There’s much more going on there than just the monster element. Look at films like Night Of The Living Dead or Frankenstein. Why did you decide to frame this film as a horror movie?īlake Mawson: I think the horror genre has always been an interesting way to talk about what’s going on in the world. I wanted to take that anger I was feeling and have it manifest on screen in an explosive way. I wanted to respond with a scenario that I felt could have empowered someone in these seemingly hopeless scenarios. Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” bill had just been passed a month earlier, the Sochi Olympics were underway, and the media was loaded with images of targeted abductions and attacks against LGBTQ people. But the attackers soon learn of Pyotr’s supernatural secret as he exacts a brutal and gory revenge. Here, we chat with the film’s director Blake Mawson about the very, very slim possibility of the film being screened in Russia.īlake Mawson: I wrote PYOTR495 in January of 2014. Bolstered by Russia’s LGBT propaganda law, the group terrorizes and humiliates Pyotr, filming the attack in a plot taken straight from the headlines. Set in present day Moscow, the short follows Pyotr, a 16-year-old gay teen who is baited over a dating app by an ultranationalist group known for their violent abductions. PYOTR495 is an upcoming Russian language shock horror film by Canadian actor-turned-director Blake Mawson.