Coyote
“Sleep is the Enemy”
The first trailer for Coyote, an art-house horror film from director Trevor Juenger, has been released. In the film Bill Oberst Jr. plays an insomniac writer whose sleep-deprived hallucinations distort reality until his paranoia leads him to extreme violence. Coyote also stars Bill Finkbiner, Victoria Mullen and Tasha Zebrowski. St. Louis-based director Trevor Juenger wrote the script for the micro-budget feature with Oberst in mind and he flew the actor to the midwest for a month of filming during the worst heatwave in decades. Oberst says: "That script was brutal, raw, explicit and offensive. The shoot was even more so. This film won't be for everyone. But Juenger reminds me so much of a young Lynch with a dash of Cronenberg that, I had to work him. I could not resist. We did this with no money, only passion for the experiment."
Of his lead actor Juenger says "I was listening to an interview with Bill Oberst Jr. today where he said his best asset is keeping quiet. Well, I have to disagree. I like a belligerent, aggressive, maniacal Bill Oberst Jr., screaming and threatening people. That is his strength. I don't think real mental illness is a quiet one. Bill embodies the abusive dad, boyfriend, or whatever misogynistic ugliness you experienced growing up. You can't stand up to him, when he's on the screen. Instead, he leaves you like a battered housewife, exhausted and helpless, yet attracted to the abuse.”
Coyote is an attempt to blend the arthouse genre, in which Juenger has primarily worked, with horror. The director admits it is a risky experiment: "If this is a horror movie (everyone assures me it is), it's unlike any horror film I've seen. I think we used the horror fundamentals that fit, and then threw away the book. Good, bad, revolting, or brilliant, I can't quite say. I can say its something fresh though. Someone called it David Lynch directs Falling Down. As much as I hate the Lynch comparisons, I thought that was fitting. It's what I wanted to see. I hope you feel the same."
The Coyote trailer is here on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/51891660
The film’s fan page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Coyote/207299646022159
The director’s Blog is hosted here: http://juengercoyote.wordpress.com/
Thanks for the post on the COYOTE trailer, Twisted Central! I suspect that people will either love COYOTE or hate it with nothing in-between. I can't say it was fun to shoot it - at times I worried that being in that character's deranged head for a month would do permanent damage. But I seem to be OK :D
ReplyDeletewith appreciation,
Bill