By Jackie Shannon
“You just start with looking for – and finding – projects that you’re actually passionate about,” actress turned producer, Bel Delia, told FilmInk back in 2012 just as she was jump-starting her first production company. “I wouldn’t pretend to know how to get a production company off the ground. I’d just say that you’ve got to find the right people to work with, and the right projects to work on. There’s no point if you don’t find the stuff that you find really exciting.”
Delia appears to have found it with the short new film, Scratch. A tale of suburban horror, it clicks perfectly with Delia’s most famous project as an actress: the low budget 2011 psychological chiller, The Tunnel, which was shot on a shoestring, but famously went viral, earning over 15 million downloads, and showcasing a new model for the making and release of Australian films.
Scratch is a decidedly femme driven flick. As well as starring in the lead role, Bel Delia is joined as producer by fellow Aussie, Tessa Saville (Picture This), while the script comes courtesy of Helen Shang (who has written for TV’s Hannibal and Horror Haiku). In the director’s chair is Emma Bell, who was famously devoured by zombies in the second series of TV’s smash hit, The Walking Dead. Her demise was one of that season’s saddest (the anguished reaction of her on-screen sister, Andrea, played by Laurie Holden, is surely burned into the minds of the show’s army of fans), and the actress has also appeared in the likes of Dallas, Dollhouse, and Arrow.
Bell will make her directorial debut with Scratch, which follows a repressed 1950s housewife left alone by her philandering husband who makes a horrifying discovery about the mysterious cacophony of noises coming from the walls of her stately home. Scratch – which is currently in post-production – is another impressive notch on the creative belt of actress/producer, Bel Delia. “I love acting,” she told FilmInk, “but another side kicked in, where I thought, ‘I love creating, and I want to contribute as well. I don’t want to just act.’”
To follow the team’s developments on twitter, visit: @tessasaville, @beldelia, @emmabell17, and @helenshang. For more on Scratch, head to https://www.facebook.com/Scratchfilm.
Photo caption: Terry Zumalt with director Emma Bell. Photo Monica Belmontes.
