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Shudder's V/H/S series isn't the only horror anthology movie series back with the arrival of All Hallows' Eve: Inferno. The movie serves as the fourth installment in the franchise that launched with the eponymous 2013 outing, which was written and directed entirely by Damien Leone. In addition to launching the anthology franchise, the first All Hallows' Eve also introduced audiences to the malevolent Art the Clown, with Leone carrying on the character into the hit Terrifier franchise, whose third movie just released and has been performing strongly at the box office.
All Hallows' Eve: Inferno is a slight detour from the previous movies' formula, introducing viewers to an unnamed female character who is involved in a horrific car crash and awakens in a nightmarish dimension that, while appearing to be a hospital, may be something far worse. Unlike other anthology films, in which the frame narrative plays into the interlinking shorts, Inferno instead treats its wraparound as a terrifying isolated tale before transitioning into the various other stories, some of which include a man trying to master lucid dreaming to conquer recurring nightmares and a rebellious young girl inadvertently unleashing an ancient evil.
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Having made his debut in the franchise as a producer of one segment in All Hallows' Eve: Trickster, the movie sees Steve Barton stepping up and taking the reins as the lead producer of the entirety of Inferno. The movie continues Barton's rise on the filmmaking side of things, having worked as the co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Dread Central before going on to be an associate producer on Terrifier 2, producer of fellow anthology Watch If You Dare To and Trickster.
On the heels of the movie's release, Screen Rant interviewed Steve Barton to discuss All Hallows' Eve: Inferno, how a subtle joke led to him being the lead producer on the sequel, why he elected to have the movie be a collection of pre-existing indie horror shorts versus producing new ones, the joy of getting to spotlight up-and-coming filmmakers with a franchise like All Hallows' Eve, and why neither Leone nor Art the Clown were able to return for the film.
Barton Had A Very Interesting Journey To Becoming All Hallows' Eve: Inferno's Lead Producer
The Movie Also Allowed Him To Do "One Of The Things I Miss" About Dread Central
Screen Rant: I'm thrilled to chat with you about All Hallows' Eve: Inferno. I watched it earlier today, and was really quite gripped from start to finish. I love the way it weaved in between the stories in the frame narrative, which is actually what I'd love to start with. Where did the idea for the frame narrative come about? Because I always find it curious how anthologies come up with those.
Steve Barton: Well, for me to really answer that question, I have to kind of tell you exactly what All Hallows' Eve: Inferno and All Hallows' Eve: Trickster is. Over a year ago, a wonderful friend of mine and constituent, Jesse Baget of Ruthless Pictures, had come to me and asked me if I knew anyone to help him fill out the runtime for All Hallows' Eve: Trickster. I told him that I knew of some cool pre-existing shorts. They delivered, and he put out All Hallows' Eve: Trickster, and I said, jokingly, to him, "If you let me pick all of the shorts, it would be kick a--, right?"
He called me about six months later and was like, "Did you mean what you said?" I'm like, "Dude, I don't remember what I said Tuesday, yeah, I meant what I said." And he said, "Well, do you want to do it?" So, I thought about it, and I'm like, "Let me get back to you, so I can find an angle that would interest me." Because with the success of things like Terrifier and stuff like that, I still have an email inbox filled with people who want to work with me in one way or another, and I'm trying to be very selective of what I do. Some of them are just straight up honest with you, like, "We just want to use your name." And I'm like, "No, man, that's my name. That's the most personal thing I have."
So, I thought about it, and I called Jesse back, and I'm like, "Listen, why don't we do this?" Indie filmmakers, they always start with horror shorts. And the problem with horror shorts, when you're making an independent film, and you have a short film, is they have a very finite life expectancy. You do your festival run, and maybe you're featured on a website or two, and then your film goes and dies on Vimeo or YouTube. You gotta hope that somebody comes across it. And the problem with even coming across it is, because filmmaking has gotten so easy, you can literally make a movie on your MacBook nowadays. It doesn't mean you should, but you can, and there's a lot of white noise out there.
So, I started thinking, "What would happen if we took these shorts that have already been filmed, that aren't doing anything, collected them and put them into an anthology, just being exactly what they are?" Like a short film program that anyone could have right in their house, because there's a whole part globally, especially the United States, that whole swath of middle America, that these film festivals don't happen at. And what would be cool about doing that is it gives these young filmmakers who have these incredible projects a new platform in which to reach a wider audience. That angle really excited me, because one of the things I miss about doing Dread Central was being able to help the indie filmmaker, as I always did, and the prospect of being able to put these movies out and give them a second life with a bunch of other films that would compliment them in terms of quality and everything else, that was exciting to me.
So, when it came to the wraparound — this is my really long way of answering that question, sorry [chuckles] — one of the things I wanted to consciously is not overshadow the short films. So, we have an artist who works in Unreal Five, and we took a basic idea, and he gave us avenues in which to plug in the shorts. And that's really what it is, man, is it's a chance to give these filmmakers a second life and, hopefully, as with the original All Hallows' Eve, the right people see it, and they get to make a feature version based on their product.
And that's another thing I was very adamant about, and Jesse echoed this, that it was important whoever is contributing their short they have full control of their IP. I don't want them to give it to anybody. They created it, they deserve it. The reason for that is I've seen so many things over the years where a feature film is made that's based on a short that the same director did, that they can't even include the short on the DVD, because of rights problems. I think it's stupid. So, this seemed like a pretty good way to key in and kind of streamline the process and make it good for everybody.
Barton Sorted Through "900-Something" Shorts To Find The Ones That Fit The Film
"...I watched every d--n one of them..."
Obviously, it may be hard to pick one above them all, but I would love to hear if there was one short in particular that, when you saw it, you were like, "Oh, I have to get this one right now. Right now."
Steve Barton: I think I kind of had that reaction to all of them, but for different reasons. Some of them told a good visual tale, some of them told a good psychological tale. It was a process, man, when I put out a call for shorts. You never know what you're going to get, and I got like 900-something responses, and I watched every d--n one of them, because when I say I'm going to do something, I put my heart in it, and I do it. I owe it to the filmmakers who sent their shorts in to be watched, and I picked a good handful of them. The thing with short films is, being why it was important for me to watch, I was able to group them in terms of quality, in terms of genre, if need be. Like, there's a werewolf one out right now that's on Tubi that I'm really proud of.
So, there's a bunch of different ways to do it, and the advantage of doing it was only to be able to watch them all and figure out where they would belong. And short films are a really mixed bag. You've got people that tell a good story, but maybe don't have a good budget, or maybe you have a budget that looks great, but you don't have a good story, so kind of figuring out what belongs with what was like playing Tetris. Because if you take a short film that looks like it cost $20 million, and you put it in the same collection with a short film that's obviously a much lower budget, you're not really doing anyone any favors. That was another reason why I decided to make the wraparound as slightly intrusive as possible.
Barton Looked At An Acclaimed Shudder Film For Insight On Runtimes
"...to me, telling a story only takes as long as it needs to tell that story."
So, how did you go about narrowing down what the runtime would be? Because that's another thing is that anthologies could be two hours, they could be an hour and a half.
Steve Barton: Well, believe it or not, COVID taught me a lot of stuff. Other than being an absolute nightmare to live through, it also changed the medium a lot, and all of a sudden we were seeing films that were an hour long. A good example is Jed Shepherd's Host that he did, which was only an hour. So, to me, telling a story only takes as long as it needs to tell that story.
A lot of times, indie filmmakers, when they're submitting at festivals, a lot of film festivals don't want a short that's over 11 minutes. So, there are other shorts out there that are great, that are like 15–20 minutes, or whatever, and you have to pay them the same amount of attention. It doesn't really matter in the home video field, especially with anthologies, because we live in a very ADD society. So, people will watch one segment, then pause it, then go back and watch the rest.
You know, it's interesting. The overall goal was to find the best bits of bite-sized entertainment possible, and present it in a way where the viewer just has some fun and gets to watch some cool s--t. I do this because I'm selfish. I like watching cool s--t, so I wanted to give that experience into the place of the viewers.
All Hallows' Eve's Future Comes Down To Fan Response
"...then I'll keep doing it for as long as I can."
So, it's been a year since the last All Hallows' Eve, and it seems like now you guys might be able to put them out every year. Are you going to kind of keep that ball rolling going into future installments?
Steve Barton: It depends. It's very nice to see the fairy tale happen, to see these filmmakers getting their chance to see their stuff made by a wider audience. And if a lot of people watch it, and a lot of people dig it, even if just watching it on Tubi, if enough people watch it, and there's proof that there's demand for it, then I'll keep doing it for as long as I can. You don't know where the next Carpenter, Romero, whomever is coming from, but the odds are pretty d--n good it's going to come from the indie horror community, because it kind of always has. So, I feel doing this is important, and I consider the curation of these shorts in all of the anthologies I've worked on one of the most important things I did, because if my name is going to be used for anything, I want it to be used for helping the indie filmmaker. I've laid that groundwork. I just want people to jump on it.
Barton "Ain't Gonna Argue" Against A Future Art The Clown Cameo
"His future is so bright..."
I did also want to ask really quickly. You alluded to it earlier, we know you've been a part of the Terrifier franchise, and Damien came from All Hallows' Eve. Did you talk to him at all when going into this one about trying to maybe sneak Art into this one?
Steve Barton: Damien is so busy doing what he does, it would have been impossible, and I am so happy for them. I released the first film, I executive produced the second one, and I'm thrilled for the success they found with the third either with or without me, but he has so much going on. His future is so bright, I can't wait to see what he does. That being said, hey, you want to make a little cameo here and there, I'd be open to it, I ain't gonna argue. But I think what's happening for the genre right now is we're in the best spot we've been in in a long, long time, and I just hope you see it keep going, and I'll further it in any way that I can.
About All Hallows' Eve: Inferno
From an executive producer of Terrifier 2 comes All Hallows Eve: Inferno, a new installment of the franchise that first introduced the world to Damien Leone's Art the Clown and the short film “Terrifier.” When a woman survives a horrific crash that leaves her paralyzed, her nightmare is far from over. Transported to an infernal hospital, she becomes the victim of a sadistic doctor's torturous experiments forcing her to enter a haunted dimension filled with monsters and mayhem.Showcasing the work of multiple acclaimed horror film writers and directors, All Hallows’ Eve: Inferno brings bone-crushing suspense, gut-wrenching gore, and enough scares to haunt your dreams for eternity. Featuring Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare On Elm Street) and Larry Cedar (Constantine, Battlestar Galactica), All Hallows’ Eve: Inferno is perfect to add to your Halloween binge-watch. It’s time to fear, Halloween is here.
All Hallows' Eve: Inferno is now available on TUBI and Fandango!
Source: Screen Rant Plus
All Hallows Eve: Inferno is a horror anthology film that expands the franchise which introduced Damien Leone's Art the Clown and Terrifier. Drawing from new talent, the movie features unsettling tales crafted by up-and-coming writers and directors, with a production tie to Terrifier 2's executive team.
Director Sumire Takamatsu , Christianne Cruz , Kays Al-Atrakchi , Evan Tramel , John Ferrer , Patrick Kennelly , Jorge Lucas
Release Date October 1, 2024
Writers Effie Lavore , Kays Al-Atrakchi , Evan Tramel , Jorge Lucas , Sumire Takamatsu , John Ferrer , Christianne Cruz , Harry Metcalfe
Cast Kevin Scott Allen , Corinna Brown , Larry Cedar , Joe Lando
Runtime 74 Minutes
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English (US) ·