I Dream of Genre with Jay Justin

Each Month an indie filmmaker talks about the project they’d do if time and money were no object

Filmmaker: Jason Justin
Title of Project: “The Artifact”
Genre: Horror/Thriller

Description: If there were one movie I could direct where I didn’t have to worry about money, it would have to be “The Artifact”.

I had got the idea from a story I heard when I was in high school, some many years ago. It went like this:

At the time of Christ’s resurrection, a man by the name of Lazarus who was a pottery maker by trade, was shaping a bowl near the final resting-place of Jesus.

As Lazarus worked away on his bowl he began to hear some chanting coming from the tomb. He went to investigate what he was hearing when a tree branch over the table fell and landed with the sharp end of the stick etching a groove into the soft clay. As the chanting got louder the grooves had gotten deeper making a recording of the resurrection chant into the bowl.

I thought, this was such a great story and wondered how could I make this into a screenplay? Then it came to me, make it a story about Good vs. Evil.

Have more than one hero in the story and put them through as much hell as they could endure. Have only one villain and make him a charismatic cult leader that has only one goal: the end of the world.

The story start’s with the discovery of the “Artifact” in Ireland in the early 1900’s. It then becomes the property of the archeologist and is protected in his private collection until the famous doctor passes away in the late 50’s. Skip forward to 1984. A class trip is under way at the MET in NY. A young Deacon Carter sees a flash of light and is drawn to a display; the Artifact sits behind two-inch thick glass and begins to glow.

Present day: Bill Templer wakes from a series of horrific dreams. Every night for the past year he has had the same dream, an Artifact in the hands of a famous religious figure that brings on the end of the world.

To see how this plays out hopefully one day you will see it on the big screen from 4772 Productions

Jason Justin is a local actor and filmmaker currently working on the zombie horror 1:16 PM

Jay Justin directs the mayhem on the set of "1:16 PM"