Branding and creative agency loyalkaspar has added Rhys Demery as executive producer. Joining the bicoastal agency’s Los Angeles office, Demery brings well over a decade of production experience spanning broadcast design, integrated content, traditional on-air spots, branded content, digital and social.
Demery arrives at loyalkaspar following a stint as executive producer at Troika, where he led the agency’s in-house production team through a wide range of work for clients such as Hulu, Riot Games, CBS Sports, UFC, HBO Sports, CNN, NBC and Turner. Before that, he was EP of digital for a myriad of client-direct accounts at ModOp. His tenure with the agency yielded campaigns for Nike, Intel, EA Sports, Sony PlayStation, as well as an award-winning launch campaign for Ubisoft and their flagship video game title, Assassin’s Creed 3.
Demery forged his career as a producer at Dentsu America and Think C, making his big splash with show packages for ESPN and the main title for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More