Five FrightFest Facts From Mark Evans and John Rosman of New Life

New Life is one of many exciting titles to screen at FrightFest 2023, unleashing its European premiere on a London audience.

In the Pacific Northwest, Elsa, a skilled “fixer,” pursues a mysterious woman while battling her own struggle with ALS. As their stories intertwine, New Life explores the intersection of life, death, and acceptance, weaving a deadly cat-and-mouse game with profound truths about existence.

New Life is one of the top 10 films we were most looking forward to seeing at FrightFest, and as you can see in our review it’s an unmissable film. We were lucky enough to catch up with Mark Evens (cinematographer) and John Rosman (writer/director) to discover more about the film and how they made their ways into the world of cinematic horror.

Mark Evans, cinematographer

1. Tell us about your film

New Life is a nuanced thriller with wonderful performances and an intriguing horror twist which we shot all over the great state of Oregon.

2. How did you get into making movies?

I grew up on a steady diet of Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones as a kid, so movies have always been a part of my DNA- but it wasn’t until I saw Jurassic Park in theaters that everything snapped into place. Realizing that placing the camera a certain way, with the right perspective and lighting, could transport you completely into the world of your story became an obsession, and I’ve been chasing it ever since.

3. What film would you love to see screened at FrightFest and why?

Maybe a hot take, but I might suggest Robert Lieberman’s 1993 Fire in the Sky only because it was one of the first horror movies that I can recall really messing me up and giving me nightmares for months after viewing, and I’d love to see it on the big screen again.

4. If you could create your own award to give at FrightFest, what would it be and why?

The Most-Locations-Shot-In-A-Film-Award would be an interesting one to see in contention, if only because we might give everyone a run for their money. We travelled from one end of Oregon to the other for New Life, coast to mountains, which was wonderful for the photographic diversity, but very difficult for the schedule!

5. If your life was made into a horror film, what would it be called and who would play the starring role?

“The Abject Existential Terror of the Freelance Film Worker” starring a fully unhinged Willem Dafoe.

John Rosman, writer/director

1. Tell us about your film

2. How did you get into making movies?

I fell in love with making movies when I learned how to edit in college. I would spend hours upon hours holed away inside of a bay cutting school projects. Editing was this art form where I put everything I loved about writing, music, design and photography in a machine and then it spit out video… When the DV tapes weren’t corrupted or Final Cut wasn’t crashing.

3. What film would you love to see screened at FrightFest and why?

I am incredibly excited to see two films: TRANSMISSION and THE BLUE ROSE.

Billed as “the world’s first channel-surfing horror movie,” I think TRANSMISSION is going to be a love/hate letter to Michael J. Hurst’s deep career in filmmaking. It’s awesome he found a fun conceit to use all the craft he’s developed over the years to tell personal stories in only the wild, culty and bizzaro, way a man who dedicated his life to the fringes of horror can.

THE BLUE ROSE is a 1950s noir piece that descends into a surreal alternative nightmare. Reading about it, and seeing some early images, to me, first-time director George Baron has a unique vision that I’m excited to see on screen.

4. If you could create your own award to give at FrightFest, what would it be and why?

I’ve been blown away by the community at FrightFest. Not surprising is that people are ridiculously fluent in the horror space. What is surprising is how kind and supportive everyone has been. So I’d give an award called the “Bleeding Heart.” It would be given to the person who went out of their way to make the community bigger and stronger that year.

The prize would be a glass anatomically correct heart and when they accepted it they’d have to chug it while saying something sweet about their favorite elementary school teacher and/or dog.

5. If your life was made into a horror film, what would it be called and who would play the starring role?

The horror film would be about a monster that comes out at 3 AM and tosses and turns its victims into a sleepless neurotic state before baring its claws and cutting them wide open to bleed out in their beds in a sea of self-doubt and generalized anxiety.

The film would be called THEY ALL HATE YOU and it would star William Petersen as the grizzled man out of time detective who cracks the case and saves the day.

New Life Trailer