The VelociPastor

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The VelociPastor
The VelociPastor.jpg
Film poster
Directed byBrendan Steere
Written byBrendan Steere
Produced by
  • Brandon Taylor
  • Jesse Gouldsbury
  • Brendan Steere
Starring
CinematographyJesse Gouldsbury
Edited byBrendan Steere
Music by
  • Ali Helnwein
  • Daniel McCormick
Production
companies
  • Hollow Tree Films
  • Laika Come Home
Distributed byWild Eye Releasing
Release dates
  • 2017 (2017) (Portland)
  • August 13, 2019 (2019-08-13) (United States)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$36,000[1]

The VelociPastor is a 2017 American comedy horror film written, directed, and edited by Brendan Steere. The plot follows pastor Doug Jones who becomes infected by an artifact, resulting in him turning into a velociraptor when he becomes angry. After screening at the B-Movie, Underground, and Trash (BUT) Film Festival on August 31, 2018, the film was released in the United States on August 13, 2019 by Wild Eye Releasing.

Plot[]

Catholic priest Doug Jones witnesses his parents die in a car fire. He travels to China on a spiritual journey and comes across ninjas searching for an artifact said to turn people into the Dragon Warrior. After becoming infected by the artifact, Doug begins having nightmares and goes out into the forest late at night as he transforms into a dinosaur. He saves Carol, a sex worker, from a thug.

Waking up in Carol's bed naked, with no memory of the night before, Doug initially believes they had sex, but after Carol tells him what happened he realizes the truth. Unpersuaded by her suggestion to use his new power to fight crime and get rid of people they believe are beyond spiritual salvation, he returns to the church for confessions; speaking to Frankie Mermaid, Carol's pimp, he learns Mermaid is the one responsible for killing Doug's parents.

Enraged, Doug proceeds to kill Mermaid and, now convinced about her plan to fight crime, returns to Carol needing her assistance. Father Stewart, learning of Doug's new power, encourages Doug to lose it and stop killing. He takes him to see Altair, an exorcist, hoping to remove Doug's power. In a flashback, we learn Father Stewart saw a war buddy shot while off guard and that his love interest was killed in an accident. Back in the present, the exorcism fails and Doug transforms, taking one of Father Stewart's eyes.

Returning to Carol, Doug is confronted by ninjas. Father Stewart wakes up in a camp of drug-dealing Christian ninjas, lead by Wei Chan who plans to sell highly addictive cocaine to people and then cut off supplies. Wei Chan hopes this will lead the addicts to turn to the church where he will eventually take over and use them as his army. Father Stewart rejects this idea and is killed. Doug and Carol are confronted by ninjas and plan to stop Wei Chan.

Doug is stopped by Sam the White Ninja, who he later realizes is his brother. Doug catches Sam off guard and uses telekinesis to take Sam's sword and kill him. Doug and Carol fight off more ninjas and are badly wounded. Doug, fighting off the remaining ninjas, is shot by Wei Chan with an arrow containing anti-venom to stop his transformation. Doug's hands are immune to the anti-venom and he proceeds to kill Wei Chan. Doug carries Carol to the hospital where she recovers.

Doug, no longer a priest with a bounty on his head, plans on traveling the world with Carol and continuing their original idea of killing off criminals.

Cast[]

  • Gregory James Cohan as Doug Jones
  • Alyssa Kempinski as Carol
  • Daniel Steere as Father Stewart
  • Aurelio Voltaire as Altair
  • Yang Jiechang as Wei Chan
  • Jesse Turits as Sam the White Ninja
  • Fernando Pacheco de Castro as Frankie Mermaid
  • David Sokol as War Buddy Ali
  • Kathleen Steere as Adeline
  • Claire Hsu as Chinese Villager
  • Nicholas M. Garofolo as Hobo
  • George Schewnzer as Doug's Dad
  • Zachary Steere as Dinosaur Suit Performer
  • Erik Oh as Choi-Min
  • Douglas Saint James as Surgeon
  • Alec Lambert as Thug
  • Janice Young as Doug's Mom
  • Pat Hroncich as Vietnam Soldier 1
  • Dan Rhoades as Vietnam Soldier 2
  • Kurt Voltmann as Goliath

Production[]

The director thought of the idea in 2010 while he was attending the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, after his phone autocorrected "Velociraptor" to "Veloci Pastor".[1] As a class project, Steere made a short film of fake grindhouse trailers which included The VelociPastor.[1] His prior YouTube videos had around 45 views each, but his class project received around 45,000 views, resulting in him thinking that it might be a good idea for a film. Steere stated, "The movie is made to be fun, and anybody looking for deeper meaning in the man-turns-into-a-dinosaur genre is probably on a fool's errand." From 2011 to 2016, there were two attempts to crowdfund the film, first through Kickstarter and then through Seed&Spark, but neither attempt succeeded. The film received funding from a private investor that the mother of Steere's friend knew. The VelociPastor was filmed with $35,000. Steere was influenced by director Guillermo del Toro.[1]

Release[]

The film premiered in Portland, Oregon, in 2017.[2] After being shown in film festivals, the crew signed a deal with sales agency Cyfuno Ventures who then brokered a deal with in 2018 and a trailer was shown later.

Home media[]

Velocipastor was released on DVD and streaming in North America on August 13, 2019.[1] The Blu-ray for Velocipastor was released on September 17, 2019.[3]

Reception[]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 54% based reviews from 13 critics, with an average rating of 5.5/10.[4]

Alex McLevy, writing for The A.V. Club, said, "This movie is going to endure. It's got a killer hook, is fun to watch, and doesn't overstay its welcome. It has 'cult classic' written all over it."[5] Michael Walsh of Nerdist said, "Is the movie good enough to be considered a truly great comedy? No, probably not. but it's still way better than most people would expect."[6] Amanda Sink from said "Albeit no cinematic achievement, The VelociPastor is a hysterically ludicrous horror-comedy that knows its absurdity and has no qualms inviting you in."[7] Jeffrey Lyles on reports "It's either the most absurd and ridiculous premise for a movie or the movie you've been waiting all of 2019 to see."[8] Bobby LePire, for Film Threat writes "Brendan Steere, his delightful cast, and committed crew have crafted a bonkers film that never stops entertaining."[9]

Sequel[]

Brendan Steere wants to do a sequel to the movie as he believes the world of VelociPastor is "so permissible and fun".[10] Brendan Steere shared a sneak peek at the script over on Twitter, first making the announcement that a sequel script has officially been written and is set to start filming at some point.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e Thompson, Simon (May 13, 2019). "'The VelociPastor' Director On The $35,000 Movie That Has Become The New Cult Film Sensation". Forbes. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  2. ^ Patterson, Adam (October 23, 2017). "2017 Portland Film Festival Announces Lineup". Film Pulse. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  3. ^ "The Velocipator Blu-Ray". Blu-Ray.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "The VelociPastor (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  5. ^ McLevy, Alex (August 26, 2019). "How can you not check out a movie called The VelociPastor?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  6. ^ Walsh, Michael (August 2, 2019). "VelociPaster Is a Lot Better Than You Might Expect (Review)". Nerdist. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  7. ^ Sink, Amanda (August 12, 2019). "The VelociPastor Is A Ludicrously Fun Horror-Comedy". The Hollywood Outsider. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. ^ Lyles, Jeffrey (August 19, 2019). "The VelociPastor review – yes, you want to see this one". Lyles' Movie Files. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  9. ^ LePire, Bobby (August 21, 2019). "The VelociPastor". Film Threat. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  10. ^ Millican, Josh (August 8, 2019). "Exclusive Interview With THE VELOCIPASTOR Director Brendan Steere". Dread Central. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  11. ^ Squires, John (March 16, 2020). "A Sequel to 'The VelociPastor' Has Been Written". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved April 30, 2020.

External links[]

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