The Mossberg shotgun was ready to fire and it’s aim was at his substantial nose. The ground seemed to loom closer and a feverish anxiety gripped his mind. “If you don’t leave my valley, I will shoot you in the face!”
“It’s the closest I have been to passing out,” admits writer/director Greg Beville. “I experienced pure fear, outside of a movie theater, and it was mostly due to the fact that I thought the place was an elaborate hoax. I no longer doubt.”
The place which caused many terror filled moments for residents of Orange County California is Black Star Canyon. Thirteen miles east of the local mall, the surreal valley has been featured on several ghost hunting programs on television and youtube. But independent horror filmmaker Greg Beville had the idea first.
“In 2003: I took a crew of film school interns from Saddleback College into the area adjacent to Silverado Canyon. We were going to shoot an audition video for a new MTV ghost-hunting program. At the time, there was a spooky abandoned ranch, rumor
held, was a meeting site for young people into the occult. The elaborate rumors for Black Star Canyon stretch from mini-Jawa black cloaked figures moving in groups in the hills at dusk to a mountain lion-man hiding in the tall grass just past the overturned bus.”
Within minutes of arriving at the ranch, a one-eyed derelict emerged from a bank of trees. “We didn’t hear him arrive. I was reading off of cue cards and then I turn and this guy is in frame with me. He was going to kill me. The only idea keeping me from running or passing out was this group I brought with me and their safety.” Beville quickly came up with a lame excuse to placate the deranged Cyclops. “I told him we were doing a project for school. He seemed to accept that explanation with and he slowly lowered his shotgun from my face. The crew gathered all the equipment and we ran to my car. It seems like he lived on the property, although he claimed he owned the whole haunted land.”
Black Star Canyon had been an area of crime and murder for years. In 1831, an incident regarding a group of Native Americans taking stolen horses culminated in bloodshed. A group of fur trappers led by expert marksman William Wolfskill ambushed the horse thieves. “Wolfskill went on to quell a timberwolf attack in the OC foothills in the 1860’s. These old Orange County tales seem ludicrous, yet a man named Wolfskill was in the right place and the correct time to live up to his name,” reports Beville. “Numerous teens have been missing in the area of Black Star, and more have died from crashing on the roads leading up to the valley. The area has several layers and years of death and corruption. Once you pass Cook’s Corner on the road to Black Star, one can feel the eerie, clammy grip of the place seizing you by the throat.”
After several more visits to the area, Beville decided to explore the origins of the evil in Blackstar Canyon.
“For the film and graphic novel, I wanted to try to pin down what causes the fear impulse to raise your hackles just for going there. It’s almost an addictive quality. Once you are driving home, you begin thinking ‘Alright-next time I am going to find those Jawa creatures.'”
Beville took a method approach to write down the ambience of Blackstar Canyon into script form.
“In 2009, I decided to try to induce a nightmare state through sleep deprivation and fasting. I had a couple days off from work and wanted to capture what bothered me about the haunted arroyo so the compulsion to return would lessen. The creation of the graphic novel and film weren’t designed to be a travelogue or invitation to go explore the area. They were intended to be a warning. Besides, the one-eyed rancher has been rumored to have moved on from the valley to darker pastures.”
Beville first pitched the film to actress Belinda Balaski, an expert of improvisation who has appeared in as many Joe Dante projects as actor Dick Miller. “She really got a gleam in her eye and sat forward when I told her about what had happened to me in the canyon. Once we get rolling, she will play ‘Marie Cochran’.
A bank robbing terrorist who had a supernatural occurrence in Blackstar Canyon and is now hiding in Laguna Beach, California.”
Since 2012, several notable filmmakers have been influential to Beville during the uphill climb known as “film development”. In response to Blackstar Canyon’s marketing, Writer/Director Richard Stanley (HARDWARE/DUST DEVIL) wrote: “That recent BLACKSTAR CANYON poster art has sure got my juices going! Keep fightin’ the good fight and above all – keep the faith.”
“Joe Dante, William Friedkin, and Don Coscarelli have been supportive in my creative endeavors. These are master craftsmen, yet they have taken time out of their schedule to pass along advice and guidance. I mean, these guys have been in the trenches and shot film with practical effects.”
The Blackstar Canyon film will utilize practical, in-camera effects and makeup to realize werewolves in a new light. “Rob Bottin and Rick Baker threw their gauntlets down in 1981. I am not saying my crew will show either of them up in terms of innovation. Although I will readily admit my werewolves won’t mope, sparkle or fall in love. Any CGI will be to remove wires or smooth over any wobbly effects. 80-85 per cent practical effects is the goal.”
When was the last good soundtrack from a horror film? “When I was younger, you could get the cassettes for THE CROW or JUDGEMENT NIGHT film soundtracks and they were loaded. 17-18 Tracks! I hope to recapture that excitement of yesteryear and have a solid soundtrack. ” The Young Rapscallions and Pacific are two Los Angeles bands in talks to appear on the upcoming soundtrack.
Although Blackstar Canyon has been a process, it isn’t the only werewolf themed project on Beville’s horizon. DARKER THAN YOU THINK is in pre-production and deals with a rocket scientist who became obsessed with the future of mankind. “Jack ‘Marvel’ Parsons was a real chemist in 1940’s Los Angeles who decided
that it might not all be worth it and the human race may be better off erased with atomic weapons. He took his explorations with Aleister Crowley’s O.T.O. system and desert meditations to form his own ideology. Parsons also helped keep the LA Science Fantasy Society afloat and indirectly create comic con culture in Los Angeles. He would hold luncheons with noted sci-fi authors Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Jack Williamson, at his mansion, nicknamed ‘The Parsonage’. This DARKER project is my homage to Ken Russell and Kenneth Anger. Rockets, orgies, science fiction dream sequences, and stunning black and white imagery will bring Jack Parsons to life in a feature film.”
So-why werewolves?
“My two favorite stories growing up were THE TALISMAN by Stephen King and Peter Straub; and THE WOLF’S HOUR by Robert R. McCammon. I grew up in Las Vegas and it was a city that never slept.
Although I enjoyed STAR WARS, I made monster kits and painted them. I originally thought I wanted to be a makeup effects artist, yet my writing ability was stronger. I gravitated towards comic conventions and lazy Saturday afternoon matinees over sports. The werewolf myth appeals the reason the Hulk appeals to mass audiences: growing into your true self and not kowtowing to bullies. Yes-I was definitely bullied a bit in junior high for being a comic book and horror nerd. In current times: it’s trendy to wear glasses and be a geek! Times have changed.”
Beville hopes to do full scale horror on smaller budget. “The Underworld films were great experiments. BLACKSTAR CANYON and DARKER THAN YOU THINK are more character based films. Ken Russell and Williams Friedkin and David Cronenberg are my primary influences in terms of tone.”
Beville will be revealing some monster designs and possible a trailer to one or both film projects at San Diego. “SDCC 2014 will be a blast! I intend to have several surprise guests with me when we debut the new material and comic book artwork next July.”
Greg Beville is an independent writer and director at Electric Cobalt Films in Orange County, California.
You can follow him on twitter as : @Blackstarcanyn
https://blackstarcanyon.tumblr.com/
