Horror in mummering: St. John's filmmaking group draws on N.L. tradition

Some friends are happy enough to get together for a board game, or kick back every now and then with a few beers.

But a group of budding filmmakers in St. John's sought something more. 

They combined their longtime friendships with their longtime love of horror to form the group Grind Mind, making and releasing one short horror film every month since October. 

"To be honest, it all sort of started with a midlife crisis," Shane Mills told CBC Radio's Weekend AM. 

"We kind of realized that we're all very creative people, and we've been thinking of cool ideas and things we want to do" without actually doing them for the last decade or so, he said. 

"Basically we turned 30 and we said, 'Hey man, we've gotta, like, do something.'"

So they did. 

'We don't really know how to do this'

Mills and fellow Grind Mind member Francois Van Zyl said they decided they wanted to start filming horror, based on all the ideas they had.

"We just started doing it," said Mills.

Their first film was for the Nickel Independent Film Festival's 48-hour horror film challenge last fall, which won the audience choice award. 

"And the whole idea was, we don't really know how to do this, so let's just set a deadline on ourselves every month to release something so we'd learn it while we do it."

Van Zyl said they bring the community into the project too, "which has been super supportive, something we didn't expect from the get-go." 

He added that their friend Justin Wiseman handles the special effects and "monsters," and a "secret guy" in Saskatchewan, John Carter, completes the untrained group. 

"We have an army of friends and followers too that are just more than willing to help out." 

Seeing the horror in a Christmas tradition

One of their films that's resonating with people is The Mummering, a take on the Newfoundland tradition of dressing up, hiding one's identity, and visiting other people's homes. 

"I'm from South Africa originally so when I heard about mummering, I couldn't believe it, that this was a real thing that was happening here," Van Zyl laughed. 

"It's just an idea that doesn't make sense. It's just terrifying in its very own concept," Mills continued. 

Perfect fodder for splatter horror to Grind Mind — and their audience — and at 15 minutes long, it's a little more involved than their usual five-minute shorts. 

The group releases its films for free every month on their Facebook page and YouTube, but Mills and Van Zyl said they'd like to do some longer projects.