Josh Stephenson is an American cinephile based out of New Orleans, LA who is currently in post-production for the debut feature film DEATHTRIP!, a no-budget horror/comedy melt movie.
The concept for DEATHTRIP! first happened on the set of my short GIRL FROM ICELAND (2014) as I nerd’ed out one day with special effects makeup artist Lemme Crews about the neglected 1980s subgenre. We talk a lot about future projects, but that one definitely planted a seed.
I had already written a fan-treatment sequel to BLUE SUNSHINE (1977) involving a cocaine addict that convinces himself of a conspiracy involving MDMA overdoses from the 1990s. So, I kept the ecstasy and political conspiracy elements, but changed the protagonist to a straight-edge female journalist and worked in body-melting as a component.
I finished writing the first draft in Chicago, but my relocation to New Orleans in 2015 to join the Louisiana film industry warranted a ‘fish-out-of-water’ rewrite for the protagonist. Within the year I self-financed a proof of concept which I shot with my previous collaborators in Florida over two long nights. The next planned step was to attract investors to finance a feature version: I figured that’s how Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert turned their short WITHIN THE WOODS into THE EVIL DEAD (1981), so why not?
That didn’t quite work out so well. We played a few festivals in Louisiana, Florida, and Tennessee and still managed to yield no financial backing. So, I decided to do it myself with no money. The proof of concept played as the cold open and we simply incorporated new characters to carry the plot forward.
Thus began a year of prep spent collecting (free) props, costumes, locations, and even cast members in and out of the Louisiana film community. We shot non-consecutive days (mostly weekends) over the course of years and even the global pandemic in 2020. David Lynch spent five years making his debut ERASERHEAD (1977), so we got nothing to sweat.
Along the way, I somehow convinced industry professional Adam Alvarez (whom I met as a camera operator in reality television) to join me in this insane process and we eventually found ourselves with a whole movie on our hands: no one was paid, all ideas on set were welcome, and we somehow pulled off a feature with 62 scenes, 38 locations, 66 cast members, and continuity issues abound.
So, what is a melt movie? Well, I think it’s pretty obvious: a movie where people melt.
I suppose it all started with THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977) - which was an early Rick Baker gig by the way - and then really didn’t become a genre per se until the mid-eighties with Larry Cohen’s killer yogurt satire THE STUFF (1985), the NYC wino opus STREET TRASH (1987), Chuck Russell’s remake of THE BLOB (1988), and a nasty little indie called SLIME CITY (1988). There’s also an Australian honorable mention, aptly-titled BODY MELT (1993) which incorporates STREET TRASH’s sneaky contagion element with the health craze silliness of THE STUFF.
If the 1950s sci-fi alien genre was a response to the cold war, then we can view the 1970s body horror genre (and it’s baby brother the melt movie) as a response to the fluidity of cultural norms of the time. The changing sixties lead to the turbulent seventies and a newfound conservatism took shape in the eighties. What better representation for the degradation and reconfiguration of the body politic than an ill shaped, depleting physical form? But of course, I don’t subscribe to any of those notions. I simply wanted to make a genre picture because it would be fun and entertaining.
Stay tuned for further info on the film’s release and how to see it.