The VelociPastor
Short description
After his parents die, a priest named Doug loses his faith and travels to China, where he comes into possession of an ancient claw that gives him the ability to transform into a dinosaur. He is disturbed by the change at first, but a sex worker named Carol persuades him to put the power to use fighting criminals, including a band of ninjas. The film mixes action, comedy and horror as Doug balances his clerical duties with his violent new double life.
The VelociPastor is a 75-minute independent American production directed and written by Brendan Steere, who also produced it with Brandon Taylor and Jesse Gouldsbury. Gregory James Cohan plays Doug, with Alyssa Kempinski as Carol, Daniel Steere as Father Stewart, Fernando Pacheco de Castro as Frankie Mermaid, Aurelio Voltaire as Altair and Yang Jiechang as Wei Chang.
It was released on September 28, 2018. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.1 out of 10 from around 11,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.4 out of 10 from 264 votes. A critics' rating of 5.5 out of 10 from 17 reviews places it close to the audience scores rather than far above or below them, suggesting a modest but comparable reception on both sides.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of the final battle, a police unit arrived at the set. The filming took place in a relatively remote and therefore deserted part of the park, but someone still noticed what was happening on the makeshift set from afar and called the police, reporting that "some ninjas were running around the park and someone was in a fat dinosaur costume."
- The film is a full-length adaptation of a grindhouse trailer that Brendan Steere (director, screenwriter, and producer) shot as part of a school assignment and which unexpectedly went viral. (Grindhouse is a cinema showing mainly exploitation films, i.e., films exploiting a popular theme for quick profit.)
- The film was shot on 16mm film. Before developing the negatives, they were artificially “aged,” meaning they were placed in the microwave for 10 minutes at a temperature of 93 degrees Celsius. Scratches on the film appeared because Brendan Steere pressed the undeveloped film against various surfaces in his own bathroom (it was the only room in the house without windows, so dark that recently shot film could be removed from its case without fear of exposure).
- According to Brendan Steere, the velociraptor costume used in the film was found in the basement of his own house, where it had been lying for years. The costume was originally made for a school production, but it was not allowed to be used then.
- The film mainly used practical effects. In this regard, Brendan Steere took his cue from his idol, Guillermo del Toro. He even named the priest Dag Jones – after the actor who starred in del Toro's dramatic fantasy film "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006).
- Fernando R. Pacheco was delighted to be offered a role in the film. He came up with his character's name and profession himself, shaved his head, and even bought a costume for filming.
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