Chelsea Lupkin
You don’t need to be a horror fan to have a morbid fascination with murder, especially when it occurs just down the street. Grant Curatola’s dark satire, East End, centers around the rumor mill in a small town, and how it runs wild after a crime. As engaging as it is ridiculous, this is a short that plays on the tropes of the Horror genre and pays homage to the classics. The result is a film that feels like a throwback to another era while also refreshingly innovative in its approach.
What’s most impressive about this film is its ambitious scope. Curatola set out to challenge himself by creating East End in his hometown, working with friends and family. With a cast of 29 actors and 12 locations, he shot the entire film on 16mm in just four days – that’s a tough shoot for anyone, let alone an indie.
“We achieved the impossible every day with a tiny crew and many moving parts”
“I cast as many people as I knew – it helped writing with some of the actual actors in mind”, Curatola explains. “I’d have the actors send me self-tapes and give them some notes because I knew, given the time and schedule, I wouldn’t have much time to work with any them”, he adds. Describing the experience as “fantastic”, the director believes they “achieved the impossible every day with a tiny crew and many moving parts”. This approach truly pays off; East End feels larger than its tiny universe of locals, portraying the microcosm of a small town to make you feel like this could happen anywhere – even on your own street.
The film teaches us that there’s always a grain of truth to a rumor and you should be wary of it. “The idea for the film began back in 2019 when a man was murdered behind the 7-11 in Montauk, NY”, Curatola reveals. Describing it as “a murder out of lust”, the director recalls how only “a day later, the story got so out of hand I was with a friend of mine; he’d just gotten out of the ocean from surfing, and he overheard two surfers chatting in the lineups about a dude who was murdered, and he was like… chopped up!”
Curatola is now working on a “feature film called Locals Only”, which he describes as “a surfer slasher set in the world of East End.”
Despite the horrifying reality that a crime like this could happen anywhere, Curatola and his writing partner, Dan Roe, probably had a blast coming up with all of the ways a story could spiral out of control when playing whisper down the lane. As each vignette unfolds, Sachi Bahra’s (Hold Your Breath) 16mm cinematography perfectly captures the slasher aesthetic characterized by the genre. Coupled with a score that feels like something out of Jaws – I can’t imagine that was an accident – East End manages to be macabre, lighthearted and delightfully entertaining.
As for the ending, Curatola describes his “punchline” as “a nice twist that could work perfectly for a short film”, as it promised “a viewing experience that would successfully blend my style of dark comedy and horror.” Screened at Fantastic Fest, Palm Springs Shortfest, London Short Film Festival, and Slamdance, East End was made as a proof of concept for a feature titled Locals Only, a surfer slasher set in the same world of the film.