A Ripping Tale of Zombies, Monsters and Other Mind-spawned Horrors

Mind Rip is an in-development horror feature film — a project of John David Vincent and Philrose Productions. At present it exists as a number of classic-style grindhouse trailers and a heap of conceptual design work. With one eye on ’70s horror films, Mind Rip takes its inspiration from fright film classics such as Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and the Romero classic Dawn of the Dead. Filled with tongue-in-cheek violence, extreme physical effects and lots of blood and guts, Mind Rip will be, according to writer, director, FX wiz and production designer, John David Vincent, a “grindhouse terror romp”, featuring zombies, monsters, a giant monster formed from the remains of umpteen victims and heads flying into the soup.

Synopsis:

David Endicott has returned to his hometown for the first time in fifteen years. Upon his arrival, there is a series of bizarre deaths, and strange creatures are seen roaming the streets. David begins to suspect that there is a connection between these strange occurrences and his brother Jack who died some twenty years prior. (Philrose Productions)

Trailers:

Mind Rip Trailer from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

Mind Rip Extended Trailer from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

Vincent hopes these trailers and the other artwork will show off both the company’s intentions and its ability to realise them, thus encouraging  investors with a compatible sensibility to come on board. Building mounds of corpses is mandatory.

Monstrous Characters: Boil Head

The story of Mind Rip involves comic book monsters that are brought to life through psychic means. One such monster is “Boil Head,” a slobbering hot rod driving fiend. Inspired by the legendary Big Daddy Roth’s “Rat Fink” designs, the Boil Head will appear on screen as a stop motion puppet. (Philrose Productions)

Below is the armature for the animation puppet, plus the conceptual artwork, giving a pretty clear image of its comicbook origins.

Monstrous Characters: Skully

Skully is a monster constructed from unearthed corpses, brought to terrifying life through supernatural means. Its victims become building material, more flesh to add to itself.

The character of “Skully” was realized through traditional means. A mold was cast from a clay sculpture, then latex pieces were created and fitted with cable controls.

Here’s the Skully creature model in construction. He’s the big one. Note the size of the incorporated heads/bodies of victims.

A giant monster that’s a literal conglomerate of its victims’ corpses sounds like it will offer a unique kaiju experience.

The God Monster:

[Addendum: Initially I assumed (as below) that this monster was part of the Mind Rip project. However, I’m told that in fact this monster tree is not part of that film, but is a central character in another Philrose project called Lake Midnight. But as the images are rather interesting, I thought I’d leave them here. More on that film later.]

I’m not sure what this is and how it fits into the storyline, but I’m guessing the God Monster is what Buffy used to call “The Big Bad” at the end of each season. As depicted in the conceptual artwork and final model below it’s certainly rather Lovecraftian:

Click on this one to see the magnificent details.

Zombies:

Mind Rip has the rapacious living dead in spades! Here’s a few. There are more in the Gallery at the end of this article.

Mind Rip Zombie Test from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

The Comic:

And here’s the comicbook that spawns all the horrors, as created especially for the film:

If all that doesn’t rock your zombie-lovin’, demonic, giant-monster craving boat, then you’re reading the wrong blog!

You can find lots more pictures from the film so far here.

• Sources: Mike Boas of Philrose Productions; Facebook page (where there are more pics and more short videos).
• Writer: Robert Hood | Research: Kaiju Search-Robot Avery (aka Avery Guerra)

Photos courtesy of Philrose Productions.

Gallery: