The VelociPastor
The VelociPastor is a 2017 American comedy horror film written and directed by Brendan Steere. The plot follows pastor Doug Jones who becomes infected by an artifact, resulting in him turning into a velociraptor when he becomes angry. Steere first thought of the idea in 2010. After screening at the B-Movie, Underground, and Trash (BUT) Film Festival on August 31, 2018, the film was released in the United States on August 13, 2019 by Wild Eye Releasing.
| The VelociPastor | |
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 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Brendan Steere |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Brendan Steere |
| Starring |
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| Music by |
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| Cinematography | Jesse Gouldsbury |
| Edited by | Brendan Steere |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Wild Eye Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35,000[1] |
Plot
Doug Jones is a priest who witnesses his parents die in a car fire. After the incident, he travels to China on a spiritual journey and comes across ninjas after an artifact said to turn people into the Dragon Warrior. After becoming infected by the artifact, Doug begins having nightmares and goes out into the forest late at night as he transforms into a dinosaur. He saves Carol, a hooker, from a thug.
Doug wakes up in Carol's bed naked believing they had sex together as Doug has no memory of last night. After Carol tells him what happened the night before, Doug eventually comes to realization. Carol then tries to convince Doug to use his new power to fight crime and get rid of people they believe are beyond saving in the name of the church, but is unsuccessful. Doug returns to the church for confessions and ends up speaking to Frankie Mermaid, Carol's pimp. Through their conversation Doug learns Frankie Mermaid is the one responsible for killing Doug's parents.
Now enraged, Doug proceeds to kill Frankie Mermaid. Doug, now convinced to fight crime, returns to Carol in need of her assistance to carry out their plan in taking out criminals. Father Stewart learns of Doug's new power and confronts him, trying to encourage Doug to get rid of it and stop killing. Stewart takes Doug to see Altair, an exorcist, in hopes of performing an exorcism to remove Doug's power. In a flashback, we learn of Father Stewart's time during the war, as his war buddy Ali is shot while off guard and his love interest Adeline is killed in a tragic accident, running over a landmine. Back to the present, Altair fails the exorcism and Doug transforms, taking one of Father Stewart's eyes.
Doug runs back to Carol but is first confronted by ninjas. Father Stewart wakes up in a camp of drug dealing christian ninjas, lead by Wei Chan. Wei Chan explains his plan to sell highly addictive cocaine to people and then cut off supplies, hoping this will lead those people to turn to the church where he will eventually take over and lead them for his army. Father Stewart rejects this idea and is then killed. Doug and Carol are later confronted by ninjas and plan to stop Wei Chan.
Doug is stopped by Sam the White Ninja who Doug later realizes is also his brother. Doug catches Sam the White Ninja off guard and uses some form of telekinesis to take Sam's sword and kill him. Doug and Carol fight off more ninjas, during this exchange both Sam and Carol are badly wounded. Doug transforms and fights off the remaining ninjas before being shot with an arrow by Wei Chan, containing anti-venom to stop Doug's transformation. Doug's hands are immune to the anti-venom as he proceeds to kill Wei Chan. Doug carries Carol to the hospital where she recovers and is now fine.
Doug is no longer a priest now with a bounty. He and Carol plan on traveling the world continuing their original idea of killing off criminals.
Cast
- Gregory James Cohan as Doug Jones
- Alyssa Kempinski as Carol
- Daniel Steere as Father Stewart
- Aurelio Voltaire as Altair
- Yang Jiechang as Wei Chan
- Jesse Turits as Sam the White Ninja
- Fernando Pacheco de Castro as Frankie Mermaid
- David Sokol as War Buddy Ali
- Kathleen Steere as Adeline
- Claire Hsu as Chinese Villager
- Nicholas M. Garofolo as Hobo
- George Schewnzer as Doug's Dad
- Zachary Steere as Dinosaur Suit Performer
- Erik Oh as Choi-Min
- Douglas Saint James as Surgeon
- Alec Lambert as Thug
- Janice Young as Doug's Mom
- Pat Hroncich as Vietnam Soldier 1
- Dan Rhoades as Vietnam Soldier 2
- Kurt Voltmann as Goliath
Production
The director thought of the idea in 2010 while he was attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, after his phone autocorrected "Velociraptor" to "Veloci Pastor".[1] As a class project, Steere made a short film of fake grindhouse trailers which included The VelociPastor.[1] His prior YouTube videos had around 45 views each, but his class project received around 45,000 views, resulting in him thinking that it might be a good idea for a film. Steere stated, "The movie is made to be fun, and anybody looking for deeper meaning in the man-turns-into-a-dinosaur genre is probably on a fool's errand." From 2011 to 2016, there were two attempts to crowdfund the film, first through Kickstarter and then through Seed&Spark, but neither attempt succeeded. The film received funding from a private investor that the mother of Steere's friend knew. The VelociPastor was filmed with $35,000. Steere was influenced by director Guillermo del Toro.[1]
Release
The film premiered in Portland, Oregon, in the spring of 2017. After being shown in film festivals, the crew signed a deal with Wild Eye Releasing in 2018 and a trailer was shown later. The film was released on DVD and streaming in North America on August 13, 2019.[1]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 54% based reviews from 13 critics, with an average rating of 5.5/10,[2]
Alex McLevy, writing for The A.V. Club, said, "This movie is going to endure. It's got a killer hook, is fun to watch, and doesn't overstay its welcome. It has 'cult classic' written all over it."[3] Michael Walsh of Nerdist said, "Is the movie good enough to be considered a truly great comedy? No, probably not. but it's still way better than most people would expect."[4] Amanda Sink from The Hollywood Outsider said "Albeit no cinematic achievement, The VelociPastor is a hysterically ludicrous horror-comedy that knows its absurdity and has no qualms inviting you in."[5] Jeffrey Lyles on Lyles' Movie Files reports "It's either the most absurd and ridiculous premise for a movie or the movie you've been waiting all of 2019 to see."[6] Bobby LePire, for Film Threat writes "Brendan Steere, his delightful cast, and committed crew have crafted a bonkers film that never stops entertaining."[7]
Sequel
Brendan Steere wants to do a sequel to the movie as he believes the world of VelociPastor is "so permissible and fun".[8] Brendan Steere shared a sneak peek at the script over on Twitter, first making the announcement that a sequel script has officially been written and is set to start filming at some point.[9]
References
- Thompson, Simon (May 13, 2019). "'The VelociPastor' Director On The $35,000 Movie That Has Become The New Cult Film Sensation". Forbes. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- "The VelociPastor (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
- McLevy, Alex (August 26, 2019). "How can you not check out a movie called The VelociPastor?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- Walsh, Michael (August 2, 2019). "VelociPaster Is a Lot Better Than You Might Expect (Review)". Nerdist. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- Sink, Amanda (August 12, 2019). "The VelociPastor Is A Ludicrously Fun Horror-Comedy". The Hollywood Outsider. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- Lyles, Jeffrey (August 19, 2019). "The VelociPastor review – yes, you want to see this one". Lyles' Movie Files. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- LePire, Bobby (August 21, 2019). "The VelociPastor". Film Threat. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
- Millican, Josh (August 8, 2019). "Exclusive Interview With THE VELOCIPASTOR Director Brendan Steere". Dread Central. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
- Squires, John (March 16, 2020). "A Sequel to 'The VelociPastor' Has Been Written". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved April 30, 2020.