A Moosetaur terrorizes the fictional Alaskan town of Gangrene Gulch in a new feature-length film by Alaskan brothers Darin and Chad Carpenter.
“Moose: The Movie” is an independent flick, filmed in Alaska and starring primarily Alaskan actors and the campy comedy film will make its Kenai Peninsula debut at the Triumvirate Theatre on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The premise is the typical horror haunts town premise starring a half-man, half-moose played by Roy Eason whom Chad Carpenter discovered in an auto parts store. The actor, who lives in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley was the perfect size to play the magical moose.
“He’s 6 feet, 7 inches and 300 pounds,” Chad Carpenter said. “
The moosetaur, who was sealed into the underworld is inadvertently released upon the unsuspecting town where park rangers Zack Lanphier and David Nufer and town coroner Chantel Grover start noticing some odd moose tramplings.
Lanphier is a high school teacher in Wasilla, Nufer is the principal of a school in Wasilla and Grover is an Alaska Airlines flight attendant.
“They’ve all had acting experience locally, except for Zack but he did an incredible job and many many people are shocked to hear that he had no acting experience,” Chad Carpenter said.
As the three work to get to the bottom of the moose manglings, the movie takes a lighthearted romp through some of Alaska’s beautiful scenery, Chad Carpenter said.
Audiences will also get a glimpse of Alaska’s beautiful scenery in the film, as it was shot entirely in the state.
“Some of the most beautiful scenery in the movie was in Hatcher Pass,” he said. “The other places are just real pretty, but they could be anywhere in Alaska.”
While the bloodthirsty moosetaur is bent on tearing people apart, Chad Carpenter said most of the violence and gore was implied.
“We purposefully wanted to make sure it was something that almost the entire family could enjoy,” he said.
He said he classified the movie as “PG 10,” or “Scooby Doo on steroids.”
The $100,000 movie was funded both through a Kickstarter campaign that raised about $64,000 from 508 backers, and money from the Chad Carpenter’s wildly popular “Tundra” comic strip.
While the film was low budget, Chad Carpenter said, hundreds of volunteers, businesses and crew worked to make it bigger than had been originally intended.
“It has a much more polished look than something that was not very expensive to make, by Holleywood standards,” he said.
For more info on the film visit: moosethemovie.com/
Reach Rashah McChesney at rashah.mcchesney@peninsulaclarion.com or follow her on Twitter @litmuslens
