WILMINGTON — It will be Taylor Kowalski’s 29th Cucalorus.
The Wilmington native and actor, who now resides in L.A., has been involved in the local film festival in some way, shape or form throughout its history.
“I’ve had movies shown, I’ve volunteered,” he told Port City Daily Monday while preparing to catch the red-eye flight to the East Coast for the five-day festival.
Cucalorus kicks off Wednesday, celebrating more than 90 films across five days, Nov. 15-19, many created by local talent, as well as national and international filmmakers. Kowalski and his friends, director Alan Neal and scriptwriter Taylor Sardoni, are debuting their latest horror flick, “Last Straw.”
It’s a thriller about 20-something Nancy (Jessica Belkin, “American Horror Story,” “Pretty Little Liars”), who with her father (Jeremy Sisto, “Six Feet Under,” “FBI”) run a diner in the middle of nowhere. They work in the restaurant with a rag-tag bunch, such as Jake (Kowalski), Petey (Christopher M. Lopes), Bobby (Joji-Otani Hanson), Cash (Sebastian Delascasas, “Metal Lords”), and Paddy (Jack DiFalco, “Chicago PD”), among others.
Nancy, who is coming of age and dealing with her mother’s death, is struggling to find a voice and be taken seriously as manager of the diner — yet, it’s obvious out of the opening credits her disdain runs deep. After a slate of events that turns her kitchen crew against her, Nancy faces terror by a group of masked boys riling up townsfolk.
“The film is told from two perspectives, which makes it a little different from your regular run-of-the-mill, home-invasion thriller — you see the action,” Kowalski said. “At its core, it’s a movie about people not talking to each other, not communicating well, not empathizing.”
The characters are working off knee-jerk reactions and the script delves into consequences of their choices. But between the infliction of stabs and jabs, it also makes a case for compassion.
It’s the first feature film that Kowalski — who has been in “Homeland” and was coming off the series “Snowfall” in 2022 when “Last Straw” was filmed — has been a part of creating from the ground up. He and director Neal have produced a few shorts that have appeared in Cucalorus, including “Pretty Is” and “We Can Help You.”
“Last Straw” entered the festival circuit in October with its world premiere taking place at SITGES International Fantastic Fest, focused on horror and fantasy films. It also screened at L.A.’s Beyond Fest, Austin Film Fest and Morbido Fest in Mexico City, but showing it in North Carolina is special to both Kowalski and Neal.
“I used to haunt Cucalorus and Cinematique during my time in Wilmington,” Neal said.
He graduated from UNCW in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in both criminal justice and film. While college helped strengthen his storytelling skills, watching films at Cucalorus and Cinematique taught him something more, he indicated.
“[Those films] openly broke those rules in the pursuit of something perhaps more interesting,” Neal said. “Sometimes they were less about the story per se and more about the feelings they evoked in the viewing process. Films that made you feel uncomfortable, that put the spotlight back on you as the viewer and your expectations. Films that pushed the audience to discover something unique about themselves.”
He pointed to “The Tribe,” which screened in 2014 during Cucalorus, centered on a deaf boarding school. The central character was caught up in a life of robbery and prostitution. Neal called it “daring,” “unexpected.”
“It really challenged the audience to experience the visual form of storytelling in an unprecedented way,” he said. “Those kinds of revelations have stayed with me as a storyteller.”
Neal’s goal within his directorial work is to draw on visceral experiences — though he entered the industry as a casting agent (HBO’s “Euphoria” and “The Idol,” A24’s “Uncut Gems”) after graduating with a master’s of arts from Columbia University. He said he didn’t anticipate his current path upon graduation, but someone approached him about his eye for talent after watching a short film he did, featuring non-actors and semi-professionals.
“When the industry opens a door for you, you take it,” Neal said.
His casting career, however, has offered him a “master class” in directing. Neal has watched well-known and revered directors collaborate with actors during auditions, early on in the filming process.
“Seeing how they talk to actors, how they help talent emotionally connect to the material, how to effectively express their vision in a concise and practical and playable way,” he said. “Things I could have never learned at school.”
Belkin and Hanson specifically were pulled from old audition reels for “Euphoria.” Neal reached out to Kowalski personally to take on Jake.
“Obviously, this is very much a small independent film,” Kowalski said. “But what makes it unique is from the writing perspective — you see this kind of, quote-unquote invasion happen from two perspectives.”
Neal first read “Last Straw” in 2015, after reaching out to Sardoni who he met at Columbia. Sardoni handed Neal three scripts to give a one-over to; the horror one grasped the director’s attention most. It was Sardoni’s hope to mount his first feature with it.
“I had been writing for years, hired by companies to develop material but never climbed that mountain, so to speak, of actually getting a feature into production,” Sardoni said.
The first draft of “Last Straw” was churned out in 24 hours. Sardoni, a self-prescribed nerd who loved Hitchcock, said he penned its daytime scenes during light hours and and the nighttime scenes “over the course of a manic albeit very fun night of writing.”
“I learned so much about trusting my instincts,” he said. “It was freeing to just write nonstop.”
Though roughly seven years of editing took place, he added a lot of what was written in the early days is on the screen.
Neal processed Sardoni’s work as a love letter to horror filmmaking greats like John Carpenter (“Halloween”) and William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”).
“It was a thrill ride,” he said. “It felt like it reached through the page and grabbed me by the throat. I could feel Taylor’s love of genre cinema on the page.”
The story had a few changes throughout its genesis and then was stalled when Covid-19 hit, but the crew remained dedicated. After the pandemic, they decided to quit pitching it to production companies and secure financing themselves.
“I was absolutely amazed by the energy and enthusiasm, mainly from Alan at the helm, to kind of drive this thing,” Kowalski said.
The movie takes place in a roadside diner overnight, so finding the right location was integral. Without a big budget, they had to find a location ready to go, with few needs required — such as only shooting during certain hours when the diner was closed. According to Kowalski, they searched across the nation, including in Wilmington. As the production schedule was closing in, the location still hadn’t been secured.
“And this diner kind of just presented itself with a few weeks left for us to find something,” Kowalski said. “It was an old tin-can, classic diner, exactly what we’re looking for.”
Sardoni said the diner reminded him of growing up in New Jersey. “Diners were a frequent late night spot for all, and thus, the idea for a home-invasion style thriller set at a 24 hour diner sparked inspiration,” he said.
The crews shot in Germantown, outside of the Catskills in upstate New York, for roughly a month in May 2021. The diner had just been purchased and wasn’t open to the public yet; it was scheduled to unlock its doors by summer, so the timing and accessibility was kismet.
Neal said one 6-minute scene stands out during the film’s making: a bonfire. It shifts the point of view in the film, from what the viewer thinks is happening to what’s really unfolding among its cast of characters.
Kowalski as a hard-on-his-luck, drug-addled chef has a pivotal moment.
“I really wanted the audience to feel this descent into chaos and madness,” Neal described, without giving too much away. He chose to block the scene so that it was “emotionally tethered to the main character.”
Kowalski calls Jake a “complicated” figure, one whose twists and turns allowed the actor to explore various sides of his own personality. Sardoni said he was drawn to Jake most — a guy dealing with mental health issues and hardships, “a misunderstood cook at the diner struggling with finding his place.”
“He was also a character that allowed me to dive into thematic territory that some of the other characters didn’t,” Sardoni said.
Kowalski said the softer side of Jake was one he appreciated, even if in its slight appearances. There’s a brotherly love that runs deep with Petey, for instance.
“I grew up with a brother, so in a way that felt incredibly grounding,” Kowalski said.
But the most challenging moments for Kowalski came in intense personality shifts and manic behaviors that needed to be exhibited. It’s one of the most physical roles he’s embarked upon, only matched by a fast-paced filming schedule and truncated crew. Roughly seven people were behind the scenes and a handful of producers filling in gaps.
They had six hours instead of 12 to roll the cameras at the bonfire, which was only illuminated by the headlights of a truck and the flames of the embers. Everyone, including six actors, “scrambled” to get it completed in two takes, with stunts and guns. The second shot ended up in the movie.
“It’s one of the things I’m most proud of as a director,” Neal said.
Kowalski, too, holds the experience close: “I’ve had some responsibility before and other things, but this felt a little more precious because it was our own movie. I’m working with a couple of really close friends, so there’s a lot of trust there.”
“Last Straw” will screen as part of Cucalorus on Saturday, Nov. 18, at Thalian Hall Main Stage. The music video “I Know Who I Am,” created by Kowalski’s dad, Peter, will screen before the film.
Tickets are $20 here or entry is accessible with a Cucalorus pass, available here.
It won’t be the last time the trifecta of artists work together, Sardoni assured. Currently, he has a commercial horror featuring going into production in 2024, but he’s also writing a new project to work with Neal and Kowalski on.
“So we can continue this amazing journey onto the next one,” he said.
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