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One of the privileges that the pandemic has taken away from us is the cinema, but the virus did not manage to stop all those movie lovers because in many states, the auto theaters have become popular and even last month a horror movie managed to lead the American box office for six consecutive weeks.
So far, the indie horror film «The Wretched» has grossed approximately $1 million in total, equaling the box office record that only «Titanic», «Sixth Sense», «Avatar» and «Black Panther» had reached in the last 23 years.
Focused on a throwback horror story, The Wretched follows a teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ unavoidable divorce; he faces off with a thousand-year-old witch who is living beneath the skin of the woman next door.
The horror film premiered on May 1st in 75 cinemas which most of them were drive-in cinemas; The Wretched benefited from the shortage of releases along with North America due to the coronavirus pandemic, making an epic premiere with impressive results.
During an interview directors Brett and Drew T. Pierce mentioned that their inspiration for making The Wretched was based on films such as Roald Dahl’s The Witches and the whole Hellboy universe; what they were aiming for was to create a dark, cool fairytale and striking for a darker, creepier side of the witch mythology.
They both got themselves deeply devoted to the witch mythology, reading about the different witches existing, such as Black Annie living in a cave under a tree, out in the woods in England, with an unusual creepy looking blue face she takes children and devours them. After discovering such a mystical creature, Brett and Drew thought about focusing their movie on Black Annie, but they thought it would limit the possibilities to just her mythology.
The Wretched was highly praised for its excellent makeup/practical effects and an extremely creepy atmosphere, some viewers even said that seen a film in 2020 utilize that good «old fashioned» practical effects rather than CGI effects is very commendable and refreshing. «The key to practical FX is we planned every single shot» mentions Drew Pierce, «Practical FX capture light. You can actually put a real light on it and it looks real.»
There’s no doubt that the directors worked quite hard to create a magnificent and frightening piece of horror indie art and according to the specialized media «The Wretched» could even extend the record for one more week! something that only 15 films have achieved since 1980.
Would you like to watch The Wretched?
