Horror Favourites – Eric Jacobus
Stuntman and action designer Eric Jacobus, known for his Tekken In Real Life shorts as well as performing Kratos’s stunts in Sony’s God of War series, is set to unveil the project that kicked off his career, his feature-length action comedy film Contour and we grabbed the action man for a chat about horror.
Contour follows the small-time criminal Lawrence (Law) Young, who moonlights as a crotchety San Francisco tour guide. Among Law’s latest guests is Alfonso de la Rosario, the prince of the obscure island nation of Uruvia, who informs Law of a hefty reward awaiting whomever recovers a missing (and very embarrassing) “private video” that belongs to his parents, the king and queen of Uruvia.
Law sets out to recover the tape with the help of his criminal contacts, throwing Law and his tourists head first into the underbelly of San Francisco.
Filmed originally in 2004 on a shoestring budget, Contour is a non-stop roller coaster of Hong Kong Style action, with a final action sequence lasting nearly half an hour alone. Due to budget limitations, Jacobus and his dedicated team made Contour using no stunt doubles, no wires, and no special effects. Contour subsequently became a cult hit in the heyday of DVD video entertainment.
Fun facts: production lasted nearly an entire year, with over 60 days alone dedicated to the final set piece; the budget for Contour was so low that most of the cast donned ski masks to perform as random thugs in each other’s fight scenes; and everyone sustained at least one serious injury during production. In today’s entertainment landscape, when high fidelity digital video and artificial intelligence make it difficult to know reality from fiction, Contour is a breath of fresh air. It’s as real as they come.
Watch Contour Eric Jacobus on his YouTube channel HERE, and check out some of the star’s favourite scary movies below:
“For what it’s worth, I was a horror film fan before I was an action film fan and used to go A to Z in the horror section every Friday at First Run Video in Redding.
– Event Horizon – Scared me so badly as a kid because of the “hell” scenes. I love the idea that the spiritual world exists in a physical dimension that our scientific curiosity has inadvertently opened up. It’s a great cautionary tale about the extremes of scientific discovery.
– Silent Hill – This movie offends on so many levels it borders on being edgier than the film itself. The fact that the filmmakers really tried to mimic the game world and its cinematic qualities shows a love of the source material that is sorely lacking from many of today’s game adaptations.
– The Terminator – The perfect blend of sci-fi and horror. Super edgy and dangerous for its time and touched on early fears of automation and computation. Arnold solidified himself as the world’s best physical actor with this film. Also his reactions to the gunshots in the night club scene is stuntman-level, almost over the top. You can see him tone it down significantly in T2.
– Pet Semetary 2 – No that’s not a typo. I’m a big fan (maybe the only fan) of this grungy sequel. I love the story of a broken family trying to regain its footing by running away to a small town. The early 90s grunge soundtrack, costuming, the danger of his friend’s abusive step-father, the matter-of-fact nature of the violence and the family-friendly message at the end warm my heart.
– Bone Tomahawk – As dangerous as a western gets. I’ve watched this movie a total of once and I still see the finale (and the flask… ugh) when I close my eyes.”
Previously only available via limited DVD release shortened and in a cropped format, Contour will now be available up-rezzed and uncut for free on Jacobus’s YouTube channel YouTube.com/@ericjacobusofficial.
