In the After Dark Original THE TASK, coming to DVD tomorrow, July 26 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, a group of students take part in a reality show where they compete for a big cash prize by undertaking frightening missions within an abandoned prison. Needless to say, there’s evil within those walls that turns the contest into a fight for survival. Perhaps better suited to survive than most of his fellow players is Dixon, since he’s portrayed by Texas Battle, an actor with considerable horror experience from FINAL DESTINATION 3, WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END and the low-budget creature features HYDRA and the upcoming BOGGY CREEK.

There’s a difference to his TASK role, however. “In FINAL DESTINATION 3, I’m running from death, in WRONG TURN 2, I’m running from deformed human cannibals and in BOGGY CREEK, I’m running from Bigfoot,” he tells Fango. “All those films, I’m running, but in THE TASK, I’m actively competing for a prize, doing my own task in order to win. Dixon is a kid in his early 20s who loves adventure, and is always on the hunt for new ones while following his dream of playing professional football.

“I was attracted to this project by the fact that it was different from any other horror film I’d done,” he continues. “This is one of those movies that isn’t just horror, but also has suspense and a big twist at the end. When you think you know what’s going to happen, it takes a turn for the unexpected.”

Battle and his co-stars, who include Tom Payne, Amara Karan, Alexandra Staden, Adam Rayner, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Ashley Mulheron and Victor McGuire, shot THE TASK in an actual disused prison in Bulgaria. “The vibe in there was a bit eerie because of the darkness and cold,” he recalls. “It had all kinds of chambers and hidden walls and a lot of secret passages.” While the Dixon role didn’t require him to undergo the makeup FX process, it did have its icky side: “When I was in the solitary confinment chamber, performing my task of lying in human waste, I was actually in a bunch of hard pretzels and chocolate liquid made from flour and pudding and paste all combined. It was quite a mess.”

BOGGY CREEK, which hits DVD and Blu-ray September 13 from Hannover House, was another uncomfortable experience for the actor. “Shooting in the swamp for BOGGY CREEK, I have to say, drove me crazy!” he recalls. “I don’t like getting in any water, period—the beach, the pool, lakes, oceans and especially swamps. I don’t like what’s in the water, let alone in a freakin’ swamp!”

On the other hand, “My sequel gigs on FINAL DESTINATION 3 and WRONG TURN 2 both gave me great memories I won’t forget. On FINAL DESTINATION 3, it was riding the rollercoaster we shot on over 30 times in a row—yes, that was in a row. On WRONG TURN 2 it was actually filming in the woods, running away from those deformed cannibals.” He had his first experience acting “alongside” a CG creature to be added later on the Syfy flick HYDRA: “That was definately a challege,” he says. “I basically had to perform to where some tennis balls were for the greenscreen effects. It took just a couple of days to get used to.”

Battle, who enjoys performing the death scenes that genre work often requires (“You have to put yourself in a different headspace that you’re leaving the world unexpectedly, plus going through the process of the makeup, environment and so forth is always fun”), and will soon be seen in MTV’s new horror/comedy series DEATH VALLEY (see item here), adds that “I’m an extreme horror fan myself, and that’s one of the reasons I keep doing them. I do them because I enjoy them—to be a part of something I grew up on, that is entertaining to not just myself, but the audience as well. I would definitely like to continue to shoot at least one horror/suspense film a year, if it’s up to me.”

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