The vampire opus, which we first reported on here, was written and directed by Watt and produced by Best, who also stars in the story of a long-held truce between a vampire-operated bordello and a gang of Irish mercenaries that is bloodily shattered.

“We have two days of pickups left,” Best says. “We shot in a beautiful Victorian house owned by our star, Stacy Bartlebaugh-Gmys, and her husband [and actor] Ron. We didn’t want to spray blood all over the place, so we have a ‘blood day’ coming up next month. Don Bumgarner and Carlos Savant, our effects guys, have free reign to go nuts.”

Of the film’s approach to vampirism, Watt says, “We tried to play around with the mythology a little bit. We didn’t diverge too much. We kept the teeth, of course, and the blood-drinking. Our vampires are pretty cannibalistic—they gnaw down to the bone. And they play with their food! But they also cast shadows and reflections—this is more for practical filmic reasons than anything else. And we got rid of the whole crucifix dilemma. We live in a global society. Christianity isn’t the prevailing religion any more, so we had to figure out other things that connect humans and vampires, and what we can use to ward the creatures off. We had some fun with that concept.”

“There’s a sexiness in ABATTOIR that’s new to Happy Cloud Pictures as well,” Best adds. “And I’m not just talking about nudity. We have beautiful women of all types playing our vampires.”

The cast also includes Aaron Bernard, Steve Foland, Alyssa Herron, Sofiya Smirnova, Bill Homan, Zoe Hunter, Megan Ruggiero and Rachelle Williams. SHATTER DEAD/SIXTEEN TONGUES filmmaker Scooter McCrae is composing the original score, and the movie will sport an opening song performed by Lorraine a’ Malena and written by fantasy veteran Neil Gaiman. The Happy Cloud team plan to have ABATTOIR completed in time to premiere at Genghis Con 2: The Wrath of Con, which takes place in Pittsburgh, PA September 15-17.