Do You Know the Bunny Man? Interview with Gabriel Howard

By: Myriam Akbar

As a lifelong slasher fan, I was immediately drawn to the poster of 2025’s psychological horror-thriller film Sugarcane. A man in a flannel and nightmarish bunny mask was reminiscent of 70s horror, putting it on my Tubi must-watch list. The plot follows the race against a Norman Bates-like murderer and trafficking survivor tracing a missing teenage girl, whose fate becomes increasingly formidable by the hour. Sugarcane was produced by the Southeast independent company, Postmortem Films and distributed by Los Angeles-based studio, Buffalo 8. Postmortem Films is known for their grim and gritty storytelling, which certainly speaks to the nature of this project. This is their feature film debut; however, they have eight additional short films.

I had the opportunity to chat with Gabriel Howard, the  “Head of Development” for Postmortem Films. He helps with the progress of all new projects, overseeing them to completion – from conceptualization, to a final shooting of the script. Howard is the writer of Sugarcane; although, this isn’t his first project or venture with the company. He is also attached to their previous short film, Internal Affairs. The key theme explored in their films is the various ways evil is expressed. “There is no one archetype of horror; in fact, it’s quite the opposite,” he says.

Although Howard lives in Florida, he was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He’s 24 years old and describes himself as “persistent, loyal, and soulful.” His earliest memory of discovering his passion for film and horror was when his father introduced to him the film, Alien. Howard found himself hungry for more similar stories due to the thrilling and horrifying nature of the plot. He has two favorite sub-genres, one being psychological. He lists The Silence of the Lambs and the NBC TV series Hannibal as his go-tos. His other favorite is creature features, naming The Thing as a monumental cinematic experience. As for Howard's passion for writing, it developed when he was a child. When his teachers assigned writing prompts that were only 1-2 pages long, he would ask for additional pieces of paper to extend it to 8-10 pages. “From there, I would find any and every excuse to break away and write,” he says. 

Sugarcane was directed by Pat Baker and primarily filmed in North Carolina, as well as Georgia. The inspiration for the film was webcam and live-stream culture, as well as how far we as humans will go against our own humanity to seek approval or survive in the world. “For me, the film explores how people can transform into horrific monstrosities when detached from their own humanity. The villain – the Bunny Man is an example of this: he is a reprehensible antagonist that has understandable human flaws and motivations for the horror he inflicts on others,” Howard explains.

In terms of writing, he says the biggest challenge was balancing sensitive subject matter and attempting to remain informative about this real-life danger. This, along with the goal of accomplishing something that’s entertaining was an obstacle. In regard to producing the film, last-minute changes with location or story sequences became a trial. “The best parts of the film-making process were how any problems that came up could help the film evolve into something better than what we originally envisioned. We had a wonderful cast and crew that contributed to the immense satisfaction of getting the project completed,” Howard shares. 

Since its release, he says that there has been insightful and gratifying support from the audience overall. “I am tremendously honored by the encouragement of the Indie film community, it only fuels us to make better projects moving forward,” Howard says. He’s excited to get right back into it and to give the audience another story from Postmortem. Currently their next feature film, Honeypot is in development with an estimated release in 2027. “My goals moving forward are to never stop creating and learning how I can be better at my craft,” he says.

Interview with Matt Schmidt of Acres Films

By: Myriam Akbar

    Meet 50 year old Matt Schmidt, a New York native who now resides in South Jersey. He’s a husband and father of two teenage daughters, script writer, and film director. I had the opportunity to watch his first cinematic styled project, Mr. Sandman which is available on Tubi. This horror film explores the ominous experiences of the nighttime, commonly perceived as sleep paralysis or night terrors. These episodes typically include a racing heartbeat, confusion, fear, panic, and crying spells. The plot follows a young girl attempting to survive until sunrise amidst nightmarish terrors brought on by Mr. Sandman. As someone who has grappled with the forbidding symptoms of night terrors since a child, I had a blast watching the film and felt compelled to reach out to Schmidt for an interview.

    Schmidt is one half of Acres Films, an Indie film company based in South Jersey. It’s named after the apartment complex where he grew up in and includes his producing partner, Brandon Burkley. When asked about his passion for film, he says, “I’ve been in love with it for as long as I can remember. The escapism of the movie theater experience as a child will never leave me.” Some of his favorite films are Jaws, The Dark Night, Dumb and Dumber, and The Empire Strikes Back. Schmidt’s love for horror began as a child, when he watched one of his favorites — Halloween. “I was about 5 or six and my parents were out. My cousin thought it would be funny to let me watch it,” he shares. “I had an immediate fascination with fear because despite being afraid, I couldn’t look away,” he says. Schmidt lists The Exorcist, The Shining, and Fright Night as other horror favorites. 

    Although film-making is something he has always wanted to do, he shares that the past decade of technological advancements has truly made it possible. His two previous films were found footage style, which he believes is a great way to start. “My heart is in cinematography, as I feel that’s where the emotions of a film are evoked,” Schmidt says. As for making horror films, he says, “As I got older I enjoyed the creativity it took to scare people, it’s a similar challenge to making people laugh.”

    The inspiration for Mr. Sandman came from several places, one of them being tied to early screen writing lessons. “One of the first things I learned when I started writing scripts was to make the story you’re trying to tell primal. What is more primal than the fear of the dark, especially for children? No matter what your race, gender or culture you were raised in – everyone was a child at some point and more than likely experienced that fear,” Schmidt says. 

    He explains that in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was missing film-making and felt compelled to work on a project. “I knew that whatever I did would have to be in a contained location, so I went with my house as the filming location,” he says. Although primal fear was a main goal, he didn’t want it to be the only aspect of the film. “I wanted to create an actual threat, but didn’t want it to be some random monster and one day it just hit me – Mr. Sandman, it was,” Schmidt says. “I knew most people could understand or relate to this concept on some level.The only thing I had to do was execute the film properly and hoped that people would enjoy it,” he adds. 

    The most fun and rewarding aspect of making Mr. Sandman was seeing a shot come out exactly the way Schmidt pictured it in his mind. “That’s such a creative high for me,” he says. The challenges were time and scheduling changes, as well as using one’s own home and daughter as the lead actress. “My daughter’s a full-time student, so week nights were limited and it was difficult asking the rest of the family to be quiet during filming,” he says. 

    “I’m very happy with the response to the film. I’m not sure that there’s a greater creative high than effectively accomplishing what you set out to do. I am seeing similar reactions in reviews, essentially people who feel that the film made them remember childhood fears,” Schmidt shares. His daughter, Hailey Kate Schmidt actually won an award for best child actor at the Atlantic City Cinefest 2024 – so you can most definitely say there has been many successes from the film. While Acres Films has no current future films in production, they are currently working on a cinema-based podcast with another friend.