There’s a little backstory for how I came to be involved with Time’s Up. A few years back I had seen the sequel to hit creeper, The Strangers. The Strangers: Prey at Night was hyped up to be a straightforward slasher. A throwback to the golden age of the 80s.
I loved it, especially the central villain, the ‘Man in the Mask’. He reminded me of the classic relentless antagonists, taking hit after hit but just keeps on coming.
Said villain was played by Damian Maffei and as fate would have it, we had gotten talking through a Facebook group called Killer Flicks (run by popular YouTuber, Drumdums).
Damian shared the same love and depth of slasher movie knowledge and we’d check in every once in a while to poke fun at the films (and each other – and everyone else) with self deprecating sense of humour.
He went on to star in another of my recent favourites – Haunt – and kept me up to date on the production (where he plays another ‘masked’ evil bastard, ‘Devil’), which was cool for a slasher geek like me.
Damian had become a firm favourite with horror fans, which was great, but the guy’s an actor and had been hidden away behind a mask. I myself had been thinking, let’s see what this guy can do.
Anyhow, one day he DMs me (I’m paraphrasing here): “We’re crowdfunding a slasher. It’s called Time’s Up. It’s a story created by myself and L.C. Holt (You’re Next). I play the high school coach.”
The man behind the mask was finally going to have his face revealed and do some ‘real’ acting. I loved the plot (see below) so was already intrigued and knew that I wanted to support the Indiegogo campaign to help the film hit its goal. I mean, I knew it would because I had faith in the project but I started to think about how involved I could be.
They shot the campaign video and I loved what I saw. Damian IS an actor. A really good actor. I was a little taken back, in fact. The short scene showcased exactly what I like to see in a slasher – great location, nice kill, creep atmosphere and great soundtrack. I was sold even harder.
I had always wanted to be in the movie business but gave up on my dreams and writing and directing before I even tried. I’m a lazy prick like that. The Prince of Procrastination.
But suddenly, approaching 40 and finding the COVID riddled world a strange place where any one of us could leave at any minute, I realised that what I really wanted to do was PRODUCE slasher films. Actually help create something. Be part of a team and have something to show for all these years of immersing myself in slasher films.
And Time’s Up was obviously the perfect opportunity.
I grabbed a Producer gig but it didn’t take long for me to realise that I wanted to be an Executive Producer. As I live in the UK and the film shoot was obviously in the US, I knew with work/COVID it wasn’t realistic for me to physically be on set. Besides, I liked the Executive Producer tag better and I really believed in the project.
So, there you have it. I finally took the plunge.
