner
Søfort? What came home with them?
With their insanity hanging on a thread, the newly-weds must
fight for their reality before they come face to face with the evil an sinister
presence that has been hunting them; in turn being born into their lives
forever.
Pillcsher states on his website www.adarksouvenir.com
"I've always
loved scary movies. I think it's the
nature of feeling like you're being hunted and very afraid, your adrenaline
starts pumping, and at the same time you are enjoying yourself in this controlled
and safe environment. Needless to say,
I've always wanted to make a horror movie and add my own contribution to the
genre...
...I also love artsy movies, and
movies with strong characters, tension between them, and a little bit of humour. The best scary movies contain all these
elements. I don't usually like movies
with lots of gore or horror movies that show everything. I think some mystery and some things left to
your imagination make them scarier. I
want A Dark Souvenir to illustrate that you can still make a great horror movie
without buckets of blood, monster masks, CGI, showing all the violence, or
sexist, reactionary writing. I'm a huge
fan of Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Ken Loach, and Ti West. Although this will be a horror film, I hope
it's also a drama that even people who don't like horror can appreciate. I hope the characters are real and
relatable. I also hope to show there's a
space for creative storytelling with little-to-no budget, and that with the
right community support we can keep independent film alive!"
On their website you can read John and Frieda’s blog. Makes for
some great reading to introduce to the characters emotionally.
Take a look at the following links to take a sneak peak of
the film and what is coming…
Clip from film
Film Preview
