For those who want to watch the trailer right away… HERE IT IS 😉

Hey everyone, Matt Stuertz here. Writer / director of RWD, Tonight She Comes, and now WAKE NOT THE DEAD. Thank you so much for checking out this Indiegogo Campaign! I hope you like what you see, because this is a film that I love with every ounce of my existence, and I really want you all to watch it.

What is WAKE NOT THE DEAD?

To put it simply: it’s exactly the kind of movie that I want to see every time I go to a movie theater. It’s full of interesting characters, it throws you right into the action, it’s weird as hell, and it’s going to be roughly 85 minutes long. Take equal parts Rear Window, The Burbs, Nightcrawler, and Return of the Living Dead, throw ’em all into a blender, mix until unrecognizable, then reconstruct them into something that (hopefully) resembles an early Peter Jackson film.

It’s my favorite script I’ve ever written, and after seeing the actors bring it to life in what we’ve filmed so far, I love it even more. I’d say the video above (in both the BTS footage and the **spoiler for those who haven’t watched yet ** TEASER TRAILER) gives a pretty good vibe both of how much fun we’ve had shooting this AND the tone of the movie itself. However, what we don’t show you (because I personally hate trailers that give away moments that are MEANT TO BE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME ON SCREEN) is just how wild and insanely violent (yet in a mostly fun and cheering at the screen kind of way) this movie gets.

Going to film festivals is one of my favorite things in the world, and seeing a movie play where the audience loses their collective minds is the absolute best. And it’s even better when it’s your film playing on that screen. So, that’s exactly the kind of film we’re trying to make here.

Why do we need your help?

Every dollar we raise in this campaign (and every cent too) will go into production to pay for the cast, crew, locations, special FX, make-up FX, and of course the food to feed everyone. The $50k listed as the campaign goal is the minimum amount we need to finish production on the movie. WAKE NOT THE DEAD is a 95 page script with over 200 makeup FX, which means this film is jam-packed with action, gore, and insanity (which is why I love it so much), but it also means that it is not an easy film to shoot.

So what happens if we raise less than the goal?

The movie will still happen! However, we’ll need to raise the rest of the funds from an additional source, so it will most likely take quite a bit longer to finish.

What happens if we raise more than the goal?

Oooh, baby. There are a few key sequences in this movie that, as planned for the $50k, are pretty insanely wild “holy f***ing shit I can’t believe what just happened on screen” type of deals, but with even more money, I believe the audience reaction will jump another 10dB at least. In addition to that, there are a few as-of-yet uncast roles which could end up being somone you’d all recognize (which of course would also help this film get in front of more eyeballs).

And what’s the plan for WAKE NOT THE DEAD once it’s done?

As much as I love watching movies at home, this is a movie that I want people to be able to see on a giant screen played loud as hell with a whole bunch of people laughing, cheering, and (most certainly for this one) making those hilarious grossed-out noises as well. So, film festivals, ideally some sort of theatrical release, followed by video on demand, and after that… sequels 😉

The Cast

Jackie Kelly is an award-winning actress and writer from the small town of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois. Frequently portraying dark and psychological characters, she got her start in live theater at the age of 12. And if you’ve seen a Jackie Kelly film before (films such as Tennessee Gothic, In Memory Of, the upcoming Oscar Tango Hellwater *where David and I met her*, and a brief appearance in the excellent The Once and Future Smash) then you should have a pretty good idea what to…

NOPE! You still will have absolutely no idea what to expect from her in WAKE NOT THE DEAD! The way she plays “Jack” in this movie is absolutely insane, hilarious, and well – to find out more, you’re just gonna have to watch it 😉

Mia Sydney plays “Alice” in WAKE NOT THE DEAD, and as soon as we saw her audition, it was as if Alice had jumped off the page into real life. She goes through some wild shit in this movie, and it’s a role that if not acted by someone that can be equal parts terrified, enraged, hysterical, and hilarious, would not work. Luckily for us (and for everyone that watches the movie), Mia absolutely kills it in what we’ve shot so far (there’s one scene in particular, full of all the aforementioned things, that we’ve watched about a million times and plays amazingly even without sound, color grade, or a score, where Alice and …. NOPE, sorry can’t spoil that yet, heh), and the Alice scenes yet to come are ones I’m even more excited to shoot.

More cast to be announced soon…

The Crew

Matt Stuertz
Writer / Director / Producer / Co-Editor

a.k.a. “me”! I’m a lover of horror films and as mentioned above, I’ve made a few of ’em already (Tonight She Comes, RWD). If you’ve seen those films and enjoyed them, I’d say there’s a pretty damn good chance you’re going to like WAKE NOT THE DEAD too. If you hated them? Honestly, you still might like this one. I know I know, of course I’d say that, but just hear me out: there’s for sure a lot of similarities in all the movies I make, but with years comes experience, and in the time since I made TSC, I’ve watched, written, and shot a whole bunch of movies, and I’ve also taken criticisms like “the beginning of this movie sucks, doesn’t get interesting until…” etc. to heart.

My favorite movies this year so far are M3GAN and Renfield, and if you think the fact that those movies are about a psychotic murdering robot and a bloodthirsty Nicolas Cage vampire AND are both ridiculous and fun as hell says anything about what WAKE NOT THE DEAD will be? Then you’re absolutely right.

David Christopher Pitt
Director of Photography / Producer / Co-Editor

The day I met David, we drove two hours out into the woods armed with a piece of drywall, a few lights, a whole bunch of blood, a couple of human heads, and a shotgun. And then, well, we used all those things to make a pretty amazing kill for my film Tonight She Comes. Which you can check out for free right now on Tubi by clicking here and then skipping to 52:20.

The heads and blood were fake. The shotgun, real. The friendship – forever.

Since then we’ve worked on a ton of stuff together, but nothing that was ours… Until WAKE NOT THE DEAD. This film would not be the film it needed to be without this man, and damn it, I cannot wait to get him back on set, finish this thing, then do it all over again for as many films as this human body will allow.

Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein
1st AC & Sound Mixer / Boom Op

I met Mike and Sophia at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival when TSC and their film Blood of the Tribades were both playing there. We got a drink, hung out for a bit, they were awesome, and were also like “hit us up when you move out to Los Angeles”. Cut to a year later when I made the move, I did hit them up, they continued to be awesome, and we’ve worked on a whole bunch of stuff together since. Stuff like their films Clickbait and The Once and Future Smash, a whole bunch of short films, and hopefully many many more things in the future. They’re the best.

Emma Siate
Lead Special Makeup Effects Artist

David met Emma on the set of the upcoming The Deep Dark, a movie I heard many exciting things about, with the key exciting thing being that “these effects look f***ing incredible”. So, when it came time to find a killer make-up fx artist for our film, getting in touch with Emma was a no brainer. The extensive wounds, full-face / full-body FX applications, weapons stabbing into flesh, weapons sticking out of flesh, and sharp vampire teeth doing stabby bloody vampire teeth things – would not be possible without her. The effects look incredible, she’s a blast to have on set, and round II of filming features A WHOLE LOT MORE PRACTICAL VIOLENCE. Safe to say, I’m very excited.

William Peterson III
Production Designer

I met Bill the very day I moved out to LA, the same day that he became my first roommate out here. Couldn’t have had a warmer welcome to this city, and then I found out that this man absolutely loves movies too. So, when the time came to make a movie, several years and several roommates later, it was a no-brainer to bring Bill on. A hell of a lot of what you’ll see on screen is the result of this man, and without him the audience reaction would be less of a “f*** yes, that was awesome” and more of a “well, the acting was good, but why were they all just in a white room, pretending to interact with things that aren’t here?” kinda deal. Working with talented people is important, y’all.

Alexandria Perez
1st AD

Alex is a writer / director who I first met virtually in 2020 after I saw her short film The Final Girl Returns (which you can check out right here). She’s incredibly talented and was absolutely indispensable on set. WAKE NOT THE DEAD was the first time we’ve worked together, and it certainly won’t be the last. Keeping things running smoothly while ALSO not having the crew hate you is an incredibly hard task for a 1st AD, but its one she pulled off so well. And you can check out one hilarious story of exactly that happening (and without her, the movie losing a very cool location) on the upcoming WAKE NOT THE DOC, when we talk about “Chad’s Hill”.

Lady Mariam
Script Supervisor

Mariam is a “cross-media horror producer” who works on everything from film to events to video game production. I met her via David after they met at Grimmfest Film Festival in Manchester. She gave me some very excellent notes on one of my as-of-yet unmade scripts (that I do still hope to make eventually) and after that it was very clear that she was someone I’d very much like to work with in the future too. She lives in Germany, but just so happened to be in LA around the time we shot the first part of WAKE NOT THE DEAD, so bringing her on was a no brainer. She’s incredibly organized and detail-oriented (perfect for a script supervisor) and in the best “low budget, small crew, indie film kind of way” was eager to help out with anything else we needed on set.

A.J. Cutler
Set Builder / BTS Photographer

I met A.J. a few years back on the set of The Stalking Fields. Within minutes, it was clear that he was f***cking awesome, incredibly (and multi) talented, and fun as hell to work with. Since then, we’ve worked on a whole bunch of projects together (including The Once and Future Smash where he plays one of the leads and crushes it) and in WAKE NOT THE DEAD there are a whole helluva lot of cool builds that came together so fast with so few people that you would have thought would be impossible. But thanks to A.J. and his team, it absolutely happened. And it’s going to happen again.

Other Ways You Can Help

I know that having money in 2023 is an incredibly rare thing (as I’m reminded every day by my bank account) and you may not be able to contribute to this campaign. But it would still be a huge help if you could share it with any horror-loving friends and family members on social media! Thank you!! <3