Thought “torture porn” was dead? Think again! Check out FANGORIA’s exclusive trailer to Girl Next, which puts a bloody new spin on the sometimes-controversial subgenre. The film, produced by former FANGORIA scribe Loris Curci (his Ghosts of Monday also recently wrapped; see here), arrives June 18 from Gravitas Ventures.
In the shocking thriller, a young woman, Lorian West, is abducted by a strange group of human traffickers who use drug and trauma-based mind control to turn women into sex slaves called “Sofia” dolls. Trapped in a waking nightmare, Lorian fights to resist the programming. She searches for a way to escape her fate, to avoid becoming “Girl Next.”
Lensed in Texas, Girl Next stars Marcus Jean Pirae, Paula Marcenaro Solinger, Rachel Alig, Lacey Cofran and Larry Wade Carrell, who also directed the film from a screenplay by Zeph E. Daniel, a.k.a. Woody Keith (Society, Bride of Re-Animator, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation). Michael Muscal (Bride of Re-Animator, Ed Gein, Ted Bundy) served as associate producer and contributed to Girl Next’s story.
“Some of my fondest memories are getting out of school, running down to the video store with my buddies and renting movies like Evil Dead, Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator and Society,” Carrell tells Fango. “We watched these movies over and over, and I would read about them in FANGORIA. I love those movies. That was a truly special time where you could really get lost in some crazy spectacle. Back then, I never would have dreamed I would grow up to make my own movies, especially with guys like Zeph E. Daniel and Mike Muscal. When Zeph sent me the script for Girl Next, I felt like I had discovered a lost script from those days. It was totally wild, original and unlike anything anyone else is doing these days. So, I dived right in.”
Carrell and company enjoyed themselves so much on Girl Next, they hatched three (!) spinoffs to the film. “After Girl Next was finished, Zeph and I partnered together to form a new production company, Crazed House,” the director says. “In fact, I just returned from a six-week shoot in Serbia, where I shot our second Crazed House offering, The Quantum Devil. The Quantum Devil is a companion piece to Girl Next, actually a prequel and the second in a series of four movies we call the Quantum Quartet.
“It is kind of hard to put our movies into one specific genre,” Carrell continues. “We just follow where the stories take us, and we don’t pull any punches. The drama there is very real for our characters, just as is the horror. And just as in real life, they both get very messy. Ultimately, the goal is to entertain. To give audiences and fans a 90-minute vacation from reality, a much-needed break, especially these days. So, I encourage everyone to get a copy of Girl Next, order up a pizza, grab some soda and snacks and just take the ride. I hope audiences will have just as much fun watching it as we did making it.”
Keep an eye on this website on Tuesday for an exclusive set visit report from Girl Next. And learn more about Crazed House productions here and here.
