Horror Favourites – Bill Reick

On Digital November 4, Sleep.Walk.Kill comes from Terror Films and writer/director Justin Miller staring award-winning actress Ellen Boscov, Samantha Russel, Bill Reick, John Reshetar, Melanie Rosedale, and The Legendary WID.

If you sleep, you become one of them. News reports tell of an Earth-shattering sound heard along the entire East Coast. Nobody knows where it came from. Nobody knows what it means. That night, people start walking in their sleep. And killing in their sleep.

When the screaming stops and the blood dries up, the ones who are left have to work together to stay alive. Heads will roll, eyeballs will fly, but for EDGAR, hell is still just other people. His ex-wife, his parents and all his neighbors are hiding out at his house. And they’re even worse than the flesh-eating sleepwalkers.

Says the filmmaking team, “Sleep. Walk. Kill. is horror filmmaking at its most independent. A motley crew way outside of any system made a movie because that’s what we wanted to do. For some of us, it was our first feature. It represents our admiration for the genre, our aspirations as filmmakers, and years of hard work. This is a message-in-a-bottle we hope will reach like-minded misfits. We did it all for the love of horror, and now we’re sharing that love with you. Thank you for taking time out of your life to check it out. “

Bill Reick (Edgar) is a writer and comedian from Philadelphia who currently lives in Chicago, where he performs sketch and improv comedy. In addition to appearing on screen in Sleep. Walk. Kill., Bill also produced this movie, a first for him. Bill’s an avid horror fan too, and you can find his writing all over the internet.

Below star and producer Bill Reick Sleep.Walk.Kill talks about the scary movie he loves the most.

“I’ve seen thousands of movies, but very few of those planted their flag in my life the way Evil Dead 2 has. Sure, there are plenty more prestigious flicks with bigger stars and larger budgets. But none of those movies grabbed me by the throat and changed my life like Evil Dead 2. I found my religion, some spiritual transcendence that led to a life of proselytizing. I found a calling in that movie, but my version of the priesthood is a whole lot gorier.

Let’s time-travel back to 2007, when I was a sophomore in high school. Due to a clerical error, I got to take “Critical Viewing,” a course reserved for upperclassmen. It was a perfect class for checked-out seniors riding out the clock until graduation day. But for me, it was church. Every other day, we’d meet and watch a movie.

Mr. Bengston knew what he had when he loaded Evil Dead 2 into the DVD player. He knew he’d blow a few minds. He didn’t know that he was permanently changing one young life in particular, though, for better or for worse. In that movie’s 1 hour 25 minute runtime, I found meaning. I found purpose. I found what I wanted to do with my life. I’d never connected so strongly to anything, not to my family, not to my peers, not even to other horror movies. But in Ash Williams, the main character, I saw my future.

There was some quality to the movie and the performances and the effects that I identified with. This wasn’t some impenetrably expensive Hollywood blockbuster. This was tangible. You could try to make- maybe not this, but certainly something close! And try I did! Immediately, I gathered my little crew to make The Churchville Chiller, a terrible, unfinished suburban slasher. And while it might not have totally “worked” as a movie, there was magic to be found in those late nights when we tried.

Maybe that’s the key to what makes Evil Dead 2 so special: It’s so clear that this is the work of people who were trying. So, I’ve kept trying. It’s now fifteen years later, and I’m writing about Evil Dead 2 to help promote our movie Sleep. Walk. Kill. While we were making it, the director, Justin Miller, had to pretty consistently remind me that I wasn’t Bruce Campbell, and that he didn’t write a movie about Ash Williams. Ah, well… So, the performance isn’t totally my own. It’s indebted, like everything else in my life, to Evil Dead 2.

Sleep. Walk. Kill. was my first time acting in a movie. It was Justin’s first time directing. When the dust settles, and the movie hits streaming, we’re going to have a lot to be proud of. It’s not Evil Dead 2. But damnit, we were trying.”

Sleep.Walk.Kill is available November 4 on digital and VOD.