The screening for Jeff Daniel Phillips’ horror film “Cursed in Baja” was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 15. As 8:03 p.m. rolled around, the director and star was still in the lobby, signing posters and greeting guests.
The reason for the delay was the gaggle of local horror enthusiasts swarming the lobby of the Davis Theater, all clamoring for a signature from the director. Phillips, while certainly happy to fulfill the requests of fans, had a more altruistic motive. Proceeds from the signatures were to be donated to Groceryland Chicago, a charity which focuses on providing food and support for those struggling with HIV.
Phillips, a native of Chicago, is focused on that idea of community — it’s what got him to start on “Cursed in Baja” in the first place.
“I was invited to a roundtable at Grand Rapids Comic Con a few years ago to speak with around forty young filmmakers,” Phillips said. “It’s a Robert Rodriguez-type thing where you make your list of your assets, your locations, maybe your actors, props, whatever you have access to, and create something around that, because you know you’ll have it. I ended up coming out more pumped up, I think, than they did.”
Phillips gathered a group of his close collaborators, including composer and actor Kent Issacs and actor Mark Fite. The three, along with a small crew, went down to a small farm in Mexico owned by a group of friends and shot the film over the course of five months.
“If you have a tribe of people that’ll support you and pull it along, you could pull it off,” Phillips said. “Our drone went down on the side of a mountain, and my cinematographer, Keith Coleman, just started climbing the mountain … he fell over this fence. He had barbed wire in his back. We took it out. He just wiped it off. We just went back to shooting.”
That guerilla nature is key to the charm of “Cursed in Baja.” It’s what attracted producer and head of Anchor Bay Entertainment Thomas Zambeck to distribute the film in theaters and on physical media.
“I’d been a fan of Jeff’s for a while through his work on the Rob Zombie films that he’s been in,” said Zambeck. “After speaking with Jeff, I was even more inspired by the film. I think it’s a good inspirational tool for other filmmakers, because this really was, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, a mom-and-pop operation.”
The premiere was supported by a few local organizations. There were tables in the lobby for Terror in the Aisles, a group which organizes screenings for low-budget films which would otherwise stay on streaming, and the Horror House, a horror memorabilia shop which also hosts repertory screenings at places like the Music Box.
“We met (Phillips) at Chronic Con, Kevin Smith’s convention, just a few weeks ago,” Vinny Malave, owner of the Horror House, said. “He was at the booth across the walkway and invited us to come to this premiere, which we were really grateful for.”
The Horror House recently had to shut its doors on its Belmont location due to mold and a disagreement with their landlord. They use events like Chronic Con and pop-ups at screenings to supplement income.
After the screening, Phillips, Issacs and Fite took the stage to answer a few questions from the audience.
“I knew Jeff from theater in the 90s, and we had done a couple other projects together, and they called me for this one,” Issacs said. “It’s always a joy working with these guys, even if I’m freezing my ass off and it’s 40 degrees and I’m covered in blood and sweat.”
“Cursed in Baja” releases on Blu-Ray on Dec. 10, 2024 via Anchor Bay Entertainment. Anchor Bay will also be releasing a vinyl of the film’s score, which Issacs composed.
“It was kind of a renegade production. But it got done,” Issacs said. “A feature film is not easy to make, and it’s thanks to these guys that it ended up happening.”
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