Arts
This time it’s horror: High School Junkies strike again
If you wonder exactly what Generation Z is getting up to now, you could do worse than hang around with the High School Junkies over an evening. They epitomize the new breed, having arrived from burgeoningly hip and trendy Negombo with its glitzy glamour and the Lewis Street magic. They are smart, they are suave, and they know where they are headed.
Anisha in a scene from ‘The Summoning’ - Exploring a new genre: Stefania, Shenick, Akash and Kasun
The group that banded at high school has in three years made a remarkable career with their short films. The latest is The Summoning, a dark horror film to bring in a spine-tingling thrill that will variegate a resume packed with action movies.
Alumni of St. Nicholas’ International College, Negombo, Akash SK, with a deep passion for the movies and now a visiting lecturer at Raffles Colombo, is the leader. Vivacious Stefania Perera joined with Kasun Rathnasiri, an engineering student who has a way with the camera and Shenick Tissera, the dreamy one with a musical streak. Anisha Barakathulla, whom they met in 2017 at the Lanka Comic-Con, went on to play the phantom girl in The Summoning- who is called in accidentally to the world of the living to gain her terrible vengeance.
The Summoning, a 14-minute production, is a ouija board chiller where a dead girl returns in search of vengeance. The film’s cinematic quality was hauntingly brilliant. The group, with Akash as director, Kasun as cinematographer and Shenick as music and sound producer, had created a movie with the stuff of what could have been an indubitable classic: with suspense, ghostly eeriness and mystery. But while the first half was saturated with all this deliciousness, what ensued in the climax seemed not to do full justice to the buildup. This was the one flaw that stood out: a plot that raced too fast with little twists, even taking to account that there’s little intricacy you can craft into 14 minutes.
But nonetheless, this is not glaring in the light of what High School junkies have achieved with The Summoning and their three previous (action) films: Star Crossed in 2015, EIDETIC in 2016 and The Case in 2017. Fast paced with intriguing stories that unfold against excitingly urban, cosmopolitan and high-tech milieux, good acting and superb quality, they have become YouTube phenomena for young audiences parched for something Sri Lankan on par with what comes out of the West.
They began with Star Crossed which taught them the ropes and prepared them for a big leap with EIDETIC. It is the story of a girl with total recall of her sensory memory (an ‘eidetic’), blackmailed into locating another eidetic in order to save her terminally ill mother until she discovers that the man she hunts has a far deeper connection to her. EIDETIC was the first film to represent Sri Lanka at the San Diego Comic-Con International, the multi-genre entertainment and comic convention held annually in California. The film has represented the country at five international festivals. The Case, because of heavy visual effects work, is still in the pipeline.
The Summoning has been closer to their hearts than previous films, especially in the case of Shenick. The story was actually developed from an uncanny ‘visitation’ he used to glimpse on his bathroom mirror. From that it went to acquire more macabre depth and darkness aided by the team’s imagination.
Stefania
Shenick
There has been no shortage of excitement and memories for the High School Junkies, from broken hamstrings for Stefania and Akash while shooting the tight action of EIDETIC, or braving noxious fumes of ammonia in an ice factory shooting The Case.
Having toured with EIDETIC in the USA, Akash got used to expressions of surprise when he mentioned the shoestring budget they operated on.
Most of their equipment, Kasun says, was borrowed from friends, so the highest costs they would incur would usually be on food and transport.
When it comes to inspiration, they grew up feeding mostly on ‘80s and ‘90s action films so that James Cameron and Spielberg throw large shadows. “But people like Christopher Nolan and Leigh Whannell have also come in as inspiration” they say, adding that the vortex of imagination sucks in anything and everything.
With their unusual achievements, Akash and his friends have quite a few things to impart as advice to Sri Lankan cinema. A change of attitude is imperative, they say unanimously. “We should move from the raja katha, comedy and romance- explore different genres. Instead of being comfortable with what works you have to try new things. Certain risks pay off. Sri Lanka has everything needed to make great movies.”
Akash’s mini formula for the budding movie maker is Write. Shoot. Edit. Repeat. He advises “focus on storytelling and not anything else.” In the age of the smart phone “all that matters is how you tell the story and not what equipment you use to tell it.”
Kasun
Akash
The future looks exciting for the High School Junkies, as The Summoning has just been screened to the executive producers of The Lord of the Rings. The group will also be joining their friend in the USA Ruwanga Samath- who produced music for the movie Fast Five- collaborating on a music video for Ruwanga’s brand, Smooth Blaq. Hollywood may very well be their next break.