It began as one thing of a joke.
Whereas reducing a trailer for his or her co-directorial effort “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This,” Nick Toti and Rachel Kempf had a bit enjoyable on the finish of the clip.
“We have been like, ‘Oh, it form of wants one thing,’” he says. “So we put the scroll on the finish. It simply says, ‘The producers of this movie remorse to tell you that it’ll not be launched on-line. See it in theaters.’”
Actually, the three-person inventive crew behind the discovered footage horror film “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This” made an uncommon pact earlier than they even shot a body: They might by no means make the work obtainable for streaming, digital or bodily buy, solely permitting it to play theatrically. But what might need appeared like a limitation ended up creating word-of-mouth curiosity within the microbudget manufacturing, which led to sold-out reveals throughout the nation with none promotional {dollars}.
The weird origins of “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This” started within the small city of Kirksville, Mo., the place husband and spouse inventive crew Kempf and Toti run a small publishing home for nonfiction about horror motion pictures, DieDieBooks, and a manufacturing firm for his or her inventive work, DieDieVideo. Whereas scouting areas for an upcoming indie they have been hoping to shoot, they purchased a dilapidated duplex in 2021 and decided it was the right locale to shortly shoot a long-gestating ardour undertaking.
Toti had all the time been fascinated by Kempf’s séances she would ceaselessly have together with her greatest pal, Christian, so the three developed a semi-improvised movie across the idea. Within the movie, a pair named Nick and Rachel purchase a rundown home in Kirksville, Mo., and issues get bizarre, which solely escalates as soon as Rachel and her pal Christian have a séance in the home.
The blurring of the strains of fiction and actuality reminded the trio of one other discovered footage horror movie the place the central characters used their actual names: “The Blair Witch Challenge.” On condition that the solid had a fancy relationship with fame attributable to their precise names and faces within the movie, Toti, Kempf and Christian determined to by no means launch the undertaking to streaming, digital or an simply pirateable bodily launch. Toti additionally says that this methodology was a technique to shake issues up from his earlier impartial releases.
“I’ve been making motion pictures for 15 years now, and nearly each single film I’ve made has been launched free of charge on the Web, and no person has paid any consideration to any of them,” he says. “No one’s cared about any of them. So I used to be like, ‘Oh, effectively, that is one thing new.’ It’s not like I haven’t tried to get individuals within the motion pictures. I simply don’t actually have a really business sensibility and I don’t go about issues in a really business manner more often than not. With this one, it was like, ‘Nicely, that is horror, so already there’s like extra of a built-in viewers for it,’ which is an issue that just about each film I’ve ever made has had. We all know there’s discovered footage followers particularly, so we all know we will join with these individuals. However we realized that there’s additionally a gimmick there, and it’s a gimmick that may be exploited. The film getting actually massive was by no means the purpose, however when the film began getting extra consideration, there have been sure sea change moments for us.”
Rachel Kempf behind the scenes of “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This.”
Courtesy DieDieVideo
Given their indie works up to now, the plan appeared completely affordable, they usually took their movie on the street across the Midwest in the summertime of 2023. They screened the movie to small teams in indie artwork areas, offsetting journey charges with donations and bringing a few of DieDieBooks titles alongside to promote to curious horror followers. However then “This” began to take off, successful the Viewers Award at North Carolina’s Queer Worry Movie Pageant. By spring 2024, the movie acquired further accolades from screenings on the Unnamed Footage Pageant and Salem Horror Fest. “This” was then invited to play as a part of Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant’s Midnight Insanity slate, and whereas it meant Kempf and Toti needed to pause their DIY screenings, it gave the movie a fair larger highlight.
But the TIFF slot was a blended blessing, because the roadshow had largely performed as Kempf and Toti had hoped. But these competition screenings have been met with blended feelings, which spilled over to some Letterboxd opinions, marked by specific criticism of Kempf’s efficiency. (A pattern: “I discovered the filmmakers annoying, particularly his spouse’s loud voice,” “That doesn’t wreck the movie as a lot because the banshee scream-laughter of the spouse” and “Rachel’s incessant, piercing cackle is essentially the most terrifying entity captured on digicam.”)
“I knew we have been gonna be divisive characters, and I used to be going be a divisive character particularly,” Kempf says. “All of us have varied causes for not eager to launch it on-line. However the truth that we have been all enjoying ourselves and had precise footage of ourselves, the road was actually blurry. That was positively a giant part. I understand how the Web is to ladies who don’t current themselves in horror motion pictures as sexual objects. Should you’ve learn a few of the Letterboxd opinions on-line, I’m the lightning rod for his or her hatred, as predicted.”
Past criticism of her efficiency, Toti was additionally pissed off that, though the couple is listed as co-directors within the credit, a few of the angriest opinions check with Kempf as “the director’s spouse.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to unearth the the sexism that’s at at play in these responses,” he says. “Frankly, I’m very annoying within the film, too.”
Nick Toti behind the scenes of “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This.”
Courtesy of DieDieVideo
Regardless of the frustration, the movie’s profile grew after the screenings, resulting in extra screening requests — a powerful feat for a movie with no advertising and marketing funds, social media presence or distributor. Minimize to this Friday, and “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This” is ready for a 10-city screening at Alamo Drafthouses nationwide. A number of showtimes, together with these at theaters in San Antonio, Denver and San Francisco, are bought out, whereas different markets, like L.A. and Austin, are including extra showtimes.
In the meantime, Kempf and Toti maintain making new movies, with the darkish love story “Homebody,” the function that began this journey, in post-production with an anticipated 2025 launch. In the meantime, the duo are in pre-production on one other undertaking, a slasher known as “Scary New 12 months.”
As for “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This”? Though their screening plan has been met with some criticism on-line that it doesn’t work for individuals in small cities, the pair say they’ll display screen it for so long as there may be curiosity, touring through a screening request sheet on their website. They hope followers take into account the undertaking to be akin to an indie touring band, hoping to develop a group that loves discovering outdoors artwork.
“We’ll strive our greatest to get there,” Kempf says. “So far as the, ‘We stay in a rural space, not a variety of motion pictures come right here. There’s some that we don’t get to see till they arrive on streaming…’ I’m sympathetic to that. I stay in a rural space.”
“It’s disappointing for me to see that as a result of we’re from a small city and we display screen in small cities,” Toti provides. “They’re coming at from such a defeatist angle of, ‘Oh, screw you guys as a result of this isn’t honest to individuals like me.’ However we are individuals such as you. Should you had a distinct angle about it as a substitute of complaining… They’re both utterly defeatist, pessimistic attitudes or they’re dangerous religion arguments.”
Toti believes that finally the trio’s determination to maintain the movie a theatrical-only expertise permits a novel platform for a movie that takes dangers and rewards these keen to observe carefully.
“I don’t know if our brains would have been keen to discover having lengthy durational moments that basically problem the viewer,” he says. “But when any person’s locked right into a movie show expertise and get absorbed into it … it’s not not possible for that have to translate to a house viewing expertise. However I don’t know that we might have had the thought had we not determined this was completely the way in which we have been going to indicate it.”
Watch the trailer and see the poster for “It Doesn’t Get Any Higher Than This” beneath.