Despite the fact that cinemas were closed once the Coronavirus pandemic set in, filmmaker Christian Nilsson and YouTuber Eric Tabach realised that this unique situation presented a loophole, so they went about hatching a plan. To cut a long story short, using a technique known as “four-walling,” which consisted in them renting out a cinema to screen “Unsubscribe,” a film they shot entirely on Zoom, and buying every seat in the house themselves, the very next day, they hit the number one box office spot in America.
With all eyes now looking at Nilsson, it was only a matter of time before producers started suggesting he make a feature-length version of “Unsubscribe,” but he had bigger plans rather than just expanding an idea they had come up with to simply facilitate a scheme.
So, rather than milking the original narrative, Milsson drew inspiration from Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and came up with Dashcam, a stunning psychological thriller that follows Jake (Eric Tabach, “Blue Bloods”) – a timid video editor at a local news channel who aspires to become a front-line reporter. While editing a piece on a routine traffic stop that lead to the death of a police officer and a major political official (Larry Fessenden, Dementer, Jakob’s Wife), Jake is inadvertently sent dashcam video evidence that tells a completely different story. Working alone from his small apartment in NYC, Jake uses his editing skills to analyse the footage and piece together what actually happened.
Dashcam is available On-Digital from today, October 19, through Kamikaze Dogfight and Gravitas Ventures and SCREAM sat down with Larry Fessenden to talk about how the film puts a modern twist on tales based around technology, his work ethic when Covid-19 set in and his recent turn as Barbara Crampton’s small-town Minister husband in Travis Stevens’ recent festival hit, Jakob’s Wife.
Words: Howard Gorman
