Grizzly Peak – a meet-cute slasher exploring toxic relationships with technology

Sponsored Feature: Garbo Films and Telling Visions Unlimited

Grizzly Peak is an upcoming grindhouse-inspired horror film written and directed by Jason Ragosta.

Trailer here:

Cody brings Kylie, her long-time crush, out to a patch of the Redwoods called Grizzly Peak to share her new creative outlet: flying drones. They witness a horrific murder and become the target of a serial killing madman who disables their car and traps them in a grisly game of survival.

Grizzly Peak Horror Film by Jason Ragosta

A Q&A with Writer/Director Jason Ragosta

Welcome, Jason! Thanks for joining us to discuss your new horror film Grizzly Peak. What drew you to this project, and what themes do you explore through the film?

Thank you for having me! The project was originally brought to me by my producers Marisa Garay and Adrien Ace. Ace pitched me an original concept he came up with involving a couple in the woods, a drone, and a killer. He called it Grizzly Peak based on an actual park he hung out at in the San Francisco Bay Area. As I wrote the first draft of the script that night, a central question kind of drove the process: Are we in a toxic relationship with technology? This brought in more questions about privacy in an age of self-surveillance as well as finding a way to preserve hope in a particularly intolerant and dangerous time to be part of a marginalized group in the world.

Grizzly Peak marks a new direction in horror, focusing on a same-sex date turned deadly encounter. Can you tell us about the decision to subvert traditional horror tropes and explore this fresh dynamic?

Yeah absolutely, we affectionately call Grizzly Peak our “Meet-Cute Slasher in the Woods”. The story follows Cody, played by Gigi Saul Guerrero, who’s been crushing on Kylie, played by Spooky Madison, who finally gets up the nerve to go on her first same-sex date. But Cody’s fear leads her to bring Kylie to the secluded woods instead of going somewhere public, like the movies- Or a restaurant. Their awkward but promising date turns deadly after they witness a grizzly murder. And so our meet-cute couple is forced to fight for their lives against the classic indestructible alpha male killer (played by MacCallister Byrd), who like hatred and intolerance itself can only be narrowly escaped and not permanently defeated. In this way the classic trope of the unkillable slasher turned out to be a great metaphor for the seemingly eternal hatred and intolerance of the human animal.

In this way the classic trope of the unkillable slasher turned out to be a great metaphor for the seemingly eternal hatred and intolerance of the human animal.

What inspired the film’s Grindhouse-inspired aesthetic, and how did you work with your team to achieve that retro, gritty look?

When I started playing around with the Grindhouse look, I fell in love with the texture and saturation of the image. We also added a light leak effect to give a kind of color fluctuation where it’s like the rainbow itself is alive and writhing within it. I also loved the idea of an old print of a new film, as our rampant use of screens and modern technology play in contrast to the retro look. When show it to friends, I found that the grindhouse look also gave the audience permission to laugh and have fun with the dark humor in the film which paid off big at our premiere at the HorrOrigins with the audience uproarious response to Danny Glover’s cameo in the film which I was fortunate to capture on video and have posted on my instagram. No one I showed it to saw it as a Horror Comedy until we added the Grindhouse look. But the intention was always for the irony and tongue in cheek tone to help draw attention to how in this dystopian timeline we’ve found ourselves in, Cody can’t even go on a same-sex date without it becoming a horror movie. Funny in fiction, not funny at all in life. The other thing that the Grindhouse aesthetic made me think about was the illusion of “progress” and how for a while it seemed like things were going to be ok and things were getting better for the LGBTQAI+ community. But even as I type this the Supreme Court is deciding whether to overthrow the ban on Gay conversion therapy and America is tossing around the idea to label Trans people as violent terrorists, so I also think maybe not so much has changed between an old-school film like Easy Rider and a new film like Grizzly Peak, and the Grindhouse feel makes me think about that as well.

Technology plays a significant role in the film. What commentary do you hope to make regarding our relationship with technology?

Are we in a toxic relationship with technology? I’m pretty sure I am. I have to constantly force myself to stop doom-scrolling. We all have to just accept that our phones and other devices are live mics and cameras that can be used to spy on us, everytime things we mention in “private” conversations turn up almost immediately in the ads we’re targeted with. It was that kind of thinking that inspired the idea of the Killer using Cody’s drone to terrorize and hunt her and Kylie. The idea of us taking false comfort in our technology and believing it empowers us when it can easily be turned against and used to destroy us. And so we made a point to focus on screens. The iPhone screen, the Drone Monitor Screen, and the Doorbell cam screen at Cody’s smart home at the end. But we also made sure to shoot all of the content on the screens live, to avoid VFX shots and the artifice that comes with that. When Cody is on the video call with Lira, played by Haley Bishop, Haley was on that call live from the UK over Whatsapp and we shot her like would if she had been an actor with us in the car. Likewise, we shot all the drone monitor shots with the Alexa 35 aimed at the monitor screen while the actual drone shot the action we see on the screen. We also made a point to only see the killer on the drone monitor screen until he was in the same space as our heroines. This allowed the danger he posed to feel safer until that barrier was shattered by proximity and he unleashes his full level of violence.

How did you approach developing the characters of Cody and Kylie and the complexities of their relationship amidst the horror?

Ultimately Cody’s journey is overcoming her fear and breaking free of the constraints and expectations of her family and society at large so she can be who she truly is. For Kylie, they are giving Cody a chance to see if she has the strength to overcome this fear and if they can build something real between them. The Killer applies pressure to this connection. He tries to break them. He tells Kylie they’ve lived their whole life only for it to end without meaning or love. It’s a modern slasher version of “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”. Gigi and Spooky did a fantastic job exploring the subtleties of their characters and artfully supplied the chemistry the characters needed to have life on the screen. They both give a lovely mix of tender and funny moments through the film.

What was it like working with a talented cast like Danny Glover, Gigi Saul Guerrero, and Haley Bishop?

A literal dream come true! With Danny, it was a pinch myself bucket-list level event. I grew up watching Lethal Weapon and Predator 2 obsessively and had always been blown away by his work. Even in Witness, where Danny is playing the heavy, opposite Harrison Ford, he owns every scene he’s in. You can’t take your eyes off of him. Getting to write lines for Danny and directing him in the scene was easily one of the best moments of my directing career so far. Working with Gigi was so awesome. When we were casting, I was talking with our mutual friend Blair Bathory, who suggested Gigi- And I was instantly like- Yes, please! (thank you, Blair- You rule). I’ve been a fan of Gigi’s for a long time both in her directing and acting, with one of my favorite pieces being her segment in V/H/S 85 where she plays a news reporter in Mexico during a mythic earthquake that unleashes an ancient blood God upon the world. Gigi loves horror and she fully gets it- All of it. So for most of her best moments in the film she nailed it on the first take- And when I say she nailed it, she did it so well I couldn’t imagine it conceivably being any better. These moments include the iconic moment when she is hitting the killer with the rock and the blood is flying on the lens (all practical) and refracting in the rays of the setting sun and one of my favorite moments which is the transition where she goes from smiling and chatting with Haley on the phone and very truthfully, naturally fills with terror as she realizes what is in the box and what it means. As for Haley, I loved her performance in Host, where she and the rest of the cast absolutely killed it. I also had the pleasure of working with her and getting to know her when we were both writer-directors on Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology and absolutely loved her segment “Forever Young” which she also starred in. So, when it came time to cast Grizzly Peak I was thrilled when she agreed to play Lira, and it was cool that we were able to shoot remotely with her from the UK through the video call on the phone. She was a reall trooper too because they are on the other side of the world and Haley stayed up to crazy odd hours to be with us live on set.

The movie poster is eye-catching and captures the tone of the film. What was the vision behind the poster design?

Yeah, one of my side hustles is designing and illustrating posters and I went a little crazy with this one (which you can see the level of crazy small detail with the globs of digital paint in one of my Instagram posts) But one of the cool aspects of the design of the Grizzly Peak poster was keeping to the design of the narrative in that we only see the killer from the back on the poster and see his face stylized on the screen in the circle behind the drone. Beyond that it is in a style of digital painting where small abstract shapes of color visually mix to feel photo-real when taken in, all at once. I got completely lost in it when I was painting it, but am completely thrilled with the way it turned out. It was also very cool that the poster was featured on Alternative Movie Posters (AMP), as they usually only feature posters from large, well known IPs. It was a great honor to have my work up next to all of those incredible artists from around the world.

With Grizzly Peak set to screen at FilmQuest on October 25th, what are you hoping audiences will take away from the film?

Well, for those that don’t know, FilmQuest is one of the coolest fests in the world. It’s like Horror Camp for indie filmmakers. Jonathan and Jonna always put the filmmakers first and make it an incredibly positive and memorable experience. I mean, I already have filmmakers, from around the world, blowing up my DMs discussing how much we’re looking forward to meeting up at the fest and watching each other’s films. And that’s one of the greatest aspects of fests in general. My favorite part, really- Is meeting all the other filmmakers and the tireless heroes that run the fests, who create the space for us to celebrate each other’s work and make friendships and collaborations that can last a lifetime. So, I can’t wait to throw Grizzly Peak up on the screen at the Velour and celebrate indie genre films with the HorrorFam. As far as takeaways with Grizzly Peak, I hope they laugh and feel something, and maybe think about our relationship with technology and what would they do in a situation where they had to fight for their life in a world that is currently luxuriating in an unbridled villain era.

Learn more about Grizzly Peak on IMDb and by following Jason Ragosta on Instagram and X.