Frank Horror contributes to the Philadelphia horror community with his latest film, “An Ambitious Man”, and disturbs audiences in the process.
On December 14th, Frank Juchniewicz, more popularly known as “Frank Horror”, premiered his film “An Ambitious Man” to the world in Philadelphia. “An Ambitious Man” is a supernatural horror short about a man willing to go to the extremes to acquire his greatest desires. The film was written, directed, and produced by Frank Horror, and starring Mike Sutton.
The film started out as a writing exercise. Juchniewicz does writing exercises three to four days of the week in order to keep his creative muscles strong. This particular exercise instructed Juchniewicz to write a story based on two words. Those two words were: “The Fixer”. And as he began to write, he started to realize that this was more than just a simple exercise. Frank Horror, a real life psychologist, focuses on character driven storylines. Being someone with a background in psychology, he has a strong interest in the minds of serial killers. He also has a longtime admiration to writers such as Clive Barker and HP Lovecraft. All this came together in order to create “An Ambitious Man”.
“Frank, in order to get me in the mindset of this guy so that I can think the thoughts of what these guys are and where they’re coming from, made me a very detailed 7 page backstory on how he grew up, what his motivation was, what his relationship was with his parents,” said Mike Sutton, star of the film. “And, honestly, about three pages in, I was really overwhelmed with trying to put myself in this guy’s thoughts. And I actually lost sleep over it. I had to come back and read the last four pages later. It was tough. And as you prepare for it, and you’re saying the lines that he has to say, and trying to say them with then kind of a truthful feeling that the actor needs to do to get the intentions across for the writer, it’s tough to carry around. And I would say that the two week period leading up to the shoot, it was a really difficult time for me.”
“An Ambitious Man” is one of the most disturbing films to come out of Philadelphia. Audiences can find themselves horrified and bothered by many different aspects of the film. For one, the writing and character background will most definitely make your skin crawl. Juchniewicz used Jeffrey Dahmer as a basis for the character. Another aspect is the cinematography and the lighting. The tones are very powerful. There is a strong use of colors that really sets the mood and makes things extra creepy, and the way the film was shot makes everything very intense. The third aspect is the performances. Mike Sutton, a man who is very nice and charming, portrayed a serial killer in a way that was authentic and unsettling. Abigail Foster’s performance as The Veiled One also brought the horror to another level with her otherworldly character. And the final aspect was the effects. Tom Smith and Matt Scroger from Sick & Twisted FX brought Frank Horror’s horrific vision to life. There is no way to watch this film without walking out feeling horrified and disturbed.
“I think with horror it’s very easy to go for boobs and blood and just that lowest common denominator that a lot of time I think people use as a crutch in horror films,” said Frank Juchniewicz, aka Frank Horror. “So I try to structure my horror to be more character driven. I think everything has to come from the character. The story. The plot. Characters first. And my background in psychology really helps me to, I think, build more three dimensional characters that have very clear motivations and interesting backstories.”
The film was screened at PhilaMOCA in Philadelphia on December 14th. Now it is on its way to film festivals. It will be submitted to festivals that are both domestic and international. Frank Horror also screens a lot of his work at horror conventions. There also may be a few more screenings periodically. Be sure to follow Frank Horror on Facebook for updates, and also check out the website.
