Special Report: Silver Screamers (2025)

0:05 Hold your ears, folks.

0:06 It's showtime.

0:08 People pay good money to see this movie.

0:10 When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth.

0:17 Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

0:20 Turn it off.

0:22 Turn it off. Turn it off.

0:38 Attention, adventurous seniors. Are you ready to incorporate some terror to your life?

0:45 Roll sound. I don't like horror movies. I tend to shy away from horror movies.

0:51 Honestly, I don't watch much horror movies. They scare me. Don't let blood and gore scare you away.

0:58 Sign up for a terrifying journey into the world of low-budget horror filmmaking.

1:05 Who's in?

1:10 Okay, everyone, welcome to our first day of film school.

1:13 Can anyone read this thing?

1:17 They're asking for a larger font.

1:20 The Rug is a horror story that features an elderly person as the killer.

1:26 When you have a problem and you can sweep it under the rug, this takes that idea to the next level.

1:35 Well, I think senior creativity is an essential part of our society.

1:43 I've been involved with my own hobby of taking videos, but this is totally different. Action.

1:51 In. There you go.

1:53 I had to press certain buttons, and one was a red.

1:56 One and one was an orange.

1:58 As I call certain things like this, Peely's Big Adventure. How do you do?

2:07 I need this project to fill my time. My husband passed away a short while ago.

2:15 And I need it.

2:18 With seniors, we're not stupid, eh? We have too much information in the computer. Don't think because we slow down. We just have to search and give you the right answers.

2:30 Life is crazy. And this, to me, fits that category.

2:42 Yeah.

2:43 Oh, dear.

2:48 Welcome to The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. Joining me on this episode is director Sean Cisterna, whose documentary Silver Screamers follows a crew of senior citizens making their own horror movie for the first time, funded through a Canadian program for older adults. Silver Screamers premiered at Fantastic Fest, and begins rolling out across the U.S. in the coming months via antenna. Visit silverscreamers.com for more information and to find out where the movie is playing near you.

3:20 I had a great time talking with Sean, and I hope you have a great time listening.

3:24 Enjoy. I want to know more about you, Sean. Tell me kind of your history of filmmaking, because you've been doing this for a while now.

3:32 Yeah.

3:33 My first gig at a university, there was a kid's show filming on campus, and it was a PBS kid's show, and they put postings up all over the film department for students to work on this production. I ripped down all the postings so nobody else could get the job, so I cheated my way into the industry. But the producer who worked on that kid's show for PBS went on to produce a couple of Netflix movies and brought me on as a director. So I worked on a movie called Kiss and Cry. It was a Netflix romantic drama.

4:06 I did a movie called Full Out with Jennifer Beals. It was a gymnastics movie that ended up being pretty popular. And yeah, I just had a wild and varied career. Then we went to Italy and did a movie with Joe Pantoliano from The Sopranos, and that was a movie called From the Vine that Samuel Goldwyn Films picked up.

4:26 So it's been a diverse sort of slate of different... working across different genres, and Yeah, all the way up to Silver Screamers, which is my latest project.

4:37 Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see some of these titles on here that kind of... I'm getting like a Hallmark Channel vibe from some of them. Is that where some of these are showing?

4:48 Yeah.

4:49 I live and work in Canada, and a lot of those projects come up here, and that's kind of like our bread and butter as filmmakers. We get to practice the craft of working on. Narrative projects with larger crews and because those are the networks that have the infrastructure to shoot here in in our on our side of the border and they're fun projects to work on i wouldn't say it's my passion necessarily but it's definitely a great way to make a living and yeah and practice the art of filmmaking.

5:25 No shade on any of that stuff i kind of love those movies and i now need to see daddy's little secret and little girl in.

5:32 The window Those actually are pretty darn good, yeah. The titles might need a rethink. They always send us the scripts with different titles that sound amazing, and then for some reason, someone along the way rechanges the names to those movies to make it sound like, okay, I know what I'm going to get when I turn this on.

5:52 I like a little more nuance in my titles, but no, it's all fine.

5:58 I wasn't sure exactly what Silver Screamers was going to be when I was approached to watch the movie.

6:03 I was like, oh, shit.

6:04 Here's a horror movie with a bunch of old people. What kind of gimmick is this? And then it ends up being one of the most delightful films I've seen in probably years now. I had such a great time with that.

6:16 You must have a big heart yourself then, Mike, because it tends to attract those type of people. You know, the strange thing is, we premiered this movie at Fantastic Fest last year, and I was so nervous in the audience because I thought, here comes a crowd that loves Genre loves blood, loves gore, and I'm presenting my documentary about a group of seniors coming together to make their own horror movie, and they just fell in love with it as well. I should have put my fears aside.

6:47 The genre community has such a big heart themselves, and that's kind of what I loved about it.

6:54 It's so nice that you don't put yourself at the center of this either, that you are there, you're present, And you feel you through this whole thing, but it is so focused on the people that are making this movie.

7:08 It's wonderful in that way.

7:11 I'm camera shy myself, so I try to cut myself out as much as possible and let protagonists take over.

7:18 They were definitely the heart of the production.

7:21 Watching them fail and succeed and fail again and succeed again is the rollercoaster of any good. narrative movie only this happens to be in documentaries but we tried to stick to that sort of storytelling format and yeah just watching our seniors kind of struggle as they learn to use cameras and lighting and fake blood and fog machines all that sort of stuff it's a really it's like a blueprint if anyone who's interested in making films this is a movie that kind of shows you the step-by-step process only our protagonists have happened to be in their 70s 80s and.

7:57 90s Where did the idea come from?

8:01 I was looking for money for a horror project. I wanted to make this short horror film called The Rug and kept getting rejected by all the film funders. It's kind of like the story of every filmmaker. We apply for funding, and if we don't get it, then the project either dies or you try to find some other creative solution to make your film. At some point, I got a letter in my mailbox from a local government official saying, If you're interested, apply for the New Horizons for Seniors program, which is a fund meant to get seniors in the community off their couches and doing something unique or active in the community. It could be hosting a bingo night or a quilting club. Only I just took those failed horror film applications and spun it into

8:50 more of a filmmaking workshop for older adults. And it was those funds that we procured from this fund. that we made our horror movie with. So it was a backhanded way of getting the funding I needed to make the movie. Just the only caveat was my crew had to be from the retirement community.

9:12 It's fantastic, though.

9:14 And it's so smart that you were able to spin this in such a way that you were able to get these people off their couches or out of their retirement homes and having them feel like really... valuable members of the community and actually having either skills that they had when they were kids or young people, and then also just teaching folks new things. And the pride of work that comes with that is amazing.

9:41 That's one thing we definitely found, yes.

9:44 When you entrust someone who may not have worked on a film before, and this is whether it's when people are just kind of starting out, newcomers into the film world, but when you give them the responsibility and And they have to show up on shooting day and make sure they're when the case of david who's our special effects guy if the he had to make this rug kind of come to life through some some creative way and he devised this marionette system where he could move the rug to stand up and sit and crawl to see the pride on his face as he kind of made it come to life was inspiring for the rest of us as well. One of my favorite things in movies is the bringing the team together type of montage.

10:28 And you have that.

10:28 You've got that whole beginning part where you've got people reading off that, hey, come out and join this film, all these things.

10:36 I love that.

10:37 And then the very hesitant hand raise here in the back.

10:41 It's so wonderful.

10:42 Did you literally get all of your people through that type of outreach?

10:46 You did, yes.

10:48 I feel like I went to 12 or 13 different retirement communities and senior centers and church groups even. I just went everywhere looking for seniors for this project, and I got a lot of blank stares. It was very much like pulling teeth. Nobody wanted to participate in this project, and it wasn't until this one 96-year-old raised her hand.

11:12 And said, I'll do this.

11:14 I'm She didn't have a lot of family nearby or any friends at her retirement community, so this was an opportunity to be the first to say yes to the project. And from there, once someone signed on, it gave confidence for the other seniors to come on board and participate in the production.

11:36 How can I best put this? You need a special part of your personality to be able to volunteer for thanks. and to put yourself into a situation where you just don't know exactly what's going to happen. But did they share other qualities other than that one particular spark?

11:56 The qualities they shared?

11:58 These were the individuals that said yes were, I guess, kind of all lacking, I guess, in something in their life. Maybe they had lost somebody recently, or were dealing with some sort of ailment that kept them at home longer than they would have normally liked, and... So I guess they just jumped on the opportunity to participate in something as a community. Nobody knew each other beforehand. Maybe one or two of the seniors kind of knew each other.

12:25 For them to, you know, just get outside of their comfort zone and dive wholeheartedly into horror filmmaking, it was just a story that they wanted for themselves.

12:37 And so many people that were, no, I don't like horror movies, but yet they're making one.

12:42 Yes.

12:43 A lot of our seniors did not like the genre, of course.

12:46 They wanted to do.

12:47 Something more the romantic side or even a western. But the thing about the genre, about horror, is that we were able to expose them to something that they would definitely otherwise say no to. So this was forced an experience on them that they would not normally get. And that's what I kind of loved about the project.

13:10 It got them outside of their comfort zone.

13:13 Getting to tell a visual story through the cinematic medium and use all the tools and tricks to go along with it and use visual storytelling to convey something spooky.

13:29 Hundreds of filmmakers, and it's very rare that I talk with somebody who goes, oh yeah, everything went fine, we had funding, we had no problems on set, everyone got along. You are playing with fire with this, where you've got, I'm sure, filmmaking, having a crew that's very inexperienced, and probably some very set-in-their-ways personalities. What were some of the biggest challenges you had doing this movie?

13:57 I would say the biggest challenge is the disbelief from the outside world. Our insurance provider denied coverage. We weren't able to rent equipment. because they were concerned that someone in their 80s shouldn't be operating a camera or carrying lights, that sort of thing. At some point, we had to cave and say, okay, we'll bring on some younger bodies to help carry the heavy equipment up the stairs, which is fine. I totally understand from the insurer's point of view.

14:26 But it was that initial pushback from the insurers that We were forced to bring on some younger bodies, but then it kind of became this kind of intergenerational tale where the younger crew members who had more experience were teaching our senior protagonists, but our seniors were also teaching our younger filmmakers how they would tackle problems. And to see both generations kind of learning from each other and That was pretty inspiring. You don't realize how set you are in filmmaking in a certain way, set in your mind in a certain way of filmmaking until these people with much more lived experience kind of tackle problems in a unique and different way.

15:14 That must have been really inspirational to see.

15:17 Yeah, it was definitely unique.

15:20 Our production obviously took a little longer because we were training our seniors as we were going along and making them feel comfortable with The lighting and the equipment and the special effects and the makeup, that was a rewarding part about the project as well. We were able to share and kind of learn from each other.

15:38 A lot of these folks, it seemed like they just took to things like fish to water when it came to, especially I would say, and I could be completely wrong, but Sonny, the camera operator, just felt like he just clicked with this whole thing.

15:52 Absolutely, yeah. He's grown up with cameras his whole life. prosumer cameras of course he started out in this super 8 and 16 millimeter then high.

16:02 8 and digital 8 all.

16:04 These different mediums that he would pick up at his local hobby store or electronics store but he's never had the chance to work with a an alexa camera like the the cream of the crop and cinematic storytelling and these interchangeable lenses so he was just fascinated by what we could pull off with just the grip and electric gear and then the camera gear and lenses and it was all just a visual dream come true for this person who's loved film his whole life.

16:32 How did the rug itself, not the actual laying on the floor rug, but the story of the rug, how did that change as you were making this movie?

16:42 Oh, that's a good question.

16:43 I think I'd say the story itself when you read the It's part of an anthology by a horror writer named Edo van Belkom. So Edo wrote a chilling horror story that has a lot of darkness and drama and horrific elements to it. But I think just by the nature of these seniors that came on board to make the film, somehow, I guess, through our writing sessions and just the overall tone and vibe of the people in the room making the film, it became a little bit more...

17:18 I don't know, there's more heart to it for some reason. And it's strange to say that there's heart in a horror movie. I think it just kind of bleeds on screen. Like when the creators of the short are in their 80s and 90s, you have a lot of heart and warmth to give. And I think that's what they brought into the making of the horror movie. So yeah, that's how I'd say it changed. You know, it still gives the chills.

17:42 The Rug Online.

17:43 You can watch it on YouTube now. It's kind of like a companion piece to Silver Screamers. And our hope is that if you find that one online, it'll lead you to the documentary and kind of learn more. So you can kind of judge for yourself. And when we screen at different film festivals around the world, we'll often play The Rug first and then the documentary so people can experience both.

18:03 I was wondering, because it reminded me of when I saw American Movie the first time and they showed Coven right afterwards. And I was like, oh, This is really nice to be able to see the making of and then the short film right afterwards. It's interesting you're doing it before, but it's nice that you're using these companion pieces.

18:22 Yeah, I think so.

18:23 I think any sort of unique opportunity to draw attention to each other.

18:30 Is a good thing.

18:32 Yeah, if we have to make one available for free online that anybody can watch that helps discover the documentary, then that seems to be a marketing tactic that kind of works. Kudos to our distributor who suggested that release strategy.

18:48 When did you actually shoot this? This was filmed in 2024.

18:51 We made The Rug, and then, yeah, we basically chronicled the activities of our seniors over the course of that year as they learned filmmaking. And we did it on a delayed schedule, so we basically got together once a month and did something together. to push forward the production or post-production of their horror film. So it was basically a year-long project that wrapped in about March or April 2025, and then we were doing the festival circuit that September.

19:26 And now it's a year later from our festival run, and will start to be released across the U.S.

19:34 Starting in a couple months.

19:35 The screening that's part of the self, Is that the first time that they all get to see the rug together?

19:43 It was, yes.

19:43 They just wanted somebody to come and support their work.

19:48 They were nervous then.

19:50 Would show up, and then somehow word spread in the community where we shot this thing, and yeah, they sold out the venue.

20:00 It was remarkable.

20:01 They were all kind of teary-eyed that day and just marveled.

20:05 That people showed up and wanted to check out their film.

20:08 They thought it would just be close family and friends, but now the entire community came out and supported them.

20:14 That's amazing.

20:15 Yeah, when somebody is, oh, 20 people will be out there, and when you cut that nice hard cut to the audience, wow, this is terrific. And that's exactly what I was hoping for, so thank you. When did they get to see Silver Screamers for the first time?

20:31 We had our.

20:33 So I live just north of Toronto, so we're close to there, so they all came to the Toronto After Dark festival last october and as a group and watched it for the first time with a group of about 400 other audience members it was a sold-out screening.

20:49 And yeah that's when they got to.

20:51 See the hard work kind of payoff that they're from so thankfully yeah the audience gave them a wonderful standing ovation and they yeah had a very long q a session afterwards and they all think they're major stars because they star in a documentary and they say sign autographs now and So it's wonderful to see their personalities just shine on these red carpets that we take them to.

21:15 And yeah, that's really heartwarming to see.

21:18 I love it.

21:20 I can't remember the name of the gentleman who's got the glasses, but it just seems like he would eat that up with a spoon.

21:26 Yeah, absolutely. Yes, there's Anthony.

21:28 He's like the rock star guy. And David, our special effects guy. So they're all just wacky, wonderful characters. And I think they all have the filmmaking bug now. They're bugging me for a sequel, which is good. I think our next plan is to make an action movie. Stick around in a couple of years and you'll see it.

21:46 Vengeance for Blood and Adventure and Jumping Out of Airplanes, that sort of thing. I've already got the title for you. Never Too Old to Die.

21:54 There you go.

21:54 Oh, my God.

21:55 I'm trying to think of a great title. Mike, you just came up with the winning one. So when you see that on a poster, know it's because of you.

22:03 All right. Fantastic. Thank you.

22:06 So are you done with your festival run for this one?

22:09 We are, yes.

22:11 Yeah, we've been to Australia, Dubai, all over Canada and the U.S., all over Europe. So it'll be nice to actually hit some cinemas coming up with our distributor antenna releasing.

22:25 We'll put the film.

22:26 Out in theaters in the U.S. starting in November. We're also opening the the Gerontology Society of America's annual conference in Washington in a couple of months. So we'll be able to debut this film to the gerontology community, people that work with seniors and do programming for seniors.

22:44 And I'll be there.

22:46 Presenting the film and doing some filmmaking workshops for older adults as well. Every time I get to go to a new city, I'll try to book a local library and offer a free filmmaking workshop. for older adults and they get to learn how to use cameras and lighting and basically use the cinema as a way to tell their stories visually rather than through written word or whatnot.

23:11 I think cinema has its own unique art form and its own way of tackling narrative through imagery.

23:21 I think 20 years ago, would you have ever thought you were going to be in that type of position?

23:26 No, and that's the beautiful thing about the film industry is takes you on this amazing rollercoaster of life experiences and a previous film I did was centered around gymnastics so I was doing all these gymnastics traveling around the country with different gymnastics clubs so we did a horse based movie and that took me to the sequestering clubs from North America through to South America and ended up going to Brazil and presenting our film at a rodeo so it's film takes you to these bizarre places depending on the theme of in which you're working but it's never been a more rewarding experience working with seniors and i think that if i have to convey one message that i wanted to with the film is that imagination

24:19 doesn't retire and creativity doesn't expire so that's the that's the message of.

24:25 The film I don't even know where you would find time to even put this one together. You had, I think, six movies come out in 2025?

24:32 That's insane. I don't know.

24:35 Some of them are like television projects that I have kind of nothing to do with. I'll be a director for hire, and then someone else takes over. So I'll do my, whatever, two weeks, 14 days of shooting, and then it goes to an editor, and sometimes I won't even get to see the final product sort of thing.

24:52 It's only the rare ones that I get to do for myself every... few years are the ones that i have a little bit more control and say of and i want to shepherd into the world and under some guidance and because i feel most passionate about those projects that's fantastic it's kind of that soderbergh model one one for me type of thing that's essentially it not to say that i don't love every project i work on there's something i do there's a quality about them that i um what i choose to work on the project because of but the these rare projects that i really love and want to travel with and share our story to audiences where we can in theatrical settings and community settings and virtual screenings you know the aarp saw the

25:40 film as well and they're gonna do a virtual watch party for us in a few weeks and that goes to whatever six million americans who have signed up with the aarp get to see an early cut of the early screening of the film before it's released to the public as well.

25:56 Oh, that's fantastic.

25:58 I'm so glad that you are getting this kind of recognition because the movie just deserves all the credit and all the praise that people can throw at it.

26:08 Well, thank you very much.

26:10 I think everybody has an older adult in their life, whether it be a parent or a grandparent, and there's so much... wisdom and curiosity there at the same time so that it's i think everybody can relate to this film you talked.

26:27 A little bit about what's next for the movie but what's next for you oh yeah like i said i'll be like touring the u.s over the next few months and i'm so excited to be able to do these workshops and and talk about the film at different universities across the country as well so you know i've been booked in minnesota in a couple of months to go present the film there.

26:49 And there's all these things called these age-friendly universities. So they're allowing seniors to come into universities and study with younger students. So there's a certain designation that a university might have or a college that is age-friendly, and we're touring those campuses with our film. And so to have those conversations with friends across the country is something I'm really looking forward to.

27:14 If you come down here to Wayne State or University of Michigan or anything, just give me a call because I'd love to see this with an audience and I would love to buy your drink.

27:24 Absolutely. I can't wait, Mike.

27:25 Thank you very much for the offer and I'll take you up on it for sure.

27:29 Sean, is there a good place for people to keep up with you and with Silver Screamers?

27:32 I'm sure we're pretty active on our Instagram account. It's just at Silver Screamers Doc. Same with Facebook. And if you want to follow me, I'm happy to take any questions. answer any questions from anybody out there. So it's just my name, at Sean Cisterna. And that's on Instagram or Facebook, whatever method you choose.

28:27 You're older than you've ever been And now you're even older And now you're even older And now you're even older You're older than you've ever been And now you're even older And now you're older.

28:41 Still is still marching on.

29:00 This day will soon be at an end and now it's even sooner.

29:06 And now it's even sooner.

29:08 And now it's even sooner.

29:09 This day will soon be.

29:11 At an end and now it's even sooner. And now it's sooner still. You're older than you've ever been. And now you're even older. And now you're even older. And now you're even older. You're older than you've ever been. and now you're even older, and now you're older still.