Dead Media

Maggie, a young woman struggling to move forward, wants to stream an old horror movie. Her Gen X uncle insists they watch it on DVD. But the disc is haunted and the movie comes to life, taking over Maggie’s entire world.

SYNOPSIS:

DEAD MEDIA is a 90 minute horror movie written and directed by Joseph Scrimshaw. The film features complex characters and a creepy gothic horror vibe. The eerie thrill of THE RING meets the heart of an INDIE FAMILY DRAMA with a splash of the dark comedy of READY OR NOT.

It’s an intergenerational tale of a sharp talented young woman, Maggie, who is afraid to get started in life, and her charming fun-loving Uncle Heppy who is deeply stuck in the past.

The film looks to the future while also celebrating the glory days of physical media–when the bonus features of a DVD were truly a film school onto themselves. The film on the haunted disc, Night of the Lurchers, is a cult horror movie from 1999 about undead monsters who literally steal movement. If you try to run, you slow down and they speed up.

When Maggie unlocks a hidden Easter Egg on the DVD, the Lurchers come to life.  Can they survive the Lurchers’ attack? Or will they be trapped forever in the cold-grip of the past? A horror movie that doesn’t just ask “will they die?”  It also asks “why do they want to live?”

WRITER/DIRECTOR BIO:
Joseph Scrimshaw is a filmmaker originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and currently based in Los Angeles. He has many years of experience as a writer, director, actor, comedian, and producer in multiple mediums.

He’s written for Adult Swim’s fantasy comedy TV show, Tigtone, the movie-riffing group, RiffTrax, the public radio sketch comedy show, Wits, the scripted podcast, Getting On With James Urbaniak, and more. His film, The Narrator, starring Phil LaMarr won the Silver Award for Best Experimental short at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology. His 22 minute horror short, The Nightmare Adorable, has played in 19 festivals, winning Best Short at the Bloody Mirror festival.

Joseph’s plays Adventures in Mating, An Inconvenient Squirrel, and My Monster (written with Bill Corbett) have been performed worldwide. As a comedian and actor, Joseph’s done the SF SketchFest, Jonathan Coulton’s JoCoCruise, multiple Fringe Festivals, pop culture conventions, and a commercial with the monkey from Friends. A true highlight of his career. He’s delighted to be filming his first feature in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CAST/CREW:

SAM LANDMAN
Joseph and Sam first worked together in 2004 in Fireball. A musical-modern dance-drama about a fire tornado in 1894. Sam and Joseph were the comedy relief.

Sam has a unique mix of charm, gravitas, and a deep love of pop culture ephemera that make him perfect for Uncle Heppy. Joseph wrote the role for Sam. Sam has a robust career as an actor/writer in theater and film in Minnesota. He’s performed with established theater companies like Jungle Theater, Park Square, History Theatre, Girl Friday Productions,  and more. He’s also performed his own plays  at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and the Twin Cities Horror Festival, as well as solo and storytelling shows at Strike Theater.

On camera, he’s acted in several Z-Fest and 48 Hour Films, in episodic television as a cast member of the Netflix show, Lady Dynamite and as John Wayne Gacy in the true crime show, The Killer Next Door. He’s also starred in proof-of-concept projects like Reuben the Roller-Roo and The Searcher, shorts such as Pond Scum of the Great White North and features like Chorea, The Lumber Baron, and Naked Shakespeare.

ANNA SUNDBERG
Joseph and Anna collaborated on multiple theater projects in the Twin Cities in the 2010s. In particular, Anna starred as the titular librarian in Joseph’s rock musical, Sexy Librarian, playing a multi-faceted, struggling woman deep emotional weight and bittersweet humor.

After working steadily for a decade in Minneapolis (30+ full productions at The Guthrie, Jungle Theater, Ten Thousand Things, and more), Anna moved to NYC in 2016.  Since then, Anna has workshopped plays with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, and Fiasco Theater.

She has performed regionally at Virginia Stage Company, GreenHouse Theatre Project, and Great River Shakespeare Festival.

On screen, Anna has appeared in the FX series Fargo, the film I Am Not A Serial Killer (with Christopher Lloyd), and demonstrated her horror skills in Shudder’s V/H/S 85. Anna also has experience touring the South Island of New Zealand playing a sheep.

BILL CORBETT
Joseph and Bill have been working together since 2010 when they co-wrote & performed My Monster for the SFSketch Fest. Joseph then produced and starred in Bill’s holiday play, SUPER-POWERED REVENGE CHRISTMAS. Since then, they’ve performed together at countless conventions, on podcasts, live radio shows, and more.

Bill was a writer and performer for MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, providing the voice of the robot Crow (v.2.0) and playing other characters  like the all-powerful  “Brain Guy.” After MST3K, Bill formed Rifftrax with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy, a hugely successful evolution of comedy movie-riffing.

He graduated from Yale School of Drama, acted at The Guthrie and Berkshire Theater Festival. He co-wrote the screenplay for Eddie Murphy’s Meet Dave and his stage plays, Hate Mail and The Big Slam, have been performed worldwide.

CINEMATOGRAPHER – MATTHIAS SCHUBERT
In 2023, Joseph was on the hunt for a DP for the horror short, The Nightmare Adorable, and got very lucky to meet Matthias. The short was 12 pages long with only two ten hour days to film. Matthias embraced the challenge with creative vision, collaboration, and a deep passionate knowledge for horror cinema.

Matthias boasts a prolific career spanning over 40 feature films. His versatile talent transcends genre boundaries, allowing him to navigate diverse cinematic landscapes. Collaborating with revered directors like Ryuhei Kitamura, Alejandro Brugues,  Kyle Newman, and Zalman King, Schubert crafts visually captivating narratives.

Recently, he’s worked on independent films mixing horror, drama, and comedy such as Satanic Hispanics, Bigfoot je t’aime, and Shelter in Solitude. Beyond the realm of fiction, Matthias works extensively in documentaries, including high profile projects Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me for Apple+ TV and The Making of Happier Than Ever starring Billie Eilish for Disney Plus.