I guess it’s a bit of a story about the (little) independent film who could, as Ash and Bone launched a “story and character driven film” onto the film festival circuit in early 2022 and by the time of release it had won Mindfield, Paris Play, Top Indie Film Awards, WSXA, and The Indie Gathering among others including over 30 Nominations,and is currently at 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes
Ash and Bone was produced by Painted Creek Productions and Cama Productions with Kaiti Wallen, Annette Cama & Joe Williamson.
Ash and Bone was released with fanfare October 4th 2022 and quickly became one of the hottest horror films of the year, trending as one of the Most Popular on Amazon Ptime, Tubi, Vudu and more it will now go to Screambox and Kanopy for 2024.
We caught up with Wallen to ask him if he had any idea Ash and Bone would take off the way it has? “Obviously no one knows what will happen when you make a film, I try to be as subjective as I can and make a film I want to see then hopefully enough people like me find it and enjoy it.” Wallen said. “I definitely felt everyone believing in what we were doing on set, we had our cast and crew fired up!”
Since the release of Ash and Bone Wallen has kept busy with the release of “The Devil’s Left Hand” a supernatural Horror/Thriller and the recent release of “Beneath Us All” a Viking Vampire origin story and both seem to be following in the footsteps of Ash and Bone.
After making such a wide range of genre films the last three have been (although different sub genres) horror movies and we asked if that was by design? “I’ve always been a horror fan and love watching well crafted horror movies, but I am really enjoying this especially as I think I have a bit of a unique spin on horror especially from the independent perspective by prioritizing the story, the characters and the acting performances.”
As an emerging Director in the Horror genre it seems there is an ever growing audience who like seeing his films and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of Wallen’s films going mainstream as well as catch the eye of casual horror fans with his approach.
Ash and Bone will be available on Screambox and Kanopy in January 2024.