We at Fango have been talking about Brendan Haley’s feature directorial debut, Scorch Marks, for months. Not only because Haley has served as the FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards’ production designer and Backstage Butcher for years, but also because he’s consistently worked in the horror industry in just about every imaginable capacity, proving he can deliver the gruesome goods. If you missed what Scorch Marks is about, here’s the film’s plot synopsis:
Waking to find scorched skies and apocalyptic dread looming on the horizon, Beckett now grapples with the chilling reality that he could be the lone survivor of a global catastrophe. Isolated to a coastal rental, Beckett’s grip on his surroundings begins to unravel, leaving him vulnerable to a vicious haunting at the hands of his abusive ex-husband, Joel. Together, the couple must navigate their toxic past in high society in order to survive the imminent dangers of their present, spectral omens, and the arrival of a primordial force from somewhere beyond the scorch marks.
Scorch Marks is now available to stream exclusively on Dekkoo, a streaming service that specializes in independent and international queer cinema that is hard to find on mainstream platforms. If you’re reading this, there’s a chance you don’t have a Dekkoo subscription (let alone have ever heard of the platform) and therefore can’t see the film, so may our exclusive clip of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 1 winner, Vander Von Odd as TIAMAT, entice you to seek it out.
“I've built a career for myself in entertainment largely centered around producing, art directing, or otherwise fostering other creative people's visions to the big screen – originally in the LGBTQ media space (Eastsiders) but then quickly followed by horror,” Brendan Haley tells FANGORIA. “My desire to make Scorch Marks as something original and wholly my own really stemmed from the desire to challenge myself beyond comfortable parameters.”
Haley has worked every job you could imagine on a set, from serving as a production assistant on shows like Glee to building the stages for the annual FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards. “In a time of consolidated content where risk is a death sentence to any studio or streamer, I really valued the golden opportunity Dekkoo Films gave me to tell an unapologetically queer horror story about grief, feeling othered in the world, and macro mainstream societal havoc,” says Haley.
“Scorch Marks is something we've never seen before at the intersection of queer horror, and that's honestly my greatest pride in putting the film together.” Haley tells us that the team knows the film won’t be for everyone tuning in, but that everyone on board understood that the mission was to try and create something new, “and also with a mouthful to say rather than satiate the bloodlust of an ‘80s or ‘90s slasher”
Part of that something new is putting the spotlight on Vander Von Odd, a performer that Haley rightfully says “is a true visionary and embodies every sense of the word ‘artist.’” Haley credits much of the film’s success to “the magnetic way she brought our ancient deity to chilling life,” and says her storied career as a world-renowned drag performer and filmmaker prepared her well to take on the role of Tiamat.
“Tiamat might look frightening, but the character is one of deep sadness and also great hope,” Haley says. “Vander is the kind of talent who was able to seamlessly pick up on this sensitivity and ground the role while also playing to the grand cosmic scale that Tiamat, the mother of monsters, demands.”
Scorch Marks is available exclusively on Dekkoo, which offers free three-day trials.
