Beats me why Americans have basements. There’s always something nasty living down there and you just know there’s gonna be trouble sooner or later. The basement — as the “underground” area of a house or building — becomes a metaphorical repository of our terror of mortality, of chthonian secrets and repressed fears — a sort of domestic “hell”.
The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue (US-2010; dir. Mike Bradecich and John LaFlamboy) is an independently made horror/comedy feature film that explores this ageless trope. It is being shot and produced entirely in Chicago, IL. by Big Tree Productions, in association with Copper Road LLC and Zombie Army Productions. Principal shooting has just wrapped.
To quote from the press release:
It’s not every day you hear about a film being made by co- writers, co- producers, and co- directors who are also co- starring in over sixty percent of their own film, a monster movie comedy titled The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue, which finished production late in July. But then again John Laflamboy and Mike Bradecich are not your everyday filmmakers, they’ve been making short films and music videos together for years and come from very rich theater and improv backgrounds, which anyone will tell you are founded in trust and creative collaboration.
The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue is quite possibly the first feature length narrative film of late to draw so extensively from Chicago’s rich pool of improv comedy actors…
According to Associate Producer Jamie Joyce The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue will be “like The Goonies for adults”. Bradecich and LeFlamboy have managed to get Robert Englund to star in the film (along with themselves), bringing all his horror-film expertise and iconic stature with him. This is a man who, if not slaughtering teenagers in their dreams (A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise), is leading the dead residents of small-town America in slaughtering tourists (2001 Maniacs), swinging from bloodied chandeliers and slaughtering opera goers (The Phantom of the Opera [1989]), or fostering the talents of a bunch of sexy zombies (Zombie Strippers). If that’s not real horror cred, I don’t know what is.
Synopsis:
Marion and Jarmon Mugg have never had to work very hard. They’ve never had much responsibility, and no one has ever put any expectations on them to perform or achieve, well… anything.
But two years ago their mother died, leaving them the brownstone apartment building that has been in the family since its days as a speakeasy during Prohibition. In that short time, their slacker ways have run the building into the ground. The tenants are moving out, no one but them and their friends drinks at the bar on the ground floor, and the building’s pets are going missing. If all that isn’t enough to make them sit up and take notice, there’s also a good chance that a monster is living in the basement.
The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue is a horror/ comedy that explores what happens when a terrible situation is dropped into the laps of the two people least equipped to deal with it. The Brothers Mugg can either step up to the plate and finally grow up, or they can wait and clean up the mess as a mysterious creature eats every living thing in the building, one by one.
Robert Englund shows his stature
Directors/producers/writers Mike Bradecich and John LaFlamboy
as the Mugg brothers in battle mode
Gallery:
Sources/Further information: Jayme Joyce of Big Tree Productions via Avery
