Two Pace High School graduates are working on a feature length film with the help of 30 friends and $20,000 – shot locally around Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties – and already it’s gained the attention of four potential distributors for a nationwide audience. The production trailer of this film called, “Entity” has had more than 320,000 hits on YouTube. It is considered a psychological horror movie featuring a tall evil character with multiple appendages that hides in foggy dark areas and abducts children. The idea to make the film locally came from Pace High School grads Will Philips and Chris Jadallah about a year and a half ago. Though confident, they say they could have never imagined the success Entity has already brought. The film is about a couple, Casey and Morgan – locals Jerod Perez and Dorie Waters play the pair in the film. Upon the disappearance of Casey’s grandfather, they are sent to his grandfather’s recently emptied house where foul play is immediately blamed. To find out more, a local public viewing of the film is planned for early next year.
See the current trailer. >>
The idea for the film came about while Philips was sitting in a class at UWF (University of West Florida). Mervyn Ortiz approached him – a man who would become the executive producer of a 30 page draft Philips was writing. Ortiz says he saw a passion and a drive in Philips to make his script into something big. Ortiz was drawn to not only jump on board, but to finance a majority of the production, saying he wants to accomplish a few more things after 20-plus years of military service. Philips began to assemble a film crew. Starting with a director, he contacted friend Chris Jadallah, a filmmaker he knew from high school. Jadallah was known for being behind and in front of a camera during most of high school and college. Though he had never attempted a feature length movie, when approached by Phillips, Jadallah said “no” simply was not an option. The crew continued to grow. Jack-of-all-trades Derek Bond was quick to join. He went on to create props, a costume, finish the script, and star in the movie as the “Entity”. Courtney Hagans joined as the head writer and act as script supervisor on set. Jeremy Jadallah (Chris Jadallah’s brother) joined as an assistant director. These are just a few of members belonging to a crew of thirty plus to make this challenge a success. A year and half later, with many hands, minds and thousands of hours of work, Entity is nearing completion. A teaser trailer released three months ago has exceeded over 320,000 views. This does not include the 200,000 plus views on other uploaded versions of the teaser in numerous countries. Jadallah is confident in saying, “The movie WILL be playing in theater near you.” However, in the meantime, Entity has had four separate offers from distributing companies in California. Signing with a distribution company would present the opportunity of national or possibly worldwide distribution of the film. Phillips says, “Look out for the new trailer to be released on December 21, 2012 – the end of the world.” Keep your eyes on these young up-and-coming filmmakers as they take their first stab in the film entertainment industry.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pace High grads produce, direct feature-length horror movie