It’s a horror film named “Dream Eater,” churning with an undercurrent of trauma. The tiny production took place over nine days — mostly nights, given the nocturnal script.
“It was dark hours — long, cold, dark hours” Jay Drakulic remembers.
Yet Drakulic, who wrote and directed the movie alongside his Blind Luck Pictures partners Mallory Drumm and Alex Lee Williams, loved the process of the Canadian shoot.
“The enjoyment of making films together and telling stories has been something that … happiness is the journey, not the destination,” he says. “To be here is the ultimate cherry on top of what has been an incredible journey thus far.”
“Dream Eater” is a scary story told through found footage. When filmmaker Mallory (Drumm) goes on vacation to a remote location with her boyfriend Alex (Williams) with the intent of documenting his disruptive sleep disorder, things get dark very quickly.
In addition to the joy of the filmmaking process, the trio’s movie has made oversized waves for a microbudget indie, including setting a national theatrical release in October through Eli Roth’s new company The Horror Section.
It’s a huge move for the Blind Luck group, especially given that they bet everything on themselves. Drakulic, Drumm and Williams were all co-workers at a charity when they discovered their mutual interest in dark storytelling. By the time they completed their first three person short together, everything clicked.
“We all looked at each other and were like, ‘This is what we want to be doing forever,’” Drakulic says. “So we all threw caution to the wind. Alex and I quit our jobs first and went Blind Luck full-time, started making short films. Mallory joined us shortly after, and we’ve been living the dream ever since.”
But “Dream Eater” didn’t break out from the indie pack right away. “We were getting rejected from eight out of ten festivals we were applying to,” Drumm remembers.
The film gained momentum when it won best feature at the 2024 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Ore. This resulted into an outpouring of raves on HorrorTok and interest in the movie well before any release plans.
Roth quickly heard the festival buzz and reached out to the trio via Instagram (Williams recalls their incredulous reaction: “‘That can’t be real. Is that real? Is that … holy shit, there’s a blue check mark.’”). The filmmaker was immediately drawn in by the trio’s filmmaking skills on a shoestring budget.
“I was really, really scared,” Roth said. “It just got crazier and crazier until I’m watching it through the cracks of my fingers going, ‘I can’t believe what I’m seeing.’ It’s that kind of a movie. I think they’re so talented, and to me the test is, ‘How scary can you be with no money?’”
Beyond the frights, the filmmakers admitted that making “Dream Eater” helped them process big emotions as well.
“I exorcised quite a few demons through this film. At the end of it, I remember feeling unburdened, lighter,” Drakulic says. “After telling this very bleak story that doesn’t necessarily end in the happiest way, because we’re all a big fan of bleak endings. Our whole thing is … we all die at the end of our lives. There is no happy ending to our stories, but it’s about getting there, especially doing it with people you love and trust. It really felt you were able to reconcile some of those things from your past that were holding you back.”
After the Oct. 24 theatrical release of “Dream Eater,” the Blind Luck Pictures trio has plenty of other nightmares they’re hoping to conjure for audiences.
“We’re horror directors and fans and filmmakers through and through,” Drumm says. “All of the ideas that we have, all the irons in the fire right now that we’re discussing are about scaring the shit out of audiences again. That’s what we wanna do.”
Watch the trailer for “Dream Eater” below.
