Persistence paid off for Lowell Dean as his post-apocalyptic zombie thriller Die Alone hits theatres across Canada this weekend, including Southland Cinemas in Regina.
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It’s fitting that Lowell Dean’s contribution to the zombie apocalypse genre is a movie that just won’t die.
“I just had a really hard time getting it made. I kept revisiting it every year and revising the script and trying new things … but it was starting to feel a bit like my Moby Dick. Am I just going to be chasing this film forever?”
After years of frustration, Dean thought he’d put the final nail in Die Alone’s coffin when he told producer Danielle Masters it might be “fate” that the movie never sees the light of day.
Then along came a financing opportunity through Telefilm Canada, which helped breathe new life into the project.
“By the time it actually happened, I kid you not, I was convinced it wasn’t going to happen,” said Dean, who also directed the film. “I now have a weird fondness for this project. Obviously the story and the film itself is one thing, but to me it’s a reminder about tenacity and to not give up. If you would have asked me at a couple of periods in the last five years, ‘Are you going to make Die Alone?’, it was like ‘Never. It’s over.’
“And here we are.”
Die Alone opens this weekend in almost 40 Canadian theatres before commencing a U.S. run on Oct. 18, followed by a future release on Crave.
The movie’s price tag was about $7 million (CDN), said Dean, who called it “by far my biggest-budget film to date.”
It was shot in multiple locations near Regina, among them the Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus and the picturesque Qu’Appelle Valley. Key locations included the towns of Qu’Appelle and Fort Qu’Appelle in addition to a farmhouse near Katepwa where over half the movie was filmed.
“I’ve said it before, but this is a love letter to Saskatchewan,” Dean explained. “We wanted to get the vastness and beauty of Saskatchewan, and not just like the cliché of ‘it’s a flat place.’ We wanted to show hills and valleys and obviously those gorgeous sunsets.”
”That was the big factor that brought us back to the province …,” he said. “This movie wouldn’t have been possible in Saskatchewan two years earlier with the previous system. Creative Saskatchewan, the work they’ve done has been amazing to not only support local filmmakers like myself but I think it’s going to bring in a lot of outside work too and really grow the Saskatchewan film industry. I’m quite excited.”
Although Dean would have gladly made the movie almost anywhere, there’s no place like home.
“It means the world to me,” he continued. “I want to be around my family and sleep in my own bed and make movies and pursue my passion. Now that Saskatchewan is so passionately behind film, I think the conversation is so positive and I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people.
“My big hope is that people go out to the theatres this weekend and say, ‘Wow! That was shot in our own province’ and it gives them a sense of pride. That will be my biggest win, if people go to the theatre, see this film, support it and start thinking about Saskatchewan films in a whole new light.”
The film’s local ties feature Dean and his crew in conjunction with Kevin Dewalt’s Regina-based production company, Minds Eye Entertainment, and a cast that includes Regina’s Amy Matysio (WolfCop).
The lead roles are played by well-known actors like Moss, Douglas Smith (Don’t Worry Darling), Kimberly-Sue Murray (V Wars), and Frank Grillo (Captain America).
In the film, Smith’s character has amnesia and wakes up to discover that a virus has turned the world upside down, transforming people into zombielike creatures. He joins forces with a rugged survivalist (Moss) to locate his missing girlfriend (Murray), which sends him down an uncharted path.
“This film is not what you think,” Dean added. “If you want a creature film and a post-apocalyptic film, you’re going to get it. But the big secret is you’re also going to get, I hope, a really unique love story that stays with you long after you left the theatre.”
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