Director Anthony Frith, stuck making corporate videos in Adelaide, Australia, decides to pursue his filmmaking dreams by cold-calling The Asylum, the studio behind the cult classic Sharknado. The result is Mockbuster, a documentary that chronicles his harrowing journey to direct a low-budget horror film for the notorious B-movie factory.
The Asylum's Brutal Production Model
Frith is given just six days to complete filming on a new version of The Land That Time Forgot, the studio's first movie shot in Australia. The budget is minuscule, there is no finished script when he signs the contract, and only days before the shoot, he is told to secure his own production team. The Asylum's executives, who rely on extreme frugality to ensure profit margins, dote on their directors with quasi-sadistic fondness. They warn Frith that he might survive—if he doesn't try to get “artistic.”
Candid Survival Advice from Industry Veterans
Facing a grueling schedule, Frith seeks advice from The Asylum veterans, including actor Eric Roberts, and low-budget filmmakers like horror wonderkid Danny Philippou, who scoffs that Frith looks broken before he's even begun. The documentary captures the cynical yet refreshing ethos of The Asylum: the majority of viewers have no patience for arthouse complexity, so why should filmmakers? As the LA movie ecosystem dries up, these survivalist cockroaches may well be the last outfit standing.
Frith is candid about his struggles, reflecting that he may have found his natural level. He is pushed by Brendan Petrizzo, a faintly unsettling in-house producer with a frosted fringe. However, Frith sometimes struggles to break down his experience into dramatically parsable portions, leaning heavily on voiceover to tell the story.
A Companionable Reflection on Filmmaking
Despite the chaos, Frith succeeds in making quite a good film—a companionable reflection on artistic aspirations, compromise, and on-set camaraderie, all within a solid 90 minutes. Mockbuster is a salute to filmmaking savoir-faire, proving that even a bad movie is better than no movie.
Mockbuster is available on digital platforms in the US now and in the UK from 27 July.
