Filmmaker Joshua Brucker and producer Kate Riffe are pleased to announce that casting for their upcoming short film, The Late Shift, has begun.
The Late Shift follows Beth, a night-shift nurse tasked with babysitting a quiet and near-empty patient wing. All is calm until a mysterious patient is brought it, exhibiting a high fever and sporting terrible wounds. He’s stabilized and all returns to normal. But Beth is new to the late shift and she eventually closes her heavy eyes and accidentally drifts asleep. When she wakes up, however, not all is as calm and safe as it once was. Her new patient, she finds, harbors a dangerous and deadly secret that could cost Beth her life.
“As a child, I remember the emotions I felt watching the classic horror films. As a director, I want to return the favor and give back to the genre that defined my early years,” said Brucker, who is making his directing debut with this film.
“The Late Shift represents everything I love about horror. The hospital is supposed to be a safe place, where we go when we’re sick and want treatment, but we’re all aware of the fact that most of us will meet our end in a hospital bed. It makes for a very interesting setting. Also, our protagonist is pitted against a creeping beast; a monster of unimaginable terror. It’s certainly a call-back to so many of the monster flicks from the 1980’s. Also, we’re filming in Chicago. What horror fan can think of Chicago and not think of Candyman, Henry, and Child’s Play?”
Bill Oberst Jr. joins the cast as The Patient, the film’s antagonist. He is an Emmy Award-winning actor and horror genre legend, known for playing dark characters onscreen.
Bill Oberst Jr. commented on the screenplay, stating, ”Joshua Brucker’s nine-page script for The Late Shift speaks the language of cinematic horror more fluently than many full-length screenplays. It’s the kind of tale that, as an adolescent, I’d have sneaked out of bed to watch at midnight on any one of TV’s classic creepy anthology shows. The horror kid in my soul howls with delight at the prospect of being a part of this little masterwork of terror.”
Kate Riffe, the film’s producer said, “Like Joshua, I’ve dreamed of making the films that create that same emotional engagement I remember experiencing as a child. The Late Shift is our first step in that direction, and to have Bill Oberst Jr. sign on and speak so highly of the script, just makes me even more excited to get this film out and into the hands of the fans of the horror genre.”
The short film, which is aimed to begin production in September, will be shot in Chicago, Illinois.
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