Dead Hands Dig Deep

Last updated
Dead Hands Dig Deep
Dead Hands Dig Deep poster.jpg
Directed byJai Love
Written byJai Love
Spencer T. Heath
Produced bySpencer T. Heath
Alan Love-Lapan
StarringEdwin Borsheim
Rikk Agnew
CinematographyHazal Alakus
Edited byConlan Mackenzie
Music bySpencer T. Heath
Jeremiah Weber
Production
company
Lonesome Pictures
Distributed bySlamdance Studios
Monster Pictures
Release date
  • January 22, 2016 (2016-01-22)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Dead Hands Dig Deep is a 2016 documentary film and the directorial debut of Jai Love. The film follows a now thirty-eight-year-old Edwin Borsheim, vocalist of the band Kettle Cadaver as he reflects on his dark past. [1]

Contents

Plot

Thirty-eight-year-old Edwin Borsheim of the band Kettle Cadaver was once known for his bizarre stage antics and brutal self-mutilation. [2] Now, years after the band's demise, Borsheim has fallen into complete seclusion on his acre of land in which he is surrounded by many of the horrible things he has created. As Edwin spirals further into a hole of drug abuse and self-destruction, those closest to Borsheim dissect his mental complexes as he himself reflects on his dark past. Although Borsheim finds himself trapped in his own home, he just may be saved by human interaction. [3]

Development

The film was shot in Temecula, California and produced by Lonesome Pictures. Prior to the production of the film, there was an extensive search for Edwin. Although his residence had been confirmed, there were different variables that stood in the way of actual contact. At the time, Borsheim had no phone or email and his property was guarded by his watch-dogs which made it virtually impossible to come in contact with him. After resigning the idea of making the film, Borsheim's relatives activated a phone for him and put the filmmakers in contact. The film began production months after they started their search.

On the first day of principle shooting, Edwin began directing violent threats at the film crew. Borsheim made it clear, that until the production of the film, nobody had entered his house in over a year. He'd been completely alone there. When first in talks with Borsheim over the phone, the filmmakers began receiving pictures from Borsheim portraying a variety of disturbing imagery. As production continued, other members of the crew began to receive similar pictures. Due to the hostility that both Edwin and his brother Danny held for their mother, both refused to see her for the film. After much pleading from the producers, Danny escorted the crew to see his mother to interview her for the documentary. Multiple times during post-production, Edwin went off the grid. His phone was de-activated many times and he was on and off of his property. Borsheim's property was meant to be seized due to not paying property tax, and began making it clear that he planned to kill anyone who tried to take his property away and commit suicide once he came back into contact with the producers. Eventually, his family intervened and paid his property tax. [4]

When the film was completed Edwin revealed to the crew that he had planned to murder them all, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He called this attempt at infamy ‘Kettle Cadaver 3’ and ended up welding his gun cabinet shut as a result of the failed execution.

Edwin called making the film therapeutic and often stayed in contact with the crew post-production. Edwin attended a special screening of the film at the ArcLight cinema in Hollywood. [5] Edwin died by suicide on June 20, 2017. [6]

Reception

The film has received positive reviews from The Hollywood Reporter calling it 'a haunting study of depravity', [7] Indiewire, [8] and Roger Ebert. [9] The film has also screened at several film festivals including Slamdance Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival.

Release

The documentary premiered at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival [10] in Park City, Utah and was purchased by Slamdance Studios, who sold onto Hulu as well as Monster Pictures who handled a special edition DVD. The film was released theatrically and on VOD in November, 2017. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slamdance Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Utah, USA

The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which also hosts a screenplay competition, workshops, screenings throughout the year and events with an emphasis on independent films with budgets under US$1 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Fessenden</span> American actor and filmmaker

Laurence T. Fessenden is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits include No Telling, Habit (1997), Wendigo (2001), and The Last Winter, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has also directed the television feature Beneath (2013), an episode of the NBC TV series Fear Itself (2008) entitled "Skin and Bones", and a segment of the anthology horror-comedy film The ABCs of Death 2 (2014). He is the writer, with Graham Reznick, of the BAFTA Award-winning Sony PlayStation video game Until Dawn. He has acted in numerous films including Like Me (2017), In a Valley of Violence (2016), We Are Still Here (2015), Jug Face (2012), Broken Flowers (2005), The Dead Don't Die (2019), Bringing Out the Dead (1999) and I Sell the Dead (2009).

<i>Dantes Inferno</i> (2007 film) 2007 American film

Dante's Inferno is a 2007 comedy film performed with hand-drawn paper puppets on a theater stage. The film was adapted from the book "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders, a modern update of the canticle Inferno from Dante Alighieri's epic poem Divine Comedy. The film chronicles Dante's journeys through the underworld, guided by Virgil. The head puppeteer was Paul Zaloom and the puppets were designed by Elyse Pignolet and drawn by Sandow Birk. The film premiered January 20, 2007 at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival. The film has also been shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Silver Lake Film Festival, the Boston Underground Film Festival, and on the Ovation TV cable network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 Slamdance Film Festival</span>

The 2008 Slamdance Film Festival took place in Park City, Utah from January 17 to January 25, 2008. It was the 14th iteration of the Slamdance Film Festival, an alternative to the more mainstream Sundance Film Festival.

Shih-Ching Tsou is a Taiwan-born film producer, director, and actress. She co-directed the film Take Out (2004) with Sean Baker. She also produced Baker's other films Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Raymont</span> Canadian filmmaker

Peter Raymont is a Canadian filmmaker and producer and the president of White Pine Pictures, an independent film, television and new media production company based in Toronto. Among his films are Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2005), A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman (2007), The World Stopped Watching (2003) and The World Is Watching (1988). The 2011 feature documentary West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson and 2009's Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould were co-directed with Michèle Hozer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dekker Dreyer</span> American filmmaker, artist, and composer

Dekker Dreyer is an American multi-disciplinary artist working in film, visual art, and music also known as Phantom Astronaut. He is a prominent creator in virtual and augmented reality.

Jonathan Glatzer is an American writer, director, and producer.

<i>Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream in Cinema</i> 2006 American film

Pola Negri: Life is a Dream in Cinema is a feature-length biographical documentary film by Polish-American director Mariusz Kotowski released in 2006. The film chronicles the life of Polish silent film actress Pola Negri, as told by those who knew her and those who have studied her life and films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver Screen Pictures</span> Australian film production company

Silver Screen Pictures was first established in 2004 under the original name Silver Screen Productions before registering as Australian business, Silver Screen Pictures in 2006. The film, media and production company was first established in Brisbane, Australia by Director Alex Barnes and later partnered with by his Producer Justin Morrissey in early 2009. The company predominantly work in Music Videos, Corporate and documentary Production.

Dylan Riis Verrechia is a Barthélemois award-winning film director, auteur, screenwriter, and producer. He grew up in Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies, and was bedridden at age 8 from severe ankylosing spondylitis for ten years. A graduate with honors of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Verrechia's movies have screened at film festivals around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Slamdance Film Festival</span> American film festival in Utah

The 2011 Slamdance Film Festival was a film festival held in Park City, Utah from January 20 to January 27, 2011. It was the 17th iteration of the Slamdance Film Festival, an alternative to the more mainstream Sundance Film Festival.

Jared Moshe is an American-born director, screenwriter and producer of independent films. He wrote and directed the feature Westerns Dead Man's Burden (2012) and The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017). He has also produced the features Destricted (2006), Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2006), Low and Behold (2007), Beautiful Losers (2008), Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011), and Silver Tongues (2011).

<i>Snow on tha Bluff</i> 2011 film directed by Damon Russell

Snow on tha Bluff is a 2012 American found footage-style drama film directed by Damon Russell. It stars Curtis Snow, a real-life Atlanta "robbery boy" and drug dealer, playing a fictionalized version of himself, as he gets into various dangerous and criminal situations. The film's title refers to protagonist Snow and to Atlanta's neighborhood The Bluff, which is infamous for crime and drug dealing.

<i>Driftwood</i> (2016 film) 2016 American film

Driftwood is an American independent film written and directed by Paul Taylor. The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature.

<i>On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone</i> 2017 American film

On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone is a documentary about Sly Stone, his absence from the music scene, and one man's quest to find out what happened to the artist. It is directed by Michael Rubenstone.

<i>Dave Made a Maze</i> 2017 American film

Dave Made a Maze is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy horror film directed by Bill Watterson, and starring Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Kirsten Vangsness, Stephanie Allynne, James Urbaniak and John Hennigan. The film centers on the titular Dave who builds a cardboard fort that somehow supernaturally houses an entire labyrinth full of deadly traps and creatures. It premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 21, 2017, where it won an Audience Award for Best Narrative. It was released on August 18, 2017, by Gravitas Ventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marjorie Conrad</span> French-American model and filmmaker

Marjorie Conrad is a French-American filmmaker and model. She is known for been the eleventh eliminated America's Next Top Model , and for her narrative feature films Chemical Cut (2016) and Desire Path (2020).

<i>Instant Dreams</i> 2017 Dutch film

Instant Dreams is a 2017 documentary directed by Dutch director Willem Baptist. It premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 18 November 2017 where it screened at Tuschinski Amsterdam in the Dutch Documentary Competition and First Appearance Competition. On 14 December 2017 the film was theatrically released in the Netherlands and Belgium. Slamdance Film Festival hosted the American festival premiere on 21 January 2018 in Park City, Utah. April 2019 the film was theatrical released in the US and Canada, starting with select screenings in New York and Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Markle</span> Canadian filmmaker

Steve Markle is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, writer, editor and producer best known for Shoot To Marry (2020), Testees (2008), and Camp Hollywood (2004).

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopaedia Metallum "Kettle Cadaver" Retrieved 2017-07-08
  2. ↑ Barlow, Helen "Slamdance: How a forgotten shock-metal punk musician/self-mutilator is getting an Oz director noticed (interview)" Special Broadcasting Service Retrieved 2017-07-08
  3. ↑ Monster Pictures "Dead Hands Dig Deep" Retrieved 2017-07-08
  4. ↑ Galgana, Michelle "Slamdance 2016 Review: DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP Only Scratches The Surface" Retrieved 2017-07-11
  5. ↑ [http://slamdance.com/ArcLight-Cinemas-and-Slamdance-Takes-Cinema-Club-Program-Across-the Archived 2017-06-24 at the Wayback Machine "ArcLight Cinemas and Slamdance Takes Cinema Club Program Across the Country" Retrieved 2017-07-11
  6. ↑ "Dead Hands Dig Deep on Facebook". Facebook . Archived from the original on 2022-04-27.[ user-generated source ]
  7. ↑ Rechtshaffen, Michael "'Dead Hands Dig Deep': Slamdance Review" The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved 2017-07-08
  8. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin "Slamdance Review: Documentary ‘Dead Hands Dig Deep’ Tells The Haunting Tale Of A Heavy Metal Frontman" Retrieved 2017-07-08
  9. ↑ Tallerico, Brian "BEYOND THE HORIZON: SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2016 HIGHLIGHTS" Roger Ebert Retrieved 2017-07-11
  10. ↑ Rigney, Todd "Dead Hands Dig Deep to Premiere at This Year's Slamdance Film Festival" Retrieved 2017-07-08
  11. ↑ "Here's what's coming to (and going from) Hulu in November". Avclub.com. 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.