The Witch's Castle (2013)

The Witch's Castle

2013 (tentative), (1.85:1), Drama/horror/crime, color.

Crew
Director/Writer: J.L. Carrozza.

I've been interested in doing this, a film inspired by the real-life, horrific murder of Indiana adolescent Shanda Sharer, for some time now. I first read an account of the murder online when I was around 16. It was so vivid and horrific I've forgotten few details of it to this day. The imagery of its occurrences stuck in my head like a well-aimed arrow and the crime was so savage that I could see the details of what happened as vividly as any film. I remembered this and thought it would make an interesting, if highly disturbing film, but I didn't think I wanted to make it myself. But then a short while later I began to toil with the idea of actually making it as an early, low budget feature since with its rural locale and small cast of teenaged characters, the story suits that format quite well. I wrote a very rough 60 page script in late 2004 to early 2005 that was of poor quality. Did a more nihilistic draft in my drug and tobacco-fuelled college days in 2008 and then another, 100 page draft in mid 2009. The newest and current draft, written in early 2011, runs at 120 pages and is considerably expanded in its characterizations and looser in its accuracy.

The film will be a dark journey through the underbelly of suburban America and a character study on people with sociopathic tendencies. I've been interested in those themes since Dream House and it will be taken even further in The Witch's Castle, but in a more realistic, grittier and less satirical manner. The film, like Dream House and Alison in Wonderland, will also be a much more brooding meditation on the "abnormality" of so-called "normal" American society. If something like the Shanda Sharer murder and the numerous other shockingly brutal small town killings that often involve young people and make the headlines can occur in a comfortable suburban society, could that society be a far less safe and healthy one than its denizens pretend? The Witch's Castle is an earnest exploration of the dark side of humanity and what took place that night with Shanda Sharer is often seen, on a larger scale, in war situations including at the concentration camps or with the actions of Japanese soldiers in China. In some degree, with brutal honesty, I have some sympathy for Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett, they both came from dysfunctional homes and had a lot of pent-up rage against the world, sadly an innocent young girl had to be the sacrificial lamb, on some level. As poet W.B. Yeats once wrote, when humans are at their worst, "the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity".

As far as the new script goes, as with the old drafts, the names have all been changed so I can take more liberties with the story and to lower the risk of lawsuits from those still living. The next draft will be retooled to provide a less accurate but thusly less litigable adaptation. It's now merely inspired by the crime and people involved as opposed to based on them. The Shanda Sharer character's age has been changed to around 14 from her actual age of 12 thus making the story more filmable. The third and fourth girls who were there that night: Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence have been combined into one character, though I am having second thoughts about it and may change that with the final draft before its filmed. The characters are better written and more fleshed out, there is more exposition, the violence is toned down and some of the torture removed to make it more watchable. Really, the film is going to primarily be a drama about several teenage girls from variously dysfunctional backgrounds whose fractured lives lead to them coming together in one place: the titular Witch's Castle, with one of the girls not surviving the night.

For its visual look, I want to shoot it on Super 16mm for an "earthier" look, but I will also alternate with digital cinematography for less visually important scenes to keep the costs down. The film will be shot in a style I've dubbed "American neorealism", like what I attempted and didn't totally pull off with Dream House, the style will more be documentary-like and Stanley Kubbrick's cold, voyeuristic yet painterly and visceral style is a big influence on how I see the movie's visuals. The lenses will be wider in general and the filming style will use longer takes with less coverage. I have considered shooting the film in black and white but will probably just use a muted color scheme since shooting the entire movie on film will probably be cost prohibitive. The film will also feature little music aside from a mostly ambient noise and library music soundtrack. The feel will be to many far more gloomy/nihilistic than Alison in Wonderland , but that is not totally the case. Like the two figures bound to the Devil in the iconic Waite Tarot deck which is featured in Alison we stay bound to our destructively egoic ways because they make us feel safe on some level but we have the complete freedom of choice to stop any time we wish. Alison in Wonderland is about the choice the break free of it. The Witch's Castle is about staying chained to it and what that can bring.