AIR SHIFT – a new indie horror streaming on Amazon Prime

Sponsored Feature: Trujillo Creek Pictures

AIR SHIFT is a new contained horror-thriller written and directed by Chris Maes and produced by Kory Krinsky.

Trailer here:

Held hostage during her overnight radio shift, a small-town deejay finds herself caught between a psychotic killer and a growing wave of zombie-like attackers unleashed by a mysterious force outside. The only thing louder than the broadcast is the terror closing in.

A Q&A with Writer-Director Chris Maes

Welcome, Chris! Thanks for joining us to discuss your new contained horror film AIR SHIFT. How did you come up with the concept for the film and what drew you to combining stalker elements with a zombie outbreak?

The original concept of a serial killer holding an FM deejay hostage originally came from a short film I’d done. I was interested in expanding it into a feature-length movie but couldn’t come up with a novel way of handling the classic “woman in distress who must vanquish her male oppressor” scenario. I reached out to my producer Kory Krinsky and he suggested looking for some sort of horror angle to the idea. Once we landed on the notion of there being a zombie uprising nearby, it just felt like the right extra ingredient. It allowed us to take the story into more interesting directions, and play up the life & death consequences more.

For horror fans who haven’t seen AIR SHIFT yet, what kind of experience do you hope they’ll have, and how does this film carve its own path in the horror landscape, beyond the usual serial killer or zombie movies?

AIR SHIFT is a unique take on a somewhat familiar story. A favorite movie of mine is An American Werewolf in London (John Landis), which does an excellent job blending horror and humor. I hope horror fans gravitate to the humor, appreciate some of the original music, and embrace the journey of our female deejay character, Lisa. And I hope we’re forging a path for more horror movies to combine genre elements a bit more, assuming it works for the story.

Air Shift, indie horror, directed by Chris Maes

Once we landed on the notion of there being a zombie uprising nearby, it just felt like the right extra ingredient. It allowed us to take the story into more interesting directions, and play up the life & death consequences more.

The film begins as a tense, real-world thriller before descending into full-blown horror. What drew you to the decision to gradually ramp up the terror, rather than throwing everything at the audience all at once?

Balancing the tone of the movie was important to us. We knew if we tried to throw everything at the audience at once it could be confusing. So we decided to begin with the true crime element. A serial killer is on the loose, women are scared. Meanwhile, our female deejay is living in her own little world inside the air studio, playing music, trying to keep her career going. Kory and I liked the idea that she is hanging onto the past until something forces her out of her comfort zone. Facing a serial killer was level one, but then realizing the materials the radio station was built upon are having an adverse affect on people outside the station became levels two, three, and four. So it was mostly a matter of regulating the tension, and having the obstacles increase in difficulty, becoming harder to overcome.

Contained horror can be especially intense when done right. How did the radio station setting help amplify fear, isolation, and paranoia as the story escalates, and how did you leverage the broadcast aspect to heighten the tension and intimacy of the protagonist’s situation?

A commercial radio station is an interesting physical environment to set a story in. The deejay’s booth, the air studio, is usually a small room with a single door in and out. Crammed with technology, and every inch of wall space is covered with artwork and band graffiti. In many respects, it’s a claustrophobic environment. On the other hand, when you open that microphone, you are speaking live on the air to thousands of listeners. So that very compact space is connected to the rest of the world in an interesting way. We thought it would be a great challenge for a serial killer to try to understand and control that. He watches everything Lisa says and does to make sure she doesn’t call out for help. And having the majority of the story take place in one long night in this space allowed us to tap into the weirdness of shit that happens at 2am.

Given your background as a radio deejay in high school and college, it’s clear that AIR SHIFT pays homage to the golden age of FM radio. How did your own experiences behind the mic influence the film’s portrayal of the radio station?

One is the whole sound of a deejay’s voice when they’re speaking on the air. I’ve seen countless movies where the production mic is three feet away from the actor and it blows the effect immediately. When the mic is two inches from your mouth and you hear yourself through the headphones, you are a performer creating a soundscape with your voice. I knew we wanted to capture that in our movie, and I think we did with our actress Ashlee. I also wanted to portray the way that a deejay does 5-6 things at once – talking, cueing up records, reading a station ID, taking listener calls. A good deejay does this constantly and it’s seamless. Finally, the arrival of an indie singer and her manager at 3am — that literally came from a deejay I interviewed. He said he constantly had people dropping by at all hours of the night to promote their music.

AIR SHIFT takes a sharp turn in its second half. Without giving spoilers, what can horror fans expect once things really start to go off the rails?

Ultimately, AIR SHIFT is the story of a female deejay hanging on too tightly to a career and way of life that she has outgrown. FM radio is dying or dead, but she won’t accept it. The story of the movie is intended to be her wake-up call. “Listen, sister, if you don’t change your ways, you’re going to wind up dead.” So for Kory and I, the zombie threat outside is the larger horror that she faces with her career and lifestyle. Whereas the serial killer sort of represents her inner demons. Without getting too deep here, the action of the movie becomes Lisa’s catharsis. By the end of the movie, she is nearly stripped of everything. Using the music and the increasing threat outside, our goal with the second half is to create a visual/aural experience that is nightmarish.

How did you approach the character development of the protagonist, and what do you hope audiences take away from her journey?

We all have challenges in life that we’re afraid to face. Movies are a way to explore characters who are braver than we are, throw things at them, and see how they overcome them. We knew Lisa would start at point A and end the movie at point Y or Z. We wanted to end things with a bang. I hope audiences take away the idea that you often need to take a leap into the unknown to get to the next thing in life. Whether it be career, relationship, whatever. But ultimately, you’ll land safely. A little scraped up, maybe, but alive and wiser for the experience.

We wanted to end things with a bang. I hope audiences take away the idea that you often need to take a leap into the unknown to get to the next thing in life.

Any fun BTS stories to share?

We filmed all of the exterior night scenes with zombies at a specific location, Crescendo Studios in Fairfax. It’s a Friday night and they have musicians coming and going all night, bands rehearse there, you know. And suddenly, people showing up for their sessions are seeing hordes of zombies shuffling across the parking lot toward the entrance to the building. “Hey, man. Are we going to be okay?” A few of the musicians were a little concerned. Other than that, it was fun during lunch breaks to see zombies eating Chipotle or Doritos, hanging out with the rest of the crew.

For hardcore horror fans who think they’ve seen it all, what makes AIR SHIFT a must-see, and why should it be at the top of their watch list?

Zombies, rock music, and a tough female heroine who learns to take charge. What more could you ask for on a Friday night? Seriously, we do feature a few inventive ways that we kill the zombies, using props you would find inside a radio station. There’s also killer indie music throughout, courtesy of bands that let us license their songs for the movie. Indie horror is a growing subgenre in the industry; the more fans support and watch our movie, the better it is for all of us.

Stream AIR SHIFT now on Amazon Prime.