Piper Talks Bacterium & Images

Writer/director Brett Piper, who has previously made THE SCREAMING DEAD, BITE ME! and this year’s release SHOCK-O-RAMA for E.I. Independent Cinema, got in touch to tell Fango about his latest movie for the company, BACTERIUM, and the E.I. folks shared a few photos (see below). “Like most of my stuff, BACTERIUM is kind of a throwback to ’50s and ’60s drive-in movies, but with a more contemporary spin,” Piper tells Fango. “This time around, things are less overtly jokey, but it’s a movie about giant blobs/microbes/what-have-you, so it’s still hard to take it completely seriously. Actually, although many people have compared this movie to THE BLOB, it’s really more like THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT [a.k.a. THE CREEPING UNKNOWN].”

BACTERIUM’s storyline, according to E.I., focuses on “the horrifying results of a government biological-weapon experiment gone catastrophically wrong. As the virulent, mutating, flesh-hungry contagion spreads from person to person—rendering each human host into a pile of infectious goo—it begins to exponentially increase in size as well. An undercover military force sent in to contain the spread and destroy the organism discovers the shocking extent of the mutation, but by then it’s far too late for conventional tactics. Extreme measures are required…if there’s anyone left standing in one solid, uninfected piece to do battle.”

Shot on locations and at E.I.’s studios in New Jersey, as well as Queens, NY, BACTERIUM “is pretty ambitious for a low-budget project—surprise surprise,” Piper says. “But our producer, Christina Christodoulopoulos, wrangled us all kinds of cool stuff like helicopters and car crashes, and we even burned an entire barn right to the ground for our opening sequence! A handful of the EI regulars appear in minor roles, but there’s no Misty Mundae or Julian Wells in the lead—unfortunately—although we have some attractive new blood. Miya Sagara, who had a small part in SHOCK-O-RAMA, is one of the leads, and Allison Whitney and Benjamin Kanes are the other two. Chuck McMahon gives a nicely over-the-top performance as our mad scientist, holed up in an abandoned house trying to find a way to battle the ever-multiplying bacterium

“Principal photography was officially wrapped a while ago, but we did a small reshoot last week, and I’m well into the blob-monster effects. This will be only the second movie I’ve ever done with no stop-motion, but I promise lots of disgusting blobby goodness.” Keep your eyes on this site for more updates.

Click on the images for full view…