There’s a new boogeyman in town, and his name is Henry. He is the rainbow-colored star in Jeff Hayes’Fragments of a Ghoulish Mind. The film aims to blend the borders between bombastic80s horrorand the unbelievable true crime stories audiences eat up today. The film’s synopsis can be read below.
After being fired at his job following a violent outburst, Henry Bittle decides to take revenge on his verbally abusive boss with an attack at her home. As a result, he traumatizes her 11 year old daughter Chloe who becomes tormented with constant horrifying nightmares of Henry killing her. As her mother slips off into a world of alcoholism to battle her own demons and PTSD from the attack, Chloe decides that the only way to stop the nightmares is to find Henry and kill him. Along the way, you will learn that Henry has some very dark ideas of his own as he lives out some of the gruesome fantasies in his mind, making him more dangerous and perverse than Chloe could ever imagine.
Fragments of a Ghoulish Mindis written and directed byJeff Hayes, who is best known for bringing theSleepaway Campfilm series back from the dead. The director reached out to MovieWeb to talk about the film, stating that the movie takes inspiration from the horror/slasher movies of the 80s he grew up on, and the current trend oftrue crime storiesthat top the charts for streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video.
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The Path Down to Horror!
Fragments of a Ghoulish Mindis a more mainstream-directed remake of Hayes' previous filmGhoulish.The 2018 original is the story of a psychologist who tries to uncover the root of a patient’s dark fascinations. Both movies feature the character of Henry, who is driven down horrific roads by his fetishes involving gore and young women. Hayes spoke with MovieWeb about the differences and similarities between the two.
“We decided to do a reboot because we really liked the ideas and characters from Ghoulish but we got a lot of feedback that it felt like an NC-17 movie because it really pushed the boundaries with some of its dark psycho-sexual content (which is based on real cases). It was partially modeled on interviews that I had done with an actual necrophile and I wanted to keep that dark realism in the movie… With Fragments, I wanted to make more of a mainstream slasher type horror movie inspired by the horror movies of the ’80s that I loved so much and of course I added some of that unique dark true crime flavor to it as well to give it its own feel.”
Fragments of a Ghoulish Mindstars a cast of both volunteers, newcomers, and friends of Hayes. Production of the film took place over the COVID-19 pandemic, from the start of shooting to the end of post-production it was around three years in total. Out of the cast, two characters reprise their roles fromGhoulishwhen stepping intoFragments, James Letteri as the twisted killer Henry. The film also stars Millie Chew, Isabella Clementine, Kevin Conway, Lynna Premo, Lorenza Etienne, Jon Hagberg, Cheryl Hayes, Desiray Hayes, Dillon Hayes, Jeff Hayes, James O’Connor, Brenda Reynolds, and Sean Reynolds. If a few of those names sound familiar to you, you might be a fan ofSleepaway Camp, and that’s not an accident!
Jeff Hayes has been involved in theSleepaway Campseries over the past few years, including co-foundingreturntosleepawaycamp.comand producing shorts such as 2008’sReturn to Sleepaway Camp, and 2015’sSleepaway Camp 3: Tony Lives, and the 2014 shortJudy.Sleepaway Campalumni Daryl Wilcher (Riff fromSleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland) reprises his role as Daddy D fromGhoulish,which also starsFelissa Rose (Angela from the originalSleepaway Camp) as Dr. Ortiz.
TheJudyshort is actually where Hayes was introduced to his Chloe! The short stars Lynna Premo alongside Karen Fields (who reprises her role as Judy from the originalSleepaway Camp). This caught the attention of Premo’s daughter, Isabella Clementine, who wanted to get involved in movie making too!
“Lynna had told me that Isabella wanted to be in one of my movies ever since she saw Judy and asked if there was any role that I could put her in. I had thought about putting a child in Fragments but didn’t know if it would be possible to get someone to commit to doing this for 2 to 3 years. Lynna assured me that Isabella would be able to do it and after doing some acting tests with her, I agreed with Lynna and wrote the story around the character of Chloe. Isabella was so observant and involved. When we talked about a scene, she would be like “okay, so first I do this, then this, then this…” and she had it all down fast because she was so excited to do it. A couple times, I even asked her ‘How do you think a 9 year old girl would react to certain things,’ and she would tell me what she thought…and sometimes you just need to hear something from a kid’s perspective to open up an idea into numerous possibilities from a child’s point of view. She was great!”
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“How far are you willing to go?”
Fragments of a Ghoulish Mindisavailable now for purchase or rental on Prime Video. The film is a testament to the joy of making all things creepy, gory, and over-the-top fun, a passion project straight to the bloody center. Hayes commented on the fun of making the over-the-top special effects.
“I have always been a big fan of good gore effects and I wanted to make sure that Fragments had a lot of that. I designed some really gruesome murder sequences and figured out ways to bring them to life. In one scene, Henry takes a nap with a victim that he has just sawed in half and I figured out how to make it look as real as possible before we shot it. Even though she is not really sawed in half, it certainly looks like she is! Creating these types of sequences are some of my favorite things to do on a movie. When you can make something look real even when it’s all done by make-up, props, and camera angles, it is like pulling off a magic trick. That is the fun of making a movie!”
