Killuminati involves four gangsters being summoned...
Capping off the trifecta of Halloween Horror Nights 8 shoots is possibly my favorite of the bunch, Killuminati.
Killuminati involves four gangsters being summoned by a secret society to an old Chinese-style tea parlor. Each of them are from rival gangs and are hoping for a chance to earn their place within the society. A lady in red who appears to be the hostess, serves them all tea. Each of the four gangsters has their own distinct personality. One is gruff and likely has the biggest penchant for violence of the four. The second is very stable and level-headed, remaining stoic in the situation that he’s in. The third is very goofy and jovial, smiling and giggling in the face of danger. The fourth seems rather suave, smirking at the playfulness of the hostess.
After an announcement from the leader of the secret society, Lu Xi Fa, the gangsters are told that they must ‘choose’. They prepare themselves for a standoff when the ‘secret’ of the secret society is revealed. The hostess is a vampire and mauls the fourth gangster. Chaos ensues as the other three attempt to flee. The first and gruffest of the bunch ends up running into Lu Xi Fa himself, who guarantees nothing other than a grizzly end for the toughest of the gangsters. In the end, the fourth gangster stands up and walks out of frame from the camera showing that in the end, he was chosen.
We shot this in a home that had been repurposed into a museum for old Chinese heirlooms. The home was within a compound that was perfect for shooting locations that required a traditional East Asian feel as within the compound was a pagoda, as well as a dojo.
The cast, again, were amazing to work with. Whenever there is a casting call for the role of 20-35 year old male gangsters, you certainly get a lot of potential talent to choose from. One of the talent had so much natural charisma that he ended up changing the way his character was written! If my memory serves me correctly, their were four gangsters, each with their own distinct personality. One was gruff, the other stoic, one was slightly goofy, and the other was incredibly goofy. One of the talent actually made the creative team change their mind with how the fourth character was meant to be portrayed due to a single motion during casting. There is a scene where the hostess offers a cup to the fourth gangster, but ends up playfully drinking from the cup instead. During casting, the talent gave her a bit of a finger wag after the act. This made the director rewrite the character to be a bit more suave and charming, as opposed to the zany oddball he was originally meant to be.