A Wendigo and more are part of Kindling, a frightful omnibus feature gearing up to shoot this spring outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Fango got the first word that the cast will include Adrienne Barbeau, the genre legend from The Fog, Creepshow, Swamp Thing and many others; Jim Beaver, seen in Supernatural and Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and Crimson Peak; and Mike Manning, producer and co-star of this month’s acclaimed Shudder premiere Slapface. The trio is also part of the producing team on Kindling, which additionally includes Sean Flanagan and Barry Jay Minoff.
Erynn Dalton will direct Kindling, her second feature after The Gravedigger, which sees release soon from Indican Pictures. “Working with a cast of heavy hitters like this is every director’s dream,” Dalton says, “and I can’t wait to see what happens when they sink their teeth into these fun characters. Shooting with this group of actors is going to be a bloody good time.”
Gravedigger scripter Joseph Zettelmaier wrote Kindling with Michael Alan Herman. The synopsis: “The film follows Johnny [Manning], who brings his girlfriend home to meet his family one year after the death of his father. Greeted by his sister Kat and Uncle Marcus [Beaver], they settle in for a night of scary stories around the campfire. It does not take long before Johnny’s girlfriend begins to realize there is something far more sinister behind these stories, these people, and this place. In fact, it all may not be as random and innocent as it first appears.
The three macabre tales are set in varying time periods, including the early 1800s, during which a group of headstrong pioneer women set out to retrace the steps of their missing husbands, brothers and sons, led by tough-as-nails Mother Ruth [Barbeau]. What they instead find is a trail of blood and carnage that leads them directly into the path of a cannibalistic Wendigo.” The other two tales are set in the Victorian era and present day, and feature a mad scientist and an evil occultist; further casting will be announced soon.
“To me,” Manning says, “the story of Kindling reminds me of all my favorite family camping trips growing up. The nature, the s’mores, and the scary stories are some of my favorite childhood memories. And in the Kindling world, the monsters are real, and the stories have consequences.”
