Kickstart Your Weekend: A Double Dose of Horror Comedies

Well, wait for a locally shot horror comedy to start raising funds, and suddenly two come running into camp, waving bloody axes, at the same time.

Drawing on a lifetime of watching z-grade classics by directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis, writer/producer Gary McClain Gannaway has created what he calls a "meta-comedy-horror." Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains is about an aspirational movie writing couple whose bumbling attempts to make a film fall foul of not just a family of serial killers, but the rank incompetence of their cast and crew. His script won the screenplay competition at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival in 2013, and he's already got Brazilian gore director Paulo Biscaia Filho on board.

More info on their Indiegogo page or at www.virgincheerleadersinchainsthemovie.com, and here's Gannaway making his pitch for the $60,000 he needs to get the movie made. Whether it all comes from crowdsourcing or not, he's committed to make the film, and hopes to build a whole community around the project.

Coming in with a much lower budget is another horror-comedy filming in Austin: Fun With Hackley: Axe Murderer. In writer/producer Garrett Hargrove's script, Hackley (Allen Hackley) is a typical cinematic slasher. He goes to work, he picks up his assignments, he tries to kill them in the most suitably creative way possible, then he goes home. Yes, in the world of Hackley, serial killing is a corporate business, and Hackley is just another drone. There's even a website for Hackley's employers, Revelation Killing Solutions (More at www.funwithhackley.com.)

Part Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, part Office Space, the film is already shooting, with cinematography from Larry McKee (the Lone Star Emmy-nominated Sam Houston: American Statesman, Soldier And Pioneer) and a cast that includes Garrett Graham (Zero Charisma) as his mass murdering work mate Rancid and Michelle Ellen Jones (slasher spoof The Pickaxe Murders III) as Danielle, the last girl who may just be Hackley's perfect woman.

The filmmakers are looking to raise $9,000 by July 16, and already have $1,870 (21%) of that target. Find out more, and help them reach their target, at their Indiegogo page.

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Kickstart Your Weekend is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.