“All of it Ends” Premieres In Scottsville
On Saturday, March 15, the movie “All Of It Ends” that had Scottsville as one of the filming locations, premiered at the VFW. The director, writer and producer of the movie, George Demick (left) and one of the actors, David Polk (right) talked about their experience using Scottsville as a location. They also mentioned that they’ll be returning to Scottsville for their next movie.
By Chris Cole,
Staff Writer
George Romero. Roger Corman. George Demick?
Two of those names you might recognize.
Romero was a film director most famous for his zombie movies of the 1960s, 70s and 80s such as “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead” and “Survival of the Dead.” He helped redefine for cinema audiences what the horror and thriller genre of movies could be. Up until his passing he contributed heavily to the television series “The Walking Dead.”
Corman was master of low-budget film making across a wide variety of genres. If you think of B-movie cult classics containing a “monster in a rubber suit” that terrorizes small towns, it’s most likely a film that he was involved in either as a director, writer or producer. His work in cinema helped launch the careers of such great directors and producers such as Ron Howard, Francis Ford Copola, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. He also gave early roles to actors such as William Shatner, Sylvester Stallone and Jack Nicholson.
George Demick is a movie maker who met George Romero in person and worked as an apprentice with him on his movie “Knightriders.” For his 21st birthday he got to be the zombie that killed the character Capt. Henry Rhodes in the movie “Day of the Dead.” He also took some inspiration from Roger Corman.
The Pittsburgh, Penn., native who now calls middle Tennessee his home, has writer, producer and director credits on 18 movies and soon to be 19. Yet he ran into a bit of an issue when he was looking for a town to shoot his 18th movie, “All of it Ends,” in.
“Our town wanted to charge us tons of money and all this other stuff to close down streets and such. It was just a hassle,” Demick said. “Then one of our actors in another movie who lives up here said ‘Hey, come and talk to the people in Scottsville.’ David Burch and Jerry Biddle have just been absolutely amazing and that’s why we’re coming back. They’re just great people and the town is beautiful…it was just amazing.”
George Demick’s son Carson, who co-wrote, co-produced and played two roles, stated work on “All of it Ends” began “In 2021 and has been in post-production hell, for lack of a better word, for the past three years with factors we couldn’t control, equipment and COVID, technology…all the fun stuff.”
“As far as the idea, we came up with it and we shot it,” added George, saying that they openly collaborate on their projects.
The idea behind “All of it Ends” is that fissures all across the world have begun to open up and various creatures – at least six different kind according to dialogue – terrorizes everyday residents. Why the fissures are opening or what the motivation is for the various creatures is never explored. Barely over a minute into the movie the first victim, a woman walking down one of Scottsville’s residential streets, is ripped apart. From there the story follows a few different characters who are trying to figure out what’s going on from various television and radio reports along with rumors from other citizens they encounter.
While Scottsville isn’t named specifically, Mayor Burch ends up being a victim of one of the creatures.
Local resident Kierra Star Owens played the character Alex and was given a prominent role and also ends up being a victim.
George Demick stated that this movie was a bit of a departure from his others as “One of our other people that we usually work with read it and he goes, ‘Alright, it’s the climax of the movie, where’s the rest of it?’ He wants characterization, he wants the build-up and for this one we just didn’t want to do that. We just started off running where you don’t know what’s going on and you learn bits and pieces as you go along.”
Additional crew and cast were also present for the “All Of It Ends” Scottsville premiere. From left to right is Greg Hitchcock (director of photography and editing), David Polk (actor), George Demick (writer, producer and director), Scottsville Code Enforcement officer Jerry Biddle and Carson Demick (co-writer, co-producer and actor).
David Polk, who plays the character Ben in “All of it Ends” said, “George and Carson have given me opportunity to do what I love to do. I don’t do it for the money, I do it for the love of doing it and for the love of independent film.”
Polk’s character was someone that was introduced just a few minutes in. Throughout the movie he’s someone who believes in surviving at all costs and not showing a lot of compassion. At one point he shot a fellow would-be survivor in the back in the hopes that the creatures would go after her rather than him. Just before the movie ends though his character is killed.
“People legitimately hated him in this movie,’ said George. “During other premieres and screenings huge cheers would go up when he gets ripped apart.”
“When people reacted like that it made me so happy,” added Polk.
All the cast and crew who were present for the Scottsville premiere this past Saturday, March 15 at the VFW Hall, spoke of their love for independent movie making and storytelling. “I have to make movies,” said George while adding that it would be nice to work on a film with a million dollar budget but he’s just happy when he gets a distribution deal.
Both George and Carson, along with their director of photography and editor Greg Hitchcock, said that a big part of what bothered them about the post-production issues of “All of it Ends” was that they had to delay work on their nineteenth movie titled “Writers of Darkness” which George describes as “Five horror novelists go to a horror convention. And while they’re at the convention they spend the night in a house, an AirBnB, that is the former home of a serial killer couple that died in that house. Then when they go back to their separate homes across the country, whatever they start writing comes to life and people start dying.”
And the location for a lot of this upcoming movie? Scottsville.
“I just want to thank the people of Scottsville because when we shot this movie (“All of it Ends”) they all came out and the city itself was just incredible,” said Polk. “Just helping and making everything easy for us. We love Scottsville.”
Carson then added that the majority of production assistants came from Scottsville as well and made sure the cast and crew were well taken care of during some of the hottest part of the days.
If you want to see “All of it Ends,” George Demick and his son both stated that they’re hoping to have it on the streaming service Shudder (www.shudder.com) soon. A word of warning, while the blood, gore and violence in the movie is typical of a low-budget movie, there is a lot of it. There is also a lot of strong language used throughout so parental guidance is very highly recommended.
