Exclusive: Zoom Has Been Hacked in Terrifying Supernatural Short from SUMMER OF 84 Writer/Producer!
Josh Millican
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Did you know that all Zoom meetings are recorded and saved on “the cloud”? What if someone hacked Zoom, gaining access to everything every discussed on the now-crucial video meeting app? What if said hackers came upon definitive proof of the supernatural? Now stop imagining…
This morning, Dread Central is thrilled to exclusively debut Zoom Cloud Hack – #91784 – The Tribe Murders, a short film collaboration from writers/producers Dylan Mulick (NVRLND, The Birch) and Matt Leslie (Summer of 84). Give it a spin and read more about the short below.
Synopsis:
After the initial COVID shut down, a group of advertisement executives reconvene on a Zoom video conference call and inadvertently invoke a demon. But as they’re killed off one by one by the vengeful entity, we discover that perhaps it was no accident at all.
With practical make-up FX by horror legend, Gabe Bartalos (Saint Bernard, Skinned Deep), VFX by acclaimed Boston-based studio Zero VFX, The Tribe Murders is Produced by Sean Deveraux (Equalizer, Magnificent Seven), Chris Meagher (Blumhouse’s Into the Dark), and Matt Leslie; it was written and directed by Dylan Mulick and stars Rachael Thompson (Ozark, Black Lightning), Susie Castillo (Summer of 84, Castle), Adam Huss (Power, NCIS), Adam Bucci (Halt and Catch Fire, Eastsiders), J. Elijah Cho (Halt and Catch Fire), and Mark David Christenson (Conan, You).
Director’s Statement:
In these trying times of Coronavirus, we wanted to stay creative and get weird. But not weird just for weird’s sake — weird as in The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, and Black Mirror. The good kinda weird. And right now, there’s a platform that we believe to be rich in these stories: Zoom.
Matt and I were social distance talking at the beginning of the pandemic and realized that human beings are completely dependent upon technology as a means of communicating. More now than ever. And logically, we realized that even more crime would be moving over to… Zoom. In fact, we think it’s safe to say that Zoom is the place to be for all the dregs of society — it’s where they transact drug deals, carry out espionage plots, execute blackmail and murder-for-hire schemes, solicit exotic encounters, and produce snuff films.
But surely it would become more sinister… Zoom is also where people are dabbling in occult practices like manifesting paranormal activity, performing seances, and summoning evil entities from beyond. Zoom’s where all the good stuff happens these days.
Which is why it’s crazy to think that all Zoom meetings are recorded and stored in their “secure” cloud storage… Considering the explosively popular video conferencing app has become our current global collective unconscious, that seems awfully risky, doesn’t it?
Well, what if we told you Zoom’s “secure” cloud storage was quietly hacked just last week? And what if we also told you we have access to that data — to all of the videos recorded from across the globe since Coronavirus halted the global economy and sent our flourishing occult community into the realm of video conferencing? Videos that prove once and for all that the supernatural exists, and that the sins of man may be the scariest thing of all.
Because we do. We have them. Each and every one.
Zoom Cloud Hack – #91784 – The Tribe Murders is only the beginning.
Matt and I thought who better to inadvertently invoke a demon on a work catch up call and die violently than a group of advertising executives? No one. Hence was born The Tribe Murders.
This was one of those projects where everything went right. The cast was AMAZING and collaborative. Rehearsals and shooting (from LA to Florida) was a dream. This was helped when editorial and post-production genius, Chris ‘Bingo’ Meagher, came on board and over delivered in typical fashion. Last but in no way least was producer Sean Deveraux. His script insights were invaluable, as were his extensive talents as a VFX Supervisor and his key relationship with Brian Drewes, owner of ZERO VFX. Those elements and the talented team at ZERO allowed us to dream up shots that would otherwise be impossible. The true bonus came in the demon design, when legendary special FX artist, Gabe Bartalos of Atlantic West Effects, came on to design and build our demon. Dream come true!
With this cast and crew, Matt and I literally could not ask for more – in a pandemic no less! Sometimes everything goes right with a project. This was that time. Knock on wood. –Dylan Mulick
Biographies
Dylan Mulick was an executive for writer/executive producer Rob Weiss (Entourage, How To Make It In America, Ballers). They served as producers on the feature film, Vandal (2019). Dylan’s acclaimed graphic novel, NVRLND, was released on Michael Bay’s 451 Media and is currently in development as a television property. Dylan recently wrote for the FaceBook Watch horror series, The Birch, and executive produced and directed, An Interview, a documentary series with Norman Reedus and photographer Patrick Hoelck featuring Diana Kruger, Zachary Quinto, Liv Tyler and Peter Sarsgaard, among others. He is currently developing an hour-long series with Adam Schroeder along with the true-crime documentary series, The Forgotten, with Spencer Strasmore, among various other projects.
Related Article: Crypt TV Releasing THE BIRCH Season 2 on Facebook Watch
Matt Leslie previously worked as a Development Executive for Producers Matt Alvarez and Scott Bernstein, and was heavily involved in developing the script for the 2015 global box office smash Straight Outta Compton. In 2017, he co-wrote (with his writing partner, Stephen J. Smith) and produced the indie thriller Summer of 84, which premiered in the Midnight Lineup at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Leslie and Smith are set to make their directorial debut on the mystery-horror script they co-wrote with Abiel Bruhn called The Knocking. Production begins in August in Los Angeles for Defiant Studios and Kodiak Pictures. The writing duo have a number of other film and television projects in development at various production companies.
Sean Devereaux loves movies and he has made a lot of them! Over the course of his 20-year career, Devereaux has contributed to over 50 feature films. He has worked for all of the major studios and with many the best directors working today including, Antoine Fuqua, Katherine Bigelow and Peter Berg to name a few. Devereaux is also a successful entrepreneur. In 2010, he co-found ZERO, an animation and visual effects studio, which grew from three employees and one office in Boston to over 100 team members with locations in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. In 2014, he sold his second company, ZYNC to Google. Most recently, Devereaux was inducted into the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and he is producing American Underdog for Kingdom Story Company/Lionsgate and he is the Co-Creator and Producer of They Dwell Among Us, a documentary horror series.
Christopher M. Meagher was born with one hand attached to an Avid. The other was attached to a soccer ball, which normally is illegal, but he preferred to play goalkeeper so it all worked out in the end. He’s worked on all manner of television shows, movies and genres. Most recently he’s edited a slate of well-received horror movies for Blumhouse’s Into the Dark series on Hulu, including Down, They Come Knocking, Pure, A Nasty Piece of Work, Crawlers and the Judy Greer starrer, Good Boy. Chris is also virulently against name-dropping. One of his proudest accomplishments is having edited an episode of Better Call Saul directed by none other than Vince Gilligan and starring Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlos Esposito…
ZERO VFX lives at the intersection of creativity, technology and culture. We have worked with the biggest studios and brightest filmmakers in the world. Our recent work includes Little Women directed by Greta Gerwig, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, directed by George C. Wolfe and Fox’s X-Men New Mutants. Our team consists of passionate and experienced artists supported by a technologically sophisticated pipeline tasked to deliver complex visual effects for feature film and commercial projects. The idea started in a basement in 2010 with one simple goal: promote top-level artistic innovation and out of the box thinking no matter the medium. Part of this drive led to ZERO’s launch of the world’s first completely cloud-based rendering solution, ZYNC, which was sold to Google in 2014.
Cast:
Adam Bucci
Susie Castillo
Mark David Christenson
J. Elijah Cho
Adam Huss
Rachael Thompson
Stephanie Salyers
Writer/Director: Dylan Mulick
Producer: Matt Leslie
Producer: Sean Deveraux
Producer/Editor: Chris Meagher
Creature Design: Gabe Bartalos
DP: Robert Moncrief
AP: Kendal Sudman
Sound Design: Quinn Cooper & Hall Cantrell
VFX: ZeroFX
VFX Super: Dan Cayer
VFX Production Manager: Anthony Merola
VFX Editor: Steven Spady
Matt Painter: Matt Friedlander
Tracking Lead: Sergio Villegas
Tracker: Rachan Chirattanakornkul
Compositors: Anu Liikkanen, Rob Liscombe, Stephen Schmidt, Steven Spady, Rado Yanudov
Roto Lead: Brian Quinlan
Roto Artists: John Allegretti, Tim Lafleur
I/O Coordinator: Jesse Cook
Pipeline TD: Kevin Rakes
What did you think of Zoom Cloud Hack – #91784 – The Tribe Murders? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
