Silver Screamers
by Hope Madden
Sean Cisterna has made a lot of movies, most of them cheesy TV crime dramas. But his best work (The Long Rider, From the Vine) have been documentaries. For Silver Screamers, the filmmaker combines the best of both worlds.
Silver Screamers is Cisterna’s documentary about making the short horror film The Rug. Like a lot of BTS filmmaking docs, Silver Screamers offers a fly-on-the-wall observation of the craft and crap that goes into making a movie. What sets this documentary apart and gives it endless appeal is its cast.
Cisterna put out a call to retirement homes looking for crew for his horror short. Though it took some doing, and some taming of the language in the want ad, the filmmaker found his volunteers: an 80-year-old former softball coach, a ninety-something grandmother for on-set sound, a recent widow for blood FX, a long-retired teacher for practical creature FX. Nobody involved likes horror. Indeed, once they sign on with Cisterna, they all watch The Exorcist together, some of them holding folders in front of their eyes while others grimace.
So, why take the job?
Though the answer is obvious and potentially cloying, Cisterna’s approach is respectful and full of compassion. Yes, the seniors are cute. They’re also genuinely proud of themselves, and with good reason.
Anthony Garramone is a beloved figure in their small town of Aurora, often referred to as the town’s ambassador, so he’s elected to sweet talk townsfolk out of the props the production will need. He indeed obtains the titular rug at a deep discount.
David Swift uses his old art lessons on puppetry to figure out how to make the rug seem to crawl up a narrow set of steps.
Diane Ament throws herself into the make-up role, even keeping the severed body parts looking freshly gnawed. Ament took the position because her husband had recently passed away. Like everyone else who volunteered, Ament needed something to fill her time, to keep her mind busy.
Though slight and to a degree predictable, Silver Screamers is as endearing a peek behind the filmmaking curtain as you are likely to find.
