Pete Ohs is bringing the horrors of domesticity to the display in his third collaboration with Jeremy O. Harris. Ohs, who beforehand edited Harris’ documentary “Slave Play. Not a Film. A Play.” and is helming the upcoming indie “Erupcja” starring Harris and Charli XCX, directs and co-writes SXSW function “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick.” That is the primary movie to be launched by Harris’ new manufacturing firm, bb².
Zoë Chao leads “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” as a grieving girl who spirals into paranoia after being (because the title teases) bitten by a tick whereas on trip. Chao co-wrote the movie with Ohs, Harris, and fellow actors Callie Hernandez and James Cusati-Moyer. Ohs, Hernandez (in her third collaboration with Ohs after by “OBEX” and “Jethica”), and Harris and Josh Godfrey of bb² all produce as properly.
The official synopsis reads: “After a tragic occasion, Yvonne (Chao) drives right down to her pal Camille’s (Hernandez) bucolic new house for a while away. She’s welcomed by Camille’s fast-talking actual property agent pal Isaac (Harris) and his ‘crunchy life-style’ fanatic boyfriend A.J. (Cusati-Moyer). The group guarantees a weekend of do-it-yourself meals from recent, native produce, and parlor video games by candlelight as an try to unplug from the chaos-ridden metropolis existence. However when Yvonne develops troubling signs from a tick chew, the agricultural paradise fades away revealing a breeding floor for a disturbing new life.”
The horror movie was impressed by a visit to upstate New York, and captures the “millennial terror of recent maturity,” because the logline teases.
“This forged got here collectively in a deliciously natural method. There have been no auditions, solely conversations,” Ohs informed IndieWire. “I obtained to know James’ expertise by way of the modifying of Jeremy’s documentary ‘Slave Play. Not a Film. A Play.,’ and Zoë I’ve identified casually for years and have all the time loved these playful movies she makes together with her sister and posts on Instagram. Each Callie and Jeremy have been current and favourite collaborators. This group’s onscreen chemistry is likely one of the many film miracles we have been gifted on this undertaking. I really feel fortunate that they have been all accessible and prepared to get bizarre and make a film about ticks.”
Harris particularly applauded how prolific Ohs is. “Working with Pete so intimately as an editor on my documentary, I used to be capable of witness firsthand how his thoughts labored and wished to go deeper. When the provide to work on one other movie as an actor, co-writer and producer emerged, it felt like the proper alternative,” Harris informed IndieWire of becoming a member of the “True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” forged. “As a lover of impartial movie, the possibility to collaborate with a voice as dynamic and certain as his whereas additionally focusing extra on course of than product felt too distinctive to go up. He’s prolific to an insane diploma. In lower than two years we’ve now collaborated on three movies collectively. … He’s proper on the beating coronary heart of what being actually impartial in cinema can imply.”
Chao added that filming the function was like “returning to low stakes taking part in” on set. “We got permission to be unhealthy, to be flawed, to be large. There was one thing actually pure about these two weeks collectively the place we pledged to prioritize course of over product and solely use what was accessible to us. There wasn’t something extraneous or pointless. No hierarchy, no extra,” she mentioned. “Eat the groceries we purchased, write the scenes, shoot the scenes, ask loads of questions, attempt to reply these questions, smoke some cigarettes, sleep, do it once more. I spotted this expertise with Pete and firm was precisely what I wanted, after I wanted it.”
Cusati-Moyer and Hernandez agreed, with Cusati-Moyer saying that the function “felt like taking part in once more.” “Laughter is an efficient barometer when working with Pete, and that turned the guiding pressure of creating ‘The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick,’” Hernandez mentioned. “Every collaboration with Pete is a totally new and thrilling expertise.”
That is Ohs’ first movie to premiere at SXSW since his 2022 breakout micro-budget indie “Jethica.” “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” premieres March 7 at SXSW as a gross sales title from CAA. Try the trailer, an IndieWire unique, under.